COMMUNIQUÉ

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Days for the new Giro di Sicilia stage race which debuts this April in Sicily, Italy. The UCI con!irmed the 2.1 race, run by Giro d’Italia organisers RCS, will take place from April 3 "6.

Lotto Soudal’s

Rasmus Iverson had an eventful pro race debut, at the opening day of the Challenge Mallorca. After getting in the early breakaway, the 21-year- old Dane did enough to win the day’s King of the Mountains classi ication, and was awarded the combativity prize. But with 19km to go, he crashed and fractured his collarbone. “I would not know how to organise a second event during the Tour... We would never get permission. It is impossible to do so” Christian Prudhomme on running a women’s Tour de France concurrently with the men’s race in July

2000

The year 18-year- old Biniyam Ghrirmay was born. The Eritrean won stage 3 of the Tropicale Amissa Bongo, making him the !irst rider born since the start of the year 2000 to win a UCI ranked-race. “Geraint has a score to settle after the incident that cost him the maglia rosa two years ago. And the route is perfect for him.” Chris Froome adds fuel to the ire that his team-mate Geraint Thomas should ride this year’s Giro. “I’m not disappointed at all. It was a choice on the part of myself and the team to go to the Giro. Honestly, it’s perfect.” Twotime Tour de France stage winner Arnaud Démare insists, to Ouest-France, he’s happy to focus on the Giro this year, as his Groupama-FDJ team-mate Thibaut Pinot targets the Tour’s overall classi ication.

Plouay it again

The men’s and women’s BretagneClassics were saved from cancellation, after France Television reversed its decision to not broadcast the races this year. The WorldTour ranked oneday French men’s race, originally named the Grand Prix Ouest- France Plouay, dates back to 1931 and has a late summer slot on the calendar at the end of August.