Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and live streams

Oude Kwaaremont many only reach 111m above sea level,
but like several of the hills in this race it's one of the most
respected climbs in cycling
(image credit: Marcel Baguette CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the opening event of the Belgian cycling season, is a race for the hard men and women of cycling with its tough hills and bone-shattering cobbles. Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne has more of the same, but less of it. Make no mistake, however - this is not an easy race for anyone. There are some steep hills along the 195km parcours, but with the last one some 50km before the finish line this is a competition that can suit the sprinters; which is a likely reason that in the 67 years the two races have been run nobody has ever managed to win both in a single season.

The race starts in Kuurne but never quite reaches Brussels, turning back at Galmaarden some 25km from the capital. It's on the return that it encounters the low but very steep climbs of the Flemmish Ardennes, taking in some of the same hills as the Omloop but adding a few others for good measure; several of them approaching or even surpassing a 10% gradient. The first is Edelareberg, 28km from the start; then there's La Houppe after 86km; Kanariebeg at 94km; Kruisberg at 99km; Oude Kwaaremont at 105km and cobbled for the last 1.6km; the Cote de Trieu at 119km, Tiegemberg at 131km and finally the entirely cobbled Nokereberg at 142km.

Cav at Gent-Wevelgem, 2009
(image credit: Thomas Ducroquet CC BY-SA 3.0)

Predictions: Several teams are sending the biggest of their hitters to this race - when riders such as Tom Boonen (winner in 2007/2009 and the only rider still active to have won two editions), Andre Greipel and Greg Van Avermaet are competing, it's exceedingly difficult to make a prediction. However, take a look at Team Sky: they have Flecha, an excellent Classics rider albeit one who will be tired from the Omloop; Ian Stannard, who was third here in 2010; Christopher Sutton, who won this race last year; Jeremy Hunt, third in 2009; Mathew Hayman, a rider who has specialised in the cobbled Classics for almost a decade and Alex Dowsett, young, eager and looking for glory. Six good, strong riders, each of them capable of winning this race on a good day.

They also have Mark Cavendish. We all know that Cav can't climb, but while the hills of the K-B-K are steep none are long in comparison to the giants of the Grand Tours - and while it takes him a long time and a lot of effort to get up those, get up them he does. If Sky can get him to those last 50km in one piece, protect him until the finish line is in sight and then light the blue touchpaper, there's only one possible outcome. 

It'll be tough to do it, but would leave no doubts that Sky is now complete and ready to take on the world. That is a prize that will encourage heroic effort. (It'll also be the third anniversary of the day when Team Sky was announced to the world, so what better way to celebrate?)

(start lists, live streams and other shiny stuff after the map...)

click to enlarge

Sports-Livez live streams 1 / 2 / 3 / 4  / 5 / 6
Sporza

(available from 14:00 CET/13:00 GMT, 26th of February)

Tickers: If you're stuck at work and your idiot boss thinks that watching cycling isn't important, you can still follow the action via a live ticker (which is far harder for anyone to notice on your screen). Several are available, including some that autotranslate into English with varying and sometimes amusing degrees of success, such as Sporza and Sport.be. Cycling News has one in English, though in our experience they're not as quick with the updates as the foreign tickers.

Weather: Little change from the Omloop, which benefitted from what was probably about the best weather a Belgian February can offer. If anything, a little warmer due to lighter wind. While it may be cloudier, no rain is expected.

Starters

SKY
Team (GBR)

1.
Cavendish
Mark
 (GBR)

2.
Sutton
Chris (AUS)

3.
Flecha
Juan
Antonio (ESP)

4.
Dowsett
Alex (GBR)

5.
Barry
Michael (CAN))

6.
Hunt
Jeremy (GBR)

7.
Haymann
Matthew (AUS)

8.
Stannard
Ian (GBR)

OMEGA
PHARMA_‐
QUICK‐STEP (BEL)

11.
Boonen
Tom

12.
Steegmans
Gert

13.
Velits
Martin (SVK)

14.
Ciolek
Gerhald (GER)



15.
Van
Keirsbulck
Guillaume

16.
Maes
Nikolas

17.
Terpstra
Niki (NED)

18.
Vandenbergh
Stijn

LOTTO
‐
BELISOL (BEL)

21.
Greipel
Andre (GER)

22.
Henderson
Greg (AUS)

23.
Bak
Lars (DEN)

24.
Reynes
Vicente (ESP)

25

Sieberg
Marcel (GER)

26
.Cordeel
Sander

27.
Van
Genechten
Jonas

28.
Willems
Frederik

KATUSHA (RUS)

31.
Paolini
Enrico (ITA)

32.
Galymzyanov
Denis (RUS)

33.
Kristoff
Alexandr
 (NOR)

34.
Gusev
Vladimir (RUS)

35.
Kuchynski
Aleksandr (BLR)

36

Selig
Reudiger (GER)

37.
Haller
Marco (AUT)

38.
Isaychev
Vladimir (RUS)

RABOBANK (NED)

41.
Renshaw
Mark (AUS)

42.
Breschel
Matti (DEN)

43.
Tankink
Bram (NED)


44.
Bol
Jetse (NED)


45.
Leezer
Tom (NED)

46.
Wijnants
Maarten

47.
Flens
Rick (NED)

48.
van
Winden
Dennis (NED)

GARMIN
‐
BARRACUDA (USA)

51,
Farrar
Tyler (USA)

52.
Klier
Andreas (GER)

53.
Maaskant
Martijn (NED‐)

54.
Kreder
Michel (NED)

55.
Fischer
Murilo
 (BRA))

56.
Rarthe
Jacob (USA)

57.
Bauer
Jack (NZL)

58.
Rosseler
Sebastien

GREENEDGE (AUS)

61.
Keukeleire
Jens

62.
Kruopis
Aidis (LIT)

63.
Meyer
Travis (AUS)

64.
Mouris
Jens (NED)

65.
Docker
Mitchel (AUS)

66.
Vaitkus
Thomas (LIT)

67.
Tuft
Svein (CAN)

68.
Wilson
Matthew (AUS)

FARNESE
VIVI

–
SELLE
ITALIA (GBR)

71.
Pozzato
Filippo (ITA)

72.
Balloni
Alfredo (ITA)

73.
Gatto
Oscar (ITA)

74.
Favilli
Elia (ITA)

75.
Mazzanti
Luca (ITA)

76.
Hulsmans
Kevin

77.
Giordani
Leonardo (ITA)

78.
Riccibitti
Davide (ITA)

BMC
RACING
TEAM. (USA)

81.
Ballan
Alesandro (ITA)

82.
Van
Avermaet
Greg

83.
Phinney
Taylor (USA)

84.
Quinziato
Manuel (ITA)

85.
Blythe
Adam (GBR)

86.
Schär
Michael (SUI°

87.
Wyss
Danilo (SUI)

88.
Lodewyck
Klaas

AG
2R
–
LA
MONDIALE (FRA)

91.
Elmiger
Martin (SUI)

92.
Goddaert
Kristof

93.
Hinault
Sébastien (FRA)

94.
Shpilevskiy
Boris (RUS)

95.
Casper
Jimmy (FRA)

96.
Belletti
Manuel (ITA)

97.
Mondory
Lloyd (FRA)

98.
Ravard
Anthony (FRA)

VACANSOLEIL
–
DCM (NED)

101.
Devolder
Stijn

102.
Van
Hummel
Kenny (NED)

103.
Feillu
Romain (FRA)

104.
Boeckmans
Kris

105.
Mol
Wouter (NED)

106.
Mortensen
Martin (DEN)

107.Selvaggi
Mirko (ITA)


108.
Pavarin
Marcello (ITA)

TEAM
NETAPP (GER)

111.
Schillinger
Andreas (GER)‘

112.
Seubert
Timon (GER)

113.
Koenig
Leopold (GER)

114.
Barta
Jan (CZE)

115.
Benedetti
Cesare (ITA)

116.
Schorn
Daniel (AUT)

117.
Huzarski
Bartosz (POL)

118.
Dietziker
Andreas (SUI)

FDJ_‐
BIG
MAT (FRA)

121.
Hutarovich
Yauheni (BLR)

122.
Bonnet
William (FRA)

123.
Rasch
Gabriel (NOR)

124.
Guesdon
Frédéric (FRA)

125.
Boucher
David (FRA)

126.
Ladagnous
Matthieu (FRA)

127
.Demare
Arnaud (FRA)

128.
Rollin
Dominique (CAN)

ACCENT
JOBS‐WILLEMS
VERANDA’S
 (BEL)

131.
Hoste
Leif

132.
Van
Dijk
Stefan (NED)

133.
Drucker
Jempy (LUX)

134.
Cappelle
Andy

135.
Van
Landschoot
James

136.
De
Wilfde
Sjef

137.
Goris
Rob

138.
Caethoven
Steven

EUROPCAR (FRA)

141
.Voeckler

Thomas (FRA)

142.
Arashiro
Yukiiya (JPN)


143.
Chavanel
Sébastien (FRA)

144.
Gaudin
Damien (FRA)

145.
Haddou
Said (FRA)

146.
Veilleux
David (CAN)

147.
Hurel
Tony (FRA)

148.
Turgot
Sébastien (FRA)

TEAM
TYPE
1
–
SANOFI (USA)


151.
Bodrogi
Laszlo (FRA).

152.
Bazzano
Alessandro (ITA)

153.
Colli
Daniele (ITA)

154.
Eldridge
Joe (USA)

155.
Fortin
Filippo (ITA)

156.
Laengen,
Vegard
Stake (SLO)

157.
Serebrykov

Aleander (RUS)

158.
Verschoor
Martijn (NED)

SAUR
–
SOJASUN. (FRA)

161.
Engoulvant
Jimmy (FRA)

162.
Martias
Rony (FRA)

163.
Galland
Jérémie (FRA)

164.
Laborie
Christophe (FRA)

165.
Lemoine
Cyriel (FRA)

166.
Paiani
Jean‐Lou (FRA)

167.
Coyot
Arnaud (FRA)

168.
Tortelier
Etienne (FRA)

TOPSPORT
VLAANDEREN‐MERCATOR
 (BEL)

171.
Lietaer
Eliot

172
Wallays
Jelle

173.
Neyrinck
Stijn

174.
De
Vreese
Laurens

175.
Vanoverberghe
Arthur

176.
Vanspeybrouck
Pieter

177.
Van
Staeyen
Michael

178.
Vandousselaere
Sven

BRETAGNE
–
SCHULLER (FRA

181.
Dion
Renaud (FRA)



182.
Pichon
Laurent (FRA)

183.
Lequatre
Geoffroy (FRA)

184.
Delpech
Jean‐Luc (FRA)

185.
Blot
Guillaume (FRA)

186.
Lebon
Johan (FRA)

187.
Halleguen Matthieu (FRA)

188.
Vachon
Florian (FRA)

COFIDIS,
le
crédit
en
ligne. (FRA))

191.
Duque
Leonardo (COL)

192.
Fouchard
Julien (FRA)

193.
Saramotins
Aletjej (LET)

194.
Labbe
Arnaud (FRA)

195.
Garcia
Egoitz (ESP)

196.
Barle
Florent (FRA)

197.
Petit
Adrien (FRA)

198.
Demaret
Jean‐François (FRA)

PROJECT
1t4i (NED)

201.
Degenkolb
John (GER))

202.
De
Kort
Koen (NED)

203.
Curvers
Roy (NED)

204.
De
Backer
Bert

205.
Timmer
Albert (NED)

206.
Klemme
Dominic (GER)

207.
Veelers
Tom (NED)

208.
Stamsnijder
Tom (NED)

LANDBOUWKREDIET
 (BEL)

211.
Stallaert
Joeri

212.
Devillers
Gilles

213.
Traksel
Bobbie (NED)

214.
Honig
Reinier (NED)

215.
Claeys
Kevin

216.
Planckaert
Baptiste

217.
Breyne
Jonathan

218.

Delfosse
Sébastien

SPIDERTECH
POWERED
BY
C10 (CAN)

221.
Bell
Zachary (CAN)

222.
Boiven
Guillaume (CAN)



223.
Houle
Hugo (CAN)

224.
Gilbert
Matin (CAN)

225.
Lacombe
Keven (CAN)

226.
Boily
David (CAN))

227.
Mc
Carty
Jonathan (USA)

228.
Seelander
Bjorn (USA)

AN
POST
–
SEAN
KELLY
TEAM (BEL)

231.
Eeckhout
Niko

232.
Ghyllebert
Pieter

233.
Bagdonas
Geminidas (LTU)

234.
Ennekens
Stijn

235.
McNally
Mark (GBR)

236.
Benett
Sam (IRL)

237.
Cassidy
Mark (IRL)

238.
Van
Bilsen
Kenneth

WALLONIE
–
BRU
–
CR.
AGRICOLE
(BEL)

241.
Bertholet
Quentin

242.
De
Witte
Jonathan

243.
Dron
Boris

244.
Everard
Laurent

245.
Polazzi
Fabio

246.
Legrand
Philippe

247.
Stenuit
Robin

248.
Van
Hoecke
Justin

Cycling awakens - Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (with results)

(image credit: Dzipi CC BY-SA 2.0)

Results below.

Today is the day - prepare for the real awakening of a new road cycling season.

Yes, we've had the Tours of Down Under, Qatar and Oman and the UCI continue in their efforts to globalise cycling, but make no mistake - the sport remains (almost) as Eurocentric as ever, and it's not truly out of hibernation before the first of the Classics. Hence the joyous feeling among cyclists everywhere this morning, for today is the day of the legendary Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

Having begun in 1945 when it was organised by Flemmish newspaper Het Volk - who saw a prime opportunity to grab some public attention when rivals Het Nieuwsblad faced accusations of collaboration after continuing to run the Ronde van Vlaanderen throughout the Second World War (with the help of a few cycling-loving Nazi officers, no less) - now serves as the ideal opportunity to get a look at riders' form. The Grand Tours are still a long way off, but how each individual rider responds to the cold weather and tough cobbles of Northern Europe after spending much of the winter at training camps in balmier climes down south is always illuminating. Het Volk, incidentally, ceased publication in 2008 and was purchased lock, stock and barrel by Het Nieuwsblad, largely so as to be able to take over ownership of this very race - hence the change in the name.

(image credit: Eddy Van Laere CC BY-SA 3.0)

The parcours today is 200.3km in length and, as ever, features a number of short but extremely steep climbs, some on cobbled roads, in addition to the flat cobbled sections that can shake bikes and riders to pieces. The first is Haaghoek, 2km of rough cobbles leading straight into the 6.9% Tenbosse. Kluisberg is not as steep, but it's long and with several shorter climbs in the region it marks what for many riders is the hardest part of the race. Nearer to the end, those who have survived - unlikely to be all those who start - reach Molenberg, a climb that is less than half a kilometre in length yet, due to the mixture of asphalt and jagged cobbles and a gradient that tops 7%, one of the most notorious climbs in cycling.

Who's in with a chance? Most will agree than Tom Boonen and Philippe Gilbert are the most likely winners (and if Gilbert's having an off-day, keep an eye on team mate Greg Van Avermaet - he might do rather well on this parcours and has the form to match); but this early in the season - and on this parcours - quite literally anything could happen. One of the many wonderful things about this race (and several of Belgium' other major races, for that matter) is that the organisers are sufficiently enlightened as to run a Women's event too. It takes a shorter but no less challenging route 119.4km in length, featuring many of the same climbs including the Molenberg. The level of athletic performance among the Elite Women's teams is extraordinarily well-matched at present with several outfits in with a real chance of victory today, which makes predicting a winner with any hope of accuracy far harder than it is for the men's race. If Marianne were here, things would be different - likewise Emma Pooley, arguably the best female climber in the world today, but neither are. That leaves the race wide open and subject to surprise, meaning it could prove the more enthralling of the two events - which makes it even more of a pity that the television networks haven't yet caught up with the organisers and cottoned on to the fact that there's a large potential audience who would like to watch women's cycling on TV.

Live streams available from 13:00 GMT: Sports-Livez 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 (the Women's race won't be shown)

Weather: Thermometers will show around 8-9C at midday and the early afternoon, but a 10km north-westerly wind will take the edge off that and make it feel more like 5C in exposed spots. Rain is not expected anywhere along the parcours.

Parcours here

Elite Men results
(Elite Women results and brief review here)
(Detailed review of the Elite Men's race at Podium Cafe)

1 Sep VANMARCKE BEL GRM 4:52:34
2 Tom BOONEN BEL OPQ +0
3 Juan Antonio FLECHA GIANNONI ESP SKY +0
4 Heinrich HAUSSLER AUS GRM +25
5 Greg VAN AVERMAET BEL BMC +25
6 Marco MARCATO ITA VCD +25
7 Lloyd MONDORY FRA ALM +25
8 Matthieu LADAGNOUS FRA FDJ +25
9 Alexandre PICHOT FRA EUC +25
10 Staf SCHEIRLINCKX BEL ACC +25
11 John DEGENKOLB GER PRO +25
12 Luca PAOLINI ITA KAT +25
13 Maarten WYNANTS BEL RAB +25
14 Kristof GODDAERT BEL ALM +25
15 Bobbie TRAKSEL NED LAN +25
16 Sébastien TURGOT FRA EUC +25
17 Leif HOSTE BEL ACC +25
18 Oscar GATTO ITA FAR +25
19 Jelle WALLAYS BEL TSV +25
20 Frédéric AMORISON BEL LAN +25
21 Sylvain CHAVANEL FRA OPQ +25
22 Davy COMMEYNE BEL LAN +25
23 Bernhard EISEL AUT SKY +25
24 Mathew HAYMAN AUS SKY +25
25 Laurens DE VREESE BEL TSV +25
26 Ian STANNARD SKY +25
27 Christian KNEES GER SKY +25
28 Dominique ROLLIN CAN FDJ +25
29 Thor HUSHOVD NOR BMC +25
30 Matti BRESCHEL DEN RAB +36
31 Philippe GILBERT BEL BMC +41
32 Koen DE KORT NED PRO +41
33 Stijn VANDENBERGH BEL OPQ +51
34 Dries DEVENYNS BEL OPQ +51
35 Andreas KLIER GER GRM +54
36 Bram TANKINK NED RAB +59
37 Marcus BURGHARDT GER BMC +1:05
38 Alessandro BALLAN ITA BMC +1:32
39 Aleksejs SARAMOTINS LAT COF +5:22
40 Kevin HULSMANS BEL FAR +5:22
41 Laszlo BODROGI FRA TT1 +5:30
42 Ramon SINKELDAM NED PRO +5:30
43 Mirko SELVAGGI ITA VCD +5:30
44 Taylor PHINNEY USA BMC +5:30
45 Vegard Stake LAENGEN NOR TT1 +5:30
46 Vicente REYNES MIMO ESP LTB +5:30
47 Jens DEBUSSCHERE BEL LTB +5:30
48 Maxime VANTOMME BEL KAT +5:30
49 Sébastien HINAULT FRA ALM +5:30
50 Marcel SIEBERG GER LTB +5:30
51 Pieter VANSPEYBROUCK BEL TSV +5:30
52 Romain LEMARCHAND FRA ALM +5:30
53 Johan LE BON FRA BSC +5:30
54 Stijn DEVOLDER BEL VCD +5:30
55 James VANLANDSCHOOT BEL ACC +5:30
56 Tomas VAITKUS LTU GEC +5:30
57 Renaud DION FRA BSC +5:30
58 Björn LEUKEMANS BEL VCD +5:30
59 Jens KEUKELEIRE BEL GEC +5:30
60 Arnaud GERARD FRA FDJ +5:30
61 Vincent JEROME FRA EUC +5:30
62 Steve HOUANARD FRA ALM +5:30
63 Anthony GESLIN FRA FDJ +5:30
64 Angelo TULIK FRA EUC +5:30
65 Gerald CIOLEK GER OPQ +5:30
66 Frederik WILLEMS BEL LTB +5:30
67 Manuel QUINZIATO ITA BMC +5:30
68 Mickael DELAGE FRA FDJ +5:30
69 Gabriel RASCH NOR FDJ +5:30
70 Sven VANDOUSSELAERE BEL TSV +5:30
71 Bert DE WAELE BEL LAN +5:30
72 Koen BARBE BEL LAN +5:30
73 Gert STEEGMANS BEL OPQ +5:30
74 Thomas VOECKLER FRA EUC +5:30
75 Jeremy HUNT SKY +5:30
76 Christopher SUTTON AUS SKY +5:30
77 Maarten TJALLINGII NED RAB +5:30
78 Lieuwe WESTRA NED VCD +5:30
79 William BONNET FRA FDJ +5:30
80 Stijn NEIRYNCK BEL TSV +5:30
81 David VEILLEUX CAN EUC +7:45
82 Edwig CAMMAERTS BEL COF +7:45
83 Markus EICHLER GER APP +7:45
84 Evert VERBIST BEL ACC +7:45
85 Rob GORIS BEL ACC +7:45
86 Preben VAN HECKE BEL TSV +7:45
87 Frederik VEUCHELEN BEL VCD +7:45
88 Romain ZINGLE BEL COF +7:45
89 Aliaksandr KUSCHYNSKI BLR KAT +7:45
90 Jack BAUER NZL GRM +7:45
91 Baden COOKE AUS GEC +7:45
92 Dirk BELLEMAKERS NED LAN +7:45
93 Andreas SCHILLINGER GER APP +7:45
94 Guillaume BOIVIN CAN SPI +7:45
95 Jérôme BAUGNIES BEL APP +7:45
96 Michael SCHÄR SUI BMC +7:45
97 Martin ELMIGER SUI ALM +7:45
98 Paul MARTENS GER RAB +7:45
99 Maxim BELKOV RUS KAT +7:45
100 Pier Paolo DE NEGRI ITA FAR +7:45
101 Alexander KRISTOFF NOR KAT +7:45
102 Marco HALLER AUT KAT +7:45
103 Mathieu HALLEGUEN FRA BSC +7:45
104 Florian VACHON FRA BSC +7:45
105 Jean-Lou PAIANI FRA SAU +7:45
106 Manuel BELLETTI ITA ALM +7:45
107 Lars BOOM NED RAB +7:45
108 Martijn MAASKANT NED GRM +7:45
109 Ramunas NAVARDAUSKAS LTU GRM +7:45
110 Nico SIJMENS BEL COF +7:45
111 Egidijus JUODVALKIS LTU LAN +7:45
112 Carlos BARREDO LLAMAZALES ESP RAB +7:45
113 Kevin ISTA BEL ACC +12:44
114 Arnoud VAN GROEN NED ACC +12:44
115 Martijn VERSCHOOR NED TT1 +12:44
116 David BOUCHER FRA FDJ +12:44
117 Leonardo GIORDANI ITA FAR +12:44
118 Timon SEUBERT GER APP +12:44
119 Christophe LABORIE FRA SAU +12:44
120 Sander CORDEEL BEL LTB +12:44
121 Andy CAPPELLE BEL ACC +12:44

Daily Cycling Facts 25.02.12

Heinrich Haussler

Heinrich Haussler
(image credit: Thomas Ducroquet CC BY-SA 3.0) 

Heinrich Haussler, born on this day in 1984 in Inverell, New South Wales with joint Australian/German nationality, was raised in Australia until the age of 14 when he relocated to Germany feeling that he would be better placed in Europe to realise his professional cycling ambitions. He got his professional contract in 2005 with Gerolsteiner and immediately made his name by winning Stage 19 at the Vuelta a Espana. in 2008, he revealed that he planned to compete for Australia in the 2010 World Championships.

However, this led to complications with the 2008 Worlds and Olympics, as under UCI rules any rider who gives up a place on one national team is automatically suspended from both competitions for a period of three years; meaning he would not be able to ride for either team in the meantime. The UCI also demanded that to ride for Australia, he would have to formally surrender his German nationality, which he was unwilling to do. Finally, in 2010, he decided that he would comply with the demand, but was then unable to compete in the Worlds for Australia due to an injured knee.

Haussler has been highly successful in both Classics and stage races, winning the GP Triberg-Schwarzwald and coming 2nd in Milan – San Remo and the Ronde van Vlaanderen and 7th in Paris-Roubaix in 2009 as well as 2nd in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad a year later and also won tages 1 and 5 at the 2006 Vuelta a Murcia, Stages 2 and 4 at the 2006 Circuit Franco-Belge, Stage 1 at the 2007 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stage 13 (and the stage's Combativity Award) at the 2009 Tour de France, Stages 1 and 5 at the 2009 Volta a Algarve, 2nd overall and the Sprint and Youth Classificiations at the 2009 Tour of Qatar, Stage 2 at the Tour de Suisse and the Points Classfication at the Tour of Qatar in 2010, Stage 2 at the inaugural 2011 Tour of Beijing, the Points Classification at the 2011 Paris-Nice  and Stages 2 and 3 at the 2011 Tour of Qatar where he also won the Points Classification for a third time and came 2nd in the overall General Classification. His nickname, Barbie, came about due to his platinum blonde highlighted hair.

Susanne Juranek
(image credit: Radcross.de)

Susanne Juranek
Susanne Juranek, born in Brake, Germany on this day in 1975, moved to Goslar during childhood and began mountain biking. She would move again to Oldenburg a few years later, a much flatter part of the country with a vibrant cyclo cross scene and soon moved into that discipline which turned out to be the one in which she would make her name. She won her first major race in Hamburg in 2006 before coming 3rd in the Gieten Superprestige later in the year, then came 3rd again at Elite level in the 2007 National Championships. She won at Vechta in 2009, then won a bronze medal in the Masters classification at the 2011 World Cyclo Cross Championships in Belgium.

José Antonio González, born in San Felices de Buelna on this day in 1946, became Spanish Road Race Champion in 1970 and won Stage 7b at the Tour de France that same year. In 1971, he won Stage 11b at the Vuelta a Espana, then Stage 17b in the same race one year later along with the first of his four wins at the Vuelta al País Vasco (1972, 1975, 1977 and 1978). He won Stage 10 at the 1976 Vuelta a Espana, his last Grand Tour, then picked up a number of stage wins at smaller races before his retirement in 1980.

Other births: Maurice Schilles (France, 1888, died 1950); Edi Ziegler (Germany, 1930); Akifumi Sakamoto (Japan, 1982); Jackson Rodríguez (Venezuela, 1985); Jan Ingstrup-Mikkelsen (Denmark, 1944); William Palacios (Colombia, 1964); Karel Štark (Czechoslovakia, 1942); Grzegorz Krejner (Poland, 1969); Peter Pryor (Australia, 1930, died 2005); Thorsten Rund (Germany, 1976); Iliya Velchev (Bulgaria, 1925); Silvestro Milani (Italy, 1958); Gerhard Lauke (East Germany, 1952); Kazimierz Krzemiński (Poland, 1902); Giuseppe Petito (Italy, 1960); Sandi Papež (Yugoslavia, 1965); John Barnard (Great Britain, 1886, died 1977); Manuel Fernández (Spain, 1971).

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad live streams

(image credit: Eddy Van Laere CC BY-SA 3.0)

Since even Eurosport haven't footage of the first big European race of the 2012 cycling season, ITV4 have no plans to increase cycling coverage and the rest of the channels don't care, British fans are going to have to watch on internet streams instead.

Seriously, TV channel executives: Britain has fallen in love with cycling in a major way. You're missing a huge opportunity to massive increase your viewing figures here.

Anyway, here's some streams...

Sports-Lives 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 (all streams live at around 14:00 CET, 13:00 GMT)

It goes without saying that the Women's race won't be shown at all.

Daily Cycling Facts 24.02.12

Vilma Rimšaitė
Vilma Rimšaitė, born in Lithuania's fourth largest city Šiauliai on this day in 1983, seemed destined for a life in music during her childhood when she earned a place at a specialist music school and won awards for her singing. At the age of six, she began to ride BMX and, spurred on by her BMX enthusiast father, soon demonstrated she was equally as talented at that - just three years later she took part in the European Championships, the continent's most prestigious BMX competition.

She spent the late 1990s and early years of the 21st Century concentrating on her academic studies, graduating from high school before taking a place at Šiauliai University and completing a degree in Business Management. Her studies done, she was free to return to BMX competition and was given a place on her nation's Olympic team with whom she rode in the 2008 Games in Beijing. In 2009, she won a bronze medal at the UCI BMX World Championships.


Bradley McGee
Bradley McGee was born in Sydney, Australia on this day in 1976 and became his nation's most successful male cyclist alongside Cadel Evans. His long string of wins began in 1993 with four Junior and Under-19 National titles followed by another six, two Commonwealth Games gold medals and an Under-19 3000m World Record (3'19.878") the next year. In 1995, competing at Elite level, he took two more National and one World Championship titles on the track.

Bradley McGee, 2005 Tour de France
(image credit: GSL CC BY-SA 2.5) 

More National titles came in 1997 along with a new Australian Hour record at 50.052km, then two more Commonwealth Games golds in 1998. In 1999, he began to make a name for himself in stage races by winning the prologue at the Tour de Normandie and the prologue and Stage 10 at the Tour de l'Avenir. In 2002, he won the Points Competition at the Critérium du Dauphiné, the World Individual Pursuit Championship, another Commonwealth gold and Stage 7 at the Tour de France. He won the prologue of the Tour a year later and wore the yellow jersey for three days.

2004 saw him win his first Olympic gold, having won bronze in 1996 (2) and 2000 (1), along with 1st place overall at the Route du Sud and 8th overall at the Giro d'Italia, in which he won the prologue and wore the maglia rosa for three days. He won the Points Classification at the Tour de Suisse in 2005 and wore the race leader's golden jersey for four days at the Vuelta a Espana. His last major victory was a gold medal in the Team Pursuit race at the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics, then he retired at the end of the season.

Jan Ghyselinck, born on this day in 1988 in Tielt, Belgium, is a rider who showed enormous promise as an amateur when he won the Giro della Toscana Juniors, Ronde van Vlaanderen Juniors, U23 Ronde van Vlaanderen, two Junior and one Under-23 National Time Trial Championships. He then turned professional with HTC-Highroad, a team with a reputation for seeking out and developing future stars, in 2010. Originally signed up as a neo-pro, wins at Mandel - Leie - Schelde in 2010 and a string of good results earned him a full professional contract with the team for 2011. Highroad folded at the end of the 2011 season due to problems with sponsorship, causing the riders to look to other teams - Cofidis confirmed that they had signed Ghyselinck in September that year.

Clara Hughes
(image credit: Tabercil CC BY-SA 2.0)

On this day in 2010 Clara Hughes - the only Canadian athlete to have won medals in both the Summer and Winter Olympics and one of the most successful Canadian cyclists of all time - announced her retirement from speed skating. She remains a professional cyclist and, at the age of 38, won countless new fans with a fantastic solo breakaway at the 2011 World Road Race Championship in Copenhagen, considered by many to have been the highlight of the competition.

Stefan Steinweg, born in Dortmund, Germany on this day in 1969, won his first World Championship in 1989 in the Points Race. The next came in 1991 with the Amateur Team Pursuit and was followed by a gold medal in the same event at the Olympics the following year. Since then, he has won two World Madison Championships riding alongside Erich Weispfennig and won ten criterium races on the road.

Leon Vandaele was born on this day in 1933 in Ruddervoorde, Belgium. As a rider who excelled in one day races, his greatest results were victories at the Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne in 1954 and 1961, the Omloop van het Houtland in 1956, the Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen in 1956, 1957 and 1958 and, greatest of all, Paris-Roubaix in 1958. He died on the 30th of April, 2000.

On this day in 2008, Matt Manger-Lynch was killed when he collided with a car during the Tour da Chicago alleycat race. His death, which sparked several discussions on radio, television and the Internet, was partly responsible for bringing alleycat racing - unofficial urban events - to widespread attention, having previously been known only to the bike messengers who originally organised them and to a few "underground" cycling clubs.

Other births: Frank Brazier (Australia, 1934); Héctor Mellado (Chile, 1925); Vera Hohlfeld (Germany, 1972); Bernardo Alfonsel (Spain, 1954); Fujio Ito (Japan, 1945); Helge Hansen (Denmark, 1925); John Watters (Australia, 1955).

Pâtisserie Cyclisme needs your help!

(image copyright Pâtisserie Cyclisme)

Have you heard of Pâtisserie Cyclisme yet? Established by a keen cyclist, it's a website that aims to provide details and reviews of all the world's cycling-friendly cafes - something that would in all likelihood soon become as valuable an aid when planning a route as a decent map. After all, there are only two things that we cyclists like as much as riding our bikes: drinking tea and eating cakes.

At present, they have around one hundred reviews of cafes in the United Kingdom and Europe but the site grows daily and, after just a year, is becoming one of the Internet's cycling hubs. The service's creator Louise is now hoping to develop her idea further, but to move on to the next stage she needs money. Don't click "back" just yet!

She's not asking you to put your hand in your pocket - but you can still help. All you need to do is vote for her funding application. If she can get 500 votes, her company will receive £500 from Enterprise Nation to put towards development and the purchase of a professional camera which will allow the reviews to be backed up by quality photographs of the various cafes.

It takes about 20 seconds to sign up and vote and it's completely free - so there really is no reason not to do it.

Do it now!

Daily Cycling Facts 23.02.12

Paris-Roubaix was run on this day in 1913, the earliest calendar date in the long history of the race. With exception of two stages at that year's Tour de France and two more in the 1914 Tour, it was the last race ever won by Luxembourg's François Faber - two years later, he was killed in the trenches of the First World War as he attempted to rescue an injured comrade from No Man's Land.

On this day in 1898 in France, author Émile Zola was imprisoned for writing J'Accuse, an open letter in which he (with good reason) accused the French government of antisemitism in the Dreyfus Affair - which would, in  roundabout way, lead to the inauguration of the Tour de France. Henri Desgrange, the first director of the Tour, was an enormous admirer of Zola and tried to emulate his skill in his own work - thus suggesting that Desgrange was probably not an antisemite himself, even though he was an ardent anti-Dreyfusard.

Theo Middelkamp

Theofiel Middelkamp was born on this day in 1914 in Nieuw-Namen, Netherlands. He was a keen footballer in his youth and had oped to make some sort of living from it, but football was played only as an amateur sport on the Netherlands at the time and he apparently wasn't good enough at it to be able to find a contrct with a professional foreign team. Being an athletic lad, he instead looked to cycling as a career and in 1936 he bcame the first Dutch rider to win a stage at the Tour de France.

He became National Road Race Amateur Champion in 1934 but remained an independent for almost two years before turning professional with the Belgian Van Hauwaert team in 1936 and it was with them that he first entered the Tour. Having spent all his life in one of the flattest parts of the Netherlands, he had never seen a hill before let alone a mountain - yet he won Stage 7 from Aix-les-Bains to Grenoble, one of the most difficult mountain stages of that year's parcours, and came 23rd on the overall General Classification. He won a bronze medal in the National Championships that same year.

In 1938, he became National Champion and entered the Tour for a second time. This time he won Stage 7 and came 43rd overall, winning 8,000 francs. This was far less than he could win in the races of Flanders and he decided that he would not compete in future Tours, telling reporters "I cannot live on fame and honour." During the Second World War be became a smuggler, carrying goods across the borders of Nazi-occupied countries until he was caught and imprisoned for several months.

The National Championship was held in 1943 despite the Occupation, and Middelkamp won it - as he would again in 1945, then he became the first Dutch World Road Race Champion in 1947. The following years brought some 45 podium finishes before he retired and bought a bar in 1951. For a great many years and for reasons unknown, he refused to talk about his cycling career after he'd retired and would become angry with any cyclist who tracked down his bar and tried to pick his brains. Finally, in 2003, whatever had caused him to want to forget it all was far enough in the past and he discussed his remarkable stage win that had taken place 67 years previously. He was 91 when he died in 2005.

Marc Wauters
Marc Wauters, born in Hasselt, Belgium on this day in 1969, won the Junior Time Trial event at his National Championships in 1987 and then set about making a good name for himself before being offered his first professional contract with Lotto-Superclub in 1991. He won a series of Belgian and Dutch races on the following years with many observers remarking that he showed real promise for the future.

Then, for no reason, he stopped winning - he had no victories at all in the 1997 and 1998 seasons. His form was as good as it had ever been, he didn't have any more crashes than usual and there wasn't an unbeatable rival in the races he entered. It seems to have been purely coincidental, but must have bothered him intensely. Thankfully, the wins started coming in again in 1999 with an early season victory at the GP Eddy Merckx, closely followed by Paris-Tours, the Tour of Britain (then called the Prudential Tour) and the Tour de Luxembourg. 2000 and 2001 continued in the same way, including a win for Stage 2 at the 2001 Tour de France and then he won the National Time Trial Championships in 2002 and 2003. He won silver fpr the National Road Race Championship in 2004, then won back the National Time Trial title a year later and continued to achieve good results until his retirement in 2006.

Andrea Moletta
Born on this day in 1973 in Citadella, Italy, Andrea Moletta became involved in a mysterious doping incident during the 2008 Giro d'Italia when he was riding with the Gerolsteiner team. Moletta's father was one of three passengers in a car stopped by police at the race as part of an ongoing investigation into doping at Padua gyms and was discovered to be in possession of 82 packets of Viagra, a syringe hidden inside a toothpaste tube and a portable fridge containing unidentified fluids.

Andrea "Actually, That's The Baguette I'm Having
For Lunch" Moletta
(image credit: PCM Daily)

Viagra - not officially recognised as having any physical effects likely to be of much during a bike race (though some reports had claimed it improved athletic performance at altitudes greater than any reached on any Grand Tour) and, due to the effects it does have, being a tricky one to hide if your job requires you to wear very tight lycra shorts - was not banned under UCI or WADA rules, but a rumour doing the rounds claimed that riders had been taking it to increase their aggression which served to increase suspicion, as did those mysterious fluids. The hidden syringe, of course, was the most damning of all.

Gerolsteiner suspended the rider pending further investogation. The fluids turned out to be an intravenously-injected substance known as Lutelef, a drug that could be used in a virtually undetectable blood doping technique but also came with a host of common side effects including a "painful, prolonged erection," leading to its use in very tiny quantities in so-called "non-prescription blue pills" used as an alternative to Viagra (generally by men who confuse ability to achieve an erection with status and thus feel ashamed to admit impotence to their doctor).

The investigation could find no suggestion that Moletta had been using Viagra, Lutelef or any other drug, so he was cleared of all suspicion. His father continues to deny that the drugs were to be used for nefarious means and no link to any doping programme was ever found. Nor was anybody, perhaps unwilling to risk damaging the Italian Stallion stereotype, willing to come forward and admit that they had a legitimate use for 82 packets of Viagra and an extremely questionable hormone should the Viagra not work its magic. To this day, nobody knows who the drugs were owned by, nor whom they were going to.

Roger Rivière, World Champion

Roger Rivière
Roger Rivière, born in St-Etienne this day in 1936, was a highly talented track cyclist who, at the age of just 19, beat Jacques Anquetil in the National Pursuit Championships at the Parc des Princes. In 1957, he became World Pursuit Champion and set a new Hour Record at 46.923km along with a new World 10km record at 12'31.8". He repeated this success the following year when he beat the 10km time by 9", set a new World 20km record at 25'15" then beat it with 24'50.6" and another new Hour Record at 47.364km - which remained intact for the next nine years. He then took the World Pursuit Champion title again in 1959.

Around 1956, he had started to perform well on the road too and won the Tour d'Europe. In 1959, he finished the Vuelta a Espana in 6th place overall and three stage wins and the Tour de France in 4th with two stage wins, leaving him among the favourites for General Classification success at the 1960 Tour. However, tragedy struck during Stage 14 when he attempted to follow the Italian rider Gastone Nencini down the difficult descent of the Col de Perjuret, despite Raphaël Géminiani's warning that "the only reason to follow Nencini downhill would be if you had a death wish."

Just a short way into the descent, he lost control and hit a small wall at the side of the road, plunging over it into a ravine. Spectators and officials present at the scene slowly peered over, expecting to see a mangled corpse if they could see any trace of the rider at all. Precisely how far he fell is not known, eyewitness reports vary from 10 to 20 metres, but his fall had been broken by scrawny bushes and he was both alive and conscious. The helicopter was unable to land (the writer Antoine Blondin said that it "turned above us in the way that vultures circle"), delaying the time before he could receive medical treatment - and when he was eventually pulled out, it was soon discovered that his spine was broken. When Nencini received his bouquet for winning the stage, he made arrangements for it to be given to his rival in hospital.

Rivière, his spine broken, is carried from the ravine

Rivière dishonoured himself somewhat a short while later by blaming his mechanic, saying that his brakes had either not been set up properly and had failed or that there had been oil on the wheel rims and/or brake pads. However, further investigation revealed that his brakes were in fact working perfectly and were not contaminated with oil. Then, doctors revealed that they had found a large amount of painkillers in the pockets of the rider's jersey and, based on what they'd seen when he was brought to the hospital, concluded that he had probably taken so many of them that he'd been incapable of reacting quickly enough to prevent the accident. Soon, he confessed; admitting that he was swallowing "thousands" of pills each year and that he'd been doping throughout his career.

Even a man who tries to blame others for his own mistake doesn't deserve the outcome that befell Rivière, though. He never recovered from his injuries and was left an 80% paraplegic, confined for the rest of his life to a wheelchair. He spent the proceeds of his career on a bar and restaurant in St-Etienne which he renamed Le Vigorelli after the velodrome where he had set his world records, but the venture failed and left him with little. Then he opened a garage, but that too failed so he tried his luck with a holiday camp. When that failed, he was left with nothing. He died soon afterwards of throat cancer, aged just 40. "Rivière, who succeeded at the impossible, found the possible more difficult," said the writer Olivier Dazat.

Gustav-Adolf Schur
Täve Schur, as he became known, was born on this day in 1931 in Heyrothsberge, a town that would become part of East Germany after the Second World War. He began cycling in 1950 and won races immediately, including six major victories during his first two years of riding competitively. In 1954, he became Amateur National Road Race Champion, a title he would win for a second time three years later and again in 1958, 1959, 1960 and 1961 - and in 1959, he was Amateur World Champion too, thus becoming the first East German to hold the title just as he had been the first East German to win the Peace Race in 1955 (which he won again in 1959).

Täve Schur
(it was the Sixties, alright?)

Like Jens Voigt, also an East German, Schur was more popular for his personality than his palmares and earned the adoration of the fans in 1960 when he threw away an almost guaranteed victory at the World Championships to allow his team mate Bernhard Eckstein to win. 25 years after retiring, he was voted the best-loved East German athlete of all time - having won the East German Sports Personality of the Year Award every year from 1953 to 1961. He was a member of the East German Parliament for 31 years between 1959 and 1990, somehow finding time between 1955 and 1963 alongside his racing and his political duties to qualify as a rugby coach.

He retained his socialist politics in the years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and joined the PDS party, which has campaigned against racism, in support of the legalisation of same-sex marriage and for greater rights and welfare for immigrants; all causes that increasingly came under attack as the old Eastern Bloc swung sharply to the right as a reaction to the dark days of Soviet-style Communism. With that agenda, he sat as a member of the Bundestag parliament for four years from 1998. In recognition of a lifetime of achievement, an asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter was named (38976) Täve in his honour. The bike shop he opened in 1992 in Madgeburg is still in business, though now being run by his son, and is sufficiently successful to sponsor the locally-based Team Täves Radladen.

Henry John Lawson, known as Harry, was born on this day in 1852 in London. At the age of 15 he was accepted for a two-year apprenticeship at an iron foundry, then moved with his family to Brighton in 1873 and found work in a bicycle shop. With his employer, a man named James Likeman, he produced a design for a bike driven by a system of levers and they were awarded a patent on it. Lawson then went on to design many other bicycles in the same decade including one described as the "first authentic design of safety bicycle employing chain-drive to the rear wheel which was actually made," thus earning him the honour - shared with John Kemp Starley (and, according to some histories, various others) - of being named as the inventor of the the modern bike.

Arthur Charles Jeston Richardson
Born in Brazil in this day in 1872, Arthur Charles Jeston Richardson moved with his family to Australia during childhood and became a mining engineer, also making a name for himself as a bushman. He became famous with a number of Australian cycling firsts, including becoming the first man to "cycle" (in fact, a large part of the journey was completed on foot as he was forced to carry his bike over sand dunes) from Coolgardie in the west to Adelaide in the south-east via the Nullabor Desert, which he described as having been "about 1000 degrees in the shade." The journey, some 2,000km long, took him 31 days.

Three years later, he set out from Perth on the 5th of June in an attempt to complete a circuit of the country in a shorter time than a two-man team who had set out from Brisbane. The journey was extremely had-going with heavy rains preventing him from riding in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, where he also encountered what he termed "hostile blacks." He finished before the rival team and another solo rider, ending the 18,507km trek on the 4th of February 1900.

Two months later, he joined the Army and was posted to the South African War where his bike skills saw him put into use as a dispatch rider. He arrived in Mozambique on the 18th of April 1900 but had been discharged by June with a broken arm. He then traveled to West Africa before finding his way back to outh America where he again worked as a mining engineer in Chile and married a woman named Gwendolin Bedwell who gave birth to a son. Little is known of what happened to him after his days in the Army, but he fought again in the First World War and was injured so badly he spent two years in a hospital in Rouen, France.

Once recovered he joined his wife who was waiting in England and found more work as an engineer . However, it didn't last and the couple divorced, possibly as a result of the serious mental health issues he suffered after the War. He later married again, this time to a Rita Betsy Elliott-Druiff. On the 3rd of April 1939, police discovered his corpse lying next to that of his wife at their home in Scarborough. He had shot her, then himself.

Other births: Eddy Vanhaerens (Belgium, 1954); András Baranyecz (Hungary, 1946, died 2010); Corrado Ardizzoni (Italy, 1916, died 1980); Dimitrios Georgalis (Greece, 1974); Jörg Müller (Switzerland, 1961); Nikolay Gorelov (USSR, 1948); Fernando Sierra (Colombia, 1966); Kim Yong-Mi (South Korea, 1976); Didier Pasgrimaud (France, 1966); David George (South Africa, 1976); Nicolas Morn (Luxembourg, 1932, died 1997); Karl Neumer (Germany, 1887, died 1984); Gavin Stevens (New Zealand, 1960); José Carlos de Lima (Brazil, 1955).