Welcome to the GCN Racing News Show.
Coming up this week, with all the preparation races done and dusted, we’ll be discussing
who the favourites are to win the Tour de France.
We’ll also look back at the Tour de Suisse, Route d’Occitanie, the concluding stages
of the Baby Giro, the Tours of Slovenia and the Philippines, plus a former classics star
and Tour de France stage winner completes the famous Race Across America.
It was Team Ineos who were once again hitting the headlines at the Tour de Suisse, for good
and for bad.
Just days After Chris Froome’s untimely exit from the Dauphine, Geraint Thomas added
to their list of woes, crashing heavily on stage 4, and subsequently withdrawing from
the race.
Thankfully, for both Thomas and the team, his injuries were not as severe as feared
- he’d taken a knock to the head and would be monitored for the effects of concussion.
In true Thomas style, he simply said he’d now need to do some bigger training rides
this week.
It could be a worry for the Welshman, though, who will likely only have 23 days of racing
in his legs when he sets about defending his Tour de France title in less than two weeks
time.
That’s significantly fewer than most recent winners of the race, including himself last
year.
His best results since last year’s Tour have been third place at the Tour de Romandie,
and third place at a scarecrow competition:
His other worry could be his own teammate, 22 year old Egan Bernal.
It’s no secret that the Colombian is a climbing sensation, and he once again proved that last
week by taking arguably his biggest win to date, the overall classification at the Tour
de Suisse, backing up his Paris Nice win from March.
Now, admittedly, the field in Switzerland didn’t have the strength in depth of the
Dauphiné, but nevertheless, he looked every bit a Tour champion in the making.
He proved himself to be the best climber in the race on stage 6, backed that up with a
stage win the following day.
He defended himself admirably on the penultimate day’s time trial, and seemingly had no problem
in following Rohan Dennis’ attack on the final day of racing.
So, who will lead Ineos at the Tour?
Well, I’ll be discussing that, and the other Tour favourites, a little later.
Other notable performances at the Tour de Suisse included Elia Viviani, who bounced
back from a disappointing Giro back to back wins on stages 4 and 5, after his team, Deceuninck
Quickstep, gave a demonstration on how to do the ultimate lead out.
To be fair, Trek Segafredo had done an equally good job of their lead out on stage 3, but
unfortunately it was to the benefit of Peter Sagan, who’d somehow managed to bump John
Degenkolb off the wheel of his teammates, something the German was none too pleased
about, as you can imagine.
For Sagan, that was just his 3rd win of the year, but he looks to be hitting his stride
at just the right time.
Then there’s Rohan Dennis, who has reignited his hopes of becoming a Grand Tour GC threat.
He took his first win since becoming world time trial champion on the opening day, but
if anything, it was his climbing that was the most impressive - he wouldn’t be able
to shake Bernal, but he could certainly lay claim to being best of the rest, and would
finish the race in the runner up spot - it’ll be very interesting to see if he can back
that performance up at the Tour de France.
Jumbo Visma had reason to celebrate on stage 6, with the first WorldTour win for Antwan
Tolhoek, and so too did EF Education First on the final day.
So keen was Hugh Carthy to start his summer holidays, that he set off solo early on the
final stage, and was never to be seen again.
It was the kind of long range attack that we rarely see in the modern era, even less
so a successful one.
And what a thoroughly deserved win for a man who is a very popular character within the
bunch, and with the media in fact - he’s got a real no nonsense attitude to cycling
and life.
And in fact, Carthy is this week’s GCN Rider Of The Week.
Meanwhile, some of the other sprinters were honing their form at the ZLM Tour in the Netherlands,
a race which was making it’s return after a one year absence.
Dylan Groenewegen took his 8th and 9th wins of the season on the opening 2 road stages,
but in the other sprint battle, on the final day, Caleb Ewan got the better of him.
That was, in fact, the only blemish in the race for Jumbo Visma.
They’d taken a clean sweep of the podium in the opening prologue, with Jos Van Emden
taking the honours.
Then, on stage 3, Amund Jansen scored a solo win in front of team mate Mike Teunissen,
who in turn went into the race lead, a lead he would keep through to the end.
The Tour de Slovenie didn’t have any Tour de France GC hopefuls participating, but it
was the race that Mark Cavendish used to hone his form.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see him take part in the sprints on stages 1, 2 or
5, won by Ackermann, Mezgec and Cav’s teammate Nizzolo respectively.
Cavendish had just finished a heavy training block, but as he continues his return from
Epstein Barr virus, his lack of results must surely be of concern to he and his team, Dimension
Data, who have had little to celebrate so far this season.
The GC was decided on stage 3, Diego Ulissi coming home solo, going into the leader’s
jersey in the process, a lead he’d keep through to the end.
One man who came out of the Tour de Slovenie with something to say was Mitchelton Scott’s
Matteo Trentin - the European champion was clearly frustrated with proximity of the race
motorbikes to the bunch.
It’s something that does come up time and time again as a topic of conversation, but
little seems to be happening to resolve the problem.
We ourselves did a test a few years back to see the difference that just a single motorbike
can make to the effort needed to maintain a certain speed, and the results were even
more surprising than I had expected.
I’ll link to that video at the end of this one.
And the final preparation race for the Tour was the Route d’Occitanie, formerly the
Route du Sud. 2 of the 4 days there were won by Arnaud Demare, who has clearly come out
of the Giro in good form.
The GC picture, though, had already been formed on the very opening day.
Alejandro Valverde quashed speculation that he’s on the decline by getting the better
of another Giro participant, Eddie Dunbar of Team Ineos, before finishing runner up
to Dunbar’s teammate, Ivan Sosa, who took his first win of the season on stage 3.
That marks Valverde’s first general classification win of the year so far.
And so, with all the preparation done, we can really start to speculate as to who is
the favourite for the Tour de France.
Without Froome, and the fact that Tom Dumoulin has confirmed that he will NOT participate,
this could be the most open and exciting July we’ve seen in years.
For Team Ineos, the first decision will be who to protect.
As defending champion, Geraint Thomas would be the natural leader, but his season has
certainly not been plain sailing.
They also have that leader in waiting in the form of Bernal, and although it will be just
the 2nd grand tour of his career so far, it’s hard to imagine that he won’t be protected
through to the first mountains, perhaps with a free role in the same vain as Thomas last
year.
For the French, there is a HUGE opportunity.
It’s been 34 years since the last French winner of the race, but in Thibaut Pinot and
Romain Bardet, they have two genuine contenders.
They’ve both finished on the podium before, they’ve both built their season’s around
this race.
For Bardet, there is still work to be done - he was far from his best at the Dauphiné,
and the time trials are always going to be his Achilles heel.
Pinot, meanwhile, has had a very consistent season, and if he manages to keep his head
on, he’s a big threat.
Ironically, you’d say that this is the best opportunity ever for Richie Porte - ironic
in that he’s not been in the kind of form we’re used to seeing him in on the lead
up to the Tour - perhaps that will be to his benefit.
Movistar once again have a three pronged attack - Nairo Quintana will hope to complete his
collection of Grand Tours, Mikel Landa will hope to be set free to start his, whilst Alejandro
Valverde was looking as lean as I’ve ever seen him at the Route d’Occitanie, and clearly
in good form with it.
Going only on form, you’d have to put Jakob Fuglsang down as one of, if not THE favourite.
He’s really stepped it up another level this year - my worry would be the fact that
he’s never finished on the podium of a Grand Tour, so to win the Tour at the age of 34
would be out of the ordinary.
Steven Kruijswijk is someone that you can never count out, but both he and Adam Yates
were forced to withdraw from the Dauphiné on the very final day due to illness.
Yates is an interesting one too - he finished very close to the podium in 2016, he too has
built his season around a peak of form in July, and his team will no doubt get him off
to a good start in the team time trial.
EF Education First have a very strong team - Rigoberto Uran will be leading them with
Mike Woods and Tejay van Garderen for back up.
They’ve all been on good form of late, and between them, they could pose a real threat.
And so too could Rohan Dennis, potentially.
The Australian has been trying to transform himself into a Grand Tour contender for a
couple of years now, and the way he rode at the Tour de Suisse suggests he’s getting
close.
How on earth do you pick a favourite from those?
To be honest, I’m not sure you can - for me, there really is no clear favourite, but
if I had to nail my colours to the mast, I’d have to go with Egan Bernal.
Yes he’s young, yes he’s relatively inexperienced, but he is just soooo talented.
It’ll be really interesting to see how Ineos play it, and Bernal himself has said he’ll
go into the race to support Thomas, but I just think he’ll be like a caged rate, chomping
at the bit to be let off the leash.
We’d love to hear your thoughts - who is your favourite to win the Tour this year?
You can let us know in the comments section below.
We’ll be recording our Tour de France preview show at the end of this week, so it would
be interesting to get your consensus on the race favourites.
If you were with us last week you might remember that it was the youngsters from the British
national team who had dominated the opening days at the Giro Ciclista d’Italia, or the
Baby Giro as it’s affectionately known.
Well, the Brits had to make way to yet another generation of Colombian climbers.
The Italians also had their day with Fabio Mazzucco on stage 4, but as the race headed
to the mountains, team Colombia went on the offensive, likely sending the world tour team
managers scrabbling for their cheque books.
Twenty year old Andres Camilo Ardiles took back to back mountain top victories on the
Monte Amitata and Passo Maniva summits, performances which gave him the leaders jersey.
Juan Diego Alba gave the Colombians even more to shout about on stage six, which he won
from his team mate into Aprica.
Fred Wright notched another win for the brits with a solo victory into Levico Terme with
a phenomenal solo victory.
Winner of the final stage, Einer Augusto Rubio, also did enough to move himself up to second
overall, while team mate Ardila added his name to a very elite list of previous winners
at this race.
And in fact, with Alba in 3rd, it was a clean sweep of the podium for Colombian riders - a
frightening prospect for all current and future pros.
It’s on to the Asia Tour now for the 10th Edition of Le Tour de Filipinas, which was
the first UCI sanctioned road cycling race in the Philippines.
14 teams, 5 local and 9 international, competed in the 5 day race starting from the City of
Tagaytay heading south-west to finish at the City of Legazpi which covering a total distance
of 822.2km.
Jeroen Meijers of Taiyuan Miogee Cycling would establish a dominant lead in Stage 1 of the
race by not only finishing first with a 1:39 minute gap over the second placed rider, but
by also bagging the jerseys for best sprinter and best climber as well.
The chances for a Filipino rider to take the overall crown took a severe blow as local
favorites from the Philippine National Team El Joshua Carino and Ronald Oranza dropped
out of the race at the end of Stage 1.
Leaving remaining Filipino riders such as Marcelo Felipe of 7Eleven CLIQQ-AIR21 to carry
the hopes of the home nation.
In Stage 3 saw Samuel Hill from Team Nero Bianchi who broke away from the pack at the
last 10km and take his first UCI Victory.
The team doubled up on Stage 4 with Jesse Coyle using a late burst of speed to outstrip
Team Sapura Cycling’s Muhammad Shaiful Adlan Mohd Shukri on the line.
Meijers’ lead though would prove to be insurmountable as he finished Le Tour de Filipinas in first
place after that first day stage win.
Filipino riders Marcelo Felipe and Mark Galedo finished at 11th and 15th place respectively
in the Individual General Classification.
Great to see the sport continuing to reach new corners of the globe though - I know there
are a lot of passionate cyclists in the Philippines, so I’m sure it won’t be long until we
see some big talent shine through on the international stage.
In other news, it appears that Jumbo Visma could offer Kittel a potential lifeline back
into cycling.
The German sprinter is currently taking a break from the sport for personal reasons,
but could join up with his old coach at the Dutch squad.
It would be interesting to see if it would work with Dylan Groenewegen, though, who has
proven himself as one of, if not the fastest sprinter in the world over the past couple
of seasons.
Speaking of Jumbo Visma - congratulations to Primoz Roglic and his partner Lora on the
birth of their first baby.
I wonder if someone will knit a ski jumper for them.
Meanwhile, the stars of the women’s scene have been honing their form ahead of the Giro
Rosa, which starts a week on Friday.
Van Vleuten, Spratt AND BRAND have been previewing a few of the key mountain stages - I do love
the fact that two potential rivals, in Brand and Van Vleuten, are happy to recce and train
together this close to a big objective like the Giro!
Also - great to see Marianne Vos back in action after her nasty crash at the OVO Energy Women’s
Tour last week.
She took 2nd at the European Games road race behind her teammate Lorena Wiebes.
The UCI last week announced a whole host of changes in an effort to revitalise track cycling,
but it’s safe to say that not everybody is happy about it.
It was the UCI themselves who moved the track cycling programme to the winter some years
ago, but now, they’ve decided to move it back to the summer, but the changes don’t
stop there.
The current world cup will be cut in half from six events to three for the 2020/21 season,
when it will be renamed the Nations Cup and be held from July to September.
It will also be exclusively for national teams.
Part of the previous changes were that UCI trade teams could compete on the track and
the riders there scored points for their respective nations.
There will also be a new winter format soon to be unveiled and the World Championships
will move from March to October.
Over the past couple of years teams such as BEAT Cycling from the Netherlands and HUUB
Wattbike have been racing with great success and have been a breath of fresh air for the
sport.
HUUB Wattbike have been dominating the team pursuit and have launched the careers of the
likes of Charlie Tanfield who might not otherwise have caught the attention of national team
selectors…….
The guys from the Peoples Republic of Derbados had this response on twitter……clearly
and understandably frustrated by the news, whilst Theo Bos couldn’t understand the
benefit of banning commercial teams from track world cups.
And it does seem a real shame for those guys - remember another plucky Brit who made his
bike out of washing machine parts, took on the world only to upset the powers that be?
Graeme Obree is one of the biggest stories ever to come from track racing, and the HUUB
Wattbike guys have been hitting the headlines for upsetting the applecart in a similar way,
and it’s going to be a real shame if those opportunities are taken away from riders who
aren’t, for whatever reason, selected for their national team.
We shall end this week with the Race Across America.
There, former Paris Roubaix winner Magnus Backstedt and his team of amateur riders finished
as first team in the 8 person open category.
The big Swede was riding to raise money for military charities and had also spent time
training and coaching the rest of his team.
They crossed the line on Saturday after 3069.80 miles and 5 days 15 hours and 49 minutes of
riding.
The solo leader winner was Christoph Strasser in 8 days 6 hours and 16 minutes while Daniela
Genovesi and Isa Pulver also deserve a mention as solo winners in the solo women 50-59 and
under 50 age categories, big respect to everyone who took part.
Right, that’s all for this week.
Next week, it’s national championship week.
We’ll see which riders will take their national colours into the biggest races of the year
in both the time trials and road races.
In the meantime, if you’d like to see how much difference motos make in cycling click
down here: