Latest News in Cycling
Former ONCE boss says he might return to cycling after being cleared in Puerto trial
- So correct me if I'm wrong, but each class and category has the opportunity to compete for State Champion in their respective class/category?
Secondary sponsor finishes contract this season
- I am not trying to cause any issues or complain...I just want to better understand some of the reasoning behind why some Ref's pull riders early and other let us race.
On Friday during the 2/3 race I got dropped quick and got pulled 15 minutes into a 60 minute race. On Saturday, I also got popped but was able to stay in for 40 minutes before getting pulled.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all about safety and following the rules. And while my goal is to not get dropped, when racing with 2's that are much faster in groups that are 90+; sometimes it is inevitable. On both days I kept looking back and when I saw the pack coming I made sure I was always out of their way and I NEVER attempted to get back on.
I paid my $40 to race every day and feel that we should be left to race as long as possible before getting pulled. Is this just an unrealistic expectation?? 
Bradley Wiggins admitted on Monday that he was having difficulty in the rain and letting go of his disappointment after Saturday's Giro d'Italia time trial. Photo: Graham Watson | www.grahamwatson.com TREVISO, Italy (VN) — Bradley Wiggins (Sky) admitted today, on the Giro d’Italia’s first rest day, that the last week has been “challenging” with “one problem after another.” Sky put Wiggins in pole position after the stage 2 team time trial in Ischia, but since, he has lost time to a crash, a puncture, and a lack of attention.
“It’s been up and down, challenging,” Wiggins said during a small press gathering on Monday. “It started off well, the team time trial. I seemed to have one problem after another up until yesterday. The Giro is like that; it’s been like that every time I’ve ridden the race, let alone trying to win it.”
Wiggins, who has focused this year on adding a Giro title to his palmares instead of a second consecutive Tour de France, appeared calm and open on Monday. Asked about his sideburns, he said he shaved them. He looks less and less rock ’n’ roll these days, leaving teammate Rigoberto Urán to take up the look with his Mick Jagger trim.
Dowsett’s time trial win stings
Sir Wiggo’ has yet to win a time trial as reigning Olympic champion. He revealed that Saturday’s 10-second loss to former teammate Alex Dowsett (Movistar) in Saltara got to him. An early flat required a bike change, but Wiggins closed more than half-a-minute on Dowsett over the final 25 kilometers.
Dowsett, who was in the same hotel, told VeloNews today, “Had he not punctured, he would’ve beat me.”
Wiggins said that the sting of the loss carried over into in Sunday’s rain-soaked stage to Florence. Instead of focusing on his job, he thought about the TT and let a gap open to overall leader Vincenzo Nibali’s (Astana) group. Wiggins caught back on and avoided losing more time, but sits fourth overall, at 1:16. He made up time on the Sicilian and the other GC contenders in Saturday’s stage, but not the minutes he had hoped for beforehand.
“I’ve been licking my wounds — sore left knee, hip sore, I have a cold,” Wiggins said. “The TT didn’t go as good as I thought, but physically I’m fine.”
He says the rest day would help him make a clean break.
“Those time trials take such a mental focus. You build up for it, so intense for that one hour, then it’s over. You just don’t finish it and put it in the bin; I find it hard to forget about. I struggle with the disappointment of that,” he said. “Days like yesterday I should be getting on with it, it should be a straightforward day, but your mind is elsewhere and it ends up making the day more dramatic really.
“The rest day was good, relaxing, so I can focus on getting out there tomorrow.”
Wiggins uncomfortable in the rain
After appearing extremely cautious on wet roads since crashing late in Friday’s seventh stage, Wiggins said the rain worried him. He lost 1:24 to Nibali and Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) on the stage to Pescara.
Fortunately for Wiggins, the forecasters predicted a dry day tomorrow to Altopiano del Montasio. However, rain and cold weather could spell disaster over the coming weeks when the race covers such passes as the Gavia and Galibier.
“I always struggle with the cold; at the moment it hasn’t been that cold when it rained. I don’t like riding in the rain, especially in the mountains like tomorrow,” said Wiggins. “The crash ruffled me a little bit [when it comes to descending]. I was taking a gamble a bit the other day [to Pescara], and yesterday, I wasn’t really on it mentally.”
Even with his openness and vulnerability, Wiggins is out to win another grand tour. He said on Monday that he has not given up, despite rumors he might abandon.
“I won’t be reckless, just be calculating, maybe you take 20 seconds one day and 12 another. You saw how Ryder [Hesjedal] won last year and limited his losses last year,” Wiggins said. “Nibali is strong. I just won’t try to drop him tomorrow, but if he appears weakened in the next weeks, then maybe I can. I beat him by 6:19 in the Tour last year. Even if a lot of that came from the time trials, I beat him in the mountains, as well.”
The Giro is winnable, he added, but it is just going to be a “mammoth task.”
Tyler Wren is hoping to deliver a career-defining moment for Jamis-Hagens Berman at the Amgen Tour of California. Photo: Tyler Wren | VeloNews.com ESCONDIDO, Calif. (VN) — With all the time we domestic professional cyclists spend in airports, hotels and team vans, toeing the line at events week-in and week-out all over the country, it is not uncommon for us to amalgamate some of the races in our heads into one, or for some complacency to sneak into our routines. Not this week.
The Amgen Tour of California is the domestic professionals’ glimpse into the WorldTour professionals’ amalgamation of big-time bike racing. Before we get too deep into the race, I wanted to convey to you here the impact of the importance of this week’s event to UCI Continental teams like mine, Jamis-Hagens Berman.
Throughout the year, we Continental teams reprise the role of Goliath in the peloton across the National Racing Calendar, normally dictating the race narratives and winning the lion’s share of the events over our amateur counterparts. This week in California, however, our collective role is reversed as we play that of David, mounting daily, cunning attempts with our best men to conquer the powerful and confident WorldTour riders.
We domestic teams will slightly bridle our inter-Continental rivalries for the week, tenuously united in a common goal of significantly impacting one of our country’s most prestigious cycling races. Competing athletes will more freely divulge race information and tactics. Rival directors will be a little more willing and eager to provide bottles and pacing when we need them. Soigneurs and mechanics from opposing teams will be more united and cooperative. All of this will happen because an Amgen Tour of California stage victory for any Continental team benefits and emboldens us all — the famous biblical tale epitomized.
I fully expect this week to see my domestic peers wholly focused and riding a step above their normal abilities. I also anticipate some of our European competition to be suffering from jetlag or California Dreamin’ — the plush, spacious hotel rooms and abundant, tasty race buffets are a far cry from typical European race accommodations. It’s that intersection of desperate domestic opportunism and potential WorldTour vulnerability where magical tales of the underdog triumphing can unfold. We’ve seen it here before. It’s my aim to be on the winning side of that juncture for myself or for a Jamis teammate, then to convey the inside story here afterwards.
Rory Sutherland averaged 245 watts during stage 5 of the Giro. On the Cat. 4 climb of Montescaglioso, that numbered jumped to 502. Photo: TrainingPeaks.com Australian Rory Sutherland (Saxo-Tinkoff) continues to share his data with TrainingPeaks and VeloNews, most recently Stages 4 and 5 at the Giro d’Italia.
The Giro is known for its aggressive and gritty racing, and the first week certainly fulfilled that description. Lots of rain, technical routes, and mixed terrain made for an exciting week and some interesting time gaps.
However, Saxo-Tinkoff has been laying low, biding its time for team leader Rafal Majka to make his mark in the high mountain stages. Sutherland has been by his side, guiding him safely to the finish every day.
Stage 4: Policastro to Serra San Bruno, 246km
Results
1. Enrico Battaglin, Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox
2. Fabio Felline, Androni Giocattoli
3. Giovanni Visconti, Movistar
53. Rory Sutherland, Saxo-TinkoffSee Sutherland’s Activity Viewer from stage 4.
Stage summary
246.4km
254 Average Watts
3.6 w/kg
326 NP
124 Average Heart Rate
85 Average Cadence
357 TSS
5694 KJ
39.6 km/h Average SpeedDuring Stage 4, Sutherland and teammate Evgeny Petrov escorted Majka all the way to the top of the last climb, watching many riders fall off the relentless pace being set by the members of Sky. The final descent was wet and technical and resulted in several crashes, but Saxo-Tinkoff was able to get all its riders safely to across the line.
Sutherland hit his 30-minute Peak Power on the final climb of the day, where so many riders were dropped from the lead group. It took Sutherland 28:30 generating 430 watts (5.7 w/kg) to stay with the leaders, averaging 27 kph (17.1 mph) up the 12.7-kilometer (7.9-mile) climb.
Once he made it over the climb, the work was far from done though. In the final 6km (7 minutes of the stage) Sutherland punched it over 700 watts 7 times! He did all of this while averaging 343 watts (4.5 w/kg) and an average speed of 52 kph (32 mph)!
Stage 5: Cosenza to Matera, 203km
Results
1. John Degenkolb, Argos-Shimano
2. Angel Vicioso, Katusha
3. Paul Martens, Blanco
100. Rory Sutherland, Saxo-TinkoffSee Sutherland’s full power data from stage 5.
Stage summary
204.4km
245 Average Watts
3.2 w/kg
119 bpm Average Heart Rate
84 rpm Average Cadence
4090 KJ
44 km/h Average Speed
243 Training Stress Score (TSS)*
312 Normalized Power (NP)***Training Stress Score (TSS) quantifies the workload performed by a rider based on the duration and intensity of the effort. A 1-hour, all-out time trial effort would result in 100 TSS points.
**Normalized Power provides a better measure of the true physiological demands of an effort. It’s an estimate of the power you could have maintained for the same physiological “cost” if your power output had been perfectly constant rather than variable.
The first 170km of the 203km stage were flat, but the two climbs at the end of the mixed with another day of wet, slippery roads made for a chaotic and fractured sprint to the line. Argos-Shimano’s John Degenkolb earned the victory.
Saxo-Tinkoff continued with its plan of conserving energy and manpower in the first week of the Giro until the last 8km of the race. At this point, the team set a fast, steady tempo in an attempt to keep the field together and give its sprinter Daniele Bennati a shot at the win. Unfortunately, Bennati fell victim to the crash in the final kilometer and was not able to contest the sprint.
With two climbs near the end of the stage and several teams determined to see a smaller sprint finish, the second half of the race was quite a bit harder than the first half. Especially painful was the blistering pace on the penultimate climb (Montescaglioso). Sutherland worked hard to maintain contact with the lead group, putting out an impressive 502 watts (6.6 w/kg) for 8:30 while watching many of the sprinters fall to the rear of the peloton.
Montescaglioso KOM (0:08:34, 3.2 km)
502 Average Watts
6.6 w/kg
258 KJ
19 TSS
511 NP
168 bpm Average Heart Rate
81 rpm Average CadenceCompare Sutherland’s power data from the two halves of the stage below.
First Half (2:19, 98.4 km)
200 Average Watts
2.6 w/kg
109 bpm Average Heart Rate
82 rpm Average Cadence
270 m (885 ft) Elevation Gain
1672 KJ
81 TSS
255 NPSecond Half (2:20, 106.5 km)
288 Average Watts
3.8 w/kg
128 bpm Average Heart Rate
87 rpm Average Cadence
643 m (2110 ft) Elevation Gain
2411 KJ
151 TSS
347 NPEditor’s note: Thanks to TrainingPeaks.com, we are looking at Saxo-Tinkoff rider Rory Sutherland’s power data from stages 4-5 of the Giro d’Italia. Today, Shawn Heidgen, a USA Cycling certified coach, former professional cyclist, and Education Specialist at TrainingPeaks, recaps Sutherland’s data from the one-day race. For more, follow Shawn on Twitter.
Briton upbeat despite a difficult first week
- with all the work going on at Broemmelsiek - what will the course be this year?
Thanks!
Caleb
