Yates wins final stage but finishes second overall in Tour of Poland

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Britain's Simon Yates wins the final stage of the Tour of Poland but finishes second overall behind Team Sky's Michal Kwiatkowski.

via BBC Sport - Cycling http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/45150476

Former Tour de France winner Ullrich held for alleged assault on prostitute

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German cyclist Jan Ullrich allegedly assaulted a prostitute in a luxury hotel in Frankfurt.

via BBC Sport - Cycling http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45142859

A hole in the head: Bernhard Eisel and the long fight back

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If you wanted to be literal about it, you could say the whole of Bernhard Eisel's 2018 season - and perhaps his future career - has centred on a hole, roughly half a centimetre in diameter, on the left side of his head.

Still visible as a scar, it was where the surgeon's drill went in this spring to treat Eisel's subdural haematoma, a condition caused when the Dimension Data veteran crashed during Tirreno-Adriatico in March. The condition is described by doctors as a "slow accumulation of blood beneath the protective layer around the brain" which clotted and put pressure on his brain. If acute, these haematomas can be life-threatening.

Given the extreme delicacy and dangers of the injury, there was no real time frame placed on how long it would take for Eisel to recover. Indeed, the whole question of Eisel's return to racing, first in the GP Pino Cerami and the RideLondon Surrey Classic - where he abandoned - and now in the Tour de Pologne, has been anything but certain. As he puts it to Cyclingnews, "In the last five months, I 'retired' three times."

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As he reflects mid-way through the Polish race, if this accident ultimately means retirement, at least there is now a good chance he can do so as he wants, on his own terms. Unsurprisingly for a racer who has always played a central 'road captain' role in all of the teams he's been in, as well as twice serving on the UCI Athletes Commission, Eisel is determined not just to make up the numbers should he ride on.

"I'm doing well, yesterday [stage 2] I had a fever after the stage and I wasn't sure if it was food poisoning or related to my head so I'm taking it cautiously," he says.

"Here, the weather is nice, I enjoy it, so let's see. And it's good to back on the bike, racing. I was training last week in Austria with Cav [teammate Mark Cavendish] to help get him back on line, and myself, too, so that was good.

Finding his feet

The future

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/a-hole-in-the-head-bernhard-eisel-and-the-long-fight-back

The Cyclingnews guide to 2018-2019 rider transfers

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The transfer merry-go-round is up and spinning, and as teams announce the riders who will leave them and those who will join them, as well as those riders whose services they've retained, we'll update our list with those latest movers and non-movers.

UCI WorldTeams

AG2R La Mondiale
In: Geoffrey Bouchard (neo-pro), Aurelien Paret-Peintre (neo-pro)
Out: Cyril Gautier (Vital Concept)
Extended: Benoit Cosnefroy, Alexandre Geniez, Clement Chevrier, Quentin Jauregui, and Nans Peters, Samuel Dumoulin, Hubert Dupont, Alexis Gougeard, Gediminas Bagdonas, Stijn Vandenbergh

Astana Pro Team
In: Yuriy Natarov (neo-pro)
Out: Michael Valgren (Dimension Data)
Extended: Alexey Lutsenko, Laurens De Vreese

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Bahrain-Merida
In: Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing), Phil Bauhaus (Sunweb), Marcel Sieberg (Lotto-Soudal), Stephen Williams (neo-pro), Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing)
Out:
Extended: Hermann Pernsteiner

BMC Racing [becomes still-to-be-named CCC-sponsored team in 2019]
In: Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Wanty-Groupe Gobert)
Out: Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida), Danilo Wyss (Dimension Data), Alberto Bettiol (EF Education First-Drapac), Simon Gerrans (retires), Loïc Vliegen (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Tejay van Garderen (EF Education First-Drapac), Rohan Dennis (Bahrain-Merida)
Extended: Greg Van Avermaet

Bora-Hansgrohe
In:
Out:
Extended:

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/the-cyclingnews-guide-to-2018-2019-rider-transfers

European Championships: Mark Cavendish withdraws from GB road team

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Great Britain's Mark Cavendish pulls out of Sunday's European Championships road race on medical advice.

via BBC Sport - Cycling http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/45131247

UEC European Championships Time Trial – Start Times

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The Netherlands' Ellen Van Dijk will attempt to defend her time trial title at the UEC Road European Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, on Wednesday morning, while Belgium's Victor Campanaerts attempts the same feat in the men's event later in the day.

Van Dijk will again be up against both Belgian Ann-Sophie Duyck and her Dutch compatriot Anna van der Breggen – who finished second and third, respectively, at last year's event in Herning, Denmark – over the 30km course in Glasgow.

All three could be pushed hard by 2014 time trial world champion and current German national time trial champion Lisa Brennauer, who arrives at the event on Wednesday in impeccable form, fresh from becoming European individual pursuit champion on the track on Saturday, and following that up with third place in the European road race championships the next day.

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While the women's road race took place last Sunday – and was won by Italy's Marta Bastianelli, with both Van Dijk and Van der Breggen finishing in the front group of 20 riders – the men's road race doesn't take place until this coming Sunday, August 12.

Before then, Campanaerts will face stiff competition over the 45kn course on Wednesday afternoon from 2016 European TT champion Jonathan Castroviejo (Spain), and Britain's five-time national TT champion Alex Dowsett, racing on home ground.

Campanaerts, as the defending champion, is last man off at 13:33 BST, but other names to watch out for include Denmark's Rasmus Quaade, Britain's Harry Tanfield, former Hour Record holder Matthias Brändle (Austria), and second-to-last man off the start ramp, Irish national champion Ryan Mullen.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/uec-european-championships-time-trial-start-times

Geraint Thomas: Tour de France winner made offer by Polish team

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Team Sky's Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas is offered a contract by the Poland-based CCC WorldTour team.

via BBC Sport - Cycling http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/45121708