Shapira playing a star role in the Italian job
CYCLING ISRAELI champion Omer Shapira produced a first-class performance in the nine-day World Tour ‘Giro Rosa’ – aka the Giro d’Italia Internationale Femminile.
After 26hrs. 1min: 32secs of racing Shapira, 23, of Team Giusfredi Bianchi, finished 14:16sec ahead of former world champion Lizzie Deignan.
Recovering from injuries received last season, Germany’s star track cyclist, Maximillian Levy, 30, (Team Erdgas 2012), a former world keiren champion and Olympic medallist, was formidable in the Rodrennbahn Velodrome, where he won both the sprint and keiren events.
Shlomi Haimi won the Israeli National mountain bike cross-country championship in 1:31:01. The women’s title was won by Noama Noyman in 1:23:32.
Noga Korem continues in the latest of the Enduro World Series mountain bike events with the downhill race from above the snow-line of the giant Alpe d’Huez. She said: “I didn’t spend much time on the bike at the first part of the race, but when I finally passed the snow, I had a lot of fun in those amazing single tracks.I lost too much time in the snow, so I couldn’t catch Nathalie Scheitter who finished second. I finished fourth, four secs after Birgit in a sprint finish.”
But her five race days in two weeks resulted in a first, third and fourth place.
Guy Leshem, Academy Development Team, placed 10th overall and fourth in the Under 23 category in the 49e Trofeu Abelardo Trenzano, in Spain, in 3:12:02 in a sprint finish at four secs.
Guy Niv was placed at 32nd in 3:13:31. Tour of Korea: After five days, best placed ICA member Jason Lowndes was 17th at two secs in 17:47:46.
Tour of the Fjords, Norway: After five days Dan Turek (ICA) 18th at +3.53 in 21hrs.36:25.
Tour of Austria: The Israel Academy Team featured in each of the six days stage race with Lowndes third on stage 1 and 2nd.on stage 3 with Boivin 10th on stage 2.
All seven of the team showed well on each of the stages.
Tour of Slovakia: Best placed of the Academy Team was M Raim in 5th. Others: Newlands, Dempster and Goldstein.