In today’s CyclingTips Daily News Digest: Küng wins weather-shortened, brutal Romandie stage; Olympic champion Anna van der Breggen reigns in new team colours; Froome questions Trek-Segafredo tactics at Romandie; New Energy Tour cancelled; Fourth round of UCI Nations Cup cancelled; Dwars door het Hageland adds cobbles, dirt to 2017 edition; Women’s teams for Colorado Classic; Eulogy for Steve Tilford; Cyclist says new Trans Canada route too dangerous; Man attacks mountain bikers with pole, chases them with chainsaw; Local Irish council installs signage marking Strava segments; Video: 2017 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships teaser; Video: What did you call me?; Video: Cyclists come to the rescue.
Your Friday Daily News Digest
Küng wins weather-shortened, brutal Romandie stage
by Mark Zalewski
Stefan Küng (BMC) not only won the second stage of the Tour de Romandie, but the hard man award, as miserable weather made for a sufferfest of a day. The Swiss rider outlasted his break mate Andriy Grivko (Astana) to the line with both having barely enough energy to even sprint. Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Merida) led the peloton in to take third.
The race organisation shortened the stage due to snow and low temperatures. The riders signed-on in Champery then took their team buses to Aigle in the valley, removing a possibly dangerous descent and riding a total of 135km of the 160km.
Coldest day on a bike so far for me, kicked Milano-Sanremo 2014 from top of my list…#nightmarerankings
But still in one piece????????— Bob Jungels (@BobJungels) April 27, 2017
Along with Küng and Grivko, Sander Armée (Lotto Soudal) and Frederik Veuchelen (Wanty Groupe Gobert) made up the main break of the day with Armee keen on collecting the KOM points. After taking all the KOM points on the day and the best placed on the GC, he honourably left the break to give it a fighting chance.
Crossing the finish line with 23km to go the break still had nearly three minutes on the peloton. Having a finishing circuit was a cruelty in the conditions, with some riders opting to step off the bike rather than continue.
At 5km to go the break was at more than a minute. Not long after that Veuchelen was distanced as the two WorldTour riders upped the pace, possibly just to keep warm. The pair entered the final kilometres still working hard as if it was still 100km to go. Into the final 500 metres Küng rode the front with Grivko in the ideal place. However, the final sprint seemed as if it were in slow-motion, with the cold sapping all the energy from each and Grivko unable to come around the clearly suffering Küng.
Stage 2: Aigle > Bulle - Stage Result
Thursday 27th April 2017
| 1. |  |
KüNG Stefan
BMC Racing Team
|
03:33:15 |
| 2. |  |
GRIVKO Andrei
Astana Pro Team
|
- |
| 3. |  |
COLBRELLI Sonny
Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team
|
0:20 |
Küng
Felline
Armée
Küng
Schachmann
Movistar Team