Pro Log: Giro’s Stelvio replacement in doubt, Vollering completes Spanish triple, Sam Bennett dominates Dunkerque, and USA nationals

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Pro Log: Giro’s Stelvio replacement in doubt, Vollering completes Spanish triple, Sam Bennett dominates Dunkerque, and USA nationals

While we all take our breath after another day of Tadej Pogačar doing Tadej Pogačar things on the Queen stage of the Giro d’Italia yesterday, stretching his lead to a whopping six minutes overall, it’s time to catch up on all the other stuff going on in the world of pro cycling.

Last week wasn’t all about Italy, with the Women’s WorldTour wrapping up its stint in Spain, the six days of 4 Jours de Dunkerque providing an alternative for those not picked for the Giro, and nationals season getting underway in the USA.

Tomorrow’s Giro route uncertain

This year’s Giro d’Italia has been relatively unscathed compared to the battering recent editions have taken due to poor weather conditions, however the one victim is tomorrow’s stage, Stage 16, which takes riders from Livigno to Santa Cristina Valgardena.

The original parcours went up the Stelvio from Bormio early on, before descending the classic Stelvio road to take riders to the final climbs about 100km later. That was changed last week due to the snowy conditions on top of the Stelvio as well as some severe damage to the road on the way down. A revised route was announced that would see the peloton do the climb but descend down Umbrail Pass into Switzerland to rejoin the original route further on.

However Italian magazine Tutto Bici reported this morning that potential incoming rain and low temperatures has led to rumours that the route could once again be changed, most likely with the stage sticking to the Swiss route but cutting out the Stelvio and Umbrail entirely. That would leave about 80-90km of downhill and flat roads before the final pair of climbs, which add up to about 35km.

Demi Vollering reigns in Spain

Not content with a dominant victory at La Vuelta Femenina and an SD Worx-Protime clean sweep at Itzulia, Demi Vollering was at it again at the Vuelta a Burgos last week. Vollering won two stages as well as the points and mountains jerseys on her way to completing a clean sweep of Spanish stage races.

After a Classics season that didn’t quite live up to expectations, she’s setting herself up nicely to defend her Tour de France title, which will be in August this year to avoid a clash with the Olympics, which she wants to win as well. After all, Demi doesn’t do things by halves.

Is Sam Bennett back?

Since his green jersey win in 2020, Sam Bennett has struggled to get back to the same world-beating form. He left QuickStep and had a not very successful stint back at Bora-Hansgrohe before moving to Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale over the winter. And he couldn’t have timed it better with the team stacking wins so far this season.

He was without a win going into the 4 Jours de Dunkerque, which is confusingly a six-stage race, but he came out with four stage wins, a second place, a third place, the points jersey and the general classification.

While it wasn’t a Tour de France-level field, it’s a good sign of form for the Irishman and will certainly boost his confidence going into some bigger races.

Nationals season is underway

The time between the Giro and the Tour is always marked by national championships. While some countries including Australia and New Zealand get theirs out the way at the start of the year, this is when most happen, so riders can get their jerseys in time for the Tour de France.

Most of the action will take place in the back end of June, with the British champs running from 19th-23rd June in Tees Valley and North Yorkshire, but the United States held their races over this past weekend in Charleston, West Virginia.

Bagging themselves a year time-trialling in the Stars and Stripes were UAE Team Emirates’s Brandon McNulty and triathlete Taylor Knibb, who both earned a spot on the American Olympic squad with their victories. In the road races, McNulty was outsprinted by EF Education-EasyPost’s Sean Quinn, meanwhile EF Education-Cannondale’s Kristen Faulkner carried her form into the race and soloed to a pretty hefty victory.

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