Welcome back to the GCN Racing News Show - this week the European road seasons gets into full
swing with the Volta a la Valenciana in Spain and the Etoile des Besseges in France, we
have a new individual pursuit world record, a UCI World Championships extravaganza, and
the amazing Rock Cobbler event from California.
We shall start, though, with proof that 6 hour rides on Zwift really do work.
The 5 day Volta Valenciana began last week with a 10km individual time trial.
The winner?
Edvald Boasson Hagen.
The Norwegian hit the headlines at the start of this year for his epic sessions on an indoor
cycling treadmill, but that dedication has clearly paid off.
And it’s the best form he’s had in a time trial for quite some time - according to Cillian
Kelly, that’s only the 2nd time trial win that he’s had in the last 9 years if you
exclude his national championships.
Greg Van Avermaet opened up his account for the CCC team with a win on day 3 - and didn’t
he do it in fine style.
After a tough finale, he kicked to the line with Trentin on his wheel, but the Italian
couldn’t even get level with him, let alone get past him.
Before that day, GvA had said he was ready for the opening classic, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad,
and the proof was in the pudding - watch out for him in 3 weeks time.
That stage, according the The Road Book on twitter, meant that Alejandro Valverde had
then finished in the top 50 of every race (and every stage of every race) for the 200th
time in a row - dating back to the #Giro 2016, which is quite remarkable.
He hasn’t had a win yet this year, though, and it didn’t come on the Queen stage either.
There, he was pipped to the line by Adam Yates, taking his first win in 9 months, but his
team, Mitchelton Scott’s 7th win of the year..
However, in coming 4th, Ion Izaguirre had done enough to take the race lead, and he
would hold that through the final day.
For Izaguirre, that’s his first win since a stage of the Tour in 2016, and the first
this year for Team Astana.
And you know what that means - rap montage!
Yeaaaah boooouy.
Dylan Groenewegen showed a characteristically impressive late burst of speed to win the
final stage ahead of Kristoff and Trentin, to get his 2019 win count off the ground.
In the women’s one day race, 23 year old Lotte Kopecky sprinted to victory ahead of
Alice Barnes - the race was notable as it’s one of the few that has a female race director
- a rarity in pro cycling.
Meanwhile in France it was Cofidis’s Christophe Laporte who took overall honours at the Etoile
des Besseges from Tobias Ludvigsson.
Laporte, best known as a sprinter, won the second stage into La Calmette, but he showed
his all round ability by going on to win the final day’s Time trial, by just point 48
of a second from Ludvigsson.
Down in South Africa, the two most high profile riders took the spoils at their national championships
- Ashleigh Moolman Pasio and Daryl Impey.
For Moolman Pasio, it was her 5th national road title, whilst for Impey, it was his 8th
National time trial title, and 7th in a row, whilst he also managed to defend his road
title on Sunday.
In other news, the UCI announced where the World Championships are to be held in 2023,
and it’s great news for Scotland, as they’re going to take place in Glasgow.
Further to that, though, there are a couple of other interesting changes to what we’ve
been used to over the past couple of decades.
Firstly, they will take place over two weeks in August.
They haven’t specified the exact dates, but that’s a significant move forward in
the calendar, and actually close to where they used to take place many years ago.
Secondly, you may have heard me say ‘two weeks’ - and that’s not because they’ve
found a load more road events to run, but instead because this will be the inaugural
combined UCI World Championships, and as such it will not only be road and time trials,
but also mountain biking, para cycling, trials, and ‘indoor cycling’, which we can presume
means track racing.
So, a true festival of cycling which will bring together the world’s best cyclists
in all disciplines, all fighting it out for the coveted rainbow jerseys, and I for one
think that’s a stonking idea.
Who will do the after party better, Mountain Bikers or roadies?
I think I know the answer.
One discipline which WON’T be held there is Cyclocross, and that seamless segway leads
me nicely on to the races that took place last week - the World’s may have come and
gone, but there were no less than three top level races last week.
And, it’s been a great week to be World Champion.
Mathieu Van Der Poel made it three wins from three, taking the Brico Cross in Maldegem
on Wednesday, the DVV Trophy on Saturday, and then the particularly muddy Superprestige
in Hoogstraten yesterday.
That’s 7 wins from 7 races in the Superprestige for Van Der Poel, 30 wins from 32 starts in
cyclocross this season, and well over 100 career victories, at the age of 24.
Sanne Cant, meanwhile, didn’t quite manage a clean sweep, but she did sweep up wins at
the Superprestige and DVV Trophy.
The one that got away for her was the Brico Cross, where a crash left her with too much
to do and she ended in 6th.
That race was won by Denise Betsema, who you could say was the revelation of this season
- that was her 11th win.
Sticking with off road - you may remember this time last year our report of the Rock
Cobbler - well it was back, on Saturday, for the 6th edition in Bakersfield California.
This is an event that really does have everything thrown into one single ride, 85 miles long
with 6 thousand feet of climbing, it includes a rest stop, my favourite, a tyre obstacle
course, which, I think it’s fair to say, was tackled very differently by different
competitors, there’s also the hike a bike section with gradients of 50%, and the house
ride through the home of promoter Sam Ames.
To say it’s unique is an understatement, but if all of that wasn’t fun enough, it
finishes at the Lengthwise Brewing Company where riders can enjoy a recovery pint or
two.
Like most events of this kind, the idea is to get round and have fun, but of course at
the front there is a competitive element, Philip Tinstman first across the line in the
men’s, a 3 up sprint after 5 and a half hours of racing.
3rd in that sprint was the legend that is Tinker Juarez, now 57 years of age.
In the women’s Echo Rowe got the better of Alison Tetrick in a time of just under
7 hours.
I’m not sure my 4 hours of riding per week would have been enough to get around the event,
but it’s certainly one to go on the bucket list.
On to a completely different discipline, we’d like to offer our congratulations to Finn
Fischer Black, who just won the junior men’s pursuit title at the New Zealand National
championships, in a quite incredible time of 3 minutes and 8 seconds.
Unfortunately UCI officials and doping control weren’t in place for that qualifying time,
but they were for the final, where he did 3 minutes and 9 seconds to set a new official
world record.
Well done Finn.
Finally this week, we’re going to take a quick look now at the UCI Rankings.
Alejandro Valverde continues to top the individual men’s rankings while a strong start to the
season by Elia Viviani sees him in 2nd place.
The women’s ranking remains unchanged, with Anna Van der Breggen at the top of table,
Annemiek Van Vleuten 2nd and Marianna Vos third.
Indicating the complete domination of the dutch in women’s cycling right now.
Looking at the Men’s Team Rankings, DECEUNINCK - QUICK - STEP is sitting top of the table
and is likely to bolster its position through the classics.
Sky is currently second and Bora Hansgrohe are third having leap frogged Movistar.
At the bottom of the table, the two lowest ranked world tour teams are currently CCC
in 17th place and Katusha Alpecin in 20th who are actually sitting below two non world
tour UCI teams, Direct Energie and Cofidis.
Remember, this year the two lowest ranked Men’s World Tour Teams will effectively
be relegated at the end of the year, which is going to make the fight for points even
tougher.
Greg Van Avermaet leads the newly formed one day rankings, although when informed, he knew
nothing about it.
For more information about how the rankings are calculated and how points are scored,
we have a handy video explaining it, I’ll link to that in just a moment.
That’s all for this week - next week I’ll be back with all the news from a star studded
Tour of Colombia, which starts today with the likes of Froome, Quintana, Bernal, Angel
Lopez and Uran amongst those who’ll battle it out for overall honours.
We’ll also have the Trofeo Laigueglia one day race in Italy, which we have for you live
on Facebook this coming Sunday with myself and Chris Opie on commentary, so I very much
hope you’ll join us then.
In the meantime, for Oli’s concise and clear explanation of the UCI points system, click
down here, and make sure you come back for tomorrow to watch cyclists doing push ups
on the GCN Show!