Weekend Update: Gomirato recompensed in Cimetta; Arden Challenge & everything else plus more

While the weekend was dominated by two bigger events on Saturday, that was by no means everything that happened. With Easter Sunday, it was a much lighter racing calendar as many of the races were pushed to Easter Monday, which is still celebrated in Europe but for many in the USA, it is just another work day.

Circuito del Termen

The contrast between Gomirato (c) and Mareczko (green, l) is quite amusing.
(Photo: ItaliaCiclismo)

While Nicolas Marini, Davide Martinelli and the rest of the Italian National Team was still getting their heads kicked in up in Northern Europe, it was business as usual on Sunday for Zalf-Euromobil. While head hunter Jakub Mareczko (Viris Maserati) was present, the ever faithful lead-out man Davide Gomirato and Daniele Cavasin held down the fort with aplomb for the Veneto-based team.

While the race was pretty short at just 98 kilometers, Zalf-Euromobil and Viris-Maserati kept it together for the big bunch sprint. Gomirato, who usually is the last man on the Zalf-Euromobil train and drops off Marini on a regular basis, had the favor returned to him by Cavasin and the older Venetian, who is 26 this year, was able to topple Mareczko, who had beat both Caleb Ewan and Marini in the last couple of weeks. It was Gomirato's first win in nearly 4 years and it was well deserved after all of the work he puts in on the sprint train. Mareczko was definitely grumpy in 2nd place as he thought he would easily take the sprint while Cavasin was in 3rd ahead of Romanian Andrei Voicu.

G-Skin Arden Challenge

Why do i get the worst images in my head when I read the word, G-Skin? Seriously, I've tried acting like an adult but obviously that doesn't keep me from shaking my head and chuckling. Anyways, the Arden Challenge is a series of four one-day road races in the Luxembourg province of Belgium. Last year, Simon Yates won the overall competition (based upon points) and past winners include David Boucher, Thomas Rabou and Niels Albert.

I do not have many details because there was no live ticker and next to no coverage. Stage 1 was won by Jan Lof, who I have never heard of before now. I see he finished 14th in the Elite Men's National TT for the Netherlands last year and has raced throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. American U23 Dan Eaton, who was a sensation this spring in the US, finished 5th, which was good enough for best U23.

Stage 2 was dominated by the USA National Team as Jeff Perrin won the 136 kilometer race while Dan Eaton finished in 3rd while Niels Vandorsselaer (Baguet Bicycle Center) was sandwiched between the two for 2nd.

Eamon Franck thought he won stage 3 on Sunday but inside the last 30 meters, Nathan Van Hooydonck (Bissell) came through to take the victory while Jasper Dult (CT 2020) finished 3rd to make it the 2nd-all U23 podium of the weekend.

Boys rocked it today! @jeffperrin_72 3rd on the day takes overall at Arden Challenge! @USACyclingU23 awesome day! pic.twitter.com/LFc2zVDzAz
— Billy Crane (@erabu) April 21, 2014

The Arden Challenge finished up today with Antoine Warnier taking the victory while American Jeff Perrin (USA National) took 3rd place overall to secure the overall classification as well as the best U23 competition.

Other Results

-While he missed out at the Liege-Bastogne-Liege U23, Pierre-Roger Latour took out his fury on peloton at Saint Lye, located in the Champagne region, on Sunday. Latour got away with his Chambery CF teammate Nans Peters and  Bruno Chardon (ASPTT Nancy) and they got a lead of over 6 minutes ahead of the chasing peloton before Latour dropped the hammer and went solo to take the victory 48 seconds ahead of Peters and 1:34 ahead of Chardon with the peloton remnants coming in 6:43 down.

-Russian and Ukranian teams were messing around in the 5-stage GP Adygeya. U23 Alexander Foliforov won the queen stage to Lago Naki outside of the provincial capital of Maykop, which featured a finishing climb of ~14 kilometers and nearly 900 meters of elivation gain. Ilnur Zakarin (RusVelo) won the overall (you might remember Zakarin as the doper who came back in 2012 as a U23 and went on to start his pro career with RusVelo) while Oleg Zemlyakov (Vino!4Eva) was the best U23 rider, finishing 11th overall at 4'33" behind Zakarin. I do have to say that it would be fucking hell to be a Ukranian racing in Russia right now, especially if you were not in favor of Putin. Some people say sports should transcend politics or whatever but I'm sure there were some terse moments in the peloton.

Coming later: Giro del Belvedere report