Larry Warbasse wins US cycling national road race championship
Michigan grad wins the national road race title fresh off of his first ever professional win in the Tour de Suisse. Amazing couple of weeks for him.
I can't wait for the Tour to start, absolutely love watching cycling. Congrats to Larry!
Rad ass news. Congrats, Larry.
Is Larry riding in Le Tour? I don't see him listed in the provisional rider roster.
Too bad , he's 26 and peaking in his form, his best years are the next four (or so) but he should be riding the tour this year. 26 is the perfect age to ride your first TdF.
edit: Darn it, actually he'll be 27 in two days, that means (assumming his form continues) his first tour ride will be at age 28, not ideal but better than nothing.
I haven't checked the list, but I wouldn't expect his team to be invited. Not all cycling teams get to ride the Tour.
EDIT: Sure enough, not on the provisional Tour listing at cyclingnews. They're a Pro Continental team, which is legit and gets in some significant races, but there's work to do before they'd be considered for the Tour.
lesser teams that they could add for the tour sort of like on loan. Guys hit peaks and valleys in their form every year and this would be cool to get certain riders in the race. He's going to have to bail to a major team next season.
A climber (and thus GC contenter for major tours) from Michigan, how cool is that?
That would violate the whole structure of the sport, akin to allowing good players on mediocre teams to switch to good teams for the NCAA tournament, or good NBA players to switch to other teams for the NBA playoffs.
If Warbasse has the chops (and he's showing signs of it) he can sign with a better team and get more opportunities like this. Outfits like Cannondale are real options.
Would be fun to see some last minute horse trading free agency.
If his form continues, for Aqua Blue fans to put it in recruiting parlance: He gone.
Told you're wrong, do you?
He has ridden in the Vuelta three times, finishing in the top 50 the last two years (38th and 49th). Not bad.
He won a stage in the Tour de Suisse too which was huge. I was in class with him at the B school in undergrad.
This is awesome. Great for Larry (I love how I say this like we're old pals from back in the day, when I didn't know who he was until the discussion about Michigan alums in the Giro). National championships don't necessarily have all of the best cyclists, since a week before the Tour a lot of guys are in Europe in Tour prep mode, but it is still a great accomplishment and there was legit competition.
Between this and his recent stage win, he has demonstrated significant development and should be able to maintain a spot in the pro peloton for a while. Excellent stuff.