It’s a wrap for Paris-Nice, a moving day at Tirreno-Adriatico and a hard fought 2nd race in Women’s WorldTour schedule. Oh, and rain – lots of it.
Paris-Nice Stage 8: Nice to Nice, 110km
A short, sharp thriller-of-a-stage where the GC was in play until the very last minute. The initial battle commenced early with the GC riders involved in the early break. For the second year running David de la Cruz (Sky) won the stage, just pipping Astana’s Omar Fraile.
Ride of the stage came from third placed Marc Soler. 46secs down on race leader Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) at the start of the stage, the Movistar rider went on a long range attack a la Contador to claim the maillot jaune by 4secs. Yates gave it everything but had to accept second. Gorka Izaguirre (Bahrain-Merida) rounded out the podium just beating his brother Ion, after they got tangled in a crash on the last slippery descent. Lotto Soudal go home with the points jersey for Tim Wellens and the King of the Mountains for Thomas de Gendt. The team prize went to Bahrain-Merida and Soler the Best Young Rider.
Video…
Il pleut…
Our race review is here. Full race report at Cycling News
Race Website Race Twitter #ParisNice
Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 5: Castelraimondo to Filottrano, 178km
Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) attacked solo at the base of the Muro di Filotranno with 5km to go I’m guessing his rivals thought he’d gone too soon. He hadn’t. Yates took the victory by 7secs from Peter Sagan (BORA-hansgrohe). Sky’s Michal Kwiatkowski third place was enough to put him into the leader’s jersey by 3secs over Damiano Caruso (BMC) with Mikel Landa (Movistar) in third at +23secs.
Video…
The race ended in the home town of the late Michele Scarponi. It was a day full of emotions and small, but significant gestures.
#HealFastBernie
#GetWellSoonWilco
Full race report at Cycling News
Race Website Race Twitter #TirrenoAdriatico
Ronde Van Drenthe
Second race in the Women’s WorldTour saw peloton take on the 157.2km from Emmen to Hoogeveen. It was a tough day out with fierce action over the cobbled sectors (two were removed from the finale for safety reasons) and the VAM-berg climb on the finish circuits. Amy Pieters (Boels-Dolmans) launched her bid early, holding off Canyon-SRAM’s Alexis Ryan. Chloe Hosking (Ale-Cippolini) closed out the sprint for third. Huge shout out to the organisers for making sure the race was screened live. Boels-Dolmans are now two from two in the #WWT with round three in Italy on the 18th March.
Mud Galore…
The 192km men’s race came down to a reduced bunch sprint where Frantisek Sisr gave CCC Sprandi Polkowice their first win of 2018. Dries De Bont (Verandas-Willem Crelan ) and Preben van Hecke (Sport-Vlaanderen Baloise) placed second and third respectively.
Watch the bright orange zooom to first…
VeloVoices favourites Aqua Blue had a tough day on the cobbles…
But hopefully the replies to this kept them entertained on the long drive
Full race report at Cycling News
Race Website Race Twitter #RondeVanDrenthe
Header image: Amy Pieters, Alexis Ryan, Chloe Hosking – Luc Claessen/Getty Images
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