Daily News Digest

Boels-Dolmans dominance continues as Chantal Blaak wins Le Samyn

by Jessi Braverman

Continuing the early season success of her Boels-Dolmans team, Chantal Blaak has won the fourth edition of Le Samyn des Dames in Dour, Belgium. Blaak edged out Omloop Het Nieuwsblad winner Anna van der Breggen (Rabo Liv) and Le Samyn defending champion Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) in a reduced bunch sprint.

Le Samyn 2015 women

A late break of six riders — Emma Johansson, Chloe Hosking (Wiggle Honda), van der Breggen, Amy Pieters (Liv-Plantur), Ashleigh Moolman-Paiso (Bigla) and Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) — was overtaken by a fast-charging peloton in the final kilometre of the 102km race.

“Chantal and Ellen [van Dijk] were still fresh coming into the finish, and with the strength from the lead-out Ellen could do, it’s not a surprise that Chantal won,” Emma Johansson told Ella CyclingTips.

“Yes, Boels-Dolmans won today but I don’t think they were so dominant this time compared to Het Nieuwsblad. With the race on Saturday, they outnumbered every team in every move, you know? It wasn’t like that today.”

1.	BLAAK Chantal Boels - Dolmans Cycling Team	00:00:00
2.	VAN DER BREGGEN Anna Rabobank-Liv Woman Cycling Team	-
3.	JOHANSSON Emma Orica - AIS	-

Click here to read more at Ella CyclingTips.

Kris Boeckmans triumphs in 47th edition of Le Samyn

Lotto Soudal’s Kris Boeckmans has taken a surprise win in Le Samyn after coming to the finish in an eight-rider lead group dominated by Etixx-Quick-Step.

BoeckmansLeSamyn2015

A section of cobblestones in the final kilometres split the group of eight off the front, with four Etixx-Quick-Step riders in the mix. But when it came to the sprint at the end of the 201.2km race, it was Boeckmans who outsprinted his more fancied rivals — inclduing Gianni Meersman — to take the win.

Earlier in the stage a three-rider escape group — Gatis Smukulis (Katusha), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), and Ludwig De Winter (Wallonie-Bruxelles) — moved off the front of the bunch, building a lead of six minutes. De Gendt attacked solo with 61km to go and was caught roughly 40km later, as another lead group formed on the road.

1.	BOECKMANS Kris Lotto Soudal	04:47:01
2.	MEERSMAN Gianni Etixx - Quick Step	-
3.	LAPORTE Christophe Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	-

Click here to read more at VeloNews.

Report: Astana given until March 20 to prepare response to the UCI

The L’Equipe newspaper reports that Astana has until March 20 to prepare its defence in response to the UCI’s request that its license be revoked.

A press release late last week from the UCI read:

“After careful review of this extensive report, the UCI strongly believes that it contains compelling grounds to refer the matter to the Licence Commission and request the Astana Pro Team licence be withdrawn.”

Astana has said that it will fight attempts to revoke its license and indicated that it might appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if necessary.

Click here to read more at L’Equipe.

Andy Schleck eases into retirement by opening a bike shop

Andy Schleck may have retired from cycling but it appears the 2010 Tour de France winner has no plans of leaving the sport behind completely.

Schleck is reportedly preparing to open a bike shop in the town of Itzig in Luxembourg, and hopes to sell the bikes of his former team.

“We will, of course, be selling Trek bikes,” Schleck said. “The store will not only be a lobby with bikes on display.

“We want to give great importance to the service. I want to transfer my skills and my athletic experience to the customer service.”

Schleck also reportedly has plans to open a coffee shop, a museum and a cycling school for children to run alongside the bike shop.

Click here to read more at paperjam.lu.

Specialized issues voluntary recall for Shiv bar mounts

Specialized has issued a voluntary recall for the clamps that are used to secure bar extension to the base of the Shiv time trial and triathlon bikes built between 2012 and 2015.

Screen Shot 2015-03-05 at 7.53.41 AM

The company is reportedly concerned that the extension clamp bolts could break, which could result in riders losing control. Specialized is working with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission to find a solution.

Click here to read more at Specialized.

Track cycling to be omitted from the 2022 Commonwealth Games?

It appears track cycling will be missing from the 2022 Commonwealth Games after the city of Durban, South Africa — the only city left in the bidding process — omitted track cycling and gymnastics from its bid for the Games.

Track cycling has reportedly featured at the Commonwealth Games since 1934 but is optional for organisers to include. Reports suggest the cost of building a suitable velodrome is behind the decision to leave out track cycling. Road cycling and mountain biking are set to be included.

Click here to read more at The Herald.

Petition: Make Melbourne safe for cyclists

Greens MPs Ellen Sandell and Adam Bandt have created a petition, calling on Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews to make Melbourne safer for cyclists. They are calling for “more investment in safer cycling infrastructure and driver education programs”.

The petition has attracted more than 2,600 signatures at the time of writing. If you’d like to add your name to the list you can do so here.

BackBottle designed for jersey pockets

The “BackBottle” is a bottle that’s meant to be stored in your jersey pocket, allowing you to carry more water with you on your rides. The base is pointed and angled to make it easier to get into the pocket.

What’s your take - could this be useful?

Click here to read more at BikeRadar.

Cycling in Yorkshire in the 1940s

This is a cute little film from the Kinolibrary archive film collections showing some “lads and girls strung out over the moors” in 1940s Yorkshire.

Impressive crit crash

Skip through to 1:10 in the video below for what turns out to be a spectacular crash. Pausing the video at 1:15 seems to show that the first rider to go down was pedalling through the corner and was off balance when he hit the brick section. Ouch.

Behind the scenes of Mark Cavendish’s win at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne

After missing out on the win at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad the day before, Etixx-Quick-Step was desperate for a win at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. Mark Cavendish delivered, as seen in this video created by the team.

What You Missed

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

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Today’s feature image comes from Le Samyn and was shot by Cor Vos.

RayG

Backbottle? Nah.

If you need to carry an extra bottle, then you swap it once, and once only, with a bottle that you’ve emptied.
- velocite
  
  So obvious now you mention it. Not as silly as the ‘cranktip pedals’ though..
  - RayG
    
    I dunno. This is a much smaller waste of money
- Hamish Moffatt
  
  Where is that other bottle coming from?
  There are times when you need more than 2 bottles. If not, your ride is too short :-)
  - RayG
    
    Do you really need that explained?
    - Hamish Moffatt
      
      Err, not now. Go on many bunch rides do you?
      - RayG
        
        Until a driver took out my posterior cruciate ligament in January, sh!t loads.
        
        Smarty
        
        Where’d he take it Ray, on a date?
  - Danny Kurka
    
    when I go for a long ride, my pockets are already crammed with food, rain jacket, phone etc.
Nitro

Scary crit crash - looks like his back wheel slid out after a pedal strike. How he then managed the cartwheel over the handlebars I have yet to work out…
- Gavin Adkins
  
  Weird, right? Maybe he panicked and grabbed a fistful of front brake?
  - Nathan Hosking
    
    His weight was probably a bit forward to get aero for the sprint - the loss of balance from the pedal strike sent him that bit too far forward… I think!
- anonymouse
  
  Looks like his back front wheel skidded right in the bricks, put the bike a right angles to the front wheel and….blammo!
  - Abdu
    
    Massive high side!
    Caused by loss of rear wheel traction then sudden regaining it, ie. grabbing a fistful of rear brake. The sudden change in rotation of the bike around its long side axis then brings the big flip over.
    Whoever was screaming abuse (was it the rider with the GoPro?) could do with a good slap. The poor guy who went down first was moaning and absolute road pizza. He deserved some sympathy I’d say, rather than the dude screaming because his Crit racing glory was curtailed.
    - CrampAndGoSlow
      
      At :23, “keep it safe, guys…”
      And what caused the further six riders to crash just up the road? Gawking at the first crash?
- Emil Holt
  
  Somehow it looks like he managed to pull off a proper motorcycle style highsider.
  As Abdu posted below, this happens when the rear wheel looses and then regains traction. The bike compresses and decompresses launching the rider and itself into orbit.
  Usually just happens when rear suspension is involved, but I guess somehow the tire/wheel/frame could compress enough to cause this.
CapeHorn

RE: C’Wealth Games
I think there will be a much bigger backlash at the idea of a lack of gymnastics than track cycling
http://justincoulson.com/ Justin Coulson

I love how the Etixx drivers stay on the road while not watching where they’re driving at all! Amazing.
- velocite
  
  Etixx should get some coaching from Orica GreenEdge on how to celebrate. Pale!
velocite

New segment: the 1 in 20 while singing On Ilkla Moor bar tat ..
peter

It’s a no from me on the back bottle, I don’t understand what the big deal is with stopping, it’s better tan carrying the heavy bottle in you back pocket. On a hot day your water goes hot anyway so it’s better to stop 3 or 4 times if your doing 5 hrs or more.
- Hamish Moffatt
  
  Assuming you find somewhere to stop and refill. But yes heating the bottles up is a problem.
Andy Logan

I know Cav earnt some redemption for Quickstep on the weekend, but having 50% of the numbers in a 8 man break and still losing, seriously that isnt very positive for them. Hopefully it starts to click for them before the really big classics.
- peter
  
  Having the numbers in a break can be bad , everyone expects you to do the work. I wonder what would of happened if the etixx riders just sat up? I think they did the best thing , their sprinter just jumped 1sec too late.

Thursday March 5, 2015

by Matt de Neef - March 5, 2015