The podiums were covered in yellow jerseys this week, with Visma Lease A Bike taking 9 wins in 4 days! Marianne Vos took her 249th career win, and Van Aert showed off his insane sprint. We also have news from the UAE Tour, O Gran Camiño, Faun Ardeche & Drome Classics, Omloop van het Haageland and the Tour de Rwanda.
00:00 Intro
01:00 Visma Lease-A-Bike winning weekend
05:53 Marianne Vos Omloop Het Nieuwsblad sprint win
06:40 Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne fastest race record
08:00 Wout Van Aert wins Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
08:53 Early season racing LIVE coverage
09:33 UAE Men’s Tour
11:47 Adam Yates UAE Tour crash
14:20 UAE Men’s Tour results
15:07 Vingegaard takes GC at O Gran Camiño
16:33 UAE Team Emirates win Faun Ardeche & Faun Drome
16:58 EF Education win Omloop van het Hageland
17:16 Tour of Rwanda
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Will Visma Lease-A-Bike keep up its winning streak? 🐝
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Welcome back to the gcn racing news show there is an enormous amount to get through this week opening weekend in Belgium always a banger a surprise at the UAE tour an OG Grand Camino that you could have mistaken for last year’s race the phone aresh and drone Classics
Omluke vanet harand and the tour Rwanda better get going this week in the world of racing we learned that if you can’t keep up with the winner of a race as you’re sheering them towards a Podium you might as well use an e scooter this was the race official on Saturday after envelope
And here he is again on Sunday after ker we also learned that if you go off-road in the UAE tour it’s not particularly easy to get back onto it and finally we learned that Vima Lisa bike have not been resting on their Laurels over the offseason this time last week they’d won
A grand total of three races between the men’s and women’s squads they’re now on 11 having taken nine wins in the space of four days six of them on Saturday and Sunday alone I mean it wasn’t surprised that they won the men’s omope Head News blad which is where I’ll start their
Roster was stacked full of riders who could pretty much all legitimately win the race themselves four of those seven got themselves into a 35 Man Group that went clear very early in the race and it wasn’t long after live coverage started that they put the hammer down a second
Time to put themselves into an even better position W vard mat jensson and Kristoff Laport were joined by Tom Pitcock tomin who was on fire Arnold Dee and initially Janny moscon but he was soon dropped so three riders in a group of six for Vima and with a healthy
Advantage over an unorganized looking chasing Bunch it was inevitable that one of them would eventually go solo but before that happened skin dropped all of them on the barri now some people have argued that W vanard simply waited for his teammates there I don’t believe that argument I just think he couldn’t get
Onto the wheel of schin either way schin sat up because you’re not going anywhere solo if you’ve got three visma Lisa bik Riders behind you a few CS later Jorgenson took a flyer and without any instant reaction he soon carved out a decent Gap as he headed towards haral
Bergen and the infamous mure Capal mure now if You’ have told me there and then in fact I think if you told anyone there and then Yan tratnik would eventually outsprint Neils poet to take the win you wouldn’t have believed them either that or you’d have assumed that the front six
Had been sent off course somewhere the speed with which this race turned on its head was quite unbelievable so our first real sense of how close the bunch was was on the lower slopes of deur when the helicopter panned out there all of a sudden they were back in the game Tim
Wellin who punctured out the original 35 Man Group was one of the first across along with Ian Garcia CA but over the top of the final climb of the day the bosberg a large group suddenly came together so all of a sudden visma lab went from being in full control of the
Race to suddenly having to rethink their whole game plan as we have since found out of course we shouldn’t have doubted Yan tratnik and Neils pollet went on the attack and without any initial response they soon opened up a big lead despite a Chase from lot of Destiny Uno X and some
Other teams they were not caught before the line it seemed clear to me that pollet rode for second place in the finale there he went to the front early and just basically stayed there and once tracknet kicked for the line the German could only manage a couple of pedal
Strokes out of the saddle before admitting defeat fair enough I guess if you’re on your last legs at least guarantee that you get at least second on the day but what a brilliant win for Yan tratnik in legwarmers no less the first Slovenian ever to win the race and
Doing so just one day after his 34th birthday he just seems like a really nice character to me so I was glad to see him getting his own chance there incidentally there’s a really insightful article on him over on global cycling network.com where he talks about everything he’s overcome to get to where
He is now I’ll leave a link to that in the description just down below the women’s was an equally fascinating race that wore some similarities to the men’s in that I mean that there was one team that looked unbeatable in SD works so they had their three key Riders keki VZ
And voling all towards the front of the race as we got our first live pictures but a key difference over the men’s was that one of their Rivals had already flown the coup at Leisa Longo borghini went solo with about 30 K to go bridging
Up to and past the early break other day and finally finally forcing SD Works to use their own resources to do the chasing the key split happened on deur and the composition of the 4an lead group was just perfect in my eyes keki had Vos glue to her wheel but close
Behind was borini’s teammate Sheran van anroy so keki was isolated there with two Riders from Leal tford company as well as the best rider in the history of the sports over the top of the buzurg they were still all together and the final flat run into Nineveh was fast
Fascinating you’ve got this really interesting Dynamic there where the two little Tre Riders know that they’re not as fast in a Sprint and then two others that are closely marking each other while still having to keep an eye on the others it was a reminder of why Voss has
Won so much in her long career it’s not just down to Pure power and Physiology she is just so tactically astute I don’t think there was one moment in those final few kilometers where she wasn’t fully in control of her own destiny and in turn those around her keki was
Getting frustrated at points while fan anroy and Longo borghini did what they could to try and go solo the one thing I thought they didn’t do too well was sitting up when they got caught every time one of them went the other one was distanced behind but often they would
Continue pressing on on the front even when capek and Vos had got back on their wheel anyway it was a difficult situation for them to be in but at the same time great to see another team really taking it to SD works in the final van androy rode for Longo borghini
But really only served to give us the Sprint and that we all expected how good is Mariana Vos though like she comfortably beat the world champion in the Sprint to win at what was her first ever attempt in that race and I know that’s hard to believe but that was her
Debut at oml Head News blad I guess mainly because she’s often coming off the back of a cyc cross season at this time of year it marked her 249th career Victory on the road and it also showed that she is back she had iliac artery
Surgery last year and so I think we all question whether she’d get back to her very best well now we have our answer that ride was exemplary in every way one thing I didn’t mention about the men’s omelet was it was the fastest addition we’ve ever seen and 24 hours later we
Witnessed the fastest ever edition of ker bruss ker the race opened up very early yet again I don’t even know why I’m surprised to be honest at this point it’s pretty much become the norm now no prizes for guessing which team lit it up viz M Lisa bike group of five was clear
As life coverage started with just under a 100 Cas to go but just a handful of kilometers later visma had ripped the race apart by the time things settled down again over the hardest Cobble climb of the day they had one Rider though in a lead group of four however when that
One Rider is wal vanard you don’t have too much to be disappointed or worried about joining him were wellin laano and piy and although the New Zealander was dropped around 20ks later you’ve got to take your hat off to him just to be in that group is an achievement in itself
Particularly given how early this is in his career anyway back to the race and there’s not a whole lot to report after that we barely saw anything of the Pelon or chase groups on the coverage and by the time we did it was pretty clear that
They weren’t going to be riding for the win and so we just watched three hitters riding through and off together for an hour and 20 minutes we had to wait until the final 5Ks then to see a first move from the front three Well’s making a
Slim move on the opposite side of the roundabout to try and catch vard out there’s a bit of a sense of inevitability about the outcome in the end lascano tried inside the last K but his legs were shot to Pieces so he didn’t really stand a chance vanard
Started his Sprint off the back of that and Willams was unable to come around him so not a huge surprise vanart wins on debut and answers all the critics who said his form wasn’t as good as it should be just 24 hours previously and capped off what was an incredible
Weekend of course for the team no single team has ever won envelope and kerer two years in succession but now it’s been done VI M Lisa bike have simply dominated all of the cover Classics out Side Of The Monuments for the past 12 months the good news though for neutral
Viewers at least is that MAA ferol and mass pson amongst others will be back for the cobbled races in March and April so things shouldn’t be quite so one-sided as they were for the last two days christop Laport looked bling good as well though didn’t he fifth on
Saturday after leading out van art and then winning the Sprint for fourth yesterday with ease uh with these races opening up early and early though I do wonder whether organizers are going to be forced into starting live coverage sooner neither omloop nor kerer are produced live from start to finish and
That meant that we missed a lot of action particularly yesterday in ker actually where not a lot happened for the final 70k we basically watched those three Riders cruising for an hour and a half before fighting it out at the finish uh just before I move on you may
Have noticed that I am sporting a brand new t-shirt today ahead of a fairly prestigious gravel race that’s coming up this Saturday in Tuscany if you would like to purchase one uh simply head over to shop. Global cycling network.com and you’ll find this one and plenty of
Others over there all right you’ll move on now to the UAE tour the second world tour level men’s stage race of the year the list of sprinters there was Second To None it was basically just yasper Phillips are missing and so it was remarkable that one man came close to
Winning all four of the bunch Sprints Tim malier is a man on fire right now and it wasn’t just his kick to the line that was impressive it was his awareness and Instinct and reaction time too he barely seemed to put a foot wrong at any point and I don’t think anyone would
Deny that he was the best Sprinter there by some margin last week the first of those victories came on stage one Malia found himself out of position and then a moment later he was almost too close to the front thankfully for him Milano took a fly with gavia on his wheel allowing
Malia to open up his Sprint with a couple of riders breaking the wind in front of him on the overhead shot the difference in speed is quite incredible uh 3 days later he was at it again only this time it was Olaf Koy opening up
Early and hoping to steal a march on the others Le though was straight on it yet again and it was another comfortable win his final stage win came on Saturday and it was his most impressive in terms of pure numbers he hit 1,660 watts in over 72 km per hour in
The final 200 MERS there so no wonder nobody’s getting around him on all three occasions that malier won it was Arvid de Klein who finished second mightily impressive in that sort of company he looks like he’s taking another step up this season the one Sprint that Malia
Didn’t win was stage five there he followed Sam wellsford after Danny van poppo to open things up to the left but on the other side of the road Olaf Coy was already a few bik lengths ahead of them and they couldn’t quite pass him before the line again given the
Sprinting field in the race that win is going to be high up on the prestige order in Coy’s list of wins Malia did have an excuse that day though a slow puncture at the Finish which he was very keen to point out to Koy after they’ crossed the line the first shaping of
The GC came on day 2’s individual Tarra and it couldn’t have gone much better for U Emirates Brandon MCN started early and he had a long time sat in the hot seat and the only riders that even got close to his time were his own teammates
Jay Vine and Mikel beel with Adam Yates not too much further back it put that team in a commanding position on the GC but that GC was further reshaped on stage three a nasty crash Ram Yates took him out of the race there not immediately he did remount and rejoin
The peleton but he was later pulled from the race by his team after it was clear he’d suffered from concussion it meant that UA weren’t quite as comfortable in terms of the GC be did a fantastic job there controlling things for much of the 21k climent Jael JIS but once his work
Was done there was nothing that MCN and VI can do when Ben o Conor made his move and what an impressive team display that was Valentine par Pand gave the signal to his teammates and then attacked so hard the Australian struggled to keep up with him that he did and that he then
Managed to hold a gap all the way to the Finish Line was a testament to just how good his early season form is now was not lost for UAE with jayvine finishing second on the day and moving into the overall lead mnti averaged over 400
Watts in the final half an hour of that stage but when the accelerations came in the final K he was unable to keep up with the pace so not in quite the dominant position that they started the day in but nobody could have predicted they’d end this race without anyone in
The top 10 of the general classification but that’s exactly what happened on the final climb of the race jabel hait MCN was distanced early after the cathlon ag2r L it up and after that we had a really strange sequence of events so Vine rode up the group seemingly with
EAS to go and have a word with his teammate beell shortly after that beel was on the front himself drilling it presumably after being given instruction to do exactly that and then just a few seconds later we saw Vine talking on the radio while simultaneously drifting back through the front group and eventually
Getting dropped it just seemed so bizar I wasn’t sure what had happened there that maybe there was some sort of illness or food poisoning with the team or something but that wasn’t the case according to everything I’ve heard and read since so very strange anyway it
Left ‘ Conor as the virtual leader on the road and it’s incredible just how much that changes the Dynamics for a rider he went from being basically the hunter to the hunted and having to keep his eye on a whole heap of riders that were still close to him on GC the other
Dependable Bill ba gave it a couple of nudges but they were both caught out when Michael stor made a move near the top of the steeper part of the climb taking two riders with him one of those Riders was Lenard van8 Bel of Lotto Destiny and as they were just about to
Be caught he made his move a combination of hesitancy and probably a lack of legs behind allowed him to open up a really decent sized lead and one that only seemed to grow from there to the Finish he averaged 470 Watts for 3 minutes on
That attack at the top of the climb and in the end that was enough not only to take the stage but also the general classification with vanitvelt taking 10 bonus seconds on the line and okona taking four for third place the Belgium took Victory by just two seconds ultimately the difference between
Winning and losing for Van eight velt was actually a move that he made on stage five that many thought was completely foolish that day he went up the road in a breakway on a day that was 99% sure to finish in a bunch Sprint so the reason people thought it was foolish
Was basically the extra energy expenditure involved of course but he took six bonus seconds at the intermediate Sprints that day and would not have won the race overall had he not our man George P was on the ground at UA last week and speak to a lot of the
Riders and apparently van didn’t go in that break to get the bonuses but just for a bit of extra chaining ahead of yesterday’s stage over to Spain now where the rain seems to fall mainly on Galia you may remember that last year’s first stage was eventually cancelled
Three quarters of the way through due to snow well this year’s opening time traal stage was neutralized from a GC times point of view due to high wind and rain which remained for pretty much the entirety of the 4-day race there was still a stage win up for grabs on the
Opening day though which they did on road by incidently and there was one man who was Head and Shoulders Above the Rest Josh Tarling scorched around the course close to 2 km per hour quicker than anybody else in 15ks he put 42 seconds into Daren rafy mightly
Impressive from both of them to be honest but tling looks like he might have gone up another level this year I mean that makes sense given that he’s still only 20 years old but that is a scary Prospect the next three stages followed a similar pattern to last year
In that vinor or vinor Hansen as s pointed out last week week won all three what was great to see in the first of those though was aan Bernell as the last man able to stick on his wheel second place on the stage was definitely a step
In the right direction and I think one we’ve all been hoping to see Vore was solo again on stage three 29 seconds ahead of a chasing group led in by 22-year-old Carlos Canal of moar whilst on a shorten stage four he came to the line 16 seconds ahead of Lenny Martinez
Of group Arma it goes without saying he also took the GC Martinez was second at almost 2 minutes and bur now on the third step of the podium in France U mem took wins in both the Fades and F drone Classics at the weekend Juan USA took
His first win of the Season there on Saturday getting the better of Roman greguar in the Sprint to the line whilst yesterday he finished runner up to Mark hiry there was an awful crash though for L Vandenberg or a very scary one at least because he felt unconscious whilst
On his bike as we wished the rider from group Armor fdj All the best in his recovery in Belgium yesterday Christen fuler took a really impressive win at the omlo vanet harand in a race that by her own admission didn’t really suit her she broke clear on her own with 50ks to
Go never to be seen again and it was not even close she had almost two minutes on second place Misha braal as they crossed the finish line I will finish with the tour to Randa which turned out to be a very successful race for Israel premere
Tech they came away with the overall win and four stage wins from eight two a piece for Edmore Einhorn and Joseph Blackmore and it was the Brit who also took the overall so a decent week for the 21y old I think you could say and you’d hope that will be enough for him
To be offered a contract with the world tour team because he currently rides for their development Squad Blackmore also competes a lot in mountain biking in which he’s current under 23 mountain bike national champion and sometimes in cycl Cross as well so another youngster who can seemingly do it all I am jealous
Now the skills he’s developed there go some way to explaining his Victory celebration on the final stage if you haven’t already seen it I can recommend it check out Israel premier Tech social channels right that’s all for this week thanks everybody for watching I’ll see you again next Monday
29 Comments
Will Visma Lease-A-Bike keep up its winning streak? 🐝
It’s great to see Egan Bernal recover his form in the early part of this season. Rooting for him to keep up this look and eventually contend for some stage wins.
Visma Beasts on bikes😂
How many are now watching cycling less as a result of Discovery. Used to know all this news but now I don't even know what races are on now 😂. Real step backwards.
Bam! 💥 Let the games begin. 🎉🎇🎊🎆🪅🧨The cobbled classics are my favorite part of the road cycling season. Get ready for a bumpy ride as the big men of road cycling start scraping. It's already off to a great start.😊
We never had to worry about missing the decisive breaks when GCN+ showed from start to finish. RIP GCN +. Are the components T-shirts going to be back in stock? I'm sick of seeing Alex wear them and not being able to buy one.
Anyone worked out how to watch racing in Australia yet?
Cycling needs a NFL RedZone style option where they go to live coverage of all the races going on a given day. Americans will know what I’m talking about.
Thank you Dan and GCN for the wrap up as usual. So good in the absence of GCN+
Vingegaard winning all stages last year was remarkable. This year it is even more impressive. Stronger competition. Super bad conditions (while he is better in warmer conditions). Mediocre team for Visma standards. Last stage was cut in lenght and he still won.
I am not sure what to say but I dont think anybody comes even close to him when it come to stage races and is commited.
Visma is definitely in top form, it’ll be interesting to see what happens when all the contenders are together in one race this season!!
Never bought the "VLAB is headed for a downfall this year." No three tour sweep, but I like their chances in TDF and Vuelta. Yes, WVA is not domming for Jonas at TDF, but I believe Cian will, and of course Sepp, too.
His name is pronounced Toms Skweench not Skoinz.
Congrat's Kristen Faulkner on your beautiful win! Hey Warner Bros – her fans in the US and elsewhere never got to see that race, either. So nice of you to destroy the momentum that women's professional racing had going last year, and MTB, and many more 😡
What about Mark? What's happened with Cavendish DNS 5 stage at UAE tour?
Terrible music selection. No like from me. Where's the smooth drum and bass from the past ? Dubstep is so dumb.
UCI & UAE need to review their concussion protocol. There's no way Adam Yates should have been allowed immediately back on his bike. Everyone watching the coverage knew it was a concussion
If you can call this normal, I am glad to get back to it. Nice job Dan!
Of course! When you blood dope the world is yours! 💉🩸
Jesus please turn that music down. Blew my tv speakers when the video started
Americans – like so many other cycling fan countries – have really been chopped off at the knees with the loss of CGN+. Flobikes is SO expensive and, for Americans, has to be accompanied by a VPN subscription or we can't watch much. Or we need to have friends in the UK with Disco+ and then we still need a VPN. Or we can do Peacock + Max for way more than GCN+ used to be for half of the coverage. I just miss you guys so much 🙁
Not sure about this team? 🤫
Road racing is back, babyyyy!!!
Dan you were my favorite presenter on the show today.
Would you send me a water bottle?
imagine how it feels 'I was so close, … oh nevermind, he was sprinting on a flat tire'
RIP Racepass/GCN+, I used to be a Tour de France watcher, GCN+ got me hooked on all these other races and now I feel I'm back to square one.
Wow, Visma reminds me of the old days when Mapei would do this same thing… It's a mystery! They must just be more motivated than EVERY OTHER pro team. Just Hilarious how you guys and the rest of the press never says anything about this kind of team wide performance in your reporting until the police get involved.
Definitely worth searching Joe Blackmore’s final stage win on the official RwandaTV channel – not just for the wheelie but also the insane commentary as he crossed the line!
Vingegaards Camino numbers are comparable to his form at Dauphiné last year.. this is either really scary or a problem 😊