The top finishes are fading for the Americans as on Wednesday in stage five the best American was Joey Rosskopf who finished 88th and 58 seconds back. The only other one to finish in the top 100 was Nathan Brown who was 1:48 back in 99th. Despite failing to place in the top 100 on Wednesday Ian Boswell is still the top American overall in 68th, 6:26 behind the leader, while Brown is still in the top 100 at 95th overall, 9:57 back.
Thursday is back to a medium-mountain stage, though only a 98 mile one.
The Chad Haga top ten storyline came to an abrupt end on Tuesday as he finished more than six minutes off the pace in 105th and fell to 77th overall. Rising to the occasion was Ian Boswell who posted an American best 44th, just 43 seconds back, and climbed to a US-best 54th overall, 3:14 back. Nathan Brown and Joe Dombrowski went 57th-58th, 1:11 back, as Brown snuck back into the top 100 overall, 8:13 back in 97th.
Chad Haga was the only American who was able to stay in the 94-man peloton on Sunday and moved into ninth place for the overall standings as the Giro d’Italia wrapped up its three day start in the Netherlands. Haga was 87th, following up on a 147th finish in stage two, but showed that being in the peloton was the crucial thing in staying near the top after his strong time trial to begin the event. Haga is now 25 seconds behind the leader and the only American in the top 100.
After a rest day on Monday the competition resumes in Italy with a 124-mile medium-mountain stage on Tuesday as the field should start to separate.
All 95 riders wrapped up the Tour of Chongming Island by finishing in the peloton as Alison Tetrick and Erica Zaveta finished near the back of the large pack. Tetrick was in the top 80 as she finished 75th while Zaveta finished 93rd. Overall Tetrick finished 81st, 5:10 back, while Zaveta was 94th and 27:06 back.
The next women’s world tour event will surely feature many more Americans, the Armgen Tour of California will be held May 19th-22nd.
We expected a big peloton and that’s just what we got. The first 174 riders all crossed together and the Americans were a part of it on Saturday. Only Larry Warbasse was in the top 100, 86th, but Chad Haga moved up a spot to 11th and didn’t drop time and Joey Rosskopf rose five spots to 73rd.
Another 118 mile flat stage awaits on Sunday and likely another massive peloton at the front.
Day two of the Tour of Chongming Island was the end of the two Americans being theoretically in contention as both Alison Tetrick and Erica Zaveta failed to finish with the peloton. Both finished 5:51 behind the winner with Tetrick in 82nd and Zaveta in 87th and are now outside of the top 80 in the overall standings. The event wraps up with a 61.5 mile third stage on Sunday.
Things began well at the Giro d’Italia for Chad Haga. Coming off a season best finish in the Tour de Romandie Haga posted his best stage finish of the season when he was 12th in the opening time trial. Haga dropped just 16 seconds behind the leader and was the only American in the top 75. Joey Rosskopf, 78th place and 42 seconds back, and Larry Warbasse 47 seconds back in 100th, were the next two Americans to finish.
Things continue in the Netherlands Saturday with a 118 mile flat stage. In what you’d expect to be a stage with a big peloton it’s important for the riders to stay in the pack.
A large peloton finished in 3:21:25 on the first day of the Tour of Chongming Island and Alison Tetrick was part of it. Tetrick finished 71st in the 81-woman peloton. It wasn’t such a good day for Erica Zaveta who finished 100th and 21:06 back. The race was 86.9 miles on day one, the longest of the competition, and drops to 70.1 miles on Saturday for stage two.
One of the three grand tours of the UCI season starts Friday, the Giro d’Italia. Featuring 21 stages and over 2,000 miles of riding this is a big one. Only six Americans are entered in the field and while none of them have a top 25 finish this year Nathan Brown has come the closest with his 29th place finish in the recently completed Tour de Romandie. Joe Dombrowski and Larry Warbasse both have top 40 finishes from when the finished 37th and 38th in the Volta a Cataluyna earlier this season. The other three in the field are Chad Haga, a season high 69th in the Tour de Romandie, and Ian Boswell and Joey Rosskopf. Boswell has not raced on the tour since he did not finish the Volta a Cataluyna. Things start off in the Netherlands (where else did you expect it to start?) on Friday with a 6 mile time trial.
Only two Americans will be taking part in the Tour of Chongming Island in China this weekend. The three day event held in Shanghai on, you guessed it, Chongming Island will feature three stages. Alison Tetrick and Erica Zaveta will be in the field for the US. Zaveta will be in her first Women’s World Tour event of the year while Tetrick has a season best finish of 66th in the Tour of Flanders.