This week in race history (Sept. 19-25)
by Jeremy
After holding the first UCI race of the season a weekend ago, the United States host six UCI races this weekend with pairs of races in Maryland, Vermont and Washington. Needless to say, there’s a lot to cover. Domestically speaking, here’s what we saw:
Washington
The biggest news—and surprise?—from this weekend’s opening two rounds of the North American Cyclocross Trophy (NACT) was the dominance—on both days—of Ryan Trebon. Now, I know what you’re saying, “Trebon didn’t win, in fact, he barely hit the podium on Sunday, coming-in two minutes down.” You might be right, but if you look at the way each...Continue Reading
Here’s this week’s Monday Musette:
1. In what was already a banner year for the grand tours, the Vuelta really outdid itself. The final 3 kilometers of Saturday’s stage up the Bola del Mondo might have been the most gut-wrenchingly dramatic twenty minutes of racing I’ve ever seen.
Credit Ezequiel Mosquera for taking it to Vincenzo Nibali when he has to, but credit Nibali for riding within himself to limit his losses. You could almost see the moment when he realized that following Zeke would have meant a catastrophic explosion—it was better to the Spaniard ride away, while keeping the gap close. ...Continue Reading
You can forgive the cycling news media for giving Heinrich Haussler the dubious honor of having what’s probably the highest ratio of headlines to race results this year. For Haussler, 2009 was a break-out year: stage wins at Volta ao Algarve and Paris-Nice set the stage for a strong spring. Second place finishes at Milan-San Remo and the Ronde, top-10’s in Paris-Roubaix and Het “Volk Is Easier To Pronounce” Nieuwsblad made it obvious that he’ll be a classics contender in years to come. He iced the cake by soloing for 50k from a break to an impressive win in the...Continue Reading
The 2010 Vuelta a Espana, wraps-up this weekend with its final two stages. Tomorrow’s Stage 20 looks to be arguably one of the toughest of the race, and with much still up for grabs—including the race’s overall title—expect fireworks.
The battle for the Vuelta’s final red jersey has narrowed to two men following Wednesday’s Stage 17 time trial: Vicenzo Nibali and Ezequiel Mosquera. Nibali used his superior skills against the clock to effectively eliminate Joaquin Rodriguez from contention, and stole another 12-seconds from Mosquera with an attentive finish in today’s stage in Toledo. With 50-seconds in hand, Nibali—and his Liquigas team—will...Continue Reading
As promised, here’s a run-down of this year’s major European cyclocross series and races.
The Superprestige
The oldest cyclocross series in the world enters its 29th season this year. Nearly a third of those seasons have been won by one man: Sven Nys. Nys’ bid for a 10th Superprestige title came up short last year after several bad results, and an unfortunate DNF; it was the first time he didn’t win the series title in six years. In his newest bid, he’ll have his hands full with last year’s winner, Zdenek Stybar, and runner-up, Niels Albert.
The series itself welcomes a new race...Continue Reading
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