Coming up today on the GCN Racing News Show, Team Sky becomes team Team Ineos who experience
a week of highs and lows.
We wrap up the Tours de Romandie and Yorkshire, as well as the Eschborn Frankfurt, Vuelta
Asturias and Gracia Orlova.
What can you say about Primoz Roglic, he really is just an incredible athlete.
Last week, he won three stages and the overall at the Tour de Romandie.
Having finished runner up to Jan Tratnik in the prologue, he won a sprint from a reduced
group on stage 2, rode everyone off his wheel in the final few hundred metres on the mountain
top finish of stage 4, and then showed everyone how it was done in the final time trial, including
new World Hour Record holder Victor Campenaerts.
His record in week long stage races over the last year really is something else.
Basque Country, 1st, Romandie, 1st, Slovenia, 1st, Britain, 3rd, UAE Tour, 1st, Tirreno
1st, and then of course another win on Romandie this year.
That’s 7 top level stage races in a year, of which he has won 6 and finished 3rd in
the other.
And what will make his rivals even more scared is the fact that he’s still improving.
We all know his back story as a ski jumper, which meant he only started cycling seriously
in 2013 at the age of 23, a point at which most other riders have already been competing
for 10 years.
And given that fact, what I find as impressive as his immense power on the bike, are his
handling skills.
Admittedly, given his previous occupation, he’s probably not someone that has a particularly
fearful character, but his all round ability is almost unrivalled at the moment - he’s
one of the best climbers in the world, one of the best time triallists, one of the best
descenders, and clearly able to handle himself in a sprint too.
There really isn’t a chink in his armour, and given that his team for the Giro looks
solid as a rock, is he the favourite to win the race?
I would personally say he is, which is why……….bit of a teaser here…….I have picked him as
my prediction in our upcoming Giro d’Italia preview show.
I’d like to know your thoughts, though - does he go into the Giro as race favourite, ahead
of previous winners Nibali and Dumoulin, let us know in the poll that’s on the screen
now.
May 1st was officially the day that Team Sky became Team Ineos.
It was the day before the Tour de Yorkshire, and along with all the new colours, new kit
and new livery, there was also a brand new bike from Pinarello - the Dogma F12.
If you haven’t already seen Oli’s first look on that then I suggest you check it out,
I’ll link to it at the end of this video.
Now, if you look at most media reports, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the team was
greeted with a whole army of protesters, but from what I heard from people who were there,
the anti fracking and anti Ineos sentiment was a very small minority, with most cycling
fans happy to see the likes of Chris Froome racing for a British team on home roads.
And after a bit of a false start, it turned out to be a brilliant few days for them.
On stage 1, together with Dimension Data, they’d attempted to control the race for
a sprint, only to be thwarted by the breakaway.
Jesper Asselman of Roompot Charles making a good case for flags being a recipe for success
as he became the 2nd rider in a month to cross the line first after collecting a spectators
flag in the finishing straight.
In all seriousness, I agree with Sam Bewley, who responded to our post on twitter by saying
that, absolutely they should be banned, it’s only a matter of time before one gets tangled
into a rider’s front wheel.
Anyway, thankfully it didn’t affect Asselman, who collected not only the flag but his second
career win, and the leaders jersey with it.
He’d conserve that lead on day 2, which did go the way of the sprinters.
Rick Zabel was supposed to be here on lead out duties for Kittel, but when the German
was unable to start, Zabel got a free role, and I’m pretty confident that he’s secretly
quite pleased that Kittel was absent.
That was also his 2nd career pro win.
On day 3 into Scarborough we got the first GC shakeup.
A reduced group almost got wiped out by a huge wave coming up to the finish, but in
the end it was Alexander Kamp who surfed the wheels best, taking a surprise victory ahead
of a hugely disappointed Chris Lawless, who was banging his front wheel up and down as
he crossed the line.
Fair play to Kamp and his team Riwal Readynez, though, who’d controlled the race for much
of the finale.
And so it all came down to the final day, in which Ineos played a blinder.
Controlling the race from start to finish, it was Chris Froome himself who initiated
the first big move, attacking up the last climb, only James Shaw able to go with him.
A slight regrouping over the top allowed Irishman Eddie Dunbar to make a move off the front,
and from that point on, the team were in the driving seat.
Lawless was able to match Van Avermaet as he attacked up a deceptively tough drag with
5kms to go, and in the end, they were able to all come home happy - Van Avermaet took
a much needed stage victory, Lawless the overall, and Dunbar the third step of the podium on
both the stage and GC.
The team are often criticised for making racing boring, but that, I thought, was brilliant
to watch as it unfolded.
It was a welcome piece of good news for the team, who were dealt a real blow the previous
day, when Egan Bernal crashed in training and broke his collarbone.
He was due to lead the team at the Giro d’Italia, starting Saturday, where he would have started
as one of the favourites, but he’ll now have to watch it from home.
It’s a blow for the race as a whole, too, I think we were all looking forward to seeing
him light it up in the mountains.
Also missing out on the Giro through injury is Domestique Deluxe Jack Haig, who according
to his team, Mitchelton Scott, has been suffering from a knee injury.
He is back on his bike now though, so expect to see him at the Tour de France.
In one last bit of Ineos news, which has absolutely nothing to do with cycling, they, today, announced
the 1:59 challenge.
This is a project with Eliud Kipchoge to break the mythical 2 hour marathon barrier.
Having just run the 2nd fastest time ever to win the London marathon, it certainly seems
like the time is right for him, and wouldn’t that be something if he pulled it off.
The Women’s ASDA Tour de Yorkshire was this year run over 2 stages, exactly the same as
the men tackled an days 2 and 3, and as such they were greeted with the same foul weather,
which made things particularly attritious on the 2nd and final stage.
The first stage had finished in a bunch sprint, and there is definitely a new kid on the block
when it comes to women’s sprinting - 20 year old Lorena Wiebes only turned pro last
year, but Friday marked her third win of a season in which she has barely finished outside
the top 10.
Finishing 2nd to Kirsten Wild at Gent Wevelgem is no mean feat - Wiebes is a former Dutch
and European junior road race champion, and looks set to be a part of the continued Dutch
dominance in women’s cycling for years to come.
Day 2, though, was where the race exploded, and it was another Dutch woman at the other
end of her career that was lighting the fuse - the boss, the Cannibal, Marianne Vos.
She had to take matters into her own hands after Mavi Garcia of Movistar had set off
solo, attacking what was already a small group, with only Soraya Paladin able to stay with
her.
Those three would arrive in Scarborough together, but the win was only really ever going to
go one way.
Vos continues to cement herself as one of the best cyclists of all time - according
to Wikipedia, she has now amassed just over 400 career wins on the road, track, cyclocross
and mountain biking, and she’s still only 31.
Meanwhile at the Eschborn Frankfurt, we had a new winner for the first time in 5 years.
Alexander Kristoff has won the previous 4 editions of the race, but this time he was
pipped to the post.
And, rather aptly, it was by current German road race champion Pascal Ackermann of Bora
Hansgrohe.
A welcome confidence boost for him as he heads towards his first Grand Tour.
Ackermann was given the nod to be the team’s sprinter there this year, much to the disappointment
of Sam Bennett, who won three stages last year, and who has already won 6 races in 2019.
Meanwhile, down in the Vuelta Asturias there were a couple of riders quietly honing their
form for the Giro.
Mikel Landa and Richard Carapaz of Movistar gave everyone a demonstration in climbing
on the 2nd day, riding away from everyone and coming to the finish line almost 2 minutes
clear of everyone else.
Now, it wasn’t a race full of top class climbers, but still, that sent out quite the
message.
We haven’t been talking about Landa that much ahead of the Giro, but if he’s at 100%,
he’s going to be causing problems to everyone there in the mountains.
The overall went to Carapaz after Landa didn’t start the final day, reportedly suffering
from a painful toenail.
We’ll finish this week with the Gracia Overla, where Team Virtu Cycling had quite the week.
They won every single stage, three of those 6 came from Marta Bastianelli, who rode away
from everyone on the final day to win the stage by close to 4 and a half minutes, and
of course take the overall win too.
Bastianelli, a former world champion, has been nothing short of spectacular this year,
take a look at her Procyclingstats page, she’s not finished outside the top 10 once so far
this year.
There will only really be one race on our minds next week, and that is the Giro d’Italia.
I’m flying to Bologna tomorrow to cover the first part of the race.
We’ll have daily highlights and analysis to most of the world on our Facebook page,
and our big preview with everything that you need to know about the race is out on the
channel on Wednesday.
Can you guess who picked Egan Bernal?!
We’ve also got some special Giro merchandise now available over at the GCN store, a link
to which you should be able to see on the screen shortly.
Right, it’ll be Marty back with you this time next week, in the meantime, you can click
down here for Oli’s first look at the Dogma F12.