Iglinsky takes the most unexpected
Classics win of the season so far
Maxim Iglinsky (Astana) took a superb victory in the final seconds at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, gaining the upper hand over Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) with a combination of sheer power and a cool head after a hard-fought battle up and over some of the steepest hills in the Ardennes.
(Videos at the foot of the page)
Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel Euskadi), tenth last year and a favourite this time around after his stunning performance in the Tour of the Basque Country got into difficulties when his Orbea let him down on the Stockeau and while successful in getting back to the front, doing so used up a lot of energy as the race entered its final part. A breakaway group of eight - Pierre Rolland (Europcar), Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar) and David Le Lay (Saur-Sojasun), Dario Cataldo (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), and Kevin Ista (Accent Jobs-Veranda's Willems), Reinier Honig (Landbouwkrediet-Euphony), Gregory Habeaux (
Accent Jobs-Veranda's Willems ) and Alessandro Bazzana (Type 1-Sanofi) - were building up a lead by this time, the pace proving too much as they approached Theux and suddenly found themselves down to five men.
However, at no point were they permitted to form a gap that might be described as dangerous - a selection of fast riders hovered around the front of a pack of 40 men and kept things ticking over far to quickly for that. Philippe Gilbert (BMC) was a notable face among them, never far from pole position and evidently now well on his way back to good form after a slow start to the season. With 25km to go, their lead was down to 37" and looked doomed to failure, while a second group trailing Gilbert's pack was gradually making up the difference and bringing with it several riders in with a good chance of shaking things up on the last climbs, among them Frank Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan).
By the time they reached the Cote de la Roche aux Faucons, the break had only 14" and the hill looked as though it might once again prove decisive with its average gradient of around 9.9%. Rodriguez (Katusha) experienced some difficulty on the way up, dropping back from the front of the group, then so too did Sanchez - an unexpected sight as many believed he'd be out to reach the summit fast and then use his legendary descending abilities to get into a good place for the end. Nibali was first up and cruised over the summit without challenge, then mounted a solo attack with 18.5km still to go and rapidly gained 22". A brave and, in all likelihood, ultimately doomed effort with Côte de Saint-Nicolas and the tricky little climb in the last couple of kilometres to Ans, one would have thought, but guaranteed to bring glory if it worked, much like Tom Boonen's already-legendary win at Paris-Roubaix this year. And, perhaps more importantly, beautiful to watch.
It looked like it was in the bag for
Nibali
Gilbert, Gasparotto (Astana), Iglinsky, Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Rodriguez, Kiserlovski (Astana), Mollema (Rabobank), Rolland (Europcar), Voeckler (Europcar), Scarponi (Lampre-ISD), Van Den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol), Nocentini (AG2R-La Mondiale), Hesjedal (Garmin-Barracuda), Martin (Garmin-Barracuda), and Vanendert (Lotto-Belisol) went after him, but Nibali's attack seemed to have thrown them all into a state of confusion and there was so little organisation to their attempts that with 15km to go the race looked briefly to be a done deal. Perhaps there were simply too many of them - once the chasers had been whittled down to a more manageable seven, they fell into shape and began to work together. Then, the Italian produced a completely unexpected ace from up his sleeve - it turns out he can descend very, very well indeed; sufficiently so to increase his lead to 40" as he neared the final 10km. That threw the chasers into a panic once again so that before too long only Iglinsky was concentrating on the task in hand.
Iglinsky kept up the pressure, clawing his way up to the leader and getting to within 15" as they passed Liège stadium, Nibali looking quite surprised to see him there as they entered the last 3km - and then, incredibly, Iglinsky dropped him as they passed under the 1km banner! Precisely where he found the power after 256.5km is a mystery, but find it he did - and he powered up the last climb to take a 21" advantage and what must be the most unexpected victory of the 2012 Classics so far.
1. Maxim Iglinskiy Astana 6h43'52" 2. Vincenzo Nibali Liquigas-Cannondale +21" 3. Enrico Gasparotto Astana +36"
4. Thomas Voeckler Europcar ST
5. Daniel Martin Garmin-Barracuda ST
6. Bauke Mollema Rabobank ST
7. Samuel Sanchez Euskaltel-Euskadi ST
8. Michele Scarponi Lampre-ISD ST
9. Ryder Hesjedal Garmin-Barracuda ST
10. Jelle Vanendert Lotto-Belisol ST (Full results)
Brabantse Pijl - Mayors may force police to work Amstel Gold - Amstel presentation and start to be broadcast live, available online - Boonen won't race Amstel - Martine Bras hopes for late April return - Viviani injury less serious than thought - Cameron Meyer turns down Olympics to concentrate on road racing - The Badger to ride in Tour of Conamara - Kuna, Idaho welcomes Exergy Tour - London's best bike shops - British Government launches ride planner website, allocates £11m for Bikeability scheme - Trail Rage in New Zealand
Racing Brabantse Pijl
The 52nd edition of the Brabantse Pijl takes place over 196km near Brussels today. It starts off at Leuven before passing through Overijse, then heading west to Halle before doubling back to Overijse for a nasty little circuit made up of five ascents of four tough hills ans it's a tough race, even by the standards of the hilly Classics, with an incredible 28 climbs in total to be tackled along the way - some of them with gradients surpassing 14%. For those who enjoy competitive cycling for the scenery, it takes in some of the most historic locations in Belgium, including a town with 12,000 years of history and the site of the Battle of Waterloo.
Local mayors could force police to work at Amstel Gold
Following the story yesterday that striking police officers had threatened this year's Amstel Gold Race comes news that mayors along the route could use court action to force them to work at the event if they believe that the peloton or public are likely to be in any danger. Since the race is one of the most popular in cycling-mad Belgium and draws huge crowds along the 256.5km parcours, it seems likely that magistrates would automatically rule in favour of the mayors, allowing the 47th edition of the race to go ahead as planned this Sunday. (More from Cycling News)
However, it seems that in Belgium even angry police officers don't wish to cause too much disruption to cycling. Speaking to BNR Politiek, police spokesperson Jan Willem van der Pol said, "We are in consultation with the organisers [as to] what we can do and to find a way which will allow them to have a beautiful Amstel Gold Race yet still allow us to perform our action."
Amstel start to be broadcast live
Regional sports TV station Limburg1 (L1) will be broadcasting the team presentation and start of the race live online from 08:30BST (09:30 local time/CEST), the first time that the either has been televised. It looks as though the footage will be available via a legal stream at the station's official website, which has some videos of the race organisers and parcours already up; if not, there are various websites offering access to the channel, including this one -
Team Sky confirmed for Road Cycling Show
British-based ProTour Team Sky will make an appearance at the all new IPC Road Cycling Show at Sandown Park on the 21st and 22nd of April this year where riders and managers from the squad will conduct talks and a coaching seminar (the latter open only to those with an invitation to attend.) More details at the Show's website.
Omega Pharma-QuickStep's Tom Boonen has confirmed that he will not race in the Amstel Gold this weekend as he needs more time to recover after his winning streak at Paris-Roubaix, E3 Harelbeke, Gent-Wevelgem and the Ronde van Vlaanderen.
Martine Bras will stay away from competition until at least the end of April, Dolmans-Boels have announced. The rider was in a serious crash during a training ride in march, suffering concussion, cuts to her face and a severe contusion to the shoulder. She had returned to training but experienced headaches after riding, causing doctors to advise her to take an extended break rather than risk permanent problems and now hopes to be recovered in time for Luxembourg's GP Elsy Jacobs and GP Nicolas Frantz. (More on the team website)
Elia Viviani's pelvic injury - sustained during a crash with Chinese rider Liu Hao during the Omnium at the UCI World Track Championships in Melbourne last week - is not as serious as initially feared. Team doctor Roberto Corsetti describes the injury as the "smallest fracture" and a "small subcutaneous haematoma" and has given the go-ahead for the Italian rider to resume training in ten days' time.
Australian Cameron Meyer has deselected himself from his national Olympic program because he'd prefer to concentrate on developing his road racing career. The 24-year-old has been a successful track rider, forming part of the winning Team Pursuit squad at the World Championships in 2010, but feels his future is on the road with GreenEDGE. "It was a very hard decision to make but ultimately my passion for the team pursuit isn't 100 percent," he says. With many fans feeling a certain sense of resentment every time a rider drops out of the Tour de France, which is seen by cycling fans as the greatest event in sport, his decision may prove popular. (More from Yahoo)
Ever wanted to ride with Bernard Hinault? Whatever for? He's a miserable, foul-tempered old bugger. Nevertheless, you now can - and since he's now 57 and has returned to the good old days when cyclists carried a spare tyre (in this case, around his waist) you might even beat him. The Badger is taking part in the Tour of Conamara, part of a four-race Celtic sportive series that includes the Tour of Pembrokeshire in Wales, the Scottish Graeme Obree Ayrshire Sportive and the Tro Bro Leon in Hinault's native Brittany (or Breizh, as the Celtic Bretons would have it). The event begins on the 26th of May with a fun ride suitable for children, then gets on to the proper racing on the 27th with a choice of an 80km and 140km parcours. (More details from the race website)
Business owners in Kuna, Idaho, are delighted that this year's Exergy Tour (which offers what is believed to be the biggest prize fund in the history of women's competitive cycling, $100,000) with local caterers especially welcoming of the event. "Oh, it means a lot to us because we are going to have a lot more business," says local restaurateur Enrique Contreras. "Hopefully they come here to see the race, and they get hungry come here and eat, and have a drink too." Cycling races always bring a huge injection of funds into local economies, but local residents are also supportive of the race simply for the spectacle. "[This] is a pretty big honor for Kuna, should be a lot of fun, and I know Kuna will make them all feel really welcome. Sometimes you can still see horses ridden on the road and to have the world class athletes riding their really fancy bicycles will be quite a contrast, won't it?" says Vern Cornish. (More from KVTB.com)
Cycling
The days when bike shops were dark caves where few women dared tread - and were made to feel unwelcome if they did by rude and chauvinistic staff - are, thankfully, long gone (well, mostly. You know who you are, Mr. Ken Willis, and Mrs. Cyclopunk had a big wad of cash to spend on a bike that day you were so rude to her she walked out of your horrible little shop). Writing for the Daily Telegraph, a British Toryrag that would be utterly avoidable were it not for the surprisingly good cycling coverage, somebody called Nemone who is, apparently, famous has come up with a list of what she believes to be the best examples in London. It's especially good to see Condor Cycles on there, because they've been one of the best for six decades. You can see the list here.
They may have closed down Cycling England, but the government in Britain are still trying to promote cycling (presumably so long as it doesn't cost anything, which Cycling England did) - and the Department for Transport has just launched a new online cycle journey planner. "Our route planner helps people wanting to get out and about and enjoy cycling, as well as those who want to map the best bike route to work," says Minister for Local Transport Norman Baker, LibDem MP for Lewes (Baker has been campaigning since 2005 for full disclosure of MPs' expenses and was largely responsible for the Dark Lord Mandelson's second resignation, so he's one of the good guys). At present, it's only much use for plotting fairly sedate recreational rides as options are limited to "quietest," "quickest" and "most recreational" and it' seriously hamstrung by an inability to search out routes of more than 50km; but it has data on every road in the country and is likely to be a valuable resource for many cyclists, especially those new to the sport. Here's a review of it.
We've pretty much all be subjected to a barrage of foul-mouthed abuse from a driver at some point in our lives - cars bring out the worst in people, after all. Bikes, meanwhile, generally do not; which is why New Zealand mountain biker Jordan Brizzell was shocked when he found himself on the receiving end of a verbal and physical assault courtesy of a fellow cyclist on Christchurch's Flying Nun trail. Fortunately, Brizzel was wearing a helmet-mounted camera at the time and the footage has been handed over to the police who are now looking for the man.
You might want to turn the sound right down if you're at work - there's some no-holds-barred language!
Tweets
Christopher Keiser @CKeiser
My Roubaix video has only 19k views. Mountain biker hit by antelope has 13.5M. Guess who's gonna bring an antelope to Roubaix next year.
Stage 4a (Saturday 7th) both starts and ends at Winsum, a town sometimes termed the treasure of the north according to the Tour website - with two traditional Dutch mills and what is reputed to be The Netherlands' oldest pub (Der Gouden Karper) set among quintessentially Dutch countryside.
The parcours leaves Winsom to the north, travelling up to Baflo and then taking a long, fast loop west and south-west to Mensingeweer. Next, it heads east along a road called the Wildeveldseweg (which must sound fantastic in a Dutch accent). Just visible to the south-west from this point is Ezinge, the oldest continually-inhabited village in the country.
Long before the ancient tribes who would become the Dutch worked out how to drain the boggy landscape, they would create artificial islands upon which to live (now known as terps and, since drainage, resembling low hills) - the example at Ezinge is still evident and is now occupied by the village's 13th Century church. During the early 20th Century, worked who dug peat for fuel began finding strange objects that were obviously of great age in the area, soon attracting the attention of archaeologists who found many more - including Roman artifacts and part of a sword almost identical to another dicovered at the Sutton Hoo ship burial in Great Britain. By dating the objects, they determined that people have lived in Ezinge since at least 600BCE, making it among the oldest continually-inhabited villages anywhere in Europe. The riders will complete five laps of the route, which should allow Ezinge to be seen even if there is early morning mist, bringing them up to a total of 76.6km.
Stage 4b, the team time trial, takes place on Saturday afternoon and covers 26.5km, beginning at Veendam some way off to the south-east from 4a. After beginning in the centre of the town on JG Pinksterstraat (53° 6'19.91"N 6°52'27.74"E), the teams pass through the streets and cross the canal, then the N33 motorway as they head into the flat fields. A route made up of fast straights punctuated with 25 bends and corners will make for a fast stage, but one in which a slower rider could very easily be dropped off the back of the squad and never find her way back. When they arrive at Oude Pekela, they follow Feiko Clockstraat into town, then turn left to arrive at the finish on Raadhuislaan (53° 6'17.39"N 7° 0'24.65"E).
Marianne Vos has pointed out that Stage 4b is likely to prove the pivotal point in the campaign of any rider - including herself - who hopes to win this race, because a race leader's General Classification advantage can very rapidly be wiped out by a slow team. For fans and rivals, this is our first opportunity to see how well the Rabobank Women's team, which was formed with the express intention of supporting Vos, performs under team time trial race conditions; making this stage one of the most important races so far this season.
Cyclopunk's prediction: GreenEDGE take the stage, but with an insufficient advantage to knock Marianne off the top spot in the GC
Weather: The riders face a chilly start to the day - it's currently only 4C at Baflo, and with a northerly wind of 25kph it feels more like -2C, possibly -4C in exposed places. At present, it's raining lightly - it should dry up later, but further showers are likely. Veendam looks set to be similar, though afternoon temperatures of 7C will at least feel above freezing though not by much, perhaps 3C.
As ever, the best way to get information during the race is by following the official Twitter @ewacttour, hashtag #EWT12 and @richiesteege.Local TV RTL7 is broadcasting a short highlights show daily: Stage 4a will be shown at 14:45 BST (+1 hour for local time/CEST), Stage 4b will be shown along with Stage 5 tomorrow at the same time.
Stage 6 - click to enlarge (image credit: Diario Vasco)
Far away to the south, the Tour of the Basque Country enters its sixth and final stage (final stage? Seriously? How did that happened already?!). It's an 18.9km individual time trial and the only stage in this race without mountains, though there are two small hills to take the edge off top speeds.
By the looks of things, it's going to be a a very interesting stage, too: a look at the General Classification reveals numerous riders who could win overall simply by winning today - the top 17 riders are all within a minute of one another. Climbers Joaquin Rodriguez (currently 1st in GC, Katusha) and Samuel Sanchez (currently 2nd, Euskaltel-Euskadi) have got some serious work to do today, not just if either one of them would like to win this year but simply in order to finish in the top 10.
So you're racing Tony Martin in an
individual time trial? Good luck with
that one, chaps. (image credit: Petit BrunCC BY-SA 2.0)
Will they do it? Hard to say. The riders currently in the top positions are, unsurprisingly, almost all climbers; but there are some good all-rounders seeded among them - Michele Scarponi (5th, Lampre-ISD), Ryder Hesjedal (8th, Garmin-Barracuda), Chris Horner (10th, RadioShack-Nissan). Most dangerous of all, however, is Tony Martin of Omega Pharma-QuickStep. 56" is a big gap to make up, but Martin is the man who took the World Time Trial Championship from Fabian Cancellara. If anyone can do it, Martin's your man.
Weather: More rain. Worse still, it'll come as scattered showers, so some riders may have enjoy a dry course while others have to tackle it wet - which can make all the difference and lose the race. Currently, the temperature in Onati is a chilly 6C, which probably feels more like 0C with the 17kph westerly wind. It should warm up to around 12C this afternoon and, since the wind will change to south-west (coming over land rather than sea) it'll feel like 12C too.
Euskal Irrati Telebista provide a free and legal stream of the race each day from 14:15 (BST - add 1h for CEST).
Kiserlovski (now with Astana) didn't
win the stage, but he can rightfully
claim to have done a good day's
work today (image credit: BestKevinCC BY-SA 2.0)
For the second consecutive day the mountains of the Basque Country played host to an epic battle between Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) and Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), and once again it was Rodriguez who gained the upper hand.
Third place Robert Kiserlovski had spent a lot of time and effort in a solo break, remaining unmolested until the Spaniards attacked simultaneously, sparring with each other and overtaking him after just 500m. He managed to stay with them for a short while, then couldn't and then - just when it seemed he'd given up, he somehow dredged up enough energy to have another go. However, his efforts were to no avail and Rodriguez and Sanchez knew it, neither man paying him much more than cursory attention as they concentrated on trying to wear one another down before an explosive sprint. Against riders of their ilk, he did fantastically well to cross the line 2" after them.
1. Joaquin Rodriguez Katusha 4h27'16"
2. Samuel Sanchez Euskaltel-Euskadi ST
3. Robert Kiserlovski Astana +2" 4. Vasil Kiryienka Movistar +5" 5. Lars Petter Nordhaug Sky ST 6. Daniele Ratto Liquigas - Cannondale ST 7. Michele Scarponi Lampre-ISD ST 8. Damiano Cunego Lampre-ISD +7" 9. Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa Movistar ST 10. Jean-Christophe Peraud AG2R-La Mondiale ST
.jpg "Image credit: McSmit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maxim_Iglinskiy_(Tour_de_France_2007_-_stage_7).jpg CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en"){kind=spacer}
