Hello and welcome back to the GCN news show, and this week we're starting down in
France. Chris Froome continues his impressive run of form this season
by taking the overall honours at the Criterium du Dauphine, 58 seconds
ahead of his friend and teammate Richie Porte. It's hard to believe that Chris Froome
hadn't won a stage race overall
before the Tour of Oman back in February of this year.
He's gone on to win the Tour of Romandie,
the Criterium International
and of course now the Criterium du Dauphine.
His only blemish the season
was back in March at Tierenno Adriatico, where he finished 'only second' behind
a certain Vincenzo Nibali.
This time last year questions were being asked of Bradley Wiggins as to whether he peaked
too early with his ambitions of winning the Tour de France and of course now
these exact same questions are being asked of Chris Froome. So what do you think?
Has he peaked too early or is he going to go one better than last year and win the
biggest race of them all? You can let us know your thoughts
in the comments section
down below.
That leads us on nicely to our tweet of the week, which this time
comes from Chris Froome himself. On Sunday evening
he posted up this picture, saying:
Whilst Alberto Contador and Chris Froome tested their legs in France,
a number of other big-name riders
were starting the Tour of Switzerland at he weekend. Amongst them were Peter Sagan, Ryder Hesjedal,
Dan Martin and the local favourite Fabian Cancellara who incidentally
will not be riding the Tour de France this year.
The opening 8.1km prologue was taken by Cameron Meyer of Orica-Greenedge
who beat his nearest rival by 10 seconds, and that was Niki Terpstra
of the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team. The following stage had to be re-routed yet
again due to snow and adverse weather conditions. Incredible when you think
that we're now well into the month of June. However they did include the last
climb of the day
and it was Bauke Mollema
of team Blanco who emerged victorious at the end of the stage. How long before we
saw an appearance from Peter Sagan? Well as you might expect, the answer is not very long
at all. He took the third stage after out-sprinting a select group of riders which
included Kreuziger of Saxo Bank, Rui Costa of Movistar and Mathias Frank
of Team BMC, the latter doing enough to earn himself the new leader's jersey.
There was some familiar names at the top of the leaderboard at the Emakumeen
Euskel Bira four-day women's stage race which finished on Sunday.
Emma Johansson capped a great weekend for the Orica team by taking the overall honours
with Elisa Longo Borghini in second place
and Evelyn Steven of Specialized rounding out the podium in third.
It was a dominant performance by the 29 year old Johansson who also took two of
the four stages.
The first round of the UCI downhill mountain bike World Cup
took place at the weekend up in Fort William in Scotland, and you could say it was quite a successful
outing for the Athertons. Gee took the men's race
and his sister Rachel took the women's - both riding for GT Factory Racing. Believe
it or not this, this is the fourth time that these siblings
have topped the podium together a World Cup race.
Well last week while we were down at the Criterium du Dauphine we had the opportunity
to get up close
and personal with Alberto Contador's Specialized Shiv time trial bike.
It uses Sram's mechanical Red groupset, but interestingly
Contador still chooses to use their 10-speed version.
It also appeared to have some slightly modified armrests.
And whilst we're on the subject of time trial bikes and the Criterium du Dauphine,
here's a video that we shot last week
with Caley Fretz of VeloNews, who talked all about the technology that teams use these days
in those time trial stages. The vast majority of drag
on any cyclist is going to be the body himself and stuff like changing a skin suit
can make a way bigger difference
than changing a bike. We've been busy again recently. We've just done a video in
conjunction with our friends at the Copa 90 YouTube channel
where our resident trials rider
Martyn Ashton
teaches them all about balance on the bike.
Let's suss out where you are with your balance,
then I think we can make some quite quick progress on just getting control over the
bike. If we can get you keeping the bike on these little balance bits over this nice scenic
view, we could have a YouTube hit on our hands! This could be the next biggest thing! Could be!
And we leave you this week with news that we now have some competition
for the forthcoming election for the UCI President or the International Cycling Union.
Step forward Bryan Cookson,
who since 1997 has been President of British Cycling, and is in fact
the current President of the road commission at the UCI as well. Cookson previously
stated
that he wasn't interested in the main role at the UCI, but last week he
formally announced his intentions
to stand up against current President Pat McQuaid.
The elections take place in September.
Cookson stated the cleaning up the sport's reputation will be at the top of his
list of priorities should he get elected.
Thanks again for joining us. We'll be back at the exact same time next week
bringing you all the news
From the world of cycling. Before we go, don't forget it's completely free to subscribe
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