Welcome back to the GCN Racing News Show - this week, we wrap up the rest of the national
championships as we continue the build up to the upcoming Tour de France.
And we shall start with Italy - there, we had a particularly aggressive race, and so
it was in some ways a surprise to see Elia Viviani come out on top.
Viviani is on flying form, with 13 wins to his name already this season before Sunday,
but we’re used to seeing him win bunch sprints, and this was quite different.
Viviani attacked in the closing kilometres with Bahrain Merida climbers Pozzovivo and
Visconti, and despite their best efforts to get rid of him on the climbs, Viviani held
tight and easily outsprinted them at the finish.
That does mean, though, that the Italian Tricolore will not be on show at this year’s Tour
de France, and that has been a bit of a theme this year.
The Dutch champions jersey will also be absent.
The championships took place in Hoogerheide, and also saw some very aggressive racing,
despite the flatter course.
A breakaway group containing Danny Van Poppel and Mathieu Van Der Poel were caught by a
vastly reduced bunch on the final lap, setting up what looked to be a repeat victory for
Ramon Sinkeldam of Groupama FDJ.
He launched his sprint with a couple of hundred metres to go and veered left, in front of
Van Der Poel. Van Der Poel then sat down briefly and gently nudged Sinkeldam to the right,
before launching a devastating acceleration to the line, winning with relative ease.
He’s some lad - I for one am a little bit gutted that he’s concentrating on MTBing
until the Tokyo Olympics because I’d just love to see what he can do on the road.
Do you feel the same?
Let us know in the comments section and also on the poll that’s on your screen right
now.
Talking of super talents, the women’s event was won by current world champion and defending
national champion Chantal Blaak. Van Der Poel wasn’t the only rider successfully
crossing disciplines, though, current MTB World Champion Jolanda Neff won the Swiss
national elite road title.
There was a major surprise at the British National’s in the women’s event - 19 year
old Jessica Roberts attacked with 15km to go, and would ultimately take the win solo,
albeit only 1 second ahead of a disappointed and in-form Dani Rowe.
In the men’s event, the decisive breakaway would go clear in the early stages - not uncommon
at the British national championships - or indeed at plenty of any national championships
where there isn’t a strong, dominant team who are able to control the race.
Team Sky were represented, albeit with only one rider, Owain Doull, former winner Adam
Blythe was there with teammate Mark Christian, Ben Swift of UAE was also in there with his
cousin Connor, and it was the lesser known of the two that would earn the stripes this
year.
Connor Swift attacked with 12km’s remaining, showing enormous determination and power to
hold the rest at bay.
22 year old Swift currently rides for British based Madison Genesis, but has set the groundwork
for a move to WorldTour with that ride - expect to see plenty more of he and Jessica Roberts
in the coming years.
Pascal Ackermann continued his upward trajectory with victory in the German champs - he outsprinted
Degenkolb, Walscheid and Greipel, whilst there was more concern for Kittel’s current form
as he could only manage 10th.
Liane Lippert took the only win of her short career by winning the women’s event, at
the tender age of 20..
There was a popular win in Ireland for Aqua Blue Sport’s Conor Dunne.
Dunne is known firstly for being 6ft8, secondly for always being in breakaways, thirdly for
being a super nice guy and now, fourthly, for being national champion - well done to
you Conor.
Equally popular was the women’s winner there, 39 year old Eve McChristy - she has earnt
plenty of success over the years, but often as tandem pilot with Katie George Dunlevy
- but that was by far her biggest individual success.
Groupama FDJ won their third consecutive French title - Anthony Roux coming out on top at
the end of a particularly enthralling race.
Krists Neilands conserved his Latvian title, Michael Morkov took his 2nd Danish title,
Lotto Lepisto did her third consecutive TT road race double in Finland, a record that
looks impressive, until you look at Christine Majerus.
She also did the double in Luxembourg, but that marked the 9th time in her career that
she’s done the triple - time trial, road race, and cyclocross titles.
In total, she’s won 30 national titles across those disciplines - that really is dominance
on another level.
Let’s finish then with the jerseys that we will see at the Tour de France this year
- starting with Bob Jungels, - he won the national time trial and road in Luxembourg,
the third time he’s done the double - his margin to 2nd in the road race?
Close to 14 minutes.
Geraint Thomas will wear the British Champs Jersey on the penultimate day of the Tour
having won the national time trial title, likewise Dylan Van Baarle in the Dutch time
trial jersey, if he gets the final nod for the Tour team.
There might be an extra spot going anyway with ASO trying to block Froome from riding
- more on that in the GCN Show tomorrow.
Steve Morabito will wear the Swiss jersey, and you’d imagine that will look quite classy
- his team, Groupama FDJ, keep national champions kit clean from sponsors.
Much of our attention does now turn toward the Tour de France, which brings us onto last
week’s poll - where we asked you how many stages will Mark Cavendish win.
Well, 37% of you, in last week’s poll, said that he won’t win a single one, whilst 3%
are confident he’ll be more than 4.
Not long now until we get the actual answer.
Incidentally, he has been selected for Dimension Data’s team, and a quick note to tall other
squads, THIS, is how you announce your Tour team…….
I’m excited, and I’m sure you are too - don’t forget you will be able to see daily
highlights over on our Facebook page.
Right, that’s all for this week - stay tuned for our big GCN Tour de France preview show,
which will be on the channel on Wednesday.
Next week I’ll be back with all the talking points from the first two stages of that race,
plus the first three stages of the Giro Rosa in Italy - I hope to see you then.
In the meantime, more proper science from Emma - in this next video, she looks into
the most efficient tyre pressure for a road bike.