The ladies pick up double points and Garrett Jenema is BACK on the cover of Teen Beat.
This one really felt like summer. With some hot, hot heat most of the week, we still saw a great turnout of riders for Ladies’ Week. Double points for the women, with Susan Vigland picking up the full 20 ahead of Val and Kate. That has both Susan and Val into the top ten in the WorldTour heading into the Random Relay.
On the men’s side, Cam and Jeff Owens gave everyone a break from getting third, with Garrett Jenema and Max Meyer making the most of it to go 1-2. Riding together in a textbook two-man time trial, the pair busted under the 37-minute mark, becoming just the third and fourth riders to duck under that time this year. Much, much further back, Cody Sovis narrowly held off Drew Cummins and a flying Dan Ellis to stay in the top five for the week.
Brad Pauly, Neil Vajda, Jon Zelinski, and a slew of others made their 2020 debuts this week, perfect timing to build some form before the Tour Competition.
But first, it’s the Random Relay. The fastest time is paired with the slowest, second fastest to second slowest, all to nab some handy WorldTour points. Typically, finishing neatly just outside of the top ten is a good bet, though we have seen some especially fast editions of this see one of the podium riders still slide into a nice haul of points.
Also this week, we’re giving up on the 2018 route and going with the 2019 Speed of Light course, which seems to pick up a bit better on Strava. When in doubt, use your phone, too.
Finally, the standings can now be commented on, so if your Strava time isn’t posted, you can make a note of it. Getting texts, emails, and whatnot is too hard to track these days. Sorry.
Results and standings are here.
Again, next week we’re going back to 2019 which, all things considered, was a golden age, wasn’t it?