American Flyers! McNulty & Barta Deliver In Spain | GCN Racing News Show

This week in the world of racing, there was a great American success story. Bradon McNulty won Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and William Barta endured a solo ride to victory in the final stage. In other news, the Strada Bianche route has been subject to a gravel takeover, whilst Saudi Arabia sneaks ever closer to solidifying plans for their cycling super league. What would this mean for the sport? Could it be the answer to increasing bike racing interest?

00:00 Intro
01:18 Saudi Arabia Super League
05:20 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
06:50 Lidl Trek team triumphs
07:30 Brandon McNulty wins Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
08:00 Will Barta solo rides to victory
09:07 Cédrine Kerbaol takes victory in Volta a la Comunitat Valencia
09:41 Étoile de Bessèges
11:38 Alula Tour results
13:43 Cyclocross World Championships
16:14 Strada Bianchi route change

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8 18 18 welcome back to the gcn racing news show coming up this week the procycling Breakaway League that could soon become a reality as one cycling is reportedly close to getting €250 million of investment we’ve also got a lot of racing to look back on with the sross

Worlds the alula tour the at Bes and the men’s and women’s Welter alakat valenciana this week in the world of racing we learned that mat maharic is back it’s just a beautiful sight so aesthetically pleasing it’s like watching poetry and motion isn’t it we also learned that

Strady ban will be longer and tougher than ever this year the organizers RCS Sports have added a finishing Loop to both races that adds four gravel sectors good choice or is it a case if it ain’t broke don’t fix it let me know in the comments section down below and finally

We learned that the rumored Saudi backed cycling Super League is gaining traction Reuters reported on Friday that sjr Sports investment a new company owned by saud’s public investment fund is the new Runner to back the new Lee with a sum of €250 million EUR touted as the investment figure by an anonymous source

Familiar with the matter unlike previous rumors of breakaway leagues in cycling this one doesn’t seem to be going away and as time ticks on you really get a sense that this one might have legs which leads us onto the question of whether or not it would be a good thing

For our sport I’m going to leave the politics and sports washing aside on this and focus purely on the impact it could have on cycling for those of you who haven’t been keeping up with the Story the concept would be to combine new and existing races totaling around

100 days into a new calendar uh this would make for a season long competition with a guarantee from the teams that most of the world’s top Riders will attend the majority of those races the idea is to simplify things for the general public who could more easily

Understand The Narrative of the sport at the same time it would allow the teams a piece of the financial pie rather than going into the pocket of big race organizers like ASO and at the same time helping the smaller races financially through the sponsorship money of the

Series now I presume that the series of races will be packaged up and sold to International broadcasters so that wherever you are in the world you’ll be able to watch the whole series on one channel or platform in your country although those details are probably a

Long way off just yet now personally I like the idea I’ve said it before but whilst I do love the season narrative as it is it is immensely complicated to understand and explain to a non-cycling fan take Saturday as an example I’ve got my laptop top open to keep my eye on

What’s going on and my wife Lorraine is asking what I’m watching well to begin with it was the age category sross races from the World Championships then it was the alula tour then the ater bes and finally the world alak kamuna valenciana I guess we can take sross out of this

Equation it’s a different discipline entirely but that’s still three Pro road races all taking place concurrently even for a DieHard cycling fan it’s difficult to keep up with even for me whose job it is on a Monday morning to talk about the previous week’s racing it’s hard to keep

Up with and it means that the world’s best Riders are spread thinly throughout those races the big GC battle we want to see this year for example is rogl versus pagat versus vle versus aapo however with those Riders racing programs for the season the only time we’re going to

See all four of them up against each other in a single stage race is at the tour to France and we wonder why that race overshadows all others by country mile as a counter to that you could say it makes it all the more special when

That time does come it’s the big moment that we’ve been building up to all season long however for the greater good of the sport long term I do think it would be better to see the best Riders up against each other more often each year now there would be some

Consequences of the Super League Of course should it happen uh two of which immediately spring to mind number one we would see a lot of races Fall by the wayside in a world where it’s already incredibly difficult to finance and organize probike races out on public

Roads this could be the final nail in the coffin for smaller often historic races that are not included in that league and secondly it could make it a lot harder for Young Riders to break through already this year we’ve had a plethora of Young Riders winning or making standout performances at top

Level races with a cut down calendar and with the promise of Team sending their best Riders to those select races it’s not only going to be harder for those Young Riders to shine it’s going to be hard to even get selected by your team in the first place so I really hope that

The league has plans for the development of Young Riders and to give them enough Pathway to the top of the sport anyway I would love to know know your thoughts and many of you commented on this last time I spoke about it on this show but maybe your view has changed or maybe

You’re only started to think seriously about it now that this thing looks more of a reality than a pipe dream leave your thoughts in the comment section down below well it’s probably time to talk about the ration now since there was a lot of it as I alluded to earlier

The question is where do I start eenie meeny miny mo the world alak commun valenciana I joke of course there was a lot of really good racing last week including in Spain where there was a surprise Breakaway win on day one and a one-w on the stage for VF group ban CSF

Fight Zan a misjudged Chase from the Pelon allowed the Breakaway to fight it out between him for the State win and not even this instant hampered those chances oh no no no there goes some of that big buffer you got to follow the route and he’s got tied up one of them’s

Got to ride away here and try and take it oh my gosh that was Manuel tarzi and alandro tonelli the younger of the two waited for their teammates and allowed them to Stage Victory and the first leaders jersey I don’t think I’d have done that I’d have been sprinting for my

Life as soon as I saw tanelli grappling to get the tape out of his bars that day was the first descending masterclass of the season for Mahar and he was back at it again 24 hours later it seemed like every Rider knew what to expect at the

End of stage two you have seen M Mo quite active yesterday too could he try something in this today because it’s bit more technical I think I’m actually quite sure he will do do you think a guy you know well like M MO yeah yeah he’s

One of the guys that can attack in The Descent uh I know the last clim and I think that it’s a really good day H to mic well it didn’t matter that everyone knew what was going to happen maharic rode away from them anyway and Cruis to

His first victory of the season in only his second day of racing sort of edge of your seat stuff isn’t it watching him descend but you still can’t keep your eyes off it anyway it was officially little Trek day on Friday after a win for them in Bes which I’ll get on to

Later and a South African time trial chance of Ry Gibbons they took a third win with yonut to Milan in Spain safe to say that the field of sprinters at that race was not the deepest but Milan was in a class of his own in that Sprint I

Think a lot of us are really looking forward to seeing him up against the philipson and MERS of this world later on this season the first GC action came on stage four but not on the climb that we’d expected an amateur cyclist tragically lost their life in an instant

Near the finish line that morning meaning that the race had to finish elsewhere our condolences go to their friends and family the summit of the misat CL featured as a new finish and it was there that Brandon MCN laid the foundations for his overall Victory the TV Camera didn’t really catch the moment

He went but footage that later emerged revealed that he’d taken his chance in a flatter section of the climb Those Behind were unable to chase him back and at the end he crossed the Finish Line 12 seconds clear of brago and vlasoff vlasoff did his best to put the American

In trouble in the fifth and final stage yesterday but it was always going to be hard to distance MCN given his current form and in the end he comfortly won the biggest aage race of his career so far the big story that day though was of another American Rider taking his first

Pro win will barter of M star was in the early Breakaway dropped all his companions on the main climb of the day and then faced an excruciating 45 km solo effort to keep the bunch at Bay the odds were stacked against him and few believed that he’d survived when

Watching on but he did despite another Daredevil descent from mahic and a subsequent Chase from Le Trek for Milan and how well deserved was that win even the disappointment of Jonathan Milan who finished second must have been somewhat mitigated with the way in which Bara won

It also made for a very successful race for the USA two stage wins in a row and the overall classification to boot got to be a long time since they’ve had so much success in such a short period of time I did ask Killian of course and he

Said it’s the 2020 tour of Taiwan where this last happened although on that occasion it was the same Rider Eric Young Who won both stages back to back however that race didn’t have the same caliber of ride on the start list so before that it was the 2018 Colorado

Classic again though that’s a race on us soil with a bunch of very motivated home Riders so reckon this latest one is more impressive in the women’s race which was a one day held over the same course as the final stage of the men’s there was a similar outcome the early break survived

Helped in part by a couple of crashes in the bunch that hamper the chase in the closing kilometers with 30ks to go three Riders remained out front Julie bager of cofidis carine Anderson of Liv alula jao and eventual winner Sedin cabal of serit wnt Anderson crashed on a corner with

Around 10ks to go taking beago down with her and that was that cabal held them all at Bay to the Finish Line to take her first pro win outside of France speaking of France let’s move on to the at the B now with the opening stage

Cancel due to Farmer strikes we had to wait until Thursday for the start of the race but it was worth the wait there was a brilliant finish that day Mass pson was the race favorite and his team little Tre rod for him all day but he

Was picked to the line by under 23 world champion Axel arance of alberon into King now you know there’s some serious power going on if someone beats pson in an uphill Sprint and handily for us Lawrence uploaded his ride to straa complete with power data uh here was his

Power profile for the end of that stage 10 minutes at 390 Watts 4 minutes at 484 Watts 2 minutes at 593 watts and a peak minute right at the end of the race of 673 Watts the future is bright for that lad pson made amends 24 hours later by

Winning the bun Sprint into B but the winds were followed the next day by the early Breakaway it happened a lot last week and this was another feel-good story because winning from the break was 29y Old Samuel laru of vano rube now this is a guy that has spent the last

Nine years racing at Continental or Club level waiting for his breakthrough moment well his patience paid off and that Victory be made even sweeter given the caliber of Rider he beat from the Breakaway Stefan Biser was second Dre to bond third and so it all came down to

The final stage time trial EF education easy post got five Riders into the top seven on the day but none in the top two Mass pson started the day as overall leader and the favorite of the stage in the GC but it was in the end a very

Close battle for both Kevin V out of AR BNB Hotel scored around the course beating the previous best time of Alberto Beto by 14 seconds vland started the day third on GC 12 seconds behind pson so it suddenly lumped a lot of pressure onto the Dame he did it but

Only just second on the stage by 10 seconds meant he kept the overall lead by two so a great start to the season by pson but VLAN continues to impress he’s a quality all rounder that guy onto the alula tour then which had the best sprinting lineup of all the races last

Week yet another youngster Casper Van Udin stole a march on the opening stage taking its first Pro victory for DSM feric very impressive with grun ofen and Malia behind him stage two saw almost a carbon copy of last year an incredible Display of Power by Sur vold of Uno X

Delivered him the stage win whil late attack appear was caught agonizingly close to the line Baron Shaw was out of the pitch on stage three though caught out when a number of teams lit it up in the Crosswinds late in the day Malia triumphed there in a dominant fashion

And again on stage four where you got the better of Brian Kar and the uphill drag to the line Koka was sure he’d won that day but the photo finish showed otherwise the big GC battle came on the final stage on Saturday with a brutally

Steep climb near the end of the race All Eyes run Simon yat of jco alula an important race for that team of course but it was yet another young Superstar who emerged that day William Junior lurf appeared to comfortably follow the attacks of all the big name Riders and

Then made one himself on the steepest section and nobody was able to follow initially at least towards the top he was caught by uae’s Finn Fisher black and a group of four was eventually formed as Rafa mic and Simon Yates LED on two the best placed on GC of that

Group was Fisher black and with a chasing group closing in behind Mah drove it on the front to give him the best chance of overall Victory but it wasn’t wasn’t to be for him at the Finish Yates launched his Sprint early but had the strength and speed to take

It all the way to the line in finishing second and taking the six bonus seconds lerf denied Fisher black the overall win which went to Yates and actually on countback lerf took second on GC and the 21y old is in his first year is a pro Rider and it’s already clear he’s going

Places just a very quick Roundup of some other races before I move on to the sross World Championships Ryan Gibbons did the doubl in South Africa winning the road race and the time trial Richard couldn’t quite achieve the same in Ecuador he won the time trial but was

Pipped by an in for Jonathan ners of inos in the road race Jefferson a p it took third place and also fourth separated by 9 seconds and their middle name right let’s talk to bour which hosted the World cycle cross championships for the first time in

Eight years at the weekend I’ve left it until late in the show to talk about it mainly because the elite races didn’t really um well they didn’t really offer a lot of suspense shall we say I’m taking nothing away from the wiers of course they capped off incredible

Seasons in a dominant fashion even if you didn’t watch it you can probably guess who I’m talking about Fen vanle in the women’s Mach ferol in the men’s there’s not a lot to break down in how the race is won uh this was the moment it was won in the Men’s and this was the moment it was one in the women’s barring accident or mechanical both therol and vanle were pretty much assured of retaining their titles by the end of lap one of their races and so it proved to be it C off near perfect

Seasons for both of them 18 wins from 20 starts for Van emple 13 from 14 starts for fander still just 22 vanle has already taken two Elite World titles now whil of Vanderpool it was his sixth one short of the record of Eric daming he’s won five times from his last five

Participations at the race but he’s hinted that he may not be returning to cyc cross next winter and that’s a bit of a worrying Prospect for the discipline particularly as vanard and pidcock have already pulled back their participation in favor of better preparation for the road season crowds

And TV figures are significantly higher when one of those three or all of those three are racing anyway back to the racing and it was a onew for the Netherlands in the men’s race Yus Newen house probably the most improved Rider of the Season took the silver medal and

For him it must have felt as good as a win Michael vuran hat was the savior of Belgium on the elite race preventing a Dutch Clean Sweep by winning bronze as in the women there was a point where Dutch Riders filled the top seven spots

In the end they had to settle for just the top four though at the the consistent Lucinda Brandt took silver willbe at a minute 20 down on vanle whilst pet took bronze a further half a minute back Zoe bad and TBO Del Gro were

In a class of their own in the under 23s for Great Britain and the Netherlands respectively seems only a matter of time before they’re riding for the medals in the elite category at the race marked the end of the career for local Stars denck steba he won three World Elite

Sross titles between 2010 and 2014 before concentrating on his Road career and it was the venue of his first of those three titles that he chose as his last ever Pro Race and it was amazing to see the support and cheers that he got from the home crowd that must have been

Very emotional for him that hour congratulations on a fantastic career J in other news as mentioned earlier RCS have been busy making some changes to stal bian this year the race hasn’t really changed at all in the last 15 years or so but this year there’ll be a

Final lap to be taken in twice that means that the men’s race will be 215 km this year with four extra gravel sectors however whilst the women’s has those four extra sectors the overall race length remains about the same as before the question then as I posed before is

Should they be tampering with it kind of feels like they’ve been listening to the murmurings about the race being seen as cycling sixth monument and have decided it needs to be longer to truly achieve that status I mean part of that narrative came from me mainly because I

Would then get to say I finished in the top 10 of a monument but I’m actually quite skeptical about the changes the race soed in popularity in a very short period of time and I can’t think of any other race that managed to do that in

Such a short period of time and there must be a good reason for that I.E they got the format right first time with all the ingredients to attract a star studed field and a large TV audience time will tell whether adding ingredients is going to make the race even tastier or whether

It’s a case of tampering with something that was already nearly perfect and finally there is some hope for the tours of Britain this year the races were removed from the UCI calendar after the organizer sweet spots went into Administration but British cycling are looking to keep them going this year

Apparently there have already been some positive conversations with both sponsors and TV broadcasters so here’s hoping Britain certainly needs those races that is all then for this week’s racing new show but I’ll be back at the same time next week