Nys, Cant both well clear of rest of field in winning Jaarmarktcross Niel
Belgian champion Sven Nys dominated the Jaarmarktcross Niel in Belgium on Tuesday, attacking alone and hitting the line well clear of his closest rivals. The success represented his fourth win of the season and, equally importantly, saw him become the course record holder with six career wins in the race.
Early on Tom Meeusen (Telenet Fidea Cycling Team) turned on the pace and opened a brief lead, but then slipped back. His team-mate Corné van Kessel and Nys then pushed ahead, with the latter then putting the hammer down on lap two and continuing to pull clear.
“I had a good day. I was shocked that I could immediately get a gap,” he admitted to Sporza afterwards. “This was a difficult course and there was a lot of wind. I had to stay very focused. But I’m glad I can win here for the sixth time.”
“I feel for a long time that I have a good condition, but the top level has become very broad [in terms of quality of riders –ed.]. I was usually there, but I could just not win. I never doubted myself.”
Nys hit the line 50 seconds ahead of Wout Van Aert (Vastgoedservice - Golden Palace Cycling Team) and a further seven seconds ahead of Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb - Napoleon Games Cycling Team). The next riders were all over two minutes back.
In the women’s event, the new European champion Sanne Cant (Enertherm – BKCP) was similarly dominant, riding clear of her rivals and finishing well ahead of Jolien Verschueren (Wielerteam Decock-Woningbouw Vandekerckhove), Helen Wyman (Konfa FFSA Factory Team) and Ellen Van Loy (VZW Young Telenet Fidea Cycling Team).
Read more here at Sporza.
Froome: ‘There will always be ups and downs in everyone’s career’
The 2013 Tour de France winner Chris Froome has said that he is heading towards the news season in a good position, believing that his runner-up slot in the Vuelta a España has given him the base he needs to have a successful 2015.
The British rider’s morale has been boosted in recent days due to his wedding. While he was disappointed to crash out of the Tour de France and thus be unable to fight for another yellow jersey, he is accepting of what happened and sees the bigger picture.
“I think there will always be ups and down in everyone’s career,” he stated on the team website. “That’s sport, and especially our sport. It’s full of unpredictable hurdles.
“I’m really happy to have got through the season in good stead. The Tour was a disappointment but I’ve still got a few victories I can be happy about this year. Also finishing the Vuelta off in such a decent way, after having all the setbacks – that for me was probably more important than anything else.
“It means I’ll be able to go forward into next year without starting from a negative position. I can go in with a clean slate and give it my best shot.”
Tour aside, Froome’s 2014 season was more than solid. He won the Tour of Oman in February, then went on to place sixth in the Volta a Catalunya and win the Tour de Romandie. He took the opening time trial in the Critérium du Dauphiné and, with it, the lead in the race.
He followed that up with a mountain stage victory the following day, but eventually lost the yellow jersey on stage seven after a fall one day earlier.
Click here to read the full article on CyclingTips.
Video: Tour De France champion Nibali confirms plans to begin 2015 season with Dubai Tour
Although he won the Tour de France in 2014, taking the biggest victory of his pro career, Vincenzo Nibali has decided to change his race programme slightly and will begin next season in the Dubai Tour.
Nibali rode the race earlier this season but did the Tour de San Luis beforehand; this time round, he will forgo the Argentinean event, with event organisers RCS Sport confirming that he will instead debut in Dubai.
“The Dubai Tour is a fast growing race, the organisation is constantly improving, and I hope it will grow even more,” said Nibali, speaking in the video interview below. “We need these kind of races at the beginning of the season, we can pedal in much nicer conditions.”
Nibali rode the race for the first time in 2014 and performed solidly. He was third on stage four to Boshar and ended the event twelfth overall. His form was still on the rise then and after netting 21st in Paris-Nice, 44th in Milan-Sanremo, 52nd in the Amstel Gold Race, 14th in Flèche Wallonne and 30th in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, he stepped things up in the Tour de Romandie, where he was fifth overall.
He went on to place 7th in the Critérium du Dauphiné, then quickly got into his stride in the Tour de France when he soloed to victory on stage two to Sheffield. He also won stage ten to La Plance des Belles Filles, stage 13 to Chamrousse and stage 18 to Hautacam, beating closest rival Jean Christophe Peraud (Ag2r la Mondiale) by a clear 7 minutes 37 seconds in the overall standings.
Nibali’s final race of the 2014 season was the Tour of Almaty on October 5th, where he placed tenth. Since then he has spent time in Dubai with his family and will return prior to the February 4th start next year.
Click here to read the full story and see the video on CyclingTips.
Majka targeting time trial progression as part of push for bigger results
After he had a breakthrough season in 2014, landing a number of very important results including two stage wins plus the King of the Mountains jersey in the Tour de France, Rafal Majka has said that he is hungry to continue making improvements in 2015.
“I still have to work on some key areas, if I want to become even stronger in the big stage races,” he said in a team statement on Tuesday. “During the winter, I will focus on my time trial. Both the team and I know that there’re still quite a lot of seconds to gain here.
“I’m really motivated and I share the same big ambitions as the team. We want to deliver results in the races of 2015 and perhaps I will also look into doing some of the classics in the future.”
Still just 25 years of age, the Polish rider has marked himself out as a potential Grand Tour winner with his performances. His 2014 results include fourth in Critérium International, sixth overall in the Giro d’Italia – where he also took seven top ten stage placings – those aforementioned Tour successes, two stages plus final overall victory in the Tour de Pologne and fourth overall in the USA Pro Challenge.
“I’m really satisfied with my season,” he said, weighing things up. “In the previous years, I’ve done well, worked hard for the team and gotten some good personal results. But now I’ve started winning, which was the one thing missing in the past years. The team has supported me and I was able to step up.”
He said that he has deliberately rested up since the USA Pro Challenge, recognising that his heavy schedule required some recuperation time. He has been doing two to three hours per day in order to maintain his strength, and will start to step things up when the team has its next camp on Gran Canaria.
Report: Rodriguez to miss San Luis due to intent to prioritise Tour de France
Echoing Vincenzo Nibali’s decision not to ride the Tour de San Luis in 2015 (see story above), Joaquim Rodriguez is also understood to be set to miss the race. Like Nibali, the 2014 Tour de France winner, Rodriguez wants to focus on being at his best in July and will have a slightly later start to the season as a result.
“Purito will start a little later because his calendar will focus on the Tour de France,” a source close to the rider told Ciclismo Internacional.
It is understand that the profile of the Tour de France has convinced Rodriguez that he has a big chance in the event. It has only 14 kilometres of individual time trials, which in the past have proven to be Rodriguez’s major weakness in stage races.
It also features a 28 kilometre team time trial but with Katusha likely to help him limit any losses there, the races against the clock will concern him far less than before.
On the plus side, the route includes a number of uphill finishes. That factor combined with the time bonuses on offer in the race have convinced the explosive rider that he should prioritise the Tour.
His previous best in the event was third overall in 2013 behind Chris Froome (Sky) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar).
He has also taken third twice in the Vuelta a España, plus fourth in the past two years. Rodriguez’s best Grand Tour result to date is the runner-up slot in the 2012 Giro d’Italia.
Click here to read more at Ciclismo Internacional.
‘Dr Mabuse’ Bernard Sainz handed two year prison term in relation to doping
Bernard Sainz, the Frenchman alternatively referred to as Doctor Mabuse and implicated in doping the late Frank Vandenbroucke [pictured] during part of his career, has been handed a two year prison sentence by the Court of Appeal of Paris.
Sainz was originally handed a three year term in April 2008 but appealed that, with the latest ruling representing the outcome of that process.
He has however the right to appeal Tuesday’s decision and could therefore delay the start of the term.
The 66 year old has been convicted of the ‘possession of poisonous substances and doping products,’ the ‘illegal practice of medicine’ plus the ‘facilitation of use of doping products.’ He has described himself as a healer and a homeopath.
The case relates to the trafficing of banned substances in 1998 and 1999, something he has denied.
Sainz’s long history in the sport has seen him work with big names such as Raymond Poulidor, Cyrille Guimard, Lucien van Impe, Laurent Fignon, Bernard Hinault, Richard Virenque, Francesco Moser, Max Sciandri and Vandenbroucke. [source]
He has denied doping riders, although his sentencing Tuesday was based on wiretaps plus testimony from many riders.
Click here to read more at bourse.lesechos.fr.
Dekker gunning for hour record as part of last-ditch bid to land contract
Left without a deal for 2015 after his current contract with Garmin-Sharp wasn’t renewed, Dutchman Thomas Dekker has decided to give everything to try to take the world hour record.
The velodrome effort has come back into vogue after the UCI relaxed previously-contraining rules about the technology which could be used. Jens Voigt broke the previous mark in September, and then two weeks ago Matthias Brandle went further, setting a distance of 51.850 kilometres.
“It will be one of the hardest tests of my life, but that does not matter to me,” Dekker told AD.nl on Tuesday. “I’m not afraid of it. I will put everything else aside in the next few months. I will put everything I have into that one hour. Am I’m going to make it? Yes, of course I’m going to make it.”
Dekker was once seen as one of the biggest talents in the peloton, winning races such as the 2006 Tirreno–Adriatico and the 2007 Tour de Romandie. However shortly before the start of the 2009 Tour de France, it was announced that Dekker had tested positive for EPO.
The test had been conducted on a urine sample taken in December 2007, and the rider later admitted to using the substance during periods in 2007 and 2008
He was suspended for two years, from 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2011. Garmin-Sharp gave him a second chance, taking him on board as part of the Chipotle Development team in 2011 and then employing him for three years as part of the WorldTour squad.
However he was unable to reach a high level again and is now without a deal for the coming season.
“I have struggled in recent years,” he admitted. “During training, I sometimes drove the stones from the street, but in the races it did not come out.” He said that his confidence has ebbed away, but that he relishes the black and white, succeed or fail nature of the hour record attempt.
“Excuses are not possible; you can not hide. It’s very simple: you get it or you do not get it.”
Click here to read the full story at AD.NL.
Shimano SuperCrit showcases star studded field and $30,000 in prize money
One of Australia’s richest one-day bike races is returning in 2014 with international cycling’s biggest stars on Sunday 14th December. The Shimano Super Criterium will see some of the best national and international professional cyclists compete for $30,000.
Leading Orica GreenEdge rider and recent Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner Simon Gerrans will again lead a long list of professional riders and NRS Team riders.
Melbourne’s St Kilda Cycling Club (SKCC) has a tentative startlist which includes the likes of defending champion Caleb Ewan (OGE), Milan-San Remo winner Matt Goss (OGE), Green Jersey winner Baden Cook, Greg Henderson (Lotto), Koen de Kort (Giant Shimano), Michael Matthews (OGE), Mick Rogers (Tinkov-Saxo), Steele Von Hoff & Nathan Haas (Garmin-Sharp), and Matthew Hayman (OGE).
Not to be outdone, the Women’s Elite race will be led by last year’s winner Chloe Hosking, who will be to fending off current and former criterium champions Sarah Roy and Lauren Kitchen, as well as professional riders like Jo Hogan, Nicole Whitburn, Jenny MacPherson and Karen Elzing – a criterium specialist from the Netherlands. Equal prize money will be given to both men’s and women’s fields.
Click here to read the full story on CyclingTips.
The Hardest Stage: Documentary on doping in German cycling
In 2011 Germany television stations stopped broadcasting the Tour de France and cycling coverage has drastically been reduced.
Its cycling superstars have been cast with a dark shadow after doping admissions in recent past and the current success stories such as Tony Martin, Marcel Kittel, John Degenkolb and Andre Greipel are the ones answering for the past generation’s mistakes.
A documentary aired in Germany by ARD looks into the current situation of cycling in 2014.
Click here to read more and watch the programme.
Gilbert lines out against MTB and cross riders in Red Bull Velodux
The former World Road Race champion Philippe Gilbert made an appearance in a different environment to usual over the weekend, riding the inaugural Red Bull Velodux through the streets of Estavayer-le-Lac in Switzerland.
Gilbert and BMC Racing team-mate Danilo Wyss were up against riders such as world mountainbike champion Julien Absalon and Swiss under23 cyclo cross champion Lars Forster.
The latter won along with team-mate Michi Wildhaber. Marcel Wildhaber and Andri Frischknecht were second while Absalon and Ralf Näf were third.
The women’s race went to Katrin Leumann and Jolanda Neff.
Gilbert and Wyss finished a lap behind in 15th place, with the former saying that he has lost much of the technique he used to have in the discipline. However he said that he fully enjoyed the experience.
You can watch highlights below.
The Rocacorba Recap
And finally this morning, here are a few things you might have missed at CyclingTips:
- Shimano’s XTR Di2 Groupset Review
- All about the bike: what happens when cycling becomes an ‘obsessive passion’
- Rocacorba Daily: Tuesday November 11