Bassey Nelson (Sharks racing team) sprints to 10th edition ph crit classic race in Rivers State, Nigeria.

Bassey Nelson D Cobra (Shark's Racing Team) powers to 10th Edition Ph Criterium Cycling Classic race in Rivers State, Nigeria.

 At the end It came down to sprint finish for the breakaway guys and it was Bassey Nelson of Shark's Racing Team who surge to a powerfull victory. Mavelous Sampson (Cyclothron Team) came second while his Cyclothron teammate finish third to wrap top three podium place.

 How it Happend

 With warm sunny weather and enthusiastic fans cheering on the Peleton who had miss racing Crit course and was eager with strong riders in the peloton, racing commended in the Old GRA of Port Harcourt beside the state government house with a 3.5 kilometers course for 15laps of the Pro Men in the City.

 It was day full hardluck and attacks from all guns, firstly, Bassey Nelson who became the eventual winner who open the day up with flat tire which was quickly change, later his teammate Innocent Emmanuel had his chain broken into pieces.

After then after it was real force of attack from Timi Abaka from Yenogoa cycling team lunches a furious attack that form a seven man break that comprises some factions some big names such as Timi Abaka (Yenogoa Team), Mavelous Sampson, Precious Godwin, Etinebong Solomon all Team Cyclothron, Bassey Nelson (Shark's Racing Team, Malik Abdu, and Bright Emmanuel from the junior teams.

BurkinaFaso International Cycling Tour.

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 30th Edition TourDuBurkinFaso Depart 27th October-5thNovember 2017 10 grueling stages 10 Regions Covered Distance:1,289,3.
West Africa

Merida Bike

Merida Bike

Merida has updated its Reacto to be, it says, lighter, more comfortable and more aerodynamically efficient than before. It has done this by slimming down the tube shapes and introducing a lower seatstay connection with the seat tube, among other things.

 Merida – a Taiwanese brand although much of its engineering is undertaken in Germany – says that the new Reacto is more aerodynamically efficient than the previous version by about eight watts at 45km/h.

That equates to around 5%. Comfort has been increased through redesigning the seatstays and giving the S-Flex seatpost a slimmer cross section and a bigger ‘window’ – a notch that’s cutaway to allow more downward movement. For 2018, Merida is offering disc brake versions of the Reacto for the first time.

2018 Tour de France route unviel.

News: Tour de France 2018 route unvail.

  21 stages include cobbles, dirt roads, two time trials and three big mountain finishes The route of the 2018 Tour de France has been revealed in Paris, with organiser ASO continuing a blend of tradition and innovation as they look to shake up the racing and seemingly make it harder for Team Sky and Chris Froome to dominate yet again.

 The 2018 Tour de France will include a team time trial on stage three, sections on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix, a finish up and above L’Alpe d’Huez and then a grand finale of mountain stages in the Pyrenees before a hilly time trial will decide the winner of the yellow jersey.

 Stage 10, the first mountain stage of the race, includes a section of dirt road on the Plateau des Glières. It is 100km from the finish of the stage in Le Grand Bornand but comes after a six-kilometre climb at 11 per cent. Technical director Thierry Gouvenou has admitted he one day hopes to include a long dirt climb in the Tour de France.

 The 2018 Tour de France starts in the Vendée region on Saturday July 7 - a week later than usual due to the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. It ends three weeks later in Paris on Sunday July 29 with the traditional evening stage and circuits of the Champs Elysées.

 Froome, Thibaut Pinot, Simon Yates, Nairo Quintana, Warren Barguil, Romain Bardet, Alberto Contador, Nacer Bouhanni, Arnaud Demare were amongst the 4000 guests at the presentation at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. They seemed stunned by the severity of the route, knowing they will race with just seven teammates in 2018 after team sizes were reduced to eight riders by the UCI and race organisers.

 A race of two parts

 The 21 stages are divided into two parts, with riders taking two plane transfers.The first nine stages visit the Vendée coast, Brittany and the north of France, with the cobbled stage from Arras to Roubaix coming before a transfer and first rest day at Annecy in the Alps. Stage 10 marks the start of the mountains, with three important stages in the Alps to Le Grand Bornand, La Rosière-Montvalezan and L’Alpe d’Huez.

The 2018 route avoids the South of France and the Mediterranean coast, crossing to the Pyrenees via Valence, an uphill finish to Mende, and a second rest day in Carcassonne.

 From the ancient walled town, the riders can see the jagged Pyrenean peaks on the horizon. They face four days of suffering, with a chance for the sprinters in Pau.

Two long stages to Bagneres-du-Luchon and Laruns are divided by the short stage to the Col de Portet. The stage is only 65km long but includes 37km of climbing. Pau will act as the base for many of the teams for all of the Pyrenean stages.

 The Tour de France will be decided by a 31km time trial on the final Saturday, with the rolling roads between Saint-pee-sur-Nivelle and Espelette in the French Basque Country hosting the showdown on the 2018 race.

Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) wins IILombardia in Como,Italy.

Vincenzo Nibali "D Shark of Messina" (Bahrain-Merida) soloed to his second II Lombardia victory in Como, Italy. Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) came second place off 28 seconds down, as Gianni Moscon (Team Sky) out-sprinted the chasers for third place 10 seconds later.

 Nibali nets his 50th career win.

Mickael Cherel (AG2R La Mondiale) was awarded most aggressive rider prize.

 Sunshine and blue skies greeted the riders as they set off from Bergamo. Right from the start, Davide Ballerini (Androni Sidermec) and Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (Dimension Data) jumped and took a short lead. They were soon joined by Lorenzo Rota (Bardiani CSF), Matthias Le Turnier (Cofidis), Pier Paolo De Negri (Nippo Vini Fantini) and Lennard Hofstede (Sunweb) to create the first breakaway.

 The dangerous descent proved itself in a horrifying crash with just over 40km to go. De Plus overcooked a turn, hit the guardrail and was launched up over the barrier, his bike flying into the nearby trees. Many feared the worst, but the team reported that he was not seriously injured. The gap back to the field grew after that, going over a minute. This is the provisional top 10 for now though.

Top Ten General result:

 1, Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) Bahrain-Merida 6:15:29,
 2, Julian Alaphilippe (France) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:28,
3, Gianni Moscon (Italy) Team Sky 0:00:38,
4, Thibaut Pinot (France) FDJ,
5, Domenico Pozzovivo (Italy) AG2R La Mondiale,
6, Fabio Aru (Italy) Astana Pro Team,
7, Mikel Nieve (Spain) Team Sky 0:00:40,
8, Nairo Quintana (Colombia) Movistar Team 0:00:42,
9, Sergei Chernetski (Russia) Astana Pro Team 0:00:47, 10, Sam Oomen (Netherland) Team Sunweb.

Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac) solo's to Milano-Torino victory, Italy.

Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac) surge to Milano-Torino victory ahead of runner-up Adam Yates (Orica-Scott) and third-placed Fabio Aru (Team Astana) finisher.

 Julian Alaphilippe (QuickStep Floor's) looks back as the Peleton catches up.

 The roads were largely flat all the way to Superga, which has featured in the race for many years but only as the finale since the race was reimagined by RCS Sport in 2012. The nine per cent climb was tackled twice, the first time seeing the riders turn off shy of the summit for a descent before looping round and tackling it all the way to the Basilica at the top.

Top Ten General Classification result

 1, Rigoberto Uran (Colombia) Cannondale-Drapac 4:24:51,
2, Adam Yates (Great Britain) Orica-Scott 0:00:10,
3, Fabio Aru (Italy) Astana Pro Team 0:00:20,
4, Nairo Quintana (Colombia) Movistar Team 0:00:28,
5, David Gaudu (Fra) FDJ 0:00:31,
6, Wout Poels (Netherland) Team Sky,
7, Daniel Martinez (Colombia) Wilier Triestina 0:00:33,
8,Thibaut Pinot (France) FDJ 0:00:35,
 9,Pierre Roger Latour (France) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:43,
10,Peter Stetina (United State of America) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:53.

All about 111th II Lombardia 2017

111th Edition II Lombardia 2017

 This year’s Il Lombardia will see the winners of the last three editions of the final cycling monument of the season fight for victory in northern Italy. Orica-Scott's Esteban Chaves win in 2016 and defending champion won't be on the startline due to crashes.

 Bahrain-Merida's Vincenzo Nibali, winner in 2015, and and Quick-Step's Daniel Martin, winner in 2014, have all been confirmed by race organizer RCS Sport, with a series of other big-name contenders expected to challenge in the so-called “Race of the Falling Leaves”. Once the final major race of the season and the WorldTour calendar, the Italian classic now comes before the Tour of Turkey and the new Tour of Guangxi in China.

 Stand-out names on the provisional entry list include Giro d'Italia winner and new world time trial champion Tom Dumoulin and his Team Sunweb teammate Michael Matthews, plus Frenchman Warren Barguil who is likely to race for the last time in the black and white team colours before his move to Fortuneo-Oscaro. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) will also ride after testing his form at the Tre Vali Varesine and Milano-Torino races on Tuesday and Thursday. Fellow Colombian Rigoberto Urán and Vuelta a España mountains classification winner Davide Villella lead the Cannondale-Drapac team, while Fabio Aru and Miguel Ángel López lead Astana, in what is likely to be the final race for Aru in Astana sky blue before his move to UAE Team Emirates for 2018.

 Vincenzo Nibali leads Bahrain-Merida and will be looking for a second victory after winning in Como in 2015. He has the support of Giovanni Visconti and Franco Pellizotti. Adam Yates will team up with Chaves at Orica-Scott, while Philippe Gilbert and Julian Alaphilippe will support Dan Martin. Mikel Landa is part of Team Sky’s line up that includes 2016 runner-up Diego Rosa, Michal Kwiatkowski and probably Gianni Moscon. Other marquee names include Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Tejay van Garderen (BMC) and Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe). 25 teams for 247km of racing in the Lombardy hills A total of 25 teams of eight rider will ride Il Lombardia, with Androni Giocattoli, Cofidis, Gazprom-Rusvelo, Bardiani-CSF, Direct Energie, Nippo-Vini Fantini and Wilier Triestina securing the seven wild invitations.
 This year the route for 111th edition of Il Lombardia has switched to that used until 2015, when Vincenzo Nibali won alone with a late attack.

The 247km parcours includes 4,000 metres of climbing. The final 80 kilometres include the climb to the Madonna del Ghisallo and the incredibly steep Muro di Sormano (two kilometres at 15 per cent) before the final climb of San Fermo della Battaglia overlooking Lake Como. On Sunday, October 8, the official Il Lombardia Gran Fondo will cover many of the same roads, starting and arriving in Como.

Some pictures here