Welcome back to the GCN Racing News Show, this week, we take a look at the route of
next year’s Giro d’Italia, which already looks like it’s going to be the toughest
race of 2019.
We’ve got the European Cyclocross Championships, the Koppenberg Cross, the Saitama exhibition
race in Japan, and the stunning new kit for Trek Segafredo.
Last week, the Giro d’Italia route was announced, and it is a brute.
Gaps could already emerge on the very first day of the 102nd edition of the race, in a
short time trial which finishes up the steep slopes of the San Luca climb, and in fact,
there’s a distinct climbing flavour to all three of the time trials - stage 9 is just
under 35km’s, also in Bologna and features a 10km climb at the end, and then the final
day’s 15.6km time trial in Verona features an ascent of Toricelle.
Already a lot of climbing, then, in the time trials, but they, of course, pale into insignificance
when you look at the mountainous stages of next year’s race.
There are a number of opportunities for the sprinters over the first 10 days, including
this on day 10, a stage I think even I might be able to finish - but then it’s at the
end of that 2nd week when things start to get very spicy indeed - stage 13 features
three major climbs on it’s route from Pinerolo to the finish on the Colle del Nivolet, which
has gradients of over 15%.
Stage 14 is a punchy 130km affair with another 3 major climbs, whilst the longest stage,
at 237km’s, comes on day 15, which closely resembles the route of Il Lombardia, and as
such features that super steep Sormano climb where Pinot and Nibali attacked this year.
And then…..there is stage 16, a whopping 230km’s long with 5700m of climbing on it’s
way to Ponte di Legno, including the Gavia which peaks at over 2600m, and the Mortirolo,
up it’s the steepest side.
Coming after the final rest day this is going to be some test as that is one of the hardest
mountain stages I can remember in modern times - it really is brutal.
I have no doubt that that will be the single hardest stage of the 2019 Grand Tours, and
that there will be more than a few tired, grumpy and disgruntled riders crossing the
line that day.
It will be an interesting watch, that’s for sure - shorter, more explosive stages
have been in vogue over recent years, so we’ll see whether this stage delivers an epic performance,
or if it’s so daunting that nothing happens until the Mortirolo.
In terms of participants, at the moment we have no confirmation as to whether Froome
and Dumoulin will be heading back to Italy, but it does look as though Vincenzo Nibali
will be there, possibly up against Egan Bernal, which would be great to see, whilst there
are also rumours that Peter Sagan could be there for the first time in his career.
I’m already looking forward to it - bring on 2019!
I would like you to get involved now, though - we want to know what your favourite Grand
Tour of the year is - let us know by taking the poll on screen right now.
The European Cyclo Cross championships were held at the weekend in Rosmalen, with the
home nation dominating, Dutch riders taking home all but one of the gold medals.
In fact they had a clean sweep of the medals in the U23 and Elite women’s races, Ceylin
Del Carmen Alvarado taking the Gold in the former, whilst 22 year old Annemarie Worst
was best in the Elite, getting the better of Marianne Vos.
Sanne Cant couldn’t and finished just off the podium in 4th place.
Pim Ronhaar won the junior men’s event, but 3rd in that category was 16 year old Thibau
Nys - son of the cyclocross legend Sven.
It’s not just his fitness, but his skills that have caught the eye over this last week
- in fact he basically won the internet when this video emerged of him earlier in the week
around the Sven Nys training centre in Baal.
Not bad Thibau, not bad.
Meanwhile in the Elite men’s, there was some hope amongst the rest after Mathieu Van
Der Poel’s sub par performance at the Koppenberg Cross on Thursday.
Hope that was rather short lived, unfortunately for them.
World Champion Van Aert led from the start, but Van Der Poel got himself back on terms
before the end of the first lap, and soon after he rode away solo.
And there was nothing anybody could do about it - Van Aert was once again best of the rest
in 2nd.
Never has the Dutch and Belgian dominance of this sport been more evident, with 8 Belgians
and 5 Dutchman in the top 13 places.
The only rider to break the stranglehold of Dutch European titles was Tom Pidcock - it’s
been a testing start to the season for the young Brit, now riding for TP Racing, but
at the weekend, he was back to his best, getting the better of double world champion Eli Iserbyt
in the U23 event to claim a convincing win.
On the other side of the pond, we also had the Pan American championships - with Steven
Hyde crashing out and Jeremy Powers not starting, Curtis White outsprinted Michael Van Dem Ham
to take his first Pan-Am title.
There was a surprise, too, in the Elite Women’s race - Canadian Maghalie Rochette beat Ellen
Noble and Katie Keogh into 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Katie Compton did not make the trip back from Europe to defend her title, as she recovers
from a stomach virus.
Last week also saw the 29th running of the Koppenbergcross, which is based around the
infamous cobbled Koppenberg climb which is on the Tour of Flanders route each year.
There was a major surprise in the men’s event, in that Mathieu Van Der Poel *didn’t*
win.
His unexplained subpar performance opened the door for Wout Van Aert, but the World
Champion wasn’t able to capitalise.
Instead, it was the winner of the first two World Cup’s, Toon Aerts, who emerged victorious.
In the women’s, there was a hugely impressive performance once again from Kim Van Der Steene.
She managed to recover from a big mistake on the opening lap and clawed her way back
to the front of the race, before blasting past Annemarie Worst and Alice Arzuffi on
the final lap to take her 2nd win of the season.
Also trying his hand at cyclocross this week was Andre Greipel - the German competed in
this discipline as a junior, and fresh off a four week break he decided to ride the Raiba
Rad Cross in his hometown, getting that feeling that we all know and hate, of having blood
in your mouth.
Fair play Andre.
Meanwhile the who’s who of pro road racing convened in Japan on Sunday for the Saitama
criterium.
Winning…...the exhibition race was Alejandro Valverde, his first…….win…..in the rainbow
stripes.
He managed to get the better of yellow jersey wearer Geraint Thomas, with local favourite
Yukiya Arashiro in 3rd.
The combativity award went to European champion Matteo Trentin, whilst Alexander Kristoff
took the points classification.
Marcel Kittel had won the separate sprint competition earlier in the day, which meant
that almost all the most famous riders came away with something to celebrate, in what
seemed like a very well organised race.
Our very own Jon Cannings is over in Japan right now, whilst Oli has been in Taiwan,
there are already some very cool videos up on GCN and GCN Tech but there are plenty more
to come, so stay tuned for those.
The first 2019 pro jerseys have been released, with not just one but two from Trek Segafredo,
who will have both a men’s and a women’s team in 2019.
Revealing the team strips were John Degenkolb and Lizzie Deignan at the Rouleur Classic
in London, and I have to say, I am a fan - very smart on both sides, the men’s still red
but with a little less than this year, and the women’s a mixture of blue with white
sleeves.
Let us know your thoughts on the new kit in the comments section below.
Meanwhile EF Education First Drapac powered by Cannondale have revealed the worst kept
secret in cycling - the re-signing of Lachlan Morton for 2019.
He and his brother built quite a following off the back of their thereabouts series of
videos, and as such the Australian was the perfect choice for the team’s new venture
with Rapha clothing, which will involve some of their riders competing in some as yet unspecified
non-pro events, not to mention his incredible climbing talent.
Back to pro events, though, and fingers crossed there could be a very important addition to
the pro calendar in the not too distant future, in the form of a women’s Paris Roubaix.
This was from an interview that UCI President David Lappartient gave last week, in which
he revealed that ASO were working on the event and hoping to get it off the ground in 2020.
We’ve already been having an office discussion on who would be the first winner - Si has
gone for Anna Van Der Breggen to become all conquering over every type of terrain, I’ve
gone for Ellen Van Dijk, Katherine reckons it’ll be Lucinda Brand whilst Emma has gone
for Jolien d’Hoore.
You can let us know who’d be your pick in the comments section below.
That’s almost all for this week, but before we finish, a reminder that we have more live
racing for you on facebook this coming weekend with the DVV Trophy in Niel on Saturday and
the Superprestige in Gavere on Sunday.
I’ll also be back this time next week with a report from those races and all the other
news from the world of pro racing.
If you’d like to see how a carbon frame is made, Oli took a trip to Look cycles in
a video that you can find just down here.