Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Monday, February 25, 2019
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2018 Tour de France | 2018 Giro d'Italia
I spent a year in that town, one Sunday. - George Burns
Current Racing:
- February 24 - March 3: UAE Tour
Upcoming racing:
- March 2: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
- February 2: Faun Environnement-Classic de l'Ardeche
Latest completed racing:
- February 20 - 24: Vuelta a Andalucia-Ruta del Sol
- February 20 - 24: Volta ao Algarve
- February 22 - 24: Tour du Haut Var
- February 16 - 21: Tour of Oman
- February 14 - 17: Tour de la Provence
- February 17: Clasica de Almeria
- February 17: Trofeo Laigueglia
Jumbo-Visma wins UAE Tour team time trial
We posted the organizer's report with the results
Jumbo-Visma sent me this:
Team Jumbo-Visma has won the first stage in the first edition of the UAE Tour in an impressive way. In the 16 KM team time trial, the squad of sports directors Jan Boven and Addy Engels on the Bianchi Aquila CV, were seven seconds faster than Sunweb and nine seconds faster than Bahrain Merida. It is the third win of the season for Team Jumbo-Visma. The team pays a lot of attention to the team time trial discipline. In September, the TTT in the Tour of Britain was won.
By winning the stage, Team Jumbo-Visma is in possession of all leader jerseys. Primoz Roglic was the first to cross the finish line and is now having the red leader's jersey, the points jersey and the sprint jersey. Laurens De Plus currently is the best young rider.
Jumbo-Visma finishes their stage-winning ride.
Team leader Roglic immediately took the victory in his first race of the season. "We are very happy to start the season this way. We have a good team here with very strong time trialists, but that is no guarantee to perform well. You also have to show it in the race and that's what we did. I am glad that all the training we have done is already paying off. It was a fast team time trial and it went very well. I came first through the last corner and then pulled a sprint. It's nice to have the leader's jersey and we certainly have ambitions to win this race. There are still some tough stages coming up, so we take it day by day. But we have an excellent start."
Laurens De Plus was delighted with the victory in his first race for his new employer. "This is a dream come true. I wanted to perform well in my first race for Team Jumbo-Visma and I succeeded. We have trained a lot on this in January and all that training effort is immediately paying off. We have a strong, well-balanced team here and we will do everything we can to defend the jersey with Primoz. The jersey for the best young rider is a nice bonus, but no particular goal for me."
And here's Bora-hansgrohe's UAE Tour stage one report:
The UAE Tour, which was formed through the fusion of the Dubai Tour and the Abu Dhabi Tour, commenced today with a 16km-long team time trial on Al Hudayriat Island. The parcours was predominantly flat, featuring only a few mostly drawn out corners. The first team took to the start ramp at 2:50pm local time, and passed through the finish line to set the first time of 17:46. Around half an hour later, BORA – hansgrohe left the start house as the seventh of 20 teams to tackle the race against the clock.
The riders from the outfit from Raubling clocked a time of 17:17, which put them only 2 seconds behind the team which lead provisionally at that point. They completed the course with an average speed of over 55km/h. At the end of the day, Jumbo-Visma took the spoils, with a time of 16:49. BORA – hansgrohe ultimately had to concede 28 seconds against the victor, a performance which handed them ninth place on the stage.
From the Finish Line:
“The guys put in a solid performance today. We took to the start without any pure time trial specialists, but nevertheless the team did a good job. Everyone worked well together and in the end we collected ninth position. We avoided losing a great amount of time and so we can be relatively satisfied with the result.” – Enrico Poitschke, Sport Director
Tadej Pogacar wins Volta ao Algarve
Here's the report from Pogacar's UAE-Team Emirates:
Tadej Pogačar seals the overall in the Volta ao Algarve, surviving the last and difficult stage to Malhão.
After 173.5km, the stage ended with a three-kilometre climb. Pogačar led the race after winning stage two and finished it with a sixth in the final stage today, 18 seconds behind Zdenek Stybar (Deceuninck-Quick Step) and 15 seconds from his most dangerous rival Søren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb) – second in the overall.
Tadej Pogacar wins the Algarve's second stage.
Pogačar took the top podium spot (photo Bettini) with 14 seconds on Kragh Andersen and 21 on Wout Poels.
“I knew that it would be a difficult day, the stage was raced at high speeds and my direct rivals launched attacks for the overall,” said Pogačar “I had great support from all of my team-mates, who worked at the front to the group to give 100%. When the attacks started, I saw that I had fresh helpers at my side, this was a big morale boost in addition to a big concrete advantage. I’m proud of all of my team-mates.
I achieved a dream today. And to win a stage race so early in my professional career is hard to believe. I began without thinking of the overall, but after the crash in the first stage that ruled out the designated captains, I found myself at the front and the stage win gave me the yellow jersey. My team-mates’ support reinforced my belief and my place at the front“.
Vuelta a Andalucia/Ruta del Sol final report from winner Jakob Fuglsang's Team Astana:
It is a perfect end of the week for Astana Pro Team, which takes a double victory at the 2.HC race Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol: Jakob Fuglsang wins the final classification and Ion Izagirre steps on the second podium position. Besides, Pello Bilbao finished 4th in the overall standing and Astana won the team’s classification of the race.
Matteo Trentin won the final stage, but it was Jakob Fuglsang who won the 2019 Ruta del Sol. Sirotti photo
- I am very happy with my win. Our team lives a very nice moment now at the start of the season and I am happy to bring the team the 6th GC victory in a row. I was able to come in a good shape to the start of the year and I felt very well during this week. But, also, I can say that this is the team’s win, the team’s success. Today’s victory brings me additional confidence in myself and proves I worked in a right direction during the winter. We are still in the early period of the season and all the big goals are still lying ahead. But, we are on the right way to it, - said Jakob Fuglsang.
- It could not be better in this race, we were strong, we races well together, we had one goal and we achieved it. I am happy with team’s success and with Jakob’s victory. Also, it is good for me to be on the final podium. I feel on form at the beginning of the season and I will continue to improve for my next goals, - added Ion Izagirre.
The Vuelta a Andalucia 2019 has been ended with the final, 5th stage of 163,9 km to Alhaurín de la Torre. It finished with a bunch sprint won by the European champion Matteo Trentin. The stage did not provide any changes in the general classification, so after moving yesterday into the race lead, today Jakob Fuglsang was officially named as the 2019 Vuelta a Andalucia winner with Ion Izagirre, who also won the prix as the best Spanish rider of the race, next to him at the second place.
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