Doull and Dibben named in WIGGINS Tour of Britain squad, Cannondale down to seven at the Vuelta a Espana - News shorts
First top-ten finish for Latour at Peña Cabarga, Hermans bemused by Tinkoff tactics on stage 11
Wiggins, Doull and Dibben lead WIGGINS team at Tour of Britain
The WIGGINS team has named its final line-up for the Tour of Britain, with Owain Doull, Jon Dibben, Chris Latham, Mark Christian and Dan Pearson in the six-rider squad alongside Bradley Wiggins.
It will be the first race for Wiggins and Doull since they won a gold medal in the team pursuit at the Rio Olympic Games. It will be their first road race since the Tour of California in May and almost certainly Wiggins' final road race in Britain. Doull won the points jersey and finished third overall at the 2015 Tour of Britain.
Dibben should have no problem with the eight days of racing after recently completing the Tour de L’Avenir stage race in France. The 22-year-old Briton finished in the top three on three stages, including a third place in the 16km time trial, where he was beaten by fellow young talents Adrien Costa and Neilson Powless of the USA.
Christian, Pearson and Latham have been competing in a series of one- day races in Belgium, with Latham taking second in the Omloop Mandel-Leie-Schelde Meulebeke last week.
The Tour of Britain begins in Glasgow on Sunday September 4 and ends a week later in central London.
First top-ten finish for Pierre Latour at Peña Cabarga
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A consistent opening to his debut grand tour saw Pierre Latour sitting 24th overall on the first rest day of the Vuelta a Espana. The AG2R-La Mondiale rider came out of the rest day with good legs as he recorded his first top-ten overall result, placing ninth on Peña Cabarga, 22 seconds down on stage winner Chris Froome (Team Sky).
"Contador's team pulled all day behind the break because he wanted to win it and it made for a tough ride. In front we had the [Jan] Bakelants card to play and behind we knew what we had to do, stay in the wheels, but it was still hectic. I finished on courage but eventually the result is quite good," Latour said.
Third overall at the Tour de l'Ain on the eve of the Vuelta, the 22-year-old Latour leads AG2R-La Mondiale's overall aspirations with Jean-Christophe Peraud, and he is pleased with his performances so far considering he is venturing into the unknown in terms of race days.
"Since the beginning of this Vuelta, I have different feelings every day. I'm glad to see that the legs respond well after a rest day," Latour said. "As of today, I was a bit into the unknown, I have never raced for so long. I held on as best I could on the climb. I thank all the guys who have protected Jean-Christophe and me perfectly from the start of the stage. Every day is difficult, there is never a dead moment."
Hermans questions tactics of Tinkoff in chasing down breakaway
BMC's Ben Hermans infiltrated the breakaway on stage 11 of the Vuelta a Espana and it wan't long before the Belgian started thinking of winning the stage to Peña Cabarga. Tinkoff had other ideas back in the peloton though with the team whittling down the breakaway's five minute advantage in order to set up Alberto Contador for the victory. For Hermans, the move from Tinkoff was a bemusing one and quickly ended any aspirations he had of claiming the victory.
"I think that's racing. I don't know what the plan was behind this, why Tinkoff pulled so hard," Hermans said. "I think if they had kept us close at four minutes or something I never would have taken the jersey as I'm not a threat in the GC. We only had 30 or 40 seconds at the bottom of the climb and I think if I had 1:40 I could have made it to the finish.
Hermans eventually finished the day in 21st place as the GC riders caught and passed him on the summit finish, extinguishing his hopes of the win.
"It was perfect for me as I didn't have to do too much at the front and we gained 5 minutes quite quickly so everybody was thinking that we would go to the climb for the stage win,"Hermans added. "I was even thinking about the jersey, but they really had to do a lot of work. I will pay for this effort for sure. Today I had really fresh legs because of the rest day but for sure tomorrow I will feel the fatigue."
Cannondale-Drapac down to seven riders for remainder of Vuelta a Espana
Stage 11 of the Vuelta a Espana proved to be a tough day for Cannondale-Drapac with Simon Clarke a non-starter and Paddy Bevin withdrawing from the race due to knee soreness.
"To not have Simon is not good news for us," sport director Juanma Garate said of the Australian. "Andrew had a lot of confidence with him. Simon is always at the front for the right moment. It's a big miss for us to lose him.
"Paddy – he came back from his first crash and then he crashed again," Garate added. "He had a lot of pain in his knee, and we didn’t have options with him to continue. To Paddy, I say: 'I'm sorry. I'm not happy, and I know you too are not happy.' It has been a hard year for Paddy with crashes, so I'm sad for him."
There was slight consolation as Pierre Rolland executed the team's plan for stage to get into the breakaway but the Frenchman found himself in the company of several other climbers and finished the day over six minutes down on winner Chris Froome.
"Today was our plan to have Pierre away. Normally on this stage, the break can ride to the climb. We wanted Pierre to be in the break with not a lot of other climbers," Garate added. "We did have Pierre in the break and maybe he was the best climber in there, but we didn’t have luck. Tinkoff was running in the front of the bunch to pull the break back for options for Alberto Contador. Coming to the base of the climb with 20 seconds was not enough."
Andrew Talansky is currently the best-placed Cannondale-Drapac rider in 11th place overall.
Vuelta a Espana stage 11 Video highlights