Kwiatkowski in demand
The majority of the transfer talk in recent weeks has centred on Alexander Kristoff, who is out of contract at the end of the season, and who has enjoyed a stellar spring. The Norwegian's stock has undoubtedly risen but in all likelihood he will re-sign with Katusha in the coming months, with the team also set to continue. That leaves the world champion, Michal Kwiatkowski, as the most sought after rider on the market for 2016 – although Dan Martin's and Richie Porte's agents may have another set of opinions on that.
The fact that Patrick Lefevere wasn't able to ensure that the Polish rider extended his deal after winning the Worlds may raise some eyebrows but the Belgian team manager is one of the canniest transfer market kingpins on the scene. He apparently showed interest in Nacer Bouhanni last year just to drive up Cofidis' bid [insert applause] and there's little chance that he will let both the world champion and Mark Cavendish slip through his fingers in the same season. As for Kwiatkowski, he continues to develop as both a rider and team leader. More on him and Etixx later. (DB)
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BMC: Can lightning strike twice?
Last year BMC used Samuel Sánchez to beautifully set up Philippe Gilbert with a late attack to draw out his rivals before the Belgian finally made his killer move.
It worked so well that BMC tried almost exactly the same move on Sunday. Instead of Sánchez, the team used Ben Hermans this year but the process was exactly the same, even down to Greg Van Avermaet following a Jakob Fuglsang move on the run to the bottom of the Cauberg. The rest of the pack were wise to it and only CCC Sprandi's Maciej Paterski followed Hermans. When Gilbert's attack finally did come, Matthews was right on his wheel.
At the end of the race BMC were left with fifth and 10th for their efforts, and while that's far from the result they raced for, it's hard to question the team's tactics too much.
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