Froome struggles on Criterium return as Van Aert pips Bernal
PARIS: Team Ineos’ Tour de France champion Egan Bernal was pipped by Jumbo-visma’s Wout Van Aert to the first stage of the Criterium du Dauphine as Chris Froome struggled on Wednesday.
Belgian Van Aert, who won the Milan-sanremo on Sunday, beat South African Daryl Impey in second and Bernal in third in a sprint finish to the north of Saint-etienne.
This season’s Dauphine has been shortened and moved due to the coronavirus pandemic with Chris Froome, who finished in 86th place 5min 23sec behind Van Aert, returning to a race which almost finished the four-time Tour de France winner’s career last year when he had a serious accident.
“Apparently I have good legs. I came to the hotel really tired yesterday and the team still did a perfect job for me today,” Van Aert told France Televisions.
Thursday’s 135-kilometre second stage heads from the town of Vienne up to the Col de Porte and includes three steep climbs.
The race is a key warmup for this season’s Tour de France which has been rescheduled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. It will start on August
Meanwhile, cycling’s road world championships next month were canceled Wednesday ater a Swiss government ruling on mass gatherings during the pandemic was extended until October.
Organizers of the Sept. 20-27 championships centered on Aigle, home to the International Cycling Union, said they could not continue within a federal limit of 1,000 people for major events.
The decision followed the Swiss federal council extending the limit into a sixth month to Oct. 1 amid rising numbers of coronavirus infections in the Alpine nation. Federal lawmaker Alain Berset said the situation was “delicate and uncertain,” on the day 274 new infections were reported compared to around 15-20 cases daily in June.
The cycling road worlds already faced difficult scheduling with the men’s time trial event on Sept. 20 clashing with the final stage of the pandemic-delayed Tour de France.
Organizers of the world championships also noted problems with riders and team officials from around 45 countries that currently face quarantine ater entering Switzerland.
The latest Swiss federal guidance gave some hope to soccer and ice hockey leagues, which have warned that clubs need bigger crowds at games and more revenue to help them survive.