(dramatic music and electronic beeps)
- Welcome back to the GCN Racing News Show.
This week, the best race that you've never heard of,
we take a look at the amazing Pittsburgh Dirty Dozen.
We've also got the latest Cyclo-cross
World Cup from Koksijde
and a scintillating attack from our very own Si Richardson
in the GCN's Zwiff Tuesday night race.
(blues music)
(record scratch)
No, not that clip!
That's for GCN's show tomorrow!
First up: it's the Pittsburgh Dirty Dozen.
Now, if you watched the GCN show around this time last year,
then you may well be aware of what this is all about,
but please allow me to explain again.
So the organizers found the 13 steepest
and toughest climbs in the area,
and they managed to squeeze them into a 50-mile ride.
The race is neutralized between the climbs,
and then you just go hell-for-leather up each one,
opening up the ultimate KOM competition
with points scored at the top of each and every climb.
This year was the 36th running of the event,
organized by local legend Danny Chew,
and it was as brutal as ever.
Made even more brutal, in fact,
by the atrocious weather conditions this year.
37% gradients in the dry, horrific.
37% gradients in the cold and wet,
next-level torture, I think you'll agree.
Those gradients appear
on the most notorious of those climbs,
Canton Avenue, and as you can see,
to add further pain, it's also cobbled.
At the front, it's a race,
but you don't have to go very far back to get to riders
who are just trying to get over the climbs
without putting their foot down or coming off.
What's even more annoying, as you can visibly see now,
is when you have to stop because of somebody else's mistake.
Than man wasn't very happy, was he?
Amazingly, a man called Jeremiah made it up all the climbs
in a heavy Healthy Bike, which is the local
bike share scheme, so I doff my cap to you, sir.
Thanks by the way to Bike Pittsburgh for that clip.
Now, this is definitely type two fun,
you enjoy it once you finish,
but there's something about this event
that really makes you want to go over and ride it myself
so hopefully one year I'll get myself over there.
Sunday saw the fifth round of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup
take place on the sand dunes of Koksijde in Belgium.
There, in the women's race, a strong group forged clear
in the first third of the race,
including the current world champion Sanne Cant,
along with Brammeier, Worst,
del Carmen Alvarado, and Compton.
However, it was Denise Betsema of Marlux-Bingoal
that caused the big surprise on the day.
Having started well down the grid,
the 25-year-old had a lot of work to do
just to get herself on terms.
But having done that, she then showed everybody
a clean pair of sandy wheels
to take her second win at the weekend
and her first ever victory in the UCI World Cup,
which more than qualifies her to be this week's
GCN Rider of the Week.
Brammeier took her best result of the season
with second place, just ahead of European champion Worst.
World Cup leader Marianne Vos, though,
had a bit of a shocker,
and could only manage 12th place on the day,
although that was enough
to keep the series lead for the moment.
In the men's race, copy script from last week.
(music pauses, total silence)
Sorry, I don't think I was supposed to read that bit out.
In the men's race, it was possibly
the most dominant performance yet
by European champion Mathieu van der Poel,
who already had a 16-second lead
by the end of just one lap of racing.
And the only people who ever saw him again
were the spectators on the side of the course.
Behind him, the world champion van Aert
recovered from a very poor start
to eventually finish second,
25 seconds behind van der Poel,
with World Cup leader Toon Aerts rounding out the podium
and retaining his serious lead.
The next round in the World Cup
will be in Namur two days before Christmas,
but before then, there's a whole load of live action
on our Facebook page, including the next round
of the Soudal Classics from Hasselt this weekend,
where we'll have Marty MacDonald and Meredith Miller
giving you commentary.
So make sure you head over there to check that out
and also set yourself a reminder.
Sticking with cyclo-cross
for just a few more moments though,
former world championer Zdenek Stybar has confirmed
that he will be participating
at the Superprestige in Diegem on the 30th of December.
That is yet another race, in fact,
that we have live on GCN, so make sure you don't miss that,
because it's going to be very interesting to see
how he fares against van der Poel.
Right, we're gonna move on to Zwift racing now,
so last Tuesday was the first
of the GCN race series on Zwift,
and it took place on the New York course.
Our very own Si Richardson and Hank Lowsley-Williams
took part, Si showing the young one how it's done
with a blistering 338 watts average power,
and an incredible attack in the closing kilometers.
Which was brought back, obviously.
It's what we call a television attack,
just to get a bit of attention,
and he eventually finished in 24th place.
I'm only joking, Si, that was a very good ride.
Winner on the day was Gavin Dempster of Team Draft,
who outsprinted teammate Adam Zimmerman.
Fourth place on that evening was Kim Little,
and incidentally, he will be joining Si
in the commentary box here at GCN for the final event
in just over one week's time.
Tomorrow night, though, if you're watching this on Monday,
is round two of three, and it's heading up out-do Zwift,
and as such, we've got our resident climbers
representing GCN, not me of course,
but Emma Pooley and Oscar Pujol.
I've got very high hopes for them, I have to admit,
so you can find it live on Zwift's YouTube channel.
Lotto Soudal, the Belgian World Tour squad
have made a new sign into their women's team,
not major news in itself,
but what makes this different is that the new signing,
Marie Dessart, is the world Gran Fondo champion
in the 35 to 39 age group.
So it's going to be, again, interesting to see
if she can make her mark
in the world of professional cycling.
Team UAE Emirates appear to be having a major shake-up
in their staff for 2019.
Last week they announced that the Australian duo of
Alan Piper and Niel Stiebens would be joining them
as sports directors next year.
Last week, we also told you that Irish champion
Conor Dunne had found a new home for next season
with the Israel Cycling Academy, though this week
it emerged through Cycling Weekly that his wages there
will be covered by Rick Delaney,
the ex-Aqua Blue Sport boss,
has come in for quite a bit of criticism recently,
so it's very good to see him stay true to his word
and pay out the contracts of riders
he had running through 2019.
And this story actually reminded me of my own story
from 2008, where I only found a team that January,
and because it was so late in the day,
there was basically no budget left to pay me any wages.
So Nick Collins, the boss of my former team,
DFL Cycling News, paid me out of his own pocket
for the entire year, as too did Barry Clarke,
who's been a long-time financial supporter
of the Bournemouth Arrow Cycling Club.
Neither one of them asked anything in return,
and without them, I'd never have got to ride
the biggest races in the world, and likely wouldn't be
sat here right now, so I've got a lot to thank them for.
They really are some huge unsung heroes
in our sport of cycling,
and so although Rick Delaney has come in for
a fair amount of criticism recently, it is great to see him
staying true to his word and covering the wages
of any riders who are contracted for 2019
and who couldn't find another paying team,
something which he didn't actually have to do.
Finally, this week, it was reported
in the French newspaper La Voix du Nord
that the infamous cobbles of Arenberg Forest
from Paris-Roubaix are to be made safer.
Now, there may be a few people who will be up-in-arms
at this prospect, but I for one am all for it,
and I'll tell you why.
They're not attempting to make them any easier,
only safer, through the removal of moss and grass
from between the cobblestones.
I have to tell you that when Matt and I hit that sector
at half the speed of the pros earlier on this year,
I was scared shit-- to death, basically.
It's been 16 years since we had a wet Paris-Roubaix,
during which time the conditions of the cobbles
has deteriorated quite significantly,
and I think it would literally be like an ice rink now,
if you mixed in some rain.
Maybe I'm just a wimp, in fact,
I probably am just a wimp, but I wouldn't want to see
a pro cycler's career come to an end
just because some cobbles haven't been cleaned.
Right then, that is almost it for this week's
Racing News Show, but before I go,
a quick reminder that you have only got until
midnight on Wednesday to take advantage
of some fantastic prizes over on the GCN shop,
including our metallic range of casual and cycling gear,
plus many other sale items.
There will be a link to the shop in just a few moments,
and it will also be in the description below this video.
I'll be back next week at the same time
with all the latest news
from the world of professional cycling.
In the meantime, though, we have had
some fantastic comments underneath
our epic ride video from Oman with Emma and Travolta,
so if you haven't seen that one already,
be sure to do so now.
You can find it just down here.