Author: Henri Giroud

Highlights Report Caleb Ewan from Lotto Soudal was supreme in the streets of Schoten, Belgium, in a mass sprint, which was marred by a serious crash. The Australian used his trademark late acceleration to move ahead of his rival sprinters and win Scheldeprijs on his debut in the sprinters’ Classic. The Scheldeprijs is the oldest Flemish race on the international calendar. With 174 km, and start as well as finish in Schoten, the 108th edition was, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a shortened version of the traditional Scheldeprijs. The 26-year-old Ewan was faster than Pascal Ackermann and Niccolò Bonifazio.…

Highlights Report After an intense fight for nearly a hundred kilometers on Tuesday, Arnaud and his teammates eventually decided to stop chasing Peter Sagan in order to look to the next day, which was stage 11 towards Rimini, much more suited to the French champion. At the start in Porto Sant’Elpidio on Wednesday, Groupama-FDJ therefore quickly showed their ambitions. The day’s breakaway was barely formed, with Sander Armée (Lotto-Soudal), Mattia Bais (Androni Giocatolli-Sidermec), Marco Frapporti (Vini Zabù-KTM), Fabio Mazzucco (Bardiani-CSF) and Francesco Romano (Bardiani-CSF) inside it, when the French team took control of the bunch. “We were down to six after…

Highlights Report An undulating parcours welcomed riders back to the Giro d’Italia after its first rest day. The 177km stage featured four short but steep categorised climbs, but with the hardest of these being third category, this wouldn’t slow the peloton down too much as they headed towards the finish in Tortoreto. On a day that would suit the Classics riders, there was no surprise when Peter Sagan was among the riders trying to get in the break. Brought back once, it looked like the Slovak rider had missed his chance, with a group of five heading off up the…

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (BRAIN) — In its new Black Reparations Program, Rivendell Bicycle Works is offering Black customers a 45% discount on bikes and frames bought through its website or its warehouse store. The 26-year-old company, which offers custom steel road, touring and casual-use bikes and related parts and accessories, began the discount on an ad hoc basis at its store about two years ago, said John Bennett, Rivendell’s social media and press liaison.Due to COVID-19 concerns, Rivendell no longer serves walk-in customers, so the company decided to formalize the program for online shoppers. “Reparations acknowledge that in America, white…

Highlights Report Today’s racing at Paris-Tours began under raining skies, with the overcast conditions set to stay for the rest of the day, only adding to the difficulty of the race. With a predominantly flat route until the final 50 kilometres where the hills and gravel roads started, the team took control at the head of the race after the morning breakaway had formed. With the aim of heading into the finale with Søren Kragh Andersen, Joris Nieuwenhuis and Casper Pedersen all to the fore, Leon Heinschke, Martin Salmon and Niklas Märkl did well to keep the breakaway in check…

Highlights Report It was not Mads Pedersen’s greatest win but certainly will go into his palmares as one of his biggest. The former world champion nailed another sprint to take a massive victory in Gent-Wevelgem, the cobbled classics’ opening race. The final kilometers were non-stop thrills as nine riders – the strongest that rose to the fore after over 200 grueling and intermittently wet and cold kilometers – launched attack after attack.  The elastic didn’t break until the final 1500 meters when three riders finally broke free. Pedersen waited, showing a patience of experience, then jumped across the gap to…

Highlights Report Wet, rainy conditions favor the bold in bike racing. It seems to also favor our ducks in Italy as Ruben Guerreiro took a second mountain top stage win for EF Pro Cycling at the 2020 Giro d’Italia on a day marked by torrential rain and lot’s of climbing. The 208km course from San Salvo to Roccaraso was labeled as the queen stage across the Apennines with over 4,000m of altitude gain on 4 categorized climbs. With plenty of mountain classification points up for grabs and a stage profile that looked suited for a breakaway win, it took awhile…

Highlights Report It is from quite a stunning setting in Matera that stage 7 of the Giro started on Friday afternoon. The stage was quite short, only 143 kilometers, and its main danger was known by everyone. “There was wind all day,” Sébastien Joly recalled. “From yesterday evening on, the guys were ready to fight for it. They knew what to expect and they were super motivated. Ramon, in particular, was keen to make a contribution after two difficult days. The race quickly exploded at the start, they ended up being barely 30 in front, and most of our guys were there. When…