Coming up this week on the GCN Racing News Show - skillz, spills, abandons, and a breakaway
extravaganza at the Vuelta a Espana, a wet and windy finale to the Tour of Britain, a
future star shines at the Lotto Belgium Tour, and it’s double Bling at the Grand Prix’s
of Quebec and Montreal.
We start today at La Vuelta, which has just reached the conclusion of the 2nd week.
A number of riders have abandoned - Dylan Van Baarle succumbed to injuries sustained
in a bizarre post finish crash on stage 12.
A race official timed his sprint past the photographers all wrong, and with an incredibly
narrow finish, there was nowhere for stage winner Alexandre Geniez to go - the two collided
heavily, but it was Van Baarle who would end up the worse off.
Chema Rodriguez, who has had a heavy involvement in cycling for decades, resigned from his
position with immediate effect.
Now, whilst there’s no doubt that he was at fault here, you also have to question whether
that was a finish fit for the end of a stage of a Grand Tour - Marcus Burghardt was amongst
the riders who voiced their disapproval, and you can see why - downhill and extremely narrow,
there was very little room for the riders to get past the scrum of photographers even
without the extra obstruction - had it been a bigger group sprinting for the line, the
consequences could have been even worse.
Amongst others leaving the race last week were Pavel Sivakov, suffering after his own
crash at the end of the first week, Nacer Bouhanni, who wasn’t able to finish stage
11, and Dan Martin, off home for the imminent arrival of twins.
Amazingly, still IN the race, is Louis Meintjes - the South African crashed on a descent on
stage 14, falling some way off the side of the road, and he looked dazed to say the very
least as he got back on his bike.
He was closely monitored by medical staff that evening, and was deemed fit enough to
start the following day.
In terms of the actual racing - the leader’s jersey was briefly loaned to Jesus Herrada
of Cofidis after he formed part of yet another breakaway that took a serious chunk of time
on stage 12, but Yates would take it back two days later.
The GC battle itself is still very open - Quintana was the dominant force on stage 13, but Yates
turned the table the following two stages, winning stage 14, and then placing third on
La Covadonga the following day.
This is the way things stand going into the final rest day - Yates leading by 26 seconds
over Alejandro Valverde, Quintana a further 7s back in 3rd.
Lot’s still to play for in the final week, then, which starts tomorrow with a 32km individual
time trial - I’ll let you in here on my prediction actually - Rohan Dennis for the
win.
Going out on a limb there.
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Before we finish with the Vuelta, though, we have to show you this footage of Ivan Garcia
Cortina - the savagely steep slopes of La Camperona clearly not getting in the way of
his enjoyment - quality skills there - thanks to Alejandro Conde for the video.
Meanwhile over in Canada, the 9th editions of the Grand Prix’s of Quebec and Montreal
were run on Friday and Sunday respectively.
A brave effort by Pete Kennaugh in the former almost saw him pull of an upset, however he
was caught almost within sight of the line and so we had the expected reduced bunch sprint.
Winning convincingly was Michael Matthews, clearly fitter and fresher than the rest after
an injury hit season, and that much was evident two days later in Montreal - his team worked
hard, he finished off the job, this time in a much closer battle with Sonny Colbrelli.
Matthews, slightly controversially, hasn’t been selected by cycling Australia for the
World Championships, here’s what he had to say on that subject yesterday……
2nd in Quebec, for the FOURTH time, was Greg Van Avermaet - the Olympic champion backing
that up with 3rd in Montreal - it’ll be interesting to see what he is capable of at
the World Champs in Austria.
The Tour of Britain reached it’s conclusion yesterday in London - the race had been shaped
by the particularly tough team time trial which finished up the Whinlatter Pass, Lotto
NL Jumbo winning the stage and putting Primoz Roglic into the race lead, but he faltered
the following day on a stage which finished on the same climb - there, Julian Alaphilippe
did enough in finishing 2nd to Wout Poels to propel himself into the leader’s jersey,
which he would keep through Sherwood on stage 7 and through to the final in London.
Incredibly - that marked Quickstep’s 61st win of the season so far.
That final stage in London was won by Caleb Ewan riding his final race for Mitchelton
Scott - he outsprinted Gaviria and Greipel to the line.
20 year old Liane Lippert has cemented herself as a future star of women’s cycling - she
already won the national Elite title in Germany back in June, and has now won the three day
Lotto Belgium Tour.
She’d finished 6th in the opening prologue behind Aude Biannic, but it was Lippert who
would prove strongest on the final stage around Geraardsbergen, on a circuit that included
the infamous Muur Van Geraardsbergen.
Now, we normally leave the off road stuff to our mates over at GMBN, but we’re going
to dip our toes in the mud briefly, because this week’s rider of the week is Kate Courtney.
In her first World Championships out of the U23 category, the 22 year old got the better
of two far more experience riders, Anika Langvad and Emily Batty, to become the 1st American
winner of the even since Alison Dunlap back in 2001.
Head over the GMBN later today for a full run down of the World Championships in Switzerland
where Nino Schurter also took an amazing 7th world title in front of his home crowd.
OK - next week we’ll be back with the conclusion of the Vuelta, as well as the Madrid Challenge,
the first of the late season Italian one day races, the Coppa Bernocchi and Agostini, as
well as the Championship
of Flanders.
See you then.