Nino Schurter on his way to claiming a sixth World Championship
photo: Sven Martin
Nino Schurter had won every World Cup round this season prior to heading to Cairns UCI MTB World Championships but it wasn't going to be cake walk until the last lap. Throw in heat, extreme dust and a challenging course... it was made for the champion ride by the great Nino Schurter. Enjoy this exciting race.
"It's crazy, first the women this afternoon and then us. The team was so homogenous, it was absolutely amazing. Normally you'd say that I was the best time trialist on paper but with this team it was smooth and we had really good pace and kept it all the way to the line."
Thirty years ago, the World Road Race Championship in Villach was a 278 km challenge. Sean Kelly was a favorite, when Kelly was left in the pack with a few kilometres remaining his team mate Stephen Roche took the chance for glory. Roche made an attack and crossed the line just ahead of Moreno Argentin - making history and joined Eddy Merckx (1974) in winning the triple crown of cycling... which is yet to be repeated.
The 99th Coppa Bernocchi is the ninth race in the Italian series and this edition was exciting. The greats of Italian cycling have won this race; Fausto Coppi, Giuseppe Saronni, Francesco Moser, Felice Gimondi dominated by Italian riders. But there almost was a Canadian upset. What an amazing charge by Guillaume Boivin as he challenged in the sprint with 200 metres to go. Not to be, for now, Sonny Colbrelli was too fast.
"This is very big for Norwegian cycling. I think it is the first time in history for a time trial like this, I have heard. I've seen most of the course and it is not easy even going into the last climb. The first bit is technical, on cobblestones with sharp hairpin corners, and then it's steep all the way up. The last bit is very steep, at 10 or 12 percent. I'm quite sure the top five will not be same as usual type of time trial and we will see a lot of changes. It's very good news that Froome will race it, and if he wants to win, this year is the year he can do it.
"The road race starts out in Rong: it's kind of an island community outside of Bergen that is very beautiful. I hope the riders are going to have a sunny day, because you ride from island to island that are connected by small bridges out in the ocean. I know that the local people out there are really excited that the Worlds are going to start out there and they are doing a lot of stuff to show that they welcome the Worlds to Norway."
A wonderful victory by Tim Wellens on Belgium soil escaping with 15kms to win the GP de Wallonie. He's a definite contender for the puncheur favored course at the Bergen world championships on September 24.
