Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
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2017 Tour de France | 2017 Giro d'Italia
Unite liberality with a just frugality; always reserve something for the hand of charity; and never let your door be closed to the voice of suffering humanity. - Patrick Henry
Current racing:
- Oct 19 - 24: Tour of Guangxi
Latest completed racing:
- October 22: Japan Cup
- October 17: Nationale Sluitingsprijs Putte-Kapellen
- Oct 10 - 15: Tour of Turkey
- October 8: Paris-Tours
- October 7: Il Lombardia
- October 5: Milano-Torino
- October 5: Paris-Bourges
Tour of Guangxi stage five team reports
This is from second-place Fernando Gaviria's Quick-Step Floors team:
Fernando Gaviria notched up his 17th top-3 finish of the season on the penultimate day of the Tour of Guangxi, which started from Liuzhou and took the peloton to Guilin, over 212.2 kilometers sprinkled with several short hills which in the end didn't pose any problem to the sprinters, who got over those climbs and took center stage for the fourth time at this edition.
Triple stage winner Fernando Gaviria carried the flag once again for Quick-Step Floors and after being launched by the excellent Maximiliano Richeze, crossed the line in second, following a tight sprint won by a hair's breadth by Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo). Teammate Julian Alaphilippe concluded in the same time and retained his white jersey ahead of the final day (Guilin – Guilin, 168 kilometers).
"It was a really long stage, especially for the month of October. The boys did a fine job from the start of the day, sheltering me from the wind and on the climbs, while at the same time pulling behind the escapees and bringing them back. I'm not happy with my second place, as the goal was to win, but on the plus side I've increased my lead in the points standings ahead of the last stage", said Fernando, who tops the blue jersey classification by over 20 points.
And here's what third-place Magnus Cort Nielsen's Orica-Scott team had to say about the stage:
In-form Grand Tour stage winner Magnus Cort sprinted to his second third place of the race for ORICA-SCOTT on stage five of the Tour of Guangxi, after making the split into the front group on a long rolling stage.
The longest stage of the race at 212.2 kilometres and covering four categorised climbs started with a bang as attack after attack marked the opening 60kilometres before a breakaway trio made it up the road.
After enjoying a lead of over five minutes the trio were finally caught when the main peloton split into the closing 25 kilometres before a front group of 70 riders sped into the finale in the city of Guilin. Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) took out the stage victory, winning the sprint ahead of Fernando Gaviria (QuickStep-Floors) and Cort.
Dylan Groenewegen wins Guangxi stage five
“It was a quite a long stage today, but really enjoyable racing,” said sport director Matt Wilson. “There was a couple of little climbs with around 30/40kilometres to go and they really spiced the race up.”
“Movistar decided to put the hammer down on the climbs and split the race apart which made for a really exciting finale. Coming in the guys did a great job again of positioning Magnus for the sprint and he executed it very well, but was beaten in the end by faster sprinters.
“We have no complaints, the boys rode well today and with third place it’s nice to get another credible result going into the last stage tomorrow.”
How it happened:
A fast start to the longest stage of the race saw numerous attacks attempting to from the breakaway including movement from Chris Juul Jensen and Jens Keuekeleire, but it wasn’t until 60 kilometres later that a breakaway finally went clear.
Three riders held a five-minute advantage over the peloton at the halfway point with 105 kilometres still to race and three categorised climbs to come and Lotto-Soudal leading the bunch.
The trio started to ship time to the peloton in the final third as the race spit over the climbs. A reduced bunch of around 70 riders was caught the three leaders with 25 kilometres to go with two smaller groups chasing behind.
Flying down the descent towards the finish in Guilin the peloton maintained a high pace into the last five kilometres with Lotto-Soudal and QuickStep-Floors driving forward.
A frantic sprint unfolded with Groenewegen taking the win and Cort claiming another third place to maintain his overall position on GC in 12th place.
European Commission starts investigation on E-bike dumping by China
Bike Europe sent me this news:
BRUSSELS, Belgium – Last Friday, 20 October 2017, the European Commission published in the Official Journal of the European Union a “Notice of initiation of an anti-dumping proceeding concerning imports of electric bicycles originating in the People’s Republic of China.”
The Notice says that the European Commission has received a complaint on dumping by China of electric bicycles by the European Bicycle Manufacturers Association (EBMA) on behalf of producers representing more than 25 % of the total Union production of electric bicycles. This complaint was lodged on 8 September 2017.
The 20 October Notice further says “The information available to the Commission contains a comparison of the normal value with the export price (at ex-works level) of the product under investigation when sold for export to the Union. On this basis the dumping margins calculated are significant for the country concerned.”
Next to significant dumping margins the in the Official EU Journal published document also says that evidence has been provided that the e-bike import from China into the EU has increased overall both in absolute terms and in terms of market share. And that this has had “A negative impact on the quantities sold, the level of prices charged and the market share held by the Union industry, resulting in substantial adverse effects on the overall performance and the financial situation of the Union industry.”
You can read the entire story here.
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