Eight-time Grand Tour stage winner and 2017 Tour de France green jersey champion Michael Matthews will return ‘home’ to Mitchelton-SCOTT next season. After four years with Team Sunweb, the recent Bretagne Classic winner has signed a new two-year contract that will see the 29-year-old reunited with the Australian team until 2022. A complete package, ‘Bling’ has 35 individual professional career victories, including 18 during his time in GreenEDGE Cycling colours between 2013 and 2016. A two-time podium placer at Milan-San Remo, including in 2020, Matthews will be a serious contender for monument and one-day Classics success, as well as adding stage winning capabilities to…
Author: Henri Giroud
Henri Giroud
Fifty years of pro cycling journalism and television commentary. It gets easier after the first forty years.
Preview Highlights Report A magnificent display helped Julian Alaphilippe continue to build upon his extraordinary legacy, as he took a fifth stage victory at the Tour de France, moving into the race’s overall lead on Nice’s Promenade des Anglais. Just like last year, when a superb attack on the roads of Marne netted him an emphatic win and the iconic yellow jersey, Alaphilippe made his move on the final climb of the day, some 13 kilometers from the finish. Up until that moment, Deceuninck – Quick-Step was prominent with Danish Champion Kasper Asgreen, who spent almost the entire day in…
Preview Highlights Report Alexander Kristoff was the fastest in the first stage of the Tour de France, hitting a fantastic double with a stage victory and sealing the yellow jersey. The 156 km of the inaugural stage of the Gran Boucle were characterized by numerous crashes due to the heavy rain that featured throughout the entire race. The group moved cautiously along the descents of the course, only to put the hammer down again in the final 20 km. In Nice, on the final straight, Kristoff unleashed his power with a perfectly timed sprint, where he overtook Mads Pedersen (Trek…
In a move that’s sure to ruffle the feathers of UK cycling fans, neither Chris Froome nor Geraint Thomas have been selected for the INEOS Grenadiers (yuck) Tour de France squad. Geraint Thomas will instead ride the Giro d’Italia, and Chris Froome will ride the Vuelta a Espana. Froome has previously won the Vuelta in 2017, and retroactively became the first British grand tour winner when the 2011 edition was awarded to him many years later. INEOS will be taking the following riders to the Tour: Andrey Amador Egan BernalRichard Carapaz Jonathan CastroviejoMichal KwiatkowskiLuke RowePavel SivakovDylan van Baarle So, start seething on…
10-rider lineup stays in France after Dauphiné, looking to take all health precautions before travelling to Nice for ‘Grand Depart’ After the end of the Critérium du Dauphiné last Sunday, the Movistar Team is gathering nearly its whole group for the 2020 Tour de France for a final preparation block in the Alps. The Telefónica-backed squad will recon some stages of the upcoming ‘Grande Boucle’ before travelling to Nice in the days leading up to the ‘Grand Dpe’art. The squad managed by Eusebio Unzué aims to take all precautions from a health standpoint, to reach the start of the Tour with all…
Report Sepp Kuss has given Team Jumbo-Visma a third stage victory in the Criterium du Dauphiné. The 25-year-old American soloed in Megève to his first victory of the season after having been on the attack all day. For Team Jumbo-Visma it was a nice boost after race leader Primoz Roglic and Steven Kruijswijk had abandoned the race. Roglic crashed hard on Saturday and did not start today. Kruijswijk literally dropped out yesterday with an injured shoulder. In addition to the three stage victories, the team of Grischa Niermann and Arthur van Dongen also won the team classification and the points…
Report The second Monument of the season, Il Lombardia took the peloton from Bergamo to Como today on a course that covered more than 230 demanding kilometers and offered six tough climbs, like the Colle Gallo, Muro di Sormano or Civiglio. All of the climbs were around seven kilometers long with pitches of over 9% and, on top of this tough course, the weather forecast expected temperatures of around 30 degrees. It took quite a long time until a group of 11 riders formed the breakaway of the day and opened up a gap of more than three minutes. As…
Report No fewer than six tough categorised climbs dotted today’s Queen Stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné. The climbing started straightaway on the 153.5km route with a mix of first, second, third and Hors Catégorie climbs – the toughest being the Montée de Bisanne – while the finale would take place on the second category ascent into Megève. Bridging to an early break, Lennard Kämna joined the escapees, forming a group of fifteen that could have proved pivotal further up the road when the GC riders started making their moves. However, disaster struck on the descent of the Côte de…