The World Championships have been completed, and the 2013 cycling season enters its last knockings as October dawns. The WorldTour is drawing to a close, and one last flurry of races across Europe heralds the start of the off-season. But that’s not to say there isn’t plenty of good racing still to come this month. Here’s a quick look at what’s in store.
Zdenek Stybar‘s (Omega Pharma – QuickStep) audacious late attack saw him take both the final stage and the overall classification at the Eneco Tour. Stybar had started the last stage just eight seconds down on overnight race leader Tom Dumoulin (Argos-Shimano), but the Czech’s late assault was enough to relegate the Dutchman to second place, as Andriy Grivko (Astana) retained third. Continue reading
It is a scenario we have seen time and time again at the end of flat stages. The day’s breakaway has been caught and, as teams start to think about winding up to set up the sprint, an opportunist attacks off the front only to be subsequently caught by the swarming bunch. Why do they bother with such a futile effort? They do it because occasionally – just occasionally – such moves actually succeed.
Belkin’s Mark Renshaw managed just that on Monday on the opening stage of the Eneco Tour. Here’s how he did it.