In this morning’s edition of the CyclingTips Daily News Digest: Alejandro Valverde wins Liege-Bastogne-Liege; Mark Cavendish wins Tour of Turkey opener; Richie Porte takes overall title at Giro del Trentino; Kirsten Wild claims fifth Omloop van Borsele victory; Elise Delzenne takes solo win at Dwars door de Westhoek; Steele von Hoff wins Rutland-Melton International CiCLE Classic; Simon Gerrans crashes out of Liege-Bastogne-Liege; Renshaw - Cavendish’s watts are up, he looks a lot more focussed; Tom Boonen - Tour out of question, Giro stage/worlds are targets; Q&A with Caleb Ewan; Hidden motors for road bikes exist — here’s how they work; A victory salute … for second place; Dud champagne at Trentino; Behind the scenes of Cycling Canada’s riderless bikes ad.

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Alejandro Valverde wins Liège-Bastogne-Liège

by Shane Stokes

Completing the first Flèche Wallonne/Liège-Bastogne-Liège double since Philippe Gilbert won all three Ardennes Classics in 2011, Alejandro Valverde sprinted to victory on Sunday at the end of this year’s Liège race.

The Spanish Movistar rider was quickest in a ten-man sprint to the line, adding to his 2006 and 2008 titles by getting the better of Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-Quick-Step) and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha).

An eight-rider breakaway made the early running in the season’s fourth “Monument”, slipping clear after 31km and building a strong lead. Most notable among the octet was Lampre-Merida’s Diego Ulissi.

The break peaked at nearly eight minutes before the chasing of Europcar saw the peloton’s deficit eroded to just 30 seconds with 75km still to race. On the fifth of 10 categorised climbs — the Côte de la Haute-Levée — the leaders were caught and a new break was established, settling at three riders: Tanel Kangert, Michele Scarponi (both Astana) and Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge).

After a big crash decimated the peloton Kangert was dropped from the lead group and eventually Scarponi and Chaves were also reeled in with 24km to race. Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Katusha’s Gianpaolo Caruso struck clear but they were caught by an elite chase group with 6km to go.

Moreno attacked in the long uphill drag to the line before Valverde himself was forced to chase down the move. With 10 riders together for the final sprint Valverde still had enough to take a convincing win in the sprint.

Click here to read more at CyclingTips.

Mark Cavendish wins Tour of Turkey opener

by Shane Stokes

Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quick-Step) has followed up on the four stage victories he claimed at the 2014 Presidential Tour of Turkey, blasting home first at the end of this year’s first stage in Alanya on Sunday.

The Etixx-Quick-Step rider narrowly beat Australian Caleb Ewan in their first-ever head-to-head sprint, the small gap between the two giving the latter considerable motivation for the coming days. Nicola Ruffoni (Bardiani CSF) was third.

Very early in the stage five riders nipped clear and were given space to build a lead. Together Adam Phelan (Drapac Racing), Federico Zurlo (UnitedHealthcare), Luis Mas (Caja Rural), Mario Costa (Lampre-Merida) and Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF) all worked to get a three and a half minute gap.

However the sprinters’ teams knuckled down later on and hauled them back with 20 kilometres remaining. They then worked to manoeuvre their riders into position, a tussle ultimately won by Etixx-Quick-Step and Cavendish.

The sprinters will get a chance at another stage win on Monday’s second stage, a 182 kilometre stage from Alanya to Antalya. The Presidential Tour of Turkey is contested over eight stages.

Click here to read more at CyclingTips.

Richie Porte takes overall title at Giro del Trentino

Richie Porte (Sky) has made it clear he’s on track for next month’s Giro d’Italia, winning a key warm-up race, the Giro del Trentino, after defending the lead he took on stage 2.

Porte went into Friday’s final stage of the four-day event with a 22-second lead over Mikel Landa (Astana) and 58 seconds ahead of teammate Leopold Konig. Despite a challenging final stage and some attacks from Landa, Porte was able to finish in the main field and maintain his overnight advantage at the end of the race.

The final stage was won by Astana’s Paolo Tiralongo who was part of a seven-rider breakaway that formed with 80km to go in the stage. That group split towards the end with Tiralongo winning a three-up sprint to take his first victory of the year.

Richie Porte will now return home to Monaco for a couple weeks of rest combined with hard training efforts, before starting the Giro d’Italia on May 9 as one of the favourites.

Click here to read more at VeloNews.

Kirsten Wild claims fifth Omloop van Borsele victory

by Jessi Braverman

The Omloop van Borsele might have had a new ranking in 2015 (up from 1.2 to 1.1), but Saturday’s race had a very familiar winner with Kirsten Wild taking advantage of a superb lead-out from her Hitec Products team to win her fifth edition of the race.

Although windy, weather conditions were unfavourable for a breakaway. The peloton would split in the crosswinds on each of the four laps of the 24km circuit, but the front group could not keep its chasers at bay when the wind direction changed. The headwind afforded the second and third groups on the road an opportunity to rejoin the elite selection after every split. A large bunch hit the local circuit together.

Several teams attempted to force an escape clear on the local circuits including Wiggle Honda, Orica-AIS, Parkhotel Valkenburg, Velocio-SRAM and Boels-Dolmans. The last attack came from Vera Koedooder (Bigla) just before the final 9.9km loop.

Wild was the first to open the sprint. She put her head down and powered to the line ahead of Shelley Olds (Bigla), who returned to racing at Borsele following six weeks sidelined with a fractured rib. Anna Knauer (Rabo-Liv) rounded out the podium.

Click here to read more at Ella CyclingTips.

Elise Delzenne takes solo win at Dwars door de Westhoek

by Jessi Braverman

Elise Delzenne (Velocio-SRAM) turned a perfectly-timed attack into a race-winning move at Dwars door de Westhoek on Sunday. The 26-year-old soloed to victory in Boezinge, Belgium and was followed 30 seconds later by the bunch in which Jolien d’Hoore (Wiggle Honda) edged out Tiffany Cromwell (Velocio-SRAM) for second.

Dwars door de Westhoek borrows heavily from the Gent-Wevelgem course. There are climbs and cobbles and multiple circuits in play. The peloton raced aggressively from the outset. The early climbs split the bunch before the race came back together heading into the local circuits.

Delzenne launched her attack in the first of four local laps. She slipped away alone with 44km still to race. She immediately opened up an advantage of nearly a minute – and although the gap would fluctuate between 30 and 90 seconds over the remainder of the race, the peloton was never able to Delzenne back. The Frenchwoman crossed the line alone to take her first professional victory.

Whilst she stood on the podium with her teammates at Energiewacht Tour, having won the stage two team time trial, Cromwell’s third place finish on Sunday was her first individual European podium of the season. With Delzenne up the road, Cromwell and her teammates were able to save their legs for the finish while other teams struggled to close down Delzenne’s gap.

Click here to read more at Ella CyclingTips.

Steele von Hoff wins Rutland-Melton International CiCLE Classic

Here’s some good news out of the UK for Australian cycling fans — Steele von Hoff (NFTO) has won the Rutland-Melton International CiCLE Classic after outsprinting the rest of a 27-rider lead group.

Got a win for the Aussies today! On the #Anzac100 weekend @CiCLEClassic #rutland #HTAB thanks all the guys @NFTO pic.twitter.com/Hgp7jyjwGO

— Steele von Hoff (@SteeleVH) April 26, 2015

Von Hoff made it back to the front after a mechanical earlier in the UCI 1.2 race, and when he crossed the line he did so thinking he’d finished fifth — he thought a four-rider group was up the road.

“I thought they were a long way off and we had no chance of catching up so I honestly thought we were sprinting for fifth,” Von Hoff said afterwards.

Click here to read more at Cycling Weekly.

Simon Gerrans crashes out of Liège-Bastogne-Liège

Defending Liège-Bastogne-Liège champion Simon Gerrans has had a season to forget so far and things didn’t get any better in yesterday’s race. He said on his website:

“I was really looking forward to the race,” Gerrans said. “There wasn’t a huge expectation coming into it because obviously I have had such a rocky start to the season.”

“But my form has been coming on really well over the past few weeks so I was looking forward to testing my legs. I was actually quietly confident that I could be around the mark at the end of the day.”

“The race was unfolding pretty well. We were riding really well as a team, the guys were doing a fantastic job of covering the breaks, supporting me and keeping me up the front where I needed to be and the sensations were good.”

Gerrans continued, “I was with Daryl (Impey) and we were pretty well placed leading into La Redoute; we were right where we needed to be to make a move to get to the front for the start of the climb. Just as the descent started a crash happened at the front of the bunch somewhere. It was unavoidable; we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and had nowhere to go, so got tangled up.

“Both Daryl and I hit the ground, were both in a little bit of shock and tried to piece together what happened so we really didn’t bounce up too quickly. That pretty much put us out of contention for the race, from that point on the day was basically over which was disappointing.”

“I got up and got going again on my spare bike, because my race bike was un-rideable, and I was just rolling down the hill and on the very first corner I hit, I fell off again,” Gerrans explained.

“That came completely by surprise, I wasn’t going fast, I wasn’t taking any risks but obviously I had brand new tyres on my spare bike and next thing I knew I was sliding down the road again.

“That was the icing on the cake really, what was a bad day turned worse.”

Read more on SimonGerrans.com.

Renshaw: Cavendish’s watts are up, he looks a lot more focussed

by Shane Stokes

Speaking to CyclingTips ahead of the Presidential Tour of Turkey, Mark Cavendish’s leadout man and roommate Mark Renshaw has spoken of the Manxman’s determination to have a big season, saying that he has seen signs that the multiple Tour de France stage winner is going better than before.

“Certainly this year he looks to me to being a lot more focussed,” Renshaw said in the Etixx-Quick-Step team hotel in Alanya, Turkey on Saturday afternoon. “He is always a good bike rider all year around but this year he has that little bit of extra added focus to win big races.

“He has already won a lot and I think that in this next block of racing with Turkey, California and of course finishing with the Tour, I think we will see him in better shape than last year.”

When asked why he thought the Belgian team had struggled to achieve the same success in the sprints as HTC-Highroad, where he and Cavendish were last teammates, Renshaw said:

“I think it has changed a lot since HTC,” he answered. “I think back then we were the first team to perfect the leadout. We had a lot of big riders, a lot of strong riders. I think now if you look across the board, most teams have the same kind of calibre with Giant, with GreenEdge, with Lotto. They all have big strong riders.”

Click here to read more at CyclingTips.

Tom Boonen: Tour out of question, Giro stage/worlds are targets

by Shane Stokes

Making his return to racing after injury on stage one of the Presidential Tour of Turkey, Tom Boonen has ruled out any participation in the Tour de France this year and said instead that he will likely pursue a Giro/Vuelta programme in order to be in top shape for the world championships.

“The Tour is out of the question,” the 34-year-old told CyclingTips at the stage one start in Alanya. “I go two months now à bloc [flat out – ed.]. Then July I am off, then August-September two months à bloc again for the world championships.”

Speaking of his basically non-existent Classics season after crashing out of Paris-Nice, Boonen said:

“It was very frustrating, especially the first few races,” he said. “After a while I got in peace with the situation and you have to deal with it.

“But still, I have missed it a lot. I get a lot more nervous watching the races on TV than I did when I was actually in the race. I think I still have to do them a few times.”

Click here to read more at CyclingTips.

Q&A with Caleb Ewan

Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) came within centimetres of beating Mark Cavendish in the pair’s first head-to-head yesterday, in the opening stage of the Tour of Turkey. Ahead of that opening stage, Ewan spoke with Sydney Morning Herald/Cyclingnews reporter Rupert Guinness for this interesting Q&A.

Here’s an excerpt:

“

You spoke of settling in to Monaco. Who are some cycling neighbours?

I train with ‘Gerro’ and fair bit, and [Mark] Renshaw (Etixx-QuickStep). Campbell Flakemore (BMC) has just moved out of Monaco to France and I train with him a lot as well. I recently went for a training ride with Richie Porte (Sky) and Chris Froome (Sky) – that was obviously pretty cool. There are really good guys on the ground here. I have been training with Michael Matthews as well … all really professional guys with the same ambitions as me. It is a good environment to train in.

Click here to read more at Cyclingnews.

Hidden motors for road bikes exist — here’s how they work

Late last week we published an article showing that the technology to hide a motor in a road bike frame not only exists, it’s quite effective. Here’s one of the videos from the piece, showing what happens when you press the button to engage the motor.

Click here to read the full article at CyclingTips.

A victory salute … for second place

On the summit finish to stage 3 of the Tour of Croatia over the weekend, Primoz Roglic (Adria Mobil) thought he had climbed his way to a stage win, throwing both hands in the air as he crossed the line. The only problem was that Maciej Paterksi (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) had already crossed the line 18 seconds earlier en route to overall victory …

Dud champagne at Trentino

How are you supposed to celebrate a win when you’ve been handed a dodgy bottle of champagne?!

Behind the scenes of Cycling Canada’s riderless bikes ad

This is an interesting behind the scenes video showing how Cycling Canada’s “Hop On” video was made.

What You Missed

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

• Tour of Flanders champion Kristoff prolongs with Katusha
• With investigations concluded, Shimano issues apologies for Tour of Flanders neutral service car incidents
• The slow but steady return to racing for Marianne Vos
• Photo gallery: Highlights from the 2015 La Flèche Wallonne
• Giddy up! Back to Holland: Loren Rowney on her return to racing

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