Welcome to the GCN Racing News Show. The 2019 road season has already started with the Australian
and New Zealand National Championships taking place at the weekend, as well as the Bay Crits
before that, whilst the cyclocross season is still in full swing with the DVV Trophy
in Brussels. EF Education First announce their new name and alternative race program, there’s
a New Irish professional team, and, we have a preview of the upcoming women’s Tour down
Under.
First up, though, let’s take a look at the newly crowned national road race champions
for 2019. In Australia, a new star was born in the women’s event. Now you may well recognise
the name Sarah Gigante from this time last year, on the first ever GCN Racing News Show.
We gave her our first ever rider of the week award after she’d won the junior women’s
criterium, time trial AND road race in Australia. 12 months later, she is the new U23 AND Elite
women’s champion, having got the better of a whole load of worldtour starts, including
the entire Australian contingent of Mitchelton Scott, who had to make do with silver and
bronze for Amanda Spratt and Sarah Roy respectively. Impressive, to say the very least, but it
appears her talents do not just rest in cycling, but also in academia - Gigante is also planning
on studying for a degree in medicine. Further to that, I thought this tweet from Monique
Hanley was very enlightening: “When @SarahGigante was Under 15 she led
a protest at the unfairness of racing distances between boys and girls the same age. Her actions
helped trigger a process which (eventually) led to a new national junior racing policy.
She’s a remarkable human in so many ways.” You’re not wrong there Monique - I’m sure
we’ll be hearing plenty more of Sarah in the very near future, what an inspiring young
lady. One thing that Gigante does still need some
time to master is the opening of a champagne bottle - I loved this clip of Sarah Roy passing
on her experience and help to the youngster. The World Tour pre race favourites also missed
out In the men’s event a few hours later. Mitchelton Scott always have the pressure
on their shoulders to perform there, and things looked to be under control for them, as Cameron
Meyer and Luke Durbridge bridged up to the early four man breakaway which also contained
defending champion Alex Edmondson. On the last lap, Meyer got away with Chris Harper,
and it looked to be between them for the green and gold national championships stripes. However,
their game of cat and mouse in the final kilometres allowed another rider from the early break,
Michael Freiberg, to not only catch them in the last kilometre, but also immediately attack
them for the win. Freiberg, 28, is a former World Omnium champion
on the track, and the founder of Airhub, a front hub that gives you extra resistance
to help your training. This year’s Australian Elite champions are clearly a talented bunch,
both on and off the bike. That was no consolation to Cameron Meyer, though, who was visibly
upset after being unable to fulfil his dream of becoming national road champion.
Meanwhile over in New Zealand, U23 riders took both the Elite titles. In fact, in the
women’s event, under 23 riders filled the first four places, with Georgia Christie the
best of them all, holding on by 12 seconds after a long solo move on the final circuits.
It was also a solo attack that won the men’s race, with 20 year old James Fouché coming
home over three minutes ahead of his closest rival, Kees Duyvesteyn. The first NON under
23 was EF Education First’s Tom Scully, prompting a jubilant Jonathan Vaughters to
tweet his congratulations on the new jersey, only to be brought straight back down with
a bang when he was informed of the rules. Interestingly, Elite Time Trial winner Patrick
Bevin of CCC, was unable to use his new team kit for the time trial itself as the new skinsuits
haven’t arrived yet. So, he rode in his Waikato Bay of Plenty Centre kit, which didn’t
hold him back, as he took his 2nd title in 3 years.
Well done to all the newly crowned national champions and apologies that we don’t have
time to go through every category and discipline.
Prior to the Australian national championships, as ever, were the Bay Crits. The real story
of the men’s events there was the incredible return of Marco Haller. The Austrian’s career
almost ended in April last year when he was hit by a car while training, suffering a double
fractures to his patella and a fracture to his left femur. But Haller didn’t quit the
sport, and in one of his first races back he won the first stage of the Bay Crits in
Geelong, Australia. Not only that, Haller hung on to win the overall after the three
days of racing. Days two and three were won by Caleb Ewan, taking his first wins for his
new team, Lotto-Soudal. In the women’s race the leaders jersey changed
hands every day. Orica-Scott’s Amanda Spratt took her first win of the season on stage
one, stage two was taken by Chloe Hosking of Ale-Cipollini, and the final stage was
won by Peta Mullens with a solo breakaway. But the overall was won by Valentina Scandolara
of Roxsolt-Attaquer, who finished in the top 4 on every day.
Over to Cyclocross now, and there were wins for both Mathieu Van Der Poel AND Wout Van
Aert at the weekend, thanks mainly to the fact the Van Aert travelled a few hundred
kilometres to Brittany to compete on Sunday at the CycloCross International de Mezier,
where he collected a reported €20,000 prize money, and a comfortable win over Clement
Venturini. Van Der Poel, given his form this year, probably
didn’t even notice the World Champions absence, taking his 100th career win on Saturday at
the Cyclocross Gullegem, backed up yesterday by yet another win at the DVV Trophy on a
new course in Brussels, 45s to the good of World Cup leader Toon Aerts.
In the women’s event it was yet another story of a youngster coming to the fore, with
European U23 champion Ceylin Del Carmen Alvarado taking her first senior win. Her win yesterday
meant that there have now been 7 different winners at the 7 rounds so far - the open
nature of the women’s events couldn’t be further from the men’s right now.
In other news, there is a new name for EF Education First Drapac powered by Cannondale.
Are you ready? It is, EF Education First. That’s it - just as I’ve mastered their
incredibly long name, they go and shorten it! They’ve also announced some of their
alternative race calendar for this year. They will be sending riders to the Dirty Kanza,
Leadville 100, Three Peaks Cyclo Cross and the Taiwan KOM Challenge. No major surprises
there, those are 4 of the most high profile events away from the professional cycling
calendar, but it’s still going to be interesting to see how they get on, and if they add any
further events - maybe the Red Hook Crits were deemed too risky and dangerous?
Onto some news now that I somehow managed to miss when it was announced late last year.
There will be a new Irish Continental pro team in the peloton this year, called Evo
Pro Racing. And they’ve managed to net themselves an impressive roster - amongst the 17 rider
line-up are former Cannondale WorldTour pro Wouter Wippert, along with ex AquaBlueSport
riders Shane Archbold, the flying mullett, and Aaron Gate, and the Italian Eugenio Alafaci,
formerly of Trek Segafredo. We wish them the best of luck in their first season.
We shall finish with a very brief preview of the Women’s Tour down Under, a four day
race which begins on Thursday. An in-form Amanda Spratt will be looking to defend her
crown there, but will face competition from the likes of Brodie Chapman, the revelation
of last year’s Herald Suntour, Ashley Moolman Pasio, who will make her debut in CCC colours,
Elisa Longo Borghini of the newly formed Trek Segafredo team, Rachel Neylan, who will be
riding for the national team, and last year’s National Champion Shannon Malseed of Team
Tibco SVB. Stage 1 takes the riders 113km’s from Hahndorf
to Birdwood in what is expected to be a bunch sprint. Stage 2 should see a bit of a shake-up
on GC, finishing as it does on Mengler Hill. Stage 3 will be the last realistic chance
for any further change on the GC, taking in the loop of Stirling, Heathfield and Aldgate
including the climb to the finish line in Stirling itself, because the final stage on
Sunday is a 42.5km circuit race around Adelaide. OK, that’s all for this week. I’ll be
back next week with a report from the women’s Tour down Under, and the Australian Time Trial
championships, so I hope to have your company again then. Before then, if you’d like to
see me starting my own challenge, getting back to fitness in 10 weeks, you can see me
suffering down here: