Dimension Data excel in national time trial championships - News Shorts
Dumoulin irritated by early start for Dutch nationals, Küng's surgery a success, FDJ bring on new sponsor for Tour de France
Küng's surgery a success
Stefan Küng has undergone successful surgery after breaking his collarbone and iliac bone in a crash during the time trial at the Swiss national championships earlier this week.
“Stefan underwent surgery today at Kantonsspital St. Gallen under the supervision of Dr. Külling and Dr. Noak. The surgery went very well and the hospital staff, in conjunction with the BMC Racing Team medical team, will continue to monitor Stefan on a daily basis," said BMC's doctor Max Testa in a statement.
"He is expected to recover fully from his injuries in the next two months, during which time we will re-evaluate his progress and make any necessary adjustments.”
The injury lay-off means Küng will miss the Olympic Games in Rio, where he had been in line to ride the team pursuit. It comes as the latest in a line of setbacks since he moved to WorldTour level in 2015, after fracturing a verterbra at the Giro d'Italia last year and coming down with Epstein-Barr Virus at the start of this year.
"I know that I'm in the best possible hands here. I've come back from injury before and I'll come back again," he said.
Dumoulin irritated by early start for Dutch nationals
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Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) has expressed his irritation at having to make an early start for the Dutch national championships road race, which were scheduled earlier than usual due to the Euro 2016 football championships.
The 25-year-old, who won the time trial title earlier in the week took to Twitter to voice his bafflement at the decision, writing "I'll pass" - though he did still take part.
Saturday's road race got underway at the unusually early time of 8:30am so as to avoid a television clash with the Switzerland-Poland match at Euro 2016, whose kick-off was 3pm.
"We're not going to do this every two years, huh?" said Dumoulin. "Get up at half 6 to race the Nationals to avoid Switzerland Poland. I'll pass.''
A similar situation is occurring with the French nationals tomorrow, though the French football team is playing on the same day, while the Netherlands aren't even at the tournament. Nacer Bouhanni sent out a Tweet of his own, very similar to that of Dumoulin.
FDJ bring on new sponsor for Tour de France
The sponsorship situation in professional cycling is famously flawed but FDJ have struck up a new partnership for the Tour de France.
French poultry company Le Gaulois have come on board for the duration of the race, where their logo will appear on the riders' shorts and also on the team's cars.
"We are proud to be partners with FDJ, which, similarly to Le Gaulois' poultry, is a very French team. As well as contributing to the standing of our brand, this partnership is equally a unique opportunity for us to reinforce our relationship with French cycling and to extol the values which are important to us, such as competitiveness and team spirit," said the company's marketing director Dominique Charrier.
Dimension Data excel in national time trial championships
Team Dimension Data riders have secured four gold medals in the time trial national championships held this weekend around the world.
Kanstantsin Siutsou was the first to take home a gold medal, winning the time trial at the Belarussian national championships on Thursday. It was his fourth time trial championship victory.
Edvald Boasson Hagen was the next rider to race for national honours, as he took part in the Norwegian time trial championships late on Thursday. It was the Norwegian's eighth time trial title.
Daniel Teklehaimanot defended his 2015 title and won the 2016 Eritrean national time trial title in Asmara, it was his third national time trial title.
Adrien Niyonshuti won the team's fourth time trial title this weekend at the Rwandan national time trial championships. Niyonshuti had won the road race title twice before in previous years, but the time trial title was his first.
