VN news ticker: Mathieu van der Poel confirmed for worlds road race start, Davide Rebellin suffers double leg fractures at Memorial Marco Pantani
Here's the news making headlines for Monday, September 20.
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Mathieu van der Poel confirmed for worlds road race start
Mathieu van der Poel is confirmed to start the 2021 worlds road race.
Dutch national team coach Koos Moerenhout confirmed van der Poel will start the elite men’s road race Sunday, September 26, reported the Dutch news source Maakt Wielerdromen Waar.
“Mathieu has not had the ideal run-up to this World [Champoionships], but he certainly gives an extra dimension to our road team, it increases our chances of success that he participates. He may not be the outspoken favorite due to his physical issues leading up to this World Cup, but he will certainly be a rider to watch. I’m glad he’s getting started,” Moerenhout said.
The four-time cyclocross world champion who wore the yellow jersey for a week at the 2021 Tour de France crashed on the first lap of the 2021 Olympic mountain bike race in August.
The 26-year-old has been on a rocky path to recovery since, suffering back pain, and did not contest the individual time trial Sunday.
A week ago, the Dutch phenom appeared to be on the mend, winning the 183km Antwerp Port Epic from a breakaway.
Davide Rebellin suffers double leg fractures at Memorial Marco Pantani
Davide Rebellin suffered a broken tibia and a broken fibula when he crashed at the Memorial Marco Pantani Sunday. He was immediately taken to a hospital in Forli, reported Wielerflits.
Sonny Colbrelli won the race in a time of 4:50:29. Vincenzo Albanese (Eolo-Kometa Cycling Team) and Alex Aranburu (Astana-Premier Tech) took the minor podium positions with the same finishing time.
Rebellin, 50, turned pro in 1992. He wore the maglia rosa in stages 7 – 12 of the 1996 Giro d’Italia. In 2001, he won the GC at the Tirreno-Adriatico. Three years later, in 2004, Rebelli won the Amstel Gold Race, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, and La Flèche Wallone — which he won again in 2007 and 2009. He took the overall title at the 2008 Paris-Nice.
The Italian was stripped of his silver medal from the 2008 Olympic road race when his B-sample indicated the presence of CERA. Fabian Cancellara was elevated from third place to second place as a result of Rebellin’s results removal.
More recently, Rebellin has raced 34 days in 2021, and finished 7th at the Tour of Romania while racing for the UCI Continental team Work Service–Marchiol–Dynatek.
Magnus Sheffield steps up to WorldTour with Ineos Grenadiers
The young American rider Magnus Sheffield will race for Ineos Grenadiers next season.
Sheffield, 19, will join the British squad having already parted ways with Rally Cycling last month. The New Yorker will become the first American to race with the Sky / Ineos franchise since Joe Dombrowski and Ian Boswell.
“Magnus has shown that he’s a gutsy racer, and one that when faced with challenges has the aptitude to create solutions to overcome what life throws at him,” said team director Rod Ellingworth.
“The way he sets himself goals and works towards them is a quality that fits with the Ineos Grenadiers ethos. Developing up and coming talent is now a real focus for this team, and it will be interesting to see how he grows over the coming seasons.”
Sheffield first jumped to the world’s view when he placed third behind teammate Quinn Simmons at the 2019 junior world championships. He lost a season of road racing due to the pandemic in 2020 but put the time to good use by breaking the junior 3km individual pursuit record at the U.S. training center in Colorado, setting a time of 3:06:447.
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❤️Thank you to everyone for their kind messages! I’m super happy to be able to pull this off with everything that’s going on in the world. Grazie @Pinarello_com pic.twitter.com/SoIz4xhIZW— Magnus Sheffield (@MagnusSheffield) November 20, 2020
Sheffield is hoping to discover more about his road racing skillset in his first season with Ineos Grenadiers next year.
“I see myself as an all-rounder, I would say that the one-day races are the ones I like the most, especially with the cobbles, but the first couple of years on the team I just want to see which type of terrain suits me,” Sheffield said.
“The next couple years I’m looking forward to gaining as much experience as possible and really just trying to find the style of racing I like the most. Then also being able to help my teammates succeed.”
Sheffield is one of a handful of young talents that Ineos Grenadiers has signed in recent months. The American will join 20-year-old duo Luke Plapp and Ben Tulett at the team next season.
https://twitter.com/INEOSGrenadiers/status/1439869591912603651
Anna van der Breggen pulls out of world championships mixed relay
Anna van der Breggen has pulled out of world championships mixed relay as she scrambles for recovery time ahead of Saturday’s road race.
Riejanne Markus will now race alongside Annemiek van Vleuten and Ellen van Dijk in Wednesday’s relay race.
Van der Breggen had already decided not to race the European championships last week and will not defend her world time trial title Monday. The Dutchwoman has been struggling with fatigue since the Olympics and is looking for additional recovery time ahead of her final race before retirement at the worlds road race this weekend.
Evie Richards wins MTB World Cup round in Snowshoe
Evie Richards (Trek Factory Racing) doubled her short-track victory with a cross country race win at the UCI mountain bike World Cup on Sunday. Richards beat Rebecca McConnell (Primaflor Mondraker) and Anne Tauber (PostNL Bafang) on the Snowshoe circuit after McConnell flatted while leading the race.
Richards’ victory slotted her up to second overall in what was the final round of the World Cup. Loana Lecomte (Massi) won the overall despite not racing in West Virginia this weekend.
The victory puts a cap on a standout summer for Richards, who won the world championships in August before scoring her first World Cup victory in Lenzerheide earlier this month.
“I can’t believe it. It sounds crazy that I am up to second in the overall. I did not think in Albstadt [the first round of the World Cup] that this would be my season,” Richards said.
“I was quite stressed in the race because it was hard to hear the splits because the crowds were so noisy. So I was just trying to do consistent laps but also save something for the end in case someone came up to me. I love being in America, they really do lay on the best races.”
Christopher Blevins made history with his victory in the men’s race later in the day, becoming the first American male to win at the World Cup since 1994.