Coming up this week on the GCN Racing News Show we have the Women’s Tour down Under,
a big upset at the Australian National Time Trial Championships, the People’s Choice
Classic criterium, the cyclocross national championships from across Europe, and a look
at the 2019 Paris Nice route which was announced last week..
First up, the road season kicked off proper last week with a strong international field
lining up for the Women’s Santos Tour down Under.
The 4 day event kicked off with a sprint finish on day one, a sprint won by Letizia Paternoster,
giving the Trek Segafredo women’s team their first victory in their first professional
race.
The 19 year old from Italy is a 5 time world champion on the track, and put her speed to
good use in outkicking Sarah Roy to the line.
The GC, though, was pretty much sealed already on day 2.
Winner of this race for the past 2 years, Amanda Spratt, put in a dominant display up
Mengler Hill, making it look easy as she took the stage win by 39 seconds over her Mitchelton
Scott teammate Lucy Kennedy, and enjoying an even greater advantage overall courtesy
of the 10 seconds bonus she picked up on the line.
Another tough stage on day three saw another win for Mitchelton Scott, this time with Grace
Brown, who attacked inside the closing kilometre with nobody was able to follow her.
Spratt, in finishing 5th, basically sealed the deal there and then on her third straight
Tour down Under victory, with only a circuit race remaining the following day in Adelaide.
There, Chloe Hosking of Ale Cipollini won the stage ahead of Paternoster, and it was
an all Australian podium overall in the GC, with Kennedy preserving her 2nd place, and
Rachel Neylan in 3rd.
The men’s Tour down Under will start tomorrow, Tuesday, but we’ve already had the traditional
warm up race, the People’s Choice Classic.
Caleb Ewan getting his season and his time with Lotto Soudal off the best possible start,
outsprinting Peter Sagan to the line.
Unfortunately, a late crash took Elia Viviani out of the running, but no doubt we’ll see
the three of them battle it out on a stage or two of the main race this week.
Incidentally, we’ve got live coverage of the Tour down Under, available to most of
Europe, plus worldwide highlights post race, so keep your eye on our Facebook page for
all of that - it’s sure to be an exciting race, with the likes of Richie Porte, Mike
Woods, Wout Poels, Diego Ulissi, Michael Valgren and George Bennett taking part, plus defending
champ Daryl Impey, riding for Mitchelton Scott.
Another man to potentially watch out for within that team is Luke Durbo Durbridge, who managed
to get the better of World Time Trial champion Rohan Dennis at the Australian Time Trial
champs early last week.
Durbridge started his career as a very accomplished time triallist but has since developed into
a strong all rounder and classics rider.
It’s been some time since he got the better of Dennis in a time trial, in fact it’s
been 6 years and 13 time trials to be exact, according to our favourite cycling statistician,
Cillian Kelly.
Dennis’ comments after the race were interesting - he seemed pretty happy with the ‘numbers’
he produced on the day, and basically said he needed to figure out why he didn’t go
faster for those watts, the insinuation being that it’s something else that’s slowed
him down since he’s changed from BMC to Bahrain Merida.
What could that be, exactly?
Well, Oli got in touch with friend and aerodynamics guru Dan Bigham to get his opinion.
Dan firstly said that nothing should be taken away from Durbridge, who pulled out a brilliant
ride, but that he suspects the biggest differences between Dennis’ 2018 and 2019 set up are
not his frameset, but instead his helmet, skinsuit and tyres.
It really is amazing how much difference equipment is making these days, although Bigham was
confident that with a few refinements, Dennis will be going just as fast as he was for the
same power last year.
Meanwhile, there was a break in international Cyclocross over the weekend as most of the
European nations held their respective national championships.
Business as usual - it’s a phrase I’ve used far too much this season, somewhat understandably,
when it comes to Mathieu Van Der Poel.
He took his 5th National Dutch Cyclocross title on Sunday in Huijbergen, 44 seconds
to the good of Lars Van Der Haar.
Lucinda Brand came out on top in a fiercely competitive women’s race, ultimately coming
home 10 seconds in front of Marianne Vos.
Over in Belgium, it was also business as usual for Sanne Cant, who took her 10th Elite title,
in a row, only one Elite Belgian has ever done that before her, Roland Liboton who took
10 consecutive titles in the 80’s.
Causing an upset, though, was Toon Aerts, denying world champion Wout Van Aert his 4th
title, and by some margin in the end.
Aerts had to close an early gap created by Van Aert in the tricky conditions, but would
not only catch his rival, but go on to win by over a minute.
It was also the 10th Elite title for Christine Majerus in Luxembourg, the 5th for Caroline
Mani in France, whilst in the UK, Nikki Brammeier of Mudiita took her 4th.
Ride of the day there, though, arguable, was from Anna Kay.
Just 19 years of age, Kay was giving Brammeier a run for her money until an untimely mechanical
some way from the pits.
She would hang on for 2nd after a tussle with Helen Wyman, but it would have been nice to
have seen what she was capable of without that issue.
No such problems for Tom Pidcock of TP Racing, who led home an all U23 Elite podium in typically
flamboyant style.
Back on to the road now, and ASO have recently revealed the route for this year’s Paris
Nice.
The 77th edition of the race to the sun follows a familiar format.
The first three stages look set for the sprinters, although you can never count out crosswinds
or atrocious weather.
Stage 4 is where the climbing starts, but the first big GC shake up will likely happen
on the 25km individual time trial on stage 5.
The final two stages are where the major climbs are found - stage 7 features a summit finish
on the Col de Turini, a 15km climb that averages over 7%.
It’s a climb that’s never been used in Paris Nice before, although it has been used
three times at the Tour de France.
The final day, as ever, will be a typically hilly affair starting and finishing in Nice.
Last year, this same stage was the decisive one, Simon Yates ultimately losing out by
just a couple of seconds to Movistar’s Marc Soler.
The 8 day race starts on March 10th.
OK - that’s all for this week.
As a reminder, we have worldwide highlights of the Tour down Under on our Facebook page
this week, as well as live coverage to most of Europe.
Also, make sure you check back in tomorrow for the GCN Show, which is our hot or not
episode.
All of the 2019 Worldtour kits rated or berated by two middle aged men with no sense of fashion.
It’s an absolute must watch - I’ll see you then.
Before that though - do you train in your lunch hour?
Or, do you just……..eat your lunch?
We put a few different methods to the test in a video that you can find down here.