News -Monday Racing Round up

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Round up of Monday’s action where GB finished the day on target for medals in Paris, Ben Swift was 2nd in Algarve and Dan McLay wins in Africa.

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News -Monday Racing Round up

It was one of the busiest days of the year so far in 2015 with racing around the world. In Africa, Dan Mclay got his first win for his new French team with a victory on stage 3 of the Tropicale Amissa Bongo (UCI 2.1). Read a report here:

DanMcLay

That is a tight finish! Dan McLay wins though! Thanks to Jean Vantalon for the image.

In Belgium, there was the sad news that a legend in pro cycling, former World Champion Claude Criquielion had passed away. In Oman, Fabian Cancellera won stage 2 in sprint after a very aggressive finale and you can hear what Fabian and his rivals said after the stage there.

In the Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol (2.1) Pim Ligthart won the morning stage with Peter Kennaugh best of the British riders in 12th. Chris Froome was 14th, Stephen Cummings 26th and Hugh Carthy 108th.

In the afternoon time trial in the same race, Javier Moreno won for Movistar with Froome in 10th. Alberto Contador, who was 4th in the time trial, now leads overall with Froome in 4th and Kennaugh in 6th. Stephen Cummings is just outside the top 10 in twelth.

There was better news in the Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta (2.1) where Ben Swift was second on stage 1 won by Gianni Meersman. He said afterwards “I was 20th position or something, but I stayed calm because a lot of guys were going full gas into a headwind,” Meersman said.

“You can never hold that kind of effort for long into a headwind. So I moved up a little bit, and then at the top of the uphill part of the finish they slowed down a little bit. I accelerated at that point. Kwiato looked behind and saw I was there, and he immediately took me to the front together with Styby”.

“So, it was Kwiato, Styby, and me, and it was full gas to the finish. Even at 200 meters to go I was 3rd position and I just went as hard as I could. I knew it was the right time. So I went and I got the win. This victory is dedicated to my family who misses me a lot and I also dedicate this victory to Claude Criquielion, who died today at 58 after a bad stroke”.

Finally, at the Track World Championships in Paris, it was a mixed day for Great Britain. In the Women’s Team Pursuit and bidding for a fifth consecutive world title, Britain stuck with the 2014 champions Laura Trott, Katie Archibald, Joanna Rowsell and Elinor Barker.

The quartet were narrowly behind rivals Australia for the entire 4000 metres eventually losing out by just seven-hundredths of a second with a time of 4:18.207. They will now face Canada in round one on Thursday (today) knowing victory will give them a chance of another set of rainbow stripes.

In the Men’s Team Pursuit, Ed Clancy, Steven Burke, Owain Doull and Andy Tennant flew the flag and after a typically superb start from double Olympic champion Clancy, they finished with a time of 3:57.716, second to only New Zealand.

Australia suffered a mechanical which must have raised the adrenalin levels to dangerous highs as they were fastest for the first two kilometres before falling back to second and then 5th. Britain meanwhile will have a first round clash with Germany.

In the Team Sprint events, after years of success, finishing eighth in both the Men’s and Women’s will be deemed a failure and the team now look to Kenny to bring them medals in the other sprint events.

In the Women’s event, China flew to the title and a new world record with Russia collecting silver and Australia bronze. In the Men’s Team Sprint, France took a popular home gold in the final as New Zealand were relegated. Germany won bronze.

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