Aqua Blue Sport's first race done
Aqua Blue Sport's Calvin Watson leads the group in Australia where the colours of the Irish team have been given their first ever competitive outing.
While it will not compete as a full team until later this month, the Aqua Blue Sport colours have had their first competitive outing.
Australian Calvin Watson lined out as the sole rider from the Irish ProContinental team in the third race of the Mitchelton Bay Classic criterium series in Williamstown overnight.
The event, won by Caleb Ewan (Orica-Scott), split on the tight circuit and all but the front riders were pulled off the circuit.
It meant Watson was among that large group of riders who did not finish.
But it's great to see the first photos of the team kit in action in what is essentially a tune-up race before more serious pro events get underway in Australia in the weeks ahead.
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They include the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, the Tour Down Under and the Herald Sun Tour.
Aquablue will ride as a full team in the Cadel Evans event, which starts in Geelong, on the last weekend of this month, with Conor Dunne the only Irishman named in the selection.
The other Irish riders in the team, Matt Brammeier and Martyn Irvine, will get their 2017 campaigns underway a little later than Dunne.
Paris-Nice route suits Sam Bennett
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Sam Bennett and the other fastmen in Paris-Nice in March could get as many as four chances to sprint for victory during the eight stages judging by the race's route which has just been released.
The route for Paris-Nice has just been unveiled and it contains plenty of opportunities for sprinters, including Ireland’s Sam Bennett (Bora – hansgrohe).
The event runs from Sunday, March 5th, to Sunday, March 12th, and an examination of the route suggests sprint finishes are a likely outcome on the first three stages.
The open stage is a 148.5km criterium at Bois-d’Arcy near Paris. That is followed by the 192.5km stage 2 from Rochefort-en-Yvelines to Amilly where a sprint finish is likely unless a break succeeds.
And the same scenario is likely the following day at the end of the 190km stage 3 from Chablis to Chalon-sur-Saône.
Stage 4 is a 14.5km TT that takes the riders up the 3km brutal Mont Brouilly to the finish.
And while the general classification battle will start in the TT, the follow day’s stage 5 again looks like a chance for the sprinters, though first 199.5km will need to be tackled on the route from Quincié-en-Beaujolais to Bourg-de-Péage.
The final three stages are more testing and should split the race. Stage 6, for example, takes the riders over six tough climbs on the 192km trek from Aubagne to Fayence.
And the penultimate stage 7 the next day finishes atop the 15.7km Col de la Couillole. Standing at 1,678m it is the highest point the route has even taken the field.
The final day into Nice is lumpy and will split the field up before the finish, which has relocated away from the Promenade des Anglais as a mark of respect to the people killed when an attacker drove a truck into a crowd in July.
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