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Sky’s the Limit

Wiggins8 days of action are over at the Critérium du Dauphiné with a decisive and important win for Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky. On the final day of action (117.5km Pontcharra – La Toussuire) Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) took the stage win but Wiggins had managed to stay ahead of his rivals since Wednesday’s Grenoble 42.5km Individual Time Trial to bag overall victory; making him only the third Brit to win the Dauphiné (a vital indicator of potential Tour de France mettle) after Robert Millar in 1990 and Brian Robinson in 1961. Team Sky’s Sports Director, Sean Yates, commented: “This is the biggest win Team Sky have had so far, there’s no doubt about that. The Dauphiné is a massive race with a super-strong field and pretty much anyone who’s anyone was here apart from Alberto Contador and the Schlecks. It’s often described as a mini Tour de France and you cannot underestimate the quality of this result, and the team’s performance.”

 

Cadel Evans of BMC, a runner up in Dauphiné between 2007 and 2009 and winner of this year’s Tirreno Adriatico and the Tour of Romandie, had, many thought, been the man to watch at this year’s event – but ultimately he had to settle for second place with Alexandre Vinkourov (Astana) taking third.

 

For full results and stage analysis see: www.letour.fr

 

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The Tokyo Solution

Never easy to find a place to park and lock your bike in the big city, right? Cyclo was delighted to uncover this gem on an idea from Japan, an automated cycling bunker, which can load, retrieve and house a jaw-dropping 9,400 bikes in its Bond villain-like subterranean silo. Reportedly built at a cost of nearly £39million we can’t see Boris digging deep (in either sense of the phrase) any time soon and we might also question the “green” credentials of such an undertaking when you stop to consider the carbon-saving cycling hoards weighed against such an enormous construction project – still it is very cool. If you find yourself in Tokyo then using the robo-storage unit will cost you in the region of 80p per day or £14.00 for a monthly pass. Bargain.

 

Oddly, although Japan has an estimated 90million bikes (around 65% ownership) and Tokyo even has a public cycle hire scheme – launched in 2009 – there are virtually no cycle lanes in the country. Tokyo’s first true cycle path opened in 2008 and is a mere 400 meters long. Still, did we mention how cool we think the robot bike parking is?

 

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Mark Cavendish Honoured

Mark CavendishMark Cavendish, self-styled “Boy Racer” (or “Cav” in familiar circles) has been awarded an MBE in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Cavendish was the star of the European road sprinting scene in 2007, when he rode his first full season with German sponsor, T-Mobile; with 11 wins his was the most successful professional debut in European road racing history. He won 4 stages in the 2008 Tour de France (unprecedented at the time for a Brit) but surpassed himself in 2009 with 6 stage wins and added a further 5 to his bag at the 2010 Tour. Currently riding high this season for HTC-Highroad and with stage wins at Oman and Giro d’Italia plus overall victory at Scheldeprijs, he is still seen as a rising star with high-hopes for medal potential at the 2012 London Games.

 

The award of the MBE is another clear indication that the profile of professional cycling is still steadily on the rise and if Cavendish can continue this season as he has started it and strike it rich at this year’s Tour de France he could well be a shoe-in for the coveted BBC Sports Personality of the Year (he was nominated in both 2009 and 10).

 

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Holes Filled. Official!

Back in March Cyclo reported that somewhere in the magnitude of £10 billion (yes, billion) could be required to fix the potholes that blight the UK’s roads. As far as we know that sum still hasn’t been found, but on a sunnier note the CTC (the National cyclists’ organisation), in association with the construction company Aggregate Industries have just announced Britain’s Best Performing Pothole-filling Council. And the winner is…. Cheshire West and Chester Council.

 

The CTC has been monitoring various councils’ performances via it’s FillThatHole website (more than 11,00 holes were reported by cyclists) and were happy to declare that CWCC quickly dealt with all 47 troublesome wheel-bucklers. Several other councils – including West Lothian, Newham, Brent, Luton and Redbridge – also managed to score an impressive 100% fill-in record, but CWCC, with the most holes to plug, were deemed the winner.

 

Roger Geffen, CTC campaigns and policy director, says: “The public is very keen to see improved road maintenance standards, and this is particularly true for cyclists, as good surfaces are hugely important for their safety.”

 

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The Only Way is Essex

2012 mountain bikeThe London 2012 Mountain Bike course has now been completed and unveiled in Hadleigh, Essex. The course, which will be home to the action on August 11 and 12, 2012, will see 80 competitors (50 men, 30 women) battling it out for just two medal events and is set to be one of the most dramatic of two-wheel Olympic undertakings. Mountain Biking has only enjoyed Olympic recognition since the 1990s but has seen a rapid growth in interest and uptake, and this purpose-built 5km course includes 6 major climbs, a number of additional shorter ups and is intended to be a highly technical challenge despite clearly having been designed very much with television coverage in mind.

 

With little in the way of shade (or indeed any spectator obstructions) the venue should also prove ideal for those who pitch up to watch in person, Lord Coe, Chair of the London Organising Committee, has described the site as “one of the most beautiful venues I have seen in the world.” It’s true that the extensive views down across the Thames Estuary, via the petroleum refineries of Canvey Island, to the marshy north coast of Kent are fairly engaging, but Cyclo can’t help thinking that Lord Coe has perhaps not travelled as extensively as his CV might suggest…

 

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Hoy’s London Focus

Sir Chris Hoy – triple gold medallist at the 2008 Beijing Games – has announced that he will hold off a decision on whether or not to compete in the Commonwealth Games until after the 2012 London Olympics. At 35 Hoy is inarguably a veteran (and Scotland’s most lauded and awarded Olympian to boot) and having pulled out of last year’s Delhi Commonwealth Games to concentrate on Olympic qualifiers he managed just two silver and one bronze at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in March; marking the first time he has failed to strike Gold in seven years.

 

But as a national hero his work certainly continues unabated. This week he has been helping to promote the start of the Bank of Scotland National School Sport Week, an initiative in partnership with sportscotland (the national agency for sport) which aims to see: “…pupils achieving their personal bests, living the Olympic and Paralympic Values and trying new sports.” With Hoy on board one of those “new sports” for many pupils will naturally involve two wheels…

 

For more information on the Bank of Scotland National School Sport Week visit: www.schoolsportweekscotland.org

 

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Luxembourg Ends as Dauphiné Begins

Linus Gerdemann, a former Tour de France stage winner, has bagged the overall win at this year’s Tour of Luxembourg for Team Leopard-Trek although it was Romain Feillu (for Vacansoleil-DCM) who won the final stage in 3:42:06 with Fränk Schleck in second and Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Topsport Vlaanderen) third.

 

Meanwhile in France the Critérium du Dauphiné saw the 5.4km Prologue won by Rabobank’s Lars Boom, with the Dutchman setting a blistering time of 6:18 to dominate the 8day/stage opener. Britain’s Bradley Wiggins (Sky) took third with +05, whilst BMC’s Cadel Evans (something of an overall favourite and former runner up at the event 2007-2009) managed a respectable seventh on +09. Tomorrow (Monday June 6) the action moves on to the first “true” stage with the 144km Albertville to Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse stage.

 

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Dauphiné Preview

With the Tour of Luxembourg still in full flow, it’s an exciting weekend of pro-biking which also sees the start tomorrow (June 5) of the ever-exciting Critérium du Dauphiné; 8 days of action which is both something of a warm up for the Tour de France and a frequent indicator of those teams and riders likely to do well in the July Classic. The Critérium du Dauphiné – raced in the Dauphiné region of France – comprises a 5.4km Prologue ride followed by 7 days of stage racing over a total distance on 1,064km and includes an Individual Time Trial stage, which this year falls on Wednesday June 8 and takes place in Grenoble.

Cadel Evans, runner up in Dauphine between 2007 and 2009, and with an impressive 2011 season under his belt (winning both the Tirreno Adriatico and the Tour of Romandie) may well be the man to watch but, as always with the Critérium du Dauphiné, anything can happen during 8 days in the saddle…

 

The full stage breakdown is:

 

5 June: Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne 5.4 km prologue

6 June: Albertville – Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse 144 km

7 June: Voiron – Lyon 179 km

8 June: Grenoble 42.5 km Individual Time Trial

9 June: La Motte-Servolex – Mâcon 173.5 km

10 June: Parc des Oiseaux – Villars-les-Dombes – Les Gets 210 km

11 June: Les Gets – Le Collet d’Allevard 192.5 km

12 June: Pontcharra – La Toussuire 117.5 km