As the Giro d’Italia reaches its second rest day, Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) has a commanding 2m 12s overall lead in the Italian Grand Tour over Colombian Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge), with Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) another 39 seconds further back. Kruijswijk took the Giro d’Italia lead after finishing second behind Chaves on an extremely mountainous stage 14 through the Dolomites. He strengthened his overall advantage 24 hours later with second place in a 10.5 kilometre uphill time trial.
Following his high-profile abandon from the Giro d’Italia, Spain’s Mikel Landa has said that he could now make his debut in the Tour de France, in the role of support rider for Sky team-mate Chris Froome. Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), Ryder Hesjedal (Trek-Segafredo) and André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) also left the Giro in the 2nd week.
At the Amgen Tour of California, 23-year-old Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-QuickStep) took the first stage race victory of his career. The youngest ever, and first French, winner of the Amgen Tour of California, took overall victory ahead of BMC Racing Team riders Rohan Dennis and Brent Bookwalter.
As of May 15th, Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) continues to lead in the UCI WorldRankings, with 2,215 points ahead of Nairo Quintana (Movistar), with 1,420.25 points and Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo) with 1,417 points. France continues to lead in the UCI WorldRankings nations classification.
The 2016 UCI WorldTour has now completed 10,021 kilometres
UCI WorldTour:
Giro d’Italia: Friday May 6th - Sunday May 29th
2015 Giro d’Italia: 1. Alberto Contador 2. Fabio Aru 3. Mikel Landa
Now part of the UCI Europe Tour, the Baloise Belgium Tour (May 25-29) was first organised in 1908.
Germany’s Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) holds the record for overall victories, with three (2012-2014). Other prestigious winners include Stan Ockers (1948), Pino Cerami (1957), Vittorio Adorni (1966), Eric de Vlaeminck (1969), Eddy Merckx (1970, 1971), Freddy Maertens (1975), Tom Boonen (2005) and Philippe Gilbert (2011). Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team) is the defending champion.
The Baloise Belgium Tour features a ‘Golden Kilometre’ classification, which consists of three hot spot or intermediate sprints in the space of one kilometre. The Golden Kilometre is situated roughly 25 kilometres from the finish of each stage.
Greg Van Avermaet (31) is a Belgian professional cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTour team BMC Racing Team. Pro since 2007, this versatile rider is a specialist in one-day races and week-long stage races. Injured in the Ronde van Vlaanderen when he broke his collarbone, Van Avermaet made a recent return to racing at the Tour of California.
Major wins:
Stage racing:
2016: Tirreno-Adriatico, one stage and overall.
2015: Tour de France, one stage. Ronde van België/Tour de Belgique, one stage and overall. Tirreno-Adriatico, one stage.
2014: Eneco Tour, one stage.
2013: Tour de Wallonie, two stages and overall.
2011: Tour de Wallonie, one stage and overall. Osterreich-Rundfahrt/Tour of Austria, one stage.
2008: Tour de Wallonie, one stage.
2007: Tour de Wallonie, one stage.
One-day racing
2016: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
2011: Paris-Tours
On May 23, we are 75 days from the Olympic Games in Rio.
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