The 2019 Tour of California came to a close last week, with Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) leading home a youthful men's podium, while Boels Dolmans dominated the women's competition, taking two stage wins and the overall title with Anna van der Breggen.
The 20-year-old Pogacar took the lead in the men's race on Mt. Baldy and then finished safely in the bunch on the final day to beat Sergio Higuita (EF Education First) and Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep). Van der Breggen stamped her authority on the women's race early with a stage 1 victory that upset the teams hoping for a sprint finish.
As well as their winners, the two races gave us plenty of talking points, and Cyclingnews has put together a list eight conclusions from the two events.
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There are no rules in cycling
There are no rules in cycling; there are only suggestions and guidelines based on circumstances and who’s involved. Once you embrace that obvious-but-rarely stated truth, everything about the jury's decision to give Tejay van Garderen (EF Education First) the same time as the field at the end of stage 4 in Morro Bay makes perfect sense.
Van Garderen and his EF teammates found themselves uncomfortably far from the front on the technical final run-in to Morro Bay. As Deceuninck-QuickStep picked up the pace on the front, van Garderen touched wheels in the bunch and hit the deck with just over seven kilometres to go. After several mishaps delayed his chase, van Garderen and the EF train got up to steam and were gaining ground when they came upon more chaos caused by another crash at 3.2km, just shy of the magical three-kilometre line that is supposed to absolve any time lost to such mishaps. When the provisional results came in, van Garderen lost 51 seconds and had dropped to 13th place behind new race leader Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep), who finished 10th on the stage won by teammate Fabio Jakobsen. That didn’t stand, however, as confusion reigned in team parking before word started to filter in that officials had revised the results. Van Garderen said he was told he was out of yellow, then back in, then out, then finally back in again.
"I was as confused as everyone else," van Garderen said the next day.
Another false start for Cavendish
Sometimes less is more
Rise of the young riders
Tour of California Women’s Race faces equality complaints
Boels Dolmans live up to expectations and dominate first-ever summit to Mt. Baldy
Fewer chances for sprinters
USA Cycling earn their spot in California
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/tour-of-california-8-conclusions-from-the-mens-and-womens-races
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