daily news digest, News - March 15, 2021

Van der Poel’s solo, Roglic’s crashes: Daily News

Hello again, CT readers,

What a day of bike racing. Elisa Balsamo won the first-ever GP Oetingen and both Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice were turned on their heads, the former by Mathieu van der Poel’s stunning solo display and the latter by a series of crashes by the yellow jersey and likely victor, Primoz Roglic.

Plus, James spotted a new Giro helmet.

Read on for more.

Caley Fretz
Editor-in-Chief

What’s News

Mathieu van der Poel’s 52km solo victory at Tirreno

What is there to say? Only a very small handful of riders could pull off what Van der Poel pulled off on the classics-style circuit that made up Tirreno-Adriatico’s fifth stage.

He took off with 52km to go, cold from the rain, leaving a heavily reduced group behind with a counter-attack on Egan Bernals’ earlier move. By 35km to go, he had 90 seconds on the chasers behind, including Tadej Pogacar and Wout van Aert.

It was Pogacar who took matters into his own hands. Chasing solo, with Wout van Aert just behind him, he halved van der Poel’s gap by 10km to go, and halved it again by 5 km to the line. But it wasn’t enough. Van der Poel, empty and still alone, crossed the line with ten seconds to spare.

“I was riding completely on empty in the last few kilometers,” Van der Poel said. “I was told that Pogacar was coming close but I wasn’t even able to listen. I just wanted to reach the finish as fast as I could.”

Do yourself a favor and watch the recap if you missed it:

Stage 5 Results

1 – Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Fenix 4:48:17
2 – Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:10
3 – Wout Van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma 0:00:49
4 – Fabio Felline (Ita) Astana-Premier Tech 0:01:26
5 – Egan Bernal Gomez (Col) Ineos Grenadiers 0:02:07

Overall after stage 5

1 – Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 22:41:41
2 – Wout Van Aert (Bel) Jumbo-Visma 0:01:15
3 – Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Bahrain Victorious 0:03:00
4 – Egan Bernal Gomez (Col) Ineos Grenadiers 0:03:30
5 – Matteo Fabbro (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:03:54

Balsamo wins GP Oetingen

Elisa Balsamo (Valcar-Travel & Service) won the first edition of the GP Oetingen out of a sprint, just ahead of Jolien D’Hoore (Team SD Worx) and Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma Women Team).

Results

1 – Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Valcar-Travel & Service 3:15:06
2 – Jolien D’Hoore (Bel) Team SD Worx
3 – Marianne Vos (Ned) Jumbo-Visma Women Team
4 – Kristen Faulkner (USA) Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank
5 – Amy Pieters (Ned) Team SD Worx

Schachmann wins Paris-nice as Roglic crashes, separates shoulder

It wasn’t how Max Schachmann would have liked to win, but win he did.

Primoz Roglic came into the final stage with a 52-second lead, but the day started poorly when he crashed at 25km. The peloton slowed, allowing him to catch on, but a second crash at the same point the following lap, dislocating his shoulder, ended his ability to defend. The race was on, breaks up the road, and there was no more waiting.

Schachmann fended off late attacks from Astana’s Aleksandr Vlasov and Ion Izaguirre to claim the final yellow jersey with 19 seconds to spare.

Roglic came in some 3 minutes down and immediately rode to Schachmann to give him a congratulatory fist-bump,.

“I don’t know if I can be happy – it’s not nice to win like this, it’s very difficult,” Schachmann said.

The stage was won by Magnus Cort out of a select group of 21.

Debate continues over Roglic’s victory in stage 7, where he passed Gino Mäder at the line. What do you think?

Stage 8 results

1 – Magnus Cort (Den) EF Education-Nippo 2:16:58
2 – Christophe Laporte (Fra) Cofidis
3 – Pierre Latour (Fra) Total Direct Energie
4 – Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain Victorious
5 – Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic

Overall results – final

1 – Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 28:49:51
2 – Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Astana-Premier Tech 0:00:19
3 – Ion Izagirre Insausti (Spa) Astana-Premier Tech 0:00:23
4 – Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Team BikeExchange 0:00:41
5 – Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Team DSM 0:00:42

Froome says he was pulled into Wiggins/Freeman drama due to rider rivalry

Chris Froome defended himself against comments released in detail by the Daily Mail last week from former Team Sky coach Shane Sutton, who insinuated during the Richard Freedman medical tribunal that some of Froome’s heart rate and power data was suspicious. Froome puts those comments down to a reflection of his own rivalry with Bradley Wiggins.

“I have also looked at training traces and compared them to Bradley. I am looking at heart traces and deciphering the information,” Sutton said, according to the Daily Mail. “It’s not just the power rates we are looking at. I was concerned about the data but I have no evidence other than this.”

The relationship between Froome and Wiggins was often a contentious one.

Coming soon…

Tirreno-Adriatico continues Monday and Tuesday with a lumpy stage, and then a final time trial.