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via Cyclingnews Latest Race Results http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/vuelta-ciclista-comunidad-de-madrid-2018/stage-3/results
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Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) took overall victory at the 2018 Tour de Yorkshire, as Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis) scored a sensational solo victory on the final stage of the race. It was 34 seconds later that Van Avermaet won the sprint for second, while Ian Bibby (JLT Condor) rounded off the podium.
Already having been in the break on stage 2, Rossetto was out front on his own for almost 120km of the 189.5km queen stage. The 31-year-old was part of the day's initial break, attacking after 40km and then shedding his final break-mate on the hardest climb of the race before embarking on his lonely quest.
Van Avermaet's victory came after Eddie Dunbar (Aqua Blue Sport) had blown up the race up on the final climb of the day, 18km from the line. With race leader Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana) dropped and four BMC riders in the lead group, all that remained was for the American squad to fend off any attacks before the Belgian completed the job in the sprint.
Rossetto, who also won the mountains classification, compared the "amazing" race to the Tour de France after finishing, and cited Sylvain Chavanel and Vincenzo Nibali as inspirations for his fighting style.
"It's one of the most beautiful victories of my career," he said. "I'm very moved. It's a huge win and a real life lesson - it shows if you work hard it pays off. I'm a bit of an old-fashioned rider, never over-calculating or over-analysing things. I like to get out there and take it on."
The overall victory marks Van Avermaet's second victory of the year, and his first since the Tour of Oman in February. Eduard Prades (Euskadi-Murias) took second overall, nine seconds down, while Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data) was third at 14 seconds.
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Harry Tanfield (Canyon-Eisberg) took a surprise win on the first stage of the Tour de Yorkshire in Doncaster, as the breakaway held off the peloton on what was expected to be a nailed-on sprint. Alistair Slater (JLT Condor) finished second, while Mike Cuming (Madison-Genesis) rounded off the podium.
Despite a full-throated effort from the peloton - including Team Sky, Dimension Data and Team Sunweb - the breakaway riders held their advantage into the final kilometres, even having time to play cat-and-mouse before launching their sprints for the line.
Emerson Oronte (Rally Cycling) opened it up, some 300 metres from the line, but it was Tanfield who picked the right wheel. The 23-year-old launched himself from behind Slater at just the right time to break down the middle and take the first victory at the race for a British Continental team.
Yorkshire native Tanfield told of his surprise at the situation the break found themselves in as the kilometres ticked down.
"Everyone was committed to the finish," he said. "When we saw the 3km sign on the road, we looked around and couldn't see the peloton anywhere, so I was like 'let's ride.'"
"I wouldn't really call it a sprint. It was more like a time trial to the line," Tanfield added. "Everyone was gassed and it was a bit of a headwind. I just went straight up the middle and had time to get my hands in the air, so I can't complain."
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Kirsten Wild (Wiggle-High5) won the opening stage of the 2018 Women's Tour de Yorkshire, beating Amalie Dideriksen (Boels-Dolmans) and Alice Barnes (Canyon-SRAM) to the line in a bunch sprint in Doncaster.
The Dutchwoman was the heavy favourite, having triumphed on this very same finish in 2016 when the race was a one-day event, and duly delivered with a powerful seated sprint.
With a time bonus of 10 seconds for her victory, she pulls on the first blue leader's jersey in the history of the race, this being its first running as a two-day affair
"I'm really happy with a finish like this. When I heard it was the same finish as two years ago I was very excited," Wild said in her post-race flash interview. "It's really cool to win, and after such hard work from the team it makes it even more cool to win."
The opening stage from Beverley to Doncaster was always likely to culminate in a bunch sprint, with just one categorised climb on the 132.5km route. The Côte de Baggaby Hill came after 40km and after getting into an early break, 17-year-old Georgi Pfeiffer (Jadan-Weldtite Vive le Velo) hung on to claim the queen of the mountains jersey. The peloton then reformed before a more serious break went clear but, containing just two riders - Anna Christian (Trek-Drops) and Natalie van Gogh (Parkhotel Valkenburg) - it was never a real threat to the sprinters teams in the peloton.
Wiggle-High5 kept well hidden on the run-in to Doncaster, and perhaps profited from errors from rivals in the final couple of kilometres. First Sunweb misjudged a roundabout and ceded their position on the front to Wiggle, and less than a kilometre later Canyon-SRAM misread the final bend, taking their nominated sprinter Hannah Barnes out of the equation.
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Letizia Paternoster (Astana Women) sprinted to victory in an action-packed final stage of the Festival Elsy Jacobs. The win ahead of Lotta Lepisto was enough to give the 18-year-old the overall title, the biggest road win of her career so far.
The young Italian managed to win a chaotic bunch sprint at the conclusion of a very exciting stage, which saw the yellow jersey and local favourite Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans) pushed down to second on general classification. Fourth on the day, American rider Alexis Ryan (Canyon//SRAM) finished third overall.
With many riders close together on the general classification, everything was to play for as the day started and the peloton headed out on a long opening loop. The first GPM brought no fireworks, though over the top Sofia Beggin (Astana Women) instigated a break of three women when she was joined first by Manon Lloyd (Trek Drops), then Jessy Druyts (Lotto-Soudal). The trio survived until the peloton reached the local laps around Garnich, only caught with 43km to go.
Once on those circuits, and having remained hidden on the opening classified climb, Sofia Bertizzolo (Astana Women) won the second GPM, and in so doing secured the blue WMT Ceratizit Group climber’s jersey, crossing the line at the top of the Montée de Garnich first.
Her move to win the points drew out some of the race favourites, Majerus, Ryan, Eugenia Bujak (BTC-City Ljubljana), Sabrina Stultiens (Waowdeals) and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo-Bigla) all forming a break away, though the Italian was soon dropped. With a substantial lead Moolman-Pasio attacked, putting a now isolated Majerus under pressure.
Soon after Moolman-Pasio was caught, and a group of around 35 riders formed, though the attacks continued, with the Luxembourg champion forced to close each one down.
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Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) has won the overall classification at the Tour de Romandie, beating Team Sky’s Egan Bernal to take the title. Meanwhile, Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) took victory ahead of Michael Morkov (Quick-Step Floors) in a sprint finish in Geneva on the final day of racing.
Roglic had all but sealed his overall success on Saturday’s queen stage when he eked out a couple of extra seconds over Bernal by beating him in the sprint to the line. The final stage did not have the terrain to really test the general classification riders, but the LottoNL-Jumbo rider still had to keep an eye on his rival, particularly in the final when it looked like Bernal might try something before moving off in the final kilometre. As the sprinters battled it out for victory, Roglic eased over the line to take the title by eight seconds over Bernal.
“I think we are all really happy with this win. With the whole team I think that we showed we are really strong, we have really strong guys and it was a pleasure to work with them and to win in the end,” said Roglic.
“Every day was a really hard day. I think that the prologue helped to decide things and then the next day was hard, and of course, the mountain time trial and yesterday completed the racing here in the Tour of Romandie. “I was optimistic before [the time trial]. I was really strong before and it was nice to see that I could do a good job.”
Ackermann had been relatively anonymous throughout the Tour de Romandie as he battled to hang on in the mountains. With many sprinters heading home after missing the time cut in Friday’s time trial, the German was one of the major favourites for success on the last day of racing. He was given an inch-perfect lead-out by Rudiger Selig and backed that up with a powerful sprint to take his first win of the season.
“I never will forget it. Two weeks ago after the Amstel Gold Race, I said to my team manager that I will win one stage in Romandie. I’m so happy. It’s amazing,” Ackermann said after the finish. “The team made an amazing job not only today but on the other days because they had to carry me all over the mountains and it was not just about today.
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Overall winner of the 2017 Festival Elsy Jacobs, Christine Majerus (Boels Dolmans), will start this year’s final stage on Sunday wearing the yellow jersey, after winning stage two in Steinfort today. In a repeat performance from last season, 31-year-old Majerus timed her sprint to perfection, just edging out Alexis Ryan (Canyon-SRAM) and Eugenia Bujak (BTC-City Ljubljana), who herself was second on this stage 12 months ago.
The 97.7km stage, starting and finishing in Steinfort, began at high pace, with no early breaks able to get away, but as the race progressed the action began.
Sofia Bertizzolo (Astana Women’s team) worked and was rewarded with the took the WNT Ceratizit Group Mountains jersey after winning the first two classified climbs at Kopstal and Koerich. Then, on the second of five closing laps around Steinfort, Monamine Eri (Maaslandster International) attacked to ride the rest of the lap alone.
With the Japanese champion’s advantage shrinking the next time the peloton crossed the line she was joined by Marta Cavalli (Valcar-PBM) and former Dutch champion Anouska Koster (Waowdeals), the trio working well together.
However, as they reached the final ascent at Koerich they were caught and the stage was set for a sprint finish.
Canyon//SRAM, whose Lisa Klein started the day wearing the leader’s Skoda yellow jersey took charge at the front of the bunch, but with Majerus’s Boels-Dolmans protecting her in the final, she was able to take the win.
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Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) took victory on the queen stage of the Tour de Romandie after attacking solo on the final descent. The Dane’s win is the second of the race for the Astana team, which took stage 1 with Omar Fraile.
Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) beat Egan Bernal (Team Sky) in the sprint for second place, some 47 seconds behind Fuglsang, to extend his lead over the Colombian in the general classification. Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) and Richie Porte (BMC Racing) followed them across the line to take fourth and fifth, respectively, with Porte giving away two seconds plus bonus seconds to Roglic and Bernal in the GC battle.
Fuglsang looked intent on securing himself his first win of the season, following an earlier attack by Costa on the final climb. The pair was eventually brought back when Bernal launched a flurry of attacks towards the top of the ascent, taking the race leader Roglic with them. Another attack by Bernal dropped all but Roglic, and the two leading contenders in the overall classification were the first to crest the Basse-Nendaz.
Costa and then Porte quickly bridged the gap at the start of the descent, but it took Fuglsang a little longer to make contact, using his notable descending skills to do the business. The Dane sat near the back of the group for much of the first part of the descent, biding his time to jump again as the road briefly headed upwards again with 15 kilometres remaining.
The road soon dipped down again and that is where Fuglsang did the most damage. He quickly extended his lead to almost 40 seconds, helped by a level of apathy from the riders behind. Costa appeared eager to bring Fuglsang back, but he was getting no help from the top three in the overall classification. Thanks to doing so much work in the chase, Costa was easily passed by Roglic and Bernal in the battle for bonus seconds, allowing Fuglsang to relieve him of his fourth place in the GC, having started the day 15th overall.
It was another unusually sunny day at the Tour de Romandie as the riders sought out the shade while they waited for the start of the queen stage in Sion. After a tough mountain time trial, the organisers had mapped out a challenging route through the mountains for stage 4. Five climbs littered the route, with the first of them coming almost immediately after the start.
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Kirsten Wild (Wiggle-High5) got the sprint victory she had come for on stage three of the Tour of Chongming Island, beating Jolien D'hoore (Mitchelton Scott) and Giorgia Bronzini (Cylance Pro Cycling) to the line. The race overall was won by Charlotte Becker (Hitec Products-Birk Sport).
The stage consisted of an 11.5-km circuit that was raced 11 times for a total of 121.5 km. Bonus seconds were at stake in intermediate sprints after laps three and six, and after lap nine there was a single mountain point on offer. However, Lucy Garner (Wiggle-High5) had an unassailable lead in the queen of the mountains classification after taking a haul of pints on the previous stages and took home the polka-dot jersey.
Hitec Products-Birk Sport controlled the race for Becker, and nobody got away in the first half of the race. The intermediate sprint after three laps was won by Giorgia Bronzini (Cylance Pro Cycling) ahead of Chloe Hosking (Alé Cipollini) and Jolien D'hoore (Mitchelton Scott).
Becker's team was joined at the front of the peloton by Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank, defending Shannon Malseed's second place overall, as well as by sprinters' teams Mitchelton Scott, Alé Cipollini, and Cylance Pro Cycling. Hosking won the second intermediate sprint ahead of Bronzini and Paola Andrea Muñoz (Swapit Agolico).
Attacks started flying on lap seven, and Minsk Cycling Club was particularly active. These moves were quickly brought back, but with 38 km to go it was Sarah Roy (Mitchelton-Scott) who put in a fierce acceleration and opened up a gap on the peloton.
Roy was chased by a group of five including Sheyla Gutiérrez (Cylance Pro Cycling) and riders from Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank, Alé Cipollini, Hitec Products-Birk Sport, and Team Dukla Praha Women. When the chasers bridged to Roy, there was no cooperation and the group was caught soon after.
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Cayon-SRAM's Lisa Klein claimed the first leader's jersey of the Festival Elsy Jacobs on Friday, narrowly besting Dutch rider Amy Pieters (Boels Dolmans) on the short, technical course in Luxembourg City. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Cervelo Bigla) was third.
"It was a good course and very nice to hear the people cheering at the side of the road," Klein said. Last year, the German was second in the prologue and ended the weekend fourth overall, but hopes to improve on that result this year. With three teammates in the top 20 - Alexis Ryan in eighth, Alena Amialiusik in 12th, and Hannah Barnes in 17th and only seconds separating the bulk of the field, anything can happen.
"We are very strong and we have a number of cards we can play over the next two days," Klein said.
Stage 1 is 97.7km long, starting and finishing in Steinfort.
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Egan Bernal (Team Sky) won stage 3 of the Tour de Romandie after he mastered the mountain time trial at Villars, while Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) produced a storming performance in the final kilometres to place second on the stage and retain the yellow jersey of overall leader.
Roglic recouped ground in the finale to limit his losses on Bernal to 4 seconds, and thus carries a lead of 6 seconds over the Colombian into the final two days of racing, while Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team) now lies third overall, 27 seconds down.
Friday's 9.9km test was a difficult one to gauge, but Bernal seemed to pace his ride perfectly on the road from Ollon. Porte had the quickest time at the 4.5km mark, and when Bernal came through the same point some 9 seconds down, it looked as though the Australian was set for the stage victory.
Bernal took flight on the upper slopes, however, and he would recoup considerable ground by the summit. He rose repeatedly from the saddle in the closing kilometres and hit the finish line some 18 seconds quicker than Porte to depose the Australian from the hot seat. Bernal explained afterwards that he had raced according to his power-meter, and was not influenced by the time checks he heard out on the course.
"My coach told me you need to do your own numbers. It doesn't matter about the times of any other riders," Bernal said. "I just tried to do my numbers and I won, and I am so happy for that."
Even with six riders left to finish, it was already clear that only Roglic could deny Bernal the stage win. The race leader reached the checkpoint some 18 seconds behind Porte and nine behind Bernal, but he dosed his effort well over the closing kilometres. Although he was unable to prevent Bernal from winning the stage, Roglic did enough to retain his yellow jersey and maintain his hopes of final overall victory.
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Stage 2 of the Tour of Chongming Island produced a surprising breakaway win. The sprinters' teams miscalculated, letting a group of five go too far up the road, from which Charlotte Becker (Hitec Products-Birk Sport) won the sprint and took the overall lead of the race.
Shannon Malseed (Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) finished second and Anastasia Iakovenko (BTC City Ljubljana) third, with Dalia Muccioli (Valcar PBM) and Coralie Demay (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) the other members of the break.
The 121.3km stage included the highest point of the whole race, but this was at the altitude of only 60 metres on a bridge crossing to Chongming Island from neighbouring Changxing Island, which hosted the start of the stage. Lucy Garner took the sole mountain point and is now certain to win the polka-dot jersey if she finishes stage 3 tomorrow.
The first intermediate sprint after 37.7km was won by Jolien D'hoore (Mitchelton-Scott) ahead of yellow jersey Giorgia Bronzini (Cylance Pro Cycling) and Chloe Hosking (Alé Cipollini). Only halfway into the race did an attack stick when Malseed initiated a breakaway together with Becker, Iakovenko, Demay, and Muccioli.
The quintet continually increased their advantage on the peloton and a group of three chasers that were stuck in no-man's-land for much of the stage, but never got to the front. The second intermediate sprint was won by Becker ahead of Malseed and Iakovenko. With 27km to go, the gap was at its maximum of 3:34, and the peloton faced a frantic chase to bring back the escapees.
But the breakaway riders worked together well and lost ground only slowly. Though Muccioli stopped taking turns and only sat on at the back of the group in the last 12km, the other four continued their cooperation all the way to the finishing straight. The chase in the peloton was led by Wiggle High5, Mitchelton Scott, and Cylance Pro Cycling, but the escapees' teams, especially Hitec Products-Birk Sport and Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank, did their best to disrupt the chase.
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Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) added to his portfolio of breakaway wins on stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie, going clear in the opening kilometres with four others before dropping them all in turn to celebrate a solo victory in Yverdon-les-Bains.
Sonny Colbrelli, whose Bahrain-Merida teammates had led a panicked chase, took second place from the bunch, which came in just over two minutes down, while Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale) finished third.
De Gendt, one of a dying breed of breakaway specialists, once again showed himself to be adroit in picking out the right days and moves. Thursday's 174km trip from Delémont to Yverdon-les-Bains was, on paper, the only real chance for the sprinters at the Tour de Romandie, but an upset was on the cards when the Belgian went clear on the early climb of the Col des Rangiers with Nathan Brown (EF-Drapac), Andrey Grivko (Astana), and Matteo Fabbro (Katusha), and - crucially - his own teammate Victor Campenaerts.
As the roads undulated over the subsequent 80 kilometres, the gap back to the peloton yawned out to nearly eight minutes, and once up and over the second-category Col des Etroits - where Grivko was dislodged - they took to the undulating 35km finishing circuit with a lead of five minutes. For reference, De Gendt had predicted at the start of the day that two minutes might suffice at that point.
After burying himself for his teammate, Campenaerts was soon dropped, while De Gendt made use of the second of three uncategorised climbs to drop Brown with 25km remaining.
From there, with the gap still at well over four minutes, victory was pretty much a formality, though it remained to be seen if the leader’s jersey would change hands. De Gendt had started the day just over three minutes down on Primoz Roglic’s (LottoNL-Jumbo) overall lead and the GC teams committed riders to the cause in the latter stages, though the greater threat was probably Brown, who'd started the day just 26 seconds down. In the end, the American was caught in the final kilometre.
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Giorgia Bronzini (Cylance Pro Cycling) won the first stage of the sprinter-friendly Tour of Chongming Island after a finale that was marred by two big crashes. Kelly Druyts (Doltcini-Van Eyck Sport) and Silvia Persico (Valcar PBM) rounded out the podium. Bronzini is the overall race leader ahead of stage 2.
The first stage of the three-day race was held entirely on the island in the mouth of the Yangtze river, just north of Shanghai, that the race is named for. The highest point on the 111.5 kilometres starting and finishing at Chongming Xincheng Park was below 20 metres, so a mass sprint was widely expected.
The sprinters' teams held the peloton together in the beginning. Kirsten Wild (Wiggle High5) won the first of two intermediate sprints after 29km ahead of Jolien D'hoore (Mitchelton Scott) and Chloe Hosking (Alé Cipollini), taking valuable bonus seconds.
A mountain sprint was also included in the stage, held on a slight rise after 54.6km. It was won by Lucy Garner (Wiggle High5) who will wear the polka-dot jersey in tomorrow's stage 2. Not long afterwards, about a dozen riders broke free of the peloton. Their advantage grew only slowly and was just below one minute with 35km to the finish. It was mainly Wiggle High5 who controlled the race for Wild.
From the break, Jutatip Maneephan (Thailand Women's Cycling Team) won the second intermediate sprint ahead of Claudia Koster (Team Virtu Cycling) and Ingrid Drexel (Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank). As the break entered the last 30km, the peloton had relaxed a bit, and the gap increased to 1:44 minutes.
Wiggle High5 took over at the front of the peloton again and quickly reduced the gap. With 18km, escapees Charlotte Becker (Hitec Products-Birk Sport) and Karalina Savenka (Minsk Cycling Club) made a last attempt to hold off the peloton, but they too were caught after a short while.
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Omar Fraile took Astana’s 14th victory of the 2018 season after he beat beat Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) on stage 1 of the Tour de Romandie. Fraile went long on the run-in to the line Delémont and held off the Italian with Rui Costa taking third.
Astana have enjoyed a strong start to the season and dominated last week's Tour of the Alps. The Kazakh team looked determined to do something today and Dario Cataldo launched a brief attack near the top of the final climb with 11 kilometres remaining.
They had a second bite of the cherry after bringing back a number of late attackers in the final two kilometres with Fraile opting to kick out as they rounded the final corner. The Spaniard's surge of pace caught Colbrelli by surprise, who might have assumed he was the fastest rider remaining in the dramatically reduced peloton, and he quickly nudged in front of the Bahrain-Merida rider.
"I am so happy with this win," Fraile said. "After the Classics I did not feel great, but today everything went well and I managed to do a good stage. In general, our team was super today, we did a strong race. After all these climbs we still had many riders in the leading group and my teammates did a big job for me."
Colbrelli did his utmost to overhaul Fraile, but the frenetic finish had taken its toll and he had to settle for second place. He fared better than race leader Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb), who was distanced on the final climb, leaving Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) in perfect position to take control of the general classification. He is equal on time with Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing) while Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) sits in third place at four seconds.
"In the final part of the stage I realized our group can come to the finish for a sprint, so Dario Cataldo and Jakob Fuglsang worked hard to chase all attacks and to bring me in front," Fraile explained. "I knew Sonny Colbrelli was my biggest rival today since he is a very fast guy. So, I followed his wheel and started my sprint with around 300 meters to go.
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Michael Matthews (Sunweb) won stage 1 of the Tour de Romandie after pipping Tom Bohli (BMC Racing) and Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) in the testing 4km time trial in Fribourg.
The surprising Bohli spent much of the afternoon in the hot seat after setting the quickest mark early on, and his closest challenger was his teammate Rohan Dennis, who finished just fractions of a second outside his time, good enough for fourth place come the end of the day.
Bohli was ultimately denied the biggest win of his career by Matthews, who delivered a perfectly-timed effort on the stiff climb to the finish to come home a second inside the Swiss rider’s mark.
“It was a little bit of a surprise because I didn’t have such a good day in Liege on Sunday,” said Matthews. “I had one easy day yesterday and then straight back into it today. I didn’t know how my legs were going to feel but I just gave it my best and it was enough to win.”
It was Matthews’ maiden victory of a 2018 campaign that began on a trying note when he fractured his shoulder in his first race, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. The Australian returned in time to place seventh at Milan-San Remo and battle in the cobbled Classics, but he endured further ill fortune when a late puncture ended his challenge at Amstel Gold Race.
A fine fifth place at Flèche Wallonne last week suggested that Matthews had hit something approaching top form, although he was some nine minutes off the pace in the finale of a tough Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday.
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