Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
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2018 Tour de France | 2018 Giro d'Italia
Money is in some respects life's fire: it is a very excellent servant, but a terrible master. - P. T. Barnum
Today's racing:
- This is national championship week. I'll start tracking them Wednesday afternoon.
Upcoming racing:
- July 7 - 29: Tour de France
Latest completed racing:
- June 19: Halle Ingooigem
- June 9 - 17: Tour de Suisse
- June 14 - 17: Route d'Occitanie (was Route du Sud)
- June 3 - 10: Critérium du Dauphiné
- June 10: Rund um Koln
- June 7: GP Kanton Aargau
- May 30 - June 3: Tour de Luxembourg
- June 3: GP di Lugano
- May 4 - 27: Giro d'Italia
Team Quick-Step Floors looks back at Halle-Ingooigem
Here's the team's report on the Belgian race:
Fabio Jakobsen came close to his fourth victory of the season, after the one in Nokere Koerse, Scheldeprijs and stage 1 of the Tour des Fjords, only to be denied by Danny van Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo) from a small bunch who survived the day's thirteen climbs and the plethora of attacks which seriously trimmed down the peloton in the final 60 kilometers, after the original breakaway had been brought back.
A nine-man group bolted clear some 20 kilometers from the finish of the 194.7km Halle-Ingooigem, opening a 26-second gap, but Quick-Step Floors and Verandas Willems-Crelan led the chase and reeled them in before the 10km-to-go banner. Soon, a new attack came, which was closed down on the Tiegemberg, the famous hill tackled six times on Tuesday, where a new trio powered ahead and put eight seconds between them and the chasers, who made the catch only inside the last two kilometers.
In the sprint, Van Poppel was the first to kick out, with Fabio Jakobsen responding immediately as he came off the wheel of experienced lead-out man Michael Mørkøv with 150 meters to go before pushing ahead and throwing his bike over the line, narrowly missing out on the win for a matter of centimeters.
Quick-Step's Fabio Jakobsen came close, but the race was Danny van Poppel's.
"I felt good and the entire team did a great job. Dries, who's been out for three months, chased hard the escapees, Pieter took over on the circuit – which was really demanding – while the other guys tried to be in the various moves and protect me throughout the day. Michael provided a good lead-out, but I jumped a second too late from the field and that was that", Fabio said after Tuesday's race. "I am disappointed to finish second, as I had strong legs and felt I could have won, but this result is already history now and I will move my focus to next Sunday's National Championships."
Team Dimension Data previews Adriatica Ionica race
Here's the the team's posting:
Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka will start the inaugural edition of the Adriatica Ionica Race, in Italy. The UCI 2.1 event will comprise of 5 stages, starting with a team time trial in Jesolo tomorrow.
The Adriatica Ionica Race is a new event on the UCI calendar and our African Team is looking forward to taking our colours to this seldom raced in region. Starting in Jesolo, a flat 23km team time trial gets racing underway but it is stage 3 that really sticks out as the queen stage, with the finish being perched up at the summit of the Passo Giau.
Stages 2, 4 and 5 are interesting as they could definitely be raced with the sprint team’s interests in mind, but there are enough undulations each stage for an opportunist to want to have a go.
Our African Team will be heading to the race in the hope that the sprinters do in fact have the final say, as Mark Cavendish looks to get a few more sprints under his belt before heading to the Tour de France.
Mark Cavendish earlier this at the Dubai Tour.
Joining Cavendish from our African Team at the Adriatica Ionica Race will be Mark Renshaw, Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, Ryan Gibbons, Jay Thomson and Nic Dlamini.
JP Heynderickx – Sport Director
It is always nice to start the first edition of a race and in a region that doesn’t see all that much top level racing. All organizers like to offer up something special or unique to their event so we look forward to this from the Adriatica Ionica Race. For us, we don’t have a rider for the Passo Giau stage and therefore the GC, but our focus is to give Mark and the team the opportunity to complete the final preparations ahead of the Tour.
Lineup:
Mark Cavendish
Mark Renshaw
Reinardt Janse van Rensburg
Ryan Gibbons
Jay Thomson
Nic Dlamini
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