Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the GCN news show.
Coming up: Amstel Gold
Vuelta a Castilla y Leon Ronde van Gelderland
The best of Twitter The lightest bike in the world
Lance Armstrong And, Pat McQuaid.
The 48th edition of the Amstel Gold Race was run off under glorious sunshine on Sunday. This
year, the organisers moved the finish 1.8km past the previous one at the top of the Cauberg,
in a copy of last years World Championships finish.
Man of the moment Peter Sagan of Cannondale and reigning World Champion Philippe Gilbert
of BMC, were the pre race favourites having come 1st and 2nd at the Brabanste Pijl warm
up race, but Team Saxo Tinkoff’s Romain Kreuziger caught them all napping, attacking
with 17km to go, bridging to and dropping a breakaway group before soloing to the finish.
2nd and 3rd place went to Alejandro Valverde of Movistar and Simon Gerrans of Orica GreenEdge
respectively, whilst Sagan, for the FIRST time this year, was anonymous in the finale,
apparently suffering from cramps.
Meanwhile, over in Spain, the three day Vuelta a Castilla y Leon*** also finished on Sunday.
Euskaltel Euskadi took their first, AND second, wins of the year by taking stages
one and two with Urtasan and Lobato, but it was Movistars Ruben Plaza, who prevailed in
the overall classification after winning the final stage ahead of Francisco Mancebo of
the small US team, 5 hour energy.
Over to the Netherlands, and it was Kirsten Wild who took her 11th win of the season at
the Ronde Van Gelderland. The 139km race ended in a bunch sprint after some sterling
work from her Argos Shimano team mates, with ex World Champion Giorgio Bronzini of Wiggle
Honda, taking 2nd place.
We caught up with Wiggle Honda team manager and rider Rochelle Gilmore.
Proving that pro’s DO put something back into the grass roots of the sport, Sky Pro
Cyclings Luke Rowe took some time out on Sunday to hand out bottles at a local race in Wales.
Well done Luke.
On to tech news now, and the Guinness World Record for the worlds lightest full sized
racing bike has been broken.
Coming in at a scant 2.8kg, the frame is built by German manufacturer Spin. The bikes owner
Gunter Mai has lovingly adorned it with the lightest components that money can buy, with
an estimated total cost in excess of $45000.
Here at GCN we have also been checking out some weird and wonderful bikes and kit at
the Bespoked Bristol Handmade Bicycle Show. Here is a quick snippet of what we found,
but keep your eye out for our full feature soon.
Last weekend SRAM launched their game changing new updates to their RED groupset. They are
the first of the big three component manufacturers to launch hydraulic disc brakes for the road,
but with a hydraulic rim brake alternative. They have also added an 11th sprocket to their
cassettes, putting them back in line with Shimano and Campagnolo. This technology trickles
down to their Force groupset too.
Aaand, before we finish with technology, we’ve had a go at naming the top 10 most iconic
road bikes, what have we missed? As always you can let us know using the comments section
below the video.
Amstel was the first of the hillier one day classics. Still to come, we have the mens
and womens Fleche Wallone taking place on Wednesday, followed on Sunday by the big one,
Liege Bastogne Liege, otherwise known as La Doyenne* as it’s the oldest classic.
Who do you think will win? The first viewer to correctly guess who will win the mens Fleche
AND Liege, will receive a GCN t-shirt.
And talking of GCN shirts, what do you think of our new team kit? This is currently limited
edition and Exclusive......unless there is enough demand!
The ongoing saga of Lance Armstrong continued last week as news came in that he has recently
sold his Estate in Austin for a reported $3.1milion, despite having a listed market value of over
10 million.
Viewers may remember this picture that Armstrong defiantly tweeted from inside the property
last November.
Is he in need of the money, or is he simply moving house, what do you reckon?
Current UCI president Pat McQuaid comes to the end of his current term later this year,
and on Friday Cycling Ireland voted in favour of putting him forward as a candidate for
a third term.
Of the seven people eligible to vote, 5 nominated McQuaid whilst one refused to, and another
abstained from voting altogether.
Activist Jamie Fuller of Change Cycling Now was among those who had called upon Cycling
Ireland NOT to put McQuaid forward, and there were a number of people upset by the decision,
including journalist Paul Kimmage, who, on hearing the news, said:
“They’ve voted for Ireland, and they’ve f*****d cycling”.
On that note, it’s time for me to bid you farewell for another week. Join us next
Tuesday, here on GCN for more news, from the world of cycling.