In this morning’s edition of the CyclingTips Daily News Digest: Romain Bardet wins stage 5 of the Dauphine, Van Garderen climbs into overall lead; Alexander Kristoff wins GP du canton d’Argovie; Caleb Ewan takes a third stage at the Tour de Korea, extends overall lead; Megan Guarnier wins Euskal Emakumeen Bira stage one, Kasia Niewiadoma moves into race lead; Pozzovivo to return to racing at the Tour de Suisse; Kittel still in doubt for Tour de France; Cycling Australia cancels two National Road Series races, announces comprehensive review; Taylor Phinney on enduring pain and a changed outlook on cycling and life; The maths behind Wiggins’ hour record attempt; Cannondale to launch new gravel bike; The Program trailer (in English); Road bike tricks with Vittorio Brumotti; Highlights from the 2015 UCI Women Road World Cup in Philadelphia.

---

Romain Bardet wins stage 5 of the Dauphine, Van Garderen climbs into overall lead

Frenchman Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) has taken a thrilling victory on stage 5 of the Criterium du Dauphine, winning solo on the uphill finish to Pra Loup ahead of Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) and Chris Froome (Sky).

Bardet attacked towards the top of the day’s penultimate climb, the Col d’Allos, before bombing down the narrow, serpentine descent to the base of the final climb. He began that final 6km ascent to Pra Loup with an advantage of 1:25 and was able to hold to win by 36 seconds.

Chris Froome attacked in the closing stages but was overtaken by Van Garderen just before the line, the American taking the overall lead in the race. Defending Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) were among the big names to be dropped on the final climb.

Earlier in the day a seven-rider breakaway — Christophe Riblon (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal), Pieter Serry (Etixx-Quick-Step), Romain Sicard (Europcar), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ.fr), Albert Timmer (Giant-Alpecin), and Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN-Qhubeka) — built a lead of more than five minutes before being chased down by BMC and Sky.

Today’s sixth stage of the eight-stage race is another mountainous one, featuring six categorised climbs including the third category, 2.2km ascent to Villard-de-Lans to end the stage.

Click here to read more via AFP/VeloNews.

Alexander Kristoff wins GP du canton d’Argovie

Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) continues to rack up the wins in 2015, making the GP du canton d’Argovie in Gippingen his 17th win of the season on Thursday.

The Norwegian took out the Tour de Suisse warm-up race in a reduced bunch sprint ahead of Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) and Davide Appollonio (Androni Giocattoli).

Congratulations @Kristoff87 for your 17th victory pic.twitter.com/4qAYXeDhQY

— Jose Azevedo (@JoseAzevedo73) June 11, 2015

The early running was made by a six-rider lead group that got as much as nine minutes ahead of the peloton before the likes of BMC and Orica-GreenEdge did most of the chasing to bring the race back together. Local favourite Sylvain Dillier (BMC) attacked roughly 7km from the finish but was caught 400m from the line, setting up a bunch kick.

Click here to read more at Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen.

Caleb Ewan takes a third stage at the Tour de Korea, extends overall lead

After finishing narrowly behind Paddy Bevin (Avanti) on stage 4 of the Tour de Korea, Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) has bounced back on stage 5 to take his third stage win in the UCI 2.1 race, extending his overall lead in the process.

Another tough day in Tour de Korea. Nice to get win number 3! @ORICA_GreenEDGE boys were unreal again today! #TDK2015 pic.twitter.com/jr5NIUwef2

— Caleb Ewan (@CalebEwan) June 11, 2015

A group of five riders got clear nearly 50km into the rain-affected stage, eventually putting five minutes between them and the main field. Led largely by the Iranian teams Pisghaman Giant and Tabriz Petrochemical, the peloton clawed back the leaders, the race all back together with 3km to go after a largely un-decisive climb with 4.5km to go.

Orica-GreenEdge again organised an impressive lead-out, delivering Ewan into position for his third win in four days.

Ewan should be in a position to hold on to the overall lead through to Seoul on Sunday, but says that’s not the team’s main focus.

“We’ll keep going for stage wins and, if the yellow jersey comes with it, then that’s a massive bonus,” Ewan said. “As a sprinter, there aren’t many opportunities you get to win a race overall so, not just because I have close ties to Korea, but just in general, it would be really nice to win an overall classification.”

Megan Guarnier wins Euskal Emakumeen Bira stage one; Kasia Niewiadoma moves into race lead

by Jessi Braverman

Newly-crowned American national road champion Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) continued her successful season by winning the first road stage of Euskal Emakumeen Bira on Thursday. Guarnier outsprinted former Bira champion Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) and Ashleigh Moolman (Bigla) to the line, but it was Rabo-Liv’s Kasia Niewiadoma who pulled on the race leader’s jersey thanks to her ride in the prologue on Wednesday night.

The stage was not without a bit of drama and controversy. A four-woman breakaway of Guarnier, Moolman, Johansson and Niewiadoma had taken shape over the day’s largest climb to Kurtzeta, and as the four leaders attacked their way into town, they were taken off course by the motorbike.

Race officials decided to neutralise the stage and re-started the leaders with the 1:20 advantage they had over the bunch at the time they were led off course.

On the day’s main climb, the peloton had shattered. The leading group of 20 became a seven-rider front group. Then five. Then two. Niewiadoma and Moolman led over the summit with a gap to Guarnier and Johnasson. Anna Sanchis (Wiggle Honda) and Tetyana Riabchenko (Inpa Sottoli Giusfredi) chased the duo just ahead.

Before reaching the bottom of the descent, Sanchis and Riabchenko would lose contact and Johansson would put in a small attack. A front group of four reached the flat run-in to town after which Guarnier won the four-up sprint with Riabchenko and Sanchis coming to the line 20 seconds later.

Click here to read more at Ella CyclingTips.

Pozzovivo to return to racing at the Tour de Suisse

After a horrible crash on stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia in which he lay motionless on the side of the road for several minutes, Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r-La Mondiale) will return to racing this week at the Tour de Suisse.

“I resumed training after eight days (May 19). I’ve had a CT scan of my head. I had various appointments with doctors for my facial injuries, a neurologist, and all is well,” Pozzovivo said of his post-crash recovery.

“My condition was very good when I fell. It was reassuring to see that it came back pretty quickly. I really want to race again, to fight. At the Tour de Suisse, I’ll take it day-by-day and according to the sensations I’ll see if I go for the GC or focus on stage wins. I hope to be in good shape for the Italian Championships.

“I’ll take a break in early July, as was originally planned. Then I will start my preparation for the Vuelta a Espana with a training camp at altitude. I’ll return to racing at the Tour de l’Ain (August 11-15).

Click here to read more at Cyclingnews.

Kittel still in doubt for Tour de France

Marcel Kittel (Giant-Alpecin) has been the sprinter to beat in the past two editions of the Tour de France but the German’s participation in this year’s event is still in doubt.

Kittel suffered from a “flu-like virus” earlier this year which, according to his team, has been exacerbated by a period of “over-reaching”. He has managed just 15 days of racing so far in 2015 and has also found his training interrupted.

“I think the worst is now behind him, it’s now a matter of getting fit again and that is going in the right direction at the moment,” team physician Anko Boelens told Cycling Central. “Medically speaking he is he is 100 per cent healthy as far as I’m concerned. As far as his fitness goes that’s not up to me, I am no longer looking at his power files, it really is something for the trainers and coaches.”

Kittel is set to race the Rund um Koln (14 June) and Ster-ZLM Tour (17-21 June) after which the team will decide whether the German will race Le Tour.

“Our idea is that he will be ready for those races and that his level will be good again there,” said sports director Marc Reef. “On one hand it’s only four weeks to the Tour but they are also four weeks where he can do a lot. He missed quite a big part of the season but for sure in the beginning of the Tour he will be ready to compete.”

Click here to read more at Cycling Central.

Cycling Australia cancels two National Road Series races, announces comprehensive review

Cycling Australia has announced that two rounds of the Subaru National Road Series will be cancelled in the coming months: the Tour of the Murray River (men’s and women’s) and the Tour of Gippsland (men’s).

It’s unclear exactly why the races have been cancelled but a Cycling Australia press release reads that the Tour of the Murray River was cancelled “following recent discussions with local councils and the event deliverer Cycling Victoria” and that the Tour of Gippsland was postponed “after consultation with the major sponsor Lakes Oil”. CyclingTips has approached Cycling Australia for comment but has not received a reply at the time of publishing.

Cycling Australia has also announced a “comprehensive review” of the National Road Series including “event management and operations, scheduling, timing and media operations.”

The National Road Series resumes with the Tour of the Great South Coast (Victoria) in mid-August.

Click here to read more at Cycling Australia.

Taylor Phinney on enduring pain and a changed outlook on cycling and life

by Shane Stokes

Lying on the road with your legbones badly cracked changes things. There’s life before the impact, then life afterwards. Taylor Phinney has been through surgeries, therapies, sleepless nights and restless days since his crash in the US nationals in May 2014, and he’s still trying to get back to where he was before.

Well, to some extent. Because even if he returns to the pro peloton and stands once again on the top step of podiums, he’ll be different to how he was. You can’t go through what he has and not be changed by it.

“I think my relationship with pain is completely different now than it was before,” Phinney told CyclingTips, answering with some pause after being asked if there could be any possible long term benefits to what was an extremely damaging crash.

“I think before I saw pain as a vehicle to success, just part of something I was doing. It was something I had to either deal with or not deal with. And if I didn’t deal with it, then I wasn’t going to be successful.

“Now I realise there is a therapeutic side to pushing yourself to an extreme limit on your bicycle. Endurance athletes are always pushing that envelope.”

Click here to read the full story at CyclingTips.

The maths behind Wiggins’ hour record attempt

If you love crunching numbers and analysing data you might enjoy this post about the impact altitude and air pressure had on Bradley Wiggins’ hour record attempt last weekend.

Here’s an excerpt:

“

“This calculation shows that Wiggins would almost reached the 55km mark if there was a low air pressure field over London at the time of his attempt. However, the effect of altitude has a larger impact on his performance. So I would suggest him to try the track which Merckx used for his record in 1972 and smash that Boardman record.

The theoretical value calculated above should be approached with care, it does not take into account the lower oxygen levels at higher altitudes which can influence the power a rider can deliver for one hour. Due to the lack of personal data of Wiggins (weight, drag properties, power curve) estimates on the second order effects will probably have the same error as the simplified ‘back of the envelope’ calculations’ above.”

Click here to read more.

Cannondale to launch new gravel bike

Cannondale looks to be coming out with a new range of gravel bikes, somewhere between a road bike and a cross bike. Like the Specialized Diverge, say, the new Cannondale offering seems to be equally at home on gravel roads and other unsealed surfaces as it is on the tarmac.

The Program trailer (in English)

Yesterday we shared with you a German trailer for The Program, the upcoming Lance Armstrong biopic. Here’s the same trailer in English.

Road bike tricks with Vittorio Brumotti

Italian trials rider Vittorio Brumotti certainly has some impressive moves.

If you can’t see the video above, click through to see it on Facebook.

Highlights from the 2015 UCI Women Road World Cup in Philadelphia

Nineteen teams took the start of the 115km race which followed a 19.8km circuit along the Schuylkill River which the riders had to tackle six times. At the end of each lap stood the Manayunk Wall, an 800m urban climb with sections of over 15% gradient, a perfect spectacle for the huge crowds gathered along the roads.

The women’s Philly Cycling Classic is one of very few races on the calendar in which the men’s race is the curtain-raiser for the women’s event.

What You Missed

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

• The Giro d’Estonia: 3,000km in three weeks to cheer on the pros
• Following Jesse Carlsson on the Trans Am: “Adventure happens when plans go out the window”
• Van Garderen into yellow: “I think everyone wants to strut their stuff before July”
• Colnago V1-r disc review
• Daily News Digest: Thursday June 11

***