Etixx-QuickStep chasing victory in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne
Naming Tom Boonen and Mark Cavendish as two riders who could be in contention for wins this weekend, the Etixx-QuickStep team has made clear that it has the highest of ambitions for the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne.
The events mark the start of the push towards the top Classics, and are two highly-prestigious events in themselves.
Saturday’s 70th edition of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is 200.2 kilometres in length and features 11 steep climbs, or hellingen. These include many of the climbs currently or formerly featured in Ronde van Vlaanderen, and include the Muur, Kruisberg, Taaienberg, Mollenberg, and Leberg ascents as well as ten cobbled sections.
The team’s selection for that event are the Belgians Boonen, Iljo Keisse, Nikolas Maes, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck and Stijn Vandenbergh, the Czech rider Zdenek Stybar, Italy’s Matteo Trentin and Niki Terpstra (Netherlands).
Directeur sportif Wilfried Peeters said the parcours hasn’t changed much from previous editions and the finale remains the same.
“For all the riders it’s the first test to see where they are on this kind of parcours before the big Classics. The masks will fall off,” he predicted.
“We are at the start with a strong team, with riders in good condition that can be a part of the actions and play a part in the final. So we are pretty confident in our abilities to be a protagonist.
“The last time we won this race was ten years ago with Nick Nuyens, but the finish was still in Lokeren. Tom Boonen was second that day. Now we hope after ten years that we can do a good race and try to get a win.”
Click here to read the full story on CyclingTips.
Rohan Dennis said watching Dekker’s hour record attempt was nerve racking
World hour record holder Rohan Dennis has admitted that he found watching Thomas Dekker’s attempt to set a new mark on Wednesday as being ‘nerve-racking,’ with some tense moments being followed by eventual relief that he still held top slot.
The Australian rider set a mark of 52.491 kilometres in Switzerland on February 8. Decker went to altitude to gain an edge and went close to breaking that record, finishing just 251 metres behind.
Dennis said that he viewed the bid while in an airport and was on the edge of his seat at times.
“I was watching it on a live stream and Twitter, sort of trying to get an idea of where he was in compared to my hour record,” he said.
“It was a little bit nerve-racking, to be completely honest. I was watching people’s tweets that were saying he was holding 53 kph for 30 minutes. I was thinking that was pretty quick. Then when I saw 52 a while after that, I sort of started to relax a little bit. I was thinking I don’t need to watch this and stress so much anymore.
“But it was a bit of a wake-up call when I saw that he finished within about 250 meters of me, which is a lap.”
Dennis won the Santos Tour Down Under in January and then took his hour record two weeks later. He has rested up since then but is a late addition to the BMC Racing Team squad for this weekend’s Classic Sud Ardèche on Saturday and Drôme Classic on Sunday.
Click here to read the full story on CyclingTips.
Bora-Argon 18 sets high target for Paris-Roubaix
Confirmed Wednesday as securing a slot in this year’s Paris-Roubaix, the Bora-Argon 18 team has made clear that it has high ambitions for the event and wants to take on the big WorldTour squads in the race.
“We are excited about the wildcard because we now have the most challenging Classics scheduled for our riders this spring,” said the team’s general manager Ralph Denk.
“Participating in Paris-Roubaix is something really special. Every rider respects and is motivated by the legends surrounding this race. To date, we have been known for having a presence in the decisive breakaway groups. Now that we have more experience, we want to focus our attention and strategy on reaching the podium this year.”
He didn’t specify which rider or riders he felt were capable of aiming for a top three finish, but the Pro Continental team is clearly gaining confidence and wants more from what will be its fifth consecutive participation in the race.
The squad had previously secured wildcard slots in Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders and Il Lombardia.
It will ride the Tour de France in July, having also been invited to take part in that event.
The 2015 Paris-Roubaix will be held on April 12. Three of the cobblestone sectors from the race will also feature in July’s Tour de France.
History of the women’s hour record: Sarah Storey battling to join the greats of the sport
by Shane Stokes
It’s a mark that has remained static for over a decade, but Sarah Storey’s decision to post a new chapter in women’s hour record history will secure herself a place alongside some of the world’s top female names if she succeeds in London on Saturday.
The 37 year old rider is taking on the athletic efforts of some of the greatest names in women’s cycling, with former women’s Tour de France winners amongst those in the prestigious list.
While Storey has not taken similar results at that level, she is one of Britain’s most successful Paralympic riders (she was born without a fully functioning left hand) and won the stage two time trial in the Tour de Bretagne Féminin in 2014.
Breaking the hour record would however be by far her biggest achievement.
The lustre of the goal is due to the calibre of riders who have previously achieved that status.
So, who are the previous names she is seeking to join?
Scanning the records, Tamara Novikova is listed as the first women’s hour record holder by the UCI. The Russian covered 38.473 kilometres in the open air track at Irkoutsk in July 1955, a mark that stood for two years and two months before France’s Renee Vissac clocked up 38.569 kilometres in Milan’s outdoor Vigorelli stadium in September 1957.
Click here to read the full feature on CyclingTips.
Brajkovic setting in well at UnitedHealthcare, says he’s happy again in his racing
Previously ninth overall in the Tour de France in 2012, Janez Brajkovic found himself without a contract at the end of last season and was left searching around for a ride for 2015. He eventually secured a slot with the UnitedHealthcare team and now says that he feels fully at home.
“I think I settled in already in December,” Brajkovic said in an interview with VeloHuman. “It’s just the right fit for me. I get along with everybody. The way I think and others think are pretty much the same. We’re a good group of guys, and also the staff and the management, they’re so awesome.
“I feel really happy to be here. Happy to be here on this team, and I think this team will continue to grow, and I’ll be a part of this team growing. Hopefully in a year or two we’ll be on a higher level, racing ProTour, with the best teams in the world.”
Brajkovic has had an up and down career, with heights such as that top ten in the Tour offset by spells of injury. Being in the right setup is crucial for his morale, and it seems he feels things are back on track.
“I know for myself, last year in August, it was pretty clear I was not going to stay at Astana, and what I wanted was to sign for an American team. . . . Actually I wanted to sign with UnitedHealthcare, that was the team I thought would be the best for me, just to go back and start all over again.
“I think it was a good choice, and I’m happy here,” he said.
“I’m happy to be racing again. That’s one of the most important things for myself because even if you have good condition, coming to the race and being depressed is not going to get you results.”
Click here to read the full interview at VeloHuman.
Craddock logging 100 mile Zwift rides as he recovers from fractures
Badly hurt in a crash on stage three of the Santos Tour Down Under, Giant-Alpecin rider Lawson Craddock was left with a fractured sternum manubrium, a separated AC shoulder joint and a fractured bone in his wrist.
The American rider has been working hard to try to get back in shape, though, and believes that he can yet improve upon his third place overall in last year’s Tour of California.
“This is by far my worst injury on a bike. I’ve been racing for 13 years now, and I’ve never gotten anything worse than road rash,” he told VeloNews. “Normally after a crash you have to turn your brain off once you get back in the pack. I’m hoping that instincts take over, and I’m not scared by it.”
Like many, Craddock finds it frustrating to ride indoors but thanks to the online virtual training world Zwift – which mates bikes, indoor trainers, power meters and a computer interface, he has found things much more tolerable.
“I never ride on the trainer a lot, but when I crashed, I was looking at a month of trainer riding, and I was looking for anything to make it more bearable,” he stated.
He added that with Zwift, “you’ll be sitting there, and you’ll see a guy sitting on, then he’ll attack you, and of course being competitive you can’t have that, so you attack them back. So you get five or six guys just going as hard as they can; it’s just kinda fun. To be able to ride with other people is a huge factor that makes it pretty entertaining.”
Craddock said that he rode 100 miles on the system in recent days, split over two sessions in one morning. He also clocked up over 21 hours in total last week. Both were made more bearable by the virtual surroundings.
Click here to read more at VeloNews.
The trailblazer: UnitedHealthcare director Rachael Heal
Her story is like that of the others who sit behind the wheel in the race caravan. Raced pro for five years in Europe, four in the U.S., then moved into the director’s seat in the team car, first at Colavita, then Optum, telling racers what to do, and where to be. She’s just like everyone else running a team in the middle of the floating chaos of a bike race.
She’s just like everyone, except that she happens to be a woman. Yet nothing seems different for her in this male-dominated sport; the fact that she’s the only female director of a men’s team seems to vanish once the race is on. She doesn’t notice, she just gets down to business, and does her job. The others? Well, they notice the 41-year-old from England.
“For other people, it’s quite a novelty. Sometimes the photo moto will take a picture of me, because they aren’t used to seeing a woman in the sport. But in my previous career before cycling, I was an engineer, so I’m pretty used to being in a male-dominated atmosphere. It’s never really bothered me,” Heal said.
“Sometimes I feel a little stress, because if I screw up, I think I will be blamed because I’m a woman. In the back of my mind, I know I can’t screw up, otherwise I’ll have 200 riders yelling at me,” she said. “And they wouldn’t say, ‘It’s a new director, don’t worry about it.’ They’d say, ‘It’s a woman.’”
Click here to read the full story on VeloNews.
Top 10 Riders To Watch: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad & Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne
In advance of this weekend’s start to the Belgian one day races, GCN selects some favourites for Omloop Het Niewsblad and Kuurne-Brussels Kuurne.
Sarah Storey on her hour record preparations, bike and kit
Speaking in advance of her attempt to break the long-standing women’s hour record in London on Saturday, Sarah Storey speaks about her buildup to the bid plus the bike and kit she will use.
What You Missed
And finally this morning, here are a few things you might have missed at CyclingTips in the past few days:
- Martyn Ashton: Despite paralysis, goal is to be back on bike this year
- Cranktip pedals first look
- Inside small wheel brands
- The Secret Pro: Let the season begin!
- The Angel and the Devil: Loren Rowney on classic-style training
- Putting the hour record into perspective: How does an amateur compare?
- Daily News Digest: Thursday February 26