Primoz Roglic wins the opening TT at the Itzulia Basque Country: Daily News
Hello again, CyclingTips readers,
We roll into the new week with the start of a new WorldTour stage race, where a rider who has spent a lot of time in leader’s jerseys over the past few years is wearing one already after one stage.
Read on for the latest from the world of cycling.
Dane Cash
News Editor
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Primoz Roglic wins Basque Country opener
Primoz Roglic won Monday’s stage 1 time trial at the Itzulia Basque Country to take the first leader’s jersey at this year’s edition of the race.
The opening stage of the six-day race took riders on a 13.9 km ride through Bilbao, with an early third-category climb on the course and a short ascent to the finish. Roglic was one of the day’s earliest starters, and he set a blistering time of 17:17. From there, he occupied the hot seat for hours as rivals tried to best his time.
Brandon McNulty was the only rider who came particularly close, going faster than Roglic at the check point at 4.7 km into the course, but he lost time over the long descent off the initial climb. He came up just short of Roglic’s mark in the end, hitting the line less than two seconds slower than Roglic. Roglic’s Jumbo-Visma teammate Jonas Vingegaard was the day’s third fastest rider, finishing 18 seconds down on Roglic.
Roglic’s strong ride puts him in a solid position in the GC battle moving forward. Tadej Pogacar rode to fifth on the day, 28 seconds behind Roglic, with Adam Yates finishing in sixth on the same time as Pogacar.
Top 10, stage 1
1 ROGLIC Primoz (Jumbo-Visma) 0:17:17
2 MCNULTY Brandon (UAE-Team Emirates) 0:02
3 VINGEGAARD Jonas (Jumbo-Visma) 0:18
4 FOSS Tobias (Jumbo-Visma) 0:24
5 POGACAR Tadej (UAE-Team Emirates) 0:28
6 YATES Adam (Ineos Grenadiers)
7 BEVIN Patrick (Israel Start-Up Nation)
8 SCHELLING Ide (Bora-Hansgrohe) 0:29
9 ARANBURU Alex (Astana-Premier Tech) 0:30
10 SCACHMANN Maximilian (Bora-Hansgrohe) 0:36
Top 10, GC
1 ROGLIC Primoz (Jumbo-Visma) 0:17:17
2 MCNULTY Brandon (UAE-Team Emirates) 0:02
3 VINGEGAARD Jonas (Jumbo-Visma) 0:18
4 FOSS Tobias (Jumbo-Visma) 0:24
5 POGACAR Tadej (UAE-Team Emirates) 0:28
6 YATES Adam (Ineos Grenadiers)
7 BEVIN Patrick (Israel Start-Up Nation)
8 SCHELLING Ide (Bora-Hansgrohe) 0:29
9 ARANBURU Alex (Astana-Premier Tech) 0:30
10 SCACHMANN Maximilian (Bora-Hansgrohe) 0:36
Bouhanni speaks out following racial abuse after sprint incident
Nacer Bouhanni shared screenshots on Monday that showed numerous instances of racist abuse that has been directed at him after the incident at Cholet-Pays de la Loire in which he was relegated for driving Jake Stewart into the barriers in the sprint.
Bouhanni posted examples of abusive messages in multiple different languages on his Instagram story, and also wrote a statement of his own.
“Hello to all the little jokers who have been amusing themselves for a week by writing to me personally or commenting on certain cycling websites that I should return to Africa, that I am a criminal, that I am a North African who needs to be interned and who are constantly sending me [pig emojis],” Bouhanni wrote in a post shared to his Instagram story.
“Know that I was born in France and that I am going to file a complaint, because I have been putting up with this for a long time already and I’ve kept silent, but this time I won’t let it go anymore.”
Consonni wins the Ronde de Mouscron
Chiara Consonni nabbed her first pro one-day win on Monday at the Ronde de Mouscron.
The UCI 1.1-rated event, a circuit race in Mouscron in Belgium’s Wallonia region came down to a bunch kick after 121 km. Consonni proved fastest in the final sprint, besting Jelena Eric and Maria Martins.
Woods is ‘all in for the Olympics’ in 2021
Mike Woods, who is currently racing the Itzulia Basque Country as he gears up for the Ardennes Classics, laid out his objectives for the 2021 season in an interview with CyclingTips. The 34-year-old Canadian has a number of goals on the year, but he is prioritizing the Tokyo Olympics as his biggest target on the season.
“That’s kind of the big X on the calendar,” he said of the Olympics. “Everything else is going to be secondary to that. The Tour, the Classics, those are those secondary big goals. But it’s all in for the Olympics for me.
“I always like one-day races, it’s a lot of climbing miles, and it’s the Olympics. As a Canadian, as a guy coming from a track background, the Olympics are the kind of be-all, end-all, and I hold them in higher esteem than most cyclists, particularly because I’m a proud Canadian.”
Schär responds to disqualification
A day after being disqualified from the Tour of Flanders for throwing a bottle in a non-designated zone, Michael Schär addressed the topic of giving bottles to fans in a post on social media.
Schär wrote an Instagram post on Monday sharing the story of how a bottle he received as a child at the Tour de France impacted his life and career as a pro.
Meme of the day
We’re sticking with the water-bottle-disqualification topic for the meme of the day as well …
In case you missed it …
- Images from Rhode.Photo, Peloton Brief, and Cor Vos tell the story of Annemiek van Vleuten’s second Tour of Flanders victory.
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