Dibben confident of Olympic participation, Tour of Norway teams announced
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Vincenzo Nibali (Astana)(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
David Daniell proved himself against Craig MacLean.(Image credit: Luke Webber)
onathan Dibben of Great Britain celebrates his gold medal after winning the final of the Mens Points Race
Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky Procycling) takes his second consecutive Tour of Norway title, Sander Cordeel (Lotto Belisol) wins KoM, Sondre H Enger (Team Plussbank) takes out the young rider classification(Image credit: Trond Reidar Teigen/procycling.no)
Tanel Kangert (Astana) is not concerned about his teammate, and leader, Vincenzo Nibali’s form at the Giro del Trentino. Nibali is due to lead Astana at the Giro d’Italia, while Kangert is one of the eight riders set to support him.
Nibali’s performance at the four-day Giro del Trentino has been poor thus far. He lost more than two minutes on stage 3 and now sits 21st in the overall classification. It’s a far cry from the Nibali of the early season, but Kangert believes he is moving in the right direction.
"Nibali? No, we are not worried, his goal is the Giro and is working to that. No one from the team told us to wait for him. We know that his condition is growing, but is still not one hundred per cent," he told Gazzetta dello Sport.
After winning stage 3 following a late attack on the final climb, Kangert is now second overall at eight seconds behind race leader Mikel Landa. His teammate Jakob Fuglsang, who is also heading to the Giro d’Italia, is a further two seconds back in third place. There are three categorised climbs on Friday’s final stage, including the first category Forcella di Brez.
Velon and FACE Partnership launch Revolution Champions League
Velon and FACE Partnership have joined forces to launch a new track cycling series named the Revolution Champions League. The three-event series will be an extension of the already established Revolution Series, which has been a feature of the British track calendar since 2003.
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"Velon and FACE are united in the aims of providing more entertaining racing for cycling fans, and a better narrative to the race season. With Velon’s support we will bring the world’s best road teams to Revolution and create a new exciting format for track cycling," said FACE Partnership CEO James Pope.
The league will feature 12 teams in total, eight of which will be from the WorldTour. The remaining four teams will qualify by winning the Revolution Series and other select international series. The first round of the Revolution Champions League will take place on the weekend of November 18. The next two rounds will be fought out over the following weekends, with the winner crowned on December 3.
It is expected that at least one will be in the UK and another at an international velodrome but the exact venues will be announced in the coming weeks.
Dibben has successful surgery, confident of making Olympics
Jon Dibben’s (Team WIGGINS) Olympic hopes took a huge hit when he broke his elbow during the ZLM Roompot Tour last weekend, but the Briton is confident that he can recover in time for the Games later this year.
Dibben, who is fighting it out for a spot in Britain’s team pursuit squad, underwent surgery earlier this week and is focussing on making his return to training.
"It's not ideal, but certainly August is a long way away so I'll just hop back on," he said on the British Cycling website. "There's nothing important in the next couple of weeks that I'm going to miss because of it, so it'll just be a case of getting back to form and then hopefully get back to as well as I've done recently."
Dibben explained that the incident was caused by a rider failing to brake on a corner, and hitting himself and others from behind. Following his surgery, he is already getting the movement back in his elbow but says that it will be several weeks before he can consider racing again.
"I'm looking at five or six weeks before I'm back riding on the road properly and certainly six weeks before it's safe to race," Dibben explained. "It's unfortunate to crash probably in the form of my life, the best I've ever gone, but I have a good rehab programme, and I'm not too worried about losing too much."
Tour of Norway teams announced
The Tour of Norway has announced the teams that will take part in their race, including three WorldTour outfits, 11 Pro Continental teams, two Continental and a national squad.
Home rider Edvald Boasson Hagen is likely to return with his Dimension Data team among the three WorldTour teams. Lotto-Soudal and LottoNL-Jumbo are the other two top level teams named.
While Dimension Data is the only WorldTour team to have a Norwegian rider, it is expected that some of the other top locals, such as Sven Erik Bystrom and Lars Petter Nordhaug, will compete in the national squad.
The Tour of Norway will take place between May 18 and 22.
Teams for the Tour of Norway: Team Dimension Data Lotto-Soudal Team Lotto NL-Jumbo Bora-Argon 18 Caja Rural-Seguros RGA Delko Marseille Provence KTM Drapac Professional Cycling Nippo-Vini Fantini ONE Pro Cycling Roompot Oranje Peloton Stölting Service Group Team Roth Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise Wanty-Groupe Gobert Norway National Team Team Coop-Øster Hus Team FixIT.no Team Joker Team Ringeriks-Kraft Team Sparebanken Sør Team Tre Berg-Bianchi
