Somehow Richie Porte is captain of BMC for the Hammer Series in Hong Kong on October 14 - This is not a joke.
They are punishing him! Ha!
And Lucas Plapp finishes second to Evanapoel in the junior ITT - Evanopoel is from another world winning by 1m and 23s - Great effort by Plapp who beat the rest by 37s.
Porte riding the Hammer Series means he is riding the Tour of Guangxi.
Dutch clean sweep of the womens ITT - AVV from AVB and Van Dijk.
Evanapoel is one year older than Plapp, which would have been part of the difference, but a great ride never the less.
It will be interesting to see the career trajectory for Plapp in the next few years.
Dennis dominates the ITT from Dumoulin and Campaenarts - Dennis did what he has threatened to achieve in the last 3 years.
:rainbow: #InnsbruckTirol2018 ITT World Champion!
He’s done it! Rohan Dennis has dominated the ITT to win the for the first time in his career.
That was pretty awesome.
Can’t feel but thinking Tom’s big year took a bit out of him, but even then I doubt he could have beaten Dennis.
Realistically TD can only ride one GT per season if he wishes to win the ITT.
Evenepoel shows he is super human in the junior men’s RR - Caught in a crash with 65kms to go, loses two minutes, gets half the deficit back on the climb single-handledly - Then bridges over to the breakaway riders,drops them one by one and wins easily by 1m and 21 seconds - Wow !
Yeh, that was even more impressive than his ITT.
U23 RR tonight. Stannard in with a chance of a podium.
Australian’s were disappointing in the under 23 RR - Hamilton has fallen off the cliff late in the season - Good ride by Spratt in the women’s elite race, though AVB was on a different planet. And AVV crashed fracturing her kneecap - Have no idea who will win the Men’s race.
Valverde wins a deserved World Championship from Bardet,Woods and Dumoulin - France brutalised the final climb except they dropped their leader in Alaphalippe - Haig made the final selection but struggled in the final and ended up 21st - Beast of a ride by Valgren who attacked on the second last climb, rode like a hare on the descent and was only caught in the last 500 metres of the climb - S.Yates dropped with 40kms to go while A.Yates made the final selection but had nothing left and finished 40th - My information about Kreuziger being in top shape was shown by his 6th - I suspect that with no final climb he may have just about won - Also a good ride by Nieve to come 13th - I’d warehouse Yates x 2 and Haig for the rest of the season and rely on Kreuziger and Nieve for the Italian Fall races.
In an interesting turn of events Brian Smith and Shane Sutton are allegedly setting up a Chinese tagged team to enter the WT in 2020 with the aim of having a Chinese rider win the TDF in 2024 - Mitchelton Scott have spent lots of time and resources in China in recent years with a view to obtaining a Chinese Title Sponsor - Congratulations to Miles Scotson on signing a two year deal with FDJ.
FDJ is about his level. Not quite a WT level rider yet.
MS lose Jolien D’Hoore to Bolemans
A bad loss for the women’s team - D’Hoore as a world class sprinter who gave MS an all-round team - In saying that Boels Doelman lost riders so probably had cap space.
It was funny watching Ackermann and S.Bennett sprinting against each other in the final of the Sparkassen Munsterland - One will be at another team in 2020.
I like you backhanded compliment as FDJ - Think FDJ have a well balanced squad, though AGR2 is a worry.
AGR2 have had a couple of poor years.