Young Australian sprinter Caleb Ewan (Orica-BikeExchange) won Germanys’ biggest one-day Classic, the Euroeyes Cyclassics in Hamburg. Ewan, 22, took the victory in a tumultuous, rainsoaked 217-kilometre race after Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis), the first to cross the line, was relegated. “It's great to get a European win under my belt for this season, it was an eventful day all round after suffering a puncture and then crashing twice although fortunately I landed on my feet both times,” Ewan said. John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) completed the podium.
Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) leads the Vuelta a España after the first two days of racing in the Spanish Grand Tour. Team Sky took a narrow victory in the opening team time trial stage, with Peter Kennaugh the race’s first leader. Then following a bunch sprint stage on Sunday won by Belgium’s Gianni Meersman (Etixx-QuickStep), Kwiatkowski, who placed fourth on the stage, became Poland’s first-ever leader of the Vuelta a España.
Former UCI World Champion Philippe Gilbert will switch teams in 2017. The Belgian Classics star and current national champion will race with Etixx-QuickStep. Now 34, Gilbert is one of only two riders to have won all three Ardennes Classics, the Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He was also crowned UCI World Champion in 2012 and has won stages in all three Grand Tours, leading the Tour de France in 2011.
In the UCI WorldTour classification, Peter Sagan remains on top of the ranking with 445 points and no changes in the top ten overall. Spain head the nations classification, and in the teams ranking Movistar Team continue to lead.
As of August 14th, Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) continues to lead in the UCI Individual World Ranking ahead of Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team). In the only major change in the top ten overall Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo) moved from eleventh to seventh. In the countries ranking, France remains the leader, ahead of Spain and Belgium.
The 2016 UCI WorldTour has now completed 18,592.6 kilometres
Vuelta a España, Saturday August 20th - Sunday September 11th.
Bretagne Classic Ouest-France Sunday August 28th
Last year’s results
Vuelta a España 1. Fabio Aru (ITA) 2. Joaquin Rodríguez (ESP) 3. Rafal Majka (POL)
Bretagne Classique Ouest-France 1. Alexander Kristoff (NOR) 2. Simone Ponzi (ITA) 3. Ramunas Navardauskas (LTU)
Roughly 230 kilometres long, the Bretagne Classic Ouest-France is held in and near the village of Plouay in western France.
First held in 1931, this year the Bretagne Classic Ouest-France celebrates its seventieth edition.
France has 62 wins, by far the most of any nation. Second is Italy with four. The most recent French winner was Sylvain Chavanel in 2014.
Originally known as the Grand Prix de Plouay, the first race was won by Breton rider François Favé. It is run entirely by volunteers, all members of the local Comité des Fêtes de Plouay.
Last year’s edition was won by Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha) in a bunch sprint of 69 riders, his twentieth and last victory of the season.
No rider has ever managed to win the Bretagne Classic Ouest-France more than twice, and of the nine riders to do so, all are French.
The course consists of eight laps of a 27-km circuit and one 14-km lap. The circuit is known for its relentless series of short climbs and technical descents. The most important of these is the Côte de Ty-Marrec, with a gradient of up to 10 percent.
The 2000 UCI Road World Championships, won by Latvian Romans Vainsteins, were held on the Bretagne Classic Ouest-France circuit.
Since 2002, a women’s race, the GP de Plouay-Bretagne has been held the day before the men's event on the same circuit. Last year the GP de Plouay-Bretagne, now part of the UCI Women’s WorldTour, was won by reigning UCI World Champion Elizabeth Armitstead.
Esteban Chaves is a Colombian professional cyclist with the Orica-BikeExchange team. 26 years old and from Bogota, he turned pro in 2011, winning the Tour de L’Avenir that same season. Chaves is a stage race specialist, whose biggest result to date is second overall in this year's Giro d’Italia. Last year, he finished fifth overall in the Vuelta a España, leading the race for several days and winning two stages.
Major results and victories
2011: Tour de L’Avenir, overall.
2012: Vuelta a Burgos, one stage.
2014: Tour of California, one stage. Tour de Suisse, one stage.
2015: Vuelta a España, two stages and fifth overall.
2016: Giro d’Italia, one stage and second overall.
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