Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
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2018 Tour de France | 2018 Giro d'Italia
Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor. - James Baldwin
Current racing:
- July 6 - 28: Tour de France
Latest completed racing:
- July 6 - 12: Tour of Austria
- Last week in June: National Championships
- June 26: Halle Ingooigem
- June 15 - 23: Tour de Suisse
- June 19 - 23: ZLM Toer
- June 20 - 23: La Route d'Occitanie
- June 9 - 16: Critérium du Dauphiné
- June 12 - 16: Baloise Belgium Tour
Tour de France stage ten team reports
Here's the report from stage winner Wout van Aert's Team Jumbo-Visma:
Wout van Aert has won the tenth stage of the Tour de France. The 24-year-old rider from Team Jumbo-Visma won the sprint of a reduced peloton before Elia Viviani and Caleb Ewan. Steven Kruijswijk climbed to fourth place in the classification. For Van Aert it is his fourth victory of the season. His triumph meant the fourth stage win of Team Jumbo-Visma in this Tour de France and the 39th victory of the season.
Wout van Aert enjoys his stage win.
“I can’t believe it”, said Van Aert, still a rookie at World Tour level, about his stage victory in the Tour. “It’s not easy to win here. Over the past ten days I have experienced how great this race is. To win during my Tour debut is great. Today, everything falls into place for me.”
“The fact that echelons were created, was not ideal for us. Both Dylan and George were not with us. Though it gave me an opportunity and I took it. I started the sprint from afar. Viviani came up strong, but in the end I could take the win. This shows how strong we are as a team. In addition to the team time trial, we’ve also won three sprints with three different riders. I hope it also gives Steven, our leader for the GC, a boost.”
Here's the report from GC leader Julian Alaphilippe's Deceuninck-Quick Step team:
The predicted echelons for stage 10 of the Tour de France didn’t fail to materialise, the strong crosswinds of the Tarn department blighting stage 10 inside the final 40 kilometers and splitting the peloton into several groups, many general classification riders being caught out the back when the mayhem started and the peloton got decimated.
Deceuninck – Quick-Step bossed the savage crosswinds en route to Albi, a stage finish for the first time in six years, none other than maillot jaune Julian Alaphilippe taking over the reins and pressing on to extend the advantage of the reduced bunch over the overall contenders shelled out from the main group. Yves Lampaert and Kasper Asgreen also chipped in, and joined by delegates from other teams, kept the pace up and nudged out the gap to one minute by the time they passed under the 10km-to-go banner.
It all came down to a sprint on an uphill drag, and Argentinean Champion Maximiliano Richeze expertly moved through the field with Elia Viviani tucked on his wheel, from where the Italian kicked out with 200 meters remaining. Already a stage winner at this edition, Elia put in a strong acceleration, but was narrowly beaten by Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and finished second for his 15th podium of the season.
Elia Viviani looks up at Wout van Aert just after the sprint. Sirotti photo
Despite not getting the victory in Albi, there were plenty of reasons to smile for the Wolfpack, as Julian Alaphilippe reinforced his position at the top of the standings by extending his buffer to more than one minute over his closest opponent, while race debutant Enric Mas enjoyed a surge up the classification and now lies in sixth place.
“The crosswinds made everything really nervous, but we knew we had to stay alert and did a great job together. The entire team was at the front and went full gas to try to win the stage with Elia. We didn’t take the victory, but we rode like a great squad today and we can be proud of that”, Julian Alaphilippe explained at the end of the stage which netted his sixth maillot jaune. “On the other hand, I kept my lead in the classification and Enric moved up several places, so we can be pretty satisfied with the outcome. It was an interesting, action-packed stage, but now I’m glad we’ll finally have a rest day.”
Geraint Thomas' Team INEOS had this to report about stage 10:
Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal jumped up to second and third place overall at the Tour de France following a frantic finale to stage 10.
Geraint Thomas finished stage 10 with Julian Alaphilippe. Sirotti photo
Team INEOS seized the initiative on the run into Albi, helping to drive a split in the bunch and opening out a significant gap to a number of general classification contenders.
Luke Rowe, Dylan van Baarle, Gianni Moscon and Michal Kwiatkowski combined to help move their team-mates into a prominent position, as a reduced peloton contested the finish.
With a host of rivals distanced, including Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), Mikel Landa (Movistar) and George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma), Thomas and Bernal came home one minute and 40 seconds ahead of the chasing pack.
Sitting 1:12 and 1:16 respectively behind overall leader Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), Thomas and Bernal head into the rest day in a perfect position, with the Colombian also moving into the white young rider jersey.
In the final sprint finish it was Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) who edged out the victory over Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quick-Step).
Geraint Thomas:
“It’s a really good day for us in the end. We had a little go earlier, but the conditions weren’t quite right.
“EF and Quick-Step both had a go too, so we just had to make sure we were ready. We were in the perfect position when it split - we all committed when we needed to.
“When they tried to close it as quickly as possible but couldn’t manage it, that’s when the elastic snapped and we really gained a bit of time.
“It’s a good gap now - and we’ve landed a good blow on a day when you wouldn’t really have expected it. To gain a minute and a half due to a positioning error on their part is great from our point of view.
“In the end it’s a really good day for us.”
Dylan van Baarle:
“It’s not only in the mountains where you can gain time, we have a strong team for days like today too and that’s what we showed.
“Maybe EF pushed the pace at the wrong moment and then they blew up a little bit after going full gas and it worked out pretty well for us.”
Team Sunweb headed to La Course by Le Tour de France
The team sent me this update:
Hans Timmermans - Team Sunweb coach:
"The parcours are super hard at La Course and we take a really strong team to tackle them. We hope for an aggressive and attacking race from the start so we can show ourselves. We're all motivated after a great Giro Rosa where the team helped Lucinda and Juliette to finish 6th on GC and win the white jersey. With their good shape confirmed in Italy we will also look to them for this race. Leah was climbing very well in a support role at the Giro and she will be important for us in La Course. With a solid team, we're all looking forward to the race as it is really popular with the fans along the parcours but also the fans watching on television too."
Lucinda Brand will ride La Course.
Line-up:
Lucinda Brand (NED)
Pfeiffer Georgi (GBR)
Leah Kirchmann (CAN)
Juliette Labous (FRA)
Liane Lippert (GER)
Floortje Mackaij (NED)
0.0% plus interest: What Mad Fiber Wheel creditors finally received
Bicycle Retailer & Industry News sent me this:
WILMINGTON, Del. (BRAIN) — Five and a half years after its filing, the bankruptcy case for the former owner of the Mad Fiber carbon wheel brand is finally wrapping up.
When the company, DCG Wheels LLC, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in late 2013 it listed assets of $1.21 million and liabilities of $1.65 million. Unsecured creditors eventually made claims for more than $9.1 million.
A bankruptcy auction in 2014 raised less than $40,000; Bob Stapleton, the former owner of the High Road pro cycling team and current chairman of USA Cycling, paid $31,000 for the wheel brand's intellectual property, which he apparently has never used. Another bidder paid $7,000 for tooling.
So as the case nears conclusion in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, the unsecured creditors, who include a few bike industry suppliers, will receive exactly zero in the final distribution, or as the trustee's final report has it: "The dividend for subordinated unsecured claims is anticipated to be 0.0%, plus interest (if applicable)."
Secured creditors and priority claimants, who include Mad Fiber co-founder Ric Hjertberg, also received no payments. The trustee, Charles Forman, and several attorneys and consultants for the trustee will split a total of $34,745 from the receipts for administrative expenses, from requests for payments totalling $130,000.
A hearing will be held Aug. 8 to hear any objections to the final report. The administrative payments will be made following that hearing if there are no objections.
You can read the entire report here.
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