Mollema enjoys Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian success, Second overall Tour of Denmark victory for Valgren, Wild wins on The Mall, and more!
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The final podium: Mark Renshaw, Tom Boonen and Michael Matthews
Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) wins Clasica San Sebastian(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The 2016 Post Danmark Rundt - Tour of Denmark podium
Kirsten Wild (NED) of Hitec Products Cycling Team (middle) celebrates her win with Nina Kessler (NED) of Lensworld Zannata Cycling Team (left) and Leah Kirchmann (CAN) (CAN) of Liv-Plantur Cycling Team (right) on the podium the Prudential RideLondon Classique(Image credit: Sean Robinson/Velofocus)
Will Clarke (Drapac) in the first leader's jersey after his prologue win(Image credit: Expa Pictures)
Following hard work by his Etixx-QuickStep team to reel in Geraint Thomas (Team Sky), Tom Boonen got the better of Australian duo Mark Renshaw (Dimension Data) and Michael Matthews (Orica-BikeExchange) to claim the 2016 RideLondon Classic. The win is Boonen's second since announcing he will continue with the Belgian team into 2017 and the 40th of the season for Etixx.
"We went full on all day," Boonen said. "I was dropped two times and punctured one time and got stuck behind some guys who were dropped, so it took a lot of energy to get back on. At the point I got back on in the group, there were 80 guys in there. We did an incredible job chasing everyone and then got ready for the sprint in the last five kilometres. I felt confident because I did a few sprints last week and so I'm happy with this win. It's the first time in a while that I've beaten these guys. It's looking good for the next few races."
The peloton rolled out from The Mall for the 200km race along the same roads of the 2012 Olympic road race, several hours after RideLondon 100 cyclo-sportif event. Two serious crashes in the sportif resulted in the RideLondon Classic taking a break from racing for 20 minutes but once it was resumed, Team Sky came to the fore before Thomas launched his long range attack. An exciting chase ensured with several groups forming on the run back into The Mall as the sprint teams working overtime. Inside the finale 5km, the catch was made and Boonen raising his arms in triumph.
Click here for the full report, photos and results.
Bauke Mollema quickly made up for his disappointing end to the Tour de France, dropping from second overall to 11th in the final days, by launching a late solo attack and storming to victory at the Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian. The Trek-Segafredo rider became the first Dutch rider since Erik Dekker in 2000 to win the Basque Country race.
"The last days of the Tour de France were really disappointing for me. This is a good way to fight back and I think I showed that I have good form and that I can look forward to the Olympics," Mollema said. "It's really nice to win a big classic like this, which is my first WorldTour classic victory. It's a really nice race and I've always wanted to be on the podium at this race and get one of those Basque hats – and now, finally, I have one."
Mollema made the race winning move on the new Murgil Tontorra climb, distancing his rivals and holding them off on the fast descent into San Sebastian with Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) holding off Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) for second place, 17 second in arrears.
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Click here for the full report, photos and results.
Tinkoff's Michael Valgren celebrated a second overall Post Danmark Rundt - Tour of Denmark win in three years, holding off Magnus Cort on the fifth and final stage, won by Phil Bauhaus (Bora-Argon 18), to secure the victory. The 24-year-old moved into the race leader's jersey following his stage 3 win from Aabenraa to Vejle and with fourth place in Saturday's Nyborg time trial, won by Mads Wurtz Schmidt (Virtu Pro-Veloconcept), all but secured his win.
"We had some suspense today, but we adjusted our strategy along the road and the guys did another great job," Tinkoff director Lars Michaelsen said. "We also won the team classification too which underlines the team effort out here this week, and Benna [Daniele Bennati] is also rewarded with the points classification. We didn't win the stage, but there were plenty of other rewards."
Cort finished second overall, ten seconds off Valgren with Wurtz Schmidt third at 57 seconds and Tinkoff's Michael Gogl fourth at 1:21 minutes.
Click here for the 2016 Post Danmark Rundt - Tour of Denmark race page with reports, results and photos from all five stages.
Kirsten Wild further underlined her credentials as one of the top sprinters in the women's peloton as she out powered Nina Kessler (Lensworld-Zannata) and Leah Kirchmann (Liv-Plantur) to claim the winners €25,000 prize.
"Winning is always good but especially with this big prize," said Wild. "It is always good to win and it was a nice fast race. Racing on these big famous streets is really cool. I had done a lot of training and I was ready for it. But you can never tell what's going to happen in a sprint."
The Women's WorldTour event was an aggressive affair from the gun with riders attacking left, right and centre but with the sprint teams looking for a bunch gallop conclusion, all moves were eventually brought back with it all together in the final two laps. In the finale, a crash took down several riders but the fastest women were ahead of the fall with Wild enhancing her status as a favourite for October's Doha Worlds.
Click here for the race report, results and photos.
The Portuguese 'grand tour' visited the mythical Senhora da Graca on Sunday where former Vuelta a Espana stage winner Gustavo Cesar Veloso took the victory ahead of Daniel Eduardo Moreira Silva (Radio Popular - Boavista) to move into second place overall. Saturday's third stage saw the breakaway stay away with Drapac's Will Clarke enjoying the win and Rui Vinhas (W52-FC Porto-Porto Canal) moving into the overall race lead.
The next two stages are likely to further shape the overall but there remains plenty of racing before the Volta a Portugal em Bicicleta concludes Sunday July 7 with a 32km time trial into Lisbon.
Click here for the Volta a Portugal em Bicicleta race results.
While the Italian teams won the majority of the stages at Tour of Qinghai Lake, Ukrainian team Kolss BDC and Sergiy Lagkuti celebrated winning the overall. Jakub Mareczko (Wilier-Southeast) enjoyed his third stage win of the race on the final day Baiyin circuit stage with Lagkuti holding off Matej Mugerli (Synergy Baku Cycling Project) for the win by 37 seconds, while Kloss teammate Vitaliy Buts was third at one minute.
Third place in Saturday's stage 12 time trial, won by teammate Andriy Vasylyuk, saw Lagkuti move into the overall race lead as Buts dropped from first to third.
For results from all 13 stages of Tour of Qinghai Lake, click here
Baptiste Planckaert of Wallonie-Bruxelles extended Belgium's winning streak at the La Poly Normande French Cup race, holding off Ryan Anderson (Direct Energie) in a sprint finish. Julien Duval (Armee de Terre) was third while French Cup leader Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale) was fourth with Kevin Ista in fifth to make it day to remember for Wallonie-Bruxelles.
"French Cup races suit me really well, especially with a false flat finish like this one," Planckaert told Cyclingnews at the finish. "Apparently I'm the third consecutive Belgian to win here. This kind of race with a strong wind in the finale is very good for us."
