Cobbles in Belgium, hills in France and a flat timetrial in the desert – full on racing!
Abu Dhabi Stage 4: Almaryah Island to Almaryah Island, ITT, 12.6km
The end of the critical TT left the stage and GC podiums with the same three names in the same order. Rohan Dennis (BMC) stormed through the race of truth to take the stage win and the leader’s jersey by a massive 14secs from Sky’s Jonathan Castroviejo with his BMC teammate Miles Scotson at +16secs.
Video…
Full race report at Cycling News
Race Website Race Twitter #RideToAbuDhabi
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Michael Valgren, one of three Astana riders in a very select group of 12, attacked with 2.5km to go and rode solo to the finish line. Sky’s Lukasz Wisniowski and Sep Vanmarcke (EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale) held off the chasing bunch for second and third respectively.
Video last 5kms after Vanmarcke ripped the field apart with his storming attack on the Muur.
Michael’s post race interview explains a little more about both his race and the situation regarding Astana and their funding crisis…
There’s a great in depth interview by De Velo
Video
The women’s race ended in a bunch kick for the line. (Team Virtu Women) opened early and kept everyone behind her to take a surprise win from Alexis Ryan (Canyon SRAM) and Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Valcar PBM).
Embed from Getty ImagesOur race review is here. Full race reports at Cycling News Men Women
Race Website Race Twitter #OHN #OHNWomen
Faun Environnement – Classic de l’Ardèche Rhône Crussol
Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) had a lot of fun on his return to racing two weeks after injuring his hand. The Frenchman put in a glorious attack in the closing kilometres to finish solo some 47secs ahead of Maximilian Schachmann (Quick-Step Floors) with Direct Energie’s Lilian Calmejane leading the chase group home for third at +56secs.
Video…
Podium…
Bardet post race: “I love this type of attacking racing, without scripts” – so do we Romain, so do we.
There’s a wonderful collection of images on the race Facebook page.
Full race report at Cycling News
Race Website Race Twitter #BDA2018
Header image: Rohan Dennis – Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images