In this morning’s edition of the CyclingTips Daily News Digest: Nacer Bouhanni wins stage 2 of the Criterium du Dauphine; Caleb Ewan claims stage 2 of the Tour de Korea; Rolf Aldag on Tony Martin and UCI hour record - “He is definitely toying around with it in his head”; Obree on Wiggins’ UCI hour record and challengers - “I think Dowsett has been underestimated”; Jens Voigt launches The Jensie Gran Fondo; Driverless vehicles and how they might affect cyclists; Ella Picks; Christopher Froome celebrates Peter Kennaugh’s Dauphine win; Call of the Road - Episode 15.
Nacer Bouhanni wins stage 2 of the Criterium du Dauphine
Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) has taken out the second stage of the Criterium du Dauphine, outsprinting Samuel Dumoulin (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) in a messy run-in to the finish in Villars-les-Dombes.
The day-long breakaway featured Arnaud Courteille (FDJ.fr), Perrig Quemeneur (Europcar) and Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN-Qhubeka), the trio getting as much as seven minutes clear on the stage as Teklehaimanot extended his lead in the KOM classification.
The leaders were caught with 3km to go as the sprinters readied themselves for the dash to the line. It was a disorganised final sprint with several riders weaving precariously across the road, but in the end it was Bouhanni that took a comfortable victory, his fourth for the year.
Stage 1 winner Peter Kennaugh (Sky) finished in the bunch and will again wear the leader’s jersey on stage 3: a 24.5km team time trial between Roanne and Montagny.
Bouhanni
Kennaugh
Teklehaimanot
Modolo
Bouhanni
Team SkyClick here to read more via AFP/VeloNews.
Caleb Ewan claims stage 2 of the Tour de Korea
After crashing out of stage 1 of the Tour de Korea, Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) has bounced back in the best way possible, winning stage 2 in a bunch sprint ahead of Patrick Bevin (Avanti) and Wouter Wippert (Drapac).
It took more than 50km for a breakaway to get clear and when it did it comprised four riders: Kazuo Inoue (Bridgestone Anchor Cycling Team), Kihong Yoo (Geumsan Insam Cello), Kyunggu Jang (Korail Cycling Team) and Keisukke Kimura (Shimano Racing Team). The quartet had a three-minute lead with 60km to race before Jang pulled clear as the peloton bore down on his three former companions. Jang was caught with 5km to race as the teams of the sprinters readied for the bunch kick.
Stage 1 winner Wouter Wippert did enough to hold on to his overall lead but has said his Drapac team won’t ride to protect it on today’s third stage: a 99km race comprising six laps of a 16.5km circuit around the town of Muju.
Rolf Aldag on Tony Martin and UCI hour record: “He is definitely toying around with it in his head”
by Shane Stokes
When Bradley Wiggins demolished the previous UCI hour record in London’s Lee Valley VeloPark on Sunday, three names were mentioned by him and others as being capable of considering taking on the new mark. Fabian Cancellara and Alex Dowsett were two of those and while their teams were relatively tight-lipped about their ambitions on Monday, Tony Martin’s Etixx-Quick-Step team confirmed that they had been giving it some thought.
However, as sport and development manager Rolf Aldag told CyclingTips on Monday, it is not a decision that will be taken lightly.
“The whole story of the hour record has a lot of dimensions. One out of the big three did it thus far, and that is Bradley. He deserves a lot of respect, obviously,” he said, explaining the size of the challenge. “We also have to understand that he did not decide just yesterday to do it, he did a lot of preparation and took his time and was very focussed on it. That is the way he works for a decade now, and the way British Cycling worked in the past to be successful. It is not only him, it is the team around him.”
“If you want to do it, you have to get a team around you. That means you have to be 100 percent committed, in terms of the road programme that you do to prepare for it, and also the bike, the helmet, the tyres. All that kind of stuff,” he said.
“Ultimately Tony has to decide if he wants to do it and when he wants to do it. You can’t just put Tony on a bike and get him to do it, it is unrealistic. We would need a lot of discussion. We would have to talk to our technical suppliers. It is so far out there that we cannot name a timeline as we have to get everything together before doing it.”
Click here to read more at CyclingTips.
Obree on Wiggins’ UCI hour record and challengers. “I think Dowsett has been underestimated”
by Shane Stokes
Former world hour record holder Graeme Obree has given his thumbs up to Bradley Wiggins’ new UCI hour record, describing the ride to extend the distance covered in the timeframe as “an amazing performance.” But while Wiggins went 1.589 kilometres further than the previous record which was set by Alex Dowsett on May 2, Obree believes that the younger Briton has a chance to come back and to try again.
“I think Alex Dowsett has been underestimated,” Obree told CyclingTips on Monday. “I saw a comment saying that Alex Dowsett had set an interim time or something, like it [his previous effort] wasn’t his best hour record. If I was Alex Dowsett, I would think, ‘okay, I will come back and show you.’
“Obviously he had so much more in the tank than was put out there. So he is probably capable of 54 and a half on a good day if everything is perfect. Also, the velodrome in London is probably better with the humidity control and temperature.”
Although Wiggins said on Sunday that he will not take on the record again, Obree notes that the air pressure wasn’t ideal during his ride and that this suggests that he too can go faster. He believes this warrants another ride, but doesn’t believe it should be done prior to the current record being broken.
“I think he should wait until Dowsett or somebody has taken it on and possibly beaten it,” he said. “There is no point in going again to improve your own figures. The best thing to is to actually wait until you have got a target. If somebody else breaks it, you are attacking to get it back. Then that is something of interest.”
Click here to read more at CyclingTips.
Jens Voigt launches The Jensie Gran Fondo
Nobody could accuse Jens Voigt of not making the most of the opportunities that have come his way, both on the bike and off. And since Voigt has retired, it seems as if we’ve been hearing more about and from him than we did even when he was racing.
The latest instalment in The Jensie saga is the announcement of The Jensie Gran Fondo in Marin County, California, to be held in October this year.
There are three ride options available: The Breakaway (65km), The Presidential (112km) and, the perhaps-unsurprisingly-named Shut Up Legs (160km).
“We’re going to try to make the ride with me as interactive as possible,” Voigt said. “I want to ride and talk to as many people as I can on the day, and going by how many of you guys turn up at these events - that could be a lot of people.”
Click here to read more at the event website.
Driverless vehicles and how they might affect cyclists
It would seem to be only a matter of time before driverless vehicles become a fixture on our roads. As part of a Masters Degree in City and Regional Planning at Ohio State University, Michael Julian Armstrong Blau has written a thesis considering the effect that driverless vehicles might have on cyclists. Here’s an excerpt from the paper’s abstract:
“Research in the field of autonomous vehicle technology focuses on the enhanced safety and convenience it will likely convey to vehicle occupants. This thesis seeks to establish a new and equally important line of inquiry that addresses the same implications for cyclists and
pedestrians.It is well-established that motorized traffic volume and speed have a strong influence on non-motorized agents’ behavior and facility preference but whether this will continue to be the case in a driverless environment remains unknown.
As a reminder, here’s how Google’s driverless car handles a bunch of different situations out on the road, including cyclists:
Click here to read the full paper.
Ella Picks
While we often feature women’s racing content in the CT Daily News Digest, we’re simply not able to stay across everything that’s happening in the world of women’s cycling. Thankfully, our colleagues Jessi and Anne-Marije over at our sister site, Ella, put together a weekly wrap-up of the interesting content that they come across.
You can find the latest edition of Ella Picks here and be sure to check out Ella in general for all things women’s cycling.
Christopher Froome extremely happy for Peter Kennaugh
As fans of the sport it’s always great to see riders like Peter Kennaugh get their chance at individual success. He’s the sort of rider that spends most of his time riding in support of his team leader — Chris Froome in the case of the Criterium du Dauphine. So it’s great to see Froome so happy about Kennaugh’s success.
Call of the Road: Episode 15
Call of the Road is a video series on YouTube shot by Joff Summerfield who’s currently riding his way around the world … on a penny farthing. In the latest episode Summerfield is in Mexico.
To see previous episodes in the Call of the Road series, click through to Josh’s YouTube channel.
What You Missed
And finally this morning, here are a few things you might have missed at CyclingTips in the past few days:
- Wiggins smashes UCI hour record with 54.526 kilometres
- UCI hour record: no upcoming attempts by Cancellara or Dowsett
- Daily News Digest: Monday June 8
