The European track championships begin on Wednesday evening on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, with Theo Bos riding for the Netherlands team as he returns to the track in preparation for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Bos has raced on the road since 2009 but won a silver medal in the sprint on the track at the 2004 Athens Olympics and has won five world titles in the sprint, Kilo and Keirin between 2004 and 2007. He rode for the Belkin team in 2014 but will join MTN-Qhubeka in 2015.
According to Gazzetta dello Sport he is expected to ride in the team pursuit and possibly the Omnium, where he will go up against fellow road sprinters Elia Viviani (Cannondale) and Marco Coledan (Bardiani-CSF).
Fernandez retires
This season has been a tough one for Koldo Fernandez (Garmin-Sharp) and the Spanish rider has decided to make it his last, according to Biciciclismo.
The 33-year-old broke his collarbone earlier this season at the Giro d’Italia, in the team time trial crash that also ended Dan Martin’s Giro hopes. It was the second time that Fernandez had been forced out of a Grand Tour due to a crash in the team time trial, after the 2012 Vuelta a España.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Fernandez turned professional in 2004 with the Euskaltel-Euskadi team and later moved to Garmin at the beginning of 2012. He has twice finished on the podium at his national championships and his biggest victory was a stage of Tirreno-Adriatico in 2007. He competed in a total of 11 Grand Tours during his career.
Pantano to IAM Cycling
After three years with the Colombia team, Jarlinson Pantano will move to IAM Cycling for the 2015 season, he has told Colombian website Mundociclismo.
“It was a very difficult decision for me to make, but it is a great opportunity,” Pantano said in an interview with the website. He later took to twitter to say “thank you @Col_Coldeportes for the last three nice years that you have given me, I leave with great friends and good memories.”
Pantano joined the Colombia ProContinental team in 2011, after finishing third in the Tour de l’Avenir, and went on to win a stage of the Vuelta a Colombia. He has done the bulk of his racing in Italy this season, and rode his second Giro d’Italia where he narrowly missed out on a stage win, after making it in to a three-man sprint with Dario Cataldo and Enrico Battaglin at Oropa.
With IAM Cycling expected to take the one remaining spot in the WorldTour there is a chance that this move could see Pantano step into the top tier of cycling, joining compatriots Nairo Quintana and Rigoberto Uran.
Chavanel headlines Chrono des Nations
The Chrono des Nations is one of the few chances for time triallists to compete in a standalone race against the clock, as the Herbiers event looks to maintain the legacy established by the old Grand Prix des Nations. Often the race provides the newly-crowned world champion the first chance to show off his rainbow bands, however, Bradley Wiggins will not be making an appearance. Three-time champion Tony Martin is also choosing to skip the event this year.
Home favourite Sylvain Chavanel is instead the biggest name on this year’s start list. He is favourite to give France victory for the first time since Pascal Lance in 1995 – when the race was known as Chrono des Herbiers, before it merged with the Grand Prix des Nations in 2006. The last French winner of the old Grand Prix des Nations was Francisque Teyssier in 1998. Chavanel’s toughest challenger could prove to be his IAM Cycling teammate and six-time Swedish champion Gustav Larsson, who finished second to Martin in last year’s race.
World Championship silver medallist Hanna Solovey and Russian national champion Tatiana Antoshina will face off in the women’s event on the same day.
Chrono des Nations start list:
Romain Bacon (Team Vulco Vaulx en Velin) Marcus Christie (An Post-Chain Reaction) Gaëtan Bille (Verandas Willems) Nicolas Baldo (Team Vorarlberg) Alexander Gingsjö (Zweedse nationale selectie) Pierre Gouault (Big Mat Aubert 93) Samuel Pokala (Esko Lummelampi Pitkäkatu) Julien Fouchard (Cofidis Solutions Crédits) Antoine Demoitié (Wallonie Bruxelles) Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier (FDJ.fr) Zico Waeytens (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) Pierre Luc Perichon (Bretagne Séché Environnement) Boris Dron (Wallonie Bruxelles) Stéphane Rossetto (Big Mat Aubert 93) Evaldas Siskevicius (La Pomme Marseille) Jimmy Engoulvent (Team Europcar) Yves Lampaert (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) Reidar Bohlin Borgersen (Team Joker) Aleksejs Saramotins (IAM Cycling) Jérémy Roy (FDJ.fr) Carlos Oyarzun (Efapel - Glassdrive) Grego Gazvoda (Gebruder Weiss-Oberndorfer) Gustav Larsson (IAM Cycling) Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling)
