Tag: Mark Cavendish

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Cavendish Takes Tour of Britain Stage

Having crashed and lost out to team mate Luke Rowe on the first day of the Tour of Britain and been beaten to the line by GreenEDGE’s Leigh Howard on the second, Mark Cavendish finally had his moment on today’s ToB stage (161.4km Jedburgh to Dumfries) winning in a time of 3:54:30. In a near-perfect set up from Team Sky, with Bradley Wiggins and Jeremy Hunt working tirelessly to rein in the breakaway in the final kilometres, Cav did what he does best and sprinted to victory.

 

Speaking post-race he said, ‘I’m delighted. We tried a few different things yesterday which didn’t quite work out, so (Sports Director) Servais Knaven told us to keep things simple today and go for the sprint… We always had those breakaway riders in our sights. Christian, Brad and Jez all did massive pulls and were able to line it out and bring everything back together at just the right time. It was great for me to be able to sit on the wheel while they were doing all the work.’

 

Leigh Howard (Orica-GreenEDGE) maintains overall lead going into tomorrow’s 156km Stage 4, Carlisle to Blackpool.

 

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Rowe Opens Strong for Team Sky

A fine start yesterday for Team Sky at the Tour of Britain, although possibly not the kind Mark Cavendish would have hoped for. The opening stage – 203km for Ipswich to Norfolk Showgrounds – was won by Sky’s Luke Rowe in a time of 4:51.05 but not before the biggest upset of the day that saw Cavendish and a host of other riders wiped from the field in a mass pile up less than one km from the finish. With Team Sky having worked hard through the day to set Cav up for his trademark sprint finish, it was relative novice Rowe who took the initiative and picked up the pace and the race, out-sprinting UnitedHealthcare’s Boy Van Poppel who he held off into third. Endura Racing’s Russell Downing took the third spot.

 

Speaking post-race Rowe said, ‘It was great to take the win today… obviously it was meant for Cav. We had the lead-out and it would have been perfect. I felt good and strong but it’s unfortunate for Cav. That’s our sport. It shows how unpredictable it is and anything can happen.’ Team Sky Sports Director, Servais Knaven, added: ‘Cav is okay. He has a few cuts and bruises but he will be okay. He has shown that he is going well and he was in a good position when the crash happened… a bit of mixed emotions but we are glad that Cav is okay. It’s great for Luke and for the team that we were able to win the stage.’

 

The ToB continues today with the 180.7km leg from Nottingham to Knowsley Safari Park.

 

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Sky Finish Top in Denmark

A post-Olympic, and obviously well-rested, Mark Cavendish chalked up his 12th victory of the season yesterday (August 26) with a powerful sprint finish on the sixth and final stage – 165km, Slagse to Frederiksberg – of the Tour of Denmark. Taking the stage ahead of Europcar’s Matteo Pelucchi and Lotto-Belisol’s Andre Greipel, Cav said, ‘The lads had great faith in me and delivered me to the line perfect. I’m really happy to get the win and repay their hard work, especially as I haven’t been in the best form recently… I won here in 2007 as well as winning the rainbow jersey in Denmark and it’s great to come back here and win here again.’

 

Vacansoleil-DCM’s Lieuwe Westra maintained his overnight lead (holding off Garmin-Sharp’s Ramunas Navardauskas) for the overall Tour of Denmark win, although Cavendish’s final flurry still helped propel Sky to the top of the Team Classifications.

 

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Team Sky Unveils ToB Squad

Team Sky has announced that both Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish will be amongst the riders making up the squad at the upcoming Tour of Britain, which starts in Ipswich on September 9. The TdF and Gold-medal-winning Olympian will lead the team, flanked by World Champion Cav (who won two stages of the ToB last year) who in turn will be relying on the ever-excellent Bernhard Eisel to help launch the Manx Missile during the crucial sprints. Germany’s Christian Knees, Sweden’s Thomas Lofkvist and two-time British National Road Race Champion Jeremy Hunt complete the team.

 

Team Sky’s race director Mick Bennett said: ‘To have the reigning Tour de France and Olympic time trial champion, and the current world champion competing in The Tour of Britain is a dream for us… We are delighted that The Tour of Britain will be the first chance for many British fans to see Bradley Wiggins since his Tour de France and Olympic successes. We are also very pleased that Mark Cavendish will do the race again so he can show off the rainbow stripes in front of home fans.’

 

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Tour of Britain Route Announced

The ninth edition of the modern Tour of Britain runs from Sunday 9 to Sunday 16 September 2012, and will cover 1,349 kilometres through England, Scotland and Wales.

 

The Grand Depart will take place in Ipswich, with Suffolk and Norfolk hosting the 199km opening stage of this year’s race on Sunday 9 September. From there The Tour will visit Nottingham, Knowsley and Merseyside, Scotland, the North West, Stoke-on-Trent, Wales and Devon before the challenging final stage in the Surrey Hills, finishing on Guildford’s uphill, cobbled High Street on Sunday September 16.

 

The organisers are expecting over 100 of the world’s best riders representing teams familiar from the Tour de France. From Spain, or more specifically the Basque Country, will be Euskaltel Euskadi, Garmin – Sharp from America, Liquigas – Cannondale from Italy and the Aussies from Orica GreenEDGE. Home interest will rest on Team Sky Pro Cycling who won the event in 2009, with Edvald Boasson Hagen, and grabbed a couple of stage wins in 2011 through Mark Cavendish. Other local interest might also be provided by Endura, Node4 Giordana and Team Raleigh GAC.

 

One interesting addition will be debutantes Team UK Youth. Owned by Nigel Mansell and ‘promoting the values of leading youth charity UK Youth’ the team seems to be a bit of a family affair with sons Greg riding and Leo acting as Managing Director. You can find out more at Team UK Youth.

 

The organisers hope the event will once again ‘…showcase Britain’s stunning scenery to a domestic and international audience with some of the world’s top cyclists competing on British roads for the right to win the Gold Jersey.’ This year the key sponsors include logistics firm Yodel and IG Markets.

 

You can keep up with the latest developments at the news section of the ToB website. You can find preview maps here. You’ll find descriptions on all of the stage routes available and highly detailed interactive stage maps. If you fancy sampling a Tour of Britain route first hand, then visit www.tourride.co.uk for more information on the official Tour of Britain sportives taking place in August and September.

 

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No Gold for Cav

Not perhaps the kick-off to Olympic Cycling that many of us had hoped for with Mark Cavendish’s ‘Dream Team’ failing to take a podium, but still an undeniably spectacular start to the 2012 Games and a thrilling race that ultimately saw Kazakhstan’s Alexandr Vinokurov take Gold, Rigoberto Uran Uran (Columbia) with Silver and Alexander Kristoff (Norway) with Gold.

 

With near perfect conditions and crowd support that at times rivalled the Tour de France’s best days the Men’s Road Race unfolded on a grand scale; 140+ riders from 63 countries tackling the longest Olympic course (also the largest ‘free to vie event’) that was incident packed almost from the off.  A dog chose its moment to dart in front of the peloton whilst still well within London and by an hour and 45 minutes in the biggest crash of the day took down a dozen riders – the most unexpected event though was Fabian Cencellara’s locked rear wheel that had him plough into hoardings, leaving him bloodied and without hope for what little was left of the day. The extent of his injuries have not yet been disclosed but are more than likely to inhibit his performance ay Wednesday’s Time Trials – boosting Bradley Wiggins’ chances of Gold.

 

Despite the lack of Team GB medals, the Men’s Road Race looked like Great Britain has truly embraced the sport and even more encouraging – in this ‘build ‘em up and knock ‘em down’ media-led age – no one post-event was looking to lay blame, knock tactics or tut loudly ‘I told you so.’

 

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Sky’s The Limit

When, a few short years ago, Team Sky announced they intended to put together the greatest pro squad in the world it perhaps seemed like hyperbole. Yesterday in Paris they had undeniably achieved their ambition with a record breaking fourth Champs-Élysées finishing sprint from Mark Cavendish and a team overall standings 1-2 for Wiggins and Froome to deliver up the first ever British winner of the Tour de France. Whilst the inevitable winner would usually regard and ride the final leg as a victory lap, Wiggins, along with his team mates, dug deep to help propel World Champion Cavendish to victory in one of the most highly anticipated and nail-biting finishes in le Tour’s 109 year history.

 

Cavendish was, of course, full of praise for his team mates, saying, ‘It’s incredible what we’ve achieved today – what a team. We got a one and two on GC but still we were riding to control things on the Champs-Elysees. It was an honour to have the yellow jersey leading me out. Bradley told me he’d go full gas to the last kilometre and then Edvald (Boasson Hagen) led me into the last corner. The finish couldn’t have been more perfect – no better end to this Tour.’

 

For his part, a post-race and jubilant Wiggins commented, ‘I’ve had 24 hours for this to soak in and today we were just on a mission to finish the job off with Cav. So job done and what a way for him to finish it off. I’m still buzzing. I’ve got to get used to going into the history books now, but I’m just trying to take everything in today first. It’s very surreal at the moment because this type of things [usually] happens to other people. You never imagine it happening to yourself…. It’s hard to take in as it happens. Every lap of the Champs-Elysees was goose-pimple stuff. We had a job to do with Mark today and we were all motivated to do that so it made it go a lot quicker. The concentration was high and for Mark to finish it off like that, well, it couldn’t get any better.’

 

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Wiggins Wins le Tour

‘Bring it on’ said Bradley Wiggins before this year’s Tour de France. Well, he came, he toured, he conquered; today becoming the first Britain ever to win the greatest cycling race in the world. The Team Sky rider finished in an overall time of 87h 34′ 42” – surely one of the greatest British sporting achievements of all time. Of course with success at yesterday’s Time Trial and with so much of this year’s event spent in yellow, victory today was all-bar an accident guaranteed for Wiggo, but that didn’t stop almost a million spectators in Paris cheering home the man they have dubbed ‘le gentleman’.

 

Chris Froome made it an amazing Team Sky 1-2 with a second place podium finish just 3”21’ adrift, whilst Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas Cannondale) took third place, 6’19” behind Wiggins. Adding to Sky’s almost unbelievable success at this year’s TdF World Champion Mark Cavendish won today’s stage, at 120km the shortest of the year, with a faultless sprint finish – making this a record breaking four straight Champs-Élysées wins for the Manx rider.

 

It might be all over for another year at the TdF, but for Wiggins, Cavendish and Froome the next stop is the London Olympics. Too soon to say things are looking good for a medal or two?