Live on-board cameras were used for the first time in professional road racing during the final stage of the inaugural Abu Dhabi Tour on Sunday. The images were used during the live broadcast of the race.
The feeds came from cameras mounted on the bikes of from Giant-Alpecin riders Johannes Fröhlinger and Tom Dumoulin, along with and Etixx-QuickStep riders Stijn Vandenbergh and Lukasz Wisniowski.
The new development was brought about by an agreement between Velon and technical directors RCS Sports (acting on behalf of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council) and the UCI.
Breakaway day pays off with prizes for MTN-Qhubeka's Kudus
Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani) won the Italian one-day race, but not before Kudus joined Topsport -Vlaanderen's Jef van Meirhaeghe in a daylong breakaway that allowed him to gobble up most of the day's lesser prizes.
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The duo built their lead to four minutes but were brought back into the fold with 60km remaining.
"Coming into the final there was a bunch sprint of approximately 40 riders," said director Alex Sans Vega. "The plan was to help Kristian [Sbaragli] in the final but he didn't have the legs today and got stuck on the last corner."
Sbaragali finished 19th on the day. Natnael Berhane was MTN's highest placed finisher in 17th.
Brutt just misses in Paris-Tours
Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff-Saxo) made all the right moves Sunday at Paris-Tour but he slipped out of the final winning group as it approached the line and saw his day’s worth of efforts go for naught.
The 33-yer-old Russian survived the first split that took place in crosswinds just 10km from the start, that held his spot in the front group as attritions whittled it down to 30 riders, then 25, then 20.
Eventual winner Matteo Trentin (Etixx-QuickStep) initiated the wining move with an attack on the penultimate climb, with Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto Soudal), Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) and Brutt going with him. The Tinkoff rider lost the pace on the final short ascent, leaving the remaining trio to decide the outcome.
"I lost a couple of meters on the descent and couldn't close the gap again," Brutt said. "I fought alone between the front trio and the main group and tried to secure the fourth place but I was caught with two-three kilometers to go. I had burned my last match and I didn't have legs to sprint for the fourth place."
Brutt finished 16th, 24 seconds behind Trentin.
Trentin adds fourth win to 2015 total at Paris-Tours
Matteo Trentin added his fourth win to his 2015 palmares Sunday with Paris-Tours, his third win in France this year.
Trentin out-sprinted Lotto Soudal's Tosh Van der Sande in a two-up kick after BMC Racing's Greg Van Avermaet punctured in the final kilometre.
Trentin attacked out of a front group of about 20 riders with 10km to go in the 231km race and dragged Van der Sande and Tinkoff-Saxo's Pavel Brutt along with him. Van Avermaet bridged to form a lead group of four, but the leaders dropped Brutt on the final ascent.
The race appeared to be down to three, but Van Avermaet's untimely puncture neutralised his sprint and left the win to the other two. Trentin lead out the final kick and was able to hold off his Lotto Soudal rival.
"In the first three hours we rode at a speed of more than 51 kilometers per hour, then we slowed down a little bit," Trentin said. "On the penultimate climb I decided to attack. I knew it could be the key point of the race. In the last days I checked a few videos on YouTube, and knew that this climb was the most important in almost all of the recent editions."
Trentin said he knew he was the fastest of the final three, but he didn't want to underestimate his opponents.
"They put me in the first position in the last kilometers," he said. "I didn't panic. I stayed cool, and at 350 meters to go I launched my sprint. I won, and I was really happy."
