It’s the GCN Racing News Show!
The biggest stage races on the men’s and women’s calendars have started - we’ll
be looking back at the first two stages of the Tour and the first three stages of the
Giro Rosa.
Plus we see the return to competition of Chris Horner at the Sibiu Tour, we’ve also got
the Tour of Austria, and, for something different, the Climb to Kaiser, voted one of the top
10 rides in the USA.
It’s felt like a long build up this year to the Tour de France, with it starting a
week later, but it’s finally here.
2 stages, 2 sprints is what we’ve had so far, but it most certainly hasn’t been without
drama.
The biggest news from the first half of stage one was crash of Lawson Craddock - the EF
Education First rider crashed in the feedzone, getting a nasty gash above his eye and clearly
in pain, unable to put weight through his left shoulder.
And the crashes didn’t stop there, inside the final 15km’s Arnaud Demare went down,
then Egan Bernal, then Chris Froome, and finally Nairo Quintana hit a traffic island and broke
both wheels.
The result of all the incidents?
Froome, Porte and Adam Yates lost 51 seconds, Quintana and Bernal 1 minute 15 - not an ideal
start to a three week race for them, although their rivals won’t be too displeased.
Up front, though, it was business as usual for Quickstep floors.
The winning machine just cannot be stopped this year, and their leadout for Fernando
Gaviria was impeccable.
They dropped him off with 200m to go, and from that point, the result was never really
in doubt.
Sagan came off the wheel, but then had to go immediately back onto it as he couldn’t
match the power of Gaviria, who became only the 2nd Colombian to wear the Yellow Jersey
after Victor Hugo Pena 15 years ago.
That was Quicksteps 48th win of the year, and means that they’ve won 22 stages in
the last 5 Grand Tours - the next best team?
Sunweb and Bora Hansgrohe with 7 a piece.
So why all the crashes?
Well we often put it down to nerves, tension and adrenaline in the first week of the Tour,
but Dan Martin thinks he knows the answer - this is what he tweeted after the stage…..
Explains a lot.
Roundabout, Roundabout, Roundabout, #tourderoundabout, #tourdefrance
Complete with this map showing density of roundabouts per capita in Europe.
Maybe he’s got a point.
The man who came off worst, though, was Craddock, who fractured his scapula and received stitches
above his eye - here’s the message he sent us the following morning.
Stage 2 followed a similar formula, with an early 3 man move, only this time it quickly
whittled down to one.
Michael Gogl succumbed to a bee sting and then Dion Smith went back to the bunch after
winning the KOM point, leaving just Sylvain Chavanel up front alone.
But he was loving it, the Vendée is where his team, Direct Energie, are from, and he’s
a popular rider - this is his 18th Tour de France and that was his 350th stage.
We had our first two abandons on stage 2 - Tsgabu Grmay succumbed to stomach problems, whilst
Luis Leon Sanchez crashed, fracturing his elbow and four ribs - remarkably he did at
one point try to get back on his bike.
Up front, Chavanel was caught inside the last 10km’s, setting things up for a big bunch
sprint, but the group was much reduced after a crash inside the last 2km’s saw Fernando
Gaviria hit the deck, all hopes dashed for the Colombian on the day.
Arnaud Demare was the first to hit out on the slight rise to the finish line, but Sagan
was straight on and then around his wheel, and just about held off Sonny Colbrelli to
take the stage win, and with it his first yellow jersey since 2016.
He also now holds a 26 point lead already in the Green Jersey competition, as we head
into the Team Time Trial today.
Dan Martin also did some further research after stage 2, discovering that not only does
France have the most roundabouts per capita, but that the Vendee is the roundabout capital
of France!
Don’t forget that you can catch highlights of each and every stage of the Tour de France
over on our Facebook page, and you’ll also find daily highlights of the Giro Rosa there
too, a 10 day race which began on Friday with a 15km TTT.
Waowdeals pro cycling, the team of Marianne Vos, set the early benchmark, the first team
to go sub 19 minutes, but they were later surpassed by Wiggle High 5, Canyon SRAM, and
Cervelo Bigla.
But then, came Team Sunweb - finishing with the entire complement of 7 riders, they stormed
around the course in 18:24, an average speed of over 50kph.
And they wouldn’t be surpassed, despite the best efforts of Mitchelton Scott who came
within a second.
And so the first yellow jersey went to Ellen Van Dijk.
And it would be a successful start for the Dutch, who have had enormous success in the
race in recent years.
Stage 2 finished in a big bunch sprint, despite a valiant effort by Shayla Gutierrez and Alice
Maria Arfuzzi, who were caught within sight of the line.
Kirsten Wild took full advantage to take a convincing win, with the pink jersey passing
on to Lucinda Brand.
And it was a case of pass the pink parcel for Sunweb, 4th place for Leah Kirchmann on
day 3 was enough to propel her into the race lead, on a stage won by Jolien d’Hoore of
Mitchelton Scott.
That stage saw some significant splits, though, with Megan Guarnier and Dani Rowe amongst
those losing a minute.
The GC action will hot up on stage 5, the first summit finish, but then the Queen stage
comes on Saturday where they will tackle the mighty Zoncolan, that’s a must watch.
It’s been a successful start to the Tour of Austria for Team Bahrain Merida - on day
one, in his first outing as Slovenian national champion, Matej Mohoric soloing to victory,
5 seconds ahead of teammate Visconti, but it was Visconti who would show everybody a
clean pair of wheels on stage 2 - beating Michel Kreder to the line and taking the leader’s
jersey in the process.
Also on this week was the Sibiu Tour in Romania, which saw former Vuelta a Espane winner Chris
Horner taking part, at the ripe old age of 46.
However, this is a race for the youngsters - last year’s event was won by Egan Bernal,
just 20 at the time, and this year’s event was dominated once again by Androni, this
time his compatriot Ivan Ramira Sosa.
Teammate Davide Ballerini won the prologue, but Sosa set the basis for his overall victory
on the first stage, up the climb to Balea Lac.
Sosa is a remarkable talent, just like Bernal - we’ve seen that already this year with
his performances at the Tour of the Alpes and the Adriatico Ionica races, but his time
to win on the Balea Lac was further proof of his outstanding potential - almost 1m40
faster than Bernal from last year.
Now, you can’t take too much from that given different weather conditions and the way the
stage was raced, but nonetheless, that is impressive.
Stage 2 was cancelled due to some pretty extreme weather conditions, but Sosa came through
stages 3a and b unscathed to take his 3rd GC win on the trot, taking every leader’s
jersey except for best Romanian.
And so, Sosa is our rider of the week this week - you wonder how long it will be before
we get a Grand Tour where the entire podium is filled with Colombians, they really do
have an incredible depth of climbing talent right now.
We shall finish with something a little different, the Climb to Kaiser.
This is an annual event that takes place near Fresno in California, voted as one of the
top 10 most beautiful rides in the USA, but also as one of the toughest events.
There are three routes on offer, the ultimate being the 155 mile event, which incorporates
15000 feet of climb, most of which comes in the first half.
For many, the challenge is simply to finish, but for a few, this is a race.
Almost 200 started, but it had already whittled down to a group of 10 on the first climb,
and then just three on the first Hors Category climb - Jove Graham, Joe Booth and Tyler Pearce,
better known as the Vegan Cyclist.
However, the climb to Big Creek, which climbs 2500 feet in just 4 miles, was too much for
Graham and Booth, leaving Tyler Pearce alone in front.
It was a lonely day in the end for Pearce, who rode the last 90 miles on his own, completing
the course in 8 hours and 42 minutes.
What makes this event spectacular, though, as much as the epic climbing and distance,
is the stunning views - look at them, that looks like another bucket list ride right
there.
Would love to hear from you if you did the event this year or have done it in the past
- let us know what it’s like to ride in the comments section below.
OK, that’s all for this week - next week we’re back with the conclusion of the Giro
Rosa, plus all the action from the Tour de France.
Make sure you join us then.
If you’d like to get into the July groove then don’t forget that you can purchase
these special edition GCN T-shirts from shop.globalcyclingnetwork.com.
Now, if you’ve yet to check out our big Tour de France preview, we talk through all
the key stages right here, and there are some good ones coming up already this week.