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Introduction
This is what happened this week in Cycling.
It was another day for the underdogs at Tour of Utah as Eric Young (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies) overcame a fearsome lead-out by the BMC Racing team to win stage 4. The race came down to another gritty sprint after a tough day of climbing. Young hit out early, opposite the BMC line-up and drove to his second-career stage win at the Tour of Utah. Race leader Reijnen got tangled up with a Colombia rider in the finale. Though he kept it upright, he lost yellow to Jure Kocjan (Team SmartStop), who finished third and got a time bonus at the line in Soldier Hollow.
via Young wins Utah stage 4, Kocjan grabs yellow
Tuesday
In the hills above the Spanish seaside town, a television motorbike crashed into rival Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing). Later on the same climb, Yates, in his Orica-GreenEdge colors, attacked. He descended to San Sebastián where he won solo. The party, however, was short-lived.
“Did it leave a sour taste? Well yeah. Where do you want me to start!? It’s frustrating,” Yates told VeloNews.
“I saw messages on Twitter saying that I don’t deserve to win, stuff like that. It’s not like I can change what happened.”
The Spanish WorldTour race was plagued by bad television coverage that confused the incident that happened on the final Bordako Tontorra climb. Belgian Van Avermaet said that he “had a big gap” in a press release. BMC team president, Jim Ochowicz added, “Greg [Van Avermaet] was robbed.”
Grainy images of the incident emerged later. Fans lined the road and a motorbike travelling at slow speed swerved and clipped Van Avermaet’s rear wheel. The footage also showed Yates close behind, around two yards back, when Van Avermaet fell to the right.
Yates remained with a small group and attacked solo before the top of the climb that left 7.1 kilometers to San Sebastián, where the situation sunk in.
BMC released its press statements over the following 24 hours. Ochowicz explained he is ready to take legal action.
Yates refrained from commenting, but his twin brother and teammate Simon could not resist commenting on Twitter about what BMC said.
“Obviously, you say things after the race in the heat of the moment. He was frustrated, and rightly so. How often does a motorbike run into you when you are leading? I understand their frustration,” Adam Yates continued.
“Before the video of the crash came out, it sounded as if Van Avermaet had a big gap. I was there, right behind, and had to brake for the motorbikes. But it’s not about Van Avermaet, it’s about the organization.
“The organizer needs to reduce the people on the road or put up barriers. The fans are great in the Basque Country; they climb up the road, which is so small anyway, to see the race. They’re so passionate, but it creates stress and narrows our space. The organizer should work on it to avoid crashes that could be easily avoided.”
Earlier this year in País Vasco, another top-level WorldTour race, a similar incident happened. The organizer left traffic poles in the road that the race used in the closing kilometer of stage one to Bilbao. Yates broke his finger in that race, and BMC’s Peter Stetina broke his right tibia, patella, and four ribs.
Yates called both incidents frustrating, but said that the organizer could have avoided them with proper planning.
Now, he simply wants to look ahead. He will travel to Canada in September to race the Tour of Alberta, and the GP de Québec and the GP de Montréal. The Clásica San Sebastián gives him a mental boost.
“Confidence goes a long way. I showed that last year when I won the Tour of Turkey, every race I went to afterwards I was full of confidence,” said Yates. “Like I said, confidence goes a long way.”
The post Yates ‘frustrated’ by San Sebastian chaos following win appeared first on VeloNews.com.
via Yates ‘frustrated’ by San Sebastian chaos following win
In the hills above the Spanish seaside town, a television motorbike crashed into rival Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing). Later on the same climb, Yates, in his Orica-GreenEdge colors, attacked. He descended to San Sebastián where he won solo. The party, however, was short-lived.
“Did it leave a sour taste? Well yeah. Where do you want me to start!? It’s frustrating,” Yates told VeloNews.
“I saw messages on Twitter saying that
via Yates ‘frustrated’ by San Sebastian chaos following win
