WEEK 3 - Luke MUDGWAY and VELOFOLLIES

No doubt about that the biggest effort in week 3 came from the riders who started the Gravel and Tar race in and around Palmerston North. Both races for men and women are classified UCI 1.2 events.   

The difference in distance between men and women is only 13km. (total men's race 125km) Men do a small detour! Just to imagine how hard this race is, only 24 of the 65 men finished within the time limit, the girls 18 out of 35 got to the finish in time.
In the men's race the final was a dispute between four riders with Luke Mudgway (from the new Continental team  EvoPro) having the fastest

sprint, few lenghts before Ryan Christensen (New Zealand National Team), and third the Australian Cyrus Monk (also EvoPro). The fourth rider in the leading group was James Oram (NZNT).
The women's race was dominated by the Mike Greer Home Cycling Team with Jenna Merrick and Rylie Mc Mullen on second and third place. They had to give few meters to winner Brodie Chapman from Ocenia Womens Cycling. The team GC was won by NZNT and the Mike Greer Home team.
 Next races coming up are Melbourne and Cadel Evans RR, the Sun Tour in Australia and the New Zealand Classic.

The biggest bummer of this week was the crash of Tour Down Under leader Patrick Bevin (CCC).at 10km to go. He came down very hard and had to continue with an injured knee. Poor Paddy tried hard to keep the time gap as small as possible but of course this was a mission impossible for him.
Daryl Impey won the TDU with George Bennett (12th), Tom Scully (86th) and the unfortunate Paddy finished 41st and took the green Points jersey.
In Belgium in the mean time snow is falling (pic is a view from my little cycling office). So what is the best thing to do: visit the yearly cycling fair in Kortrijk.

Velofollies 2019 welcomed about 40000 people in three days. All the latest race bikes and MTB's are on display. And yes my wife Lieve asked me which bike I would like. And I found a pretty nice one, did not see the price, but was down on earth again when I did see. But yea who looks at Colnago bikes! A five digits price label (in Euro's).Maybe another life, who knows?
What also attract attention is the fact that almost every cycling brand has a connection with a coffee brand these days. One of them was Cannondale who had great coffee to serve from Oro y Paz.

Other attractions on these bikeshows are the cyclists that turn up to sit down for signature session on the different sponsor stands. Guys like Iljo Keisse, Peter Serry and Tim Declercq took the plain to South America the next day after visiting Velofollies. And..... when they come back in a month the season can finally start in Europe!

Stay tuned!
Ciao