Eleven Americans will be in the field Sunday for the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race in Belgium, a 157.2 mile race. Lawson Craddock is the top American in the field but finished 121st in the last race, La Fleche Wallonne, on Wednesday. The best American in that race, Peter Stetina who finished 35th, is in this race as is Alex Howes who was the top American finisher in the Amstel Gold Race last Sunday where he finished 32nd. Kiel Reijnen will be hoping to complete the race and break a streak of three straight races he has not finished.
The next six events on the Tour and seven of the next eight are multi-day events instead of the single day races that have been six of the last seven.
The Americans came close to the top spot in La Fleche Wallonne Feminine but had to settle for the next two as Anna Van Der Breggen held off a challenge from Evelyn Stevens to win by eight seconds with Megan Guarnier third 22 seconds back. Carmen Small was the third American in the top 25 with a 12th place finish 53 seconds back. Kristabel Doebel-Hickok had her first finish of the year, a 54th place finish, though this was only her second race. Stevens’ second place finish was tied for the best finish by an American this year.
On the men’s side only one American cracked the top 50 as Peter Stetina tied his season high with a 35th place finish, 40 seconds behind the winner. Chad Haga had his best finish of the year in only his second race in 103rd while Lawson Craddock was 121st and over seven minutes behind the winner.
On the men’s side the next race is the 157.2 mile Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Saturday. The women will head to Asia as the Tour of Chongming Island in China will be held from May 6th through the 8th. Megan Guarnier sits fourth on the women’s tour after six races.
Wednesday is the next stop in both the UCI World Tour and the UCI Women’s World Tour as the two will both race in Belgium at La Fleche Wallonne. Both will start and end in the same place but the men will cover 121.8 miles in their race while the women cover 85.13 miles. The two top Americans in the women’s field are Megan Guarnier and Carmen Small who both have top five finishes already this year. Guarnier was second in the Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio and was fourth in the most recent race, The Tour of Flanders. Small was fifth in the Gent-Wevelgem race. One rider, Amber Nelson, is making her first appearance of the year while Kristabel Doebel-Hickok is trying to finish a race for the first time after not finishing the season opening Strade Bianche.
On the men’s side the top competitor is Lawson Craddock who was ninth in last race, the Tour of the Basque Country, and 16th in his only other race this season, the Paris-Nice race. Larry Warbasse, Nathan Brown, Peter Stetina, and Alex Howes all are in the field as well having finished races in the top 50 this season.
Alex Howes wasn’t part of the lead group on Sunday at the finish of the Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands. 31 riders finished within seven seconds of the leader in a large group before a gap opened up back to the second group. That second group was led by Howes who finished 32nd and 34 seconds back. Larry Warbasse was six seconds further back in 44th. They were the only Americans in the top 100.
The next event on the UCI Men’s World Tour is Wednesday, the 121.8 mile La Fleche Wallonne in Belgium. There is also a women’s version of the race that is part of the Women’s World Tour.
Sunday is the one-day 154.5 mile Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands. This race is full of climbs and six Americans will be in the field. Chad Haga will be competing for the Giant-Alpecin team, Kiel Reijnen will be competing for the US based Trek-Segafredo team, Larry Warbasse will be competing for the IAM Cycling team, and Nathan Brown, Alex Howes, and Benjamin King will be competing for the Cannondale team.
The one-day, 160-mile, Paris-Roubaix took place on Sunday featuring its remarkable 32.8 miles of cobblestone roads. Three Americans were in the field but two of them Tyler Farrar and Phillip Gaimon were among the 124 riders who did not finish the race. Taylor Phinney on the other hand was able to finish the race in 49th, 14:23 behind the winner Matthew Hamon of Australia. There was quite the finish in the velodrome where the race ends as the top four all finished with the same time and fifth place was just three seconds back.
The next race on the UCI Men’s World Tour is the 248.7km Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands on Sunday, April 17th.
A fantastic week for Lawson Craddock ended with the American sitting ninth in the overall standings at the Tour of the Basque Country. Craddock was not among the very top finishers in the ten-mile time trial on Saturday but despite finishing 1:58 back in 25th his strong first five days meant he stayed in the top 10. It was an exciting finish for the overall title as well as Alberto Contador of Spain finished 18 seconds ahead of Sergio Luis Henao of Colombia passing him to win the title by 12 seconds.
The 160-man starting field was narrowed to just 97 by the end. Four other Americans finished the event, Peter Stetina in 78th, Joey Rosskpof in 81st, Alex Howes in 91st, and Caleb Fairly in 97th.
Craddock will not be in the field tomorrow as the one-day Paris-Roubaix takes place. This race over 160 miles features 32.8 miles of cobblestone roads. I’m sure that’s as awful to ride on as it sounds like it would be. Americans in the 248-man field are Taylor Phinney, Tyler Farrar, and Phillip Gaimon.
We knew that day five would provide some separation in the Tour of the Basque Country and it lived up to expectations. The overall winner was Diego Rosa of Italy who managed to dominate the field by a whopping 3:13 with a time of 4:19:19. With just a ten-mile time trial you might think Rosa has locked up the event, but he was so far back going into today that he is still 11 minutes off the lead and will not be a factor. Lawson Craddock of the US finished in eighth, 3:56 back of Rosa but only 43 seconds behind second place. While Craddock probably won’t have a chance to catch Sergio Luis Henao of Colombia, who he trails by a minute, he sits in seventh place and with a strong time trials he can grab a top ten finish.
Three other Americans snuck into the top 100 on the day. Peter Stetina in 90th, Caleb Fairly in 95th, and Alex Howes in 97th. All three were 22:25 back of the winner. Stetina moved up to 83rd in the overall standings while Joey Rosskpof is 89th and Howes is 98th.
All that’s left is a ten-mile time trial on Saturday. With less than a half hour to go Craddock is set for a fantastic finish.
The best day of the Tour of the Basque Country so far for Lawson Craddock saw him finish in 9th place among a group of 17 riders that finished with a leading time of 4:13:12. Today’s winner was Samuel Sanchez of Spain while Wilco Kelderman of the Netherlands now holds the overall lead by four seconds. Craddock jumped from 14th to 13th and is 21 seconds behind the leader.
Peter Stetina finished 61st , 7:26 back, while Joey Rosskopf was 11:10 back in 81st. Stetina is back in the top 100 for the overall event as he finds himself 31:57 behind the leaders in 96th.
With all that’s left a 99-mile mountain stage tomorrow and a ten-mile time trial on Saturday separation is sure to occur soon. It will be interesting to see how Craddock fares over the final couple days.
Much like stage one a medium-mountain stage on day three resulted in over 50 riders finishing with the same time at the front of the pack in the Tour of the Basque Country. Stephen Cummings of Great Britain was the overall winner in 5:01:57, but finishing 24th with the same time actually allowed Lawson Craddock to jump one spot to 14th where he is still just 22 seconds off the overall lead held by Mikel Landa of Spain.
No other American was in the top 100 for the day however Larry Warbasse is still hanging in the top 100 overall, 23:40 back in 98th.
Stage four on Tuesday will be 103 miles and another medium-mountain stage.