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All the news you might have missed from the last seven days
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Miles How far End-to-end hopeful Jasmijn Muller rode before having to abandon through exhaustion. This is the 2017 world 24-hour champion’s second LEJOG attempt — the last one being this time last year, when she abandoned at 370 miles due to illness. This time, having started at 5am last Saturday morning, she managed to get into the Scottish Highlands — to within 200 miles of her target — before calling off the attempt at midnight on Sunday.
Her crew tweeted: “We are really sorry to say that Jasmijn is unable to continue her record attempt. She is being looked after by her crew and is really grateful for all the support she has received.”
Pro Conti teams to merge Van Vlueten wins Boels Tour
Belgium’s Veranda’s Willems-crelan team — with star Wout Van Aert — will merge for 2019 with Dutch team Roompot-nl Loterij. The two Pro Continental teams will ride under the name Roompot-crelan. Veranda’s Willems had been said to be merging with team Aqua Blue before they folded last week. Van Aert, winner of three consecutive world champion titles in cyclo-cross, will be one of the team’s leaders. The Belgian made his debut in the big Classics this spring and rode to ninth in the Tour of Flanders and 13th in Paris-roubaix. Annemiek Van Vlueten has marked herself out as the woman to beat at the World Championships after defending her title at the Boels Ladies Tour in the Netherlands at the weekend. The Mitchelton-scott rider took the prologue, a road stage and the final day time trial in the process of winning the six-day race, which finished on Sunday. The current TT world champion has now won all but one of the individual time trials she has started this season and will go into the Worlds TT in Innsbruck, Austria, later this month as favourite, as well as standing a good chance in the hilly road race.
Cav out till next season?
Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) is to take time out from racing as he begins a period of complete rest in order to recover from the Epstein Barr virus. “On the back of these medical results, I’m glad to now finally have some clarity as to why I haven’t been able to perform at my optimum level,” said the Manxman.
First blood to Greipel in TOB
After a disappointing Tour de France, André Greipel proved there’s life in the old dog yet, sprinting to victory on stage one of the Tour of Britain in Newport on Sunday.
The Lotto-soudal rider timed his effort perfectly, beating Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-scott) and Fernando Gaviria (Quick Step) to the line. The finish was far from decided until very late on, with Bob Jungels (Quick Step) caught 1km from the line.