Mitchelton updates, Pan-Am CX championships cancelled: Daily News Digest
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Hello CyclingTips readers,
The Dookola Mazowsza stage race may not have been circled on your cycling calendar, but the four-day event that got underway in Poland on Wednesday happened to be the first UCI-sanctioned international race in quite some time following the long hiatus from racing.
Unfortunately, the opening stage was cancelled with around 30 kilometers to go after a vehicle crashed at an intersection along the course before the peloton arrived. As such, it will be until at least Thursday before the teams in attendance (among them, the Israel Cycling Academy Continental squad and CCC’s development team) fully complete a day’s racing as planned.
In other news, Wednesday brought news from Mitchelton-Scott on two different fronts. For starters, the team unveiled its long lists for the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia. The Tour team will hunt stage wins, while Simon Yates will target the GC at the Giro. Meanwhile, sports director Matt White has told SBS that the team’s future is secured for a further two years, news that comes following weeks of uncertainty for Mitchelton-Scott.
Read on for more …
Dane Cash
News Editor
What’s news
| Stage 1 of the first UCI race in months halted with 30 kilometers to go
Stage 1 of the Dookola Mazowsza, the first international UCI bike race following the road cycling’s long hiatus from competition, was halted on Wednesday with around 30 kilometers to go. Organizers had to stop the stage after a non-race motorcycle crashed at an intersection with the course before the peloton arrived.
“As it was a proper road accident, the police people need to come and the fire people need to come investigate the accident,” Israel Cycling Academy sports director Zak Dempster told CyclingTips by phone. “So the race was called off, that made it impossible to divert around the intersection.”
Racing is expected to resume on Thursday with a time trial near Warsaw.
| Simon Yates will lead Mitchelton-Scott at the Giro d’Italia
Mitchelton-Scott has unveiled its long lists for both the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia. The team will look to Simon Yates to target the Giro overall this season, while Adam Yates and Esteban Chaves are both on the long list for the squad’s Tour roster, which will focus on hunting stage wins.
In addition to the Chaves and Adam Yates, Mitchelton-Scott’s long list for the Tour also includes Jack Bauer, Sam Bewley, Brent Bookwalter, Alex Edmondson, Tsgabu Grmay, Daryl Impey, Chris Juul-Jensen, Luka Mezgec, and Mikel Nieve.
Meanwhile, the long list of riders set to join Simon Yates at the Giro includes Edoardo Affini, Brent Bookwalter, Jack Haig, Lucas Hamilton, Michael Hepburn, Damien Howson, Chris Juul-Jensen, Cameron Meyer, Nick Schultz, and Andrey Zeits.
| Mitchelton-Scott’s future secure for a further two seasons
Speaking of Mitchelton, sports director Matt White has told SBS that the team’s future is secure for a further two seasons. The news comes after several weeks of uncertainty following a collapsed sponsorship arrangement with the Manuela Fundación and a subsequent overhaul of management at Mitchelton-Scott.
“The big difference and the thing that has really steadied the ship is obviously the commitment from Gerry Ryan,” White said. “Everybody in the organization, young or old, everyone knows that when Gerry says something it happens.”
| Pan-Am Cyclocross championships cancelled for 2020
The 2020 Pan-American Cyclocross Championships has been cancelled amid coronavirus concerns.
The event was initially scheduled to run from November 7 to 8 in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but organizers announced on Tuesday that the event has been called off.
| Strava’s Local Legends feature is live
As of Wednesday, Strava’s new Local Legends feature is active on 99 percent of segments in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Brazil, and Japan.
The feature provides a leaderboard that tracks how many times an athlete has completed a segment in a rolling 90-day window, with the “Laurel Crown” awarded to the rider who has ridden the segment the most in that period.
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SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY NEWS DIGEST PODCASTToday’s featured image of Robbie McEwen winning stage 13 of the Tour de France on this day in 2005 comes from Cor Vos.
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