tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104396821069150692024-03-06T02:48:18.060-05:00Espoirs CentralThe Home for U23 CyclingAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.comBlogger502125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-52468021592365795482018-06-09T07:11:00.002-04:002018-06-09T07:11:47.367-04:00Giro d'Italia U23: Prologue and Stage 1After the race's re-birth last year, the Giro d'Italia U23, known to most as the Baby Giro, is off to an interesting start once again on the Romagna coast, bouncing between the city of Forli and seaside resort town of Riccione.<br />
<br />
Tiny hills pockmark the landscape while the Adriatic gleams on the sunny seaside resorts. It is a stunningly beautiful place that is one of the more underrated areas of Italy. This is Marco Pantani country. Il Pirata was born in Cesena before moving to Cesenatico on the Adriatic coast, where he learned to race a bike and culminated in a win in the 1992 Baby Giro. He even died in a hotel in Rimini, which is just down the road from Riccione.<br />
<br />
Pantani isn't the only champion to hail from this area of Romagna. Ercole Baldini was from Forli, where a museum dedicated his career that included a win in the 1958 Giro d'Italia and 1958 World Championship in Reims. Arnaldo Pambianco, who was one of the more one-off Giro d'Italia winners with him 1961 win over Jacques Anquetil, hailed from Bertinoro.<br />
<br />
The prologue in Forli wasn't the most dramatic event but there were a few moments of drama to spice up the 4.5 kilometer romp around the center of Forli.<br />
<br />
Alexander Konychev, the son of the legend Dmitri Konychev, got things off to a fast start before being passed by Hagens Berman Axeon's Jasper Philipsen. A timing error saw Drew Morey of Mitchelton Bike Exchange cast into the hot seat while riders tried and failed to unseat him. Edoardo Affini (SEG Racing), Will Barta (Hagens Berman-Axeon) and Matteo Sobrero (Dimension Data) all came close but were unable to take the lead.<br />
<br />
It wasn't until Robert Stannard (Mitchelton Bike Exchange) finished that the timing error was discovered and Morey, who had accidently swapped start times with Gab Cullaigh, lost 30 seconds on his time and ultimately the lead. It was Edoardo Affini who took the race lead and was the race's first Maglia Rosa.<br />
<br />
Barta was the best GC finisher but was closely followed by Stannard, Wilmar Paredes, Sean Bennett, Rasmus Iversen, Mark Donovan, Juan Pedro Lopez, Stefan De Bod, Stevie Williams, Aleksandr Vlasov and Gino Mäder, who all finished within 10 seconds.<br />
<br />
A few GC hopefuls lost some time including Samuele Battistella (+18 seconds), Georg Zimmerman (+19), Cristian Muñoz (+22), Einer Rubio (+27) and Luca Covili (+37).<br />
<br />
The first official stage of the Giro d'Italia U23 took off from Riccione, a seaside resort town that has featured in C-level sprints in the Settimana Coppi e Bartali. The stage got out to the normal start with a breakaway getting away on the flat part of the stage and Thymen Arensman of SEG Racing broke his collarbone, which gave him the honor of the first DNF of the race. Where things got interesting was when two climbs came up on the way back to Forli that split the race apart.<br />
<br />
Robert Stannard and Sean Bennett attacked on the 2nd climb, bridged to the remnants of the breakaway and got a gap that was threatening to take it to the finish. It wasn't until 2 kilometers to go that the breakaway was hoovered up and the mass sprint was on. In the final sprint, Gerben Thijssen (Lotto-Soundal U23) looked to be in prime position to take his first UCI victory of the year. That was before he raised his hands in victory and Giovanni Lonardi (Zalf-Euromobil) snuck under his arm to take the win.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
The darling of the early season Matteo Moschetti wasn't to be found in the sprint. Here is an amazing picture via Tuttobiciweb so show how Thijssen was pipped at the line <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GiroU23Enel?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GiroU23Enel</a> <a href="https://t.co/5hQKcSpWeY">pic.twitter.com/5hQKcSpWeY</a></div>
— Espoirs Central (@EspoirsCentral) <a href="https://twitter.com/EspoirsCentral/status/1005106106144784384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
It was Lonardi's 5th win of the year and 14th podium place of the season while Jasper Philipsen's 3rd place got him enough bonus seconds to take the maglia rosa.<br />
<br />
Most kept safe on the first stage but a few riders lost their GC hopes including Francesco Romano, Brandon Rivera and Juan Pedro Lopez. Callum Scotson ceded a lot of time after climbing well in some other races in the past, including at last year's Tour de l'Avenir.<br />
<br />
Stage 2 continues from Nonantola to Sestola with an uphill finish that will be the first decisive finish in the Giro d'Italia U23.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-44470992049402400942018-05-18T03:11:00.003-04:002018-05-18T03:11:12.293-04:00Ronde de l'Isard Intro and Stage 1<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Isard_des_pyrenees_bigorre_2003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="391" data-original-width="540" height="288" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Isard_des_pyrenees_bigorre_2003.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">l''Isard is here!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The season is full swing now and it is time for one of Espoirs Central's favorite races: the Ronde de l'Isard. Nestled in the Ariège department in the Pyrenees, l'Isard gets its name from the native Pyrenean chamois (l'Isard is the french for chamois), whose hide has been prized for its fine quality all over the world. The goat-antelope relative was nearly hunted to extinction in the 1940s but has come back very strong with numbers around 25,000 in the Pyrenees alone.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Castle_and_city_of_foix.jpg/640px-Castle_and_city_of_foix.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Castle_and_city_of_foix.jpg/640px-Castle_and_city_of_foix.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Foix, the capital of the Ariège department</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Along with being a stronghold for the Socialist Party, the Ariège department is one of the most untouched in France with forests, lakes and streams abound and it's a popular destination for skiing in the Pyrenees in the winter including ski stations such as Ax 3 Domaines and Plateau de Beille, both of which have been made popular by multiple appearances in the Tour de France. There are always some nice gems that this race touches which make it one of the most beautiful races on the calendar.<br />
<br />
Now onto the racing....<br />
<br />
Stage 1 took the race from Lorp to Eycheil. These two villages are only a stone's throw away from one another but a 126km loop was back loaded with a climb up the Col du Portet d'Aspet along with a final climb up to the finish in Eycheil.<br />
<br />
A breakaway of 11 got away early on in the first few kilometers, which is pretty big for a race like this and included riders like Daan Hoole (SEG), Gage Hecht (USA), Alex Braybrooke (AVC Aix en Provence) and Fabio Mazzucco (Trevigiani Phonix Hemus 1896).<br />
<br />
The gap got out to a maximum of 3'40" until Vendée U and Chambery, who both missed the move, took the chase over. There were a few crashes early on but nothing of major consequence happened until the Portet d'Aspet was climb. The climb was tackled from the Aspet side, which is normally the side that major races descend and was the descent where Fabio Casartelli crashed in the 1995 Tour de France and died from a blow to the head. Climbing this side should be used more often as it is the tougher of the two sides and the final 4.5 kilometers of the climb average 9.5% and hit ramps of 12%.<br />
<br />
Anyways...the race...the breakaway got up the Portet d'Aspet but the gap was now under a minute onto the descent back into Saint Girons and to the uphill finish at Eycheil. By the time they finished descending and got to the outskirts of Eycheil, the breakaway was just 6 riders and the gap around 40 seconds. When they got on the climb, the breakaway went boom-boom with only three riders holding onto a slight gap while Welshman Stephen Williams (SEG) attacked out of the peloton at the beginning of the climb, which elicited no response.<br />
<br />
With nearly 2 kilometers to go, Williams bridged up to the lead riders including his teammate Hoole, who stuck with him for 500 meters before pulling the pin. Williams was able to extend his advantage on the uphill slope and took his maiden UCI win in the U23 ranks ahead of a chasing group that was 8 seconds back, which was led in by Julian Mertens & Kobe Goossens (Lotto-Soudal U23) , Tiago Antunes (Aldro...which is led by Manolo Saiz...so there is that), Marlon Gaillard (Vendée U) and Aurelien Paret-Peintre (Chambery CF).<br />
<br />
This rest of the peloton came in dribs and drabs, which is expected with a short, sharp climb like this where a guy like Williams, who was 9th in Liege-Bastogne-Liege U23, can thrive. What will remain to be seen is how he and everyone else will perform on Goulier Neige, which is more of a true alpine climb. Okay, it is 3 a.m. and I need to be up in 5 hours.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-42777490431153743592018-05-08T02:12:00.000-04:002018-05-10T01:42:17.413-04:00Best U23 Riders for 2018 (through early May)<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
Top U23s through (the real) Labor Day</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Robert Stannard (Mitchelton-Scott)</b><br />
<br />
After having some nice successes as a first year last year, Stannard was looking like a future classics stud after going 2nd in the Trofeo PIVA, winning the Giro del Belvedere and then going 3rd in the Ronde van Vlaanderen (his teammate James Whelan took the win). Stannard continued through to the Tour de Bretagne, where he was able to take a brilliant stage win on the final stage in Dinan after missing out on stage 4. He should certainly be back for the Baby Giro, where he will likely be an outside favorite for the overall plus a heavy favorite for a stage win. </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Max Kanter (Sunweb Development)</b><br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
Max Kanter's year so far has been filled with near misses. He was 6th in the Trofej Umag including 4th in the bunch sprint. In the Kattekoers Nations Cup, Kanter and the peloton caught the breakaway as they were hitting the line. Kanter ended up 8th, which was the best from the peloton. </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
Okay so a little annoying since he is fast but just not quite had the luck yet. Then comes the Ronde van Vlaanderen, where Kanter won the bunch sprint...for 2nd. Australian James Whelan took the win solo while Kanter took the scraps.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
This continued on the next weekend at the ZLM Tour, where Kanter took 3rd in the bunch gallop behind Matteo Moschetti and Sasha Weemaes. This isn't mentioning his 5th and 2nd places on the opening stages of the Tour de Bretagne.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
Outside of his German U23 RR Championship last year, Kanter hasn't won a UCI race as a U23. He definitely has the talent to get through a tough day on the bike and then sprint for a win but one thing he needs to do is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaxSe6Iq0L8" target="_blank">JUST WIN BABY</a>. I mean...<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL0ROeZw7wA" target="_blank">how hard can it be?</a></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
...Just <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfl6Lu3xQW0&ab_channel=BBCComedyGreats" target="_blank">don't mention the war.</a></div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Sean Bennett (Hagens Berman Axeon)</b></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b><br /></b>
America always seems to be in search of the next big rider and grasping at anyone that shows themselves, especially in stage races. Every now and then, you see we have a rider that starts riding well in Europe in both stage races and one-day races, which usually gets people going. It can be said that Sean Bennett's year might be the most underrated of all of the riders included on this list.<br />
<br />
First off, he wasn't even on the juggernaut of US development cycling before the year started. After hopping from Hagens Berman amateur team to An Post Sean Kelly to Jelly Belly, Bennett was originally down for CCB-Sicleri, Bennett got the opportunity to ride for Hagens Berman-Axeon after the shooting star-esque career of Adrien Costa came to a halt. While he was on Axel Merckx's radar, Neilson Powless' recommendation after last year's Tour de l'Avenir sealed the deal.<br />
<br />
Riding for the USA National Team, Bennett started his year by going 8th in the Istrian Spring Trophy, which got Espoirs Central's attention. After riding the Driedaagse De Panne quite well support Jasper Philipsen, Bennett proceeded to go on a run of strong rides in the next two weeks including 7th in the Kattekoers Nations Cup (made the breakaway), 13th in Trofeo PIVA (front group in bunch sprint), 11th in the Giro del Belvedere (first chase group) and then 7th in the Ronde van Vlaanderen U23 (6th in bunch sprint for 2nd). Okay so a solid spring campaign and easily his best rides to date.<br />
<br />
Oh wait, time to fly back to the US for some stage races. In the Tour of the Gila, Bennett was climbing well and following his 10th place in the TT, he was setting himself up for a nice overall result. On the Gila Monster stage, which is hands down one of the hardest race days in the US every year, Bennett was 7th on the stage and ended up 8th overall, which was the best U23. Could it get better? Bennett is currently at Redlands with his Hagens Berman-Axeon and on the first stage with the hill top finish at Oak Glen, guess who was 3rd place behind his winning teammate Tom Revard? Bennett. He ended up hanging on for 3rd overall in Redlands, which underline<br />
<br />
From cobbles to mountain climbs, this guy can seemingly do a bit on just about any terrain. Obviously if you are a talent, you can show on nearly any course but it is certainly fun to watch.<br />
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Jasper Philipsen (Hagens Berman Axeon)</b></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b><br /></b>
It is very rare when a 2nd year U23 is ready for the professional ranks but Jasper Philipsen seems like one of those gems. Last year as a first year, we won Paris-Tours U23, won Triptyque Monts et Chateaux overall plus stages in the Tour Alsace, the Baby Giro and the Olympia's Tour. This isn't even taking into account his 2nd places in the ZLM Tour, Ronde van Vlaanderen U23 along with top 5 places all over the place.<br />
<br />
Philipsen could get some press since he is from Mol, which is also the hometown of Tom Boonen, but Philipsen isn't a carbon copy of Tommeke. A stronger time trialist than Boonen ever was plus he can sprint like a younger Tommeke. He doesn't have the physical presence of Boonen so how that will affect him as a classics specialist remains to be seen.<br />
<br />
This year, Philipsen is just trying to blow the Belgian public's expectations sky high. After a few races, Philipsen made the splits at the ironically titled Driedaagse De Panne one-day race and ended up in 3rd place behind Viviani and Ackermann. The dude just turned 20.<br />
<br />
Coming back to defend his Triptyque Monts et Chateaux title, Philipsen proceeded to take the first two stages in a row, both in bunch sprints. He then went to take 4th in the time trial and even had two teammates in the top 4 overall with Stan DeWulf sandwiched in there in 2nd overall. The final stage, which is probably one of the hardest in the races history, saw DeWulf trying anything to get some time on Hagens Berman Axeon and while he got the stage, Philipsen won the overall.<br />
<br />
While Philipsen was a bit off in the Ronde van Vlaanderen U23 and Liege-Bastogne-Liege U23, he seems to have come back to some form by winning this weekend's Trofee Maarten Wynants.<br />
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Matteo Moschetti (Polarctec-Kometa)</b></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b><br /></b>
My feelings on Moschetti have been well documented. I do not think he is the next messiah. Yes, he can sprint well but do I think he is the next coming of Cipollini? No. That being said, he does have a fast sprint. He is the winningest U23 on the calendar so far with 7 wins including the ZLM Tour Nations Cup along with two wins at the Tour de Normandie. He tailed off a little bit at the Tour de Bretagne with a couple of top 5s but ended up DNFing the final stage.<br />
<br />
I'm assuming he will take a bit of a break now until the Baby Giro most likely. He already has a two-year contract with Trek-Segafredo so anything he does for the rest of the year is bonus.<br />
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Tadej Pogacar (Ljubljana Gusto Xaurum)</b></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b><br /></b>
Pogacar burst onto the scene last year with some very impressive results as a first-year U23 in stage races, capped by his 5th place in the Tour of Slovenia, where was just 48 seconds behind Rafal Majka. Pogacar also does well in one-day events where he is usually in the main splits and can do really well but never seems to pull off a win.<br />
<br />
This year, Pogacar's profile is a bit higher but he is still getting pretty great results though without a breakthrough win including 3rd in the Istrian Spring Trophy, 2nd in Palio del Recioto along with top 15 finishes in the Ronde van Vlaanderen U23 and Giro del Belvedere.<br />
<br />
I don't want to say that he was disappointing in the Tour of Croatia because going 13th overall but after his 5th last year in Slovenia, there were some expecting a little bit more. Granted he lost a lot of time on the massive climb to Sveti Jure, which felt like it was never going to end watching it, but he did bounce back on the other mountain stage, where he got away with Niklas Eg to finish 5th.<br />
<br />
Definitely look for him at the Tour of Slovenia but the rest of his summer is up in the air. Slovenia is on the fence for a Tour de l'Avenir bid so if he does get a big there, he will certainly be going for GC but he will also like the hilly course in Innsbruck for the World U23 RR.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Brandon McNulty (Rally Cycling)</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Talk about a rider forging his own path. Barely any time with the national team over the past few years and eschewing the usual U23 races so far this year for some desert racing and time in the Iberian peninsula. McNulty, whose time trialing prowess has umpteen pro directors salivating, nearly pulled off an insane win in the Dubai Tour on the climb to Hatta Dam after being caught a mere 50 meters from the line when his legs gave out on the steep ramps. In a race that contained no time trial, his 14th overall has very impressive considering he was surrounded by World Tour talent and it was a boon to Rally Cycling's credibility.<br />
<br />
McNulty proceeded to go top 15 in races like GP Miguel Indurain and Klasika Primavera followed by 5th overall in the GP Beiras and then 17th overall in Castille y Leon, where teammate Colin Joyce was 4th overall. While he wasn't burning up the rankings with wins here and there, McNulty's different path could be a guide to some others that don't ride all of the traditional races.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Stan Dewulf (Lotto-Belisol U23)</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Kurt van de Wouwer might be a name that very few people outside of the know recognize but the former professional rider has probably eclipsed anything he did riding a bike with what he has done leading Lotto-Soudal U23 over the past few years. From Louis Vervaeke and Tiesj Benoot to Bjorg Lambrecht and now the new flavor is Stan Dewulf.<br />
<br />
After a quiet start to the season, Dewulf came out blazing in Monts et Chateaux when he won the final two stages on the trot and nearly stole the overall away from Philipsen. He was strong in both the Ronde van Vlaanderen U23 (main pack finish after some attacks) and Liege Bastogne Liege U23 (he got trapped with team tactics and had to settle for 6th).<br />
<br />
As I wrote in my Tour de Bretagne piece, DeWulf rode a very strong race for 2nd overall but he did make some tactical errors that would have tightened up the GC race even further and possibly take the win. After a slight break from racing, which was only ten days, Dewulf went up to Norway with his teammates where he bagged 3rd in the Ringerike GP.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Andrea Bagioli (Colpack) *Best First Year U23*</b><br />
<b><br /></b>The only first year U23 in the top ten, Bagioli hasn't raced a ton but when he has, it has been done very well. Bagioli made the breakaway in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege U23 and while he wasn't able to mark winner Joao Almeida but was able to hang on for 2nd place ahead of the hard charging back.<br />
<br />
The Colpack rider came back to the Toscana Terre di Ciclismo and put on a masterclass over the three days. Riding off the front or attacking the pack, Bagioli went 5th, 2nd and 1st over the three stage race to win the overall over Aleksandr Vlasov.<br />
<br />
The Italian will surely be back for the Baby Giro and probably a few different races between now and then.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Sacha Weemaes (EFC - L&R - Vulsteke)</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Probably the biggest surprise on this list (and maybe the most debatable) is the inclusion of Weemaes, the fast man from EFC. Hailing from Sint Niklaas, Weemaes was prolific as a younger rider with provincial (East Flanders) and Belgian Championships on the road and track. As a junior, Weemaes was mainly known for his sprinting prowess but always had a knack for time trialing.<br />
<br />
Last year, Weemaes took three wins, all of them in sprints, while he also got a good handful of top 10s in Belgium. After getting into the track team for Belgium, Weemaes was apart of the 2nd place team in the team pursuit in the European Championships and being a part of the squad that got them under the 4 minute barrier for the first time. Weemaes was down for the World Championships in Apeldoorn but went out due to illness.<br />
<br />
That track form seemed to come out on the road so far this year as Weemaes has been on absolute fire. He started off with a sprint win at the Handzame Classic, 2nd in the Zuid-Kempense Pijl, 4th in a stage in Triptyque Monts et Chateaux followed by 6th in the TT stage. Two days later, he won the provincial TT Championship. The next week, he won in Evergem and the finished 2nd in the ZLM Tour Nations Cup, where he thought he might have had form to beat Moschetti <a href="https://www.directvelo.com/actualite/65504/le-meilleur-debut-de-saison-de-sasha-weemaes" target="_blank">if he didn't misjudge the finale.</a><br />
<br />
Within three days of each other, Weemaes won the Belgian U23 TT along with the opening TT of the Essor Breton. Even with this success, Weemaes isn't going to be focusing on the time trial and really, his success comes down to his strength in bike handling and being able to put out a boatload of power over a short course.<br />
<br />
Sport Vlaanderen were impressed with his beginning of the season so much that he will be starting with the team on July 1st through 2020. </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Keep Watching</b>: Harm Vanhoucke, James Whelan, Tom Wirtgen, Julius van den Berg, Ziga Jerman, Marc Hirschi, Gab Cullaigh, Giovanni Lonardi, Stefan De Bod, Niklas Larsen<br />
<br />
<b>(Other) Best First Year U23 Rider: Filip Maciejuk (Leopard Cycling)</b></div>
<div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I just couldn't resist here. Maciejuk, who was 3rd in the Junior World ITT last year in Bergen, has gotten his season off to a good start in thanks to his time trial ability. The Pole was 6th in the Triptyque Monts et Chateaux thanks in part to his TT as well as some decent climbing abilities. While racing for the Polish National Team in the Carpathian Couriers Tour, Maciejuk was able to weather the storm before making the decisive breakaway on the final stage to take the overall win. He should have a pretty good calendar the rest of the year so he is definitely one to keep watching in the time trials and shorter stage races.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Anyways, I will try to keep this an updated as possible but keep an eye out with the Ronde de l'Isard preview along with results from a good amount of .2 races coming next week.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-63130253051986241952018-05-02T00:22:00.002-04:002018-05-02T00:22:06.800-04:00Tour de Bretagne Thoughts<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
The racing here at the Tour de Bretagne has been on par with some of the best racing in Europe that is not on the World Tour level. Attacks going every day and nobody on the GC is ever safe.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
Here are a few of my takes from Bretagne:</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Where were all of the Pro Continental teams?</b></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
If you were to look at the start list for this race, you saw a list that included the likes of Androni, Vital Concept, Fortuneo - Samsic, Wilier Triestina and Hagens Bermans Axeon. </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
In all honesty outside of the first couple of stages, Hagens Bermans Axeon was the best represented out of the bunch but they were mainly represented by Zeke Mostov (before he abandoned on the final stage) and Rui Oliveira, whose one bad stage took him out of the overall contention but snagged 5 top 10 stage placings.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
The other teams have no excuse really. Androni did get a stage win with Malucelli on stage 2 but otherwise, they were insignificant and only finished with 3 riders. Wilier only had 2 finish. Fortuneo ran into bad lunch when their sprinter Bram Welten crashed multiple times on the first day but still managed to get through the race. The rest of the team was absent for the majority of the race. Vital Concept got into a lot of attacks so they get some points there but Tanguy Turgis was their best rider overall as he managed 10th in the final standings and he is only 19 years old.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
Overall it seems like these teams brought their B/C teams and got their head kicked (except for Hagens Berman Axeon, who was pretty decemt). Step it up! This race isn't for the faint of heart.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Stan Dewulf</b></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
When Stan DeWulf is on good form, he is not afraid to show it. The Lotto-Soudal U23 rider was all over the place this past week with attacks on nearly every stage. This aggression saw him nearly pull off the overall win but was pulled back by Fabien Schmidt, who took the sprint ahead of him to take valuable bonus seconds. </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
DeWulf has had a brilliant spring but there were a couple of opportunities here where he could have taken time to help his overall cause. On stage 2, he missed a split in the peloton and lost 9 seconds, which would have had him one second ahead of Schmidt in the overall coming into the final stage and made the final sprint for 2nd and 3rd places even more important. What if DeWulf beat Edoardo Affini for the sprint for 3rd place on stage 3 to get a few more seconds? It is little things like this that could propel him to overall victory but overall, he rode a very good race.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Cees Bol & Julius van den Berg</b></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
2016 saw Cees Bol win the Olympia's Tour overall and looked poised for a big 2017. After suffering a bad concussion early on in 2017, Bol's season was wrecked and only got in a handful of races before the end of the year. This year has been the complete opposite as Bol continues to build and build with every race. After losing the Arno Wallard Memorial by the width of a tire to Joshua Huppertz, Cees sprinted to 6th on the two opening stages and then bided his time until the 5th stage, where he got into a 5-man move including future race winner Fabien Schmidt. Bol attacked with 4 km to go and solo'ed to the line for his first UCI win since the Olympia's Tour in 2016. </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
Bol even got into a move late in the final stage and was solo at one point but ran out of gas with about 10 km to go and ended up 7th on the final day, which moved him up to 4th overall. Bol isn't a U23 anymore so this is a vital year for him to get results and so far, he is proving his worth in spades.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
Speaking of van den Berg, the Dutchman took a stage win on Stage 6 that was nearly identical to his stage win in the Tour de Normandie. After being in the breakaway the entire day, van den Berg make a final move with Johan Le Bon and eventual overall winner Schmidt. Van den Berg played a wily card and made nice with the others to make it to the line however he was the first to jump for the line and the tall Dutchman was able to make it a SEG Racing 2-peat.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Robert Stannard</b></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
After some impressive results in the beginning of the season including a win in the Giro del Belvedere among other podium places. Stannard got close on the 4th stage with 4th place and after laying low, he followed the key moves on the final stage before attacking the lead group including DeWulf and Schmidt on the penultimate climb up to the finish in Dinan. After soloing for over a lap, Stannard was able to hold on through to take another impressive victory. </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
With the Baby Giro coming up later on in June, Stannard is looking like a favorite to bag a stage win or two.</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>TV Coverage</b></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
Some other races could take a note or two from the Tour de Bretagne for their very good coverage on their Twitter feed and then live coverage of the final two stages, which showed how nuanced the racing is and how things change on a moment's notice. </div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
Stay tuned for the best U23s of the first part of the season...</div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-5013699010024405592018-04-19T22:43:00.001-04:002018-04-19T22:43:41.972-04:00Liege Bastogne Liege U23 & ZLM Tour Roundup<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
Ciao Come stai?</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
Been a while hasn't it? I've been trying to write something for the past few days but it has been so long that I don't really know where to start. This weekend seems like a good</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
place to begin this journey where I left it off a little over a year ago. Komm mit mir alle meine Entchen.</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
Actually before I get into this, I want to talk about the clusterfuck that is the U23 calendar. While they are about the most polar opposite when it comes to courses, there is no reason why the ZLM Tour which is a UCI Nations Cup needs to be run on the same day as Liege Bastonge Liege U23. The issue being is that there is no unified U23/Development calendar so you end up with the ZLM Tour, which is a Nations Cup that brings in national teams and LBL U23, which is a standard 1.2U race that can invite whatever team they like. So if you look at the pack fill in the ZLM Tour, you see some riders like Tadej Pogacar and Gino Mäder, both of whom would be very good in a hilly race like LBL U23 but because their teams can’t sniff an invite, they get to ride in Zeeland. </div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
On this whole topic, why couldn't there be a full Ardennes week for U23 riders? Really, you could work the ZLM Tour and Amstel Gold into one weekend and then the infrastructure is in place for Flèche Wallone, which would be the most boring U23 of the race (kidding…sort of). The week could end off with LBL U23, which if it ended up like this edition would leave people like me a bit confused about what to make of the results but in any case would make a nice aperitif to the men’s race.</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Liege-Bastogne-Liege U23</b></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<div class="">
Without going through the race blow by blow, the LBL U23 this year was shaped by the large breakaway that got away fairly early on in the race that had riders from all of the big teams including multiples from Hagens Berman Axeon, CC Etupes and Lotto Soudal U23 plus representatives from SEG Racing, Subweb Development, Colpack and Wiggins among others.</div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
The chasing in the pack didn't have a concerted effort with only Riwal and AGO-Aqua Service being the only ones making a dent into the breakaways advantage.</div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
Proceedings in the finale were kicked off by Alexys Brunel (CC Etupes), who attacked the breakaway just before the Cote des Forges with Brunelian fury and carved out a decent gap on them. </div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
Brunel, who was French U23 TT Champion last year and is a former European Junior TT Champ, worked his gap to the breakaway up to nearly 1 minute before they slowly started to reel him back on the Saint-Nicolas climb. Coming into the final 10km, the peloton was still 45 seconds back while Joao Almeida jumped to connect with Brunel and brought young Andrea Bagioli with him.</div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
Almeida was suel en tete not long after this happened with Brunel and Bagioli not far behind while the breakaway stragglers were still in between them and peloton. The issue being here was that riders from Lotto, SEG and Sunweb were still in the breakaway group so the likes of Marc Hirschi, Stan Dewulf and Harm Vanhoucke couldn't make any moves.</div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
In the end, Almeida's gap kept growing and was able to take a beautiful solo win in the Liege velodrome while the first year U23 Bagioli outsprinted the diesel Brunel for 2nd place. The disappointed peloton absorbed the remnants of the breakaway and came sprinting across for 4th place led in by Ide Schelling along with the two big favorites in Marc Hirschi and Stan Dewulf.</div>
<div class="">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="">
The big losers from the race had to be Lotto-Soudal, who had 5 riders in the top 13 but nothing on the podium do to not wanting to chase down their teammates in the breakaway even though their best options were in Dewulf, Vanhoucke and Julian Mertens. Still, they obviously have talent to spare and putting 5 in the top 13 is still an impressive feat. Onto the next one for them.</div>
</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
Not to take anything away from João Almeida’s win but I would still take this win as a grain of salt. Would he have been able to do this if Lotto-Soudal decided to chase the breakaway down early and play their strong hand in Dewulf? This is a special race because of the large breakaway and even representation of teams so while Hagens Berman Axeon can celebrate, Lotto will learn from their mistake.</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b class="">ZLM Tour</b></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
I do not know what it is but for whatever reason, I’m not sold on Matteo Moschetti. While he has an in at Trek-Segafredo where he is signed up for next year, before this year he didn’t really do a ton to impress. Yes, he is the reigning U23 Italian RR Champion but for every Gianni Moscon winning that race, you get a Andrea Zordan. I wasn’t expecting much from him at the ZLM Tour, which is historically known to be a windy affair that has some great echelons and a reduced bunch sprint. To be honest, I predicted him to be 47th.</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
Well he wasn’t 47th. He won. In a big bunch sprint, the biggest sprint that has made it to the line here in years so with the lack of wind, there is still some unknowns left in his game. Can he actually make it through echelons? Can he get over climbs? He got his doors blown off at the U23 Ronde van Vlaanderen but he did pretty well at the Tour of Normandie, at least in the stages that were for the pure sprinters.</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
Yes, he is very fast. But the out and out fastest? He beat Jakub Mareczko in one sprint this year but otherwise, there isn’t many huge names.</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br class="" /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
The race was mainly shaped by a three man breakaway in Jon Bozic (Slovenia), Guillaume Millasseau (France) and Stefan Bisseger (Switzerland). They got away just before the halfway point of the race and made a serious attempt to take their breakaway to the line. Millasseau was 2nd in the Paris-Roubaix Espoirs last year while Bisseger is a record holder in the 3km pursuit on the junior level. The trio took a gap into the final kilometer before being swallowed up by the Italian-driven peloton.</div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
<div dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal;">
Moschetti started his sprint early and was able to boss everyone else, taking the win against Sacha Weemans (who is having a really good spring) and the ever present Max Kanter, who was also 2nd in the Ronde van Vlaanderen U23 (and also my pick to win the race). Pierre Barbier continued a good year in 4th while Ziga Jerman is backing up his Gent-Wevelgem win with some good sprinting results like his 5th here.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The only disappointment with this race was the lack of soul-crushing wind that usually breaks it up here but otherwise, it was a good showing for the fast men. Perhaps there will be a time when I stop ragging on Matteo Moschetti but after being disappointed so many times in recent years by Italian sprinters like Andrea Guardini, Andrea Zordan, Nicolas Marini and to a lesser extent Jakub Mareczko, who is clearly fast but cannot translate that to the World Tour, I am just very hesitant to heap the praise on him, especially as he has more or less came on in the last year to 7 wins in the first half of his final U23 season.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I will try to do some write ups to catch up with some of the season that has already happened while this weekend is a bit of a relief for most U23s though some will be racing in Croatia, Alps, the Visegrad races plus the GP Industria & Commercio in San Vendemiano.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
See you soon</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-83153545783772868032017-01-13T00:35:00.001-05:002017-01-13T00:35:06.292-05:00Devo à la française: And now, for everyone else... Pt. 1After going through the revamped Chambery CF line-up, it is time to get a taste of the up and coming talent in the French amateur ranks. With three divisions of the Coupe de France, it is nigh on impossible to give full previews of each team so let's just focus on the U23 talent through the first division plus some select picks after that. After you...<br />
<br />
<b>AVC Ax-en-Provence</b><br />
<br />
The Energizer bunnies (one of their main sponsors) of the PACA region are back once again with a mix of younger and older riders, many of whom are focused on climbing including non-U23s like Yoann Barbas and Alexis Dulin. A club since 1925, the Elite team has a U23s to keep an eye on in Brit Alex Braybrooke. The reserve squad also includes an interesting talent in Masahiro Ishigami, a Japanese rider who had a rough introduction into the U23 ranks but showed promise as a junior.<br />
<br />
<b>CC Etupes</b><br />
<br />
One of the perennial contenders in the Coupe de France, the team from the far east (of France) currently has 12 former riders that are now professional (World Tour and Pro Continental) including two from last year's team, Leo Vincent (FDJ) and Fabien Doubey (Wanty Groupe-Gobert). A big signing for them was junior standout Alexys Brunel, who was the European Junior TT Champion along with winning the Chrono des Nations. Brunel can also climb fairly well and he used his time trial abilities to solo to a win in the Gent-Wevelgem Juniors.<br />
<br />
After a couple of seasons with Division 2 squads, UK-born Irishman Mark Downey moves up to Division 1, where he will take his all-around talents to the road, where he seems to always do well in the GC of French national races but is still searching for a breakout result. He is a talent on the velodrome where he has a penchant for the points race, where he was 2nd in the European U23 Championship and won the latest World Cup in Apeldoorn.<br />
<br />
Past these two, Paul Sauvage is coming over from CR4C Roanne and while his 2016 was a bit off from his strong 2015. He does well on flat to hilly courses and should get plenty of opportunities with Etupes.<br />
<br />
<b>CC Nogent-sur-Oise</b><br />
<br />
This team is not as strong as they have been in previous years after losing riders like Corentin Ermenault, Marc Fournier, Benoît Daeninck and Turgis brothers over the last few seasons. They don't really have any standout U23s talents but do keep an eye on Julien Van Haverbeke, who had a few good results in sprints.<br />
<br />
<b>CC Villeneuve Saint-Germain</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Located up in Hauts-de-France, CCVSG has a high percentage of U23s (14 to be exact) on their 18 man roster but they are going to have an uphill road to turn around their next to last finish in the DN1 standings last season as they lack experience. One of the notable signings was Finnish Niklas Henttala, the brother of Team Type 1 rider Joonas. He did pretty good in the Ukranian UCI races so he could provided the team some much needed results.<br />
<br />
<b>CR4C Roanne</b><br />
<br />
While Roanne might be most famous for Salmon & Sorrel from La Maison Troisgrois, gastronomy isn't the only thing happening there. The team didn't have a ton of turnover from last year, only losing three and gaining three back. One of their better non-U23 riders is Lucas Papillon, who has ridden well in both the Ronde de l'Isard and Tour du Pays de Savoie the last couple of years.<br />
<br />
Simon Guglielmi, Louis Pijourlet and Julien Roux are probably the best U23s the teams have. Guglielmi had a very good last year with only one win but 27 top ten finishes in mainly national races. Pijourlet is a good time trialist and has been rotating with the French national track squad, where he got a bronze in the team pursuit at the Apeldoorn World Cup. Roux is a developing climber who should like some of the hillier stage races like l'Isard and Savoie.<br />
<br />
The other U23 to watch is Valentine Deverchere, who won three times in the early summer and finished high on GC in a few races, including the Tour du Pays Roannais.<br />
<br />
<b>Creuse Oxygène Guéret</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
After finishing 2nd in the DN2 classification, Creuse Oxygène is making the move to the DN1field in what will be only its 5th season in the entire Coupe de France. They are going to rely on Maxime Le Montagner, Kevin Fouache and Nicolas David for results.<br />
<br />
In terms of U23s, Lucas Grall had some good sprint results at l'Abitibi last year. Theo Menant is a former French Junior RR champion who had a pretty good ride at Roubaix with 26th that he will be looking to improve.<br />
<br />
<b>GSC Blagnac VS 31</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
The main team from the southwest, GSC Blagnac VS 31 lost two important riders in Romain Campistrous and Alexis Guerin but they are brining on a good host of riders incluing Brit Stefan Bennett, Boris Zimine and Yoan Verardo<br />
<br />
The notable U23 is Maxence Moncassin, who is the son of former pro Frederic Moncassin, who is joining the team as a DS this year.<br />
<br />
This team isn't looking quite as strong as they did in the past few years so they will be looking to get some nice surprise results in big races.<br />
<br />
<b>Guidon Chalettois</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
This team is lucky they are still in the DN1 after a year where they scored only 40 points (the winners Chambery CF scored nearly 1000) but that doesn't mean that they are completely dead in the water. They have some "older" riders like Ronan Racault and Stephane Duguenet that can produce while they signed two Moroccan riders in Anass Ait El Abdia and Medhi El Chokri.<br />
<br />
He isn't a U23 anymore but Ait El Abdia finished 22nd in the Elite Men's World Championships in Doha, which is probably the definition of punching above your weight. If he concentrates on the DN1 events, he could be a big part of the team moving up the table. El Chokri is a great non-traditional U23 talent. The Moroccan finished 5th on the opening stage of the Zavod Miru U23 Nations Cup as well as finishing the Tour de Bretagne, Tour Alsace, Tour de l'Avenir as well as 2nd in the Tour de Cote d'Ivoire.<br />
<br />
I have a feeling this team won't be repeating their last place from this year.<br />
<br />
<b>Occitane CF</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
The other team from the Pyrenees is still a bit of a work in progress and will be looking to get out of the basement of the DN1. On the non-U23 front, new signing Bruno Armirail will be looking to find his time trial form that saw him win the French U23 title a few years ago. On the U23 front, the have the Cabanel twins, Thomas and Vincent, who had some decent results last year so here is hoping.<br />
<br />
<b>Océane Top 16</b><br />
<br />
While they are located in the Nouvelle-Aquataine region, I am saying that they are more west central France than the southwest. Past that picadillo, this squad is losing a big name in Mathias Le Turnier, who is moving on to Cofidis, but they do keep Yoann Paillot, the time trial phenom who should most likely be on a professional team, and Clement Saint-Martin, who is good on a variety of terrain. They aren't adding a bunch of talent though non-U23 Jayson Rousseau looks interesting with a lot of top 10 finishes.<br />
<br />
Stay tuned for Part 2 from the rest of the French Division 1 classification<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-89388485906952085812017-01-06T14:14:00.002-05:002017-01-06T14:15:12.749-05:00NZ Championship: Gough takes U23 TT; Gaze finishes 4thAfter concentrating on the Rio Olympics for the past few seasons, Regan Gough is finally able to put some effort into the road and he came good. Riding for the now youth-focused AnPost-Chain Reaction squad this year, Gough put in a sizzling ride on the Napier course to beat first year U23 James Fouche, who was twice 2nd in the Junior National time trial the last couple of seasons. Jake Marryatt continues his improvement in the Nationals by coming 3rd, just 22 seconds in arrears, after finishing 6th and 7th the past two seasons, respectively.<br />
<br /><br />
Gough has spent a considerable amount of effort on the velodrome but with the Olympics 3 years away once again, he has time to shift his eyes to the road. He is the current National Criterium Champion and he actually did well in the AnPost Ras last year finishing 26th after spending most of the year training for the Team Pursuit. It will be interesting to see how he does on a bigger European schedule with AnPost.<br />
<br /><br />
The big surprise from this race was U23 MTB XC World Champion Sam Gaze finishing 4th. He doesn't race on the road much these days but when he does, he can turn heads. Its his first proper time trial as a U23 and to finish 4th, it was pretty darn good but he will actually be an outside threat for the U23 RR, where his smaller body and big power could see a surprise result.<br />
<br /><br />
The U23 RR takes place on Sunday in Napier.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-58263477885515352642017-01-05T12:35:00.000-05:002017-01-05T12:35:09.055-05:00Australian TT NationalsCallum Scotson won the Australian U23 TT Championship in the same way that he won it last year. He stomped the competition on the rolling Buninyong course with Robert Stannard (Delta Rotterdam) being the closest rider to him at 58". Scotson is the first rider to go back to back in the Australian U23 TT since Mark Jamieson did the double in 2004 and 2005. <br />
<br /><br />
It really was no surprise to see Scotson take the win as he was in a league of his own but to see Stannard get 2nd is an accomplishment as it is his first U23 race and first in an Australian Championship, having been born and bred in New Zealand.<br />
<br /><br />
The 3rd place for Michael Storer is a good sign as he will need to continue his strong time trial performances to compete in longer tours including the Tour de l'Avenir.<br />
<br /><br />
The U23 men's road race takes place on Satuday, January 7th.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-50443570962636503332016-12-30T02:46:00.002-05:002017-01-06T23:55:15.133-05:00Devo à la française: Chambery CFEven before we hit the global reset button, Chambery Cyclisme Formation's 2017 season got off to a horrible start following the tragic death of Etienne Fabre, who fell to his death while hiking in the mountains. While carrying his memory in their hearts and legs, Chambery CF will be trying to match their success in 2016 in which they won the French amateur Division 1 overall by 53 points over VC Pays de Loudeac.<br />
<br />
It was the first time that the Savoy-based club won the overall title in the highest amateur class in France and once again, they graduated a rider, in this case Nans Peters, to their parent World Tour team, Ag2r-La Mondiale. They are already guaranteed that for 2017 as well as Benoit Cosnefroy is making a mid-season move to Ag2r-LaMondiale in August on a full contract. Even with the losses of riders like Peters, Martin Salmon (Sunweb-Giant Development) and Jordan Sarrou, Chambery is still chocked full of talent and adding a few more to their ranks.<br />
<br />
It speaks to the health of Chambery CF and their development system that many seem to be trying to copy. Riders must be in a school of some sort or be apprenticing for a career while on the team but still racing at a very high level. The team also provides a lot of education on health and wellness as they believe it builds the base for a strong person. Jon Vaughters is trying to copy this system with his Drapac-Pat's Veg Holistic development team but it is something that takes time to perfect. In its current iteration, Chambery CF began in 2001and it has taken 15 years to climb the rankings from Division 3 to winning the Division 1 ranking. That is time that many structures cannot afford or don't take the effort to cultivate. The end product isn't necessarily churning out the best professional cyclists though they haven't done too bad for themselves as 23 rides have gone professional from their ranks.<br />
<br />
Nine riders return to the fold while six join the all U23 squad. Along with Benoit Cosnefroy, it will be Léo Danes, Jaap de Jong, Aurélien Doléatto, Kevin Geniets, Guillaume Millasseau, Aurélien Paret-Peintre, Hugo Pigeon and Rémy Rochas.<br />
<br />
Cosnefroy is not a conventional stage race talent like recent French talents. One-day racing and stage hunting is where Cosnefroy will make his money. 2nd in both the Amateur and U23 French RR Championships, Cosnefroy was also 4th in the European U23 RR to go along with 16 other top 10 finishes including a win in the Annemasse-Bellegarde et retour, a race won by the likes of Warren Barguil, Kenny Ellisonde, Thor Hushovd and Giuseppe Guerini. On hilly or flat courses, Cosnefroy looks like he will continue the history of the plucky French rider when he transitions to the pro ranks.<br />
<br />
Leo Danès is one for a hilly route though he has yet to translate that to a bigger race. De Jong is a good rouleur that is keen on Paris-Roubaix and will be looking to do well in his final U23 season. Doléatto is a keen climber and after a good first year, he should be able to help out in the finale more while getting some glory of his own.<br />
<br />
Since Bob Jungels matriculated to the professional ranks, Luxembourg has been trying to find their next big rider. Alex Kirsch is finding his feet as a pro and Tom Wirtgen has been going alright but Kevin Geniets is looking quite promising after his first U23 season. Winner of the Tour du Beaujolais after he solo'ed to a stage win and taking the prologue at the Tour d'Auvergne, Geniets has some good climbing skills. He was 8th at the European Championships in Plumelec and 15th in the Trofeo Almar so a hilly course seems to suit him well.<br />
<br />
In terms of a classics-style rider, Millasseau would probably be as close as Chambery CF get. In his first U23 season, he finished in the top 30 in Paris-Roubaix after a junior career that saw a lot of top 20 finishes in the Ronde van Vlaanderen Juniors, Paris-Roubaix Juniors, Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne and others. He has a pretty good kick on him as well so with a year under his belt, he could be Chambery's rider to watch in flatter one-day races.<br />
<br />
Next to Cosnefroy and Rochas, Aurelien Paret-Peintre is probably Chambery's most talented rider though he seems to still be finding his way. Paret-Peintre was a standout junior with overall wins including the Giro di Basilicata and the Tour of Istria as well as the Classique des Alpes Juniors. Paret-Peintre, who hails from the Haute-Savoie department, is a climber but besides his Ronde de l'Isard ride in 2015, where he finished 6th, he hasn't been able to string together a GC campaign in the mountains. He was close in Savoie Mont Blanc but he imploded on the 3rd stage. His Tour de l'Avenir started promising but he wasn't a factor in the mountains. If he can get some of the kinks worked out and works on not wasting energy before the climbs, he could round out into the big threat he showed himself to be.<br />
<br />
Don't be mistaken by the small package at 57 kg, Hugo Pigeon isn't necessarily destined for the mountains. Pigeon is a former junior MTB National Champion and was 2nd in the junior cyclocross National Championship. He has marked Paris-Roubaix as his dream race, where he finished 35th this year after getting through the Ronde de l'Isard the week before. He is an all-arounder but without a standout result, his preferred terrain is still to be discovered.<br />
<br />
Along with Cosnefroy, Rémy Rochas also got a stagiaire ride with Ag2r-La Mondiale this past season and he made the most of it. In the GP Wallonie, he was a solid 25th on the uphill finish at the Citadel of Namur. He also got across the line in the Tour du Doubs, GP Beghelli and Gran Piemonte. After a successful early season that was capped with an solo, uphill stage win in the Ronde de l'Isard, Rochas was 8th in the hilly Kreiz Breizh Elites, 2nd in the Estivale Bretonne behind FDJ signing David Gaudu and 5th in the downright difficult French Amateur Championships. The local boy from Chambéry most likely will not be developing as an overall contender but whether it is hunting for stages or a hilly one day race, Rochas could find a nice home somewhere down the road.<br />
<br />
The six new riders include four juniors in Clément Champoussin, Enzo Faloci, Quentin Grolleau and Anthony Jullien while two current U23s Robin Meyer and Maxime Roger.<br />
<br />
Champoussin is the Junior National Champion in MTB and finished 5th in the European Championships in Huskvarna, Sweden. Champoussin had a little success on the road with a few smaller wins but without any international rides, it will be hard to say how he will turn out.<br />
<br />
Despite the Italian name, Enzo Faloci is quite French. When you share a scooter driver with Mikael Chérel, you are destined for 8 years as a professional hopping between Ag2r, FDJ and Cofidis. He was 2nd in the Classique des Alpes Juniors but he isn't a slouch on the flat either so he should be a potential all-arounder. Plus the peloton always needs another Enzo.<br />
<br />
Coming from VC La Pomme Marseille Juniors, Grolleau is another climber coming to the team. 3rd in the Classique des Alpes Juniors in 2015, he isn't just a mountain dwelling wraith as Grolleau was 3rd in the National Junior Road Race and also 2nd in the Junior Scratch on the track. He did beat future teammate Champoussin in the Tour PACA Juniors on the 2nd stage but Champoussin did win the overall.<br />
<br />
While he doesn't have any big wins of note, Anthony Jullien is probably the most seasoned junior coming on board in terms of international riding experience. He seems to do well on a undulating courses and could see some success in flat to hilly stage races and in one-day classics.<br />
<br />
Robin Meyer comes from Aix en Provence and had a good year last year with a 4th in the Souvenir Jean-Masse DN1 race, won the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur Championship and 7th in the French U23 Championships.<br />
<br />
Speaking of DN1 success last year, Maxime Roger won the DN1 finale at the GP Blagny-sur-Bresle in a small sprint, which is a huge win for a rider that just began racing on the road in 2015. Very strong against the clock who will most likely target time trials but should be good on flat to rolling races.<br />
<br />
Even with the loses they have incured, Chambery CF has the strength to take the DN1 classification again in 2017. This is a team structure that more should be paying attention to now and going forward.<br />
<br />
Stay tuned for more quick hits about French development teams going into 2017.<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-49573441397827678202016-12-16T02:16:00.001-05:002016-12-16T09:04:59.457-05:00North American Devo: Etxabe signs with AevoloAfter a brief wait, it seems that the 10th rider for Aevolo, the new American development team led by former professional Mike Creed, will be Basque rider Jokin Etxabe, who comes from the Seguros Bilbao team. It has yet to be confirmed by the team, along with the rest of the roster, but if this is the case, Extabe would be the only non-U23 rider on the team as he was born in 1994.<br />
<br />
Etxabe was never a standout junior rider but over the past couple of years, he has had some really promising results. He was 6th in the Vuelta a Palencia in 2015 and 6th in the Vuelta a Navarra this year, 21 seconds behind Movistar signing Richie Carapaz. Etxabe also was active in one-day races all season after getting ten top 10 finishes. His climbing skills are developing as he went pretty well in the U23 Peace Race (Zavod Miru) and in the Tour de l'Avenir. The wider roads and steadier climbs in the US might be a blessing for him.<br />
<br />
What was the most interesting part of this announcement was <a href="http://www.ciclismosb.com/ver_noticia.asp?id=1784" target="_blank">in the Spanish press</a>, which said that Aevolo is going to be affiliated with Cannondale-Drapac. This is quite interesting as it could, if true, throw a wrench into the team's plans for the season including their hopes for a Tour of Utah and Tour of Colorado birth. If there is any direct affiliation, that would mean that Aevolo would be ineligible to race in any race with with Cannondale-Drapac on the UCI level.<br />
<br />
Officially, Drapac-Pat's Veg Holistic Development Team <a href="http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cannondale-drapac-development-team-pats-veg-announces-2017-roster/" target="_blank">is the feeder team</a> for Cannondale-Drapac and you can read<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B31c5YMWMES5bWtUOTJmc3ctNWs/view" target="_blank"> all about their mission here</a>.<br />
<br />
A message to Aevolo for comment was not been returned at the time of publishing.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-14928083191419053342016-12-14T16:18:00.001-05:002016-12-14T16:21:50.594-05:00North American Devo: Axeon Hagens Berman<div>
This article could sound a lot like a press release if I wanted it to. It
was another banner season for Axeon Hagens Berman with huge wins like Greg
Daniel winning the Elite Men’s National Championship & Tour de Beauce,
Neilson Powless and Adrien Costa emerging as a GC threat, Logan Owen winning
Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the list could keep going for 3 more paragraphs. Axel
Merckx’s team just seems to keep finding another level year after year and after
shipping a team-record 6 riders to World Tour and Pro Continental teams for
2017, the team is restocking half of their team with 3 American juniors as well
as 5 foreign U23 riders around their returning core.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div>
The returning core is based around <b>Adrien Costa, Neilson Powless
</b>and<b> Logan Owen</b>. </div>
<br />
<br />
<div>
Costa’s talent is well documented after one of the most impressive first
year U23 seasons this side of Caleb Ewan in 2013 and easily one of the best on
record for a GC rider. Most likely this will be his last year as a U23 rider so
I am certain he will be going out with a bang with the Tour de l’Avenir
certainly in his sights.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div>
Powless explosion of results was much in thanks to his time trailing
ability, which saw him win Joe Martin, a time trial podium in the Tour of the
Gila and then the head-turning 9th place overall in the Tour of California,
where he finished 5th on the Gibraltar Road stage after attacking late in the
stage. There are some areas of Powless’ riding that need some polishing so with
the help of Axeon Hagens Berman and the U23 National Team, Powless could be
bringing a marquee result to the team.</div>
<br />
The recently married Owen (to Olympic medalist Chloe Dygert) has been
trying to handle cyclocross and road over the past few years with good results
including a Tour of Utah stage in 2015 and winning Liege-Bastogne-Liege U23 this
season in a late attack. All of this is quite draining and with a choice to come
soon between the road and cyclocross, Owen has taken this season off from the
dirt to rest and build his base for this upcoming year. Owen will be looking to
make his mark on one-day races and sprint stages.
<br />
<br />
<br />
Also coming back again is <b>Will Barta, Johnny Brown, Geoffrey Curran,
Eddie Dunbar </b>and <b>Chad Young.</b>
<br />
<br /><br />
<div>
Barta seems to get his best results while in France but this year he will
be trying to take his time trial and climbing abilities to a new level to help
become a more rounded GC rider. </div>
After a rough 1st year, Brown will be wanting to settle down and get some
solid race days in to live up to his double junior road race national
championship.
Geoffrey Curran’s time trial went to a new level this past year that
culminated in a 7th place in the Doha U23 TT Worlds. If Curran can continue the
progress with his TT, he could become a weapon in shorter stage races and could
put himself down as an early medal favorite for the Worlds in Bergen.
Dunbar showed his versatility by going in the top 20 in both the Ronde van
Vlaanderen, Tour of Utah and Tour of Alberta along with his 9th place in the U23
TT Worlds; will Dunbar reach a point where he will have to sacrifice versatility
to get a career-defining result?
Young is another all-around rider that tends to end up in the 20’s when it
comes to GC performances so if he continues to add race days and make progress
in Europe, it will be a win.
<br />
<br />
<div>
The new crop joining the team include <b>Edward Anderson, Chris Blevins,
Ian Garrison (all three juniors), Chris Lawless, Jhonnatan Narvaez, Ivo &
Rui Oliveira </b>and<b> Michael Rice</b>.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div>
With first year U23s, it is never good to expect any results as even the
most talented riders need a year to adjust to the new level usually.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div>
In my time following cycling, I have never seen a more unprecedented
signing by any professional team, including a development team, than Axeon
Hagens Berman signing Edward Anderson. To my knowledge, Anderson only began
racing this season in the Virginia High School MTB Series, where he won a round
in the spring series and has won twice this fall as well in the same series. On
the road, his best results he got when he was racing as a Category 4. Let me
repeat, a rider that was racing in the Cat. 4 groups and not obliterating
everyone will be riding with Axeon Hagens Berman. He did get an upgrade to
Category 3 before season’s end. An interesting result was his 14th place in the
Green Mountain Stage Race in the junior category albeit that was just short of a
minute off of winner Matteo Jorgensen. Axel Merckx must have gotten some power
files that are mind blowing to make a decision like this but even then, it is a
stunning move to use a roster spot for Anderson at this stage in his
development.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div>
Chris Blevins is one of the brightest talents on both the road as well as
in MTB, where Americans have been lacking in the Men’s XC department for a few
years now (though Howard Grotts is helping). Blevins has won the National
Championship in his age category in XC discipline each year for the last seven
years and won the Albstadt World Cup this year, just two weeks after he won the
Junior Peace Race (Zavod Miru) overall. Blevins has a good time trial, climbing
and wheelie abilities so he should be a great helper for Costa and Powless while
finding his own way. Blevins, a Durango, Colorado native, is attending Cal Poly
for school.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div>
After getting the bronze medal in the Junior Men’s ITT at the Doha Worlds,
Garrison’s name should be familiar to many people. Behind Brandon McNulty,
Garrison is the best American time trialist talent. He was top 10 in both the
Trofeo Karlsberg (3rd) and the Tour de l’Abitibi (8th) mainly thanks to his time
trial abilities. If you can time trial as a junior, you can time trial as a U23;
it is just everything else involved that will need to be figured out.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div>
The foreign contingent have been around the block before with some of them
being huge talents that I know will turn many American heads after they see them
perform.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div>
I have so wanted Chris Lawless to come to America to race criteriums after
his past couple of season where he was won multiple stages of the Pearl Izumi
Tour Series. Lawless & a British contingent v. Australians in Scott Law and
Jesse Kerrison v. Americans in Dan Holloway, Ty Magner and Brad Huff…throw in
Ryan Aitcheson, Aldo Ino Ilesic…and now I need to stop before I get a hot flash
thinking about a World Criterium League. Anyways, Lawless has gotten his best
results in criteriums with six wins in Britain alone this past year with
JLT-Condor but he isn’t a criterium rider alone. Lawless was only 19 when he
went 6th in GP Pino Cerami in 2015, which is an immense result. This past year,
he was 3rd in the Rutland (basically a race run over old farm roads), 13th in
the Ride London Classic and also 9th in the British Championships, where he was
one of three U23 riders to make the front group of 13. Lawless will certainly be
a sprint option for Axeon Hagens Berman but hopefully with another year under
his belt, his endurance level will rise so he is able to be competitive in
longer and hillier tours.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div>
While barely talked about at the time, Espoirs Central was one of the
first, if not the first, English language sites to talk about the Ecuadorian
phenom Jhonnatan Narvaez. I talked about his background in <a href="http://espoirscentral.blogspot.ae/2015/12/2016-team-preview-klein-constantia.html">last
year’s Klein Constantia preview</a> but for more depth on Narvaez, go to <a href="http://www.ciclismointernacional.com/el-ecuatoriano-jhonatan-narvaez-de-la-amazonia-a-europa/">this
article</a> from Ciclismo Internacional. The only change from those articles was
that his Junior World Record in the 3km pursuit was broken by Swiss Stefan
Bisseger this year. In his first U23 season, Narvaez showed big potential in the
mountains after winning the KOM and finishing 5th in the Tour des Pays de
Savoie. With a full year under his belt, Narvaez could have some fun with Costa
and Powless if and when they are teamed up together.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div>
The Oliveira twins are Portuguese track talents that are dabbling in the
road side of things. Rui and Ivo were both Worlds medalists in 2014 when Ivo won
the 3km Individual Pursuit over Regan Gough, Ivo was 3rd in the Omnium, Rui was
3rd in the Scratch and the pair went 3rd in the Madison. As Elites, they have
ridden nearly every track event in Western Europe with Ivo getting the slightly
better results in pursuit events and the omnium while Rui had good results in
the Scratch and Points. Ivo was 2nd in the European Championships in the
Individual Pursuit to World Champion Filippo Ganna after riding a losing but
still scorching time of 4’17”. Rui lost the majority of his season after
fracturing his femur at the Tour de Gironde. If he recovers well and doesn’t
lose a step or two, Rui seems to be more consistent on the road than his brother
with a few top 10 results in UCI events, mainly in sprints. Ivo did well at the
Worlds in Doha after making the front split so perhaps if his concentration goes
to the road after the track season is done, Ivo could turn some heads
somewhere.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div>
The last new rider is Michael Rice, a Australian who came from the Canadian
Garneau-Quebecor. Rice is a former Junior Australian RR Champion (2013) who left
the Australian system for the New World. He has a good year last year too. He
had three top 10 stage finishes in Joe Martin and later on, he won a stage in
the Tour de Beauce in a late escape. His resume isn’t quite as deep as others
but a stage win in Beauce is no joke so he will be looking for more of
that.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div>
The only other addition to the team will be a new European DS, Koos
Moerenhout. The long time pro with Rabobank and Lotto was a DS with Rabo Liv for
the past 5 year since retirement from the peloton. With Moerenhout on the ground in
Europe, he will be key in making the day to day life a bit easier and trying to snag a few other invites to fill calendar holes.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div>
With the big crop of talent leaving the coop, Axeon Hagens Berman will
have to find an answer as over half of their podiums from 2016 were from
departing riders but with the new riders joining and old ones hitting another level, it will be no surprise to see them gelling and excelling soon enough. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-54321689066930357762016-12-10T08:20:00.004-05:002016-12-10T08:23:32.708-05:00North American Devo: CCB Velotooler<div>
With the 2nd installment of this coupling, one of the oldest cycling clubs
in America is making the move towards the continental level while working on a
tight budget. Based out of Boston, CCB has been a club for nearly 40 years and
will face a test trying to compete on the continental level while managing a
budget of under $100,000 for the whole season. For 2017, the team will be known
as CCB Velotooler and like Aevolo, the U23 riders will be either in college or
graduate school but unlike Aevolo, the team is not strictly a U23 squad. As the
riders will receive no salary, it is basically an elite amateur team with a UCI
license. For more of the details about the project, <a href="http://www.velonews.com/2016/09/news/after-40-years-ccb-regional-team-goes-pro-and-non-profit_421232">Fred
Dreier from VeloNews had a good article</a>.</div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
With many riders in college, the bulk of the team’s schedule will be done
between May and August while riders will obviously target collegiate and amateur
races across the Eastern seaboard of the US throughout the season. I am
interested to see how well they are able to compete with other continental teams
in American UCI races because they are a development team but they definitely
should be able to mix it up in regional races as well as on the criterium
circuit.</div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
The UCI roster will feature 13 riders while there will be a few other first
year U23 “development riders” that will be on the club level that will most
likely join the pro team at different points. </div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
The UCI roster will include: Cameron Beard, Patrick Collins, Ansel Dickey,
Noah Granigan, John Harris, Jonah Mead-VanCort, Nate Morse, Spencer Petrov, Sam
Rosenholtz, Jake Sitler, Antti Sizko, Cory Small and Cooper Willsley. Josh
Anderson, Ian Clarke and Wyatt Goral are the said “development riders” that are
on the club team and will join the pro team at various points.</div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
Cameron Beard is more known for his cyclocross with top rides across his
junior and now senior career with a smattering of top 10 finishes in elite races
and U23 races this year. He isn’t just a dirt monger either as he finished high
in the Junior Peace Race (Zavod Miru) where teammate Chris Blevins won the
overall while also finishing 6th overall in the Driedaagse van Axel behind Swiss
Stefan Bisseger, who is the junior world record holder in the 3km individual
pursuit. A good all-around rider that is a good time trialist, a good climber as
well as having that short burst power that top cyclocross riders possess.</div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
Patrick Collins has been on a diet of New England races the past few years
and will be looking to move up to the next level on the road side of things. He
is also a strong cyclocross rider with majority of his finishes in UCI races
coming between 15th and 20th. </div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
The Kombucha-loving Ansel Dickey is another that is looking to hit a new
level in his final U23 season. Dickey has gotten some of his best results in
criteriums as he was 2nd in the U23 National Criterium in 2015 while with Cal
Giant but he doesn't have a resume-making result quite yet. Also a coach, Dickey
could benefit from the bolstered crit squad that CCB Velotooler will be bringing. </div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
New Jersey native Noah Granigan is another rider that has had success in
criteriums, mainly ones in stage races, however he seems to have the endurance
for longer one-day races that is stronger than some of the other U23s on the
team. Races like Winston-Salem, U23 Nationals and Reading could be targets
especially with a stronger team. </div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
Connecticut’s John Harris has been another rider kicking it around New
England as well as some choice criteriums the past few seasons. He was never on
the National team but he has plugged away including top 15 places in Wilmington,
Iron Hill and a 5th in Chris Thater. He will be a good part of the crit squad as
well as getting some opportunities in other one days.</div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
Lupus was a disjointed team from the moment that they signed Chris Horner.
Jonah Mead-VanCort did get a couple of races with the big boys including Joe
Martin however the winner of the collegiate D1 criterium in 2016 didn’t get a
huge amount of support from his “professional” team. Mead-VanCort will most
likely be another one of the crit squad train.</div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
Splitting his time between Furman University and the Northeast, Nathaniel
Morse has seen some of his best results come in criteriums including 3rd in the
U23 National Criterium this past year. Morse also gets around on a ‘cross bike
as well so he should be shooting for a good result at U23 Nationals.</div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
My hometown of Mason, Ohio finally has a pro cyclist to their name with
Spencer Petrov. Move over George Clooney and Dan Patrick, you now have company.
Brought up in the local Lionhearts and ProChain programs, Spencer has continued
to improve every year, especially in cyclocross. On the road, Petrov rode for
Holowesko-Citadel’s junior program as well as with the national squad a bit. He
is a top 10 to 15 rider in cyclocross on the national circuit and one of the top
U23 ‘cross riders in the country so how will he continue to develop on the road?
Go the way of Logan Owen, who skipped cyclocross this year to rest up for the
road season, or the way of Curtis White, who has exploded on the national ‘cross
circuit this year with 9 wins while trying to continue to slowly expose himself
to the road? An interesting question that will eventually need to be
answered.</div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
The scourge of the New England criterium scene joins CCB Velotooler as a mentor to the
young crit squad. Sam Rosenholtz has come around in the last few seasons as a
hell of a sprinter in New England that included a 4-race win streak this summer
where he beat out future teammates in Dickey, Nate Morse, John Harris and Pat
Collins. Rosenholtz’s highlight was a 2nd place in one race of the Memorial Day
Gateway Cup in St. Louis where he was nipped on the line by Ty Magner but did
beat out National Champion Dan Holloway and Aldo Ilesic. Rosenholtz will be the
glue that will hold this young team together in bigger races plus his sprint
could deliver some much-needed results.</div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
Jake Sitler is just looking for the opportunities to show his talents.
Former steeplechaser turned cyclist from Astellas that had a good year in 2015,
had a big block of training in Tasmania and came into 2016 on very good form. He
got through a trifecta of Redlands, Joe Martin and Gila, which set him up for a
good late spring that saw him go 15th in Winston-Salem, 20th in Philly and then
a 3rd overall in the Air Force weekend behind Ty Magner and Bobby Lea. Going
into summer with great form, right? Except Astellas as a team more or less
imploded and with very limited funds, the crit squad got the majority of the
remaining budget as there is more bang for the buck. He DNFed Saguenay and the
team didn’t start North Star GP nor Cascade. Sitler raced only a handful of
times in July and August. With his age, Sitler will be a road captain this year
but if he brings the form, it seems like he will get the opportunities he needs
to shine.</div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
Finnish Antti Sizko seems to be a bit of a rider/manager after coming over
from CMI Cycling last year, a team that briefly including one of Espoirs
Central’s favorite riders, Dmitri Grabovskyy.</div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
Cory Small is one of the few current CCB riders that will be joining the club on
their rise to the professional ranks. Small was the team's best finisher in the
AnPost Ras this year with 24th overall. Comparatively, Small hasn't raced a
large number of race days over the past few years so with some opportunities at
high level events perhaps he will be able to have a breakthrough. </div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
Speaking of another strong cyclocross rider on the team, Cooper Willsey has
taken a big step up in his 2nd season on the elite 'cross circuit. Willsey's
best finish last year was an 11th in the late season C2 in Kingsport, TN but
this season with <a href="http://cannondale-cyclocrossworld.com/">Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com</a>,
he already has eight top 10 finishes in UCI cross races including the U23 Pan-Am
Championships. Like Nate Morse, Willsey splits his time between Furman
University in South Carolina and the Northeast. Willsey was the Division 2
Cyclocross National Champion last year for the Paladins while on the road, he
was the first non-Axeon Hagens Berman rider to finish in the U23 National RR in
Lousville after breaking away from the field for 8th place. Depending on how
many opportunities he gets, Willsey is definitely a strong piece of the road
team that is just beginning to find his feet while still needing to balance his
cyclocross priorities. </div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
Josh Anderson, Ian Clarke and Wyatt Goral are the three development riders.
Anderson won a stage in l’Abitibi while doing well in a lot of junior
criteriums. Goral is a good time trial rider including a solo win in the Junior
Tour de Somerville. Clarke rode well in l’Abitibi however he didn’t have a ton
of other results to back that up.</div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
It will be interesting to see what CCB Velotooler will be capable of doing on a
shoe-string budget. It is refreshing to see that the team has no illusions of what they are. They
aren’t putting on a façade that they are a big-time "pro" team with "paid"
professionals nor going the route of having one marquee rider with a bunch of pack fodder to fill in. They are just trying to get as many opportunities as they can and for a development team, it could pay
off.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-85007706925311229622016-12-05T16:02:00.001-05:002016-12-09T14:37:44.874-05:00North American Devo: Team Aevolo <div class="p1">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">While it seems that every year there is the pessimistic wave during the transfer season of job losses in cycling and there just aren’t enough spots for pro-caliber riders, there are always a few bright spots. This year, the American development scene is getting some good news with the creating of Aevolo Development along with CCB moving up from the continental level. While more teams is usually always better, it certainly helps that other young riders are getting a good home and trying to topple the Axeon Hagens Berman leviathan.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">This first post will be dedicated to Aevolo’s new team.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Aevolo hasn’t really divulged where the money is actually coming from as there are no obvious companies with the Aevolo name but it does see Mike Creed return to the professional ranks, <a href="http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/creed-comments-on-team-smartstops-demise/"><span class="s2">after a bitter end with Smartstop</span></a> at the end of the 2015 season. After a successful stint with the US Paralympic cycling team, Creed will now be running a U23 development team that is set for a full NRC calendar with hopes of getting berths for the Tour of Utah along with the new Tour of Colorado and Tour of the Commonwealth (Virginia) with an unconfirmed roster of 9 riders so far though in interviews, Creed has said he will have a roster of 10 riders.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">A roster flashed briefly on the team’s Facebook page but has since been taken down so while unconfirmed, there were nine names that showed up with riders coming from the USA, Canada and Mexico. <a href="http://www.velonews.com/2016/11/news/creed-talks-new-team-split-from-paralympics_424782"><span class="s2">According to VeloNews</span></a>, the riders will have to be in either university or graduate school.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Unconfirmed for next year include Jack Burke, Laurent Gervais, Lance Haidet, Gage Hecht, Michael Hernandez, Zeke Mostov, Jason Saltzman, Tyler Stites, and Luis Villalobos.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Before last year, Canadian <b>Jack Burke</b> might be better known to some for his positive doping test at the 2013 Tour de l’Abitibi after winning the stage 3 time trial. After a lengthy process, Burke was cleared of any wrong doing after the trace amounts of a diuretic named HCTZ was deemed to be ingested from the local town of Malartic’s water source, where Burke has filled his water bottles after running late that morning. <a href="https://www.thestar.com/sports/amateur/2014/12/23/innocent_competitive_cyclist_cant_shake_doping_record.html"><span class="s2">Read this much more in-depth article on the situation from The Star.</span></a> The most interesting bit from that article might be this description of his daily routine at the time, which was taken from Jack’s university video that was presented during the defense.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">“Get up at 4 a.m. Down eight raw eggs. Ride from his north Toronto home down to the lake and back for a “short” 75 km ride. Go to high school. Sandwich in an hour-long ride. Go to work at Sporting Life to pay for the bike. Ice bath. Bed. And repeat.”</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Sounds like Creed’s type of rider. Since this episode, Burke had quieter results until this past year with H&R Block where his time trial skills finally came through and propelled him to strong overall results including top 15 places in the Redlands Classic, Joe Martin Stage Race and Tour of Alberta. With Creed’s history with time trials and as a GC rider, Burke could be one to excel in this program.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">On the other hand. <b>Laurent Gervais</b> is a bit of an unknown commodity. Originally from Quebec, Gervais rode for the Miller School in Virginia as well. He doesn’t have a ton of results to go off of so fingers crossed.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Both <b>Lance Haidet </b>and<b> Gage Hecht</b> are more known for their results on the dirt than the road but both have upside, especially with Hecht’s big results from the junior ranks.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Haidet hangs around the top 20 in Elite Men’s cyclocross races while he is a podium threat in the U23 races. On the road, his results are a lot less sparse however he did well on some stages at Cascade Classic including a top 10. So while he is no GC threat, he could be a one day or stage threat.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Hecht is a small animal on a bike with what seems to be boundless energy. On the ‘cross bike, he is one of the most promising talents for the USA after challenging for World Cup podiums as a junior along with bagging 5 junior cyclocross championships including last year’s junior title in Asheville. As a first year U23, Hecht is already a top 10 finisher on the American CX circuit but he is more than that. Hecht is also the reigning Junior Men’s RR champion after pulling away in the final stages with World Junior TT Champion Brandon McNulty while he was also 3rd in the National TT. Hecht is also the Junior Point Race Champion on the track. As long as he isn’t thrown into the deep end, Hecht could turn heads in a massive way next year in some bigger races on the road as his jack of all trades style gives him options. </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">After a year with CCB, <b>Michael Hernandez </b>takes his sprint talents to Aevolo. He lacked a bit of endurance with the step up from the junior ranks this past year but did get a few good results after venturing over to Belgium with the Kingsnorth Wheelers (think Jack Bauer) with a few top 10 finishes in some kermesses. Hernandez will probably find success in criteriums however Creed would like to see him get up in the bunch kicks in some of the team’s stage races.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Three years ago, <b>Zeke Mostov</b> won the bronze medal in the World Junior TT behind the late Igor DeCraene. Then with the arrival of Adrien Costa, Mostov went to the background slightly even though he followed up his bronze in 2013 with a 5th place in the 2014 World Junior TT. Mostov even went 2nd overall in the Tour de l’Abitibi as a junior but once he hit the U23 ranks, Mostov went quiet. Riding for both Cal Giant and then BMC Development over the past two years, Mostov has not put up a large amount of racing days so if he gets a steady schedule with Aevolo and the U23 National Team, it will be interesting to see how he handles it.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Its all about the watts these days and <b>Jason Saltzman</b> seems to a diamond in the rough. Saltzman only weighs 115 pounds but with a power to weight ratio that is over 6 w/kg in 20 minutes, he packs a punch. (figures courtesy of Saltzman now has to deal with the issue that many smaller riders deal with with: pack skills, not wasting too much energy before the climbs, getting blown around like a trash bag in the wind during a time trial. Being led along by ex-pro Scott Moninger, who was himself another lithe rider, Saltzman can crush a hillclimb but will need to use this year to try and round himself as a rider to continue to trend upwards. It’ll be interesting to see in any case.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The other two, <b>Tyler Stites </b>and<b> Luis Villalobos</b>, are both coming out of the junior ranks. </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Stites is a good all-around rider with a Tour de l’Abitibi stage win to his name and has been to Europe a handful of times with pretty good results. He hasn’t raced much with Elite men so this upcoming season could be a bit of an adjustment but judging by his Strava, Stites has a huge base to work off of.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Villalobos is currently the only Mexican rider on the squad however he rode for the LUX Development team while in Europe, the same team that included World Champion Brandon McNulty and is run by former pro Roy Knickman. Villalobos had a great season in Europe as he was top 10 in three separate stage races including a stage win in the St. Martinusprijs Juniors as well as winning the Mexican & PanAm Junior Time Trial. Villalobos might be one of the most ready talents on the team as he was 3rd in the Cat 1/2 Tour of the Gila this year, a race known for its climbing and one of the races that is close to Creed’s heart, as well as riding with the pros in some American races that will be on the team calendar including Redlands and San Dimas.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">It will be interesting to see how the team does as a foil to Axeon Hagens Berman even though they most likely won’t race them much outside of Nationals but to get another strong development team will be nothing but a positive for the American scene. Once the roster is actually confirmed, an update will be issued.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 13.0px}
span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
span.s2 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none}
</style>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Next up will be a run down of CCB, the long time Northeast club team that is now a budget pro team that will be hoping to make a splash on the market with their new model.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-75558101436939103732016-10-03T02:44:00.002-04:002016-10-03T02:44:35.039-04:00Olympia's Tour: Rabobank bow out in styleFrom 2002 to 2009, Rabobank Continental won 9 consecutive Olympia's Tour. It should have been renamed the Rabobank Invitational at some point because they took out 16 of the 21 overall podium places during that time. While Taylor Phinney interrupted that run in 2010, Jetse Bol and Dylan van Baarle kept the name going through 2013. The talent that Rabobank put out year after year was loading the pro peloton (and the big Rabobank team) and seemed like a never ending pipeline.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Yet with all of the success and the huge amount of talent still present, Rabobank Development will cease to exist after this year. The orange kits that have been present for nearly 20 years will not be found in 2017. With many riders still figuring out their 2017 plans (or at least not announcing them yet), why not go out with a bang?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
After taking some precious bonus seconds finishing 2nd on stage 5, Cees Bol (who is joining SEG Racing Academy for 2017) was finally in the yellow jersey after multiple days of chasing Pavel Sivakov. With the hilliest stage on tap for the final day, Bol was in defense mode as only a handful of riders could challenge his lead.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Riding from Margraten, multiple breakaways tried to get away from peloton including a move that included 3rd-place Harthijs De Vries (Rabobank Devo) along with Michael Storer (Australia) and Geoffrey Curran (USA) but was shut down in favor of a two-man move with Remi Cavagna (Klein Constantia) and Ole Forfang (Norway), which got a couple of minutes lead. Racing was fast with the first couple of hours around 41 km/h.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Rabobank went to the front to tap out tempo as another move went up the road with Julius Jelmer, Fridtjof Røinaas and Julien Van Den Brande making the junction but the freedom was short lived as the speed was picking up fast. Soon enough, it was in with the old and out with the new, who took off with about 20km to go.</div>
<div>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
The breakaway 2 Hamilton 11 Allegaert 51 <a href="https://twitter.com/GroendahlJansen">@GroendahlJansen</a> 62 <a href="https://twitter.com/GeoffreyCurran">@GeoffreyCurran</a> 95 <a href="https://twitter.com/PascalEenkhoorn">@PascalEenkhoorn</a> 101 De Wulf 122 <a href="https://twitter.com/BuddingMartijn">@BuddingMartijn</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OT2016?src=hash">#OT2016</a></div>
— Olympia's Tour (@OlympiasTour) <a href="https://twitter.com/OlympiasTour/status/782580336404357120">October 2, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>
<div>
Dewulf was the highest on GC but was over three minutes back and with only 20 kilometers, there wasn't enough road left unless Bol, Sivakov and the others pulled over and had lunch.<br />
<br />
Going into the finish, another move of 10 riders split off the front of the GC-controlled peloton, again none of the fighting over GC. The groups were splintering on the uphill finish and after 170 kilometers in cold, rainy weather, everyone was ready for the end.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
It is <a href="https://twitter.com/BuddingMartijn">@BuddingMartijn</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/RaboDevTeam">@RaboDevTeam</a> who wins the final stage Margraten-Noorbeek. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OT2016?src=hash">#OT2016</a> <a href="https://t.co/7kqsrYhpAu">pic.twitter.com/7kqsrYhpAu</a></div>
— Olympia's Tour (@OlympiasTour) <a href="https://twitter.com/OlympiasTour/status/782588826946564097">October 2, 2016</a></blockquote>
<br />
To make it a fitting end to a fitting run, Martijn Budding took the final win in the Olympia's Tour for Rabobank Development in a tight sprint over Piet Allegaert and Stan Dewulf. Dewulf and Curran jumped 4 places each to finish 8th and 9th overall, which made them the biggest movers on the GC board for the places that mattered.<br />
<br />
To make it an even more sweet end to the bittersweet departure, Cees Bol hung onto the overall GC after coming across the line with Sivakov and 3rd place De Vries, which was the status quo from before. While the finish was a little anti-climactic as the previous stages were filled with tight racing, it capped off a great weekend of racing before heading off to Doha.<br />
<br />
-This is by far Bol's biggest win as a U23 after coming close in races like the Paris-Arras Tour and the Ronde de l'Oise. Going to SEG next year is a big signal that he is on track for a big contract as they tend to move a lot of riders up if they do relatively well.<br />
<br />
-This was also the final race for Klein Constantia, which started off life as Etixx-iHNed back in 2013 and was actually the subject of Espoirs Central's first ever article. Patrick Lefevere forever bitched about having to carve out money from his budget to support a healthy development team but this is a team that actually worked so it is a shame that it isn't continuing.<br />
<br />
-Pavel Sivakov is the most versatile U23 rider at this time<br />
<br />
-Edward Planckaert is quite deserving of his Topsport Vlaanderen contract after SO MANY top 10 finishes from February to October. Pretty incredible.<br />
<br />
-For not being a Nations Cup and it being October now, the talent level here at the Olympia's Tour was pretty impressive. Sprints, breakaways and time trials...what is there not to like??<br />
<br />
On to Doha...<br />
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-32397154755096643182016-10-01T00:57:00.002-04:002016-10-01T00:57:35.344-04:00Olympia's Tour: Stages 1-4The Olympia's Tour is halfway over and I have to say, the Olympia's Tour social media has been on-point for a U23 race. With no live video, they have provided a ton of updates, some small videos and detailed previews on their website so kudos to them. Oh yes and the racing has been good too.<br />
<br />
<b>Stage 1 - TTT - Hardenberg</b><br />
<br />
The Axeon-Hagens Berman filled American team put their team cohesion to good use by taking the opening team time trial ahead of some very strong teams from Australia, which was a mix of world class track talent and all arounders, home favorites Rabobank Development along with continental juggernauts in Klein Constantia, BMC Development and Lotto-Soudal. The USA was also unique out of the top 5 finishers as they finished with their whole team in tact.<br />
<br />
Colin Joyce took the initial overall lead before the GC race exploded.<br />
<br />
<b>Stage 2 - Assen Loop</b><br />
<br />
True to the Olympia's Tour, a windy day brought out a breakaway that ended up going to the line. To break up the monotony of twisting roads and crosswinds, a stretch of cobbles was used twice that shook everything up.<br />
<br />
A large group of 22 got away from the peloton early and got nearly 2 minutes on the peloton. The breakaway had a large contingent of Dutch riders from Metec, Jo Piels, Rabobank as well as some composite teams plus overnight leader Colin Joyce, Mads Pedersen and BMC riders Lukas Spengler & Pavel Sivakov, among others. The first stretch of cobbles at Exloo saw some of the riders from the breakaway get splintered off and after the 2nd pass, they only had 11 riders left. Pavel Sivakov attacked in the final kilometers coming into the finish and only Jan Willem Van Schip, a U23 who was apart of the Dutch Team Pursuit team in Rio, was able to follow. Van Schip took the sprint from Sivakov but due to taking time from the rest of the breakaway, Sivakov slid into the 3M Yellow Jersey.<br />
<br />
I have said it before but even as a first year, Pavel Sivakov is the most versatile rider in the U23 ranks. He was 2nd in Liege-Bastogne-Liege, he was in sprints in the Tour de Berlin, competed in the mountains in Aosta and l'Avenir and now attacking through the windy roads of Holland.<br />
<br />
<b>Stage 3a - TT - Herenberg to Elten TT</b><br />
<br />
Miles Scotson shot to the podium in the Espoirs Cetral virtual U23 World Championship TT after stomping on an otherwise tight top 10. Geoffrey Curran, who turned in a very fast time, was beating Mads Pedersen by a second and Espoirs Central pick for the win Remi Cavagna by another two while Neilson Powless and Nathan Van Hooydonck were close behind. Scotson proceeded to come in and beat Curran's time by 27 seconds.<br />
<br />
Scotson has been bouncing around all year with road events and team pursuit commitments but has started to build form over the last month with this being an exclamation point before Doha.<br />
<br />
Curran has been up and down the last few years but this year has by far been his best in the U23 ranks. His time trial game has been on point this year with top ten rides all over the place but this is by far his best ride. Definitely shooting for a top 10 ride at Worlds, with this current form.<br />
<br />
Sivakov rode well for 15th however he lost time to Cees Bol and Harthijs De Vries (both Rabobank Development) to pull the GC within 8 seconds.<br />
<br />
<b>Stage 3b - Ulft to Gendringen</b><br />
<br />
Due to starting too late, the stage had to be shortened due to the waining sunlight and even then, the stage didn't finish until early twilight.<br />
<br />
Espoirs Central called a Kristoffer Halvorsen win and by god, did that Norwegian eat some herring. Obviously one of the best U23 sprinters this year after winning a fucking professional 1.1 race, the GP Isbergues, which wasn't stacked with talent but hell, it was a 1.1 event. He nearly won the Nokere Koerse only to be denied by continental wonder Timothy Dupont but beat out Dylan Groenewegen. A favorite for Doha, Halvorsen beat out Chris Latham by a nose, which could be a possible result in Doha as well.<br />
<br />
Cees Bol grabbed a few bonus seconds to bring the lead down to 5 seconds overall on Sivakov<br />
<br />
<b>Stage 4 - Zutphen loop</b><br />
<br />
I said it in my preview but because this stage was front loaded, there was nothing special about this except for Markus Faglum getting the KOM jersey before being sucked back into the breakaway along with his break mates. Not to make the race sound easy as it never is in the Olympia's Tour. If you feel like shit, good luck holding onto a peloton that is going 50km/h in a crosswind while you are riding in the gutter. Feeling good? You could miss a split in the peloton.<br />
<br />
Once out of the hills, the race came back together as Rabobank Development leading the charge for the bonus sprints. Cees Bol came through on both of them and taking 1st and 2nd for 5 bonus seconds while Sivakov snagged 2nd one of the sprints. Bol finished up 2 seconds behind Sivakov at the end of the stage.<br />
<br />
Coming into the finale, it was a familiar sight with Halvorsen again leading the sprint out and just barely holding off 2nd place Fabio Jakobsen, who was a tire length or two behind the Norwegian across the line while Van Schip finished up in a close 3rd. The tight finish didn't give anyone a ton of room so some other favorites like Latham, Lecrocq, Christopher Noppe didn't have the room to contend.<br />
<br />
With two stages to go, Rabobank Development is ravenous to get their final Olympia's Tour win while Sivakov will not go down without a fight. Stage 5 should end in a sprint as the last two kilometers are more or less a runway for a fast sprint. I picked Ivan Garcia however if Halvorsen or Latham are around, it won't be a contest. Stage 6...well that is where the real fun begins.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-68804781183963157322016-09-27T16:08:00.003-04:002016-09-29T15:18:52.156-04:00Olympia's Tour Preview: Prelude to DohaWith the Doha World's being pushed back to beginning of October, the Olympia's Tour decided to make the move to the late season and serve as a tune-up race for the U23 ranks. Normally a race that was just a 2.2 that featured some big time non-U23 talent from the Netherlands (i.e. Wim Stroetinga, Jetse Bol, etc.), this year's event if going to a full U23 format that shuts out older riders but brings nearly all of the big teams for some hard nose, gutter-filled racing. Always hosted in Mid- to Late- May, the wind will still be a factor in the calendar switch however the chance of rain might subside slightly.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br />
<br />
This race has been a staple of development racing for the last 60 years with Rabobank Continental using it as their training grounds for the last 15 years. Thomas Dekker, Thomas Berkhout, Lars Boom, Jetse Bol, Dylan van Baarle, Joost Poosthuma, Stef Clement...need I go on? In the 00s, Taylor Phinney is the only racer to break up the Dutch hegemony but this year looks as good as any to bring down the Dutch dominance. Seeing as Rabobank Development is ending its run as the leader in Dutch development this year, they will be hungry to get one last win here for the boys in Orange.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br />
<br />
The 7-stage, 6-day race starts in Hardenberg with a team time trial. The course itself is fairly straight forward with nothing more than a handful of turns and no more than a 10 meter difference in elevation. It wouldn't be an Olympia's Tour without a team time trial.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Espoirs Central favorite: BMC Development<br />
<br />
<br />
(I did write this before the TTT finished so being true to my word, I won't put in the USA just to save face. BMC didn't do too bad with a top 5 placing and only 22 seconds backs.)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br />
<br />
Stage 2 begins and ends in Assen but does a big loop around Drenthe that has a few up and downs along with the ever present Dutch wind. Espoirs Central is thinking a reduced sprint or perhaps a small breakaway followed by a bigger peloton. If it plays out like the l'Avenir sprints, the smaller teams will not be able to hold the race together unless there is a very cohesive effort.<br />
<br />
Espoirs Central favorite: Gabs Cullaigh<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Stage 3 is a split day that features a morning time trial that finishes in Germany and an afternoon split stage, which should end in a sprint. The time trial is 15 kilometers, which isn't too long but for many U23 riders, this could be one of their only time trials of the season. It is also unique as it has a few kickers that are rather sharp that go up about 50 to 60 meters in elevation.<br />
<br />
Espoirs Central favorite: Remi Cavagna<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The afternoon stage is another loop circuit that finishes in Gendringen that is another prototypical Olympia's Tour stage with a mainly flat parcours filled with road furniture and a bit of a technical finish. Full blown sprint should be on tap.<br />
<br />
Espoirs Central favorite: Kristofer Halvorsen<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I'm a little dissappointed that Stage 4 has all of its hills in the first half of the race while the final half involves two laps around Zutphen, which are more or less flat. However, flat doesn't mean sprint in the U23 ranks so while I think it will come together as a sprint, it certainly could explode due to wind or tactics. If it does come to a sprint, the final kilometer is very tight with multiple turns and a 100 degree turn with less than 300 meters to go.<br />
<br />
Espoirs Central favorite: Cees Bol over Chris Latham & Enzo Wouters<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The Reuver stage has been a sprint stage in the Olympia's Tours of recent past but this year's stage 5, it looks to be the first key road stage for those with any GC ambitions. Wim Stroetinga won the last three Reuver stages but the old man won't be present. The first two big loops are bumpy but the final loops are going to be where any cracks appear. I don't think the race will go to bits but a reduced sprint should be in order. The last two kilometers are a dead straight shot into the finish line so any teams that can stay together will be whipping the pace up.<br />
<br />
Espoirs Central favorite: Ivan Garcia<br />
<br />
<br />
Smoke 'em if you get 'em. A twisty loop around the Dutch countryside that features climbs and descents at nearly every turn. The winner of this stage either be some no-name from a breakaway or more likely, will be on the GC podium as everything that comes before this will be baby steps compared to this. The finish itself is not an uphill one however there are some short, sharp climbs just before it that could serve as a launchpad for a sizzling attack.<br />
<br />
Espoirs Central favorite: Michael Storer<br />
<br />
<br />
Overall Prediction:<br />
<br />
<br />
1. Neilson Powless (USA)<br />
2. Michael Storer (Australia)<br />
3. Lennard Hofstede (Rabobank Development)<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-85043849563002704612016-09-06T16:49:00.002-04:002016-09-06T16:49:39.196-04:00Thoughts on the Tour de l'AvenirIt's been two weeks since the Tour de l'Avenir has ended and I am just getting around to writing this. I have been trying to think of something meaningful to say. With social media these days, it seems like many people only really care about the information that is slapped together and sent out rather than stuff that has some actual thought behind it. <br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
The mountains really make the race at l'Avenir and they certainly didn't disappoint this year. David Gaudu and Edward Ravasi separated themselves with the attack on stage 6 and they seemed fairly even through the rest of the race, with Gaudu having a little bit more top end at the end of the climbs. It seems that Adrian Costa was just a little bit off his best form but in only his first U23 season that has been fairly big in terms of racing days, a podium here is exceptional as he separated himself from the others behind him.<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
Tao Geoghegan Hart was good but was another that didn't seem to be on his best form as he wasn't as sharp. Perhaps a chink in the armor that he could be limited in the higher mountains compared to some others like Gaudu, Costa and Ravasi? SKY will turn him into a robot next year and their track record with developing young talent is so-so at best really compared with some teams like Movistar and Etixx-OPQS. Geoghegan Hart should be put on a one-day/Ardennes track but seeing as SKY's focus on those races is middling at best, it is a shame he might not shine in those races doing forward.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><br />
Hot take - Pavel Sivakov is the most versatile rider in the U23 ranks. He can ride the classics very well as he was a contender in the Paris-Roubaix and was 2nd in Liege-Bastogne-Liege. He was up there in sprint stages in the Tour de Berlin. Now in both Valle d'Aosta and l'Avenir, he has shown that he is able to climb some big mountains fairly consistently for a rider that can also do the above as well. With a year under his belt, next year could be very interesting for Sivakov.<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
It was also announced that l'Avenir will again expand with a 9th stage being added, which will make it the first time since 2009 that the race will be this long. The race course is not finalized as a start in Bretagne is being tossed around, which would certainly be a nice change of pace. I am all in favor of adding some legitimate sprint stages to this race and see teams bring in their best sprinters along with their best climbers. Obviously with small teams, selections are pretty tight but if there were say, 4 stages that could be designated for sprinters and 2 or 3 big stages for climbers, we could see a rounded roster as opposed to the teams in recent years which have been more or less all climbers and perhaps a big engine time trial rider.<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
It just comes down to my point that sprinters need their chances too and that includes on the biggest stages. While some people might salivate for climbers showdowns, I really would love to see Pascal Ackermann go up against Enzo Wouters, Chris Latham, Kristoffer Halvorsen, Cees Bol, Consonni/Minali/Maronese along with some other pros that are still U23. Well that would basically be a preview for this year's Worlds in Doha but one or two stages in the U23 circuits biggest event doesn't seem like enough.<br />
<br /><br />
Anyways, I think it is high time that I start writing more on here...<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-85105586797193936412016-08-26T02:10:00.001-04:002016-08-26T02:10:11.217-04:00Tour de l'Avenir Stage 6: Denz explodes; Gaudu bounces to victory in TignesOn a day that saw a beautiful loop over 4 cols, the Tour de l'Avenir GC was basically put in a blender, pulsed for a few seconds and then dropped from a helicopter over the French Alps. Attacks went back and forth through the day but when riders such as Adrien Costa and Tao Geoghegan Hart didn't follow moves, riders further down on GC got a chance to move up.<br />
<br />
From Saint-Gervais-Mont-Blanc, Nans Peters was the first to attack and drew out a rather large group from the peloton including Lennard Kamna, Miguel Florez (Colombia), Valentin Madouas (France), Giovanni Carboni (Italy), among many others. It was then Peters, Kamna and Florez who established themselves on the Col de Saisies.<br />
<br />
The breakaway never really got over a minute for the vast majority of the stage. The trio made it down into Beaufort and started the Col du Pre together but then Florez went solo, dropping the other two, who were picked up shortly by the peloton, and went over the col du Pre solo. It was also here that Nico Denz said goodbye to any chance at GC as the yellow jersey was dropped like a stone.<br />
<br />
Florez started the Cormet de Roseland solo but was soon joined by a quartet of riders including Michal Schlegel (Czech Republic), Max Schachmann (Germany), a recovered Lucas Hamilton (Australia) and stage 5 winner Jhon Rodriguez (Colombia). In the chasing peloton, France dominated with 4 riders while most other nations had either one or two.<br />
<br />
On the descent of the Roseland, France decided to rip it. Even without their two best descenders in Aurelien Paret-Peintre & Nans Peters, it was Valentin Madouas, Mathias Le Turnier & Leo Vincent went out hard, which along with a crash by Artem Nych (Russia) got them a gap. The bad thing about this? They forgot their GC weapon David Gaudu. Whoops.<br />
<br />
By the bottom of the climb, the trio got 50 seconds and were able to bridge up to the breakaway, which saw the group swell to 8 riders. Florez was the first rider to pop once the road started going up towards Tignes. Rodriguez and Hamilton were the next ones to attack, which brought out Schlegel with them. The trio worked well together while Schachmann & Vincent were forced to chase together.<br />
<br />
At this point, the GC outlook was still normal and Tao Geoghegan Hart was in the main chasing pack along with other favorites. Then David Gaudu attacked with Edward Ravasi. Cue the blender. This duo, which needed to attack to get back much needed time on GC, lept away from the chasing group. In 7 kilometers, the duo got across a gap that was over 1 minute to join the leading trio while soon after Harm Vanhoucke, who is just 19 years old, would bridge as well to make it a sextet with 3 kilometers to go.<br />
<br />
What does one do once they join the group they bridged up to? While attack of course. And who better to do it in front of than Romain Bardet, who was on course today on the climb to Tignes.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/150534stg06gaudufinish00tourdelavenir20161of1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/150534stg06gaudufinish00tourdelavenir20161of1.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Good thing this jersey doesn't have sponsors David. Otherwise, </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
David Gaudu put in another move that blew the front group apart. Ravasi and Vanhoucke trailed in his wake as Gaudu, the springy Frenchman who first showed his massive potential at the Ronde de l'Isard, bounced his way up through the ski resort and gave a mighty little roar over the line. Rodriguez came across in fourth, which lifted him to the overall lead thanks to his stage win yesterday.<br />
<br />
Behind the attackers, it was Australia's Jai Hindley who came across first in 6th, at 1'43" down on Gaudu, while big favorite Adrien Costa came across shortly afterwards in 7th, 2 minutes down. While Egan Bernal was just another 15 seconds down, Geoghegan Hart lost over three minutes to Bernal.<br />
<br />
May it be reminded that this was only the first of three big mountain stages so while the GC might have been put into a blender, it is by no means set. Just a day ago, Gaudu, Ravasi and Vanhoucke were 35th, 36th and 38th on GC over a minute down on Tao and nearly a minute on Costa. My how the tables can turn...<br />
<br />
Here is GC as it stands:<br />
<br />
1. Jhon Rodriguez (Colombia)<br />
2. David Gaudu (France) +9<br />
3. Edward Ravasi (Italy) +28<br />
4. Harm Vanhoucke (Belgium) +29<br />
5. Michal Schlegel (Czech Republic) +45<br />
6. Adrien Costa (USA) +1:13<br />
7. Tao Geoghegan Hart (GB) +1:58<br />
8. Jai Hindley (Australia) +2:07<br />
9. Michael Storer (Australia) +2:14<br />
10. Egan Bernal (Colombia) +2:17<br />
<br />
Unless there is a shocking move from a rider like Sivakov or Schachmann, I don't see anyone winning the Tour de l'Avenir outside of this top 10. Rodriguez has put in a lot of energy in the past two stages so if you are taking Espoirs Central's tip, look for him to slide on stage 7.<br />
<br />
Costa has moved a few times so far this race but compared to others, he has been relatively quiet. Will Gaudu be able to follow up this performance with some more magic? Ravasi showed he can go big on late stages over the last few years but with this deep of a field? Does Tao still have something in the tank? Will Bernal supercede Rodriguez as the best Colombian in the field?<br />
<br />
So many questions and only two stages to go...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-43428964828961700962016-08-24T17:41:00.002-04:002016-08-24T17:41:43.829-04:00Tour de l'Avenir Stage 5: The Mountains Are HereFollowing the time trial stage that saw Adrien Costa take the first American win in six years at the Tour de l'Avenir, the race was supposed to really begin. It sort of did today but the finish did not prove that decisive, somewhat due to the stage length and after the teams have a fairly lengthy transfer, they didn't want to stir up the pot with four mountains summits.<br />
<br />
What is surprisingly not the races shortest stage, the 98 kilometer affair started fast with riders trying to form a breakaway before the only real climb on the course up to Carroz d'Araches. A fast start saw multiple attacks try to get up the road and fail until a large group got off the front including three Americans, three Germans plus some dribs and drabs of Belgians, French and other riders. What was notable about the breakaway was that 2nd through 4th overall (Nico Denz, Nathan Van Hooydonck and Jon Dibben) all were present along with GC contender Neilson Powless.<br />
<br />
Great Britain was keen to not let this move going and with Dibben in the breakaway causing disruption, the Brits clawed the move back just a few kilometers before the final climb. Pryzemyslaw Kasperkiewicz tried multiple times to get away in the finale but was subsequently brought back every time. About halfway into the climb, Jhon Rodriguez (Colombia) attacked with Pavel Sivakov (Russia) & GP Poggiana winner Michael Storer (Australia) at a moment when everyone was looking around and got some distance. None of them were immediate GC threats so the chasing peloton didn't really need to pounce on them.<br />
<br />
The trio was working well together while some counter attacks behind were launched including one by Aurelien Paret-Peintre, Nans Peters and Alexander Vlasov. The chasers ran out of room as Sivakov was the first to move up front by ran out of gas and Rodriguez accelerated around him. Storer was able to follow but was limited as he was not in the big chainring when the climb leveled off, which allowed Rodriguez to take the first Colombian win in l'Avenir since "Superman", Miguel Angel Lopez, in 2014 on stage 6 to La Rosière.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="es">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AtencionColombia?src=hash">#AtencionColombia</a> !!! Notable victoria de Jhon Anderson Rodríguez en la Et5 del <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TourdelAvenir?src=hash">#TourdelAvenir</a> !!! Felicitaciones!!! <a href="https://t.co/2vX8IvWfd1">pic.twitter.com/2vX8IvWfd1</a></div>
— Mario Sabato (@mario_sabato) <a href="https://twitter.com/mario_sabato/status/768460061698035714">August 24, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
Vlasov came in for 4th behind Sivakov making it two Russians in the 3rd and 4th spots, which funnily enough happened on stage 6 to La Rosière in 2014 with Aleksey Rybalkin and Alexander Foliforov. Actually the top five from that stage and this were almost identical in terms of nationalities and their finishing orders except that Paret-Peintre ruined it and let Alex Aranburu finish 5th (Pierre Latour was 5th on the 2014 stage).<br />
<br />
David Gaudu led the bunch home 29 seconds in arrears with all of the main GC players as well as a few jokers still in their same positions. With Amund Grøndahl Jansen finally succumbing to his stomach issues, the yellow jersey was passed onto German Nico Denz, who holds a 1'40" lead back to Tao Geoghegan Hart, 2'05" back to Storer, 2'10" to countryman Jan Tschernoster and 2'13" back to Adrien Costa.<br />
<br />
Storer, Rodriguez and Sivakov were able to move up slightly in the GC rankings but the main question being is about Denz. Obviously he is a World Tour rider and given that he has some free reign here, how long will he be able to hold this lead? He is a competent climber with some good results in the mountains from his U23 days but will he succumb to the onslaught of attacks or perhaps will a diesel engine like Max Schachmann be able to pilot him to an overall lead?<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Thanks <a href="https://twitter.com/michaelcarbel">@michaelcarbel</a> for the help in the last climb. Unfortunately some light sickness has drained my energy. Hope for better days 2 come!</div>
— Amund G. Jansen (@GroendahlJansen) <a href="https://twitter.com/GroendahlJansen/status/768471541042581504">August 24, 2016</a></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
3rd today on Tour de l'Avenir! A bit too nervous in the sprint, start too early and couldn't hold it. Have to be smarter next time!</div>
— Pavel Sivakov (@PavelSivakov) <a href="https://twitter.com/PavelSivakov/status/768495697742090244">August 24, 2016</a></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Still can't believe it<br />
Yellow jersey at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/tourdelavenir?src=hash">#tourdelavenir</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/yellowjersey?src=hash">#yellowjersey</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/leader?src=hash">#leader</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/deutschland?src=hash">#deutschland</a>… <a href="https://t.co/hamlpsqOdb">https://t.co/hamlpsqOdb</a></div>
— Nico Denz (@NicoDenz) <a href="https://twitter.com/NicoDenz/status/768503913419014144">August 24, 2016</a></blockquote>
<br />
After a bad crash a couple of days ago, Steff Cras was forced to abandon today. He will most likely be back next year ready to give it another go.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="nl">
Moeten opgeven met een ontstoken slijmbeurs.Hier heb ik weken alles voor gedaan en gelaten. Dit is een zware tegenslag😢 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/tourdelavenir?src=hash">#tourdelavenir</a></div>
— steff cras (@steffc0096) <a href="https://twitter.com/steffc0096/status/768481981705424897">August 24, 2016</a></blockquote>
<br />
The race continues tomorrow with a absolutely beautiful ride from Saint-Gervais-Mont-Blanc to the ski resort at Tignes over 4 climbs including a final ascent that is 17 kilometers in length.<br />
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-83014541614402147702016-08-23T04:40:00.002-04:002016-08-23T04:40:38.747-04:00Tour de l'Avenir Stage 3: Norway is the New DenmarkWhat is the hell do they think this is? 1524-1814 during the Dano-Norwegian union? Is Olaf II riding bikes now instead of eating some pickled herring? Norway has had a very good year on the U23 circuit, which is more of a culmination of the work Joker and other teams have been doing with young Norwegian talent. It remains to be seen if it all turns out a little bit Danish (see Thomas Vedel Kvist, Rasmus Guldhammer, Sebastian Lander) or if Norway is a new light in development cycling.<br />
<br />
The stage started out of Bourg-en-Bresse and on the longest stage, David Per (Slovenia) really wanted to be alone. I don't know if he had an argument with his team or perhaps he didn't shower after the stage yesterday. Perhaps the race served some goulash that didn't sit well with him. In any case, the Ronde van Vlaanderen U23 winner took over 6 minutes after the peloton hit the breaks. Even after a puncture by Per, the gap was still over 4'30".<br />
<br />
He might not have wanted to be out on his lonesome but Per was able to gobble up the KOM points on offer, which vaulted him to the lead in the KOM competition, which he will hold headed into stage 5 after the TT.<br />
<br />
When Per began to flag, Galym Akhmetov (Kazakhstan), a former Asian Junior MTB XC Champion, bridged up to him. Soon, Akhmetov dropped Per but a counter attack from Adrien Costa (USA) and Gonzalo Serrano (Spain) soon made it a trio. Any substantial moves were short lived as the peloton was, at least for once, set on a sprint finish.<br />
<br />
The last substantial move was by Gab Cullaigh (GB). The former Peace Race stage winner set out for about 15 kilometers and dangled in front of the jaws of the peloton until 4 kilometers to go. Once the catch was made, the nervous energy in the peloton was ratcheted up until the uphill finish in Autun kicked in<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="fr">
Le sprint victorieux de <a href="https://twitter.com/KristofferHalv1">@KristofferHalv1</a> en vidéo ! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TourdelAvenir?src=hash">#TourdelAvenir</a> <a href="https://t.co/f1TGJOsBhE">pic.twitter.com/f1TGJOsBhE</a></div>
— Tour de l'Avenir (@tourdelavenir) <a href="https://twitter.com/tourdelavenir/status/767775370284335106">August 22, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
In the final, it was Kristoffer Halvorsen who did a copy cat sprint from his efforts yesterday except that this time, there was no one in front of him. Even with the steep pitch, Halvorsen was able to hold off Vincenzo Albanese and Jon Dibben for the stage win, making it three in a row for Norge, coming close to Denmark's 4 out of the first 5 stage win haul from last year. Really, this sprint was a lot like Nokere Koerse this year, where Halvorsen was 2nd to the flavor of the season, Timothy Dupont, as the finish on that course is a straight power sprint that can tend to drag on a bit.<br />
<br />
It was a shame that Pascal Ackermann couldn't make the finale as he could have potentially made it interesting against Halvorsen. Also good to note that this was a finish that Simone Consonni would usually devour however with his track legs from Rio, he was off the back as well with Ackermann.<br />
<br />
The real GC hunt starts in a couple of hours as the Lugny TT will be the first test that will begin to sort the wheat from the chaff.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-90298388617552081232016-08-22T04:37:00.002-04:002016-08-22T04:37:35.811-04:00Tour de l'Avenir: Grøndahl Jansen dominated first two stagesIn the Tour de l'Avenir, there is nothing that guarantees a sprint stage. With small teams and a big emphasis on the mountains, there are no teams that can waste riders to bring back breakaways. On stages that are definite sprint stages in pro races, small breakaways come to the line here. There hasn't been a bunch sprint here since stage 3 in 2014 when Dan McLay trumped Magnus Cort and Fernando Gaviria. It looks like we will have to wait until 2017 to see a bunch sprint unless a miracle happens on stage 3, which looks unlikely as the course is quite bumpy over the first half along with a short, sharp uphill finish.<br />
<br />
<b>Stage 1</b><br />
<br />
On a slight downhill start, the Tour de l'Avenir got underway and it didn't take long before attacks were flying. Eventually, a group of 17 got away with some fairly big names including Tao Geoghegan Hart (GB), David Gaudu (France) Lennard Kamna (Germany), Michael Carbel (Denmark), Nathan Van Hooydonck (Belgium) and Vincenzo Albanese (Italy).<br />
<br />
An attack by Geoghegan Hart was innocuous at first but drew out Grøndahl Jansen and Jan Tschernoster (Germany). In a post-race interview, David Gaudu regretted letting this move go as he sat on with the rest of the now chasing group. He really began to regret it when Van Hooydonck and Albanses bridge to the move, which then put it into over drive.<br />
<br />
The dreary weather didn't help the proceedings. Albanese took the sprint as well as the two small KOM climbs on offer. The group held a minute gap on the chasing group with Gaudu while the peloton bided their time until 30 kilometers to go, when they took up the chase group again. With Germany and Italy having sprinters in the peloton but men in the move, they were no help to the chase. With no other sprinters having a big chasing effort, it was more about teams wanting to limit the GC loses with Geoghegan Hart gaining precious time before the mountains.<br />
<br />
A small climb in the finish town of Veauche didn't do much to prevent the inevitable as Bardiani-bound Albanese won the sprint ahead of Grøndahl Jansen, from won the ZLM Roompot Tour & Tour de Gironde this year, and Van Hooydonck. Behind, it was Espoirs Central favorite U23 German sprinter Pascal Ackermann taking the bunch sprint ahead of Kristoffer Halvorsen (Norway) and Ivan Garcia Cortina (Spain). Albanese locked up the yellow jersey, sprint jersey and KOM jersey while Geoghegan Hart took 50 seconds on GC ahead of his closest rivals.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="es">
Vincenzo Albanese (<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ITA?src=hash">#ITA</a>) venció en la 1ª etapa del <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TourDeLAvenir?src=hash">#TourDeLAvenir</a>. Perfil de la 2ª de hoy: <a href="https://t.co/ig8mImsp9S">pic.twitter.com/ig8mImsp9S</a></div>
— Manu Lorenzo (@ManuLorenzo_) <a href="https://twitter.com/ManuLorenzo_/status/767345986431750144">August 21, 2016</a></blockquote>
<br />
Stage 2<br />
<br />
Even more straight forward, the attack of the day came on the only categorized climb of the day, the Côte de Charnay, when Grøndahl Jansen was at it again with a long range attack, similar to his day long romp in Gironde earlier this year.<br />
<br />
It wasn't for another 20 kilometers that a counter attack was made with Jon Dibben (GB) and Nico Denz (Germany) dropping Sergey Luchshenko and motoring up to Grøndahl Jansen. Even with a World Tour rider like Denz up the road, the gap went way out to nearly 6 minutes.<br />
<br />
The stage progressed on as riders in the peloton plodded along while the gap was minutes ahead. David Gaudu did take a spill but got up just fine. It really was a bit of a snore. Grøndahl Jansen does have a beautiful position on the bike that is a bit more old school than most riders these days; very long torso with a flat back.<br />
<br />
In the sprint, Dibben and Denz tried to mix it up a bit as the finish was a bit uphill but Grøndahl decimated them in the sprint while Halvorsen got the better of Ackermann this time for the lower placings.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="fr">
Le sprint pour la gagne et le sprint du peloton pour la 4e place en images. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TourdelAvenir?src=hash">#TourdelAvenir</a> <a href="https://t.co/bOhQ0t9Msq">pic.twitter.com/bOhQ0t9Msq</a></div>
— Tour de l'Avenir (@tourdelavenir) <a href="https://twitter.com/tourdelavenir/status/767403635705798660">August 21, 2016</a></blockquote>
Grøndahl Jansen now leads on GC by 1 minute on Denz, 2 minutes on Dibben and over 3 and a half on the main pack. He is no climber however the decision to let Denz get time is puzzling as he is a World Tour rider and he isn't a slouch in the mountains either, especially when he is on some good form. Why risk it? Especially when he has over 2'30" on the main group of GC contenders.<br />
<br />
Monday's stage is the longest of the Tour de l'Avenir this year and the last chance for any sprinters glory but as stated previously, the lack of organization with the chase is killing any chances of bunch sprints.<br />
<br />
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-13466291715803199042016-08-19T01:14:00.003-04:002016-08-19T01:14:43.565-04:0052nd Tour de l'Avenir Preview: This is itWell, it doesn't get much better than this. The Tour de l'Avenir is here within a few days and for the first time in years, an actual time trial joins the race. U23 races have such a lack of stage races with time trials that if there is anything more than a prologue, there is a cause for celebration. How does one prepare for the pro ranks without ever racing a 45 kilometer time trial?<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Le_Puy_en_Velay_Panorama.jpg/640px-Le_Puy_en_Velay_Panorama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Le_Puy_en_Velay_Panorama.jpg/640px-Le_Puy_en_Velay_Panorama.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stunning Le Puy-En-Velay in Auvergne is the take off point for the Tour de l'Avenir. One of my first memories of cycling was sitting in my grandparent's sitting room in West Virginia early one summer morning in 2005 watching Giuseppe Guerini attack his breakaway mates <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">late in the game</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> on stage 19 of the Tour de France before soloing into Le Puy-En-Velay for his final professional win.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Kicking off from Le Puy-En-Velay, the opening stage of the race isn't too difficult and should see a small breakaway get away early and get over the first two climbs of the race, both of which are fairly shallow. The trick will be if the small teams can pull back a strong move to set up for the bunch sprint into Veauche, which is just 20 clicks north of Saint-Etienne as well as on the banks of Loire River.<br />
<br />
Teams will be keen to keep the race together as once the hills begin to come, the chances for sprints will go out the window. Remember last year? Obviously you would if you were following Espoirs Central but a bunch sprint wasn't even contested as breakaways were the name of the game.<br />
<br />
Small note about the finishing town of Veauche is that former World Hour Record holder and World Pursuit champion Roger Riviere was married in the town and lived there. He has a <a href="http://www.geographic.org/streetview/view.php?place=RUE%20ROGER%20RIVIERE,%20VEAUCHE,%20Rhone-Alpes,%20France" target="_blank">small back street </a>named after him.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Stage 2</b><br />
<br />
The race takes off from Motrond-les-Bains and after a short northeast journey over another shallow category 4 climb, the race hits a few circuits in the Lyonnaise suburb of Trévoux, which is situated on a cliff overlooking the Saône river.<br />
<br />
The finishing circuit is fairly flat but does have a few bumps in it, including a nice little kick up to the finish line that looks like it could shake things up a bit including the expected bunch sprint.<br />
<br />
<b>Stage 3</b><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Autun_Pyramide_de_Couhard.jpg/640px-Autun_Pyramide_de_Couhard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Autun_Pyramide_de_Couhard.jpg/640px-Autun_Pyramide_de_Couhard.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Pyramid of Couhard, which sits near Autun and dates back to the first century A.D.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The longest stage of the race goes from the foothills of the Alps in Bourg-en-Bresse and travels northwest to the medieval city of Autun, which gets its first visit from the Tour de l'Avenir since 2000, when Janek Tombak won a breakaway sprint over Björn Leukemans and Sylvain Chavanel.<br />
<br />
Transitioning into the Saône-et-Loire department, the race takes in three small climbs early on in the stage as well as an uncategorized 4th climb between Charmoy and La Tagnière. The race itself flattens out again after this climb and then it has another short, sharp uphill finish at Autun.<br />
<br />
This stage could play to a breakaway as many of the GC favorites will be looking to protect themselves going into the time trial.<br />
<br />
<b>Stage 4</b><br />
<br />
For the first time since 2010, a time trial of actual consequence will appear here in the Tour de l'Avenir. As I said above, it is a rare treat to see a time trial, even of only 16 kilometers, appear in a U23 race usually as they stretch teams equipment wise as well as they can be a bit more costly for races.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Le_bourg_de_Lugny.jpg/320px-Le_bourg_de_Lugny.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Le_bourg_de_Lugny.jpg/320px-Le_bourg_de_Lugny.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lugny from above</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
25 years ago, Lugny was the launch point for the penultimate stage of the 1991 Tour de France, which funnily enough was also a time trial; a massive 57 kilometer test to Macon. Miguel Indurain won the stage on the way to his first overall win.<br />
<br />
The race itself goes out and around Lugny on a rolling course that has a number of turns in it but it isn't too hard so time trial specialists should be licking their chops.<br />
<br />
<b>Stage 5</b><br />
<br />
After a fairly long transfer that is 200+ kilometers from Lugny to Scionzier, the race finally gets its first uphill finish with the race going up the stair step climb at Le Carroz d'Arâches, a nice little ski resort. The stage itself is quite short by being only 98 kilometers and while there is a climb nearly right out of the gate, there is about 70 kilometers in the middle that are nice and flat, which will give the proverbial breakaway time to get some distance.<br />
<br />
The gradient on the final climb isn't like a deep Alpine climb but at 5.5% for the last 3 kilometers up to the finish, it could definitely cause some separation. This stage could go one of two ways in that a breakaway could succeed as there are still three more mountain stages after this for GC men OR a GC favorite will lay it down to set the standard much like Marc Soler did on this stage last year.<br />
<br />
<b>Stage 6</b><br />
<br />
Much like last year's stage 6, the race will first go over the <a href="http://climbbybike.com/profile.asp?Climbprofile=Col-des-Saisies&MountainID=6545" target="_blank">Col des Saisies</a>, which is only an average of 5% but hits ramps of up to 10% and certainly isn't a very steady climb. After 17 kilometers of descent down to the village of Beaufort, the race will deviate from last year's stage by taking in the Col du Pré instead of going up the long way on the Cormet de Roseland. The Pré climb is steep with an average gradient over 7% that jumps around in gradient but sees sustained gradients of 10 to 11% before the summit. After a short descent, brings the race up to the Lac de Roseland resevoir.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Lac_du_Roselend.jpg/320px-Lac_du_Roselend.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Lac_du_Roselend.jpg/320px-Lac_du_Roselend.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lac de Roseland on the Cormet de Roseland pass</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Cormet de Roseland might be shorter but still has some decent gradients between 5 and 7% before topping out at nearly 2000m in elevation. Following 20 kilometers of nearly straight descending, the race finds a brief pause before entering Ste-Foy-Tarentaise, where the riders will begin their final climb up to the ski resort at Tignes. Profile of the final climb can be seen here and as can be seen, the climb is relatively steady (4.5-6%) for the vast majority of the climb until they approach the resort, where the gradient averages over 8% over the final three kilometers.<br />
<br />
For most races, this would see a race defining event but for l'Avenir, there are still two more stages to go...<br />
<br />
<b>Stage 7</b><br />
<br />
Moving just a stone's throw away from Tignes to Val d'Isere, which together form the Espace Killy ski area, which is one of the big three ski areas in the Tarentaise Valley. From the end of the neutral rollout, the riders go 300 meters before going straight uphill on the Col de l'Iseran, the highest mountain pass in the Alps that tops out at 2746 meters (9'086 feet), which is almost home for some riders from Colorado or perhaps Quito, Ecuador.<br />
<br />
Once everyone is close to blacking out, the race tips downward for nearly 40 kilometers with only a couple of brief climbs upward. They go over the short and sweet Cote de Sardieres, which is easy compared with everything else on tap, before continuing downhill to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, which is over 2000 meters lower than where they were 72 kilometers prior (a 2.78% downhill gradient).<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.cycling-challenge.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Col-de-Beaune.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.cycling-challenge.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Col-de-Beaune.jpg" height="296" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Col de Beaune, which is the third climb on tap for the day.<br /><a href="http://www.cycling-challenge.com/col-de-beau-plan-and-above/#prettyPhoto/1/" target="_blank">(photo: cyclingchallenge.com by the fantastic WillJ)</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.duckduckgo.com/iur/?f=1&image_host=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fd%2Fd3%2FSt_Martin_d%2527Arc.JPG&u=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/St_Martin_d%27Arc.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://images.duckduckgo.com/iur/?f=1&image_host=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fd%2Fd3%2FSt_Martin_d%2527Arc.JPG&u=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/St_Martin_d%27Arc.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Making it back to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, the race goes along the valley to St. Martin d'Arc, where the climb to Valmeinier begins.</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The <a href="http://www.climbbybike.com/profile.asp?Climbprofile=Valmeinier&MountainID=7182" target="_blank">final climb to Valmeinier</a> is another two-part climb with the first part being a strong, sustained gradient around 8% for the first few kilometers before backing down slightly to 6 to 7%. With 5 kilometers to go, the road flattens out for half a kilometer where the actual village of Valmeinier is before going upwards again for the final 4 kilometers, where the gradients are sustained around 7 to 8%. The race finishes short of the true finish of the climb but the riders won't certainly mind that.<br />
<br />
There is no place to rest once the race hits Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne so if you are a racer, you will need to be on point if you have any business being up front.<br />
<br />
<b>Stage 7</b><br />
<br />
This stage is short, sweet and direct to the point. Two climbs. Once the first 15 kilometers of flat riding are out of the way, there are 57 kilometers of either up or down. The race is basically the opposite of last year's final stage finale as it is La Toussuire up first followed by a summit finish on the Col de la Croix-de-Fer.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a2/Chapellestroch.jpeg/640px-Chapellestroch.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a2/Chapellestroch.jpeg/640px-Chapellestroch.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Saint-Roch chapel at Varcinières, just outside of Jarrier.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
La Toussuire is La Toussuire. A prototypical Alpine climb that does level off in places but is in the 7 to 8% gradient range for the majority of the time. This year, they are climbing the other side of La Toussuire that begins at Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. Moving up the D 78d, the riders go past hamlets such as Jarrier before hitting ski towns like Les Bottieres and L'Alpettaz. The climb then takes a left onto the D 78 and hits the ski station of Les Sybelles, which is one of the largest in France and the summit of the La Toussuire climb.<br />
<br />
Once off the descent, the course follows the l'Arvan river, which forms the Arves Valley to the feet of the Croix de Fer climb. The ride down the river valley is uphill for the most part and half of it is uncategorized, at least by the race, until they hit the Saint-Sorlin-D'Arves. From here, the race will be blown apart. The final 7 kilometers never fall under 7.5% gradient with one kilometer averaging nearly 10%. Topping out at 2057 meters, the 52nd Tour de l'Avenir comes to a close.<br />
<br />
Last year, I said it was one of the best editions yet. This year's race look like it could even go past that.<br />
<br />
**Unless otherwise noted, all photos are used via WikiCommons<br />
<br />
In terms of favorites, the official start list has not been confirmed so if you are looking for a breakdown, you might want to head over to <a href="https://twitter.com/EspoirsCentral" target="_blank">@EspoirsCentral</a> on Twitter for more later on today.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-62726652384602960752016-07-22T04:31:00.001-04:002016-07-22T04:31:06.433-04:00European U23 Track ChampionshipsIt has been 10 days since Italian maestro Filippo Ganna laid down incredible individual pursuit times at the European Junior & U23 Track Championships with nary a ripple in the broader cycling community due to the Tour de France casting a gigantic shadow over every other event and discipline.<br />
<br />
While Ganna's performance was one for the record books, there were others that certainly shouldn't be overshadowed. While I am a little late on this, you should thank me for giving you light reading during the time between 100 kilometers and 50 kilometers to go in the tour stages coming this weekend. You're welcome. Also, go to your local velodrome and support the racing.<br />
<br />
<b>Ivo Oliveira</b><br />
<br />
If you haven't followed Iberia or track cycling closely, you are remiss in your duties to know everything about the cycling development world. <a href="https://youtu.be/05KRRoSqmo0" target="_blank">Shame. Shame. Shame.</a> Anywho, Ivo Oliveira is 1/2 of a very good twin brother combination with the other half being Rui Oliveira. Rui got himself quite banged up due to a pretty bad accident so Ivo has been carrying the weight and quite well actually.<br />
<br />
While Ganna was setting his incredible times, Ivo was setting some scorching times himself and lowering personal bests by a healthy margin. In qualifying, Ivo put down a 4'18"671" and proceeded to lower than in the finals by riding a 4'17"448", which would have put him in 2nd place in the World Championships behind who else but Ganna.<br />
<br />
Ivo then competed in the Kilo time trial and placed 7th, posting up a 1'02"497". Then the points race, where he was also 7th place. Enough? Nope. Ivo then rode the Omnium, placing 3rd behind Direct Energie's Thomas Boudat and Pole Szymon Sajnok. Ivo is pretty good in bunch events but he got worked over in the points race by only taking a lap (along with 5 others) and scoring in only 4 lap sprints.<br />
<br />
So that you aren't shamed again, you need to put Ivo down on your list for Omnium favorites for Tokyo 2020.<br />
<br />
<b>Team Pursuit</b><br />
<br />
With Italy's resurgence in the team pursuit on all levels (to my absolute joy), the French have showed continued progress in the team event. What I mean by continued progress is taking a huge chunk off of their last performance at the World Championships. At London Worlds, France rode a 4'05", which is fast but way off a medal times.<br />
<br />
In Montichiari, France came out with 3/4 of their Worlds Team (Florian Maitre, Ben Thomas and Thomas Denis) but came with Corentin Ermenault, who is basically a two-cylinder engine. In qualifying, Italy took the top placing by running a 3'58"745", which was better than last year's European U23 TP winning time by Great Britain. France was close behind in 3'59"353, which is very fast but could have been even faster as France had a horrific opening kilometer that was 2.5 seconds slower than Italy's opener and only 9th fastest. They followed that horrible opening by three sub 58 kilometers to close out the race and end up six tenths slower than Italy.<br />
<br />
In the finals, France started slower than Italy but much faster than their qualifying. Then they ripped a sub 57 second kilometer, which is just leg melting. That is 63.5 kilometers per hour or 39.45 miles per hour for a whole kilometer. This was followed by a 57 second kilometer and a 57.5 second final kilometer. They took a 1.6 second deficit after the opening kilometer to a stacked Italian team and turned it into a win by .1 seconds.<br />
<br />
France ended up with a 3'56"277" over Italy's 3'56"393", which is definitely getting into bronze medal territory. The encouraging thing is that theoretically both teams could get better. Italy has Viviani or even Liam Bertazzo that could replace Plebiani while with France, they have Boudat or with more slim chances, Bryan Coquard and Damian Gaudin.<br />
<br />
While Italy is going to Rio and France is not, France is certainly looking healthy going forward to 2020.<br />
<br />
<b>Elsewhere...</b><br />
<br />
Thomas Boudat and Jon Dibben rode very well with wins in the Omnium and Points Race, respectively. Boudat dominated the Omnium with wins in the Individual Pursuit and Elimination along with getting a massive 94 points in the Points Race after taking 3 laps along with eating up point sprints.<br />
<br />
Dibben on the other hand is dealing with the kick in the gut that was missing out on the Rio Olympics due to Mark Cavendish's gold medal orgasm along with Ed Clancy coming back from injury but making the team pursuit squad. He proceeded to take 5 laps on the decent field of riders and show that he is on an Olympic level but will be most likely be left out until Tokyo 2020.<br />
<br />
I was a bit surprised to see Xhuliano Kamberaj (Albania) here in the Scratch and Points Race, where he finished next to last and dead last. Good on him for trying something new as he hasn't been racing much with SkyDive Dubai (nothing since the Giro del Trentino) so this is something, I guess.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-34042877747697291412016-07-20T03:43:00.002-04:002016-07-20T03:43:11.711-04:00Valle d'Aosta Wrap Up, pt 2: Living on the EdgeThe most exciting race in Europe continued on with a two-banger set of climbs on stage 4 that rivals anything in any pro race with the Champremier climb followed by a wicked descent along with the Clavalite climb, which features an eye-popping max gradient of 19% as well as the final three kilometers averaging 11%.<br />
<br />
After a breakaway got away early in the race, the Clavalite climb was the decisive part of the race. While race leader Mark Padun was climbing well early on, his efforts had finally caught up with him once Enric Mas and Kilian Frankiny hit the gas on the early parts of the climb. The Spanish/Swiss duo soon caught up to the last breakaway rider, Norway's Anders Skaarseth, and spit him out accordingly. A cut above the rest on the steepest climb of the day, the duo began to extend their lead on the chasers, which were led by Manzana teammates Hernan <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aguirre,_the_Wrath_of_God" target="_blank">Aguirre, The Wrath of God</a> and Aldemar Reyes along with Edward Ravasi (Colpack) and a struggling Padun.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Mas and Frankiny are together when 2km to go <a href="https://t.co/2eEmOwbAou">pic.twitter.com/2eEmOwbAou</a></div>
— Giro Valle d'Aosta (@GiroVdA) <a href="https://twitter.com/GiroVdA/status/754308821208621058">July 16, 2016</a></blockquote>
<br />
Mas had put in an acceleration mid-way up the climb but after Frankiny slowly brought him back, the Swiss rider launched an attack within the last two kilometers and summited the Clavalite climb solo and pressed home the advantage, which ended up being 23 seconds by the time that Mas crossed the chalk line. It seemed as if the GC was set between the two heavy favorites as race leader Padun ceded nearly 5 minutes and would begin the final day down a few seconds shy of 2 minutes. It would take a miracle for this to happen but the sirens of the mountains have their way of working things.<br />
<br />
There is something that results sheets do not tell you or no metric in cycling can really tell you. There are riders that would see they are 2 minutes down on GC with one stage to go and with the group of Colombians climbing well behind them, they would play it conservatively and try to protect their placing. Then there are others that would do what got them there in the first place by attacking the race, riding with panache beyond their years and scaring the living hell out of the race's heavy favorites.<br />
<br />
Racing to the base of the Matterhorn at Breuil Cervinia, a large breakaway got away early but once Dan Pearson (Wiggins) was away on the Col de St. Pantaléon, the touch paper was lit behind. Pearson was caught and passed by Filippo Zaccanti (Colpack), who went over the climb alone. Just short of the KOM, Padun laid down a wicked attack that caught out many in the yellow jersey group and by the time that the race hit the bottom in Antey St. André, Padun caught up to his teammate Zaccanti and drew out Ravasi along with Frankiny. While it is unclear where it happened, Enric Mas had a flat tire that put him way behind the action and had him chasing all of the way.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.girovalledaosta.it/images/phocagallery/edizioni/2016/5tappa/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_img_5017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.girovalledaosta.it/images/phocagallery/edizioni/2016/5tappa/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_img_5017.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
On the climb to Breuil Cervinia, Zaccanti had done his job and left it to the Padun/Ravasi to deal with Frankiny. Once on the final climb, Padun put in another acceleration that saw Ravasi follow him and Frankiny have to drop off the pace. Taking the race by the neck, Padun and Ravasi kept on the gas while Frankiny was in a tail spin. Ravasi was actually going a bit too quick for Padun at one point and probably could have gone ahead on his own but with the overall GC back in sight, it was all for one.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Enric Mas was pulling back a deficit that was over two minutes at one point and was absolutely flying up the climb. With Frankiny suffering through the final kilometers of the climb, the Mallorcan sauntered up to him with roughly 4 kilometers to go and after a brief rest, proceeded to go by him.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Hot take from Aosta: GC men gave too much time to Padun. They better be ready for a fight from Colpack.</div>
— Chris K. (@Vlaanderen90) <a href="https://twitter.com/Vlaanderen90/status/753660002854993920">July 14, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Up front, the Colpack duo were proving my words to be right as the GC gap was growing very tenuous as the kilometers dwindled away. At one point, Padun was within 5 seconds of Frankiny's overall lead. Mas attacked the BMC Development rider with 3 kilometers to go and started to put time into the leader. As you can see above, Colpack got to celebrate with Ravasi and Padun going 1-2 on the final stage, which is where they also won in 2014 in a 1-2 with Manuel Senni (now BMC) and Giro stage winner Giulio Ciccone (Bardiani).<br />
<br />
With DSs literally biting their nails down to the nubs waiting for Mas and Frankiny to come in, the BMC Development rider reached down deep to keep Mas in check and rolling in 1'46" down on Padun and just 7 seconds down on Enric Mas, Kilian Frankiny saved his overall win and took easily the biggest win of his U23 career in a beautiful way.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.girovalledaosta.it/images/phocagallery/edizioni/2016/5tappa/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_img_5087.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.girovalledaosta.it/images/phocagallery/edizioni/2016/5tappa/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_img_5087.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
The gap back to Mas on the GC was only 8 paltry seconds, which coincidently was the gap between BMC Development and Klein Constantia in the opening stage TTT. While the flat tire Mas suffered drastically changed the game, it goes to show that a strong team can make all of the difference. Mas was certainly climbing better on the final stage but without that flat tire, the whole stage could have played out entirely differently. Frankiny used Swiss-like precision across the whole race and even with his final stage sputtering, it still worked.<br />
<br />
Padun was a name on Espoirs Central radar that I was hoping would make a splash here but did much more than that. The big names made a mistake in giving him so much time on the 2nd stage breakaway and Padun & Colpack exploited that mistake to the fullest by nearly taking Colpack's first overall win here since Davide Villella's domination in 2013 edition. Ravasi proved that his climbing skills are lethal and while he might not be an overall threat in every race, he can kick the shit out of many riders in the mountains. The scariest thing about Padun? He only just turned 20 years old.<br />
<br />
Aldemar Reyes and Hernan Aguirre, the Wrath of God certainly made their Manzana team proud and delivered home the best team prize by over 9 minutes on Klein Constantia and 24 minutes on Colpack. While this was a big target and Reyes was just off the mark on one stage, this is certainly a benchmark going forward to the Tour de l'Avenir.<br />
<br />
It should be noted that the breakaway riders on stage 3 to Piani di Tavagnasco in Etixx-OPQS recruit Max Schachmann, Pavel Sivakov (BMC Development) and Jose Luis Rodriguez (UCI Cycling Centre) all hung on very well in the coming mountains to finish 7th through 9th on the GC. There is a strong feeling in Espoirs Central HQ that Schachmann could be a huge surprise in the Tour de l'Avenir and his performance here only underlines this hunch. Same for Rodriguez, who has had a breakthrough year this year and the Chilean could be the first from his nation to hit the top 10 overall at the Tour de l'Avenir if he plays his cards right.<br />
<br />
If it wasn't for the breakaway riders in the top 10, Bjorg Lambrecht and Tobias Foss would have most likely made the top 10 overall, which would have been a fantastic result for the two first year U23 riders. Lambrecht made a splash earlier this year with his win in the Ronde de l'Isard and subsequent results but Foss is coming off much less and after promising results from Odd Eiking and Sindre Lunke here in recent years, Norway still has more to look forward to in the mountains in the coming years.<br />
<br />
It should be mentioned that this race was 10 times more exciting that than Tour de France and if this had live television on every stage, people's jaws would be hitting the floor, especially with the scenery. Here is hoping to the next edition!<br />
<br />
(Photos used come from girovalledaosta.it)<br />
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2110439682106915069.post-39439766482559096972016-07-18T18:31:00.003-04:002016-07-18T18:31:48.889-04:00Valle d'Aosta Wrap-Up: The Rise of Mark Padun, Part 1While trying to focus on work, I was scrolling through Twitter updates about the first stage from the Giro della Valle d'Aosta to see what the hell was happening. When I saw who was in the breakaway, I shook my head. Mark Padun (Colpack) got himself into the breakaway with a handful of others and I was wondering to myself if the riders behind knew who they were dealing with. Padun was 8th in the 2015 edition of the U23 Peace Race/Zavod Miru and while his international results this year haven't been as good as they could be, he has been riding very strongly in Italy and was just 2nd in the Medio Brenta the other day.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
A shot from the breakaway <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/girovda?src=hash">#girovda</a> that's crossing railway! Km 83 <a href="https://t.co/aO6rxuMqrT">pic.twitter.com/aO6rxuMqrT</a></div>
— Giro Valle d'Aosta (@GiroVdA) <a href="https://twitter.com/GiroVdA/status/753559156427198464">July 14, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<br />
Without giving a verbatim re-telling of the ticker, Padun accelerated on the Saxonnex climb to separate himself from the breakaway while Zilio and Bagioli (both Zalf) came across on the descent along with Ben Brkic (Tirol). On the Saint-Gervais climb, Padun accelerated with Bagioli and then in the final kilometers of the climb, Padun moved away from Bagioli and took a beautiful solo win.<br />
<br />
From Espoirs Central preview:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "times new roman" , "times" , "freeserif" , serif; font-size: 15.84px; line-height: 22.17px;">Padun could certainly win a stage if he gets it right... </span></blockquote>
Behind, the peloton was not taking any time out of Padun, as if they didn't know of the threat that they had. The group of favorites stayed together behind until finally accelerating towards the end with Enric Mas (Klein Constantia) coming across the line in 3rd on the same time as Aldemar Reyes (Manzana Postobon) and Edward Ravasi (Colpack) while Bjorg Lambrecht, Thomas Vereecken, Steff Cras (Lotto-Soudal U23), Killian Frankiny (BMC Development) Hernan Aguirre, The Wrath of God (Manzana Postobon), Markus Freiberger (Tirol) and Tobias Foss (Norway) coming across within 10 seconds of Mas.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Hot take from Aosta: GC men gave too much time to Padun. They better be ready for a fight from Colpack.</div>
— Chris K. (@Vlaanderen90) <a href="https://twitter.com/Vlaanderen90/status/753660002854993920">July 14, 2016</a></blockquote>
<br />
With Padun in the yellow leader's jersey, stage 3 rolled out from Quincinetto on a flatter circuit with only a couple of climbs until Piani di Tavagnasco, the brutal ascent out of the Dora Baltea river valley that averages nearly 11.5% for almost 10 kilometers.<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
The day's breakaway had real power with U23 World TT medalist Max Schachmann (Klein Constantia) joined by Pavel Sivakov (BMC Development), Jose Luis Rodriguez (UCI) and Luca Raggio (Viris Maserati). Raggio was shed coming into Tavagnasco and the breakaway got a maximum advantage of 7 minutes. The trio kept moving while behind it was Scott Davies and Dan Pearson (both Wiggins) attacking the peloton and made it up to Raggio and quickly passed him but passed them but were unable to join the leaders up front before the climb started.<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
On the lower slopes of the climb, the breakaway moved well together but Schachmann soon distanced himself as the best climber in the group and toddled up the climb faster than Sivakov and Rodriguez but Sivakov was doing well to keep the gap manageable. While the yellow jersey group accelerated behind and whittled down to a group of just 5, Schachmann continued to stretch his advantage on the chasers.<br />
<br /><br />
In the end, Schachmann took the fantastic win on the very steep Tavagnasco with Sivakov coming in 40 seconds down and Rodriguez just making it ahead of the steaming chasers. The Balaeric rider Mas launched a flyer and took 11 seconds out of Kilian Frankiny with Hernan Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Padun and Reyes coming in just seconds behind him. Padun kept his grasp on the yellow jersey very strong while GC became more defined with Mas & Frankiny looking to be the next two in contention with Manzana having the strongest overall team.<br />
<br /><br />
Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Wrap-Up with steep climbs, dirt roads and more drama than the Tour de France has provided so far.<br />
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11150787301606108610noreply@blogger.com0