Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) sprints to Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne classic event.

Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) wins Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. He led the reduced field sprint across the line ahead of Arnaud Démare (FDJ)) and Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida).

            How it unfolded
Bright blue skies and big crowds welcomed the riders Kuurne on Sunday morning.
Roger De Vlaeminck - winner in 1970 and 1971 – was one of those there after receiving the honour of firing the start gun. Seven riders dared to challenge the headwind that marked the first half of the race towards Brussels.

 The seven were Truls Korsaeth (Astana), Gedaminas Bagdonas (AG2R), Matteo Bono (UAE Team Emirates), Piet Allegaert (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Kenneth Van Bilsen (Cofidis), Romain Cardis (Direct Energie) and Ben Perry (Israel Cycling Academy).

It was the second day in a row that Van Bilsen featured in the long breakaway move, after going up the road at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Late-race breakaway riders Julien Duval (AG2R La Mondiale) and Julien Vermote (Dimension Data), joined by Loic Vliegen (BMC Racing) in the final kilometres, where pulled back into the fold by a charging reduced peloton led by Lotto Soudal and LottoNL-Jumbo.

 Despite spending much of his energy in the breakaway attempt, Vermote hung on for ninth on the day. There was a brief hiatus in hostilities as the peloton entered the final lap until two brief moves from Niki Terpstra and Guillaume van Keirsbulck.

As the latter was brought back to the fold, Duval went clear on his own, soon to be joined by Vermote. The pair worked together, but Duval appeared to be struggling compared to Vermote and they began slipping back to the peloton. Vliegen saw his chance and joined the two leaders and helped them build a bigger advantage. With some big sprinters behind, the three were not given much in the way of space out front. As they turned onto the final stretch, Duval was slipping back and Vermote made one last push. Once the fast men began sprinting, Vermote was quickly overhauled and Groenewegen had a clear run to the line.
               Top ten finishers

1, Dylan Groenewegen (Netherland) LottoNL-Jumbo,    
2, Arnaud Demare (France) FDJ,    
3, Sonny Colbrelli (Italy) Bahrain-Merida,   
4, Pim Ligthart (Netherland) Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij,  
5,Justin Jules (France) WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic,
6,Jean-Pierre Drucker (Luxemburg) BMC Racing Team,
7, Guillaume Boivin (Canada) Israel Cycling Academy,   8, Lukasz Wisniowski (Poland) Team Sky,
9,Julien Vermote (Belgium) Dimension Data,
10,Timothy Dupont (Belgium) Wanty-Groupe Gobert.


 

Alejandro Valverde (Team Movistar) wins final stage 5 and sealed overrall Abu Dhabi tour victory 2018.

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) outsprints Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana Pro Team) to win final stage 5 atop Jebel Hafeet, Abu Dhabi Tour.

 The stage win also nets him an overrall victory of the Abu Dhabi Tour. The pair had dropped their rivals inside the final kilometres.

 Overnight leader Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing) cracked on the climb and conceded 1:42 to Valverde. Valverde took the overall race from Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb) with Lopez rounding out the podium in third. Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) wins sprint classification jersey.

                 How it Happend

 The day’s early break of Lawson Craddock (EF Education First-Drapac), Mathias Brandle (TrekSegafredo), Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal), Rudy Barbier (AG2R La Mondiale), Fredrik Frison (Lotto-Soudal), Michael Bresciani (Bardiani CSF), Nicolo Bonifazio (Trek-Segafredo), Nikolay Trusov (Gazprom-Rusvelo) and Joonas Henttala (Novo Nordisk) initially held a lead of over 10 minutes but on the early slopes of the climb their advantage was clipped to within two minutes.

 Top ten final general Classification results.

 1, Alejandro Valverde (Spain) Movistar Team 16:00:01,   2, Wilco Kelderman (Netherland) Team Sunweb 0:00:17,
 3, Miguel Angel Lopez (Colombia) Astana Pro Team 0:00:29,
 4, Julian Alaphilippe (France) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:31,
5, Rafal Majka (Poland) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:45,
6, Davide Formolo (Italy) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:13,
 7, Diego Ulissi (Italy) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:18,
8, Rui Costa (Portugal) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:28,
9, Rohan Dennis (Australia) BMC Racing Team 0:01:29,
10, Emanuel Buchmann (Germany) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:37.

Micheal Valgren (Team Astana) wins 2018 Omloop Het Niewsblad.

Micheal Valgren (Team Astana) naps Omloop Het Nieuwsblad victory in Belgium. Astana might be in trouble behind the scenes, but on the road they have been pitch perfect this month.

Michael Valgren added to their February success with victory at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad after a late solo attack.

 How it Happened The temperature in Gent on Saturday morning was just above freezing point but the skies were clear, making for a perfect crisp winter’s morning to usher in the 2018 Classics and the traditional ‘start of the season’.

The crowds steadily built in Gent’s Citadel park and the ‘t Kuipke velodrome, home of the Gent Six, where the men’s and women’s teams were presented together ahead of a joint start.

Each move was reeled back in until Valgren shot off the front with around 2.5 kilometres to go. Behind him, the other riders glanced at each other, urging them to make the move, but nobody did. Vanmarcke finally went with a kilometre remaining but Valgren was too far ahead.

                Top nine  Result finishes

 1, Michael Valgren (Denmark) Astana Pro Team,
  2, Lukasz Wisniowski (Poland) Team Sky,
 3, Sep Vanmarcke (Belgium) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale, 
 4, Jasper Stuyven (Belgium) Trek-Segafredo,  
5, Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) Quick-Step Floors,  
6, Edward Theuns (Belgium) Team Sunweb, 
7, Bert Van Lerberghe (Belgium), Cofidis, Solutions Credits,  
8, Arnaud Demare (France) FDJ,
9, Marcus Burghardt (Germany) Bora-Hansgrohe

Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing) powers to stage 4 ITT victory in Al Maryah, Abu

Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing) rides into overall lead at the Abu Dhabi Tour after taking victory in stage 4 indiviual time trial in Al Marayh, Abu Dhabi.

 The Australian covered the 12.6km course in a time of 14:21, some 14 seconds quicker than his closest rival Jonathan Castroviejo (Team Sky), while his teammate Miles Scotson finished third a further two seconds back. Dennis now leads Castroviejo in the overall standings by the same margin he beat him by in the time trial.

World champion Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) was one of the favourites going into the stage but suffered a mechanical, which was fatal to his chances of victory.

The first time trial inception in the Abu Dhabi Tour

 Top Ten General classification from stage 4.

 1, Rohan Dennis (Australia) BMC Racing Team 11:21:10,
2, Jonathan Castroviejo (Spain) Team Sky 0:00:14,  
3, Miles Scotson (Australia) BMC Racing Team 0:00:16,  
4, Jos van Emden (Netherland) LottoNL-Jumbo,
5, Wilco Kelderman (Netherland) Team Sunweb,
 6, Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:00:17,
7, Patrick Bevin (NZl) BMC Racing Team 0:00:23, 
8, Alejandro Valverde (Spain) Movistar Team 0:00:24, 
9, Tom Dumoulin (Netherland) Team Sunweb 0:00:31, 
10, Julian Alaphilippe (France) Quick-Step Floors

Phil Bauhaus (Team Sunweb) wins stage 3 Abu Dhabi tour in Abu Dhabi.

Phil Bauhaus (Team Sunweb) wins stage 3 photo mass finishing of the Abu Dhabi Tour as Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) took second, and Pascal Ackerman (Bora-hansgrohe) wraps up third place of the previous stage.
 Meanwhile Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) finished fourth on the stage, and keeps his race lead.

                          How it unfolded

 A four-man group clipped off away for the first half of the stage, but things stayed together after that. The expected wind and echelons made only brief appearances.

Stage 3 with its 133 flat kilometres around the Emirate of Abu Dhabi was the last chance for the sprinters. Virtually from the start, the group of the day formed. Marco Maronese (Bardiani CSF), Sergey Firsanov (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Pierre Rolland (EF Education First-Drapac) and Sam Brand (Team Novo Nordisk).

 As expected, echelons came into play in the latter part of the stage and with 44.5km to go, the field split. The pace was high, and Alexander Kristoff fell victim as he crashed at a roundabout. It took him a minute or two to get going again and he had to work his way through the team cars alone.

 Top Ten General Classification from stage 3.

 1, Elia Viviani (Italy) Quick-Step Floor's 11:06:36,  
2, Alexander Kristoff (Norway) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:03,
 3, Phil Bauhaus (Germany) Team Sunweb,  
4,Pascal Ackermann (Germany) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:05, 
5, Danny van Poppel (Netherland) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:00:07,
6, Marcel Kittel (Germany) Katusha-Alpecin,  
7, Caleb Ewan (Australia) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:09,
8, Alejandro Valverde (Spain) Movistar Team 0:00:10,
9, Toms Skujins (Lat) Trek-Segafredo,  
10, Alessandro Tonelli (Italy) Bardiani CSF.

Abu Dhabi tour stage 2.

Elia Viviani (Team QuickStep-Floor's) wins wind split Abu Dhabi Tour stage 2 and move into race leaders red jersey in Yas Beach.
Danny van Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo) took second and Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) finish third.

 How it Happen

 A five-rider breakaway was caught with roughly 50km to go, as Katusha-Alpecin put pressure on the front of the field through a decisive crosswind section.

The team's efforts split the field apart, and some top riders including Kristoff were caught further back in the echelons. The groups merged with 18km to go and it was a sprint to the finish line in Yas Beach.

 Top Ten stage two results.

 1, Elia Viviani (Italy) Quick-Step Floor's 3:15:30,  
2, Danny van Poppel (Netherland) LottoNL-Jumbo,   
3, Pascal Ackermann (Germany) Bora-Hansgrohe,  
4, Kristoffer Halvorsen (Norway) Team Sky,
5, Caleb Ewan (Australia) Mitchelton-Scott,
6, Phil Bauhaus (Germany) Team Sunweb,
 7, Alexander Kristoff (Norway) UAE Team Emirates,    
8, Niccolo Bonifazio (Italy) Bahrain-Merida,  
9, Rudy Barbier (France) AG2R La Mondiale,  
10, Mark Renshaw (Australia) Dimension Data.

Abu Dhabi tour 2018

Alexander Kristoff (Team UAE) outpowers Andrea Gauadini (Bardiani CSF) and Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) to win opening first stage one of tour d Abu Dhabi Madinat Zayed. His win nets him the first race leaders jersey.

 The European road champion Kristoff looked out of it with 200m to go but jumped from behind Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) onto Ewan's tail before powering to the line. Despite a headwind, the Norwegian had enough in the tank to take the win by a clear margin. 

(Dimension Data) Mark Cavendish crashed out of the race in the neutralized zone, suffering concussion and whiplash. The British sprinter remounted and carried on for the opening few kilometres before pulling out of the race.Cavendish's fall overshadowed the opening of the stage.
The Dimension Data rider came down when the official race car appeared to tap on the brakes. This caused several riders to slow, with Cavendish one of the first to hit the ground. He gingerly got to his feet and briefly carried on before pulling over to the side of the road and leaving the race.

 Top Ten stage one Result

 1, Alexander Kristoff (Norway) UAE Team Emirates 4:48:24,  
2, Andrea Guardini (Italy) Bardiani CSF,
3, Caleb Ewan (Australia) Mitchelton-Scott, 
4, Elia Viviani (Italy) Quick-Step Floors,   
5, Daniel McLay (Great Britain) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale,
 6, Niccolo Bonifazio (Italy) Bahrain-Merida, 
  7, Michael Bresciani (Italy) Bardiani CSF,
 8, Danny van Poppel (Netherlan) LottoNL-Jumbo, 
  9, Rudy Barbier (France) AG2R La Mondiale, 
10, André Greipel (Germany) Lotto Soudal