Simon Gerrans (Orica GreenEdge) and the new Giro mascot(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The margin of victory for Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quick Step)
Trixi Worrack (Velcro) gets to take home her new Lexus for winning the overall(Image credit: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us)
Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar) wins the opening stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk
Giro d'Italia
The opening weekend of the Giro d'Italia started off as an all-Australian affair, with Orica-GreenEdge claiming the victory in the team time trial, repeating their success last year even without specialist Svein Tuft, who was injured in the Tour de Romandie. Simon Gerrans donned the first maglia rosa, with Michael Matthews his understudy in the white jersey of best young rider.
Matthews ascended to the race lead on stage 2, though missing out in the bunch sprint to Team Sky's Elia Viviani on a stage riddled with crashes. Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) was the worst-off of the main contenders, finishing at 1:09.
The inaugural three-day Tour of California women's race kicked off on Friday with two stages around Lake Tahoe in the mountains, and there was fierce competition for the jerseys. Climber Katie Hall (UnitedHealthcare) won stage 1, but lost her race lead in a hard-fought uphill finish on the second stage to Lauren Komanski (Twenty16 p/b Sho-Air).
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The well-rounded and experienced German Trixi Worrack (Velocio-SRAM) was lying in wait, however, and snatched six seconds worth of time bonuses during the stage to unseat Komanski and claim the overall victory. Leah Kirchmann (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) won both stage 2 and 3, and finished second overall, ahead of Komanski.
Cyclingnewsinterviewed a number of riders about the importance of the race for the sport, and profiled Sarah Storey, Ina Teutenberg and Loren Rowney.
Tour of California
The men's Tour of California kicked off in Sacramento on Sunday as Mark Cavendish won his tenth stage at the American race and tenth of the season. Cavendish easily out sprinted Peter Sagan to the win and will now wear the first leader's jersey of the race. One of the pre-race favourites, Andrew Talanksy was the only DNF of the day as the Cannondale-Garmin rider was suffering from a combination of allergies and a virus.
Lithuanian Ignatas Konovalovas won the overall Four Days of Dunkirk after claiming the race lead from Europcar's Bryan Coquard on the penultimate stage. The Frenchman won the first stage, and kept the overall points classification until the end. Other stage winners included Jonas Ahlstrand (Cofidis), Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale), Omar Fraile (Caja Rural) and Edward Theuns (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise).
Other races
Coryn Rivera (UnitedHealthcare), riding for the US national team in at the Pan American continental championships, won the silver medal in the women's road race. Rivera went head-to-head with Malies Mejias (Cuba) but was edged out for the gold medal. Yumaris Gonzalez (Cuba) collected the bronze.
Lokosphinx rider Evgeny Shalunov won the overall Vuelta Madrid, taking out the opening stage. Carlos Barbera (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) won the second stage of the UCI 2.1-ranked race.
Adria Mobil's Primož Roglic won the overall Tour d'Azerbaïdjan after taking out stage 2. Other stage winners included Marco Kump (Adria Mobil), Josuha Edmondson (An Post-ChainReaction), Daniel Turek of Peter Sagan's Cycling Academy Team and RusVelo's Sergey Firsanov.
