Team Katusha on the front of the peloton(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Romain bardet finishes stage 20(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R La Mondiale) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Eduard Grosu (Nippo – Vini Fantini), Kenny De Ketele (Topsport Vlaanderen – Baloise) and Boris Vallée (Lotto Soudal) in the breakaway(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Tinkoff-Saxo will head to the Tour de Pologne without defending champion Rafal Majka, who became the first Polish rider to win since it has been registered as a professional race. Instead it will be Robert Kiserlovski and home rider Pawel Poljanski that lead the team in the seven-day race. Tinkoff-Saxo will have a second Polish rider in the line-up with Maciej Bodnar making his return to racing following a crash at the Tour of California in May.
“Tour de Pologne is an unpredictable race, however we have to play our cards in the second part, where the road kicks up again and again,” said Tinkoff-Saxo directeur sportif Bruno Cenghialta.
The Tour de Pologne begins in Warsaw on August 2.
Tinkoff-Saxo for the Tour de Pologne: Robert Kiserlovski, Pawel Poljanski, Jesper Hansen, Chris Anker Sørensen, Ivan Rovny, Evgeny Petrov and Maciej Bodnar.
Bardet, Vuillermoz lead Ag2r-La Mondiale at Clásica San Sebastián
Romain Bardet will lead Ag2r-La Mondiale at the upcoming WorldTour one-day race, Clásica Ciclista San Sebastián, held on Saturday in Spain. The Frenchman is fresh off a strong performance at the Tour de France where he won stage 18 to St-Jean-de-Maurienne and took home the event’s most aggressive rider award.
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The challenging 220km course, with climbs over the Alto de Jaizkebel, Alto de Arkale and Bordako Tontorra, will no doubt suit a rider like Bardet. The team will also field Tour de France stage 8 winner Alexis Vuillermoz, who is also a candidate for the day’s win.
Ag2r-La Mondiale for Clásica San Sebastián: Romain Bardet, Jan Bakelants, Hugo Houle, Mattéo Montaguti, Mickaël Cherel, Alexis Gougeard, Blel Kadri and Alexis Vuillermoz.
Nippo to RideLondon with sprinters Marini and Grosu
Marini is a young rider who has had success this season with multiple to 10 finishes at the Tour de San Luis, seventh place at Scheldeprijs and won a stage at the Tour of Japan. Grosu raced for the team at the Giro d’Italia this year and recenty had three podium finishes at the 2.1 Sibiu Cycling Tour.
“It is a great honor and opportunity for us to be there, in such an important race on the international calendar. As usual we will play our chance, we have different possibilities for the final sprint in front of Buckingham Palace.”
Nippo Vini Fantini for Prudential RideLondon: Eduard Grosu, Nicolas Marini, Alessandro Malaguti, Riccardo Stacchiotti, Shiki Kuroeda and Giacomo Berlato.
Lampre add Ganna, Pacioni and Ravasi as trainees
Lampre-Merida have added three young Italians to their line-up for the remainder of the season. Filippo Ganna, Luca Pacioni, and Edward Ravasi will all begin racing with the team in September as trainees.
At 19, former junior national time trial champion Ganna is the youngest of the stagiaires. He finished fourth in the junior time trial at the World Championships last season and took victory in the same event at the Chrono des Nations. Sprinter Pacioni is the oldest of the trio and has four wins to his name in 2015 at the Trofeo Città di Castelfidardo-Gp Cibes, Pistoia-Fiorano Modenese, Milano-Tortona and a stage of the Giro delle Pesche Nettarine.
Ravasi, a climber by trade, completes the new signings. The 21 year-old finished third in the U23 Italian national road race and took victory in the youth classification at the 2.1 Tour of Croatia – finishing fourth behind Maciej Paterski in the overall classification.
Katusha sign trainees Politt and Restrepo
Team Katusha have added two new trainees, Nils Politt and Jhonatan Restrepo, to their team beginning August 1.
Politt, the German under-23 road champion, was racing with Team Stölting this year had a strong showing at the Bayern Rundfahrt where he placed sixth overall.
Colombia’s Restrepo is the current under-23 Pan American road champion and has spent the first half of the season racing with Coldeportes-Claro. He will begin his trainee contract at the Vuelta a Burgos from August 5-8 in Spain.
Trek adds Bernard, Basso as trainees
The Trek Factory Racing team announced the arrival of two trainees, Julien Bernard and Leonardo Basso, who will debut with the team in the upcoming Tour of Utah and USA Pro Challenge.
23-year-old Bernard is the son of ex-pro Jean-François Bernard and earlier this season won the Tour Nivernais-Morvan, Châtillon-Dijon and one stage of the Tour du Pays Roannais.
Basso, 21, won the Trofeo GS Gavardo Tecmor this year.
General Manager Luca Guercilena said, “Both riders are classy, young riders with a lot of potential. They will get their first taste of big-time racing in Utah and Colorado. The rest of their program is still to be decided, but Bernard could race the GP Wallonie, Paris-Bourges and maybe even Paris-Tours. Basso will likely race in Italy after the States in such races as Tre Valle and Milano-Torino.”
Tinkoff-Saxo brings Gogl, Grosschartner and Tolhoek in as trainees
The Tinkoff-Saxo team has added Felix Großschartner and Michael Gogl of Austria and Antwan Tolhoek from the Netherlands as trainees. Head DS Steven de Jongh said he was happy to see the trio arrive. "Their selection is the result of a long and thorough program we have established, as we are constantly on the lookout for fresh talent from all over the world," de Jongh said
