In this morning’s edition of the CyclingTips Daily News Digest: Michael Matthews wins stage 3 of Paris-Nice, takes overall lead; Adriano Malori wins Tirreno-Adriatico prologue; Andrea Guardini takes a third stage win at the Tour de Langkawi, Ewan maintains overall lead; CIRC report - Kimmage ‘would be astonished’ if Verbruggen lawsuit continues; Gerrans’ Spring Classics campaign in danger; Why Lampre-Merida left the MPCC to keep Ulissi on board; Roman Kreuziger hoping for CAS hearing before Giro d’Italia; Tour of the Gila saved by anonymous donor; Teams announced for the Friends Life Women’s Tour; Peter Sagan’s near-miss in the Tirreno-Adriatico prologue.
Michael Matthews wins stage 3 of Paris-Nice, takes overall lead
Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) has won stage 3 of Paris-Nice, sprinting to victory in Saint-Pourcain-sur-Sioule after benefiting from an impressive lead-out in the closing stages. Matthews beat Davide Cimolai (Lampre-Merida) and Giacomo Nizollo (Trek) and took the overall race lead in the process.
The day’s main breakaway featured Philippe Gilbert (BMC), Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Florian Vachon (Bretagne- Seche Environnement) in a move that got as much as five minutes clear of the peloton. With 10km to go the race was back together though, prompting a promising counterattack from Paolo Tirralongo (Astana), Jan Bakelants and Romain Bardet (both Ag2r-La Mondiale).
The three leaders were caught with 2km as Orica-GreenEdge did the pacemaking in support of Matthews.
Matthews now leads the race by just one second ahead of prologue winner Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-Quick-Step) and Rohan Dennis (BMC). Four stages remain in the race, including today’s 204km fourth stage which ends with a 10km climb to Croix de Chaubouret.
Matthews
Matthews
Gilbert
Matthews
Matthews
BMC Racing TeamClick here to read more at Cycling Weekly.
Adriano Malori wins Tirreno-Adriatico prologue
Adriano Malori (Movistar) has taken the first leader’s jersey in the 2015 Tirreno-Adriatico after winning the stage 1 ITT ahead of Fabian Cancellara (Trek) and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC).
Malori completed the 5.4km course in 6:04 — an average speed of 53.4km/h — and despite completing his effort before the TT specialists and GC contenders, he did enough to stay in the hot seat.
The seven-stage race continues today with a 153km jaunt from Camaiore to Cascina which is likely to end in a bunch sprint.
Click here to read more at Cycling Weekly.
Andrea Guardini takes a third stage win at the Tour de Langkawi, Ewan maintains overall lead
by Shane Stokes
Andrea Guardini (Astana) has returned to the winner’s list at the 2015 Tour de Langkawi, claiming his third stage victory in four stages ahead of Jakub Mareczko (Southeast) and Caleb Ewan (Orica GreenEdge).
“I am really happy with my sprint because I saw the SRM and I made a good power,” Guardini said. “Okay, the final was really fast in the last 50, 60 kilometres, because the breakaway was so far [ahead] and a bit stronger than the other days as there were six good riders.
“We caught the breakaway with Orica and some other guys…as there were others in classification.”
The day’s seven-rider breakaway featured Jonathan Clarke (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling), Pierre-Luc Perichon (Bretange Seche Environnement), Elchin Asadov (Synergy Baku), Jamalidin Novardianto (Pegasus Continental Cycing) and Vladimir Gusev (Skydive Dubai) with Meiyin Wang (Hengxiang Cycling Team) and Nazim Bakirci (Torku Sekerspor) soon joining them.
Their advantage reached more than five minutes but with Orica-GreenEdge driving the peloton in support of overall leader Caleb Ewan, the race was all back together inside 5km to go.
Four stages remain in the 2015 Tour de Langkawi including today’s 200km fifth stage which features a short, sharp climb in the closing kilometres.
Stage 4: Kota Bharu > Kuala Berang - Stage Result
Wednesday 11th March 2015
| 1. |  |
GUARDINI Andrea
Astana Pro Team
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03:43:14 |
| 2. | |
MARECZKO Jakub
Southeast
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- |
| 3. |  |
EWAN Caleb
Orica GreenEDGE
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- |
Click here to read more at CyclingTips.
CIRC report: Kimmage ‘would be astonished’ if Verbruggen lawsuit continues
by Shane Stokes
Speaking in the wake of a Cycling Independent Reform Commission (CIRC) report that was critical of the past presidents of the UCI, cycling journalist Paul Kimmage has said that he would be very surprised if Hein Verbruggen’s lawsuit against him were to continue.
Verbruggen and his successor Pat McQuaid both launched suits against Kimmage in the past, claiming defamation of their character in terms of his criticism of them and how they handled anti-doping in the UCI. McQuaid dropped out of that suit last year but Verbruggen pushed onwards with his portion of it.
However according to Kimmage, there were recent indications that the Dutchman was awaiting the outcome of the CIRC report before going further.
“I have had two letters in the last two months from his lawyers,” he told CyclingTips on Wednesday. “They have been stalling for time. His lawyers have been writing to the court asking for more time, clearly in my opinion with a view to seeing what is in the CIRC report. That is the only thing that makes sense to me.
“I would be astonished, to be honest, if he decided to pursue [the case]. I would be absolutely astonished.”
Click here to read more at CyclingTips.
Gerrans’ Spring Classics campaign in danger
It’s been a frustrating few months for Simon Gerrans. After breaking his collarbone in a MTB training accident and missing the Australian summer of racing, last year’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege winner returned to racing at Strade Bianche last weekend only to crash out again.
Gerrans suffered a fractured elbow which could see him out of the Spring Classics, including Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
“It’s still in the cards that he could race Volta a Catalunya,” Orica-GreenEdge director sportif Matt White told VeloNews. “The Spring Classics are up in the air in the moment right now, that’s for sure.”
“Fitness-wise, he was fine, he was in good form after training in South Africa, and he was very motivated to return to racing,” White said. “He went down on both hands, got back up, and started racing, and then he said, ‘Ooh, that’s not good.’ It was bad luck, really.”
“‘Gerro’ will be off the road until next Wednesday, and then he will get more X-rays, and we can make some decisions,” White said. “We want to get him back to racing as soon as possible, but we also have to think about his long-term health.”
Click here to read more at VeloNews.
Why Lampre-Merida left the MPCC to keep Ulissi on board
Lampre-Merida general manager Brent Copeland has spoken to Cyclingnews about the difficult decision the team faced when it came to either firing Diego Ulissi or leaving the MPCC (the Movement for Credible Cycling).
“It’s difficult for us to fire a rider. As far as labour laws are concerned it’s really difficult,” Copeland told Cyclingnews. “So you find yourself in a situation where if the rider is given two years or more [of a suspension], you can fire him. If he’s still got a contract by the time his suspension is up – which was the case with Diego, who got nine months – it’s difficult to fire him. So we were put in a situation where it was difficult to fire him.
“The MPCC said we had to either get rid of Ulissi or leave the organisation, so what do you do? You have a labour law civil case or you have the UCI against you.”
Lampre-Merida decided to leave the MPCC but Copeland did not rule out re-joining the organisation at some stage in the future.
“If they made these rules clearer, there could be an eventual decision to go back,” he said. “And I’m sure it’s an experience for them as well, to learn from this. They’ve got to look at how the UCI and the civil case are more important than their rules and regulations. That’s not to misjudge them, but obviously civil laws are important.”
Click here to read more at Cyclingnews.
Roman Kreuziger hoping for CAS hearing before Giro d’Italia
Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo) has written on the website about his ongoing biological passport case that he hopes to front the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) by the end of April, saying his lawyers have been unable to find a suitable date that works for the UCI and WADA.
“I am still waiting for a date to be set for my hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The date initially proposed was in mid-April, and I confirmed acceptance. However, the UCI and WADA rejected this date (their lawyers didn’t have time),” Kreuziger wrote at Kreuzigercase.cz.
“Further proposed dates from the CAS are at the end of April, or on 7.5. I hope that the April date will suit everyone. I would like to believe that no one has an interest in the hearing clashing with the compulsory tests before the Giro d’Italia, which take place on 7th May.”
Kreuziger’s case has been ongoing since May last year when the UCI notified the Czech rider of biological passport anomalies. He has since been sidelined by the UCI then returned to racing after the Czech Olympic Committee cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Click here to read more at the Kreuziger Case website.
Tour of the Gila saved by anonymous donor
As of last week it looked like the UCI 2.2 Tour of the Gila, held in the US state of New Mexico, was set to be cancelled after a title sponsor couldn’t be found. But the Silver City Daily Press reports that race organisers have now found a title sponsor — a cyclist who wants to remain anonymous.
“It is an individual who has raced the Gila a number of times,” race organiser Jack Brennan said. “He has an affinity for what we do down here, and that’s the reason why he stepped forward.”
“He gets to race in Silver City, and learn about who we are, and it’s a community effort, the whole event,” Brennan said. “That’s what sold him on coming forward. And the community is just so supportive of what we do, so that’s why this race is continuing.”
“It’s been very exhausting the last couple of days, so it’s nice that we got things resolved, and we can start putting the race together,” Brennan said. “I need to call a lot of people, other sponsors in town, and let them know.”
The race is scheduled from April 29 to May 3.
Click here to read more at the Silver City Daily Press.
Teams announced for the Friends Life Women’s Tour
Organisers of the Friends Life Women’s Tour have announced the 16 teams that will take part in the second edition of the British race.
“We have once again secured a world-class line-up of teams for the Friends Life Women’s Tour, which surpasses even that of our inaugural event in 2014,” race director Mick Bennett said. “To have attracted so many of the world’s top teams to race in Britain shows the high regard in which the Friends Life Women’s Tour is already held, a regard which we will reward with another exciting and high-profile race this June.”
The teams that will feature in the four stage race, which runs from June 17-21, will be:
Ale Cipollini, Bigla Pro Cycling Team, Boels-Dolmans, German national team, Lotto Soudal, Matrix Fitness, Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies, Orica-AIS, Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International, Poitou-Charentes Futuroscope-86, Rabo Liv, Liv-Plantur, UnitedHealthcare, USA national team, Velocio-SRAM and Wiggle Honda.
Click here to read more at the Women’s Tour website.
Peter Sagan’s near-miss in the Tirreno-Adriatico prologue
It certainly helps to have fantastic bike-handling skills.
What You Missed
And finally this morning, here are a few things you might have missed at CyclingTips in the past few days:
- Scott Addict 20 and Team Issue review
- Tips to keep your rubbish off the road
- Daily News Digest: Wednesday March 11
