2019 Giro Rosa, 2019 Tour de France, Annemiek Van Vleuten, Daily News Digest, Features, News, Peter Sagan, Tom Dumoulin - July 11, 2019

Peter Sagan wins Tour de France stage 5: Daily News Digest

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Welcome to your Daily News Digest. Here’s what’s happening today:

Peter Sagan sprints to victory on stage 5 of the Tour de France, Annemiek van Vleuten extends her Giro Rosa lead with a dominant time trial victory, Tom Dumoulin’s knee injury is worse than initially thought. Those stories and more in today’s Daily News Digest.

Story of the Day: Peter Sagan wins Tour de France stage 5

Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) took his first victory of the 2019 Tour de France, sprinting to the stage 5 win in Colmar.

The three-time world road champion out-kicked Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) to take the convincing win and extend his lead in the points classification.

“You see, [with] patience, victory is coming. We controlled the race all day, on the flat part and until the finish,” Sagan said.

“If I don’t win, everybody is going to ask me what’s missing. Nothing is missing but you need a bit of luck.”

Deceuninck-Quick-Step’s Julian Alaphilippe finished on the same time as the sprinters to maintain his grip on the yellow jersey.

A four-rider breakaway got clear in the early goings of the lumpy 175.5-kilometer stage from Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, but the peloton kept the escapees on a relatively short leash. The advantage hovered around two minutes for much of the stage before the pack started to reel in the move, albeit without a number of the purer sprinters, who were unable to hold the pace on the day’s many climbs. GC rider Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) was also dropped on the undulating parcours.

After trying a solo move, final breakaway survivor Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) was caught with just over 20 kilometers to go. Rui Costa (UAE-Team Emirates) tried an attack with eight kilometers left to race, but a hard-charging pack brought the move to heel with two kilometers remaining to set up the final sprint.

Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) led the way into the finale for Trentin, but when Sagan launched with 200 meters to go there was no catching him. He took a clear win at the line with van Aert pipping Trentin for second.

.@petosagan’s father is clearly pretty happy ????

Le père de Peter Sagan est fou de joie ! ????#TDF2019 pic.twitter.com/p2XgzbQfcM

— Tour de France (@LeTour) July 10, 2019

Stage 5 results

1 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 4:02:33
2 Wout Van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma
3 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Mitchelton-Scott
4 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
5 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) CCC
6 Julien Simon (Fra) Cofidis Solutions Credits
7 Michael Matthews (Aus) Sunweb
8 Nils Politt (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin
9 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo
10 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep

1 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 18:44:12
2 Wout Van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma 0:00:14
3 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Jumbo-Visma 0:00:25
4 George Bennett (NZl) Jumbo-Visma
5 Michael Matthews (Aus) Sunweb 0:00:40
6 Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos
7 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos 0:00:45
8 Enric Mas (Spa) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:46
9 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:50
10 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) CCC 0:00:51

Beauty of Cycling

The biggest race in the sport always produces some of the best images.

… and took the KOM jersey.

Check out our latest gallery of selections from Cor Vos, Gruber Images, and Kristof Ramon to see some incredible shots from the first four stages of the Tour de France.

Race Radio

Van Vleuten extends Giro Rosa lead with time trial victory

Annemiek van Vleuten extended her lead at the Giro Rosa with her second stage victory in two days. The world individual time trial champion won the stage 6 time trial at the Giro Rosa, covering the 12.1 uphill kilometers nearly a minute faster than runner-up Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans).

Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) took third.

Given the climber-friendly nature of the route, the stage came down to the last of the day’s starters, the GC contenders. With the pink jersey already in her possession after a dominant stage 5 win, Van Vleuten was the final rider off the start ramp, but she crossed the line even with penultimate starter Kasia Niewiadoma, who had set off two minutes ahead of her.

Van Vleuten now enjoys an advantage of 4:17 over Niewiadoma in the general classification, with van der Breggen jumping up to third on the same time as Niewiadoma.

The Giro Rosa continues Thursday with a 128.3-kilometer stage 7 from Cornedo Vicentino to San Giorgio di Perlena.

Stage 6 results

1 Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Mitchelton-Scott 0:24:32
2 Anna van der Breggen (Ned) Boels-Dolmsn 0:00:52
3 Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:48
4 Lucinda Brand (Ned) Sunweb 0:01:50
5 Juliette Labous (Fra) Sunweb 0:01:54
6 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM 0:02:01
7 Katharine Hall (USA) Boels-Dolmans 0:02:04
8 Amanda Spratt (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:02:09
9 Tayler Wiles (USA) Trek-Segafredo 0:02:22
10 Erica Magnaldi (Ita) WNT-Rotor 0:02:23

1 Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Mitchelton-Scott 11:42:15
2 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM 0:04:17
3 Anna van der Breggen (Ned) Boels-Dolmans
4 Lucinda Brand (Ned) Sunweb 0:05:17
5 Amanda Spratt (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:05:21
6 Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:05:47
7 Katharine Hall (USA) Boels-Dolmans 0:06:08
8 Juliette Labous (Fra) Sunweb 0:06:20
9 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (RSA) CCC-Liv 0:06:33
10 Erica Magnaldi (Ita) WNT-Rotor 0:06:34

Torn tendon for Dumoulin

According to De Telegraaf, an MRI has shown a torn tendon in Tom Dumoulin’s knee, a more serious injury than initially realized. The Sunweb rider crashed hard at the Giro d’Italia in May. After abandoning the Italian Grand Tour, he returned to racing in preparation for a run at the Tour de France, but was ruled out ahead of the Brussels start due to lingering knee pain.

Dumoulin is now fully focused on recovery.

“Tom is currently capable of doing easy spins, but not intensive training,” Sunweb said in a statement. “As soon as he can resume to full training new goals can be formulated and communicated accordingly.”

Israel Cycling Academy reportedly in talks to acquire Katusha-Alpecin’s license

The future of Katusha-Alpecin remains uncertain beyond 2019, with L’Equipe reporting that riders were told on Tuesday that the team will not continue in 2020. Partners Canyon and Alpecin Shampoo are both reportedly looking to transfer their backing to a project centered on Mathieu van der Poel.

According to Cyclingnews, Israel Cycling Academy is interested in securing Katusha-Alpecin’s WorldTour license should that team indeed close. The Pro Continental squad has WorldTour aspirations, but so do other second-division teams that have accrued more points in this year’s racing.

Hammer Colombia unlikely in 2020

The Hammer Series recently announced that it would head to Colombia for an event in 2020 with WorldTour pros like Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) spearheading the global marketing, but Hammer Colombia now seems unlikely to happen next year.

The Colombian cycling federation has rejected the planned Hammer Series round. A federation statement cited the late registration of the event to next year’s calendar.

Coming Up at the Tour

The peloton will take on the first real mountain test of the Tour de France on Thursday’s stage 6.

The 160.5-kilometer stage will set out from Mulhouse and cover seven categorized climbs, finishing on La Planche des Belles Filles. As if the seven kilometers at an 8.7 percent average gradient weren’t hard enough, the category-one climb features a gravel final kilometer. It’s sure to be a day that will shake up the general classification.

Tech News

PNW introduces world’s first suspension dropper post

Fancy a suspension seatpost that can also be dropped out of the way for descending? That’s exactly what PNW’s Coast dropper seatpost aims to achieve for gravel, trekking, and hardtail mountain bike riders. The Coast post offer 40mm of tunable air suspension within a longer length dropper post. Riders sensitive to saddle height changes should take note though, that 40mm of travel is in a direct line of the post.

The post is offered in 27.2, 30.9, and 31.6mm diameters, and for either external or internal remote cable routing. Pricing starts at US$179 / AU$257.

Industry News

Vista Outdoor sells firearms brands

Vista Outdoor, the parent company of Giro, Bell, and other outdoor enthusiast brands, has sold firearms brands Savage Arms and Stevens, which will see retailer REI will resume business with Vista brands, as pinkbike reports.

“Today, we notified our merchants that we will resume orders with Giro, Bell, CamelBak, Blackburn, and Camp Chef on the news that their parent company, Vista Outdoor, has secured a buyer for Savage Arms,” REI said in a statement.

“REI orders of Vista-owned brands have been on hold since March 2018. At that time, Vista Outdoor chose not to engage in the national conversation about common-sense gun safety solutions that followed the tragic mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

“REI does not sell guns or ammunition and does not oppose hunting or the Second Amendment, but we believe companies that profit directly from the sale of guns have a civic responsibility to engage in the national discussion about gun safety, as Dick’s Sporting Goods, Walmart, and others have done.

“We understand and respect that our members and employees enjoy life outside in many ways—including hunting.”