King continued

In our previous post we discussed our decision to officially interrupt the reign of current King of the Sprint Niccolo Bonifazio (Total Direct Energie). Since international racing resumed on 15 July with the Polish 2.2 stage race Dookoła Mazowsza, his reign has also been resumed.

We are very much looking forward to the “real” second start of the 2020 racing season (featuring all the top riders), and, of course, to the next title race. Bonifazio will probably take part in La Route d’Occitanie (1-4 August). Although the stage race in the southwest of France doesn’t have any completely flat stages, it’s not impossible that the first stage, into Cazouls-lès-Béziers, ends in a reduced bunch sprint (check the profile here), so we might see a new Sprint King crowned as soon as ten days from now. Stay tuned for our report!

The last King (at least for a while)

The real big guns failed to deliver in the 2020 Paris-Nice, with Nizzolo, Garcia Cortina, and now Niccolo Bonifazio (Total Direct Energie) taking the sprint wins – only the last two were title races, since Nizzolo’s victory didn’t come in a full bunch sprint.

In the streets of La Côte-Saint-André Bonifazio beat reigning King Garcia Cortina (Bahrain-McLaren) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe). With no races on for some time because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems like Bonifazio might, somewhat surprisingly, become the longest-reigning King of the 2020 season. Will we see another title race anytime soon? Only time will tell …