Daily News Digest - March 24, 2021

Dennis wins Catalunya TT, Cavendish leads Coppi e Bartali GC: Daily News

Hello again, CyclingTips readers,

Tuesday saw the continuation of the Volta a Catalunya, where Rohan Dennis won the stage 2 time trial, his first win since 2019. Meanwhile, racing got underway at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali. Mark Cavendish leads the GC after a busy opening day.

Read on for the latest from the world of cycling.

Dane Cash
News Editor

What’s news?

Dennis wins stage 2 of the Volta a Catalunya

Rohan Dennis won the stage 2 time trial at the Volta a Catalunya on Tuesday. The two-time world TT champion set a mark of 22:27 on an 18.5 km course to take the victory, his first since 2019 and his first since joining the Ineos Grenadiers. In the overall battle, João Almeida now sits atop the GC leaderboard on the same time as Brandon McNulty after the TT.

Karel Vacek was the first rider down the ramp on a clear day in Banyoles, where the stage started and finished. Josef Cerny was an early occupant of the hot seat with a time of 23:05 before Rémi Cavagna set a mark of 22:32. The Frenchman spent the better part of an hour in the provisional lead, but Dennis would take over the hot seat after putting in an excellent performance to go five seconds faster.

The Australian spent more than an hour watching riders complete their rides, and no one was able to beat Dennis’s time. Though Dennis’s lead would not be bested, the GC contenders kept things interesting. McNulty set what was the third fastest time behind Dennis and Cavagna before Almeida topped him by less than a second. Almeida’s mark would ultimately stand as the day’s third fastest with McNulty in fourth. Other GC hopefuls putting in strong rides included Steven Kruijswijk in fifth, Richie Porte in sixth, Adam Yates in seventh, and Geraint Thomas in 10th.

Top 10, stage 2

1 DENNIS Rohan (INEOS Grenadiers) 0:22:27
2 CAVAGNA Rémi (Deceuninck – Quick Step) 0:05
3 ALMEIDA João (Deceuninck – Quick Step) 0:28
4 MCNULTY Brandon (UAE-Team Emirates)
5 KRUIJSWIJK Steven (Team Jumbo-Visma) 0:33
6 PORTE Richie (INEOS Grenadiers) 0:34
7 YATES Adam (INEOS Grenadiers) 0:35
8 CERNY Josef (Deceuninck – Quick Step) 0:38
9 DE BOD Stefan (Astana – Premier Tech)
10 THOMAS Geraint (INEOS Grenadiers) 0:47

Top 10, GC

1 ALMEIDA João (Deceuninck – Quick Step) 4:43:26
2 MCNULTY Brandon (UAE-Team Emirates)
3 SÁNCHEZ Luis León (Astana – Premier Tech) 0:03
4 KRUIJSWIJK Steven (Team Jumbo-Visma) 0:05
5 PORTE Richie (INEOS Grenadiers) 0:06
6 YATES Adam (INEOS Grenadiers) 0:07
7 DE BOD Stefan (Astana – Premier Tech) 0:10
8 THOMAS Geraint (INEOS Grenadiers) 0:19
9 MASNADA Fausto (Deceuninck – Quick Step) 0:20
10 KÄMNA Lennard (BORA – hansgrohe) 0:21

Cavendish leads Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali after a busy opening day

Mark Cavendish sits atop the general classification after the opening day of racing at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali, where Jakub Mareczko sprinted to victory in stage 1a and Israel Start-Up Nation won the stage 1b team time trial.

Stage 1a started and finished in Gatteo with riders covering 97.8 km in between. Although the route featured three trips up the Longiano climb, things came down to a bunch kick. Mareczko and Cavendish battled closely all the way to the line, where Mareczko took the win with Cavendish settling for second place and Marius Mayrhofer taking third.

The stage 1b TTT also started and finished in Gatteo, covering 10.8 km of flat roads. Israel Start-Up Nation took the provisional lead with a time of 11:36 and held on despite strong challenges from Astana-Premier Tech and Deceuninck-Quick-Step. Astana-Premier Tech would take runner-up honors one second down on Israel Start-Up Nation with Deceuninck-Quick-Step in third, a further second back. Having secured bonus seconds in stage 1a and with Deceuninck-Quick-Step’s strong ride in the TTT, Cavendish took over the race lead with a two-second gap to Alex Dowsett in second overall.

Top 10, stage 1a

1 MARECZKO Jakub (Vini Zabù) 2:19:05
2 CAVENDISH Mark (Deceuninck – Quick Step)
3 MAYRHOFER Marius (Team DSM)
4 COATI Luca (Team Qhubeka)
5 HAYTER Ethan (INEOS Grenadiers)
6 ZECCHIN Michael (Work Service Marchiol Vega)
7 ROCCHETTA Cristian (General Store Essegibi F.lli Curia)
8 ALBANESE Vincenzo (EOLO-Kometa)
9 CIMA Damiano (Gazprom – RusVelo)
10 VAN DIJKE Mick (Team Jumbo-Visma)

Top 10, stage 1b

1 Israel Start-Up Nation 11:36
2 Astana Premier Tech 11:37
3 Deceuninck – Quick Step 11:38
4 Team BikeExchange 11:42
5 Ineos Grenadiers 11:44
6 Team Jumbo Visma 11:47
7 Italy 11:50
8 Movistar Team 11:57
9 Team Qhubeka 11:58
10 Trek-Segafredo 11:59

Top 10, GC (after stage 1b)

1 CAVENDISH Mark (Deceuninck – Quick Step) 2:30:39
2 DOWSETT Alex (Israel Start-Up Nation) 0:02
3 HERMANS Ben (Israel Start-Up Nation)
4 PICCOLI James (Israel Start-Up Nation)
5 NIV Guy (Israel Start-Up Nation)
6 DE MARCHI Alessandro (Israel Start-Up Nation)
7 BERWICK Sebastian (Israel Start-Up Nation)
8 BRUSSENSKIY Gleb (Astana – Premier Tech) 0:03
9 ROMO Javier (Astana – Premier Tech)
10 FELLINE Fabio (Astana – Premier Tech)

Jumbo-Visma extends Kruijswijk, Gesink, and Van Emden

Jumbo-Visma announced on Tuesday that it had extended with Steven Kruijswijk, Robert Gesink, and Jos van Emden “at least through 2023.” All three Dutchmen have been with the squad for the entirety of their WorldTour careers.

Kruijswijk, 33, has finished as highly as third overall at the Tour de France, and continues to be one of the team’s top options in the Grand Tours. Gesink, 34, counts multiple WorldTour wins on his career palmares, including a stage at the Vuelta a España, and has become a key support rider for the team. Van Emden, 36, has won a stage at the Giro d’Italia and taken other strong results, particularly in time trials, over the course of his lengthy tenure with the team.

“Jos, Steven and Robert have helped to create a new culture in the team,” said team director Richard Plugge in a statement from the team. “From about 2013 they have contributed to that change. They helped shape our way of working and interacting with each other. They are the carriers of the Blanco Koers, in which this working method has been laid down. Robert, Jos and Steven have been involved in this very much. They were riders who saw that things had to and could be done differently. I like that very much. We have been through a lot together in the meantime. That makes it extra nice that they will stay with us for at least two more years.”

Kwiatkowski has been riding with a fractured rib

Michal Kwiatkowski said on Twitter on Monday that he has a fractured rib, which he seems to have sustained when he crashed hard at the Trofeo Laigueglia earlier this month.

“It hasn’t been an easy Italian campaign since the crash in Laiguelia, physically and mentally on the same time,” he wrote on Twitter. “‘Rest to be the best’ mode ON.”