Rohan Dennis wins the Tour Down Under, Wouter Wippert claims final stage

South Australian Rohan Dennis (BMC) has won the 2015 Santos Tour Down Under after holding on to the overall lead he took on stage 3 when he won solo on the final climb to Paracombe.

Santos Tour Down Under Stage 6,

Yesterday’s final stage saw Wouter Wippert take Drapac’s first-ever WorldTour win, sprinting to victory in the centre of Adelaide ahead of Heinrich Haussler (IAM) and Boris Valee (Lotto Soudal).

Rohan Dennis finished comfortably in the bunch after negotiating a late crash that split the field. By doing so Dennis was able to hold on to the two-second advantage he enjoyed in the general classification and take out the title overall.

Earlier in the weekend Richie Porte (Sky) danced away to victory on stage 5, winning on Willunga Hill for the second year in a row. The only rider able to follow Porte when he attacked with 1.2km to go was Rohan Dennis, but he cracked as well with 600m to go.

Porte finished nine seconds clear of Dennis but with Porte being 15 seconds behind on GC going into the stage (and in spite of the time bonuses on offer) Dennis had enough of a buffer to hold on to the overall lead.

Stage 6: Adelaide > Adelaide - Stage Result

Sunday 25th January 2015

1. nl
WIPPERT Wouter
Drapac Professional Cycling
 01:56:09
2. au
HAUSSLER Heinrich
IAM Cycling
 -
3. be
VALLéE Boris
Lotto Soudal
 -
Startlist
View full results

Click here to read the full report from stage 6 at CyclingTips. Follow the links at the bottom of that article to read race reports from the previous stages.

Dani Diaz wins the Tour de San Luis, Mark Cavendish wins final stage

Argentinian national champion Dani Diaz (Funvic Brasilinvest-São José dos Campos) has won his second Tour de San Luis after finishing comfortably in the main field on the final stage of the race. That final stage was won in a bunch sprint by Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quick-Step) who had to settle for second place behind emerging talent Fernando Gaviria (Colombia) in the two sprint stages earlier in the race.


Diaz won on the stage 2 summit finish at Mirador de Potrero taking a lead of six seconds in the general classification. He extended that lead to a minute on stage 4 when he won on the summit finish at Alto El Amago and pushed it out a little more when he was 10th on the stage 5 ITT, which was won by Adriano Malori (Movistar).

On stage 6 Diaz finished third behind teammate Kleber Ramos and Rodolfo Torres (Colombia) on the long final climb to Filo Sierras Comechingones.

Stage 7: San Luis > San Luis - Stage Result

Sunday 25th January 2015

1. gb
CAVENDISH Mark
Etixx - Quick Step
 02:33:29
2. co
GAVIRIA Fernando
-
3. it
MARECZKO Jakub
Southeast Pro Cycling Team
 -
Course Profile Startlist
View full results

UCI backtracks on ranking and points system for 2015

Protests from several major teams have forced the UCI to backtrack on the introduction of a new points and ranking system for the 2015 season.

The WorldTour ranking system used in 2014 will remain in place this year while the UCI reviews the new rules.

“In line with its policy of encouraging an open dialogue within the cycling family, the UCI has taken note of some concerns expressed recently on the subject of new rankings due to be introduced in 2015,” a letter from the UCI to the WorldTour teams reads, according to Cyclingnews.

“It has indeed become clear that the new ranking system was presenting teams and riders with considerable problems given that they had assumed that they would be working in 2015 with the 2014 system and had built their structures and planned their seasons accordingly.

“While reiterating our entire confidence in the work carried out by the members of the Road Commission and the “Rankings” Working Group, those concerns convinced us of the merits of a postponement of the introduction of the new regulation to allow all parties to adapt to the new ranking system.”

The proposed points system in 2015 was supposed to feature a single rolling ranking, updated each Monday.

Click here to read more at Cyclingnews. Click here to read more about the now-on-hold points system at The Inner Ring.

Roman Kreuziger undergoes polygraph to prove innocence

Roman Kreuziger, who is still in a fight to clear his name following reported anomalies in his biological passport, has taken the unusual step of taking a lie-detector test in an attempt to clear his name.

“I replied to three essential questions and for all of them, the detector confirmed that I was telling the truth,” Kreuziger, 28, announced on his website www.kreuzigercase.com.

The cyclist wrote on his website that he answered “No” to three questions: “Have you taken doping products?”; “Have you used blood transfusions to improve your performance?”; and “Have you taken EPO (erythropoietin)?”

“I repeat: I’m not a cheat, nor a liar and I’ve never taken drugs,” the Czech rider added.

The UCI and WADA currently have a case against Kreuziger with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after the Czech Olympic Commitee cleared Kreuziger of any wrongdoing late last year.

Click here to read more at Kreuziger’s website.

Samuel Sanchez re-signs with BMC

After much to-ing and fro-ing about whether he would retire or stay on for another year, Samuel Sanchez has revealed he will stay with BMC for the 2015 season.

“For me, the BMC Racing Team is my team,” Sanchez said on the BMC website. “I know the riders. I know the team. And I don’t like to change much. I prefer one team. As for my fitness, I may not be ready to race tomorrow, but I did a good job at home to stay active. I was riding my mountain bike and doing cyclocross. My level is not good, but it is not bad, either.”

“Everyone is very happy to have Sammy back,” BMC sporting manager Allan Peiper said. “From a sporting perspective, he gives us that much more depth. We saw last year what a game-changer he can be. This year we expect him to contribute in pretty much the same way, but maybe with a little more focus on the support and development of the big influx of young talent we have brought into the team.”

Click here to read more at the BMC Racing website.

What happened to the Rocacorba Daily?

If you’re a regular reader you might be asking “so, what happened to the Rocacorba Daily?!” Good question. As you can see in this post, we haven’t changed the content, we’ve just changed the name to something that’s hopefully a little clearer.

Despite the fact we’ve been publishing the Rocacorba Daily for nearly two years now, we still have a lot of people telling us they don’t know what “Rocacorba” means, what the “Rocacorba Daily” is and how to pronounce “Rocacorba” (ro-ca-cor-ba).

We hope the name change will clarify things. And if you’re one of the thousands of people that come to CT every weekday to read the Daily News Digest and find out what’s happening in the world of road cycling, thank you!

The Week in Bike: CGFYN News

The latest edition of Cosmo Catalano’s The Week in Bike is a little bit different to normal. Be sure to check it out here; it’s a doozy.

Jeremy Roy’s on-board footage

After every stage of the Tour Down Under FDJ.fr cyclist Jeremy Roy uploaded a highlights video showing footage he’d captured in the peloton using on-board cameras. Here’s his footage from stage 6 in which he narrowly missed being caught up in a crash that split the peloton:

And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out the footage Roy captured of the massive crash at the end of stage 4. How he got through that crash unscathed we’re still not sure.

Push-me-pull-you tandem bicycle

Ever seen one of these before?

Post by Alberto Contador.

 

What You Missed

And finally this morning, here are a few things you might have missed at CyclingTips over the past few days:

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Today’s feature image comes from Cor Vos.