Category: News

Categories
News

Cav to Race ToB

It has been announced that Mark Cavendish will, after all, be taking part in the Tour of Britain. His involvement was in doubt after his withdrawal from the Vuelta a Espana on Stage 4, the 170.2km route from Baza to the Sierra Nevada (the Vuelta continues until Sunday September 11, the date that the ToB starts). Citing exhaustion after the Tour de France – at which he took the prestigious green jersey – Cavendish’s inclusion in the team for the Tour of Britain looked unlikely as UCI rules usually state that riders who withdraw from one race may not enter another whilst the first is still running – however the Manx rider has been granted special dispensation to take to the saddle when things get underway in Peebles, Scotland.

 

Tweeting yesterday, Cavendish said: “So happy to announce on this lovely Monday morning that I will be racing in this year’s #TourOfBritain with my @HTCHighroad team.” Race Director Mick Bennett commented: Mark’s addition will ensure that the sprints are hotly contested… As a team we have worked hard over the past fortnight to ensure that Mark rides the Tour of Britain.”

 

Cavendish hasn’t participated in the ToB since 2007, when he won the two opening stages.

 

Categories
News

Tennant’s Super Win

Andy Tennant has taken his first big win for Rapha Condor Sharp at the Richmond Grand Prix – the final round and one of the most demanding courses of the Premier Calendar series. Despite recent illness, which had ruled him out of the recent team training camps, he out-classed and outmanoeuvred the field in the final 700 meters to take the win. Speaking after the event Tennant commented: “I am made up to win here. We did a race in France just after (my illness) and I really suffered, but winning here proves it was worth it…In the final few kilometres, the bunch was getting close, and Marcin started to sit on. I was forced to lead out but when Richardson went early he gave me the springboard I needed. It’s not a straightforward finish and I committed to my effort 100%. I thought if they come round me then so be it, but I just gave it everything”.

 

Team manager John Herety added “We dominated the Prems last year with Chris (Newton) and this year while we had an eye on the overall, the focus was for individual rounds – this way it worked out that we came away with different riders winning on different days, instead of having to defend for one rider. This gives me satisfaction as I can see the strength in depth that we have in our team”.

 

The Richmond Grand Prix marked the team’s final race before the focus switches to the Tour of Britain.

 

Categories
News

Strong Brit Line-up for Sky ToB

ToB Sky SquadTeam Sky have announced their line up for the Tour of Britain (September 11-18) with Welshman Geraint Thomas leading the squad. The 25-year-old Olympic Gold Medallist takes his place after a blistering display at the Tour de France that saw him resplendent in the young rider’s white jersey from Stage One to Seven and with a total of three top-ten finishes. Thomas will be joined by his fellow Le Tour team-mate Ben Swift – a Tour of Britain stage-winner for Team Katusha back in 2009 – and fellow Brits Peter Kennaugh and Alex Dowsett, the latter having just taken his first pro win at the Tour du Poitou. The six-man squad is completed by the Australian duo of Michael Rogers (a double Tour of Britain top-ten finisher) and Mathew Hayman, a member of the 2010 Tour of Britain squad. Thomas’s inclusion marks his sixth ToB edition; he has finished sixth and 12th in the last two years.

 

ToB race director Mick Bennett has commented on the squad: “The announcement of such a strong Team Sky line-up clearly sends a message that the team is serious about winning the Tour of Britain. In Geraint, Ben, Alex and Peter they have four of the finest British cyclists currently racing, all of whom are more than capable of winning The Tour of Britain.”

 

 

Categories
News

Contador Gets His Day

At last, a date for your diary. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has, after interminable delays and innumerable procrastination, finally set a date for the hearing into Alberto Contador’s positive testing for a banned substance at the 2010 Tour de France; the Spaniard will have his case heard between November 21 and 24 – a full season and a half after his alleged infraction. The Saxo Bank-SunGard star won the 2010 Tour – finishing 39 seconds ahead of Andy Schleck – but tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug clenbuterol. Contador subsequently claimed to have accidentally ingested the substance via contaminated meat and although the Spanish Cycling Federation cleared him, both the UCI and The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) sought to overturn the finding, leading to a series of set and then moved dates for the hearing with CAS. Could this actually be an end to what must be the most protracted wrangle in modern cycling history?

 

Categories
News

Martin Wins as Wiggins Climbs

vuelta a espaniaThe ninth stage of the Vuelta a España (which runs August 20 – September 11) was won yesterday, August 28, by Garmin-Cervelo’s Dan Martin who moved clear of Dutch rider Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) for a sprint finish in the closing straight at the ski resort of La Covatilla. But despite the Irishman’s win on the 183km leg from Villacastín to the high Sierra de Bejar – his first Grand Tour victory – it was Mollema who took the General Classification lead (and red jersey) from Team Katusha’s Joaquim Rodriguez and Team Sky’s Bradley Wiggins who shone all day.

 

Wiggins, looking strong after his disastrous exit from the Tour de France with a broken collar bone, has looked every bit in control of his destiny at this year’s Vuelta, tackling yesterday’s tough assents as if they were an ITT stage (though that takes nothing away from his team-player credentials). He now moves up to 13th place, hopscotching his team-mate Christopher Froome in 14th, and leaving Sky in 11th overall position.

 

Categories
News

HTC Two Man Down

vuelta a espaniaHTC-Highroad’s Mark Cavendish withdrew yesterday (Tuesday, August 23) from the Vuelta a Espana on the race’s fourth stage, the 170.2km run from Baza to the Sierra Nevada. He had fallen behind the peloton on a category one climb in the early stages of the race and finally threw in the towel with approximately 40km still to go; it was clear from the previous day, when he had suffered in the heat, that his heart really didn’t appear to be in the race – possibly because the HTC outfit is being wound up after failing to secure a future sponsor and Cav’s future is rumoured to be with Team Sky. His departure from the Vuelta marks the second departure from the HTC team, following Australian Matt Goss who abandoned proceedings on day one (the Team Time Trial in Benidorm.)

 

The Vuelta’s fourth stage was won by Spain’s Daniel Moreno of Team Katusha, with Quick-Step’s Sylvain Chavanel currently holding the overall general classification first place with a time of 13h 19′ 09”.

 

Categories
News

Will Wiggins Reign in Spain?

Bradley WigginsTeam Sky has announced their line up for the Vuelta a España with the much anticipated inclusion of Bradley Wiggins a month after he spectacularly crashed out of the Tour de France with a fractured collarbone. However Wiggins, who subsequent to the accident had plates inserted to support his clavicle, will miss the Tour of Britain – which runs September 11 to September 18 – as it clashes by a single day with the Vuelta which starts in Benidorm this Saturday (August 20) and ends in Madrid on September 11.

 

Dave Brailsford, Team Sky principal, said: “Having Bradley back has reinvigorated us all.” Wiggins, the team’s great General Classification hope, will be joined in the nine-man squad in Spain by Xabier Zandio, Chris Sutton, Chris Froome, Ian Stannard, Thomas Lofkvist, Dario Cioni, Morris Possoni, and Kurt-Asle Arvesen.

 

Tragedy struck Team Sky at last year’s Vuelta when their massage therapist, 43-year-old Txema Gonzalez, died after contracting a bacterial infection. The Team withdrew from the event and with this year’s penultimate stage ending in Gonzalez’s home town of Vitoria have admitted that it will be an emotional day for all.

 

Categories
News

Horner Ends Season

American Chris Horner of RadioShack has announced that this year’s season has been forced to an end with the news that a blood clot has been found on his lung. Writing on his blog the 39 year-old said, “With a pulmonary embolism, the season quickly went from an exciting and positive one (for the most part), to an abrupt end.” Whilst not life-threatening the condition will necessitate a six-month course of treatment with blood-thinning drugs that should allow continued training but would make racing dangerous.

 

Horner, three-time USA Cycling National Racing Calendar Champion (2002-2004), famously had a particularly disastrous 2009 season during which he managed to break his left hand during the Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain), his collarbone and a rib during the Tour of the Basque Country and his leg at the Giro d’Italia. On the positive side and with his trademark optimism, Horner added: “Looking ahead now, there’s a lot to be excited about since leaving the Tour de France, RadioShack has extended my contract for another two seasons, which gives me a lot of peace of mind and the ability to be completely focused on the next two years of great racing.”