Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
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2018 Tour de France | 2018 Giro d'Italia
Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night. - Rainer Maria Rilke
Current Racing
- June 9 - 17: Tour de Suisse
Upcoming racing
- June 14 - 17: Route d'Occitanie (was Route du Sud)
Latest completed racing:
- June 3 - 10: Critérium du Dauphiné
- June 10: Rund um Koln
- June 7: GP Kanton Aargau
- May 30 - June 3: Tour de Luxembourg
- June 3: GP di Lugano
- May 4 - 27: Giro d'Italia
- May 23 - 27: Tour of Belgium
- May 22 - 24: Tour des Fjords
Tour de Suisse Stage three team reports
We posted the report from Peter Sagan's Bora hansgrohe team with the results.
Here's the update from GC leader Stefan Küng's BMC team:
11 June, 2018, Gasingen (SUI): Stefan Küng survived a rain-soaked stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse to finish in the bunch and maintain his three-second lead in the General Classification.
In a near repeat of stage 2, three riders went clear in the first 10km of the 182km stage and quickly established a five-minute advantage while the peloton sat up behind. Alessandro De Marchi and Michael Schär spent the day on the front controlling the race situation and protecting Küng and Richie Porte, who remained safely at the front of the bunch, as the rain continued to fall.
The peloton crossed the finish line for two laps of a 29km circuit 3'10" behind the leading trio, and as the bell rang on the final lap the advantage was down to less than one minute. De Marchi powered on at the front of the peloton on the final climb and brought the breakaway to within 30 seconds with 12km remaining, before the catch was made with 9km to go.
Küng, Porte, and Greg Van Avermaet were positioned well inside the final 5km when the battle for position was on, and as the sprint was launched Van Avermaet tried to find a good path before being boxed to finish in 13th place behind winner Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Merida).
As Küng prepares for his third day in the yellow jersey, BMC Racing Team continue to hold the top four positions on the General Classification with Van Avermaet, Porte, and van Garderen three seconds back.
Küng is in the lead because BMC nailed the team time trial.
Stefan Küng:
"I think some teams were caught behind yesterday and that resulted in a bit more nervousness in terms of positioning before the climbs so, it [the race] started as soon as we hit the local laps. But, our team was really up there and chapeau to Michi [Schär] and Dema [De Marchi], they did an amazing job again today. As soon as Dema pulled off just before the climb, we kind of lost track of each other but in the end, we were up there and present. In a nutshell, it was pretty slow, the last climb was pretty fast which made a selection. It was kind of the same story as yesterday."
"It's hard to say if I can keep the jersey tomorrow. I know the climb to Gstaad but I have never done it as a final climb or really, really fast. What I do know is that I am feeling good and I have the impression that I am getting better from day to day. So, I am looking optimistically towards tomorrow's stage and we will see. For sure, I am enjoying my time in yellow and I am getting used to it."
And here's the stage three report from second-place Fernando Gaviria's Quick-Step team:
Fernando Gaviria impressed again at the Tour de Suisse on a stage crammed with five hard hills in the last 66 kilometers which together with the rain and cold temperatures thinned out the peloton and inspired many riders to throw caution to the wind and go on the attack. None of these brutal surges could drop Gaviria, who is riding the Suisse race for just the second time in his career, but instead made a selection in the bunch before the fast and wet descent to Gansingen, where the stage concluded.
When the finish line came within sight, the sprint kicked out and Fernando decided to take the right side of the road and open his acceleration with 220 meters to go, while the others lined up on the wheel of Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe). The uphill finish which came at the end of a grueling day in the saddle eventually played out in favour of Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida), who took the win for less than half a wheel.
Fernando Gaviria couldn't get by Sonny Colbrelli.
Runner-up for the second consecutive day, Gaviria has made significant inroads in the points standings – which at the moment seems to be a three-horse affair – and shrugged off any disappointment, looking instead on the bright side of things: "Yesterday I started too early, today I waited too much, but ok, this is cycling. The final was very hard with that climb very close to the finish and the rain which complicated matters, but having survived all these hills in these two days feeds my confidence ahead of my Tour de France debut."
The Tour de Suisse will resume on Tuesday – with Quick-Step Floors' Enric Mas in tenth overall – when the riders will travel between Gansingen and Gstaad, a 189km stage spiced up by a second-category climb (7.3kilometers, 4.6%) which tops out eight kilometers from the finish located in the charming town renowned worldwide for being a major ski resort.
Team Sunweb's upcoming racing
The team sent me this update:
RACE PREVIEW: JUNE 11 - 19
TOUR OF SLOVENIA (UCI 2.1)
Team Sunweb coach Aike Visbeek (NED): "With the cancelation of ZLM Toer there is a quality field on the start line at the Tour of Slovenia with a challenging course where every type of rider has something to win. We line up at the race focusing on both developing GC capacities with our young guys and stage results. For the sprints we have Max Walscheid who showed in California that he can challenge the world's best sprinters on the podium. For the GC we have a wide approach focused on development with our young Australians Jai and Chris. The last stage which is a TT will be the decider for the overall standings so we will look to make our mark there with our GC guys."
RACE: Tour of Slovenia (UCI 2.1)
DATE: 13-17/06/2018
COACH: Aike Visbeek (NED)
LINE-UP
Roy Curvers (NED)
Chris Hamilton (AUS)
Jai Hindley (AUS)
Tom Stamsnijder (NED)
Michael Storer (AUS)
Louis Vervaeke (BEL)
Max Walscheid (GER)
Roy Curvers will be on the Tour of Slovenia's start line.
OVO ENERGY WOMEN'S TOUR (WWT)
Team Sunweb coach Hans Timmermans (NED): "After the good experience that we had at Thüringen Rundfahrt we go with confidence to the most prestigious stage race of the season. It's a fantastic organisation and there are always so many fans along the road so we are really looking forward to this race. The parcours are for sure not to our disadvantage but all is a bit dependent on the wind. We believe that it will be spectacular again with finals with some hills in and then in the end a hard queen stage with longer climbs. We have a sprinter in our team with Coryn who will get some great chances, especially because of the hard finals. Next to that we have a team that can make the race hard when it would be necessary and go for it on the harder stages."
RACE: OVO Energy Women's Tour (WWT)
DATE: 13-17/06/2018
COACH: Hans Timmermans (NED)
Trek and Make Him Smile agree to settle Farley trademark suit
Bicycle Retailer & Industry News sent me this:
MADISON, Wis. (BRAIN) — Trek Bicycle Corporation and Make Him Smile, Inc. have agreed to settle their lawsuit over Trek's use of the name Farley for one of its fat bike models.
Make Him Smile filed suit against Trek in a Los Angeles court last September, saying that it owned rights to the late actor Chris Farley's intellectual property and that Trek had capitalized on the trademark without permission. Make Him Smile's president is Kevin Farley, Chris Farley's brother.
BRAIN emailed Trek's spokesman and Make Him Smile's law firm Wednesday afternoon but has not received a response. Bjorling told the Wisconsin State Journal that terms of the settlement were confidential and that Trek planned to continue marketing Farley-branded bikes.
Chris Farley died in 1997. The lawsuit had noted that Trek Bicycle Corp. CEO John Burke lives in the same Wisconsin community — the Village of Maple Bluff, adjacent to Madison — where Farley was born. The suit claimed the Farley and Burke families socialized and attended the same country club.
The suit also alleged that a 2013 recall of Farley bikes damaged and devalued the Farley name.
At the time it was filed, a Trek spokesman called the suit "groundless," and said the company was surprised by the suit because the company was in discussions with the Farley family to resolves their concerns.
You can read the entire story here.
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