National Champs (not UK) 2014 *Spoilers"

frenchfighter

Langeveld...just cant take these riders seriously when they have helmets like this;


"I'm so glad I finally won the championships," he said, having previously finished both second and third. "I've been close a number of times. I went to the championship without pressure. I just wanted to see how it went. I did not ride with the stress of the past few years. On the last lap I got all the remaining energy squeezed out and I rode to the finish. And finally I have the red-white-blue jersey. "

"It was the first time I participated in it [the TT championships where he was second] and it was not without reason. I only wanted to train my ability ride on my own because I knew that if I wanted to win here, I had to do it alone.

"I launched the attack at an inconvenient time. I gave everything to get a gap. When I had it, I thought it was a good point to get clear because there were not many fresh riders anymore. It would only get dangerous for me if Niki Terpstra, Lars Boom and Tom Dumoulin would join forces to bring me back, but I knew that it was very unlikely that they would do that."

frenchfighter

Interestingly the Czech and Slovakian champs were held together. So although Sagan is the winner of his Nat jersey, he was actually beaten in the race by Stybar.

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What a champion:
Riccardo Zoidl earned his Austrian National Championship the hard way: with a breakaway of 15 riders up the road he chased solo for 70 kilometers, caught the six remnants of the break with 15 kilometers remaining, promptly attacked, whittled the group to three, before launching his winning move on the final four kilometer ascent to win by more than a minute.

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Valverde on the circuit which is the same as the Worlds:
"It's a parcours where you can never leave the first 30 positions of the bunch, because, except for the first climb, the other roads are covered in a long line. It's really fast, dangerous... We usually see these Worlds circuits getting harder from the 200km mark and it was demanding already before that, so it will be more difficult in September. Even more with rain..."

frenchfighter

frenchfighter

FJS wrote:

5th year in a row Rabobank/Blanco/Belkin don't manage to win the title at home

Infighting in Belgium in OPQS. Boonen angry at team management for giving poor information about time gaps. Steegmans (understandably) angry at rest of the team for chasing a break he was in

"Today I feel like they flicked me," Steegmans told Sporza after freshening up in the team bus. "They said that I could go in the attack if I was confident about the win. I felt confident, but then my team closed the gap. For a third place. Bravo," a cynical Steegmans said. "Sorry, I can't help it. It makes me furious."

"I wasn't allowed to do ride the Classics, not ride this and that. If one rode up front, then we had to play tactics and be certain of the win. Well, I was certain. Everything turned out perfectly and then the last lap you're there and I feel flicked. I'm really mad about it. Everybody saw what happened. This is really strong. Apparently they don't like me. I only rode for the team with our tactics."

dsoutar

Pokerface wrote:

Turfle wrote:

Ryan Mullen solo in the Irish RR. Sounds like he might well have it in the bag.

Wow. Mullen did indeed take the title. Not bad for a 19 year old.

Should have won the Elite TT title too but a technicality saw it go to Hutch instead.

“I didn’t even attack. I kind of rolled of the front and got a gap and it held at around 20 seconds for a few kilometres. There was still a long way to go and I thought ‘what have I done? I’m going to get absolutely murdered for this if I get caught.”

“I didn’t expect today’s result whatsoever,” beamed a delighted Mullen after donning his shamrock jersey of national champion.

“I didn’t put any pressure on myself coming into the road race after winning the time trial on Thursday. I haven’t done a ride of four hours in about three weeks, so to even finish the race I would have actually been pretty happy, but to win it is unbelievable.

“I don’t quite know how that’s happened!”

Here's hoping Mullen goes on to great things

tailwindhome

frenchfighter wrote:

Interestingly the Czech and Slovakian champs were held together. So although Sagan is the winner of his Nat jersey, he was actually beaten in the race by Stybar

They don't look as if they were 'racing' each other when it came to the line

Wonder how far back the rest were

frenchfighter

Ah fair enough thanks. Stybar had said:

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Bartlomiej Matysiak wins the Polish RR. Kwiatek was racing but couldn't hack it.

Oliveria takes the Portuguese RR as well.

Turfle

TailWindHome wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

Interestingly the Czech and Slovakian champs were held together. So although Sagan is the winner of his Nat jersey, he was actually beaten in the race by Stybar

They don't look as if they were 'racing' each other when it came to the line

Wonder how far back the rest were

There were 4 riders about 50 seconds back (Barta and P Velits among them).

frenchfighter

Frank Schleck hi-res:
https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hph ... 8062_o.jpg

Art Vandelay

Check out the frantic finish to the Dutch U23 race:
http://www.cyclingfans.com/node/13359

frenchfighter

A crash, a severe bang on the bars, two teammates remonstrating, then a rider trying to run the last 100m. Classic.

tailwindhome

So how come Mullen, like Dan Martin when he won in 2008, was awarded both titles when he soloed to victory at the road race championship in Multyfarnham?

Former international commissaire, ex federation president and current board member of Cycling Ireland, Jack Watson explains. “I know people are confused,” said the experienced Belfast man.

“Ryan Mullen did not win the elite championship on Sunday. It was the Irish senior road race championship. He is not an elite rider. Under the UCI definition, Ryan is an Under 23 but under Cycling Ireland definitions he is a senior.

“If you look at the Cycling Ireland regulations regarding the championships, Sunday was the senior championship, incorporating the U23 championship. A UCI elite rider is 23 and older or under 23 and a member of a World Tour Team.

“If we had enough U23 riders we could run a separate road race. If Sunday had just been the elite championship then the first non U23, Sean Downey, would have been declared the National Champion.

“For the time trial championship, the number of riders does not really affect having separate U23 and elite championship races, so that is what we do.

“Australia and Britain have had problems over the years because their rules did not anticipate that an U23 rider may be first over the line. And in fact one year the first three riders were all U23 and the declared Australian Champion was actually 4th over the line.

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news ... plains-it/