De Gendt nabs Tour de France stage 8 from the break: Daily News Digest
Welcome to your Daily News Digest. Here’s what’s happening today:
Thomas De Gendt wins stage 8 of the Tour de France from the break as Julian Alaphilippe retakes yellow, Vincenzo Nibali finishes over four minutes down, Anna van der Breggen wins stage 9 of the Giro Rosa. Those stories and more in today’s Daily News Digest.
Story of the Day: De Gendt wins Tour de France stage 8, Alaphilippe reclaims yellow
Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) won stage 8 of the 2019 Tour de France in his trademark style, as the last survivor of the day’s breakaway. The 32-year-old Belgian arrived at the Saint-Étienne finish line alone after a long day off the front, having held off a late chase of Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step). The duo finished in that order six seconds later.
“I had a really good feeling all day so I believed in it all day,” De Gendt said.
“We almost crashed in a few corners because we were taking some risks, but from 70 kilometers to go I started to believe in a possible victory. But still, it hurt so much.”
Alaphilippe’s efforts did at least net him a coveted prize. The Frenchman took the yellow jersey back from Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), who finished in a reduced peloton with most of the big GC names 26 seconds down. Defending champion Geraint Thomas (Ineos) was among them, despite hitting the deck inside the final 20 kilometers. Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) was not—the 2014 Tour champ finished over four minutes down on De Gendt.
The 200-kilometer stage from Mâcon featured seven categorized climbs and a few uncategorized rollers, making it an appetizing day for the breakaway specialists. De Gendt jumped into the early move alongside Niki Terpstra (Total Direct Energie) and Ben King (Dimension Data), with Alessandro De Marchi (CCC) bridging to make it a quartet off the front.
The foursome worked well together for the next hundred kilometers, but the pack made sure to keep the advantage within reason, with the break’s gap hovering between three and four minutes. With around 65 kilometers to race, De Gendt and De Marchi hit the gas at the front and dropped King and Terpstra, continuing on as a duo all the way into the final 20 kilometers.
Some 16 kilometers from the finish, Michael Woods (EF Education First) crashed just in front of a collection of Ineos riders in the pack, and Thomas and teammates duly went down. The crash split Gianna Moscon’s bike in half.
???? Crash for @TeamINEOS. @GeraintThomas86 was involved with @kwiato !
???? Chute pour la @TeamINEOS. @GeraintThomas86 était impliqué ainsi que @kwiato !#TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/t06RwoRpEq— Tour de France
(@LeTour) July 13, 2019
Fortunately for Thomas, he was able to remount very quickly with multiple teammates around him. The Welshman was able to make his way back to the pack after a few minutes in chase mode.
Up front, De Gendt dropped De Marchi on the day’s final climb and pressed on solo. Nonetheless, the riders in the peloton were not going to give De Gendt the stage without a fight.
Thomas De Gendt drops Alessandro De Marchi on stage 8 of the Tour de France. Photo: Nico Vereecken/PN/Cor Vos © 2019
With 12 kilometers to go, Alaphilippe and Pinot fired off the front and worked in tandem to try to catch De Gendt. The duo managed to build a small gap on the reduced bunch behind, where the pace proved too high for Nibali, who was dropped and would ultimately finish 4:25 down. Out front, however, De Gendt refused to yield. Alaphilippe and Pinot succeeded in grabbing a few seconds on the pack, but there was no catching De Gendt, who took his second career Tour stage victory at the line.
Just the same, Pinot’s second-place ride earned him a healthy collection of seconds on his GC rivals, while Alaphilippe snagged the yellow jersey for himself.
Thomas De Gendt wins stage 8 of the Tour de France. Photo: Nico Vereecken/PN/Cor Vos © 2019
Stage 8 results
1 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal 5:00:17
2 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:06
3 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep
4 Michael Matthews (Aus) Sunweb 0:00:26
5 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
6 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Mitchelton-Scott
7 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Wanty-Gobert
8 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) CCC
9 Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos
10 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos
GC
1 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 34:17:59
2 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:23
3 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:53
4 George Bennett (NZl) Jumbo-Visma 0:01:10
5 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos 0:01:12
6 Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos 0:01:16
7 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Jumbo-Visma 0:01:27
8 Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education First 0:01:38
9 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana 0:01:42
10 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:45
Moving Pictures
The latest EF Gone Racing video focuses on Canada’s Mike Woods and also offers a closer look at the challenging day on the bike that was stage 6.
Race Radio
Van der Breggen wins stage 9 of the Giro Rosa
Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) won the ninth stage of the Giro Rosa, besting race leader Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) on the slopes of the Altopiano del Montasio finishing climbing. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (CCC-Liv) took third in the penultimate stage of the race.
Van Vleuten continues to lead van der Breggen in the general classification, while Amanda Spratt (Mitchelton-Scott) moved into third overall.
Anna van der Breggen wins stage 9 of the Giro Rosa. Photo: Anton Vos/Cor Vos © 2019
The 125.5-kilometer stage from Gemona to Chiusaforte covered mostly flat roads right up until the challenging final climb, 12.4 kilometers at 7.3 percent. The main break was reeled in just before the ascent, and the early slopes blew the remnants of the peloton to pieces.
Van Vleuten and van der Breggen dropped the rest of the field on the climb, and then van Vleuten attacked, initially putting van der Breggen in the rearview mirror. Her Dutch compatriot battled back, however, and sailed past van Vleuten inside the final kilometer to take the win by 17 seconds. 1:38 behind van der Breggen, Moolman-Pasio took third just ahead of Spratt, whose efforts propelled her onto the overall podium with just one stage left to race.
The Giro Rosa concludes on Sunday with a 120-kilometer stage 10 from San Vito al Tagliamento to Udine.
Stage 9 results
1 Anna van der Breggen (Ned) Boels-Dolmans 3:26:27
2 Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:17
3 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (RSA) CCC-Liv 0:01:38
4 Amanda Spratt (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
5 Katharine Hall (USA) Boels-Dolmans 0:01:57
6 Demi Vollering (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg 0:02:51
7 Ane Santesteban Gonzalez (Spa) WNT-Rotor
8 Erica Magnaldi (Ita) WNT-Rotor 0:02:53
9 Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:02:55
10 Juliette Labous (Fra) Sunweb 0:03:10
GC
1 Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Mitchelton-Scott 22:09:39
2 Anna van der Breggen (Ned) Boels-Dolmans 0:03:50
3 Amanda Spratt (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:07:00
4 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (RSA) CCC-Liv 0:08:05
5 Katharine Hall (USA) Boels-Dolmans 0:08:09
6 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM 0:08:10
7 Lucinda Brand (Ned) Sunweb 0:08:25
8 Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:08:30
9 Soraya Paladin (Ita) Ale Cipollini 0:09:26
10 Erica Magnaldi (Ita) WNT-Rotor 0:09:31
Courtney and van der Poel take World Cup short track wins in Les Gets
The mountain bike World Cup series is in Les Gets, France, this weekend. Kate Courtney took the women’s short track on Friday, with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot in second and Elisabeth Brandau in third.
Matthiew van der Poel dominated the sprint to take the men’s short track win over Henrique Avancini, with Victor Koretzky in third.
Canyon reportedly wants van der Poel on Movistar
Speaking of the reigning world cyclocross champion, AS reports that Canyon, the bike sponsor of both Mathieu van der Poel and his current Corendon-Circus squad, is hoping to orchestrate a move that would send van der Poel to the Canyon-sponsored Movistar team.
According to AS, there would be plenty of details to iron out and significant financial hurdles; van der Poel already has that Pro Continental contract in place, and would also command a hefty salary if he were to somehow sign a new deal.
Italian track racer recovering after being impaled by splinter in crash at European U23 championships
Italian track racer Lorenzo Gobbo was seriously injured while riding at the European Under-23 championships in Ghent on Friday. The 17-year-old went down in a large pileup, and a large splinter split from the track surface. The splinter impaled Gobbo through the left side of his torso and punctured his lung, according to Corriere della Sera.
Incredible quello che è successo ieri in pista a Gand per #LorenzoGobbo che caduto assieme ad altri è stato trafitto da un listello di legno staccato dalla pista. Ricoverato in ospedale ed operato dovrà starci per circa 15 giorni. Buona guarigione #amoilciclismo pic.twitter.com/CAnFZhzWed
— Michele Malfatti (@MichGPS) July 13, 2019
Gobbo was rushed to the hospital and spent three hours in surgery, which succeeded in removing the splinter and managing bleeding. Fortunately, Sporza reports that Gobbo is expected to make a full recovery.
Coming Up at the Tour
The Tour de France continues with Saturday’s stage 9 from Saint-Étienne to Brioude.
The peloton will tackle three categorized climbs on the day, including a late category-three ascent that could make things interesting in the finale.
Socially Speaking
Brodie Chapman is currently in the Czech Republic racing the Tour de Feminin, where things were a bit crazy on Friday’s stage 2. We’ll let her tell the tale.
After finishing fourth on Saturday’s time trial, Chapman is now sitting second overall.
In case you missed it …
Feature Image: Julian Alaphilippe is back in yellow after the Tour’s eighth stage. Photo: Nico Vereecken/PN/Cor Vos © 2019
The post De Gendt nabs Tour de France stage 8 from the break: Daily News Digest appeared first on CyclingTips.