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Moscon wins Tour of the Alps opener: Daily News

Hello again, CyclingTips readers,

As we get into the new week, the Tour of the Alps is underway, Vini Zabù has been suspended, Tom Pidcock weighed in on the Amstel Gold Race finish line photo (and then deleted the tweet), and former Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner Bob Jungels is set to miss the upcoming Ardennes races due to a head injury.

Read on for the latest from the world of cycling.

Dane Cash
News Editor

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Moscon wins stage 1 of the Tour of the Alps

Gianni Moscon took his first victory since 2018 on Monday on the opening stage of the Tour of the Alps.

The 140.6 km stage took the peloton from Brixen to Innsbruck. After Alessandro De Marchi, the last survivor of the early break, was caught, Pello Bilbao attacked on the descent off the day’s final climb, drawing Mattias Skjelmose Jensen, Santiago Umba, and Daniel Savini clear. That group of four took a gap of around 10 seconds into the last 10 km, but the pack caught the move with around 4 km to go.

As soon as the catch was made, Moscon launched clear. He quickly built a gap of several seconds, but with less than 2 km to go, Idar Andersen powered across and bridged up to Moscon. With the pack not far behind, Moscon allowed Andersen to lead the way into the last few hundred meters and then surged past to beat him at the line. Andersen settled for second with Alexandr Riabushenko taking third on the day.

Vini Zabù suspended for 30 days

The UCI announced on Monday that its Disciplinary Commission had decided to hand Italian ProTeam Vini Zabù a 30-day suspension, retroactively starting on April 7, after two members of the team registered adverse analytical findings within a 12-month period.

Matteo Spreafico tested positive for Enobosarm (ostarine) in two samples collected on October 15 and 16 during last year’s Giro d’Italia, while Matteo De Bonis tested positive for EPO in an out-of-competition test on February 16.

With two riders testing positive inside a 12-month span, Vini Zabù faced a potential suspension of between 15 and 45 days. The team announced on April 7 that it would be withdrawing from competition, and the 30-day suspension the team has now received is retroactively starting on that date. It will therefore end two days before the Giro gets underway on May 6, but Vini Zabù announced on April 14 that it would be pulling out of the Giro. Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec will make the start in Vini Zabù’s place.

Pidcock: Amstel Gold Race finish line photo ‘seems to have created more questions than have been answered’

A day after he rode to a close second at the Amstel Gold Race, Tom Pidcock said on social media that the finish line photo from the race “seems to have created more questions than have been answered.”

Wout van Aert was declared the winner of the Dutch one-day after review of the official finish line photo, but La Flamme Rouge questioned the angle of the camera in a tweet on Sunday.

On Monday, Pidcock shared that tweet from La Flamme Rouge with commentary of his own in a tweet that his since been deleted.

“There’s been a lot of speculation on Twitter,” Pidcock wrote. “A photo finish is used to verify a result. However yesterday’s photo seems to have created more questions than have been answered. This isn’t correct, photo finishes should be 100% accurate and should be in the future”.

Jungels out for Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège due to head injury

AG2R Citroën said on Monday that Bob Jungels, who won Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2018, will miss La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège due to a head injury.

“As a result of his crash on Sunday, Bob Jungels suffered from a slight cranial trauma,” read a tweet from the team. “After today’s training, it was apparent that Bob had not fully recovered. He will not start the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège”.

Coming up …

The Tour of the Alps continues on Tuesday with a 121.5 km stage from Innsbruck to Feichten im Kaunertal that features two tough categorized climbs (and some uncategorized ascending) that could make for some interesting GC action.

Meme of the Day

In case you missed it …

  • As Iain Treloar writes, Bay Area cyclists are on edge following multiple bikejacking incidents.
  • Abby Mickey takes a closer look at Elisa Longo Borghini’s tactics at the Amstel Gold Race.
  • Photos from Rhode Van Elsen and Kristof Ramon tell the stories from the Amstel Gold Race.
  • In his latest video, Dave Everett catches up with Pendulum guitarist and Tour de France TV commentator Peredur ap Gwynedd.

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