In this morning’s edition of the CyclingTips Daily News Digest: Ben Hermans wins Brabantse Pijl; Kreuziger to ride Amstel Gold Race and Liège despite pending CAS case; Bradley Wiggins schedules hour record attempt for June 7; Q&A with Peter Sagan; Q&A with U23 Tour of Flanders winner, Alex Edmondson; Drapac among teams announced for the Tour of Utah; “The safest bicycle the world has ever seen”?; Bike-related fun in Grand Theft Auto V; Cosmo Catalano calls it quits … sort of; LottoNL-Jumbo and Bell preview Amstel Gold Race.

Ben Hermans wins Brabantse Pijl

Ben Hermans (BMC) has taken a solo victory at the Belgian one-day race Brabantse Pijl after being part of a late breakaway in the race which featured 26 short climbs.

After an initial three-rider breakaway — Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Anthony Delaplace (Bretagne-Séché Environnement), and Alex Kirsch (Cult Energy) — was shut down inside the final 50km, another group of five riders broke clear: Hermans, Australian Dave Tanner (IAM), Louis Vervaeke (Lotto-Soudal), Bartlomiej Matysiak (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), and Tim De Troyer (Wanty-Groupe Gobert).

With 30km left to race it was just Tanner and Hermans remaining out front, and after a series of counterattacks in the peloton, Hermans attacked Tanner with 4km to go.

Hermans would hold on to win by two seconds ahead of Orica-GreenEdge’s Michael Matthews and defending champion Philippe Gilbert (BMC).

1.		HERMANS Ben BMC Racing Team	04:45:14
2.		MATTHEWS Michael Orica GreenEDGE	0:02
3.		GILBERT Philippe BMC Racing Team	-

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Click here to read more at VeloNews.

Kreuziger to ride Amstel Gold Race and Liège despite pending CAS case

by Shane Stokes

One day after a date was announced for Roman Kreuziger’s hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, his Tinkoff-Saxo team has confirmed that he will continue racing in the meantime and will next compete in the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday.

“We are going to Amstel with a good lineup,” said directeur sportif Sean Yates. “We have Kreuziger, who is a previous winner, however he’s primarily targeting Liège-Bastogne-Liège. But the guy I actually think the race suits the most is Michael Valgren. So it will be a big occasion for him to step up.”

A victory by Kreuziger in either the Amstel Gold Race or Liège-Bastogne-Liège would be controversial. The 2013 Amstel Gold Race winner came under scrutiny when it emerged last June that his biological passport showed indications of possible doping.

While he was later cleared by the Czech Olympic Committee after a hearing last August 20, the UCI and WADA were both unhappy with that outcome and launched appeals with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Last month Kreuziger said he wanted a quick decision. “I would like to believe that no one has an interest in the hearing clashing with the compulsory tests before the Giro d’Italia, which take place on 7th May.” However that wish didn’t materialise and his hearing will now occur on June 10.

Click here to read more at CyclingTips.

Bradley Wiggins schedules hour record attempt for June 7

Just days after competing in his last race for Team Sky, Bradley Wiggins has announced the date for his long-awaited tilt at the hour record. The world individual time trial champion will attempt to break the record — which currently sits at 52.491km — on June 7 at London’s Olympic velodrome.

The current record belongs to Australia’s Rohan Dennis (BMC) but with Alex Dowsett (Movistar) scheduled to attempt the record on May 2, Wiggins could be looking at a higher mark when he takes to the boards in June.

In addition to the hour record, Wiggins now has his eyes on team pursuit gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics. In the lead-up to those games he will ride for the Continental team bearing his surname.

Click here to read more at VeloNews.

Q&A with Peter Sagan

This Q&A with Peter Sagan might have been done back at the Tour of Qatar but it’s still worth a look. Sagan’s answers are short, but you still get an insight into the personality of Tinkoff-Saxo’s prized recruit.

Here’s an excerpt:

“

What is your hometown Zilina like?

It’s worth popping by if you are in Slovakia. For me, it’s beautiful because I grew up there, I have family there, I have friends there, and a home. But maybe someone goes there and says, “Who could live here?” That’s a normal reaction. I wouldn’t be able to live in New York or Milan.

But you could live in Monaco?

Monaco is different — firstly because I’m in Monaco for cycling. In Slovakia,
it snows through the winter. The climate of Monaco is so much more favourable. It never rains over the winter, it’s always 14°C and it’s beautiful. Also, in Slovakia, my private life is almost nonexistent because everyone knows me there. In Monaco, I feel better. I can concentrate on my bike much more than I could back in Zilina.

Click here to read the full article at Cycling Weekly.

Q&A with U23 Tour of Flanders winner, Alex Edmondson

And here’s an interesting Q&A with Australia’s first ever winner of the U23 Tour of Flanders, Alex Edmondson.

Here’s an excerpt:

“

How did the race unfold for you and Gianni Moscon after the Koppenberg?

I didn’t really attack. I just tried to get up it because it is so steep, and it was wet weather and slippery. I got three quarters up, looked over my shoulder and had a 50-100-metre gap. I eased off a little bit because I knew I had to save something for the finish, then all of a sudden [Moscon] came across to me. So over the top there was me and him, and then about 300 metres was the guy from Norway [Korsaeth] and a German.

One kilometre down the road they caught us so there were four in the lead group. A ‘Frenchy’ managed to get across just before the next cobbled section, but he blew just as we hit he cobbles. We blew the German out the back up a slight hill, so then there was the three of us. Up the Taaienberg, [Moscon] attacked and I was the only one who managed to stay with him. We rode well. The Italian was pretty strong and attacked again up the Eikenberg, the last climb of the day. I started to struggle.

Edmondson went on to win the race in a two-up sprint.

Click here to read more at Cyclingnews.

Drapac among teams announced for the Tour of Utah

Organisers of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah have announced most of the line-up for the men’s race, with 13 of the 16 teams now revealed. Among the teams racing in the high-altitude race will be the three US WorldTour teams — BMC Racing, Cannondale-Garmin, Trek Factory Racing — and Australia’s only Pro Continental team, Drapac.

“Each year we are honored to have such an impressive list of teams competing in the Tour of Utah,” said Jenn Andrs, executive director of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah. “To have four teams already committed to travel to Utah from the Tour de France makes a big statement in the sports world about the growing prestige of the Tour of Utah.

“Our fans and our partners can expect more great racing battles from these world-class teams in August.”

The 13 confirmed teams are: BMC Racing, Cannondale-Garmin, Trek Factory Racing, Drapac, Team Colombia, Team MTN-Qhubeka, UnitedHealthcare, Axeon, Hincapie Racing Team, Jamis-Hagens Berman, Jelly Belly-Maxxis, Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies and Team SmartStop.

Click here to read more at VeloNews.

“The safest bicycle the world has ever seen”?

The team behind The Babel Bike is calling it “a completely new genre of bicycle”, “the biggest step forward in bicycle safety since 1884 when Penny Farthings were replaced with the Rover Safety Bicycle” and “the first bicycle to be built from the ground up with safety foremost in mind”.

The rider wears a “car-style seat belt” while sitting inside the “custom built safety cage”. It also has built-in lights, indicators, hazard flashers, a loud horn and rear-view mirrors. The Babel Bike comes in electric and non-electric versions.

Take a look at it here:

Bike-related fun in Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto V is one of the most critically acclaimed video games of all time and yesterday the open-world action-adventure game got its long-awaited PC release, nearly 18 months after being released on gaming consoles.

In the game you can drive a whole host of cars (the title is a bit of a giveaway) but there are also a range of bikes for players to mess around with. Here’s a terrific little clip we stumbled across showing a trick that some players managed to pull off:

Click here to read more about bikes in GTA V.

Cosmo Catalano calls it quits … sort of

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Cosmo Catalano’s most recent episode of The Week in Bike. In it, Cosmo talks about why he’s significantly reducing the number of videos he does while delivering some great perspective on the state of cycling broadcasting today.

LottoNL-Jumbo and Bell preview Amstel Gold Race

The Ardennes Classics begin this weekend with Amstel Gold. Here’s another great preview from the gang at LottoNL-Jumbo and Bell Helmets.

What You Missed

And finally this morning, here are a few things you might have missed at CyclingTips in the past few days:

• Monsieur Paris-Roubaix
• Elisa Longo Borghini reflects on winning De Ronde
• Paris-Roubaix through the lens of Kristof Ramon
• Daily News Digest: Wednesday April 15