Cyclassics Hamburg cancelled, Froome’s racing return: Daily News Digest
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Hello again, CyclingTips readers.
Another week is upon is, and with less than two weeks until the first WorldTour race of the resumed cycling season, pros around the peloton are gearing up for the return of racing.
Quite a few of them just arrived in Europe, in fact—several big names landed in Madrid on Monday morning after traveling across the Atlantic on a charter flight from Colombia. Expect to see Egan Bernal, Nairo Quintana, and others in racing action soon.
Bernal’s teammate Chris Froome will be back to racing soon as well. Cyclingnews reports that the four-time Tour winner will resume his season at the Route d’Occitanie on August 1.
Only a few weeks after that, assuming everything goes according to plan, we’ll have a chance to see Froome and Bernal (and Geraint Thomas too) racing what is shaping up to be a very intriguing Tour de France.
Matt de Neef
Managing Editor
What’s news
| Colombian stars arrive in Europe
Egan Bernal, Nairo Quintana, Miguel Ángel López, Fernando Gaviria, and several other notables have arrived in Europe after flying from Colombia aboard a charter flight specifically for athletes.
Around a hundred athletes from across various sporting disciplines departed from Bogotá on Sunday and have since landed in Madrid.
| Froome will reportedly return at the Route d’Occitanie
According to Cyclingnews, Chris Froome will get back to racing at the Route d’Occitanie, which gets underway on August 1.
The four-day race in France could see Ineos fielding a squad featuring both Froome and Bernal for the first time this year.
In other Froome news, Cyclingnews reports that Alberto Contador likes Froome’s chances of thriving after he leaves Ineos for Israel Start-Up Nation at the end of the year.
“In my opinion, next year, Froome will still be one of the top favorites for the Tour de France,” Contador said, according to Cyclingnews.
| Cyclassics Hamburg cancelled
The EuroEyes Cyclassics Hamburg has officially been cancelled. The one-day WorldTour race had initially been rescheduled from August to October, but organizers decided to call off the event altogether for 2020.
“When we postponed the EuroEyes Cyclassics Hamburg from its original date of August 16 to October 3, 2020, we felt very confident we would still be able to deliver an exceptional event at the later date,” race organizers said in a statement. “Unfortunately, due to reasons related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and further conversations with the local authorities at the City of Hamburg, we regret to advise that EuroEyes Cyclassics Hamburg cannot take place in 2020 and will return on August 22, 2021.
| Former winners of La Course van Vleuten and Hosking weigh in on 2020 route
Reigning world road champ Annemiek van Vleuten, a two-time winner of La Course, criticized the recently unveiled route of the 2020 edition of the race on social media over the weekend.
“Just checked the course of this years @LaCoursebyTDF,” she wrote. “Can’t believe what I saw: a 96km ‘race’ : only 2 laps with a 3rd cat climb… Not really world tour level.”
2016 La Course winner Chloe Hosking, however, offered an alternate opinion.
“Personally Annemiek I don’t think it’s that atrocious. It will only be the second World Tour race back after 6 months of no racing,” she wrote “For many riders their first race. The course & distance will lend itself to exciting racing, which is what the peloton & the fans need right now.”
| Worst recovering after surgery following mountain bike crash
Annemarie Worst has undergone surgery following a mountain bike crash.
The versatile 24-year-old Dutchwoman wrote on social media that she crashed during a race on Sunday in Switzerland. Wielerflits reports that she suffered tears to tendons attached to her collarbone.
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SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY NEWS DIGEST PODCASTToday’s feature image of Elia Viviani winning the Cyclassics Hamburg comes from Cor Vos.
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