The final battle for Worlds Qualification
A bumper week of international racing as nations look to secure spots in Glasgow and Paris + more news and stories from around the world of cycling
Welcome to Global Peloton!
Bini is back! What a sprint he did on stage 2 of the Dauphine.
I cannot begin to explain to you what it would mean if he won a stage at the Tour de France. Cycling mad Eritrea would be rocking, and the ripple would be felt across the entire continent.
And perhaps…perhaps it would send shockwaves through to rest of the cycling world too, waking people up to the potential outside of the traditional places and even challenging our own attitudes as to how we perceive cyclists from different backgrounds. Perhaps.
Girmay topped-off an already massive week for African cycling, the busiest week of racing on the continent all year.
It’s all happening with two very important events on the horizon: the Worlds and Olympics.
If you enjoy this, please consider sharing and subscribing.
Dan
Worlds Qualification going down to the wire
Time is running out for nations to qualify riders for the World Championships in Glasgow.
The UCI Nations rankings on the 20th of June will decide who gets to go and how many riders they can take. Any nation in the top-50 will be eligible for the road race, with those ranked 31-50 able to take one rider. From there, the higher you are ranked, the more riders you can take.
This only applies to the road race. Any nation with the means can put riders in the individual and mixed team time-trial events.
Similarly, the ranking skirmish only really involves the men. Any nation placed 21 and under in the women’s ranking can take three riders to the road race if they are motivated to and can afford it.
It’s been fascinating throughout the whole of 2023 to see how many new races have popped up, designed, in part, by smaller nations to hoover up points for the Worlds and the Olympics (the deadline for the latter is in October).
Just in the five weeks, five lower-ranked nations have staged one or more brand new UCI races:
2.2 Kirikalle - Türkiye (ranked 49th)
2.2 Aziz Shusha - Azerbaijan (71st)
2.2 Tour de Maurice(newly upgraded from a national event) and 1.2 Courts Mammouth Classique de l'Île Maurice - Mauritius (45th)
4x 1.2 races - Uzbekistan (34th)
3x 1.2 races - Morocco (27th)
The Olympics are often the only cycling event that matters for some smaller nations. It’ll now be interesting to see whether these races exist beyond 2023. Which nations are investing in cycling? And which are only interested in Olympic qualification?
In some cases, these new races have helped nations to vault up the standings. Uzbekistan leapt 14 places after their controversial series in May. In other cases, results didn’t go the way of the host and there was little benefit.
The most crucial of all of the above is Kirikalle, which took place over the weekend. It was a two-day stage race won by Greece’s Nikoforos Arvanitou. But most significantly, Türkiye managed to pick up 85 UCI points, moving them from 52nd up to 49th and causing heartbreak for Lithuania who fall out of the top-50.
Thanks to this brand new 2.2 race, Türkiye will in all likelihood qualify a rider for the World Championships in Glasgow at the eleventh hour, and Lithuania will not.
An equally close, and intriguing, tussle has been on the go for the 30th spot in the nations rankings. The jump from 31st to 30th grants a nation three more riders in the road race. This battle is between two nations: Algeria and Estonia.
As of last week, Estonia were sitting in 30th place with a 90 point lead over Algeria.
This week, races in two African nations have taken place and they have included Algeria’s two best riders: Youcef Reguigui and Yacine Hamza.
Reguigui in Mauritius and Hamza in Cameroun scored enough points to overturn their deficit and now lead Estonia by 13 points. There is no prospect of Algeria scoring any more points in the next week, so Estonia still have a chance to pull it back.
Fine margins with great significance.
Although the Worlds deadline is approaching, the competition for UCI points will rumble on for the whole season as nations looked to book a place in Paris next year. The deadline for Olympic qualification is in October.
Asian Continental Championships
Thailand hosted the Asian Continental Championships this year.
As with all Continental Championships, an extra prize for the winner of the road race is an automatic place at Paris 2024.
For the women, that was awarded to Vietnam’s Thi That Nguyen. The Israel-Premier Tech Roland sprinter won the race for the third time ahead of China’s Jiajun Sun and Thailand’s Jutatip Maneephan in a bunch kick. It also awarded Israel-Premier Tech Roland with 250 UCI points which will help them in their quest for WWT status.
The men’s race was won by Gleb Brussenskiy, leading home a Kazakh one-two with Yevgeniy Gidich in second. The duo fought off a spirited challenge from Japanese rider Yukiya Arashrio. A very welcome 450 points for Astana here too.
It was another Kazakh win in the men’s TT, this time for Yevgeniy Fedorov. In second was Taiwan and Bahrain-Victorious rider Chih Hao Tu and third was the Mongolian Maestro, Jambaljamts Sainbayar.
Uzbekistan’s Olga Zabelinskaya dominated the women’s TT. South Korean Ah Reum Nah was second and Rinata Sultanova of Kazakhstan third.
The TT wins grant those riders a place at Glasgow 2023.
Other News
The Tour de Maurice was won by Archie Cross ahead of home rider Christopher Rougier-Lagane. The queen stage was won by Eritrean Natnael Berhane of Beykoz Belediyesi Spor Kulübü.
It was a Moroccan one-two at the Tour du Cameroun as Mohcine El-Kouraji won ahead of team-mate Adil El Arbaoui. Yacine Hamza extended his season UCI win total to 11 - only bettered by Tadej Pogacar.
In Portugal, Puerto Rico’s Christopher Morales won the final stage of GP Abimota. Argentinian Tomas Contte was second on stage 1.
New Green Project signing Vicente Rojas continued his good form with second in the opening stage of the Vuelta a Navarra. Guatemalan talent Sergio Chumil won stage two and Uruguay’s Thomas Silva was victorious on the third stage. Edgar Cadena of Mexico finished 10th overall.
Moroccan youngster Imad Sekkak finished 4th in the Giro del Piave
South Africa’s Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio put in an excellent ride to finish second at the CIC-Tour Féminin Pyrénées, winning the first stage.
Thanks for reading Global Peloton!
If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing and sharing.
Everything is free for now, you can add a paid subscription if you want to support Global Peloton.