Mens and womens Ronde van Vlaanderen aka The Tour of Flanders
Val d’Ille Classic Vuelta al Pais Vasco
Route Adélie de Vitré Gran Premio Miguel Indurain
Volta Limburg Classic Circuit Cycliste Sarthe - Pays de la Loire
Oceania Mountain bike continental championships
As you can tell I haven’t got a future in linguistics, but it’s been a busy bank holiday
weekend, in the world of cycling.
Sunday marked the 100th year of *Ronde van Vlaanderen, a one day ‘Monument’ which
saw 206 riders leave the market square in Bruges, 91 of whom Did Not Finish.
Notably, triple winner Tom Boonen of OPQS was one of those, crashing out of the race
after only 19km, leaving pre race favourites Fabian Cancellara of RadioShack Leopard and
Peter Sagan of Cannondale to battle it out.
And battle it out they did, nobody could follow Cancellara and Sagan as they accelerated on
the Oude Kwaremont, and then Sagan couldn’t follow Cancellaras pace on the Paterberg.
Spartacus put on a dominant display over the last 13km, averaging an amazing 49.5kph
over that distance and eventually coming in 1m27 ahead of Sagan and third placed finisher
Jurgen Roelandts of Lotto Belisol.
Meanwhile, in the womens race, it was Olympic and World Champion Marianne Vos of Rabobank
Giant who took the win ahead of Van Dijk of Specialized and Johansson of Orica Greenedge.
Vos has only ridden four road races so far this season, winning three of them, but surprisingly,
it was her first win in this particular event, adding to an already illustrious Palmares.
And she’s still only 25.
Recently Radioshack Leopard gave us special access to profile Fabian Cancellara’s bike
of choice.
Interestingly, he’s one of the few Shimano supported riders NOT to use electronic gears
- check it out here:
…..this week: Cycling Plus have got their hands on Camagnolos special 80th anniversary
special edition groupset.
Based on super record, it tips the scales at 1862g.
In case you’re struggling with cycling terminology, check out our latest video - it might just
help
This News item didn’t take much consideration - Sunday 7th April.
Paris Roubaix, with more cobblestone sections than in previous years (52.6km) the 2013 route
also sees the return of the *Pont Gibus sector, which was recently been renamed in honour
of Gilbert Duclosse-Lasalle, a double winner of the race.
I predict...
carnage
Time for a new feature which we’ve named ‘tweak of the week’, This is a chance
for you lot to share your clever, weird or downright ridiculous personal bike modifications.
Regularly, we’ll feature the best one on our news show.
To give you an idea of what we’re talking about, here’s a look at some old favourites
from ex British Professional, Rob Hayles.
Whilst Fabian Cancellara cruised to victory in Flanders on Sunday, it was Peter Sagan’s
wandering hand which stirred the most debate on Twitter.
One of the most vocal was journalist Jane Aubrey of Cyclingnews, who after asking her
followers their opinion, came on with this:
Before following up with a full article on the Cyclingnews website.
A big question that was raised, is whether there is still a place for podium in this
day and age - what’s your opinion?
Let us know on the comments section below.
Sagan has since released a twitter AND video apology over the incident, whilst the podium
girl in question, Maja Leye, responded with this:
There was no time for foolish behaviour at the Vuelta Al Pais Vasco that started on Monday.
It’s a 6 day race favoured by the riders hoping for success at the Ardennes Classics,
and finishing just eight days before the first of those...
The Amstel Gold Race.
After a manic descent into Elgoibar, Stage 1 was taken by Orica Greenedge’s Simon Gerrans
from a select group which included Alberto Contador of Saxo Tinkoff and Richie Porte
of Sky Pro Cycling.
Tough times, tough climbs.
See what I did there?!
Check out our latest tips.
We are here to help!!
This week British Cycling announced their new target to get 1 million more women cycling
by 2020.
Already they claim to have encouraged 430,000 women to cycle regularly.
It’s a National Lottery-funded Breeze programme; informal rides, organised by women.
The programme added Olympians Lizzie Armitstead and Jessica Varnish to its list of ambassadors
earlier this month.
Thanks for watching this very special GCN News show.
Next week we are back to our normal schedule, so keep an eye out for News on Tuesday, which
will of course, be featuring the Hell of the North, Paris - Roubaix.