I have been a bit remiss this year. Anyway, the Vuelta started. I am of the mind it is Quintana's to lose, but we shall see. He is having quite a year and definitely seems to be filling the climbing shoes of the aging (and somewhat disgraced) Contador. Kind of odd two cousins, Roche and Martin, on different teams are so close. http://www.cyclingnews.com/vuelta-a-espana/stage-3/results/ The Giant-Alpecin team led out the sprint for John Degenkolb after a descent off the coastal highway but Sagan accelerated at the right moment with a violent kick, and with help from a tailwind, held off Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) at the line. The Frenchman finished second, with the German third. Jean-Pierre Drucker (BMC) was fourth, ahead of Maximiliano Richeze (Lampre-Merida). Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) finished safely in the peloton and so kept the race leader’s red jersey, five seconds ahead of Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin). Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) is third overall at 15 seconds, with his cousin Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) fourth overall at 24 seconds. It was Sagan’s first win since the Tour of California in May and his first win in a Grand Tour since the 2013 Tour de France. “I’m very happy, I’ve got to say thanks to all my teammates because they did a good job. I’ve been trying to win for the team and I’m happy I finally did it. It’s a very nice day,” Sagan said before venting a little frustration on the teams who did not help chase the breakaway during the stage. “Today only Orica and Tinkoff-Saxo pulled. I think we did a better job and I was very pissed that other teams didn’t pull for the sprint. Bouhanni and John Degenkolb only came in the last three kilometres. As a result we had to win today. I was on Degenkolb’s wheel and he started his sprint early, I think at 250m. He went one way and I went the other. The wind helped and it played into my hands.” How it happened The 158km stage included two nasty climbs and a late visit to the hills above Malaga but the stage was always expected to end with a sprint finish in the centre of Málaga, with the sprinters’ teams riding to ensure that was the case throughout the day. Following the polemics of the team time trial and Vincenzo Nibali’s disqualification after Sunday’s finish, riders were keen to avoid any further issue at the start, with Chris Froome (Team Sky) offering a ‘no comment’ over the Italian’s expulsion. Only Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) was happy to talk, pointing out that Nibali had been wrong to blame him for the crash. After rolling out of Mijas, the break of the day formed early, with little resistance from the peloton. Natnael Berhane (MTN-Qhubeka), Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling), Omar Fraile (Caja Rural), Walter Pedraza Morales (Colombia), Martin Velits (Etixx-QuickStep), Alexid Gougeard (Ag2r), Ilia Koshevoy (Lampre-Merida) and Maarten Tjallingii (LottoNL-Jumbo) made it into the move. The peloton let them go and so they opened a three-minute lead on the slopes of the early Alto de Mijas, with Fraile leading the break over the top to take the climber’s points on the category three climb. The gap stabilised on the long descent on the road back to Malaga, with the Orica-GreenEdge team of race leader Chaves riding tempo on the front. The pace was steady but proved to be too much for Paolo Tiralongo (Astana). He crashed on Sunday and started the stage with 20 stitches above and below his left eye. He was determined to the start the stage but retired after 40km, accepting it was impossible to continue in the race. After 76km Fraile was also the first to the summit of the longer Puerto de Leon climb and so took the polka dot jersey as the leader of the mountain’s competition from Walter Pedraza (Colombia), who was in the break but was only third to the summit. The speed in the peloton picked up during the second half of the stage and the loop back to Malaga along the Mediterranean coast. Fortunately the sea breeze was light and the weather warm and sunny, limiting the dangers for the riders. Of course there were crashes, including one with 44km to go that saw Nacer Bouhanni go down with Daniele Bennati (Tinkoff-Saxo). Both had crashed on Sunday but both got up again and soon got back to the peloton. Up front Chavanel won the intermediate sprint and so took three bonus seconds. The sprint inspired attacks in the break, with Tjallingii and Gougeard jumping away in search of further glory, while Fraile and the others faded back to the peloton, with Fraile happy to be in the polka-dot jersey and be awarded the most combative prize of the stage. Tjallingii and Gougeard worked together and managed to push their lead to 1:40 but the peloton refused to let them go, with Tinkoff-Saxo doing much of the work behind. The Russian team upped the pace on the climb, with Giant-Alpecin also working for Degenkolb. Their efforts managed to crack Ewan, who was unable to stay with the front group. As a result of their efforts, the break was reeled in like a fish on a line as the climb hurt the legs of Tjallingii and Gougeard. The Frenchman was the first to ease up on the climb, with Tjallingii shaking his head in a sign of pain just after as the riders entered the wide coastal highway that took them back to Malaga. Suddenly the peloton was all together and ready for the sprint. Team Sky lead down the fast highway descent into Málaga, with a short tunnel and a sweeping bend lining out the riders going into the final two kilometres. Giant-Alpecin has three riders leading out Degenkolb and he launched his sprint at speed, with his head and shoulders bobbing in motion with his pedal stroke. However he was not fast enough to beat Sagan, who held off Bouhanni and finally hit the line first. Tuesday’s 209km fourth stage is from Estepona to Vejer de la Frontera and could see a second consecutive Sagan win after his long drought. The stage concludes with a short but steep climb four kilometres from the finish and twisting roads to the line. It seems perfect for a second Sagan surge.
An update on the USA Pro Challenge, one of the more interesting American races. It appears the future is not certain. As cycling relies wholly on sponsorship and TV revenue, lack most revenue form spectators, the race continues to lose money, although progressively less. Next year is up in the air. Sad, in my opinion, as aside from the Tour of California, this is the only other race that attracts this level of talent along with giving some non European teams entry into the race. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/usa-pro-challenge-future-remains-uncertain/ USA Pro Challenge CEO Shawn Hunter admitted on Sunday that he could not guarantee the Colorado race would return next year, saying his team would evaluate the event’s progress over the next couple of months before a final decision is made. Related Articles Murphy wins final USA Pro Challenge stage in Denver Advertisement Hunter replied “no” when asked if he could definitively say the race would return, but then described the race as a freight train that can’t be stopped. “I think that’s what’s been created here by the state of Colorado and the communities,” he said. “My job is to stay on board and keep driving.” The 2015 edition, which added a three-day inaugural women's race this year, marked the fifth year of the race that was founded in 2011 by the father-and-son team of Richard and Rick Shaden, owners of Smashburger, Quiznos and Live Basil Foods. When the race began in 2011, organisers said they were operating on a five-year plan toward profitability, but the Denver Post estimated recently that the race lost $2 million this year, down from $10 million in 2011. Hunter, who remains optimistic abut the event’s future, said this year was the race’s best financial performance to date. “It’s no secret that in the sport of pro cycling, working towards profitability takes a little bit of time," he said. "But we made a major leap this year, so I’m very proud of that and we owe our staff, our communities and our investors a big thank you.” Without a title sponsor, the Shaden’s have borne the brunt of the race’s financial losses, estimated by the Denver Post to be at least $20 million. A report in the Denver newspaper on Saturday said that because the event has become a large generator of revenue and tourism for the state as a whole, the Shadens would like to find more sponsorship dollars and support from the state government and tourism industries. But the search for a title sponsor has been complicated by the Shaden’s suffering business reputation, which has been clouded by a history of lawsuits from multiple sources, including two hedge funds that are major players in the world of sports marketing, according to the Denver Post report. Nevertheless, Rick Shaden told the newspaper that the organisers' goal is to keep the race going, and they are very “open minded” about how to do that. At the post-race press conference on Sunday in Denver, Hunter said his goal is to be in a position to announce the 2016 host cities in November or December. “So what I’m going to do tonight is probably a little bit of rehydrating, other than water, and then get up, go in and finish my thank you notes to all the people who made this happen,” he said. “And then we’re going to take the last part of August and the early part of September to analyse what we just did and what we can do better, plotting the next steps for 2016.” Among the racers at the press conference, points competition leader and stage 3 winner Kiel Reijnen (UnitedHealthcare) went out of his way to support the race. “I would be remiss, too, if I didn’t mention that at the start of this race all of us got an envelope with a thank you letter handwritten by Shawn thanking us for being at the race,” he said. “That’s something you don’t see at a lot of races, so I have complete confidence that these guys are going to continue to make the race happen and do a phenomenal job with the race.”
Valverde wins today's stage. I must say I am impressed with Sagan's transformation as it were over the last few years. I don't think many pure sprinters move a bit more towards all around riders, and there were some bumps in today's route. http://www.cyclingnews.com/vuelta-a-espana/stage-4/results/ Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) sealed victory on the fourth stage of the Vuelta a Espana, beating Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) in the tricky uphill finish to Vejer de la Frontera. Daniel Moreno (Katusha) pipped Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) for third. Related Articles Vuelta a Espana stage 4: finish line quotes Advertisement Valverde bided his time inside the peloton, sitting behind his teammate Nairo Quintana on the run to the final ramp of the undulating climb. He launched his winning move from a long way back, skimming past Roche - who was flagging after an earlier attack – and taking the inside line around the final corner. Sagan was quick to go with the Spanish champion but Valverde’s superior climbing abilities paid dividends and he crossed the line comfortably ahead of Sagan. “Sometimes it’s our team setting the tempo, like on the first day, today we stayed a bit more calm we know the Vuelta is long and we need to keep strength. We sat with Katusha and they were good but so were we. We didn’t need to accelerate too hard and for the last 200 metres I just flew,” Valverde said after stepping on the podium. “I knew it was him (Sagan) because I kept getting flashes of his hair. I know in these finishes that Sagan is strong but I knew with 200 metres to go that this was my victory.” After a predominantly flat day, there was a sharp right-hand turn and the terrain went skywards with just four kilometres to go. Several attacks came off the front but the most concerted of those early moves was one from Pello Bilbao. The Caja Rural rider never got too much rope, dangling in front of the peloton for the next two kilometres. As Bilbao was reeled in by the efforts of Sagan and the Katusha team, Samuel Sanchez (BMC) immediately countered, taking Roche in his wheel. They were initially helped by a small descent and the pair made it inside the final kilometre but the peloton was close behind and when the road kicked up Sanchez was quickly taken back. Roche pushed on, looking to take the red jersey from Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) but saw any chance of victory, and bonus seconds disappear moments later. Roche was caught within sniffing distance of the finish line and while Chaves lost time, he was able to retain the leader’s jersey for at least another stage. How it happened From the finish in Malaga on stage 3, the peloton travelled down the coast to Estepona for the start of stage 4. At 209 kilometres, it is the longest that the riders will face in the next three weeks. Mercifully for the riders, there would be little in the way of climbing with just a few unclassified climbs to contend with. However, one of those would come just four kilometres from the line. The tight and twisting roads into Vejer de la Frontera would ensure anything but a straight forward sprint to the line. The six-man break was very quick to form with the peloton keen to keep their energy for the lengthy day in the saddle. Mickael Delage (FDJ), Bert Jan Lindeman (LottoNL-Jumbo), Nikolas Maes (Etixx-Quick Step), Jimmy Engoulvent (Europcar), Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida) and Markel Irizar (Trek Factory Racing) were the riders who made it away and their advantage quickly grew. After just 30 kilometres, the escapees had built a lead of over 13 minutes. The team of race leader Esteban Chaves, Orica-GreenEdge – with the help of Katusha and Movistar – worked to manage the distance between the two groups. After peaking at 13:30, the gap was cut by almost half as they reached the midway point of the stage. In the second half of the stage it was Tinkoff-Saxo that did the majority of the work, no doubt buoyed by Peter Sagan’s victory on Monday. The Slovakian was among the favourites for the stage, even if he had miss-remembered the day’s profile when quizzed about it after his win. It was a fairly straightforward day in the peloton but a tight corner and smooth roads caught out several riders at 33 kilometres to go. Tejay van Garderen (BMC) was one of those involved and the team had to send three riders back to help return their leader to the pack. The incident did nothing to slow the pace of the peloton as they brought the gap to the escapees to just over a minute. Engoulvent and Irizar decided that they’d had enough and distanced their other escape companions. The duo dangled out in front of the peloton, gaining little over 30 seconds on the chasing pack, and were final caught before the final, unclassified ascent. As they had been for most of the day, Tinkoff-Saxo led the bunch towards the crucial turn onto the climb. The tight hairpin bend onto the ascent with four kilometres to go meant that position would be crucial. The attacks came almost immediately, with Tosh Van Der Sande (Lotto-Soudal) taking his chances near the bottom. Bilbao was the next to go and managed just over two kilometres out front before he too was brought back with just under two kilometres remaining. Sanchez launched a move on the short descent with Roche quick to take his wheel. Aided by the terrain, they distanced the peloton but once it began climbing again in the final kilometre they found themselves within striking distance. Sanchez was the first to get caught with Roche holding out until the final two hundred metres. There was nothing the Sky rider could do when Valverde soared past him, with Sagan in tow. Valverde led Sagan over the line with Moreno making it into third.
Yay! Dude I have never heard of wins the stage! Sagan again got bested in the sprint. Keep in mind this guy just raced the TdF. http://www.cyclingnews.com/vuelta-a-espana/stage-5/results/ Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) claimed his maiden Grand Tour stage win at the Vuelta a Espana on stage 5 from Rota to Alcalá de Guadáira. The young Australian was led out perfectly by his Orica-GreenEdge teammates before sweeping by John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) in the closing 50 metres. Peter Sagan (Tinkoff Saxo) started the sprint near the front but faded to third place. Related Articles Vuelta a Espana stage 5: finish line quotes Advertisement Orica-GreenEdge controlled the peloton inside the final few kilometres with Mathew Hayman instrumental in running the leadout. After a technical section through several corners, Sagan was in second place with Daniele Bennati leading his prime sprinter. However, Sagan was swamped by a volley of riders from Giant-Alpecin and Orica-GreenEdge with 250 metres to go. Degenkolb opened the sprint but Ewan came around the German to secure the stage win. In the race for GC, Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) found himself on the wrong side of a late split, leaving Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) to secure the race lead by a single second from the Colombian. How it unfolded The day was marked by a three-man move that moved clear inside the first 20 kilometres of the stage. Tsgabu Grmay (Lampre-Merida) initiated the attack and spent several kilometres off the front before he was joined by Iljo Keisse (Etixx-QuickStep) and Grand Tour debutant Antoine Duchesne (Europcar) after 19 kilometres of racing. Over the flatlands the trio built up a lead of over seven minutes, with their advantage peaking at 7:20 before Tinkoff-Saxo and Giant Alpecin began to collaborate on the front of the peloton. With just under 70 kilometres to go, the gap has stopped coming down quite as quickly and the advantage of the three escapees stabilised at 5:05. Cofidis, looking to secure a win for Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni, moved up to the front to help join the pace setting, and along with Giant and Tinkoff they reduced the break’s lead to a far more manageable two minutes. With few stages designed for the sprinters in this race there was never much chance of the break succeeding, but tensions rose in the lead group when Grmay stopped working. Whether it was tiredness or team orders was unclear, but Keisse, a stage winner at this year’s Giro d’Italia, was far from impressed. With 18 kilometres to go and all harmony lost, the Belgian took flight and moved clear of his previous companions. With 15 kilometres remaining the gap slipped to 1:27 and after another 5 kilometres the gap was down to less than 40 seconds. Even Keisse couldn’t prolong the inevitable and he was duly caught inside the final 10 kilometres. It was now time for the GC teams to position their overall candidates near the front, and along with the sprinters’ teams they jostled for position with Astana, Tinkoff, Team Sky and Katusha all in contention. MTN-Qhubeka took control soon after with Bouhanni’s leadout train struggling for fluency and momentum in the middle of the pack. Having waited in the wings for most of the stage, Orica-GreenEdge moved up in numbers as the technical last few turns came into view. Sagan was always a threat but he was positioned too near the front as the peloton rounded the final corner. He was unable to match the raw speed of Degenkolb, who opened his sprint first, but it was Ewan who came out on top. Ewan got his first Grand Tour stage in his first Grand Tour, but for Chaves losing the race lead, Orica GreenEdge’s run of success continues.
A bit amusing. Apparently Nibali, who struggled mightily in the TdF, was thrown out of the Vuelta for getting a long pull from a car. While the rules are subjective to some degree, and a slight pull is allowed when after a crash, apparently he drafted for quite a while. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/nibali-hits-back-at-critics-and-calls-on-astana-to-back-him/ Vincenzo Nibali has hit back at his critics after he was expelled from the Vuelta a España for taking a long tow from a team car, suggesting he has been unfairly criticised, perhaps because of animosity towards his Astana team. He hints that the decision to expel him from the Vuelta may have come from the UCI, who tried to take away the team’s WorldTour licence at the start of the season after a series of doping cases and allegations of poor management. Related Articles Nibali disqualified from Vuelta a España for holding onto team car Nibali left abandoned by Astana at Vuelta a Espana Astana pick up the pieces at Vuelta a España after Nibali’s expulsion The Cyclingnews podcast: Should Nibali have been kicked out of the Vuelta? Nibali suspends his Twitter account after abuse UCI rules dash Nibali’s hopes for an early return to racing Advertisement Nibali also talked about the tension within the Kazakhstani team, revealing that he does not have a get-out clause in his contract with the team for 2016 and hopes he will be allowed to rebuild the group of riders around him, suggesting the results will follow as a consequence. “I don’t like being treated like a monster because I’m not,” Nibali said in the exclusive interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport. “A lot of bad things have been said about me. I don’t know if it's because of jealousy or something… On the internet someone has even described what I did as one of the five worst things ever seen in cycling. Someone even wrote that I held onto a car at the Florence world championships after my crash. But that’s rubbish and there’s no proof of that.” Nibali feels he has become an easy target for criticism. “I’ve been hit on as if I’ve killed someone. That’s not the case. I made a mistake. That’s all,” he argued. “I’ve got lots of friends in the peloton who I get on really well with. Perhaps some people have turned against me because of the team I ride for. Some people don’t like the Astana team, that can’t be denied. That’s also why I’m sure that the decision to throw me out of the race wasn’t taken just by the chief race judge. I might be wrong but surely such a big decision will have been approved by the UCI.” Back racing soon Nibali has returned home to Lugano in Switzerland but revealed he preferred to go out for an ice cream with his family than watch the finale of stage 4 of the Vuelta. He is hoping to race again soon and draw up some kind of end of season race programme. “I want to turn the page and move on. I want to race again as soon as possible, perhaps even on Sunday in Plouay. But I need the UCI and the Vuelta organisers to give me the okay,” Nibali explained. Gazzetta dello Sport claims Vuelta race director Javier Guillén is ready to give Nibali the okay to race if the UCI agree but the sports governing body has yet to make an announcement. “Vincenzo was expelled from the race and apologised. He has paid enough. We won’t do anything against him,” Gazzetta report Guillen as saying. His future at Astana Nibali is aware of the speculation and reports that he may leave Astana due to the tension and lack of trust following his difficult season. He appeared to fire a warning shot to team manager Alexander Vinokourov, who has criticised him in the past, and called on the Astana team to help him find some peace of mind by recreating the group of riders and staff that helped him win the 2014 Tour de France. “The best solution will be to reach an agreement with Astana, “Nibali said. “There’s no get out clause in my contract, which is valid for all of 2016, so the only way to end the contract would be via an agreement with the bosses at Kazakhstan cycling. But I think it’s in everyone interests to rebuild a good relationship. I need to find some peace of mind and so I need my group around me. I wasn’t the only one to make a mistake on Sunday. I’m not asking a lot. Shefer (the directeur sportif who was also disqualified for towing Nibali) has an important role in the team: he knows the importance of the two or three riders who haven’t raced with me recently.” "I’ve proved that I give my best when I’m happy and relaxed. Let me smile again and the results will come back.” We discuss Nibali's expulsion from the Vuelta a Espana and what it means for his future in the latest edition of the Cyclingnews podcast. Click below to listen.
Chaves wins the stage and moves back to first. Interestingly enough, Dan Martin seems to be gaining too. http://www.cyclingnews.com/vuelta-a-espana/stage-6/results/ Yesterday the Colombian fell foul of a late split, losing the race lead he had held since stage 2, and here he struck out for redemption with just over two kilometres remaining on the short, sharp final climb. Dumoulin had no choice but to set off in pursuit and ended up third, five seconds back, after Dan Martin pipped him to the line. The finale provided a similar platform for Chaves to recover the jersey to the one at Caminito del Rey where he took it in the first place. The 25-year-old now leads the general classification from Dumoulin by 10 seconds due to the allocation of bonus seconds, while Martin, fourth at Caminito del Rey and second here, is third at 33 seconds. “I can’t believe I’ve won. It was a long, hot, hard stage today. Mid-way I spoke to Mat Hayman and he told me: ‘if you have good legs you have to race because you never know what will happen tomorrow’,” said a typically beaming Chaves. “Neil Stephens told me about the climb and said it was really steep, at 10 per cent and even one part at 14 per cent. “Darryl [Impey] put me in a really good position and I started the climb in first position. I saw Amador suffering as he pushed the pace. When I saw that he wasn’t comfortable, I tried an went for it. “I’m really happy, I want to thank all the team and staff again – they’re all amazing. Caleb Ewan won yesterday but today he went for bottles. This team is like a family.” It was another blazing day in the Andalucían furnace and for a moment it looked like Steve Cummings (MTN-Qhubeka) might pull off a repeat of his Tour stage win in July. The Merseyside rider attacked from the day’s breakaway with 11 kilometres remaining and, after the peloton looked at each other, he was only passed by an attacking Chaves on a devilishly steep ramp just over 2km from the summit. The victory is the third for Orica-GreenEdge team in the space of six stages, with Caleb Ewan sprinting to victory on stage 5. The Australian team has made a habit of asserting themselves during the first week of Grand Tours and their performance so far makes up for a disappointing Tour de France. “We’ve had a great Tour so far. It’s much better start, that’s for sure. We had a really hard Tour de France, things didn’t go as well as planned. That’s cycling and sports in general, you have your ups and downs and this is fantastic,” said Impey. How it unfolded As the riders lined up in Córdoba they were without David De La Cruz (Eitxx-QuickStep), who did not take to the start due to his continued suffering from a broken collarbone sustained at the Tour de Pologne earlier this month. Once the flag had dropped he was soon joined by Matiej Mohoric (Cannondalte-Garmin), who called it a day after 30-odd kilometres and a couple of trips back to the medical car. With a hot 200 kilometres on the menu, the riders would have been forgiven for letting this settle into a pattern early on but 60km went by without a breakaway being allowed to form. Numerous moves of various shapes and sizes were shut down before five riders were finally given the green light after about 70km. Cummings, Peter Velits (BMC), Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida), Niki Terpstra (Etixx), and Cyril Gautier (Europcar) moved away and were soon joined by Miguel Angel Rubiano (Colombia) to form a six-man break, which built a lead of four minutes across the undulating terrain. When the leaders hit the first climb of the day, the third-category Alto de Baeza, their advantage began to diminish, with Movistar and Giant-Alpecin forcing the issue on the front of the bunch. At the top of the climb, and on the ensuing flat and then downhill roads, they were steadily reeled in until they had under a minute when the road started to rise again in the final 20km. Shortly after the intermediate sprint at Peal de Becerro – where Rubiano took the points from Terpstra and Durasek – Cummings made his individual bid for freedom with 11km remaining and the gap less than half a minute. Terpstra set off in pursuit while the other breakaway riders threw in the towel and the gap to the peloton started to go back out to nearly a minute. The peloton looked at each other but Cummings was slowly brought back nonetheless and his lead was slight going onto the final climb proper with 3km remaining. Chaves then struck out for glory, passing Cummings on the steepest section of 15 per cent, and Dumoulin was forced to go after the Colombian himself, attacking when the road eased slightly under the 2km banner. Dan Martin was the next to attack from the bunch, and was soon followed by Nicolas Roche, who dragged Alejandro Valverde with him. It soon became clear that Chaves had it in the bag as an advancing Martin closed in on a fading Dumoulin and passed him just shy of the line.
Big changes. Martin's out after a strong start. Sagan's out after colliding with a neutral wheels motorcycle. Still just over a minute separates first from eighth. http://www.cyclingnews.com/vuelta-a-espana/stage-9/results/ Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) stunned the overall contenders and the pure climbers on the steep finish above Calpe at the end of stage 9 of the Vuelta a España, using his time trial power to tackle the four-kilometre climb, and blast past late attacker Chris Froome (Team Sky) to win the stage. Dumoulin also put enough time into Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) to take back the race lead. Related Articles News shorts: Aru sees progress, Fraile extends mountains lead in Vuelta a Espana News shorts: Uran to Cannondale-Garmin? Bouhanni keen to bounce back Advertisement Froome caught and passed Dumoulin inside the final kilometre and seemed set to win the stage but then the big Dutchman got out of the saddle and used his final drops of power to close the gap and pass the Briton in time to cross the line first. Chaves finished well off the pace and so Dumoulin now leads the Vuelta by 57 seconds ahead of Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) who finished third on the stage five seconds behind Dumoulin. Chaves slipped to third at 59 seconds. The climb and fast pace caused several gaps with Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) both losing 20 seconds. Dumoulin was stunned to have won and fought to catch his breath after the line. "Unbelievable," he said. "I could have never imagined this. Yesterday, I had a really bad day. The team told me just to keep going and see how it goes, and today it ended pretty well…" The 168km stage ended with a typical steep climb to the finish but nobody expected the short climb to turn the race upside and see riders lose so much time. However after seeing much of the climb during a first passage and finally catching the 14-rider break of the day, the attacks thick and fast on the climb to the finish. Valverde was one of the first to attack but he seemed to lack power, perhaps due to being involved in a mass crash early in the stage. When he was caught, Quintana had a go, with the Movistar living up to their promise of being more aggressive. However both seemed to pay for their efforts when the race exploded in the final two kilometres. Dumoulin started the shake down and he tried to hit out early and perhaps open a gap on the more explosive climbers as the gradient hit double figures. He got a gap and put many of his rivals in trouble. Dumoulin was the first under the red kite indicating the final kilometre but behind him Froome mounted a serious chase and closed the gap, with Rodriguez on his wheel. The Spaniard looked strong and determined after ordering his Katusha teammates to work all day and hearing that his father had covered the road with his ‘Purito’ nickname. However Froome and Dumoulin were even stronger. Froome hit out alone, dropping his two rivals and could see the finish ahead of him. However the steep gradient turned the action into slow motion and made every pedal stroke painful. Froome lacked power but Dumoulin found some thing extra by getting out of the saddle and stomping on the pedals. He closed the gap and got around Froome in time to hit the line first, win the stage and take the race lead. It was a perfect day for the big Dutchman. Froome was disappointed to miss out on the win but praised Dumoulin. "I thought I had it there for a second but Dumoulin is showing incredible form in this race and hats off to him. He's a young rider with a bright future ahead of him," Froome said "I don't think my attack was too far out. I gave it everything. I did try and ride more conservatively at the bottom to save something for an effort at the top if I had the legs. i'm just happy I was up there and didn't lose too much time today."
Rest day today. Yesterday was another day of some guy I have never heard of winning the stage. Interesting that there are only 2 Spaniards in the top 10 current, and barring a crash I really don't see that changing. http://www.cyclingnews.com/vuelta-a-espana/stage-10/results/ The Italian triumphed ahead of John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) and José Joaquín Rojas (Movistar) on the short stage from Valencia to Castellòn, punctuated by a second-category climb 16 kilometres from the line. "It is a dream come true for me because it's been four times in this Vuelta that I've tried to do my sprint and today when I crossed the finish line, I still cannot believe it," Sbaragli said. "It is a dream for me and a dream for MTN-Qhubeka." Tom Dumoulin finished safely in the bunch to retain his red jersey, having worked on the descent of the Alto del Desierto de las Palmas to help tee things up for Degenkolb. With Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) abandoning the race early on in the stage through fatigue and Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) already out, all eyes were on Degenkolb on the flat 7km run-in to the finishing straight. Degenkolb found himself several places back as the sprint was opened up and despite gaining significant ground he was unable to overhaul Sbaragli, who clinched the second victory of his career after a stage of the Tour de Korea in 2013. It is MTN-Qhubeka’s first taste of success at the Vuelta and it continues the African team’s irresistible upward curve, following on from Steve Cummings’ breakthrough success at the Tour de France in July. How it unfolded It was a fast and furious start to the 146.6km ride up the eastern coast of Spain. Lots of riders showed interest in trying to get away but it wasn’t until 25 kilometres in, on the first climb of the day – the third-category Puerto del Oronet – that a group managed to go clear. And it was arguably more of a split in the peloton than a breakaway group, containing as it did some 40 riders. They were: Dario Cataldo, Matteo Montaguti, Sergio Henao, Carlos Verona, Riccardo Zoidl, Tiago Machado, Daniel Navarro, Peter Velits, Lawson Craddock, Rubén Plaza, Martijn Keizer, Luis León Sánchez, Larry Warbasse, Imanol Erviti, David Arroyo, Natnael Berhane, Jurgen Van den Broeck, Romain Hardy, Tsgabu Grmay, Andrey Amador, Pello Bilbao, Eduard Vorganov, Carlos Quintero, Maxime Monfort, Ian Boswell, Salvatore Puccio, Benjamin King, Kenny Elissonde, Stephen Cummings, Cameron Meyer, Amael Moinard, George Bennett, Darwin Atapuma, Ángel Madrazo, Mickael Cherel, Davide Villella, Rodolfo Torres, Johannes Frohlinger, Jérôme Cousin, and Jay McCarthy. Despite the size of the group and the fact that all teams were represented in it, they were never able to establish a significant lead. The gap to the bunch dangled just above the minute mark for many of the undulating kilometres but things only grew more uncoordinated and fractured, with some riders dropping back and others attacking. With the pace still high in the peloton, it came back together with 55 kilometres to go and, barring a short-lived move instigated by Niki Terpstra (Etixx-QuickStep), it remained that way until the Puerto del Desierto de las Palmas, positioned tantalisingly ahead of the finish. Alessandro De Marchi (BMC) was the first to have a pop, and he was followed by Romain Sicard (Europcar). Kenny Elissonde (FDJ) then formed a two-man chase group with Jerome Coppel (IAM) before catching the leaders and going clear himself. In the bunch behind, the GC men started to look at each other towards the top of the climb and Dumoulin hit the front, ever watchful of potential threats to his red jersey. As the climb crested De Marchi and Sicard caught Elissonde, and the trio headed downhill with an advantage of about 30 seconds over the peloton. Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-QuickStep) hovered just ahead of the Dumoulin-led bunch on a descent that was not so severe as to stop riders from having to pedal pretty furiously the whole way down. Once the road flattened out with about 7km to go the leaders stood little chance of staying away and with a few kilometres to go it became a case of getting organised for a sprint finish between those who had made it over the climb. Degenkolb was one of those men but was isolated and it was a scrappy affair in the final kilometre, with no lead-out trains in sight. Tosh van der Sande (Lotto-Soudal) was the first to really go but Sbaragli came surging past. Degenkolb was gaining all the time and probably did the fastest sprint but he had started from too far back and had left it too late to deny the Italian a huge victory – both for himself personally and for his team.
Landa wins a stage in the mountains after putting on a show. One would have thought it would have been a more prominent climber, but oh well. Froome is out with a fractured foot. http://www.cyclingnews.com/vuelta-a-espana/stage-11/results/ Mikel Landa (Astana) secured the win on stage 11 of the Vuelta a Espana with memorable display in the mountains. The 25-year-old was part of the day’s early break and skipped away from his companions on the final climb of the 138km stage to hang on ahead of the fast finishing overall contenders. Related Articles Paulinho abandons Vuelta a Espana after being hit by moto Aru soars to overall lead in Vuelta a Espana Vuelta a Espana: Boswell shines in Andorra Advertisement Landa’s win painted only part of the picture for a dominant Astana team with Fabio Aru dropping all his rivals on the final ascent to finish second on the stage and take the leader’s jersey from Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin). Chris Froome (Team Sky) who came into the stage with his overall ambitions reignited after a strong ride on stage 9 crashed early in today’s stage and was dropped several climbs from the finish. He came in over eight minutes down, losing any chance of winning the race overall. Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde both lost time to Aru, while Joaquim Rodriguez (Team Katusha) put in a dogged display to keep his overall ambitions alive. Aru now leads Rodriguez by 27 seconds with Dumoulin a further three seconds back. Valverde is 6th at 1:52, while pre-race favourite Quintana is over three minutes in arrears. The day had been billed as one of the most epic stages ever put together in a Grand Tour with six climbs and a summit finished packed into the 138km stage. The action was fast and furious from the off, first with Froome’s crash and then with a significant break going clear. However the stage and the overall battle would come down to the final climb with Landa attacking the remnants of the break near the foot of the ascent. Astana had already been leading the bunch over several of the previous climbs and although Movistar and Katusha briefly threatened the Khazak team’s dominance when Valverde and Rodriguez moved clear on a descent, when the race re-grouped Aru’s team reasserted their control with Luis Leon Sanchez and Dario Cataldo ever-present. Aru launched his first attack inside the final 8km and brought Rodriguez and his teammate Daniel Moreno with him. Landa had a two minute advantage but Aru was in no mood to calculate – his eyes firmly focused on the red jersey. His second acceleration did in the Katusha pair, while Dumoulin’s strategy of setting a steady tempo paid dividends. While Quintana, Valverde and several others attempted to match Aru’s drive for home, the Dutch rider kept calm - a tactic Esteban Chaves later employed – to keep his top ten ambitions on track.
Frank Schleck? To tell you the truth, I thought he had retired after his last doping suspension. I guess not. Anyway, a single second separating Rodriguez and Aru in the overall for the Vuelta. http://www.cyclingnews.com/vuelta-a-espana/stage-16/results/ Fränk Schleck (Trek Factory Racing) emerged from the wilderness to claim his first victory in over four years on stage 16 of the Vuelta a España, but his achievement will inevitably be overshadowed by the battle that took place ten minutes behind him on the road. On the viciously steep slopes of the Alto Ermita de Alba, Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) did just enough to divest Fabio Aru (Astana) of the red jersey by a solitary second, but both men will be concerned by how Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) managed to keep his hopes of final overall victory alive. The final three kilometres of the last of the day’s seven categorised climbs featured slopes that touched 30%, and the overall contenders seemed to spend much of the afternoon with those gradients foremost in their thoughts, allowing Schleck and the early escapees to build up a maximum advantage of 21 minutes. Schleck and his fellow survivor Rodolfo Torres (Colombia) still had ten minutes in hand by the time they reached the base of the final climb, where the Luxembourger would eventually inch clear 1,500 metres from the summit, though by that point, the forcing of the Astana and Tinkoff-Saxo squads had reduced the red jersey group to just 15 or so riders. After Pawel Poljanski’s impressive cameo at the bottom in the service of Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo), Mikel Landa (Astana) took over as the gradient stiffened. Ostensibly, the Basque’s goal was to shake Dumoulin loose, but for long stretches, his leader Aru seemed to be in just as much difficulty, though his pace did at least prevent Rodriguez from unsheathing his sword before the stinging final kilometres. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) were distanced as the gradient bit in earnest with two kilometres to go, but while Dumoulin finally betrayed signs of suffering within sight of the flamme rouge, he remained in touch until the final 800 metres. At that very moment, Rodriguez sensed his opportunity, bounding clear of the red jersey group, but as the pace dropped almost to slow motion, Aru managed to battle gamely and limit his losses. He was almost within clutching distance of Rodriguez’s coattails by the summit, but eventually came home two seconds behind the Catalan, and lost his red jersey by a scant second. “To be honest, I was just following Purito in the last kilometres,” Aru said, deftly side-stepping a query on Landa’s fealty. “He was going very well. We tried to control him with my teammates but we couldn’t follow him all the way. There’s an important time trial to come and one second won’t count for much.” Dumoulin, meanwhile, was out of sight but by no means out of the general classification picture. He came home in 16th place on the stage – some 9:18 down on Schleck but less than half a minute behind Rodriguez and Aru. With Wednesday’s 38.7km time trial in Burgos still to come, Dumoulin lies in fourth overall, just 1:51 down on Rodriguez and he had ample reason to smile as he recovered at the summit. “I saved the day,” Dumoulin admitted. “I was much better than expected. It was very fast but I was never really in trouble.” There was an air of disappointment, by contrast, about Majka, who came home with Nairo Quintana (Movistar), 12 seconds down on Rodriguez, and who now lies third overall, 1:35 down. “I’m a little bit surprised with the last kilometre,” he said. “I tried to follow Rodriguez, but he is a specialist for the steep part and it’s difficult to stay behind him.” For Schleck, meanwhile, the victory was his first since he served a one-year ban for a positive test for Xipamide at the 2012 Tour de France. His last win of any description came at the 2011 Criterium International, while Luxembourg’s last Vuelta stage winner was his father Johny, in 1970. “I came here with intentions of a nice classification but I was involved in a couple of crashes so I had to change tactics,” Schleck said. “The team and I talked about this stage, I knew it was good for me.” How it unfolded As the Vuelta peloton faced into its ninth summit finish of the race, its third in as many days, and with some seven categorised climbs on the agenda, there was a truce of sorts called in the red jersey group for the opening half of Monday’s sta
Nicolas Roche wins the day! Still only a few seconds between first and second place. http://www.cyclingnews.com/vuelta-a-espana/stage-18/results/ om Dumoulin (Giant-Aplecin) survived an onslaught of attacks from his main rival Fabio Aru (Astana) to keep his slender three second lead over the Italian at the end of stage 18 of the Vuelta a Espana. Advertisement Aru attacked Dumoulin no fewer that six times on the final climb of the Puerto de la Quesera, but the Giant-Alpecin rider was a match on each occasion and even repaid the Italian with a few accelerations of his own on the descent before the finishline. Meanwhile, Nicolas Roche (Sky) came away with the stage win, outsprinting breakaway companion Haimar Zubeldia (Trek Factory Racing) on the line in Riaza. "Coming into the sprint I wanted to lead it out, because Haimar is a rider with a lot of experience and I've lost a few sprints against him in the past, a few times in San Sebastian," Roche said in the finishing straight. "I didn't want to have a slow sprint, I wanted a pretty high speed one, so I thought I'd try and manage my own pace. When I smiled I was just happy it worked. For once I didn't mess up. I've had a few seconds and thirds - it was a lack of one small thing in the finish - today it finally worked out." For Dumoulin though, he moves a step closer to the overall victory in this year’s race. He has three more days to get through with Aru still just three seconds down. However, today’s medium mountain stage possibly offered the Italian his best chance of distancing the current race leader. Aru had his team set a relentless pace on the foothills before the final ascent but despite attacking early and consistently throughout the Puerto de la Quesera, he found Dumoulin to be match of him each time. The shallow incline certainly favoured Dumoulin, but he was first onto the Italian’s wheel with each attack, with the pair even managing to forge clear of their other rivals, albeit briefly, before a general regrouping before the summit. The descent proved to be another battleground with a series of accelerations from Dumoulin and the Movistar pairing of Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde. On this occasion it was Aru’s turn to go on the defensive, but just like Dumoulin he held firm with no significant changes to the overall. Previous race leader Joaquim Rodriguez remains in third at 1:15, while José Gonçalves (Caja Rural-Seguros), who was also in the early break, hung on for third on the stage. Alejandro Valverde lead the GC favourites home, 38 seconds after Roche beat Zubeldia to the line. The win marked Roche’s first individual success since moving to Team Sky last winter and his second ever Vuelta a Espana stage win. "I've never hidden that the Vuelta is my favourite race," Roche said. "Since I discovered the Vuelta in 2008 and started to get my first GC result, I really found that this is my terrain. Every year I try to come here. Some years I've done better than others, but I've always been quite competitive on the stages. The short, steep summit finishes suit me a lot better than the long Alpine stages." For Aru, he has two more potential stages to drop Dumoulin before the final flat stage in Madrid. The race is excellently poised between two very different yet evenly matched riders. How it unfolded With so few stages left in this year’s Vuelta and the race in the balance there have been few chances to pause and reflect during this Grand Tour. Although two pre-race favourites in Nibali and Froome are long gone, the racing has been pulsating. The start to stage 18 followed in that vein with a wave of attacks and counter attacks in the opening hour of action. Eventually a large break consisting of Roche (Sky), Sebastien Minard (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Darwin Atapuma (BMC), José Gonçalves, Ángel Madrazo (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Cyril Lemoine, Dominique Rollin (Cofidis), Pieter Serry (Etixx-Quick Step), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ), Simon Pellaud, Vicente Reynés (IAM Cycling), Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida), Bart De Clercq, Adam Hansen, Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto-Soudal), José Joaquín Rojas (Movistar), Songezo Jim (MTN-Qhubeka), André Cardoso (Cannondale-Garmin), Jerome Cousin, Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Tim Roosen (LottoNL-Jumbo), Daniele Bennati, Pawel Poljanski (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Haimar Zubeldia (Trek) moved clear with no real GC threats present. Madrazo, as expected, snaffled up the maximum points on the Alto Santibáñez de Ayllón and Alto del Campanario, with the peloton meandering at five minutes in arrears. Inside the second half of the stage Astana and Aru began a predictable yet needed move to the front. Their efforts began to bring back the early break but more importantly also began to isolate Dumoulin. The Dutchman glued himself to Aru’s back wheel and even when third-placed Rodriguez shimmied off the front with 33km the go the Dutchman barely flinched. Instead, he let Aru’s team burn a few matches before the pace settled back once more. Up ahead, and on a small ridge just before the Puerto de la Quesera, Gautier attacked from the break. A constant marker for effort but hardly ever success, the Frenchman acted as reference for those in the break who still had designs of a stage win. Roche was one such man, and by the summit he had caught and dispatched with the Europcar rider, while Zubeldia linked up with Irishman, too. Back in the main field and Aru’s first attack came with just over 19km remaining. It was brutal but Dumoulin was quick to respond. The second attack was almost a carbon copy, although the third saw only Dumoulin able to keep pace as the rest of the GC men gathered their composure. There was a brief cameo from Chaves, who was looking to gain time on Valverde, and even the veteran Spaniard had his own moment on centre stage, with two stinging kicks, each of which, however, were mere precursors for further attempts from Aru. Attacks five and six from the Italian had his rivals strung out, but Dumoulin, the man who mattered most, was a rock. With no more true mountain stages and an unmovable rock in the race lead, Aru is running out of time and road.
Aru wins it all! Last of the grand tours for this year. http://www.cyclingnews.com/vuelta-a-espana/stage-21/results/ John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) won the concluding stage of the Vuelta a Espana in a sprint finish while Fabio Aru (Astana) enjoyed an untroubled evening on the finishing circuit in Madrid to seal final overall victory. Related Articles Vuelta a Espana champion Aru celebrates first Grand Tour win of career Pro bike: Fabio Aru's custom red Specialized S-Works Tarmac Advertisement Victory for Degenkolb put a different slant on his Vuelta after a series of near misses earlier in the race, and it also offered consolation of sorts to his Giant-Alpecin team after a traumatic afternoon in the Sierras of Madrid the previous afternoon. Tom Dumoulin, so impressive for so long in this Vuelta, lost his grip on the overall lead on the Puerto de la Morcuera and ultimately slipped to sixth place on general classification, but the Dutchman was to the fore in the finale here as Giant-Alpecin worked to set up the sprint finish. The usual festive atmosphere en route to Madrid was broken up only by the intermediate sprint on the second passage through the finish line, where Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) slipped away to claim the points. That was enough to see him divest his rival Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) of the green jersey as the Catalan had suffered a puncture ahead of the sprint. A group of six escapees ghosted clear soon afterwards, though Ben King (Cannondale-Garmin), Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Omar Fraile (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Laurent Pichon (FDJ), Carlos Verona (Etixx-Quick Step) and Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) were never able to gain more than 30 seconds on the peloton. The sextet was swept up on the penultimate lap, and late attacks from Iljo Keisse (Etixx-QuickStep) and Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r-La Mondiale) couldn’t prevent the inevitable bunch finish, as Trek, Lampre-Merida, BMC and Orica GreenEdge all made contributions on the front. Giant-Alpecin took over in the final 1500 metres, providing a pitch perfect lead-out for Degenkolb. At first glance, it appeared as though the German had opened his sprint too soon, but he had more than enough in the tank to kick again and held off Danny van Poppel (Trek) by two bike lengths, while Jean-Pierre Drucker (BMC) took third. “The whole world saw we were giving everything to defend that jersey and in the end we failed, we lost the jersey and the podium too, and that was a huge disappointment for the team. We were all upset after the stage. I had to try very hard to get the guys mentally prepared for a sprint today,” said Degenkolb, who won the corresponding stage in 2012. “I love this parcours and this circuit, and I had a great leadout today. The emotions are gone from zero to 100 now, and we can go home with positive feelings because this was still an awesome Vuelta, with 6th place overall and three stage wins for the team.” Dumoulin, too, was able to put a brave face on his disappointment. After receiving the prize for the Vuelta’s most combative rider on the podium on the Plaza de Cibeles – the traditional congregation point for Real Madrid fans after major victories – Dumoulin paid tribute to Degenkolb. “I cannot be unhappy right now,” he said. “We won the stage and John deserved this victory because he worked so hard for me over the last three weeks, he made efforts that normally sprinters would never do. No, I cannot be unhappy today.” All about Aru The night belonged to Fabio Aru, however, who finished safely at the rear of the peloton – conceding a handful of seconds in the process – to claim his first Grand Tour victory at just 25 years of age. The Sardinian finishes the Vuelta 57 seconds clear of Rodriguez, while Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) takes third, a further 12 seconds back. Though pre-race favourite Nairo Quintana (Movistar) enjoyed his by-now traditional third week bounce, he had to settle for fourth place after faltering on the road to Andorra on stage 11. Aru crossed the line in the company of his Astana teammates, a major success at the end of a troubled campaign for the Kazakhstani outfit, which risked losing its WorldTour status in the spring due to the spate of positive tests on the team at the end of last year. This Vuelta, too, was not without its difficulties, not least when Vincenzo Nibali was expelled from the race on the opening road stage for accepting a tow from a team car, while Aru’s confidant Paolo Tiralongo was forced out by the injuries he picked up in a crash on the same stage. The team’s fortunes looked to turn in Andorra, where Mikel Landa took stage honours and Aru moved into the red jersey temporarily, only for Dumoulin to prove a tougher out than anyone anticipated. The Dutchman led Aru by 3 seconds after the Burgos time trial and when he doubled that lead in Avila on Friday, it felt as though the balance was tipping in his favour. The startling strength in depth of the Astana squad was to win out, however, as the forcing of Landa, Dario Cataldo and Aru himself finally broke Dumoulin on the penultimate stage in the Sierras of Madrid. After betraying obvious signs of tension for most of the final week, Aru could finally allow himself to smile. “Yesterday’s stage was the most emotional one for me because we did an amazing job as a team and we showed that we were really united,” Aru said as darkness fell over Madrid on Sunday night. “Today I realised a dream, I’m very emotional, very proud. I have to thank my teammates, they always believed in me and I dedicate this win to them.”
I am of the mind that Contador's retirement can not come soon enough. A vestige of the blatant doping era, who was caught (but it was in the meat I had for dinner!). fought it, and was suspended for it is now looking at his final season. Arguably, at one time, one of the greatest climbers, perhaps up there with Pantani (another doping and cocaine train wreck), his career never quite recovered to the level he had when doping. http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/contador-planning-final-season-of-tour-de-france-success/ "I have always wanted to retire at the highest level – that's the way I want people to remember me," the Spaniard tells Cyclingnews as we sit down in a hotel nestled in the Italian Alps. With the 2016 season likely to be Contador's last, next year's Tour de France is being lined up as the final firework and, though the 2015 season is not yet over, he already seems immersed in his project. "The primary objective is the Tour de France. I'm a rider who likes to be competitive in every race I enter – I want to do well in the races at the start of the year – but the focus will be purely on the Tour. The only thing I can guarantee is that I'm preparing for it 100 per cent," says the seven-time Grand Tour winner. It may be almost 10 months away, but Contador has already plotted his path to the Grand Départ in Mont Saint Michel. There will be plenty of winter days spent in the mountains of the Stelvio National Park, which is where we meet on the eve of the rhxdue – a mass climb of the Passo Gavia organised by rh+ and Polartec along with the Fundación Contador set-up.
And another. Not sure how I missed this one. For us cycling fans, many will remember the perennial nice guy's confession a few years back, his plaintive bleating for forgiveness. Now, he gets caught again. Yes Tommy D, they now can test for synthetic testosterone, and you got caught using is. I guess you really did not care that much about being clean, especially at your ripe old cycling age. I love the sport of cycling. I think that grand tours are perhaps one of the most brutal displays of athleticism in the world, but man, I hope liars and folks who have to try to cheat to win. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tom-danielson-tests-positive-for-testosterone/ Tom Danielson (Cannondale Garmin) has returned an out of competition positive test for synthetic testosterone. The rider announced the news of the positive test on his Twitter account on Sunday evening. He had been due to race the Tour of Utah but will now miss the event as he awaits the results from his B sample. "Tonight has been one of the worst nights of my life. While I was eating dinner with my team the night before Tour of Utah I received a call, Danielsons first tweet read. For [sic] USADA notifying me that a out of competition test I gave July 9th has tested positive for, from what I understand, synthetic testosterone," Danielson added. He later added that, "I have not taken this or any other banned substance. I would never ever take anything like this especially after everything I have gone through the last years. This makes absolutely no sense." I spoke with them and my team and I will have to sit out the Tour of Utah as I wait for the B sample as well as look into all the possible ways that could have produced this result. Danielson, who testified as part of USADA investigation into Lance Armstrong and US Postal, admitted to doping earlier his career but added on Twitter, that, I would never ever take anything like this especially after everything I have gone through the last years. This makes absolutely no sense. I feel incredibly hurt, frustrated, and angry by this. I don't understand how or why this happened and still can't even accept this is true. I love cycling. I love it so (*)(*)(*)(*)ing much. I love the races, the rides, the people, the businesses, I love it all. Nothing compares for me. Danielson was handed a six month suspension by USADA as part of the USADA investigation. The Cannondale Garmin team and their general manager Jonathan Vaughters later released a statement in which they confirmed that the rider had been suspended from the squad while the B-sample test was analyzed. "Tom Danielson notified Slipstream Sports that he was informed by USADA that he has returned an adverse analytical A sample using carbon isotope testing. In accordance with Slipstream Sports' zero tolerance anti-doping policy, he has been suspended from competition, effective immediately. He awaits the results his B sample. Slipstream respects and will adhere to the process of the anti-doping authorities and will not comment further." In February, Vaughters told Cyclingnews, "Its true we ask for that [scrutiny] and still in ten years weve not had a rider dope on our team. Ever. Weve lived up to that. That was the initial promise. If that ever is broken then Doug and I are out.
A brief interview with Evie Stevens. As I suspect most folks are not familiar with her, she is living the dream of most amateur cyclists. Plucked out of the real world, with no race experience a scant 6 or 7 years ago, no huge biking background, just an incredibly gifted cyclist who along with Kristin Armstrong (no relation and not the ex wife) is making the obscure sort of women's cycling very interesting to watch and follow. http://www.cyclingnews.com/features...ens-against-the-clock-at-world-championships/ Only two women have been part of all three UCI Road World Championship winning team time trial squads with Specialized-Lululemon: Trixi Worrack and Evelyn Stevens. Now that the two are on separate teams - Worrack remaining with the Velocio-SRAM outfit that won those three gold medals, while Stevens will take the start with Boels Dolmans on Sunday, there can be only one four-time winner, if any. Stevens hopes the home soil advantage will give her the edge, and carry her through the individual time trial and road race, too. Related Articles Stevens emerges from pain cave to claim Worlds time trial bronze Stevens looks forward to Worlds in Richmond Stevens wins Tour of California time trial Advertisement Cyclingnews: There has to be a big competition between you, Velocio-SRAM and Rabo-Liv for the team time trial (TTT) championship. Do you think you'll be able to take home win number four? Evelyn Stevens: It's a huge goal for our team, as it is for almost every women's team. It's a great way to showcase the equipment you're on, how you ride as a team, etc. There's going to be a lot of competition. [The Vargarda TTT World Cup in] Sweden was a good example of how close it really was - with Rabo winning and Velocio beating us by two seconds. I think it's going to be really tight. I can't wait, I'm just thrilled to be able to do it in the US. CN: Was it surprising that Rabo-Liv won in Sweden by over 30 seconds? ES: Not in my opinion. They have a really strong team, I think that course was a little bit climbier - but they're good. The level is high right now in women's cycling, so the challenge is ... I don't think there is any sure winner on Sunday. That will make it really exciting, every second is going to count. Velocio/Lulu is the only team who has won it. They're very good at it, and I know they'll be good on Sunday. It's been a big focus for us, too. CN: Has your equipment sponsor Specialized done anything special for Worlds? ES: This has been the focus from the beginning, we've gone over course analysis, aerodynamics, formation, all the details add up. Today was the first day I've ridden most of the TTT course. I came after nationals and rode the individual (ITT) course. The TTT course is beautiful. Most of the ITT course is inside Richmond, and this is outside of town a bit, and the roads are nice. CN: Is the course technical at all? Or is it a straightforward power course? ES: I haven't seen the TTT in its entirety. I can't have a full answer, I don't think it's super technical. It seems similar to the past two TTTs - it's a good way to demonstrate the power and the speed of the team. CN: The climb up Governor Street at the end seems like it's going to be pretty painful. ES: The climb - the time is the fourth rider, and it's almost easier to have it at the end than the beginning. At the beginning you need to pace it correctly, but at the end, you just have to ride to the speed of the fourth rider, and that person just needs to hold on and go as hard as they can to the finish line. CN: What is the line-up for Sunday? I know Chantal Blaak has been nursing a back injury. ES: It's the same team as Sweden, except Ellen [van Dijk] will be racing instead of Romy [Kasper]. Chantal [Blaak], Lizzy [Armitstead], Christine [Majerus], and Kasia [Pawlowska]. Ellen had an injury so she didn't race Sweden, but she's here now. Chantal had a little back injury, but she seems to be doing much better now. She's a tough cookie.
World road championships started yesterday with the team time trial. BMC won for the second year in a row. For folks not familiar with the TTT stage of a race, it is teams racing against the clock. While the number of folks on a team will vary from raced to race, the time is taken when (usually) the person over the middle number on the team crosses the line, such as the fourth person on a six person team. This means that a team can drop a couple of folks through accidents or inability and still finish or even win. The races tend to be very fast with a lot of crashes. The bikes are meant for aero positions and do not handle particularly well. Below is a video of last years TTT for this race to give an example. http://www.cyclingnews.com/uci-road-world-championships/team-time-trial-elite-men/results/ BMC won their second consecutive World Championship team time trial title Sunday in a hard-fought four-way battle with Etixx-QuickStep, Orica-GreenEdge and the Movistar Team. The US team set the fastest splits at each of the three intermediate time checks and then finished strong in downtown Richmond, coming in 11 seconds faster than runner-up Etixx-QuickStep and 30 seconds better than third-placed Movistar. Related Articles Tinkoff-Saxo came out the big losers, with Michael Rogers and Michael Valgren crashing as the team approached the second intermediate time check, forcing the squad to pause and regroup. They eventually finished last on the day, more than eight minutes off the winning mark. BMC, on the other hand, cruised over the 38.8km course without issues, while Etixx put in their own flawless ride, consistently coming in just behind BMC in all the time splits. "I was a bit surprised about the early split time compared to BMC Racing Team," said Etixx-QuickStep's Tony Martin. " So, for sure, the morale was a bit affected early on. But then as we went along the parcours, we were gaining seconds back. I think that gave us a small push. We were really fighting, and we had a really strong performance all the way through the finish line. So, I am satisfied about the overall performance." The battle for the bronze medal between Movistar and Orica played out much differently, however, with the Australian team starting out strong but fading near the end, while the Spanish team added to its power in the finale. Movistar was sixth fastest in the first time split, then fourth and third. Optum Pro Cycling was the best of the Continental teams, setting the standard for the early starters and holding the hot seat until Belgian Pro Continental team Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise knocked them off. IAM Cycling was the first WorldTour team on the course and dutifully crushed all of the time checks, taking over the lead until LottoNL-Jumbo grabbed it, followed in succession by Giant-Alpecin and then Movistar. Oricas disappointing result after never having finished outside the podium since the discipline was reintroduced in 2012 meant Etixx briefly had the lead next, but BMC quickly took care of that. With Katusha falling off the lead pace early, the race boiled down to just Movistar, Etixx, Orica and BMC. The American team led Etixx by four seconds at the first time check, 13 seconds at the second and just six at the third. The shrinking margin apparently provided some impetus, however, as they added another five seconds on the final kilometres. For Movistar, the bronze was the culmination of a concerted effort to improve their team time trial abilities. "I think this is the confirmation of our huge progression on team time trials throughout these years," said team manager Eusebio Unzué. "They brought us many good results in the past, but it's something bigger to step onto the podium in the World Championships at last - all teams with TT specialists bring their A-team here and make many efforts to perform at their best, and in such a difficult scenario, we were able to claim bronze." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-ZO2ILecoE
World Championships are over, and the final race, the big one to determine this year's (or at least that day who runs the best on that sort of circuit with the best supporting cast) is none other than Peter Sagan. The Slovakian sprinter who is quickly becoming an ll arounder held off the field for a win. http://www.cyclingnews.com/uci-road-world-championships/elite-men-road-race/results/ Peter Sagan (Slovakia) stormed to a solo victory in the elite men's road race at the World Championships on Sunday. He made his winning move over the steep, 19 per cent climb up 23rd Street with roughly three kilometres to go, went into a tuck position on his bike down the descent, and then held onto a handful of seconds on the final climb. Sagan managed to hold off the frantic chase from behind on the final ascent to cross the finish line with his first world title ahead of Michael Matthews (Australia) and Ramunas Navardauskas of Lithuania by just three seconds. "I think it's the biggest victory of my career, and I'm very happy because I sacrificed a lot these last three weeks after the Vuelta. It's unbelievable for me," Sagan said. "Today I was just waiting, waiting, I had my brother with me .. my teammates were always with me. If something happend they were always there. It was a little bit crazy in the last laps, and I thought everyone has to be tired. I gave everything on last cobblestone climb and then it was full gas until the finish. "I knew if the group caught me, I was very tired for the sprint. But it was the right attack for me. I saw also a lot of comments from people that I am not good for a long race like this. But now I have this jersey for all next year." A race-long breakaway kicked off from the gun by local hero Ben King (USA), together with Conor Dunne (Ireland), Ivan Stevic (Serbia), Sung Park Baek (Korea), and then joined by Jesse Sergent (New Zealand), Carlos Alzate (Colombia), Andriy Khripta (Ukraine) and Serghei Tvetcov (Romania). They gained over four minutes but were kept in check by the Dutch, or rather, Jos van Emden, who led the race for some 150km. The breakaway was caught on the way to five laps to go, setting up an aggressive finale. With three laps to go, the race heated up with a decisive late-race move ignited by Ian Stannard (Great Britain) over the 23rd Street climb. Bauke Mollema (Netherlands) was the first to react followed by Tom Boonen (Belgium), Andrey Amador (Costa Rica), defending champion Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland), Dani Moreno (Spain) and Elia Viviani (Italy). The select group started out with a small lead with two laps to go, but stretched it out to 30 seconds. Australia and Germany led the frantic chase from behind - neither team had a rider represented in the breakaway - with Australia setting up the race for sprinter Michael Matthews and Germany working for John Degenkolb. The eight riders lasted through the penultimate lap with Boonen leading the way into Libby Hill, smiling as the roar of the crowd made it feel more like Flanders and less like Virginia. But the breakaway was caught after the 23rd street climb with just over a lap to go, setting up a slew of attacks. Guillaume Boivin (Canada), Jarlinson Pantano from Colombia, Taylor Phinney (USA) and Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus) were the next to go, and their move lasted until 36km to go, just before the ascent of Libby Hill heading into two laps to go. The next move to escape included Bauke Mollema, Tom Boonen, Andrey Amador, defending champion Michal Kwiatkowski, Ian Stannard, Dani Moreno and Elia Viviani, but despite Boonen's strong surge up the Libby Hill climb on the penultimate lap, they were caught before the finish line. Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands) led the peloton through the finish with one lap to go and pushed the pace so hard that a gap opened behind and the only rider able to stick to his wheel was Viacheslav Kuznetsov (Russia). The Italians were responsible for bringing back the flurry of late-race attacks that included a move from American Tyler Farrar and Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus), who squeezed out an advantage of 10 seconds with seven kilometres to go.
Really? You guys coiuld not win a double this year or the last several, can not seem to win the one day classics, and now your goal is a triple? Goals are good, but that is just silly. Never understood the British cycling inferiority complex. To top that off, Richie Porte, whom one could argue is a reasonable contender for the overall in the TdF. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/team-sky-could-target-grand-tour-triple-in-2016/ Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford has said that the team could target all three Grand Tours in 2016. Sky won their third Tour de France with Chris Froome this year but with a strong new set of signings, including Mikel Landa and Beñat Intxausti, they may look to add the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a Espana to that. Related Articles Froome to finish season with Saitama Criterium Team Sky confirms the arrival of Mikel Landa for 2016 Worlds shorts: Kwiatkowski lacking in finale, Slovakian celebrations Advertisement "Winning the big races intermittently is great, but ultimately, the challenge is to maintain that level of performance over a long period of time. That is what we intend to do and that is what is driving us forward,” Brailsford told Skysports.com. "At a preliminary stage, I don't see why we can't go for all three Grand Tours and have a real good crack at that. It's very premature, but that would certainly be something that looks attractive next year.” The British outfit did mount general classification attempts at all of the three-week races this season, with varying success. Richie Porte was their leader for the Giro d’Italia, but was dealt a major blow when he was docked time for taking a wheel from Simon Clarke of Orica-GreenEdge. A crash then spelled the end of his challenge and he was forced to abandon. Froome put them back on track and put in a commanding performance to win his second Tour de France. The 30-year-old then broke his foot in a crash at the Vuelta a Espana. As well as Grand Tours, the team have another elusive target set out for 2016. The team are yet to win one of the five major one-day races, despite a number of podium finishes. The addition of Michal Kwiatkowski to their established classics line-up of Ian Stannard, Geraint Thomas and Luke Rowe should help them towards that. "We still want a Monument. We have got to put a lot of thought and effort into that next year, for sure,” said Brailsford. "We have already started debriefing and looking and planning for next year, and we want to make sure we get this year's off-season as nailed as we did last year. "When you have had a relatively good season, you don't necessarily feel that same emotional urgency as you normally would, so it's important to drive that process forward nonetheless, and that is what we are very mindful of at the minute: making sure we get on it and we develop a performance strategy next year that every individual can be excited about."
Good riddance. One of the last cyclists active to have been a client of Fuentes during Operacion Puerto is ending his tarnished career. Other notable clients include Armstrong and a myriad of other former top tier riders. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ivan-basso-announces-retirement-from-professional-cycling/ Ivan Basso has announced his full retirement from professional cycling. The 37-year-old was diagnosed with testicular cancer at the Tour de France in July and has since made a full recovery but after talks with his Tinkoff-Saxo team he has decided to call time on his career. Basso confirmed the news at the Giro d’Italia 2016 route presentation in Milan on Monday. The Italian will take up a management role within the Tinkoff Saxo team next year. Basso turned professional in the late 1990s and won the white jersey at the Tour de France in 2002. He won the 2006 and 2010 editions of the Giro d’Italia but served a two-year doping suspension in between his two Grand Tour victories. This year Basso joined Tinkoff-Saxo and helped Alberto Contador secure his second Giro d’Italia win. Basso finished 15th overall in the race. He returned to training last month but held talks with his team this weekend before making today's announcement. “Today is a special day for me. It’s not a sad day today because my links to cycling will continue," he said in Milan. "It’s been a iong, 30 year relationship with the bike and I’m happy I’m able to to carry on with this adventure." In a press release issued by Tinkoff Saxo, Basso added that: "Every athlete knows that his light will not shine bright throughout his career. Inevitably, at some stage it will start dimming and it's the sign of a wise athlete to know when the moment has come to turn it off." "I have no reason to betray my fans and all the people that believed in me all these years. I could have continued racing but I wouldn't be competitive. I could take part in a race but then struggle to finish. There is no point in letting my fans down and when adrenaline is replaced by fear then it's time to change." "I don't regret putting an end to my racing career. Cycling is a passion that runs in my family and I feel extremely lucky I have a team that believes in me and gives me this opportunity to start this new endeavor without practically stopping." The details of Basso's newly created role will be defined and then announced in the coming weeks.
The Tour of Abu Dhabi. Man, I am scraping the bottom of the barrel for excitement on this one. Apparently, the oppressive heat is playing havoc. Who would have thought that? I think this is one of those events where some folks pay cyclists a lot of money to show up, because they sure are not coming for the fame or challenge. http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/abu-dhabi-tour-2015/stage-1/results/ Andrea Guardini (Astana) won the opening stage of the Abu Dhabi Tour, after it was shortened due to the heat. Guardini was forced to jump around a slowing Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) but still had the legs to beat Tom Boonen (Etixx-QuickStep) Sagan’s teammate Daniele Bennati. Advertisement The stage had been reduced by 14.5km after the high temperatures made for a slow day of racing, and the peloton had just one corner to manage in the final 500 metres after more than 50 kilometres of straight roads. Sagan wound up the sprint, working as a lead-out man for Bennati rather than his own ambitions. Bennati flicked out to the right from Sagan’s wheel moments before Guardini did the same down the left, holding the others off to claim his third win of the season. The heat beat down on the riders at the start in Qasr Al Sarab resort in the desert. Three riders wouldn’t make it that far though as Jacopo Guarnier (Katusha) was forced to quit due to illness, while Tanner Putt (UnitedHealthcare) also failed to start as a result of a training crash. Youcef Reguigui (MTN-Qhubeka) didn’t even make it to Abu Dhabi, with visa problems putting paid to any hopes he had. A headwind and the relentless temperatures made for a very slow start to the day. Six men did brave the heat and broke free of the peloton. Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 1, Songezo Jim (MTN-Qhubeka), William Clarke (Drapac), Francisco Mancebo (Skydive Dubai), Alessandro Bazzana (UnitedHealthcare) and Michael Thompson (WIGGINS) were the hardy souls. They managed to build a lead of over four minutes but the heat took its toll. Thompson was the first to crack, looking a little worse for wear. Clarke and Bazzana were next, but not until Clarke took the first intermediate sprint. They continued to drop like metaphorical flies until only Mancebo remained. There was some good news for the riders as the organisers agreed to remove the final 14.5-kilometre loop due to the slow pace and the heat. Mancebo maintained a good advantage of around two minutes but when Lampre-Merida took to the front that was demolished pretty quickly. His teammate Rafaa Chtioui sensed that Mancebo’s day was done and struck out with less than 30 kilometres to go. Chtioui asked his teammate to follow, as he breezed past him, but Mancebo had nothing left. There was a small sense of panic as Chtioui’s lead went up to two minutes but the peloton quickly regrouped and brought him back just outside the flamme rouge. Sagan led the sprint but it was Guardini that came out victorious.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/abu-dhabi-tour-2015/stage-2/results/ Viviani wins stage 2. Is it possible for there to be a race that folks, outside of cycling junkies, care less about, including the locals? http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/abu-dhabi-tour-2015/stage-2/results/ Elia Viviani (Team Sky) continued his storming 2015 form with an eighth win of the season on stage 2 of the Abu Dhabi Tour, where he is now the race leader. Advertisement The Italian locked onto the wheel of Peter Sagan as the sprint was opened up at the end of the 129km pan-flat stage, and he came round to get the better of the new world champion. Fabio Sabatini took third after becoming Etixx-QuickStep's new go-to man when Tom Boonen crashed out of the race after 55km. Astana did much of the work in the peloton for stage 1 winner and race leader Andrea Guardini, but the Italian was nowhere to be seen in the final kilometre. "I know in this final of the season I have really good condition," said Viviani before a trip to the podium to collect the red and green jerseys for leader of the overall and points classifications. "Yesterday we were disappointed because we worked all day and lost position on the last corner. I did a good sprint but from 30 positions back. Today we decided not to work as much, to save energy because we have a lot of climbers for tomorrow. If I was to have two leadout guys we needed to stay on wheels. When I saw 3km I needed to do a good effort to take Sagan’s wheel. When Sagan opened his sprint I say ‘ok, now I need to pass him, not wait’. I know I have good power at the end of this season. I am really really happy to take another win this season." The route from the Yas Marina, which looped out to the Zayed Sport City Stadium and then out to the Emirates Palace before finishing on the Yas Mall, could not have been flatter. That didn’t stop six riders breaking away; Paul Voss (Bora-Argon1, Soufiane Haddi (Skydive Dubai), Belkov (Katusha), Daniel Patten (Wiggins), Alessandro Bazzana (UnitedHealthcare) and Federico Zurlo (UnitedHealthcare) all went clear but never gained much more than two minutes. With temperatures mercifully cooler than on yesterday’s shortened stage, the pace was electric as Astana set the tempo in the peloton. The first intermediate sprint, back at the Yas Marina, proved to be something of a flashpoint. Voss was unceremoniously bumped into the kerb by Zurlo, and was soon disqualified – for an as yet unknown reason – as he dropped back to the bunch. It was there also that Boonen’s race and season came to a premature end. The Belgian came down heavily on his left side after colliding with Theo Bos and Songezo Jim of MTN-Qhubeka and was taken away in an ambulance for checks. The five remaining breakaway members ploughed on along the straight, wide motorway roads that lined the coast. With Vincenzo Nibali and Astana on the front of the bunch, things were very much under control, and Haddi and Zurlo gave up from the break with 35km to go. As they approached the final 10 kilometres there were attacks in the break and the peloton, Patten putting in a short-lived dig up front, while Anton Vorobyev (Katusha) and Rafaa Chtioui (Skydive Dubai) went up the road behind.
Chaves wins a really boring race that few folks care about. Sorry, just no real races going on right now. However, the final stage looks like it was just about a giant crit style race int he evening, which is kind of interesting. http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/abu-dhabi-tour-2015/stage-4/results/ Elia Viviani (Team Sky) won the final stage after 20 high-speed laps of the five-kilometre circuit, beating Peter Sagan (Tinkoff Saxo) and Andrea Guardini (Astana) The 110km stage was raced at twilight, giving the riders a respite from the scorching temperatures they faced during the first three stages. They started in the evening sun but the stage ended in the dark with huge lights illuminating the circuit. Racing on a closed circuit allowed for live on-board images to be produced and transmitted during the stage due to an agreement between race organisers RCS Sport and the Velon teams. World Champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) also carried out a fake pit stop after six laps to change his bike and helmet. Chaves celebrated victory with his Orica-GreenEdge teammates. It's his first ever stage race success and comes after his two stage victories at the Vuelta a Espana and fifth overall. The 25-year-old Colombian set up victory by winning the key mountain stage to Jebel Hafeet on Saturday. Chaves attacked alone five kilometres from the finish and distanced all his rivals. Only Wout Poels (Team Sky) was able to close the gap with a paced pursuit. However, the Dutchman slipped out on the final corner after sprinting ahead to enter the corner first. Chaves avoided hitting him and won alone, sportingly refusing to celebrate. Fabio Aru (Astana) also passed Poels to finish second, with the Dutchman finishing third after rushing to get back up. Chaves won the Abu Dhabi Tour by 16 seconds ahead of the Italian with Poels third overall at 27 seconds. Jani Brajkovic (UnitedHealthcare) finished an impressive fourth on the mountain stage and was fourth overall at 41 seconds. The last stage again saw an early break go clear, with Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-QuickStep), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) and Eduard Vorganov (Katusha) surging away on the opening laps. They opened a two-minute gap and fought for the three €6000 sprint prizes awarded on laps 6, 11 and 16. However, Orica-GreenEdge led the peloton and the chase for much of the stage, with Team Sky and Lampre-Merida also helping to ensure the stage ended in a sprint.
But in more important things, Mont Ventoux is back at next years TdF. I am of the mind it should be in every TdF, as it one of the greatest climbs (also in my opinion) in Europe. Bel,ow is a video form 2013 that shows the last few miles and shows the athleticism that separates out the pack. [video=youtube;QB_f1L86vIM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB_f1L86vIM[/video]
Indeed, the route has been announced, and I hope you like climbing. Undoubtedly intentionally, the Ventoux climb is on Bastille day. Also getting some action are the Swiss Alps and even Spain in the Pyrenees. http://velonews.competitor.com/2015...avy-2016-tour-de-france-route-unveiled_387973 PARIS (AFP) — Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in western Europe, will take a starring role in the 2016 edition of the Tour de France, whose complete route was unveiled in Paris on Tuesday. Next July, Great Britain’s Chris Froome will spend three days staring at the Alpine behemoth, which rises to more than 4,800 meters above sea level, as he attempts to defend the most prestigious title in cycling, which he won for the second time earlier this year. The race departure from the world famous Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy on July 2 has been known already for a year, but that first 188-kilometer stage will also doff its cap at history with a finish at Utah Beach, one of the D-Day landing sites during World War II. It’s a Tour described as “a sporting challenge in beautiful surroundings” by Tour director Christian Prudhomme. The opening stage will pass the Bay of Mont Saint-Michel, which former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower once described as the “most beautiful kilometer in France.” Notably for the hosts, the finish to the 12th stage on July 14, France’s Bastille Day, will take place on the epic Mont Ventoux, a windswept, 15.7km climb that averages a punishing 8.8 percent gradient. Froome, 30, will likely let a smile crack over his lips in anticipation of that 185km stage, as it was by winning there during the 2013 Tour that he tied up his maiden success at the Grand Boucle. Froome started that day, the 15th stage, 2:28 ahead of Bauke Mollema, but finished it with 4:14 in hand on the Dutchman and his more likely rivals, such as Colombian Nairo Quintana — whose second-place result on the stage left him almost 6:00 out of the GC lead. Quintana would recover time and form to finish second overall — a result he repeated this year — but even in winning the penultimate stage he still ended up more than 4:00 behind Froome when the race reached Paris. Sprint finishes After the nervy, challenging first week of the 2015 Tour that took in wind, cobbles, driving rain, and many difficulties, the 2016 edition will be more inviting and appealing to the sprinters. The opening stage is almost certain to end with a sprint finish, as are the third and fourth stages. But the second stage from Saint-Lo to Cherbourg includes a final 3km kick up that should suit a specialist puncher, such as world champion Peter Sagan or 2013 Liege-Bastogne-Liege winner Dan Martin. The Tour heads unusually quickly to the mountains, where it will dip into Spain and Andorra during the Pyrénéan stages before also visiting the Swiss Alps later on. The fifth stage will offer the first mountainous challenge in the Massif Central, although the finish into Le Lioran is largely downhill. But the seventh stage will take the peloton into the Pyrénées, where a number of monsters loom on the horizon, including the Col du Tourmalet, the stage 9 finish up to Andorre Arcalis, and the Port d’Envalira at the start of the 10th stage, which at 2,407 meters will be the highest point of the race. In total, there will be four summit finishes, one less than this year, but several stages which include a short but tricky or technical descent to the end after a tough climb. “The Tour is always for the climbers,” insisted Prudhomme, with 28 high-categorized climbs on the 2016 Tour’s menu, three more than the last two years. There are two individual time trials: one at 37km, long which could provoke significant gaps among the contenders, and another at just 17km, but which comprises 15km of climbing, including the 2.5km long Cote de Domancy with its 9.4 percent average gradient. That’s one of three stages in which a view of Mont Blanc will be almost omnipresent. “Three days around Mont Blanc will be fantastic,” said Prudhomme. Read more at http://velonews.competitor.com/2015...nce-route-unveiled_387973#DivHi4LaIGeAWjKC.99
Yes! The 2016 ToC host cities were announced, and it looks like the route has changed, with some new host cities, and some returning. Very exciting that there is a great deal of likelihood that, like years past, the race will be riding roads that I myself ride regularly. Also exciting that Wiggo will be coming back. If you have never seen a mass finish of a pro cycling race, the sheer speed that these guys are traveling at, combined with the athleticism that allows them to race nearly 100 days of the year is amazing. http://espn.go.com/blog/endurance/p...ces-2016-route-including-four-day-womens-race Organizers have announced the route for the 2016 Tour of California, including the race's first-ever start in San Diego and first-ever finish in Sacramento. The largest stage race in the United States will cover nearly 800 miles from May 15-22, and 12 cities will host starts and/or finishes over the course of the event. World champions, Olympic medalists, top Tour de France riders and other elite cyclists will move south to north for only the second time since the race began in 2006. “Each edition of the Amgen Tour of California is more challenging and more beautiful than the last, and I’m excited to say that this year will be no exception," race president Kristin Klein said in a press release. "The worldwide audience the Amgen Tour of California continues to attract has something special to look forward to with the 2016 edition.” The 2016 edition will also include four days of women's racing, the most expansive women's event in TOC history and the first U.S. event on the inaugural UCI Women's WorldTour. “The Amgen Tour of California brings the perfect combination of stellar competition, amazing scenery and superior organization,” said 2014 Tour of California champion Bradley Wiggins. “I look forward to returning to the Amgen Tour of California with Team Wiggins to once again take on the top competitors in the sport.” Complete race route Stage 1: San Diego -- The race begins May 15 with a stage starting and finishing on the water near Mission Bay and downtown. Stage 2: South Pasadena-Santa Clarita --The stage winds its way through Angeles National Forest before concluding in Santa Clarita. Stage 3: Thousand Oaks-Santa Barbara County -- Beginning near the headquarters of race sponsor Amgen, the stage ends with a first-time mountaintop finish at Gibraltar Road. Stage 4: Morro Bay-Monterey County -- Features a technical conclusion at Laguna Seca Recreation Area, which also hosts elite auto and motorcycle racing. Stage 5: Lodi-South Lake Tahoe -- A climbing stage that will reach 8,600 feet above sea level, the highest elevation in the history of the race. The women's race begins with this stage, with the women starting and finishing in South Lake Tahoe. Stage 6: Folsom -- An individual time trial for the men, and a team time trial for the women. Stage 7: Santa Rosa -- Includes a portion of the popular Levi’s GranFondo, with the men and women competing on different courses. Stage 8: Sacramento -- Grand finale for both the men's and women's races.
