VN news ticker: USA Cycling partners with FloSports; Tom Dumoulin, Richard Carapaz headline in Switzerland
Here's the news making the headlines on Friday, June 6.
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USA Cycling partners with FloSports to broadcast championships events
USA Cycling announced Friday a three-year partnership with FloSports to stream cycling events in the United States, to begin later this month.
Starting with the 2021 USA Cycling professional road national championships in Knoxville, Tennessee (June 17-20), coverage will also include USA Cycling cyclocross national championships (December 7-14), mountain bike national championships (July 5-14), BMX freestyle national championships (TBD), and collegiate track national championships (September 9-11) through the 2023 season.
FloSports has also committed to making an annual donation of $10,000 to USA Cycling’s Olympic Development Academy.
FloSports subscribers can watch events streamed through a web browser or a mobile app.
Tom Dumoulin, Richard Carapaz, Esteban Chaves headline men’s Tour de Suisse
Tom Dumoulin, Richard Carapaz, and Esteban Chaves will be among the star names lining up at the eight-day Tour de Suisse.
The second of the major Tour de France warm-up races begins this Sunday with a fast and furious 10km time trial around Frauenfeld. Several hilly and medium mountain stages follow the time trial before the first major climbing day arrives on stage 5.
From there it’s climbing almost all the way. Even the race’s second time trial on stage 7 features a category 1 ascent, followed by a tricky descent. The 23.2km chrono will likely force a big shuffle in the general classification before the final 160km showdown on stage 8, which features 3,560 meters of elevation gain.
For Dumoulin, the Tour de Suisse is his first race back after pumping the brakes temporarily on his career earlier this year. With the Olympic Games on his horizon, the two time trials will be key testers of how he has trained during his time away. A bid for the GC title is unlikely, but it’s hard to predict just where Dumoulin will be after so little racing.
With his Ineos Grenadiers teammates on good form at the Critérium du Dauphiné this week, Carapaz will be aiming to make a statement of his own ahead of the Tour de France. Aside from a couple of strong rides at the Ardennes Classics, Carapaz has had a relatively quiet season thus far.
Chaves will lead the line for Team BikeExchange at the Tour de Suisse alongside Lucas Hamilton. The Colombian has shown signs of his former self in the early part of the season, with top 10 finishes in Catalunya and the Basque Country, and the Tour de Suisse will be a shot at building on that.
https://twitter.com/JumboVismaRoad/status/1392757213563863044?s=20
Revived women’s Tour de Suisse ready to roll out
Some 20 years after the first edition was held, the women’s Tour de Suisse will roll out for the second time Saturday.
The race faced an uphill struggle to get going and the organizers had to resort to crowdfunding in April to ensure it went ahead.
The women’s Tour de Suisse will center around Frauenfeld, where the men’s race will depart Sunday, with two stages. The opening day of racing features a hilly 114km test, including three classified climbs, while the 97km stage 2 is close to pan-flat.
The route should suit the strong sprinters who are not afraid of a few climbs.
Home hero and former cross-country mountain bike world champion Jolanda Neff will be the headline act at the two-day race. Swiss road race champion Elise Chabbey of Canyon-SRAM will also be in Frauenfeld and could provide the home nation with a shot at victory.
Trek-Segafredo is set to bring a stellar line-up with recent Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour champion Lucinda Brand, along with Lizzie Deignan, and Ellan van Dijk.