Team Sky's first race, the 2010 Cancer
Council Helpline Classic (image credit: AntCC BY 2.0)
Team Sky
On this day in 2009, the creation of Team Sky was announced. Sponsored by the satellite television broadcasting, telephony and broadband internet provided BSkyB, the team is managed by Dave Brailsford and began with an annual budget of more than £30 million. Other sponsors included IG Markets, Marks&Spencer, Gatorade and Oakley. Italian manufacturer Pinarello provided the bikes and Jaguar provided cars, thus enabling the team an easy win in the unofficial "poshest team car" stakes. The team is based in Manchester and maintains a logistics base in Belgium and an operational base in Italy.
Planning to build a British core, the first riders confirmed by the team were Steve Cummings, Peter Kennaugh, Ian Stannard, Chris Froome, Russell Downing and Geraint Thomas. Morris Possoni, Chris Sutton, Michael Barry, Kjell Carlström, John-Lee Augustyn, Greg Henderson, Lars Petter Nordhaug, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Thomas Löfkvist, Kurt Asle Arvesen, Ben Swift, Simon Gerrans, Juan Antonio Flecha, and Bradley Wiggins would join them later.
Sky won its first race, the Cancer Council Helpline Classic in Adelaide at which Greg Henderson and Chris Sutton took the top two places, and then received a wild card entry for the Tour de France alongside invites to the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana. Bradley Wiggins became the first Sky rider to wear a Grand Tour leader's jersey when he won the Giro prologue and, weeks later, Ben Swift won the Tour de Picardie. Immediately a favourite for the Tour, in the end the team was less successful than they had hoped with Thomas Löfkvist's 17th overall being the best result. They withdrew from the Vuelta following the death of soigneur (called a "carer" on Sky's official website, as is the preferred term since Willy Voet tried to drive a car full of drugs over ta border in 1998).
2011 got off to a good start with Ben Swift coming 3rd overall at the Tour Down Under and Flecha and Hunt did well at the Tour of Qatar. Boasson Hagen took the Points Classification and was 2nd overall at the Tour of Oman, then Wiggins finished Paris-Nice in 3rd and Geraint Thomas was 2nd in the Dwars door Vlaanderen. In June, Wiggins won the Critérium du Dauphiné, a race that is frequently considered to reveal riders destined for future Tour success and thus making himself a favourite when the Tour began. However, he abandoned with a broken collar bone after a crash involving several riders in Stage 7, the day after Boasson Hagen had won Sky's first ever Tour Stage and the race ended with Rigoberto Urán the highest-placed Sky rider at 24th overall. Chris Froome would later win Stage 17 at the Vuelta, dropping Geox-TMC's surprise star Juan José Cobo as they fought towards the finish line at the summit of Peña Cabarga.
Bradley Wiggins becomes the first
British Tour de France winner, 2012
Sky's mission statement, the reason it had been brought into existence, was also announced that day: they were going to deliver Britain its first ever Tour de France winner. Many British cycling fans thought this was something they'd never see, but early in 2012 it became apparent that Sky had evolved into an extraordinarily professional, well-drilled team: Edvald Boasson Hagen won the Sprint Classification victory at the Tour Down Under in January followed by the same title at the Volta ao Algarve, where team mate Richie Porte won the General Classification and the team won the Team Classification. What's more, Bradley Wiggins had found the greatest form of his career so far, winning Paris-Nice and the Tour de Romandie a few months later - excellent results that saw him become the favourite for the Tour de France. In fact, Wiggins didn't merely win the Tour, he dominated it; taking the General Classification lead from Fabian Cancellara in Stage 7 before retaining it through to the end of the race, also winning Stages 9 and 19. Meanwhile, new team member Mark Cavendish (who would leave for Omega Pharma-Quickstep at the end of the season) won Stages 2, 18 and 20 while Chris Froome won Stage 7 before coming second overall and then in 2013, Froome won. Sky's mission statement had stated that the first British win would come within three years - in four and half, they managed two.
George David "Gee" Atherton, one of Britain's most successful mountain bikers, was born on this day in 1985 near Salisbury. His first major success was a bronze medal for the Downhill Race at the British National Mountain Bike Championships in 2000, when he raced in the Youth Class. He won the same event in 2001, again as a Youth, then again in 2002 and 2003 as a Junior and in 2004 as an Elite rider - the same year he won Round 3 of the UCI Downhill Cup; which he would win outright in 2010 when he beat three-time champion Greg Minnaar.
Like many downhill riders, Gee also rides 4X - a race in which four riders compete against one another on a downhill course featuring prepared BMX-style jumps. He won Round 1 of the UCI 4X Cup in 2007 along with the European Downhill Championship, but has tended to leave 4X for older brother Dan. He won the UCI Downhill Championships in 2008, the same year younger sister Rachel won the Women's Class, then took British Downhill Championship in 2009 and the UCI World Downhill Cup the following year.
Connie Carpenter-Phinney
Now retired, Connie Carpenter-Phinney was one of the many cyclists to have also excelled in speed skating. She was born in Madison, USA on this day in 1957. In 1972 when she was 14, she competed in the speed skating event at the Winter Olympics; thus becoming the youngest American athlete to take part in the history of the Winter Games (a record that still stands).
On the bike, she won the National Road and Track Pursuit Championships in 1976, 1977 and 1979 and was victorious in numerous criterium races. She won an Olympic cycling gold medal in 1984 after beating Rebecca Twigg in a sprint. She is married to Davis Phinney, the first US rider to win a stage at the Tour de France and the couple have two children, one of whom - Taylor - is himself a professional cyclist, a three-time World Pursuit Champion and winner of two editions of the Under-23 Paris-Roubaix.
On this day in 2005, Victoria Pendleton set a new British Women's Record when she completed the 1000m Time Trial in 1'10.854".
Other cyclists born on this day: Jan Jansen (Netherlands, 1945); Kwok Ho Ting (Hong Kong, 1988); Gerard van Vliet (Aruba, 1964); Dorus Nijland (Netherlands, 1880, died 1968); Guo Shuang (China, 1986); Bogdan Yanchev (Bulgaria, 1913); Svatopluk Buchta (Czechoslovakia, 1966); Pavel Tesař (Czechoslovakia, 1967); Billy Kerr (Ireland, 1945); Frank Verleyen (Belgium, 1963); Artūras Kasputis (USSR, 1967); Bruno Loatti (Italy, 1915, died 1962); Ferenc Habony (Hungary, 1945); Yves Van Massenhove (Belgium, 1909, died 1990).
Team Sky's first race, the 2010 Cancer
Council Helpline Classic (image credit: AntCC BY 2.0)
Team Sky
On this day in 2009, the creation of Team Sky was announced. Sponsored by the satellite television broadcasting, telephony and broadband internet provided BSkyB, the team is managed by Dave Brailsford and began with an annual budget of more than £30 million. Other sponsors included IG Markets, Marks&Spencer, Gatorade and Oakley. Italian manufacturer Pinarello provided the bikes and Jaguar provided cars, thus enabling the team an easy win in the unofficial "poshest team car" stakes. The team is based in Manchester and maintains a logistics base in Belgium and an operational base in Italy.
Planning to build a British core, the first riders confirmed by the team were Steve Cummings, Peter Kennaugh, Ian Stannard, Chris Froome, Russell Downing and Geraint Thomas. Morris Possoni, Chris Sutton, Michael Barry, Kjell Carlström, John-Lee Augustyn, Greg Henderson, Lars Petter Nordhaug, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Thomas Löfkvist, Kurt Asle Arvesen, Ben Swift, Simon Gerrans, Juan Antonio Flecha, and Bradley Wiggins would join them later.
Sky won its first race, the Cancer Council Helpline Classic in Adelaide at which Greg Henderson and Chris Sutton took the top two places, and then received a wild card entry for the Tour de France alongside invites to the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana. Bradley Wiggins became the first Sky rider to wear a Grand Tour leader's jersey when he won the Giro prologue and, weeks later, Ben Swift won the Tour de Picardie. Immediately a favourite for the Tour, in the end the team was less successful than they had hoped with Thomas Löfkvist's 17th overall being the best result. They withdrew from the Vuelta following the death of soigneur (called a "carer" on Sky's official website, as is the preferred term since Willy Voet tried to drive a car full of drugs over ta border in 1998).
2011 got off to a good start with Ben Swift coming 3rd overall at the Tour Down Under and Flecha and Hunt did well at the Tour of Qatar. Boasson Hagen took the Points Classification and was 2nd overall at the Tour of Oman, then Wiggins finished Paris-Nice in 3rd and Geraint Thomas was 2nd in the Dwars door Vlaanderen. In June, Wiggins won the Critérium du Dauphiné, a race that is frequently considered to reveal riders destined for future Tour success and thus making himself a favourite when the Tour began. However, he abandoned with a broken collar bone after a crash involving several riders in Stage 7, the day after Boasson Hagen had won Sky's first ever Tour Stage and the race ended with Rigoberto Urán the highest-placed Sky rider at 24th overall. Chris Froome would later win Stage 17 at the Vuelta, dropping Geox-TMC's surprise star Juan José Cobo as they fought towards the finish line at the summit of Peña Cabarga.
Bradley Wiggins becomes the first British Tour de France winner, 2012
Sky's mission statement, the reason it had been brought into existence, was also announced that day: they would, they promised, win a Tour de France within five years - something no British rider nor British team had ever done and something many British cycling fans thought they would never see. However, early in 2012 it became apparent that Sky had evolved into an extraordinarily professional, well-drilled team: Edvald Boasson Hagen won the Sprint Classification victory at the Tour Down Under in January followed by the same title at the Volta ao Algarve, where team mate Richie Porte won the General Classification and the team won the Team Classification. What's more, Bradley Wiggins had found the greatest form of his career so far, winning Paris-Nice and the Tour de Romandie a few months later - excellent results that saw him become the favourite for the Tour de France. In fact, Wiggins didn't merely win the Tour, he dominated it; taking the General Classification lead from Fabian Cancellara in Stage 7 before retaining it through to the end of the race, also winning Stages 9 and 19. Meanwhile, new team member Mark Cavendish (who would leave for Omega Pharma-Quickstep at the end of the season) won Stages 2, 18 and 20 while Chris Froome won Stage 7 before coming second overall. Sky had been in existence for just three and a half years.
George David "Gee" Atherton, one of Britain's most successful mountain bikers, was born on this day in 1985 near Salisbury. His first major success was a bronze medal for the Downhill Race at the British National Mountain Bike Championships in 2000, when he raced in the Youth Class. He won the same event in 2001, again as a Youth, then again in 2002 and 2003 as a Junior and in 2004 as an Elite rider - the same year he won Round 3 of the UCI Downhill Cup; which he would win outright in 2010 when he beat three-time champion Greg Minnaar.
Like many downhill riders, Gee also rides 4X - a race in which four riders compete against one another on a downhill course featuring prepared BMX-style jumps. He won Round 1 of the UCI 4X Cup in 2007 along with the European Downhill Championship, but has tended to leave 4X for older brother Dan. He won the UCI Downhill Championships in 2008, the same year younger sister Rachel won the Women's Class, then took British Downhill Championship in 2009 and the UCI World Downhill Cup the following year.
Connie Carpenter-Phinney
Now retired, Connie Carpenter-Phinney was one of the many cyclists to have also excelled in speed skating. She was born in Madison, USA on this day in 1957. In 1972 when she was 14, she competed in the speed skating event at the Winter Olympics; thus becoming the youngest American athlete to take part in the history of the Winter Games (a record that still stands).
On the bike, she won the National Road and Track Pursuit Championships in 1976, 1977 and 1979 and was victorious in numerous criterium races. She won an Olympic cycling gold medal in 1984 after beating Rebecca Twigg in a sprint. She is married to Davis Phinney, the first US rider to win a stage at the Tour de France and the couple have two children, one of whom - Taylor - is himself a professional cyclist, a three-time World Pursuit Champion and winner of two editions of the Under-23 Paris-Roubaix.
On this day in 2005, Victoria Pendleton set a new British Women's Record when she completed the 1000m Time Trial in 1'10.854".
Other cyclists born on this day: Jan Jansen (Netherlands, 1945); Kwok Ho Ting (Hong Kong, 1988); Gerard van Vliet (Aruba, 1964); Dorus Nijland (Netherlands, 1880, died 1968); Guo Shuang (China, 1986); Bogdan Yanchev (Bulgaria, 1913); Svatopluk Buchta (Czechoslovakia, 1966); Pavel Tesař (Czechoslovakia, 1967); Billy Kerr (Ireland, 1945); Frank Verleyen (Belgium, 1963); Artūras Kasputis (USSR, 1967); Bruno Loatti (Italy, 1915, died 1962); Ferenc Habony (Hungary, 1945); Yves Van Massenhove (Belgium, 1909, died 1990).
Romandie underway - Tour of Turkey - McEwen to retire late May - GreenEDGE/NetApp Giro rosters - Cav confident for Tour double - Giro di Lombardia to honour Gimondi - No birthday luck for Taaramäe - Addison Lee protest - Cycling Newswire
Racing Tour di Romandie gets underway with a good day for Sky
Geraint Thomas
The Tour di Romandie started today with a 3.34km individual time trial in the ancient Swiss city Lausanne, running partly along the Quai d'Ouchy and Quai de Belgique on the banks of Lake Geneva - one of the most beautiful city roads in Europe.
Rain had been coming and going throughout the morning before the first riders set out on the course, the first third or so getting a slight advantage from relatively dry conditions before it began drizzling again. Sky's Geraint Thomas looked like a probable winner when he set a time of 3'29" - team mate Mark Cavendish had ridden the course with him this morning and was predicting victory...
Mark Cavendish @MarkCavendish Little ride this morning with @GeraintThomas86, including a few laps of #TourDeRomandie time trial course. 3.5km. Boom. Bet on the Welshman.
...and, when the rain turned heavier shortly after he'd clcked in, nobody was able to beat him; though RadioShack-Nissan's Giacomo Nizzolo came close with +4", as did Cav with +5" - which brought about an amusing change of heart from the English commentators who dismissed the Manxman's chances almost as soon as he'd left the ramp. Bradley Wiggins' chances were severely curtailed by the weather and he finished just outside the top ten after recording 3'38" for 11th place. However, with Michael Rogers equalling Cav's time for 4th, it was a very good day for Sky indeed.
Top 10
1. Geraint Thomas Sky Procycling 3'29" 2. Giacomo Nizzolo RadioShack-Nissan +4" 3. Mark Cavendish Sky +6" 4. Michael Rogers Sky ST 5. Kristof Vandewalle Omega Pharma-Quickstep ST 6. Julien Vermote Omega Pharma-Quickstep +7" 7. Bauke Mollema Rabobank +8" 8. Stef Clement Rabobank ST 9. Manual Boaro SaxoBank +9" 10. Alex Rasmussen Garmin-Barracuda ST (Full results when available)
Tomorrow, the riders face a 184.5km parcours beginning at Morges. Flat for the initial 70km, it then swings sharply upwards for a climb to Rochefort at 750m above sea level before reaching Category 2 Les Bugnenets after 90km (1,116m), Cat 2 Haut de la Cote at 156km (1,035m) and Cat 3 Le Communal de la Sagne at 171km (1,158m) on the way to the finish line at La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Tour of Turkey
Stage 3 at the Tour of Turkey featured a tough 152km parcours starting at the coastal resort of Antalya before heading west and inland to the mountains with three points along the way surpassing 1,600m in altitude. 34-year-old Bulgarian Ivaïlo Gabrovski - who won this race overall in 2007 and holds a record five victories in the Tour of Bulgaria - left his rivals standing on the final climb to 1,850m on the Göğübeli Mountain Pass, crossing the line alone with a comfortable lead of 1'26" to take the stage win for his Turkish Konya Torku Sekerspor team - their first ever in their home nation and sufficient to place him at the top of the General Classification.
Tomorrow, riders face 132km along the craggy south-western coast of Muğla Province where the highest climb is only 300m but has a leg-cracking gradient.
Top 10 1. Ivailo Gabrovski Konya Torku Sekersport 2. Alexandr Dyachenko Astana +1'33" 3. Danail Andonov Petrov Caja Rural +1'38" 4. Adrian Palomares Villaplana Andalucia-Caja Granada +1'44" 5. Romain Bardet AG2R-La Mondiale +2'01" 6. Alexander Efimkin Team Type 1-Sanofi +2'23" 7. Florian Guillou Bretagne Schuller +2'29" 8. Enrico Battaglin Colnago CSF Bardiani +2'48" 9. Michal Golas Omega Pharma-Quickstep +3'02" 10. Will Routley Spidertech Powered By C10 +3'05 (Full results and GC) Robbie McEwen to retire late May
McEwen, now with GreenEDGE, has said that he will
retire after the Tour of California. He is expected to
remain with the team in the capacity of technical
supervisor
GreenEDGE's Robbie McEwen has announced that the upcoming Tour of California will be his final race as a professional. Queensland-born McEwen began his cycling career in BMX and became a National Junior Champion, then switched to road cycling in 1990 and immediately revealed himself to have talent, later going on to win the Points competition at the Tour de France in 2002, 2004 and 2006.
It was widely known that McEwen would retire at some point this year, but as of yet no date had been set. No confirmation has appeared on the GreenEDGE website; however, while speaking to Het Nieuwesblad he appears to have a date in mind: "After the Tour of California - that's it," he said. The Tour ends on the 20th of May.
GreenEDGE/NetApp Giro rosters
Meanwhile, GreenEDGE has published details of the squad it will send to the Giro d'Italia: Brett Lancaster, Jack Bobridge, Matt Goss, Christian Meier, Svein Tuft, Daryl Impey, Fumiyuki Beppu, Jens Keukeleire and Tomas Vaitkus have made the selection for what will be the team's first Grand Tour.
NetApp, one of the Pro Continental team to recieve a wildcard invitation to the race, have published a list of eight riders they'll send this year: Timon Seubert, Jan Barta, Cesare Benedetti, Matthias Brändle, Andreas Dietziker, Reto Hollenstein, Bartosz Huzarski and Daniel Schorn. It's not yet known if they'll add a ninth.
"Who would have thought you’d have a British team with British backers, with two British riders going for two of the biggest prizes in the sport?" asks Mark Cavendish in the Liverpool Echo. "It’s a pretty big thing, that. It is not an easy task at all but it is definitely possible. I wouldn’t be at Team Sky if I didn’t think it was possible."
The double to which he refers is, of course, the Points competition, which he's a favourite to win, and the General Classification which team mate Bradley Wiggins will be chasing - something that has been achieved just three times since sport's greatest event reverted to trade teams in 1969 after two years in which it was open only to national teams, and a feat that would confirm Britain as a true cycling nation.
"I want to be part of that team that makes history," adds the 26-year-old sprinter and current road race champion. (More from the Liverpool Echo)
Other Racing News
The 2012 Giro di Lombardia will start from Bergamo rather Milan as a tribute to 1966/1973 winner Felice Gimondi who turns 70 on the 29th of September this year. Gimondi was the second cyclist after Jacques Anquetil to win all three Grand Tours during his career.
Poor ReinTaaramäe has missed out on his share of birthday luck this year - the Estonian rider, who turns 25 today (Tuesday 24th April), returned to competition the week before last after recovering from mononucleosis, then crashed at the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon - and x-rays have revealed "an incomplete fracture of the radial head of the left elbow," says Cofidis manager Eric Boyer. (More from Cycling News)
Tweets
Jakob Fuglsang @jakob_fuglsang
Did an x-ray of my hand Friday and the fracture is stabile. The screw is still in one piece but the bone is still not grown 100% together.
Cycling Addison Lee "die-in"
An estimated three hundred cyclists braved the rain and oily, wet streets to attend a "die-in" protest outside the grey eyesore that is the offices of Europe's largest minicab firm Addison Lee yesterday evening, angry at comments made by the firm's chairman John Griffin - who had said that London cyclists should be held responsible for their own misfortune if injured or killed on the capital's roads because it's their own choice to ride in " some of the most congested spaces in the world...[on] a vehicle which offers them no protection except a padded plastic hat."
Beth Anderson, one of the protest organisers, used Facebook to say: "For me, tonight was something truly special. A group of cyclists went to Addison Lee's headquarters with a message and they delivered it. Unfortunately it wasn't a huge surprise to hear John Griffin repeating the same old lines but his arguments are essentially ill-founded and based on the idea that the roads are, and can only be, dangerous. It was important to tell him that they are made even more dangerous by him."
Newswire
Britain: Cyclists' horror stories (The Times)
Britain: Sometimes, cyclists have to break the law to stay safe (The Times)
Britain: A memorial for a cyclist who was killed in a road accident in Belfast last year is believed to be the first of its kind in Northern Ireland (BBC)
Canada: Toronto's top doctor is recommending lowering the speed limits on residential city streets to 30 km/h in an effort to cut down on pedestrian and cyclist fatalities (CTV News)
Canada: A personal chef to one of Canada’s highest ranking diplomats claims he was pushed into oncoming traffic by an angry motorist as he cycled home from work (Ham&High)
Ghana: C2 Paracycling champion, Alem Mumuni, has once again made history as the first Ghanaian cyclist to ever qualify to the Olympics Games (Ghanaweb)
New Zealand: A lawyer for a mountain biker whose assault of a fellow cyclist was captured on camera (see: "Trail rage in New Zealand" for details and video of the assault - CP) has warned about the growing influence of internet videos on court cases (NZHerald)
New Zealand: A woman was dragged along the train tracks after ignoring warning lights and sirens in central Auckland this morning. Police say the woman walked out onto the track pushing her bicycle, which was clipped by a passing train at a level crossing at Rossgrove Terrace, near St Luke's Rd. The bike became entangled in the train, dragging her along with it. (Auckland Now)
New Zealand: North Taranaki people appear to be divided on whether cyclists should be required to wear helmets on the Coastal Walkway. Like it or not the police have vowed to crack down on it, even threatening to give tickets of $150 to cyclists who do not comply (Taranaki Daily News)
Antigua: Veteran cyclist Robert Marsh and young female national rider Tamiko Butler, both earning nominations from the Antigua & Barbuda Cycling Association (ABCA), walked away with top honours at the National Sports Awards held at the Sandals Grande Resort & Spa on Saturday night (Observer Media Group)
Brabantse Pijl - Mayors may force police to work Amstel Gold - Amstel presentation and start to be broadcast live, available online - Boonen won't race Amstel - Martine Bras hopes for late April return - Viviani injury less serious than thought - Cameron Meyer turns down Olympics to concentrate on road racing - The Badger to ride in Tour of Conamara - Kuna, Idaho welcomes Exergy Tour - London's best bike shops - British Government launches ride planner website, allocates £11m for Bikeability scheme - Trail Rage in New Zealand
Racing Brabantse Pijl
The 52nd edition of the Brabantse Pijl takes place over 196km near Brussels today. It starts off at Leuven before passing through Overijse, then heading west to Halle before doubling back to Overijse for a nasty little circuit made up of five ascents of four tough hills ans it's a tough race, even by the standards of the hilly Classics, with an incredible 28 climbs in total to be tackled along the way - some of them with gradients surpassing 14%. For those who enjoy competitive cycling for the scenery, it takes in some of the most historic locations in Belgium, including a town with 12,000 years of history and the site of the Battle of Waterloo.
Local mayors could force police to work at Amstel Gold
Following the story yesterday that striking police officers had threatened this year's Amstel Gold Race comes news that mayors along the route could use court action to force them to work at the event if they believe that the peloton or public are likely to be in any danger. Since the race is one of the most popular in cycling-mad Belgium and draws huge crowds along the 256.5km parcours, it seems likely that magistrates would automatically rule in favour of the mayors, allowing the 47th edition of the race to go ahead as planned this Sunday. (More from Cycling News)
However, it seems that in Belgium even angry police officers don't wish to cause too much disruption to cycling. Speaking to BNR Politiek, police spokesperson Jan Willem van der Pol said, "We are in consultation with the organisers [as to] what we can do and to find a way which will allow them to have a beautiful Amstel Gold Race yet still allow us to perform our action."
Amstel start to be broadcast live
Regional sports TV station Limburg1 (L1) will be broadcasting the team presentation and start of the race live online from 08:30BST (09:30 local time/CEST), the first time that the either has been televised. It looks as though the footage will be available via a legal stream at the station's official website, which has some videos of the race organisers and parcours already up; if not, there are various websites offering access to the channel, including this one -
Team Sky confirmed for Road Cycling Show
British-based ProTour Team Sky will make an appearance at the all new IPC Road Cycling Show at Sandown Park on the 21st and 22nd of April this year where riders and managers from the squad will conduct talks and a coaching seminar (the latter open only to those with an invitation to attend.) More details at the Show's website.
Omega Pharma-QuickStep's Tom Boonen has confirmed that he will not race in the Amstel Gold this weekend as he needs more time to recover after his winning streak at Paris-Roubaix, E3 Harelbeke, Gent-Wevelgem and the Ronde van Vlaanderen.
Martine Bras will stay away from competition until at least the end of April, Dolmans-Boels have announced. The rider was in a serious crash during a training ride in march, suffering concussion, cuts to her face and a severe contusion to the shoulder. She had returned to training but experienced headaches after riding, causing doctors to advise her to take an extended break rather than risk permanent problems and now hopes to be recovered in time for Luxembourg's GP Elsy Jacobs and GP Nicolas Frantz. (More on the team website)
Elia Viviani's pelvic injury - sustained during a crash with Chinese rider Liu Hao during the Omnium at the UCI World Track Championships in Melbourne last week - is not as serious as initially feared. Team doctor Roberto Corsetti describes the injury as the "smallest fracture" and a "small subcutaneous haematoma" and has given the go-ahead for the Italian rider to resume training in ten days' time.
Australian Cameron Meyer has deselected himself from his national Olympic program because he'd prefer to concentrate on developing his road racing career. The 24-year-old has been a successful track rider, forming part of the winning Team Pursuit squad at the World Championships in 2010, but feels his future is on the road with GreenEDGE. "It was a very hard decision to make but ultimately my passion for the team pursuit isn't 100 percent," he says. With many fans feeling a certain sense of resentment every time a rider drops out of the Tour de France, which is seen by cycling fans as the greatest event in sport, his decision may prove popular. (More from Yahoo)
Ever wanted to ride with Bernard Hinault? Whatever for? He's a miserable, foul-tempered old bugger. Nevertheless, you now can - and since he's now 57 and has returned to the good old days when cyclists carried a spare tyre (in this case, around his waist) you might even beat him. The Badger is taking part in the Tour of Conamara, part of a four-race Celtic sportive series that includes the Tour of Pembrokeshire in Wales, the Scottish Graeme Obree Ayrshire Sportive and the Tro Bro Leon in Hinault's native Brittany (or Breizh, as the Celtic Bretons would have it). The event begins on the 26th of May with a fun ride suitable for children, then gets on to the proper racing on the 27th with a choice of an 80km and 140km parcours. (More details from the race website)
Business owners in Kuna, Idaho, are delighted that this year's Exergy Tour (which offers what is believed to be the biggest prize fund in the history of women's competitive cycling, $100,000) with local caterers especially welcoming of the event. "Oh, it means a lot to us because we are going to have a lot more business," says local restaurateur Enrique Contreras. "Hopefully they come here to see the race, and they get hungry come here and eat, and have a drink too." Cycling races always bring a huge injection of funds into local economies, but local residents are also supportive of the race simply for the spectacle. "[This] is a pretty big honor for Kuna, should be a lot of fun, and I know Kuna will make them all feel really welcome. Sometimes you can still see horses ridden on the road and to have the world class athletes riding their really fancy bicycles will be quite a contrast, won't it?" says Vern Cornish. (More from KVTB.com)
Cycling
The days when bike shops were dark caves where few women dared tread - and were made to feel unwelcome if they did by rude and chauvinistic staff - are, thankfully, long gone (well, mostly. You know who you are, Mr. Ken Willis, and Mrs. Cyclopunk had a big wad of cash to spend on a bike that day you were so rude to her she walked out of your horrible little shop). Writing for the Daily Telegraph, a British Toryrag that would be utterly avoidable were it not for the surprisingly good cycling coverage, somebody called Nemone who is, apparently, famous has come up with a list of what she believes to be the best examples in London. It's especially good to see Condor Cycles on there, because they've been one of the best for six decades. You can see the list here.
They may have closed down Cycling England, but the government in Britain are still trying to promote cycling (presumably so long as it doesn't cost anything, which Cycling England did) - and the Department for Transport has just launched a new online cycle journey planner. "Our route planner helps people wanting to get out and about and enjoy cycling, as well as those who want to map the best bike route to work," says Minister for Local Transport Norman Baker, LibDem MP for Lewes (Baker has been campaigning since 2005 for full disclosure of MPs' expenses and was largely responsible for the Dark Lord Mandelson's second resignation, so he's one of the good guys). At present, it's only much use for plotting fairly sedate recreational rides as options are limited to "quietest," "quickest" and "most recreational" and it' seriously hamstrung by an inability to search out routes of more than 50km; but it has data on every road in the country and is likely to be a valuable resource for many cyclists, especially those new to the sport. Here's a review of it.
We've pretty much all be subjected to a barrage of foul-mouthed abuse from a driver at some point in our lives - cars bring out the worst in people, after all. Bikes, meanwhile, generally do not; which is why New Zealand mountain biker Jordan Brizzell was shocked when he found himself on the receiving end of a verbal and physical assault courtesy of a fellow cyclist on Christchurch's Flying Nun trail. Fortunately, Brizzel was wearing a helmet-mounted camera at the time and the footage has been handed over to the police who are now looking for the man.
You might want to turn the sound right down if you're at work - there's some no-holds-barred language!
Tweets
Christopher Keiser @CKeiser
My Roubaix video has only 19k views. Mountain biker hit by antelope has 13.5M. Guess who's gonna bring an antelope to Roubaix next year.
Chris Froome in Italian accident Sanremonews.it is reporting that Chris Froome was involved in a training accident on Sunday morning at Latte di Ventimiglia when he collided with a 72-year-old man. Police are said to be investigating the incident and it is not yet clear whether the Kenyan-born British cyclist, who rides for Team Sky and was pulled from Paris-Nice days before the event took place due to a chest infection, was travelling too fast for the road or if the injured man failed to hear him coming and stepped into the road. The 72-year-old is understood to have suffered head and facial injuries, and he is due to be transferred by helicopter to another hospital for tests. The cyclist, who escaped serious injury, reported the accident and summoned an ambulance.
Riders dropped out of the race like first-year students from a physics class today; some with injuries, some with illnesses and many so that they can take a break before Saturday's Milan-San Remo monument. All in all, twenty-two either didn't start or quit during the stage.
Philippe Gilbert and Matthew Goss were two of the first to go with neither man starting this morning. They are, apparently, suffering the same virus with symptoms including high fever - up to 38.2C, say Gilbert's BMC team - along with sore throats and headaches. Cycle stage races, perhaps the most physically demanding of all sports, place unique demands upon riders and it's rare for an event to pass without at least a few riders contracting something and dropping out; but in this case, since both them are riding on Saturday, Cyclopunk refuses to believe a word of it unless they can provide us with letters from their mums. We're more inclined to believe Gilbert - his performance has had little of its usual sparkle during the race, but the Belgian rider says that he is not yet on form and plans to peak in time for the World Championships and Olympics. Milan-San Remo has long been a dream of his, too; but it seems one he's unlikely to realise this year.
Next up was Marcel Sieberg of Lotto-Belisol, who abandoned after 14km complaining of problems with his right leg. He was joined by team mate Vincento Reynes.
Marcel Sieberg @MarcelSieberg
I had to stop after 14km today....right leg was again not good and I decide that its better to have a rest and recover for Sa San Remo.
Rabobank is down two riders - Lars Boom has decided to abandon as a precaution due to pain in his Achilles tendon and Juan Manuel Garate is suffering neck ache. Sky, meanwhile, is now represented by just three riders - Ian Stannard, Jeremy Hunt and Mathew Hayman - and as such could theoretically be asked to step down from the race. Juan Antonio Flecha has broken his hand and team mate Edvald Boasson Hagen, winner of Stage 3, simply seems out of sorts ("There's nothing wrong with him, really," says team manager Rod Ellingworth, "he's just had some problems after a crash"); whereas Chris Sutton cited knee problems when he too abandoned. Mark Cavendish - whom we all know wants nothing less than victory at Milan-San Remo - didn't even bother coming up with an excuse as he shuffled off, Bernhard Eisel going with him. Minutes after the news broke, the Missile was back on Twitter:
Mark Cavendish @MarkCavendishWell, that's my #TirrenoAdriatico done & dusted. Haven't finished today's stage, but good sensations. Now to rest up for @milano_sanremo
A four-man break that had escaped after 161km were caught and put back in their places with 5km to go, leaving Katusha's Joaquim Rodríguez to take well-deserved glory after a courageous solo attack in the last kilometre, crossing the line a good few metres ahead of Liquigas' Vincenzo Nibali and Aqua&Sapone's Danilo di Luca who took second and third. RadioShack-NissanTrek's Chris Horner was right behind them, taking fourth place and recording a time sufficient for him to retain the General Classification leadership as the race moves on to tomorrow's concluding time trial when the remaining riders will compete to be the fastest on a 9.3km parcours. (Stage and General Classification standings here.)
Sky are the top-ranked team
in the world (image credit: JunCC BY-SA 2.0)
World Rankings put Sky in the lead
The UCI's World Rankings - for what they're worth - are customarily given a shake-up at this time of the year when we start to find out which teams spent the off-season with the drill sergeant and which ones holed up in the mess hall with the Christmas pudding, and 2012 is no different - after their superb victory at Paris-Nice, during which they put on a text-book display of team tactics every day, British-based Sky are for the very first time rated the best team in the world. The Basques Movistar are in second place, followed by RadioShack-NissanTrek in third, then the new Australian GreenEDGE take fourth despite what some fans have called a "lacklustre" start to the season.
Movistar's Alejandro Valverde, who made his return to competition this year after he was found guilty of doping, has a comfortable lead among the riders with 167 points compared to second place Bradley Wiggins of Sky. GreenEDGE's Simon Gerrans is third, followed by Vacansoliel's Lieuwe Westra - largely as a result of his whole-hearted attempts to keep Wiggins from victory at Paris-Nice. Among the nations, Valverde's homeland Spain is out in front with 205 points while Australia are hot on their heels in second place with 193. Great Britain is third with 112 - extremely impressive for a nation that supposedly has no great love for the sport and some way ahead of cycling-obsessed Netherlands (4th, 92 points), Belgium (5th, 91 points) and France (8th, 62 points).
Other News The Halfords Tour Series - which features top-class professional cyclists battling it out on short city-centre courses around Great Britain - has been extended by one date. The newest edition will take place on the 25th of May in Aberystwyth. As the Olympic Torch visits the Welsh town two days later, the local authorities have declared the weekend to be a Cycling Festival. The races are televised and shown on ITV4 and some - yet to be confirmed - coincide with rounds of the women's Johnson HealthTech GP, which last year produced some of the tightest and most exciting racing seen in this country for many years. Dates and places (where announced) now look like this:
Round 1 - Tuesday 15th May Kirkcaldy, Fife Round 2 - Thursday 17th May Round 3 - Tuesday 22nd May Round 4 - Thursday 24th May Round 5 - Friday 25th May Aberystwyth, Ceredigion Round 6 - Tuesday 29th May Round 7 - Thursday 31st May Round 8 - Tuesday 5th June Torquay, Devon Round 9 - Thursday 7th June Colchester, Essex Round 10 - Tuesday 12th June Woking, Surrey Round 11 - Thursday 14th June
Tweets of the Day
WorldTour Verity @UCI_WorldTour
Are the riders making-out between stages!? What's up with everyone getting sick!? #procycling #ParisNice #TirrenoAdriatico
Richard Moore @richardmoore73
The riders who remain in Tirreno-Adriatico are racing towards Offida. All 3 of them.
Seneca J. Rose @sansenmag
Hmm, perhaps Cipo is (over)promoting himself because he really has (ghostwritten) tell-all bio coming out soon...
Alejandro Valverde made his return to cycling at the
Tour Down Under this year following a two-year
suspension for doping offences (image credit: Thomas DucroquetCC BY-SA 3.0)
Alejandro Valverde just pipped Simon Gerrans of GreenEDGE to the post in today's Stage 3 at Paris-Nice in a short final climb and chaotic bunch sprint that saw the first 62 riders record the same time. Both men crossed the line within a hairs' breadth of one another, resulting in Twitter posts declaring the win divided equally between them. His Movistar team put on a textbook display of tactics, positioning him in precisely the right position some way down the road and ensuring he'd have a good shot at the victory with half a kilometre to go.
Michael Morkov, Roy Curvers and Jimmy Engoulvent attacked early on in the 194km stage, forming a breakaway group that vacuumed up a healthy dose of points and built up a lead of more than 4'30" for a respectable portion of the race, but their time out in front began to look limited once the reached the first of the two Category 3 climbs and the peloton took the opportunity to reel them back in one by one.
The final part of the stage was characterised by attacks from unexpected quarters as first Sergey Lagutin tried his luck, getting some 12" ahead, then Lieuwe Westra had a go as soon as Lagutin had been caught. Meanwhile, stronger men were being dropped all over the place: Thor Hushovd went and Tom Boonen, winner of yesterday's stage, wasn't far behind him - which many rivals will see as an indication that the God of Thunder hasn't got the form he'll need if he's to achieve his stated aim at the Monuments this year.
Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins rode cleverly, avoiding the temptation to join in with further breakaway theatrics and instead kept working away just off the front of the pack while concentrating on maintaining a good time. It worked - the British rider holds onto the yellow jersey with a 6" lead in the overall General Classification. Team mate Geraint Thomas grabbed two points during the stage, giving him second place behind Engoulvent who took three.
Tomorrow, Stage 4 climbs two Cat 2 mountains - the Cotes du Fangas and Quotidiane. With Wiggo's apparently excellent early season form and current time trial prowess, British fans hoping for Tour de France success will be eager to see how he copes.
Having surprised the world with a stunning performance and second place at yesterday's rain-soaked opening time trial, British rider Bradley Wiggins has taken the yellow jersey of Paris-Nice after putting in a similarly impressive ride today.
Wiggo broke away from the peloton with a select group of twelve riders halfway through the stage, a brave move for any General Classification contender that shows enormous confidence and a supreme ability to tailor tactics to a specific parcours. A number of other riders bridged the gap, swelling numbers to around 30 before a crash took out several men, but the peloton found itself outclassed and unable to reabsorb the group. By the time they reached the 10km to go marker, Wiggins' gang had an advantage of over 2' and the result began to look inevitable.
The 31-year-old, who was born in Belgium to British parents (his father Gary was also a professional cyclist) but moved to London with his mother following her divorce, was 11th over the line behind Bernard Hinault's top tip Tom Boonen while Sky team mate Geraint Thomas was 10th. However, he recorded the same time as the first 20 riders - giving him a 6" advantage over Levi Leipheimer in the General Classification.
Becoming Britain's first Tour de France winner has been Bradley's main aim for some years now. Last year he showed up at the start line of cycling's greatest event looking as though he was made of nothing but bone and sinew, ready to take on the likes of Contador and Schleck on the tough climbs in the Pyrenees and Alps, but his prospects were shattered when he suffered a broken collar bone during a mass pile-up in Stage 7. The Tour is still some months away, but if he can maintain the form he's currently on and with this year's race featuring plenty of time trial kilometres and fewer mountains it seems that 2012 offers his best chance to realise the dream that he and all British cycling fans share.
"Jered Gruber @jeredgruber
It's funny when something lives up to the hype, tales, and stories. Belgian racing is everything you've heard. All true, no exaggeration."
Even in the early stages of this year's Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, World Champion Mark Cavendish looked the most likely winner - Team Sky had sent him to the race with seven strong riders, six of them experienced Classics capable of winning this race for themselves (as one of them, Chris Sutton, proved last year). Halfway through they'd got themselves arranged into a clever tactical layout with Cav well-protected to preserve his freshness when the breakaway was pulled back in, but enough of them near the front to have a shot at the line if the break made it.
With 50km to go, the outcome looked even more certain. By now Sky looked as though they riding a team time trial - turning a big ring, eating up the miles and paying little attention to the break that had split into weaker, competing groups and thus doomed itself. They waited until the 20km to go point before picking up the pace and beginning to put pressure on Lotto-Belisol; home to Andre Greipel, the only rider in this race with a chance of stopping Cav.
A small amount of lost time with a slightly fudged right corner as the Manx star avoided street furniture made no difference and by the time they entered the final 5km the team had formed a spearhead at the front of the peloton, too confident in their abilities to trouble themselves unduely when FDJ briefly took over. In the end, it was an easy win - Sky's strategy ran like clockwork, and Cav hardly broke into a sweat as he crossed the line to take his first victory of 2012. FDJ's Yahueni Hutarovich tried to catch him, but by the time he'd got his front wheel level with the Missile's back wheel the 26-year-old was already sitting up in celebration. There are those who will complain it wasn't the exciting, heroic triumph that fans expect from the Classics, but it was a superbly clever one - because it worked so well and for the psychological effect: if Cav can do that without even trying, what can he do when he makes an effort?
That a British rider has won a Classic would always be good news; but the fact that it was Cav is better still. Right now, cycling is on the cusp of becoming bigger than it has ever been in this country; perhaps bigger even than it has been in France for many years. Cav is the highest-profile rider since Tom Simpson, maybe even more so, and today's victory will make it onto more than a few news reports tonight - each time that happens, the British public like cycling just a little bit more. Nice one, Mark. Tom would've been proud.
(results below)
Mark Cavendish is the first British rider to win this race and the first current World Champion
to do so since Johan Museeuw in 1997. It's also the second win here in two years for Sky as
Christopher Sutton won last year.
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