The World of Racing

We are rapidly approaching the end of the cycling season and that actually means packed weekends as the last events are levered into the calendar.

This weekend that meant more Vuelta action, the start of the Tour of Britain and the Mountain bike World Champs.

The Spanish Tour has developed into something of a 2014 Tour de France as a large chunk of favourites have gone. Nibali was disqualified for taking a tow from a car Sagan left after being hit by a motorbike, and at the end of last week Froome crashed into a roadside barrier and broke his foot. He finished the stage but was clearly unable to walk on the foot and also went home. Quintana is apparently suffering from illness and is decidedly not figuring. The race is being fought out by the likes of Aru and the Spanish threat of Rodriguez and Valverde, with Dumoulin the surprise high finisher. It’s an interesting and very hard race in this edition. On Saturday Quintana finally looked good again, and Dumoulin tried to limit losses to what he can gain back through his stronger time trialling. Sunday saw more of a recovered Quintana and a climbers contest on a steep finish with Purito getting the win ahead of all the GC challengers. This puts Aru still in red but being seriously challenged.

In a similar part of the world Andorra hosted the MTB world champs. The story on Saturday was around established names in the cross country. The Men’s race was a predictable affair quickly establishing itself as a battle between Schurter and Absalon. Building on his strong season it was the Swiss rider who had the better day and took a tough win. The women’s race offered an intriguing win for Ferrand-Prévot who is now World Champion on mountain bike, cyclo-cross and on the road.

On Sunday it was the gravity riders who stepped up and there were British riders defending titles in both the men’s and women’s races. Manon Carpenter could only manage second, but it was no real surprise to see Rachel Atherton finish off her dominating season with the title. The men's race was a bit more open, an early good time was set by Michael Jones from Wales, and it was only in the last few riders that this got challenged. Minaar was the first to take the lead with a typically controlled ride, beating Syndicate team mate Josh Bryceland. The defining ride of the day would be from a delighted Loic Bruni who took his first international win as Brosnan, Gwin and Atherton crashed on the hill. Bruni has been threatening to step up to winning, and chose the biggest single race in the calendar to do it.

The Tour of Britain started it’s thoroughly northern affair in Anglesea with a sprinters stage. It shows the status of the race that the result was a photo finish between three of the world's best, with Viviani taking it by centimetres from Cavendish and in front of Greipel.

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