'Golden Kilometre' in about 20K........only 2 riders up the road

They might be caught today but even if they're not there's still 3 X 1 second bonuses for the peloton.....be interesting to see if anyone goes for it !

the two breakaway riders are going to contest the bonus sprints.......

Bit of a turn up in yesterday's stage of Eneco with Tom Boonen rolling back the years to win a bunch sprint finish

There's hope for us all yet !

Yes, it was a really complicated finish with lots of 90-degree turns, so the usual sprinters trains just got concertinaed out of it.

First indoor track meet of the winter! starts in Derby tomorrow - three days in the Revolution Series - ie they are doing practically the whole Worlds & Olympic programme, which they don't normally do. Hugely important for an early season meet because it is the first step in qualification for Rio for most riders. UCI qualification points* on offer, so there will be a big turnout featuring many household names, like Cav, Wiggo and Becky James.

Full programme here

http://www.cyclingrevolution.com/rou...programme.html

Dunno about TV coverage. Channel 4 had it last year, but showed it in very odd slots, ie mostly online or at about 06:30 on Saturday mornings.

*Qualification is hugely complicated, but basically: Riders without a recent track history ie Cav, Wiggo etc need UCI Class 1 points -> Do well in at least one World Cup -> Top whatever finish at World Champs -> Olympics

Blimey........the rain in Belgium falls mainly on the peloton



I wouldn't mind watching some track cycling on TV........there appears to be very little of it on. You'd think it would be a perfect sport for TV with a small enclosed arena and events following one another with no undue delays

Johan Le Bon won today's Eneco stage for FDJ after working with Dylan van Baarle to keep a selective pack of 5 (including Greipel!) at bay - GPS timings suggested a minute's advantage with 8km to go but the actual gap was closer at that point.

Sam Bennett won today's stage in the Arctic Race of Norway from a relatively unorganised bunch.

Ouest-France say it is likely that Cav will leave EQS after this season; in spite of the article, he's probably not heading for MTN Qhubeka though - Brian Smith nipped that in the bud yesterday. Details on Olympic omnium qualification are provided in this article and written below. Spoiler tag used to save space.


Oh, and Steve Cummings will go stage hunting in the Vuelta (full MTN squad here).

Saw an interview with Ed Clancy just this morning saying that the British squad had already been out at some track meet in Italy so that was probably a few qualification points locked away.

Incidentally, Gaviria claimed his first indivdual road race win since joining EQS. This is rather noteworthy since he is the reigning world omnium champion and must be targeting Rio, not to mention being Lefévère's sprinter of choice from next season (certainly if Cav moves to another squad, anyway).

In Derby, the men's GB team pursuit squad clocked a sharp 3:54.974 tonight. That's much faster than they were in Glasgow 2014; hopefully they'll build on this and go faster when it matters most (like they did in the 2 previous lead-ups to the Olympic-year WCh and Olympics themselves).

more rain Belgium !

fantastic win by Wellens........went away on his own before the 'golden kilometre' and snapped up the 9 bonus points, went to the finish and got the 10 bonus points there.......and rides into yellow (or white)

Contador has been seen scoping stages of the Vuelta, giving rise to speculation that the complete top four from both the Tour and Giro will start next Saturday. Tinkov team CEO says no: http://cyclingtips.com.au/2015/08/ti...elta-a-espana/

Unusual hillside spiral route on Stage 2: http://dai.ly/x30q25p

Cheers.......good video !

I like the Vuelta.......I like those long dusty plains in southern Spain with the tumbleweed blowing and Ennio Morricone music ringing around your head.....

Courtesy of Wellens' repeat victory in the Eneco Tour and other strong Belgian performances, Belgium are now challenging for a top-5 position in the end-of-year WT rankings - on a related subject (of sorts), Alexis Vuillermoz beat Serge Pauwels in today's Rio test event,* full results of which are still not available.

Today was also the last day in which riders could influence the size of the men's national road race squads in Richmond - no additional Brit has joined the list since Cav in the TdF, so they'll have to hope they enough UCI points in the Europe Tour or they'll be limited to 7 or 8 riders instead of 9.

Speaking of Cav, he was runner-up in the Revolution #52 omnium behind Clancy, which isn't bad at all and suggests that making the Olympic track squad is still a possibility (he'd all but given up on it earlier this year). He and Wiggo also won today's madison, 7 years since their global championship triumph and disaster in Manchester and Beijing respectively; Trott pipped D'Hoore in their tightly contested omnium battle as well.

[* International Road Cycling Challenge (1.2) - in preparation for the men's Olympic road race]

The live evening racing gets underway on Monday with stage one of the US Pro Challenge from 9.00pm

Teejay van Garderen has won it for the last 2 years but isn't competing this year.......is he riding the Vuelta ?

Actually looks a bit low grade with only 4 World Tour teams

No Sky team and only 2 Brits. Hugh Carthy rides for the Spanish Caja Rural team and Teo Geoghan Hart riding for Axeon (Axel Merckx's team)

I think this used to be the Tour of Colorado ?

Yes, TvG is doing the Vuelta. Assuming Froome does indeed do it as well, the UCI ponts he'll gain (as long as he doesn't abandon) will help to secure GB's place in the top 5 of the WT rankings.

Finally found some results for the Rio test - from what I've seen of the course profile, the real thing could be one for the Grand Tour heavyweights.

Full Team Sky squad now confirmed for the Vuelta, including Froome & Thomas.

On the subject of Richmond 2015, The Inner Ring does a better job of explaining road race qualification than I ever could. The entire process is difficult to get your head around.

Tao Geoghan Hart has signed as a stagiaire for Sky for the rest of the season, presumably following this US race

20 years old, from East London and a good climber........looks an exciting prospect.

Looks like GB are one place too low on the Europe Tour rankings for a boost in road race berths - a pity since they were right on the cusp less than a month ago. Didn't help that 6 riders with previous experience on WT ranking lists failed to make this year's list at all...

Cav is off to Germany for a couple of comps - first, he'll ride the Vattenfall Cyclassics* alongside Boonen and Martin, then he'll seek to bolster his Olympic track ambitions in the Dudenhofen GP as part of a pretty strong GB squad.

Also, props to Taylor Phinney for earning his first victory since that nasty crash last year!

[* One of 4 classics in conflict with the Vuelta! That does not happen with the other Grand Tours]

Kittel, Greipel & Kristoff signed for the Cyclassics as well! If it comes to a bunch sprint, it'll be worthy of the Tour.

Ewan is also on the startlist - must be an error because he's doing the Vuelta.

Ryan Mullen will ride for Cannondale-Garmin from next season - here's hoping he ends his U23 career with a rainbow jersey (the one that Flakemore pipped him to by less than half a second last year!)

Cafe Roubaix interviewed him a few days ago.

Back to Richmond (again) - looks like I should have waited for the UCI to make its allocations public...seems that GB got 9 berths after all.

The full list of allocations throughout the championships is now ready to view.

Concerns about sand on la Vuelta Stage 1 route may result in TTT times being neutralised: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/vuel...-trial-course/

ES are showing the Team Presentation for the Vuelta this evening from 7-9pm

It's the kind of thing I would have watched avidly 10 years ago but probably won't bother now

Still.......looking forward to the race starting

As often happens in Spain they open up with an evening team time trial starting about 6pm our time.........they do like their team time trials in Spain !

Actually now that I think about it my first memory of watching road racing on TV was the team time trial at the Barcelona Olympics which I watched to get a view of the city......as it turned out surprisingly the Diving was the thing to watch for a view of the City.............if anyone remembers those spectacular images

It's all a bit village fete really. Big Europop number now!

Not daring to risk any interviews with non Spaniards!

Coverage of the TTT stage 1 underway on ES.......looks tricky !

It's been neutralised for the GC but the times will count towards the team competition and the first man of the fastest team will start the race tomorrow in the leaders jersey........with all the riders on the same time

God knows what they were thinking, the course would be dangerous as an Individual TT never mind a team.