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Pro Log: Tour de France crisp man arrested, Elisa Longo Borghini wins Giro d’Italia Women, Josh Tarling extends with Ineos Grenadiers
Welcome back to another edition of Pro Log.
The Tour de France is on the second rest day before the final slog to Nice. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) continues to wear the yellow jersey and has a lead of 3min 09sec over closest competitor Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) fought off stiff competition from Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) to win the Giro d’Italia Women by 21 seconds as Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) won the final stage of the race from the breakaway. Neve Bradbury (Canyon-SRAM) completed the podium in third overall and won the queen stage on Blockhaus.
Marlen Reusser (SD Worx-Protime) has revealed she will miss the Olympics due to a post-infectious syndrome. The Swiss rider, who won a silver medal at the last Olympic Games in the individual time-trial, will now aim to rest and recover before the World Championships in Zurich in September.
Tadej Pogačar leads the Tour de France
Tadej Pogačar continues to dominate the Tour de France in his quest to win the maillot jaune for the first time since 2021. He looks in good shape to do so, winning back-to-back mountain stages with hors categorie summit finishes at the end of the second week.
Vingegaard continues to fight, however, consistently the second-place finisher to Pogačar, and even managing to out-sprint the Slovenian on Stage 11. On that same day, Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) crashed in the final kilometres, followed by another crash the next day, which would prove too much and he abandoned the Tour the following day.
Elsewhere, the sprinters faced an uphill struggle to finish within the time limit on Stage 15. Riders had to scale four Category 1 climbs in the Pyrenees before the final test of the Plateau de Beille in the time limit. A gruppetto of the last men on the road formed early in the stage and persisted to the finish line. Mark Cavendish was shepherded by his Astana Qazaqstan teammates Davide Ballerini, Alexey Lutsenko and Cees Bol, while Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) and Arnaud Démare (Arkéa–B&B Hotels) were a further minute behind, 52 minutes down on Pogačar.
Unfortunately the final man on the road, Bram Welten (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL), finished almost four minutes outside of the time cut and was forced to leave the Tour on his debut.
Spectator arrested at Tour de France
A man who threw crisps in the faces of Pogačar and Vingegaard at the Tour was arrested for ‘aggravated violence while in a drunk state’ and has since been released from jail with no charges filed. The spectator was captured on TV cameras on Stage 14 as the race scaled Pla d’Adet.
We have information that the Gendarmerie have already found and arrested the man who did this act and spent the last night in jail. We thank the Gendarmerie for their fast great work, and this is a sign not to do this to the cyclist. Please be responsible and respect the riders. https://t.co/n9zqBwgbWs
— Adam Hansen (@HansenAdam) July 14, 2024
Adam Hansen, president of the rider’s union, released a statement on X to state it would be seeking further legal action.
Elisa Longo Borghini victorious at Giro d’Italia Women
Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl Trek) has won her first maglia rosa after beating Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) by 21 seconds at the Giro d’Italia Women. Longo Borghini led the race from the individual time-trial on Stage 1 and never relinquished her advantage. Kopecky climbed up to second overall after Stage 3 and her sprint victory on Stage 5 helped close the deficit.
It all came down to a thrilling final day. Kopecky sat just one second behind Longo Borghini on GC. On a stage won by Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) of Mauritius in a three-up sprint from the breakaway, Longo Borghini was able to power ahead of Kopecky in the final kilometre and finish 20 seconds ahead of her rival. The victory sealed Italy’s first maglia rosa since Fabiana Luperini in 2008.
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After the final stage, Longo Borghini said, ‘People were doubting, they were like “Oh, Kopecky will outsprint you.” I just wanted to cross the line with the maglia rosa and to show everybody I was the strongest and that Lidl-Trek is the strongest team. I like the adrenaline when it’s about one second; I like the head-to-head fight and I like to fight until the end.
‘When I see the finish line I just see red, like a bull, and I want to go straight to it. Today I really wanted to give it back to Kopecky… I was nervous in a very good way and I was like, “I’m going to crack you, no matter what.”’
Josh Tarling extends with Ineos Grenadiers
Josh Tarling
— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) July 15, 20242⃣0⃣2⃣7⃣
We're thrilled to announce that Josh will race as a Grenadier until the end of 2027 after signing a new multi-year dealpic.twitter.com/4u2dYRhZgl
2⃣0⃣2⃣7⃣
British National Time-Trial Champion Josh Tarling has signed a contract extension with Ineos Grenadiers that will keep him at the team through to the end of 2027. 20-year-old Tarling, who turned professional with the team in 2023, has excelled in time-trialling, winning National and European titles for Great Britain. Last year he finished third at the World Championships behind Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) and Filippo Ganna (Italy).
His first WorldTour win on the road came at the Renewi Tour in 2023, when he beat Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) by 14 seconds in the 13.6km time-trial. He equalled the record for being the youngest winner of a WorldTour race in the process, matching Evenepoel (at the Clásica San Sebastián in 2019) as being 19 years and 190 days old at the time of his success.
Tarling is hoping for a podium for the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris.
See you next week.
The post Pro Log: Tour de France crisp man arrested, Elisa Longo Borghini wins Giro d’Italia Women, Josh Tarling extends with Ineos Grenadiers appeared first on Cyclist.