Sport
Rotem avoids the big pile-up on ride around London
Sixteen of the world’s top professional women’s teams were racing on closed roads in central London for a prize list topping £100,000.
August 27, 2019 08:55
Sixteen of the world’s top professional women’s teams were racing on closed roads in central London for a prize list topping £100,000.
August 27, 2019 08:55Apart from early break-away attempts, the 92 riders remained together in a tight, fast moving bunch in which Israel’s time trial champion Rotem Gafinovitz featured frequently at the front.
Twenty laps over 3.4km of closed roads around St. James’ Park, Constitution Hill and Buckingham Palace included a number of sprint prize laps on the line in the Mall before the finish just short of Admiralty Arch.
A disastrous touching of wheels just metres before the finish brought down much of the field, including several favourites and resulted in the winner’s disqualification.
American Skylar Schneider and Gafinovitz finished with the remaining riders at 1:34:36 and 1:35:48. A massive crash also marred the finish in The Mall of the men’s Prudential RideLondon - Surrey. The UCI ranked one-day World Tour event had successfully departed the capital for the South, where it included 20 circuits and climbs of Box Hill, with gradients of five per cent and eight per cent before heading back to London. As the teams formed into their lead-up trains in preparation for the finish, most of the six-rider Israel Cycling Academy were among the leaders, but also suffered delays in the charge for the finish with David Cimolai best -placed at 17th of 28 riders in the same time as the winner in 3:46:15.
Israel’s road champion Guy Sagiv finished with others at 88th in 3:47:16. All six of the Israeli team finished well within a good time despite the pile-up.
Five riders of the Israel Cycling Academy featured in the greatly depleted Prueba Villafranc-Orddizika one-day event in Spain, with Omer Goldstein best placed 60th in 4:06:37 The Be Ne Ladies Tour in Belgium featured the German registered Canyon/SRAM Racing Team, placing fourth in the final top 20 overall result, with Israel’s Gafinovitz’s time of 08:21:51 giving her 17th by 1min 42 sec.
America’s Skylar Schneider (Boels Dorman) clocked 08:22:27 to take 35th in the four-day event.
The UCI women’s World Tour race, the 10-day Giro d’Italia Femminile, showed the ever-improving Israeli Champion, Omer Shapira finishing 21st in 25hrs 18:56, just 11 secs down on champion Marriane Vos. Shapiro also shone particularly well in the opening team time trial in 00:31:41.