Welcome back to the GCN Racing News Show - a busy week in the world of pro cycling, Italy
continues to build up to Il Lombardia with the Giro dell’Emilia and the GP Beghelli,
the sprinters have their showdown in the Munsterland Giro, but don’t have it their own way in
a revised Paris Tours - we’re asking if organisers have gone a step too far with the
course design this year.
Top level cyclo cross resumes in Europe with the Brico Cross series, whilst the final round
of the Red Hook Crit took place in Milan, with our very own James Lowsley Williams taking
part.
We shall begin this week with a discussion around Paris Tours - one of the oldest classics
in cycling.
It began in 1896, and throughout it’s history it has consistently re-invented itself.
This year, that was in the form of gravel roads, 9 sectors of the rough stuff through
vineyards - organisers ASO clearly jumping on the bandwagon, hoping to emulate the popularity
of Strade Bianche, a race which has become one of the season’s main attractions, despite
being just 12 editions young.
It certainly changed the race - Paris Tours has, in the last few decades, been a race
where sprinters have had their chance, where the question of breakaway or bunch often hung
in the balance until the final metres of the race.
This year, the sprinters had no chance, the peloton was decimated with groups littering
the road with still 50km’s remaining.
Making the most of the conditions was Soren Kragh Andersen - the Dane soloing to victory.
A consummate display of skill and strength, but he’d also taken advantage of a spat
between Niki Terpstra and Benoit Cosnefroy, the Dutchman seemingly more intent on seeing
Cosnefroy lose than winning himself, although he did win the sprint for second place, and
the staring competition to boot.
Before the race had even ended, though, it became clear that not everybody was overly
enamoured with the new route - Quickstep boss Patrick Lefevre tweeted that his team wouldn’t
be returning even if they won.
Oliver Naesen said that the gravel was too extreme, and more suited to a cyclocross event,
his opinion backed up by the face that there were so many punctures - Philippe Gilbert
was among those that were affected, along with Alex Dowsett, who’d formed part of
the early break, and was clearly and understandably frustrated with neutral service.
On the other hand, Sep Vanmarcke clearly enjoyed himself, comparing the race to Paris Roubaix,
whilst winner Kragh Andersen was also a fan of the route, although I guess that is to
be expected.
To be fair, in many ways, ASO have achieved what they set out to do - we’re talking
about it today after all, and we were talking about it in the run up, anticipating the race,
and I know many people were looking forward to seeing how it all played it.
But is it a bit of a freak show, an event that you’re curious to watch just to see
how good, bad or ugly it is?
Is it a good test of skill, or does luck become the deciding factor?
Let us know your thoughts, are you a fan of gravel, or, was this a step too far, a gimmick
which meant that, rather ironically, the race lost it’s identity?
Let us know in the comments section below *pause* and in the poll on the screen right
now.
The race marked the end of the road, and gravel, for Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel.
At 39, he will hang up his wheels having ridden the Tour de France 18 times, taking three
stages and spending two days in the yellow jersey.
Above all though, he can be hugely proud of the respect he has garnered from fans, and
from those within the sport, congratulations to Sylvain, who is this week’s GCN Rider
of The Week.
Congratulations too, to Jeremy Roy, who was also riding his last race at Paris Tours - he
spent his entire 15 year career in the same team, FDJ.
Retiring for completely different reasons is Tanguy Turgis.
Just 19 at the time, Turgis was the youngest rider at this year’s Paris Roubaix, where
he finished a very credible 42nd.
Recent tests have revealed a heart abnormality that will force him to call a premature end
to his promising career.
The announcement felt particularly poignant, when, just hours later, we heard the terrible
news that the young Belgian Jimmy Duquennoy had passed at home on Friday after a cardiac
arrest.
His team, WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic, understandably took the decision not to race Paris Tours
yesterday.
A minute’s silence was held in honour of Duquennoy, and it goes without saying that
we’d like to extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends and teammates.
One race that has remained true to it’s roots, albeit a much younger event, is the
Munsterland Giro.
This year’s event finished with a vastly reduced sprint after crosswinds saw some major
splits in the peloton.
Upsetting the favourites was Max Walscheid of Team Sunweb - a Giant win in more ways
than one - he got the better of John Degenkolb and Nils Politt on an all German podium.
Down in Italy, racing resumed on Saturday with the Giro dell’Emilia - a climbers classic
which finishes the 5th time up the brutal San Luca climb, 2km’s long with an average
gradient of over 10%.
Alessandro De Marchi spent a decent amount of those final laps out front on his own,
a move which looked futile but which ultimately paid off - the Italian held of Rigoberto Uran
and teammate Dylan Teuns to take the first one day win of his career.
Absent from the race was newly crowned world champion Alejandro Valverde, but he has revealed
his new jersey, and we will see that debuted at Tre Valle Varesini tomorrow, a race which
we have live on Facebook.
For the second year in succession the sprinters were foiled at the GP Beghelli - Bauke Mollema
tried, tried, and then tried again, and eventually it worked.
He went clear with 2km’s remaining and held on to take a solo win, ahead of Carlos Barbero
of Movistar, who led home what was left of the bunch.
Cyclocross returned to it’s spiritual home of Belgium at the weekend with two events
from the Brico Cross series, which we were very happy to bring you live over on our Facebook
page.
The first of those was in Meulebeke, which I have to say looked like a particularly fun
course - there, the dominant forces in the discipline, Sanne Cant and Mathieu Van Der
Poel, showed their class to take the win in their respective categories.
For Cant, it was a display of sheer determination, she attacked Ellen Van Loy close to the finish,
and managed to hold it in a drag race to the line.
Van Der Poel, meanwhile, went clear earlier on, although he only really secured the win
on the final lap, where he rode through the sandpit for the only time in the race.
8 seconds in arrears at the finish was World Champion Wout Van Aert.
The following day in Ronse, Marianne Vos made her return to competition and to winning ways,
coming home 10 seconds in front of Alice Arzuffi, whilst in the men’s, it was a repeat one
two from the previous day, meaning that Van Aert has now finished 2nd at his first four
races of the season.
This is a good opportunity to let you know what’s coming up on our Facebook page this
week - tomorrow, Tuesday, we have live coverage of Tre Valle Varesini down in Italy, and we’ll
also have highlights of Milano Torino, Gran Piemonte and Il Lombardia.
On Saturday, we have the next round of the Brico Cross series from Gieten, where I will
be joined by Beth Crumpton, and then on Sunday we have a double header - the Hammer Series
Hong Kong, and the first round of the Superprestige from Lokeren, which is available live, worldwide,
to everywhere except Belgium and the Netherlands.
We’ve put some links in the description below so that you can set reminders of what’s
coming up.
Meanwhile, a little further north in Italy, the final round of the Red Hook Crit took
place in Milan.
As I mentioned, Hank was there competing for the first time, and he did surprisingly well
- stay tuned for a full video here on GCN very soon.
The event sees riders flying around a tight city centre circuit, on fixed gears with no
brakes.
Filippo Fortin is making a bit of a name for himself in these races, he took a convincing
sprint win in the men’s event, made all the more remarkable by the fact that he’d
slipped well down the field at the start after struggling to clip in.
In the women’s event, Rachel Barbieri remains unbeaten.
That’s 3 starts and three wins now for the Italian.
Before we finish for today, there have been a couple of significant contracts signed in
the last week - firstly, Egan Bernal, one of the hottest climbing prospects we’ve
ever seen, has inked a 5 year deal with Team Sky, whilst Giant have, somewhat confusingly,
signed with BMC.
That team will be known as CCC Team, but Giant will also provide bikes to their development
squad, and their subsidiary Liv to the CCC Liv women’s team.
And finally, the UCI have announced that the World Championships in 2022 will take place
in Wollongong, on the East coast of Australia.
OK, that’s all for this week - I hope to have your company for our live races over
the next week.
*Pause* Before that, though, if you’d like to see whether or not Oli managed to complete
his Everesting attempt, click down here.
Think of the most you’ve ever suffered, and then multiply it by 10.