Men’s and women’s WorldTours switch focus to stage races
Houle, Duchesne and Tuft at Tour de Romandie this week
With Michael Woods’ marvelous second place in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and wins for Quick Step and Boels-Dolmans, the single day Classics phase of both the men’s and women’s WorldTours ends and both series turn their attentions to stage races.
The women’s WorldTour won’t see a single-day race again until July 17’s La Course by Le Tour de France, while the men’s series only features one single-day race until July 29’s RideLondonSurrey Classic, the easy-to-overlook Eschborn–Frankfurt on the first day of May.
Men’s WorldTour: Grand Tours ahoy!
The next WorldTour race, the Tour de Romandie, starts Tuesday with a prologue time trial. Three Canadians are slated to start: Svein Tuft, who only has 12 racing days in his legs this season; Antoine Duchesne; and Hugo Houle. Duchesne and Houle have been moderately busy in the first four months of 2018, logging 22 racing days.
Our team for @TourDeRomandie :@DarioCataldo @OmarFraile @jakob_fuglsang @Jesper2310 @andrei_007
Tanel Kangert@HugoHoule #TDR2018#AstanaProTeam#AlgaAstana pic.twitter.com/FYlaJpHlJd— Astana Pro Team (@AstanaTeam) April 23, 2018
Dimension Data had some fun with the (w)hole thing:
Emmental is a medium-hard Swiss cheese. The @TourDeRomandie is a medium-hard Swiss race. While the @TourDeRomandie doesn’t pass through Emmental, the famous Swiss cheese seemed right to profile the, um well, profiles of the stages. pic.twitter.com/ybKxkpMop7
— NTT Pro Cycling (@NTTProCycling) April 24, 2018
No Giro d’Italia GC contenders are racing in the French-speaking part of Switzerland this week, but the battle for the title will be between some Tour de France hopefuls. Champion Richie Porte is looking for the form that has eluded him since the Tour Down Under. Grand Tour-averse Simon Spilak (Katusha/Slovenia) not only inherited the 2010 title after Alejandro Valverde had his result scrubbed for blood doping, but the Slovene was also runner-up three years in a row.
However, the favourite has to be Spilak’s compatriot Primoz Roglic, the LottoNL-Jumbo rider having recently won his first WorldTour stage race, Pais Vasco. Roglic faces competition from Sky’s Geraint Thomas, Bahrain-Merida’s Jon Izagirre, UAE-Emirates’ Irishman Dan Martin and Astana’s Jakob Fuglsang.
Between the Tour de Romandie and July’s Tour de France come the Giro (only 11-days from Tuesday), the Tour of California, the Critérium du Dauphiné and the Tour de Suisse.
Women’s WorldTour: Next stop, China
From March 11 to Sunday, Team TIBCO-SVB’s Canadian Alison Jackson contested seven one-day WorldTour races, earning her squad’s best results in four of those races, including 17th in both Gent-Wevelgem and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. She’ll be Canada’s sole representative at the WorldTour’s next event, stage race Tour of Chongming Island, in China from April 26 to 29. Leah Kirchmann was third overall in 2016, but Sunweb’s Canuck won’t be in Middle Kingdom this season.
The favourites will be past winners like current title holder Jolien D’Hoore (Belgium/Mitchelton-Scott), who won March’s Three Days of De Panne; Aussie Chloe Hosking (Alé Cipollini); three time champion Kirsten Wild (The Netherlands/Wiggle High5) and Italian Giorgia Bronzini of Cylance.
As with the Tour of California (May 17-19), powerhouse Boels-Dolmans is opting out of the three day race in China. The Netherlands-based outfit won six of the first nine WorldTour races and has four riders in the top-12 of the individual standings, not to mention an 800-point lead in the team competition. Boels-Dolmans will next see WorldTour action at the Emakumeen Euskal Bira in Spain from May 19-22. Cylance will also skip the Tour of California, or Amgen Breakaway from Heart Disease Women’s Race empowered with SRAM, for Emakumeen Euskal Bira.
