Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Saturday, October 20, 2018
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2018 Tour de France | 2018 Giro d'Italia
A lie told often enough becomes the truth. - Vladimir Lenin
Upcoming racing:
- October 21: Japan Cup
- October 23 - 31: Tour of Hainan
Latest completed racing:
- October 9 - 14: Presidential Tour of Turkey
- October 14: Chrono des Nations
- October 13: Il Lombardia
- October 11: Gran Piemonte
- October 10: Milano-Torino
- October 9: Tre Valli Varesine
- October 7: Paris-Tours
- October 7: GP Bruno Beghelli
- October 6: Giro dell'Emilia
- October 4: Paris-Bourges
- October 3: Sparkassen Munsterland-Giro
Gianni Moscon wins stage four and takes lead in Tour of Guangxi
Bora-hansgrohe sent me this report:
The fourth stage of the Tour of Guangxi took the riders from Nanning over 153km up to the Mashan Nongla climb. Right after the start two riders built the breakaway of the day and after some kilometres, the advantage increased to more than two minutes. BORA – hansgrohe rode in the peloton and waited until the final climb to make a move. Approaching the final climb, the breakaway was caught and G. Moscon launched an attack. BORA – hansgrohe rider Felix Großschartner was in a good position and tried to follow the attack. In the final 500m G. Moscon had a small gap over his opponents and took the stage win, while Felix Großschartner climbed to second place on today’s uphill summit finish. In the general classification Felix now sits in second position, nine seconds behind the new leader G. Moscon.
Results
01 G. Moscon 3:38:02
02 F. Großschartner +0:05
03 S. Chernetski +0:08
From the Finish Line
“I am more than happy to finish on the podium in a WorldTour race. I moved up to second in the overall, therefore a huge thank you to my teammates. Peter parried all the attacks on the final climb and brought me into a good position. Of course, I want to defend my overall spot to have a great end of my first WorldTour season.” – Felix Großschartner
Gianni Moscon at this year's Tour of Tuscany. Sirotti photo.
“We went into today’s stage with two cards to play. We knew Peter is totally in shape, also Felix showed a great form in the last couple of days. Peter focused on the first part of the final climb and Felix waited until the final metres. It was really close to a stage win, nevertheless, I think, we can be more than satisfied with his result. The whole team worked perfectly, the sprinters in the flat parts and the climbers on the final climb. The next days we will focus again on our strong lead-out.” - Christian Pömer, sports director
Filippo Ganna joins Team Sky
Team Sky sent me this news release:
Team Sky are pleased to announce the signing of exciting Italian all-rounder Filippo Ganna.The 22 year old has quickly marked himself out as a rider to watch, both on the road and the track. With two individual pursuit world titles to his name, Ganna has been an integral part of Italy’s recent track resurgence.
That pursuiting ability has also translated onto the road, with Ganna putting in a number of strong time trial performances during his first two years as a professional. Also a winner of under-23 Paris-Roubaix, he gained experience of the Classics during 2018 and joins Team Sky from UAE-Team Emirates.
Filippo Ganna at the Tour of San Juan earlier this year.
Ganna adds to a strong Italian presence at Team Sky, joining a core of Italian riders and our family of Italian partners: Sky Italia, Castelli, Pinarello, Kask, Elite and Fizik.
On the prospect of riding for the team, Ganna said: “It’s a dream to sign for Team Sky. It’s a very impressive team and everyone in cycling is used to seeing them winning the big races. For me, it’s fantastic to move to a team like this and I hope I can continue to develop and improve on my first two years on the road. I’m excited to meet up with the team for the first training camp and to start to work together.
“The team is really impressive in how they approach time trials and team time trials and that is an area I feel I can develop, in addition to the one-day races and one-week stage races going forward. In 2018 I started to experience the Classics races as a pro for the first time and that is another area I would like to learn and focus on, to one day be able to compete at the front of those races.”
Team Sky Coach Dario Cioni said: “Filippo is a rider who has won under-23 Paris-Roubaix plus world and European titles on the track – so you can see he is a great all-round talent. He’s still developing on the road and this team is a great place for him to do that alongside the young talent we have at Team Sky.
“He adds to an already strong core of Italian riders at the team, and we’re really pleased to have him on board with us.”
Grace Brown signs with Mitchelton-Scott
Here's the release the team sent me:
26-year-old Australian Grace Brown is the second new signing for Mitchelton-SCOTT women following a stand out 2018 that saw her officially join the professional peloton in Europe.
Brown claimed the bronze medal in the road race and fourth in the time trial at the Australian Championships, and fifth overall at the Women’s Tour Down Under before capping off an Australian summer that put her on the radar with a gold and silver medal in the time trial and road race at the Oceania Championships.
Like many of her new teammates, Brown’s performances earned her the Amy Gillet Foundation scholarship and subsequent start in the second half of the season with Wiggle High5. The Victorian capped of a breakthrough year with her debut Australian selection, supporting Amanda Spratt to the silver medal at the world championships.
Grace Brown:
“I'm really excited to be stepping up into the professional peloton with Mitchelton-SCOTT. It's going to be a huge learning curve for me, but I'm looking forward to really challenging myself.
“I'm a bit of an all-rounder on the bike and I'm hoping that I can be a really useful domestique next year. I'll be aiming for good performances during the Australian summer. After that it will be a little bit of trial and error because a lot of races will be new experiences for me.
“Knowing some of the girls and on the team and having raced with a few makes the transition a lot less daunting. It makes it a lot easier to know what to expect in the year ahead when there's going to be a whole lot of other unknowns. I know that the team is really hard working but also super supportive of each other's effort. I'm really looking forward to being part of that successful equation and doing everything I can for the team.
“It's really awesome to be following in the footsteps of other Amy Gillet Scholars and girls who have been through the Cycling Australia development program. It shows how important those initiatives are to provide the transition from racing domestically in Australia to being in the WorldTour.”
Martin Vestby – Sport Director:
“We have seen Grace racing mostly in Australia but she is a talented girl with some good all-round skills. She is a rider we see we can develop, refine some of her skills to give her some real strengths, and take some really good steps in the coming years.
“For her, the biggest challenge next year will be to race a lot more, so a full European season is going to be an adaption for her. We see her doing a lot of different races to build different skills and learn more of the European scene to use this first year as a stepping stone.
“We saw in our team camp already that she knows the Australian girls and she fits well in the team. She is a social girl who has an Australian background and that is at least one less thing that is going to be new for her so it should make her transition into the team a little easier.”
Grace Brown
Date of Birth: 7th July 1992 (26)
Nationality: Australian
Place of Birth: Camperdown, Victoria
Turned Pro: 2018
Joins Mitchelton-SCOTT: 2019
Top results:
- 1st 2018 Oceania Championships – Time Trial
- 2nd 2018 Oceania Championships – Road Race
- 3rd 2018 National Championships Australia – Road Race
- 4th 2018 National Championships Australia – Time Trial
- 5th 2018 Women’s Tour Down Under - Overall
Eduard Prades joins Team Movistar
Here's the team's rider update:
The Movistar Team confirms it has reached an agreement with Eduard Prades (Alcanar, ESP; 1987) that will see the Catalan rider become the Blues’ fourth addition for their 2019 men’s team. Eduard will be joining confirmed signings Jürgen Roelandts, Carlos Verona and Lluís Mas.
Prades will be racing in Movistar Team colours after a sensational 2018 season with Euskadi – Murias, a squad where he’s obtained the best results in his carrer -following his stages at Andorra (2009), OFM (2013), Matrix (2014) and Caja Rural (2015-17)-. At the Basque outfit, he’s again proven to be a very consistent rider, able to do well in all terrains and capable developing some decent speeds at group sprints.
The last twelve months have seen the Tarragona native win two stageraces in the Tour of Norway and, more recently, the Tour of Turkey (UCI WorldTour), where he rode switfly over the twisty, decisive final circuit in Istanbul to make up a six-second deficit against Alexey Lutsenko (AST) after the Selçuk mountain-top finish.
Prades has also finished runner-up in the Tour de Yorkshire -only behind Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet-, 4th in the GP Miguel Indurain -a step behind future team-mates Valverde and Verona- and also 4th in the Tour of Luxembourg GC, where he came close to a stage victory on the final day of racing.
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