Pidcock set for Liège start, La Course changes announced: Daily News
Hello again, CyclingTips readers,
The Tour of the Alps continued with an action-packed fourth stage on Thursday. Meanwhile, La Course by Le Tour de France organizers announced that the race will now take place a day earlier and on a different route than previously planned, and Tom Pidcock is set to race Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Read on for the latest from the world of cycling.
Dane Cash
News Editor
What’s news?
Bilbao wins Tour of the Alps stage 4
Pello Bilbao nabbed stage 4 of the Tour of the Alps on Thursday ahead of Aleksandr Vlasov and Simon Yates.
After a breakaway move that featured Chris Froome was reeled in just inside the last 20 km, a much reduced pack hit the final climb of the day, where attacks flew about halfway up the ascent, further whittling things down. Yates and Vlasov crested the climb together and then the pair began the descent.
Dan Martin and Jai Hindley both hit the deck on the descent, while Bilbao sped downhill and ultimately caught up to Yates and Vlasov. The three rolled into the last kilometer together, and then Bilbao sprinted to the win ahead of Vlasov, with Yates taking third and retaining his overall race lead.
Tour of the Alps (2.Pro) Naturns → Pieve di Bono
YATES Simon
DINA Márton
CEPEDA Jefferson Alexander
INEOS Grenadiers
Pidcock set to race Liège-Bastogne-Liège
Tom Pidcock had originally been expected to close out his Spring Classics campaign at La Flèche Wallonne, but Het Nieuwsblad reports that the 21-year-old Brit will start Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday, and he has been named as an expected starter in a press release from the race.
As he makes his debut in the climber-friendly Monument, Pidcock is set to be joined by Ineos Grenadiers teammates Michal Kwiatkowski, Richard Carapaz, Tao Geoghegan Hart, and Adam Yates.
You can see the current expected start list here.
Changes for La Course by Le Tour de France
La Course by Le Tour de France has been moved up a day from June 27 to June 26 and will now take on a different route, the ASO announced on Thursday.
“Following a change of date for the second round of the French departmental and regional elections, the organisers adapt the schedule of the race in order to affect as little as possible the access to the polling stations for the citizens living in the area,” the ASO said in a statement.
Instead of tackling the Mûr-de-Bretagne in conjunction with stage 2 of the Tour de France, La Course will take on a route similar to stage 1 of the Tour, which runs from Brest to Landerneau. Plans for stage 2 of the Tour de France are unchanged.
UCI and Zwift link up with IOC for Olympic Virtual Series
The UCI and Zwift will join up with the IOC to put on mass participation virtual cycling events as part of the newly announced Olympic Virtual Series (OVS).
The OVS will feature virtual events in the sports of cycling, rowing, baseball-softball, sailing, and motor sport. The cycling series of mass participation events will take place between June 1 and 27.
The OVS aims to bring the broader cycling and sporting communities together for four exciting weeks of mass participation focused on inclusion and sharing of the Olympic values and spirit,” said David Lappartient, UCI President and head of the IOC’s Esports and Gaming Liaison Group.
Coming up …
The Tour of the Alps closes out on Friday with another tough day on the bike. An up-and-down course on the way from Valle del Chiese to Riva del Garda should give the climbers one last chance to shine on stage 5.
In case you missed it …
- Jonathan Vaughters offers some thoughts on how a Super League system might benefit cycling teams, even if it won’t be happening any time soon.
- Primoz Roglic was riding a new Cervelo R5 at La Flèche Wallonne.
- José Been caught up with Jay Vine, who rode to second overall in his first race as a pro, the Tour of Turkey.
- James Huang reviews IRC’s Boken Doublecross tire.
- Abby Mickey, Loren Rowney, and Amy Jones talk about the Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne in the latest episode of Freewheeling.
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