Rocacorba Daily

Heinrich Haussler wins elite men’s road race at the Australian Road Nationals

Heinrich Haussler (IAM Cycling) has won the elite men’s road race at the 2015 Australian National Road Championships, sprinting to victory ahead of Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) and Neil van der Ploeg (Avanti) in a six-rider lead group.

Haussler was dropped from the lead group on the 3km-long Mount Buninyong climb on both of the last two laps, but fought his way back into contention on the top section of the course both times.

For Haussler, it was the perfect start to 2015 after several seasons of variable form.

“Since 2009 I’ve had ups and downs, ups and downs, coming back, getting down, getting up, getting down”, Haussler said. “Seriously — it’s the best day of my life. I don’t know what to say. ”

An attack on the penultimate climb of Mount Buninyong from Michael Hepburn (Orica-GreenEdge) thinned the lead group of 17 down to just seven riders: Angus Morton (Jelly Belly), Hepburn, Caleb Ewan, Jack Bobridge (Budget Forklifts), Campbell Flakemore (BMC), Neil van der Ploeg (Avanti) and Sam Spokes (Drapac).

When it came to the final sprint in Buninyong, just six riders remained. Caleb Ewan launched his sprint from the middle of the group with Haussler on his wheel. But it was Haussler, 10 years Ewan’s senior, that won the dash to the line, despite his chain coming off just as he crossed the line.

1.		HAUSSLER Heinrich IAM Cycling	04:47:24
2.		EWAN Caleb Orica GreenEDGE	-
3.		VAN DER PLOEG Neil Avanti Racing Team	-

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Click here to read more at CyclingTips.

Peta Mullens wins elite women’s road race at the Australian Road Nationals

by Jessi Braverman

Victorian Peta Mullens (SRAM) won a two-up sprint against Rachel Neylan to take her first elite national road title on Saturday, continuing the fine form she has shown during the Australian summer of racing.

“I really can’t believe it,” said Mullens. “Of all the national titles…I’m a mountain biker, and I’d still prefer to win this one. It’s a bit ironic because this was supposed to be my only road race for the year, and now that I have won the stripes I might have to change my plans.”

In the penultimate lap, Mullens escaped from the grasp of an eight-rider chase group with Neylan up the road. Neylan launched her missive up Mount Buninyong. Mullens bridged across on the Fisken Road descent. The duo worked together to build up nearly a minute lead as they crossed the finish line to the sound of the bell.

Four time national time trial champion Shara Gillow broke away from the chasers on the tenth and final ascent of Mount Buninyong. She put time into the group behind but never quite managed to make contact with the leading duo.

1.		MULLENS Peta	02:55:29
2.		NEYLAN Rachel	-
3.		GILLOW Shara Rabobank-Liv Woman Cycling Team	0:22

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Click here to read more at CyclingTips.

Miles Scotson does U23 men’s time trial and road race double

Miles Scotson (SASI) became the fourth rider to win Australian U23 men’s time trial and road race national titles in the same year when he soloed to victory on the Mount Buninyong circuit on Saturday morning.

Scotson was part of an eight-rider breakaway group that spent much of the race out front before attacking solo with roughly 17km to go. He powered home, winning by 36 seconds ahead of Alexander Edmondson (SASI) and para-cycling road world champion Alistair Donohoe (Health.com.au/search2retain).

“I had one thing on my mind and that was to win the race so it was just all out with two to go,” said Scotson. “I went 100 per cent up the climb and I have to admit, the atmosphere at the top of the climb for an under 23 race was pretty good, it was pretty loud and that really spurred me on.”

1.		SCOTSON Miles	03:22:57
2.		EDMONDSON Alexander	0:36
3.		DONOHOE Alistair Health.com.au-search2retain Cycling Team	-

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Text adapted from a Cycling Australia press release.

Joe Cooper leads Avanti 1-2-3 in New Zealand National Road Race

The Avanti Racing team has celebrated its move to New Zealand with a clean sweep of the podium in the elite men’s national road race title.

Australian National Road Series winner Joe Cooper led teammate Tom Davison across the line after the pair was part of a late breakaway on the penultimate lap of the 183km race in Christchurch. The pair worked well together to hold the lead all the way to the finish, with their teammate Jason Christie breaking clear of the chase group to take third.

“Today we had six guys and everyone knew the plan and everyone was ready to sacrifice themselves. We put in a lot and got a lot out,” Cooper said.

“You can’t ask any more from the team than a one-two-three. That is outstanding.”

1.		COOPER Joseph Avanti Racing Team	04:34:43
2.		DAVISON Tom Avanti Racing Team	-
3.		CHRISTIE Jason Avanti Racing Team	0:30

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Click here to read more at Cycling Central.

Linda Villumsen solos to elite women’s victory at New Zealand national road titles

Earlier in the weekend Linda Villumsen (UnitedHealthcare) soloed to a commanding solo victory in the elite women’s road race at the New Zealand national road championships, finishing a remarkable 7:49 clear of the main field.

Villumsen had two second-place finishes in the event and thought she was never going to win one.

“It’s amazing. I thought I was jinxed, I thought it was never going to happen,” Villumsen said. “I’ve been here so many times and just missed out. I am really happy.”

Track specialist Lauren Ellis made the initial move, opening up a 40-second lead on lap two of eight around Christchurch, before Villumsen and Jaime Nielsen chased. Villumsen and Nielsen made the catch on the climb up Dyers Pass before Ellis was dropped and Nielsen withdrew with heat exhaustion. Villumsen powered on alone, extending her lead every lap.

1.		VILLUMSEN Linda UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Women’s Team	03:36:39
2.		LUCAS Sharlotte	7:49
3.		FULTON Karen	10:24

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Click here to read more at Cycling Central.

Peta Mullens re-signs with Wiggle Honda after Nationals victory

Less than 24 hours after winning the Australian road race title, mountain biker Peta Mullens had been convinced to spend another year racing on the road, signing again with Wiggle Honda for the 2015 season.

“I’m the Australian National Road Champion and I feel some responsibility to ensure that the jersey returns to Europe with a professional team,” she said.

The 2014 season was Mullens’ first as a professional road rider with the Victorian riding with Wiggle Honda to compliment her MTB career. Mullens initially re-signed with Wiggle Honda but later chose to nullify that contract so she could focus on mountain biking in the lead-up to the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Her victory in the Bay Crits at Portalington, and then her road title, made her reconsider.

“If I have the opportunity to sign with Wiggle Honda, keep my MTB commitments to SRAM and keep the doors open to both MTB and Road opportunities leading into Rio, that would be the ultimate situation for me”, Mullens said.

Text adapted from a Wiggle Honda press release. Click here to read more.

Ryder Hesjedal to return to the Tour Down Under

2012 Giro d’Italia winner Ryder Hesjedal will headline the newly-merged Cannondale-Garmin squad at the Santos Tour Down Under next week in the Canadian’s first return to the race since the year he won the Giro.

“We are looking forward to seeing Hesjedal compete here again,” said Santos Tour Down Under Race Director, Mike Turtur. “He’s making a welcome return to our peloton after last opening his season here in 2012 before going on to win a Grand Tour later that same year.”

Hesjedal will be ably supported by Australian Nathan Haas who finished fifth overall in last year’s Santos Tour Down Under after a string of consistent performances.

“Haas performed really well last year crossing seventh, just 17 seconds behind stage winner Richie Porte, on the Willunga Hill stage finish,” said Turtur. “His performance was noticed and it will be interesting to see how he tackles the same climb this year.”

“After fifth place last year I have unfinished business with that podium,” said Haas. “We are very motivated for a strong race!”

The Cannondale-Garmin team for the 2015 Santos Tour Down Under will be: Ryder Hesjedal (CAN), Nathan Haas (AUS), Lasse Hansen (DEN), Jack Bauer (NZL), Alex Howes (USA), Moreno Moser (ITA) and Davide Villella (ITA).

Text adapted from a Tour Down Under press release.

Orica-GreenEdge sign rising star Alex Edmonson

Multiple-time track world champion Alex Edmondson has signed with Orica-GreenEdge and will turn professional with the WorldTour team in 2016.

Edmondson is the reigning individual and team pursuit world champion on the track and is keen to focus on his nation’s track campaign for the Rio Olympics. After that he will increase his focus on the road.

“Alex is obviously a fantastic talent and you look at his development so far - individual pursuit world champion, teams pursuit world champion - and historically those riders go to make very good road riders,” Orica-GreenEdge general manager Shayne Bannan said.

“But he’s still only at the very early stages of his career and it’s important that we recognise that. There’s still a lot of work to do, a lot of development to do and that’s why he won’t be turning professional until 2016 and even 2016 he’ll be working a lot with the national program because the Olympics will be a major focus and we will support him through that.”

Edmondson will ride for the Jayco-AIS WorldTour Academy in 2015 while also focusing on his track ambitions.

Click here to read more at the Adelaide Advertiser.

2015 Vuelta a España to feature nine summit finishes, all of them new

The nine summit finishes of this year’s Vuelta a España will all fall in the first two weeks of racing, and all are new additions to the race.

Details of the route for the 2015 Vuelta were presented in Torremolinos, Spain on Saturday. The most challenging day of the race will be stage 11 which features 5,200m of climbing in just 138km and finishes with the 15km ascent to Els Cortals de Encamp.

After a hilly first two weeks of the race, the final week of the race will favour the time-triallists, with a 39km ITT in Burgos on stage 17.

The race begins on Saturday August 22 with a 7.4km TTT in Porto Banus, and finishes in Madrid on Sunday September 13.

Click here to read more at Cyclingnews. Click here to see a map of the 2015 Vuelta.

Roma Maxima cancelled for 2015, Strade Bianche confirmed and teams named

by Shane Stokes

The former Giro del Lazio, which was relauched as Roma Maxima in 2013, has run into further troubles with organisers RCS Sport confirming today that the race will be put on hold due to what it terms organisational problems.

The event was first run in 1933 and ran practically without interruption until 2009. It was then shelved between that year and 2012, returning as Roma Maxima in 2013 and showcasing the Italian capital to great effect.

Blek Kadri (Ag2r la Mondiale) triumphed that year, while Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) took the 2014 edition.

On a more positive note the company confirmed today that its flagship spring one day event, Strade Bianche, will continue. It listed 18 teams as having been invited, of which a dozen are WorldTour and six are Pro Continental teams.

Click here to read more at CyclingTips.

Europcar team finally secures racing licence for 2015

by Shane Stokes

Excluded from the WorldTour due to a budget shortfall of up to half a million Euro and left fighting to raise the finances to secure Pro Continental status, the French Europcar team has finally been confirmed as making that cut off point.

The UCI stated on Friday that the French squad would indeed be part of cycling’s second division in 2015, thus enabling the team to compete in many of the big races and to seek wildcar invites to WorldTour events such as the Tour de France.

“On the basis of the new file provided, the UCI considers that Team Europcar has secured sufficient financial guarantees as required by UCI regulations,” said the governing body.

The team’s riders for this season include Pierre Rolland, Thomas Voeckler and the sprinter Bryan Coquard. The Tour de France will once again be a major objective for the team.

Click here to read more at CyclingTips.

Androni-Venezuela team files penal and criminal complaint against Hoogerland

by Shane Stokes

The dispute between Johnny Hoogerland and his 2014 team, Androni-Venezuela, has ratcheted up considerably with confirmation by the squad that it has filed a penal and criminal complaint against the rider.

At the end of December Hoogerland sent a Tweet to Brian Cookson, making clear he had a grievance. He asked the UCI president “where can you go as a rider when your team does not pay your salary?”

The Androni team reacted swiftly, issuing a statement on the same day saying that it rejected the rider’s suggestion and that it considered it ‘seriously detrimental.’

It insisted that his contract had been fully respected, with approximately 4,300 euro sent each month. The team added that it considered the issue settled but when the rider wrote his public tweet to Cookson, that it considered a “seriously defamatory” situation had been created for the team.

“Our Solicitor Avv. Giuseppe Napoleone will take Hoogerland to Penal Court with charge of calumny and defamation and to Civil Court for punitive damages,” it said then.

The team’s statement on Thursday makes clear that it intends to press on with the threatened legal action.

It said that it had filed “penal charges of calumny and defamation and civil charges for punitive damages to the Public Prosecutor Office in Torino against Johnny Hoogerland, following the rider’s false declarations, [which are] seriously defamatory for the team.”

Click here to read more at CyclingTips.

Cavendish concedes Olympic dream may be over, questions UCI’s separation of road and track

by Shane Stokes

Taking an Olympic gold medal has long been an ambition for Mark Cavendish but the Briton has now admitted that his chances of riding the Rio Games are very slim.

“It probably won’t happen,” he told the BBC. “It’s not 100% I’m not doing the Olympics, but it’s difficult. If I’m honest. I’ve got a road job.”

Cavendish said that riding the road events is unlikely to result in the success he wants. “The road race doesn’t suit me,” he said, referring to what is a lumpy parcours. “The time trial, well, I’m not a time triallist.”

That means ambitions of a win depend on track events, but he feels that it is very difficult to secure qualification there. The need to do a certain number of events to secure a place in the Olympics make things very complicated, something he faults the UCI for.

“The UCI has segregated track and road cycling completely,” he said. “So you have to do what Bradley Wiggins is doing and quit road cycling to be able to qualify for it. It’s killing track cycling, because you never get the road stars doing track anymore. Track cycling is going to die, particularly on the endurance side.”

Click here to read more at CyclingTips.

Controversy reigns as fourth day of US National Cyclocross Championships cancelled in Austin

by Anne-Marije Rook

In a bizarre turn of events, the City of Austin — host of the 2014 USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships — has cancelled all elite racing on the day of the event.

Due to unusually wet weather, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department feared the damage of running a fourth day of cyclocross races would do too much damage to Zilker Park. It was simply “too muddy” and the damage to the course “exceeded the expectations by the city of Austin and Parks and Recreation Department,” stated USA Cycling’s communications manager Kevin Loughery.

What followed was a Social Media blow up with dozens of athletes expressing their frustration with the city of Austin, and many of them vowing to never spend a single penny in that city or the state of Texas again.

Mind you these athletes spend an enormous amount of money, time and energy all season long to get to these championships, and some top athletes’ ticket to the World Championships depend on the outcome of this race.

After a long hour of social media frenzy, complaints and supposedly some pressure from Texas’ cycling star Lance Armstrong himself, USA Cycling announced it would reschedule the races for the following day, a Monday.

Click here to read more at CX Magazine.

Team Sky gets kitted up for 2015

This is a cool little video about the amount and variety of kit that Team Sky riders (and staff) get at the start of each new season. Worth a look.

Movistar’s bike orchestra

We’ve seen the idea of using sounds from a bike to make music before but Movistar’s effort here is still pretty cool.

The Week in Bike #51: The Short Week

Granted, it hasn’t been a full week since the last episode, but there’s still plenty of news. Championships, non-championships, CAPS LOCK, a team launch…though I suppose another black kit doesn’t exactly justify stopping the presses.

We hope you enjoy Cosmo Catalano’s latest episode of The Week in Bike.

The Rocacorba Recap

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

• Heinrich Haussler: “I’m ready to race”
• The wheels are turning on Nine and Fox Sports’ cycling coverage, but improvement is needed