a weekly double-shot of road racing
Wednesday 28th August 2013
issue 22
rapha.cc
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SATURDAY — Tour of Spain S1 — USAPCC S6
SUNDAY
— Tour of Spain S2 — USAPCC S7
MONDAY — Tour of Spain S3
TUESDAY — Tour of Spain S4
WEDNESDAY — Tour of Spain S5
THURSDAY
— Tour of Spain S6
FRIDAY — Tour of Spain S7 — World Ports Classic S1
SATURDAY — Tour of Spain S8 — World Ports Classic S2
usa pro challenge
doppio awards
Tejay Brings it Home
Colorado Gold
Mathias Frank BMC
2
Tejay van Garderen BMC
1
Tom Danielson GARMIN-SHARP
3
Tejay van Garderen took the front briefly during the closing stages of the fast and furious circuit race in Denver that closed the third edition of the usa Pro Challenge. He was leading out team-mate Greg Van Avermaet for the sprint, reasoning perhaps that his lead in the gc was unassailable and that in a few short minutes he could put his feet up after his second major us stage race victory of the year. Unfortunately for Greg, there was no standing in the way of Peter Sagan, who powered home past a fistful of riders for his 18th win of the season. None of the teams present had wanted Sagan and Cannondale to be a shoo-in for the final stage and the early laps of the course touched an average of 29 miles an hour, as breaks pinged off the front to test Cannondale’s resolve – and the state of its riders’ legs after a hard, hard week’s racing in the service of the young Slovak. Sagan’s final stage victory capped a week that saw him notch up three other wins and secure the points classification. Other up-and-coming stars will be pleased when Sagan, a firmly established talent since the age of 20, vacates the Young Rider category – but at this race that honour was taken by Lachlan Morton (Garmin-Sharp), a 21-year-old Aussie who has been training in Colorado since his teens. Garmin’s Andrew Talansky also impressed, with a course-record-breaking time-trial performance in Stage 5. Unfortunately for him it was bettered almost immediately by Van Garderen. As for Team Sky, Richie Porte was full of praise for the young Englishman Josh Edmondson, who had animated the race with a top-ten finish in stage six. e team’s young American Joe Dombrowski was forced to pull out before stage three, while his compatriot Ian Boswell finished in Denver a respectable 89th. However, it was really Van Garderen’s race, and his victory was applauded by the Mavic neutral service driver Marcel van Garderen – who happens to be his father.
SUNDAY
— Tour of Spain S9
e Rapha Mobile Cycle Club was at every stage of the usa Pro Challenge, giving strength and succour to amateur riders in the form of coffee, and moral support to the pros tackling the demanding stage race. In the course of their duties, the Doppio correspondents stationed at the mcc decided it fit and proper to make the following Doppio Awards… The LANTERNE ROUGE goes to TOM SOLADAY (Optum Pro Cycling) – especially because he specifically asked for the limited-edition Rapha cap. The NO SLEEP NIGEL AWARD goes to MICK ROGERS (Saxo-Tinkoff) for keeping the peloton active throughout the week. No napping on that cat's watch. The ‘NEUTRAL’ SERVICE AWARD goes to MARCEL VAN GARDEREN, Tejay's father, for his non-biased piloting of the Mavic support. The ACADEMY AWARD FOR DRAMA goes to ANDREW TALANSKY (Garmin-Sharp) for his finish after the TT stage. The judges will contact you shortly. The EYES-BIGGER-THAN-THE-BELLY AWARD goes to SKRATCH LABS international food providers for educating people on the benefits of real food. The BEST-DRESSED BUS DRIVER AWARD goes to MICHAEL CREED, formerly of Optum Pro Cycling.
The HOLDING IT DOWN AWARD goes to IAN BOSWELL and JOSH EDMONDSON for services to Team Sky. ar e 30% grade s #pr ost y le ?
a weekly double-shot of road racing
Wednesday 28th August 2013
tour of spain round-up
e Pain in Spain – Not Falling on the Plain For the first two days of this Tour of Spain, Astana seemed stuck with a red jersey they maybe did not yet want – first on the shoulders of Jani Brajkovic and then on those of Vincenzo Nibali. Not that the team would have liked to lose time in the way that Team Sky’s Sergio Henao and Euskaltel-Euskadí’s Samuel Sanchez did on the summit finish on the Monte da Groba. Both will now face an uphill struggle to stay in contention – one that in stage two their legs were not quite ready for. However, Nibali, who won the Tour of Spain in 2011 after placing third in the Giro, has designs this year on doubling his double, and Astana would much rather let somebody else do some early work while they collectively saved energy for defending the jersey at the sharp end of this very pointy race. But who to give it to? How about Chris Horner (RadioShackLeopard) who, in taking it at the end of a blustery and stressful stage three, has become the oldest man ever to win a Grand Tour stage and also the oldest ever to wear a Grand Tour leader’s jersey. Horner attacked as he passed under the flamme
rouge, and though Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) gave chase, the gc favourites had apportioned too much mental capacity to marking each other also to contest the stage, and Horner squeaked over the line with three seconds to spare. He will be 42 in October. Now, perhaps, this unsettled and unsettling race will settle down. Or perhaps not, if the organisers will insist on putting a 29% slope 30km away from the end of the stage, as they did yesterday, and Nibali takes the race lead back again. One of the chief joys of Spain is that, unlike France’s Grand Tour where the organisers are duty bound to visit the Alps and the Pyrenees (and, moreover, their high-mountain options are somewhat limited), Spain seems to be an endless playground of rolling hills and painful long climbs. Last year the Tour of Spain produced arguably the best Grand Tour racing of 2012 – and over the next two weeks it is poised to do the same.
this week’s spanish stages
HC Stage 5 | 28th Aug | 174km SOBER → LAGO DE SANABRIA Uphill into the Zamora province. However, the two climbs aren’t near the end, so it’ll finish in a bunch gallop.
Stage 6 | 29th Aug | 175km GUIJELO → CÁCARES e race heads south, where the finish in Cácares should suit the sprinters. Definitely calmer for the gc.
Stage 7 | 30th Aug | 206km ALMENDRALEJO → M ALJARAFE Another arrow-straight parcours, a day for the sprinters, as the stage finishes almost on Spain’s southern coast.
Stage 8 | 31st Aug | 166km JEREZ → ALTA DE PEÑAS B A relatively short stage with a devilish 14.5km summit finish. An opportunity for Nibali’s challengers to shine.
Stage 9 | 1st Sept | 164km ANTEQUERA → VALDEPEÑAS More mountains, including the second-cat Alto de los Frailes, before heading for a 1km-long uphill finish.
Stage 10 | 2nd Sept | 187km TORREDELCAMPO →HAZALLANAS e jagged peaks at the start will weaken the peloton, but the 18% uphill finish will finish them off. Selective.
Rest day | 3rd Sept A long transfer awaits the riders as they head for northeastern Spain.
Stage 11 | 4th Sept | 38.8km TARAZONA, ITT A long individual time trial, the only one in the race. More or less a 600m vertical climb, then a descent.
ar e 30% grade s #pr ost y le?