An impressive cycling journey, a women’s team in the works: Daily News Digest
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Hello again, CyclingTips readers.
Here’s to the weekend! Another week comes to a close with some interesting news items.
From the pro cycling world, Boels-Dolmans has signed European road champ Amy Pieters to an extension in another move that secures the team’s future a week and a half after the squad announced new contract arrangements with Anna van der Breggen and Chantal Blaak. Meanwhile, a new road team that will feature some big ‘cross stars – Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, Annemarie Worst, and Sanne Cant among them – is reportedly in the works, which should be an interesting story to follow.
Away from pro racing, 15-year-old Jyoti Kumari may have delivered the cycling performance of the year. Kumari’s father, who worked as a rickshaw driver in a city over a thousand kilometers from Kumari’s family home, suffered an injury that kept him from walking or working just before India went into lockdown—so Kumari decided to take him home aboard a bicycle.
Over the course of about a week, she cycled hundreds of miles with her injured father sitting behind her on the bike until they finally arrived at their destination. The Indian Cycling Federation has since reached out to offer her a trial to train with the national program.
Impressive stuff, indeed.
Until next time, readers.
Dane Cash
News Editor
What’s news
| Pieters and Uneken extend with Boels-Dolmans
A little over a week after announcing new contract arrangements with Anna van der Breggen and Chantal Blaak, the Boels-Dolmans squad has made further moves to secure its future, extending reigning European road champion Amy Pieters as well as up-and-comer Lonneke Uneken.
Pieters, 28, is a versatile talent who can contend on a variety of profiles as well as on the track. She has nabbed four WorldTour wins since the start of the 2018 season, in addition to taking the European road title in Alkmaar last August. On Friday, the team announced that she had signed to ride on with the squad, which will be known as SD Worx next year, through 2022.
Uneken, 20, who joined the team this year after racing with Hitec Products in 2019, has extended her contract through the 2024 season.
| A team in the works
Wielerflits reports that Philip and Christoph Roodhooft, who run the Alpecin-Fenix squad, are working to put together a women’s team that will race a full road program while featuring some very big names largely from the cyclocross world.
According to Wielerflits, potential signees include ‘cross stars Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, Annemarie Worst, Yara Kastelijn, Sanne Cant, and other big names, which would make for a pretty strong lineup for a brand new squad.
| 15-year-old rides hundreds of miles with dad on her bike to get him home
According to reports from NDTV and The Wire, Jyoti Kumari spent just over a week traveling some 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) across northern India largely by bicycle—with her father as a passenger.
Kumari’s family lives in Darbhanga in the state of Bihar, but her father had been working as a rickshaw driver in Gurgaon, near New Delhi, when a crash left him injured and unable to walk or work. Kumari came to stay with him while he recovered, but then the country went into lockdown. Kumari decided to try to take him home, even if it meant spending long hours in the saddle, with an extra rider aboard, en route to place over a thousand kilometers away.
Kumari’s resolute pedaling and intermittent lifts from truck drivers on the road ultimately propelled them all the way to their destination, despite a few days spent traveling without much to eat. Her story caught the attention of the Indian Cycling Federation, which has offered her a trial to train with the national program.
| Tour of Denmark cancelled
Organizers have called off the 2020 edition of the Tour of Denmark.
The race had been initially scheduled to run from August 11 to August 15, but was then pushed back to run from September 1 to 5. Those dates, however, conflict with the rescheduled Tour de France. The Tour of Denmark will now no longer be held in 2020, with organizers expecting to return in 2021.
| Groenewegen likes winning
Dylan Groenewegen likes winning. In an interview with Het Parool, the Dutch speedster covered a variety of topics, including his victory-oriented mindset, which will likely keep him racing as long as he is contending for sprint wins.
“I could never be a domestique, my pride is too great for that,” Groenewegen said. “You don’t see me doing a sprint for a teammate. Then my career would just be over. I find it painful to see some guys closing [their careers] with a huge roll of honor in the margins of the pack. I really don’t want that.”
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| Yes, you can build a DIY power meter at home … but please don’t
As James Huang writes, just because you can make your own power meter at home doesn’t mean you should.
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SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY NEWS DIGEST PODCASTToday’s featured image from Sanne Cant, Annemarie Worst, and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado at Flandriencross comes from Cor Vos.
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