Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Friday, May 3, 2019
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2018 Tour de France | 2018 Giro d'Italia
Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause. - Victor Hugo
Current racing:
- April 30 - May 5: Tour de Romandie
- May 2 - 5: Tour de Yorkshire
- May 3 - 5: Vuelta Asturias
Upcoming racing:
- May 10 - 12: Vuelta de Madrid
- May 11 - June 2: Giro d'Italia
Latest completed racing:
- May 1: Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt
- April 28: Liège-Bastogne-Liège
- April 28: Giro dell'Appennino
- April 25 - 27: Vuelta a Castilla y Leon
- April 22 - 26: Tour of the Alps
- April 24: La Flèche Wallonne
- April 22: Tro-Bro Léon
- April 16 - 21: Tour of Turkey
- April 21: Amstel Gold Race
- April 20: Tour du Finistère
- April 17: De Brabantse Pijl - La Flèche Brabançonne
- April 16: Paris-Camembert
Team reports on Tour de Romandie stage two
We posted the report from 2nd-place Sam Bennett's Bora-hansgrohe team with the results.
Here's the report from Simone Consonni's UAE-Team Emirates:
The Tour de Romandie’s stage two from Le Locle to Morges — 174.4km with two climbs midway and a third just 40 km from the finish — was marked by a long-range escape that saw Swiss Stefan Kung (FDJ-Groupama) take the glory. At a little less than a minute behind, Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) won the sprint ahead of Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida), Simone Consonni of UAE Team Emirates and Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quick Step).
Stefan Kung wins Romandie stage two. Sirotti photo
“Today I wanted to do well because besides being the birthday of our sports director Simone Pedrazzini, I am also with my girlfriend for nine years,” said Consonni. “But my condition is not the best due to the flu I had after the Tour of Turkey. In fact, even yesterday, I had a difficult day. But today, I was motivated and I gave everything to try to get a victory. I’ll just have to wait for the next time.”
Tomorrow the third stage with start and finish in Romont and cover 160 kilometres. The stage will be even more challenging with four climbs and the final on the uphill kicks taking the cyclists to Romont.
Here's the report from Elia Viviani's Deceuninck-Quick Step team:
Thursday brought a change of décor at the Tour de Romandie, grey clouds, spitting rain and strong winds changing the nature of the race. After a brisk start to proceedings, a breakaway of six eventually established, slowly but steady opening a five-minute buffer over a peloton which didn’t look too concerned about this move.
The damp day didn’t bother the escapees too much, who despite facing two classified climbs on the roads to Morges – a stage finish for the first time at the Tour de Romandie – rode strongly and entered the last 30 kilometers with more than two minutes in their hands. A few kilometers later, Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ) attacked, dispatching his companions, and powered to victory, a minute clear of the peloton, who didn’t risk in the finale which featured a couple of wet corners and roundabouts.
Italian Champion Elia Viviani sprinted from the bunch and took fifth on the line for his 11th top 10 finish of the season, while James Knox concluded this tricky stage safely in the pack and retained his eighth place in the general classification. The overall remained unchanged, but could be in for a significant shake-up on Friday afternoon, on the hilly roads of Romont, the small town that will host the start and finish of stage 3, punctuated by four ranked climbs.
Knee injury forces Daan Olivier to quit pro cycling
Team Jumbo-Visma sent me this sad news:
Daan Olivier is forced to immediately end his professional cycling career. The 26-year-old Dutchman has been suffering from a knee injury since a crash last year, which was exacerbated by top-level sport. The Team Jumbo-Visma rider tells in his blog how he has experienced the past period and how he faces the future.
“Since the Ruta del Sol I felt that the injury moved towards a stage of performance impairing”, Olivier writes. “Already the first day of the Tour of the Basque Country, I felt that the injury got even worse. Now I have come to a point of realization that the past couple of months I have been fighting a losing battle. The injury got worse and I am not feeling rewarded for all the efforts I have put in. It feels hard and unreal that I am forced to abandon not only the Basque Country race, but the race of Professional Cycling. It feels like a dream has fallen to pieces. Cycling has brought me a lot. Those experiences I will never forget, and I am more than grateful that I have been privileged to live this life for almost 11 years.”
Olivier showed that he was ready to turn pro when he was a rider of the Rabobank Continental Team. In 2014 and 2015 he joined Team Giant-Shimano (Alpecin). After a short break, he joined the current Team Jumbo-Visma in 2017. That year, he finished the Vuelta a España.
Team Jumbo-Visma thank Daan for his team spirit and the nice cooperation and wish him the best of luck in his social career.
Breakthrough in batteries for e-bikes & cars claimed with Graphene-Polymer technology
We're getting closer to truly practical e-bikes and cars! Bike Europe sent me this news:
WUXI, China – Inefficient charging and a limited battery life has been the main problems which have restricted the development of e-bikes as well as other e-vehicles. The Wuxi-based battery developer Jiangsu NESC Science and Technology Company claims to have found a breakthrough solution for these issues, applying space technology and Graphene.
The Graphene battery for electric vehicles is able to handle fast charging in less than 15 minutes (800 seconds). According to a report in the China Daily, Jiangsu NESC Science and Technology Company developed this battery which is based on a Graphene-Polymer technology.
Last month bike-eu.com reported that “Graphene-lithium is highly needed technology which is to revolutionize batteries including the ones for e-bikes. The addition of Graphene nano-technology to Lithium batteries brings unprecedented properties as the carbon atoms in Graphene are superconductive.”
You can read the entire story here.
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