Tag: Team Sky

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Four for Cav

Team Sky’s Mark Cavendish yesterday (March 8 ) took his fourth victory of the season with a Stage 2 win at the Tirreno-Adriatico. The San Vincenzo to Indicatore, 230km, route saw Cav clock a time of 6:32:32, beating Óscar Freire (Team Katusha) into second and Garmin-Barracuda’s Tyler Farrar into third place.The win moved him up to fifth overall all three top spots current.y held by GreenEdge riders: Matthew Goss, Stuart O’Grady, Sebastian Langeveld in first, second and third respectively.

 

Speaking afterwards, Cavendish said, ‘It was a difficult day on paper but it wasn’t too fast for the guys so there were a lot of fresh legs and it was important for me to have the team around me, keeping me at the front.’ Team Sky Sports Director, Servais Knaven, added: ‘Everyone is really happy with that. It was an exciting finish and hard to control with some short climbs in the final. There were a few attacks and then the last 3k was descending which meant the pace was really high… It was not easy to be in the right position to make a sprint but the guys worked together perfectly and made a great lead-out for Cav.’

 

The Tirreno-Adriatico continues until March 13.

 

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Paris-Nice Opener

With more than a dash of national-characteristic cliché it’s probably fair to say that it takes a Brit to defy the weather like that seen at the start of yesterday’s Paris-Nice and still post a blistering time. But so it was for Team Sky’s Bradley Wiggins who made his start on the opening Time Trial (9.4km, Dampierre-en-Yvelines to Saint-Remy-les-Chevreuse) third from last with heavy rain blighting conditions and the seemingly impossible task of catching up on a time of 11’19” set by Sweden’s Gustav Larsson of Vacansoleil-DCM. Finishing just a second behind the Swede, Wiggins took overall second to set himself up nicely for the coming stages.

 

Less fortunate was Team Saxo Bank, who not only saw Juan Jose Haedo replaced due to illness by Anders Lund at the last minute, but then witnessed their Belgian star Nick Nuyens crash out brutally on a descent and slam hip-first into a traffic island. After a check-up in hospital a bruised Nuyens reported: “Luckily, there are no broken bones. But naturally, I’m sore and especially my hip took a hard beating in the crash. My preparations for the Ronde van Vlaandern are only in danger if I’m unable to complete Paris-Nice so I’m really hoping that I’ll be back in the saddle tomorrow…”

 

Paris-Nice continues today with a flat, and hopefully dry, 185.5km run from Mantes-la-Jolie to Orléans.

 

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Algarve Stage for Sky

Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen has taken his first win of the season, and the fourth victory for Team Sky, with a convincing sprint finish at yesterday’s leg of the Volta ao Algarve (Tour of the Algarve). The win, a bike length ahead of Kris Boeckmans (Team Vacansoleil) and with Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s Gerald Ciolek in third, puts Boasson Hagen in overall lead at 8:59:30.

 

Speaking after his Stage 2 victory, Boasson Hagen said: ‘I’m really happy and it’s always nice to get your first victory of the season. The team did a good job to keep me up front with 1k to go so I didn’t have to spend too much energy before that. Then it was just about staying on the wheel of the Quickstep train. It was quite easy to stay up there and wait until the last 200 metres and then I went. It was a goal for me to try and get a victory here. Yesterday I was a bit surprised how quickly we came to the line. I was a bit frustrated so it was really nice to get the win and the race lead.’

 

The Tour continues through to February 19.

 

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Cav’s Debut Win for Sky

Just a couple of days after being taken ill on his flight out to Qatar, Marc Cavendish was back on blistering form today taking his first win for his new team, Sky. Making his debut outing in the World Champion’s jersey, Cavendish and team-mates Bernhard Eisel and Juan Antonio Flecha worked their way into a lead group of just over 30 riders when the peloton was split into three by crosswinds with 30 kilometres remaining in the 146.5km stage from Dukhan to Al Gharafa Stadium, but by the uphill finish it had turned into a head to head between the World Champion and race leader Tom Boonen of Omega Pharma-Quick Step. Cav produced his trademark burst of acceleration to land the spoils by just over a bike length from Boonen, with Aidis Kruopis taking third. The victory puts Cavendish third in the overall standings, eight seconds behind Boonen.

 

Speaking afterwards Cavendish said: ‘I’m very happy with that. I’m still not 100-per-cent but we wanted to ride well as a team and if it came down to a sprint then it came down to a sprint. It split up which we weren’t really expecting but the wind picked up and I was looked after by the lads who got me to the front group…It’s incredible to win (with the rainbow jersey). I said I wanted to make the jersey proud. You never really get the season going until you get that first win under your belt. So now it’s there I can hopefully get on a roll now.’

 

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Cav Recovery

Team Sky fans will (probably) be breathing a sigh of relief after something of a roller coaster weekend of news leading up to Mark Cavendish’s début for his new squad at the Tour of Qatar. It was initially reported that he had been taken ill on the flight out to the Middle East state on Friday evening and then that he had sat out Saturday’s training day after consulting with the team medical staff. In an official statement Team Sky’s Race Coach Rod Ellingworth said: ‘Obviously it’s disappointing that Mark has fallen ill the day before his Team Sky debut. He felt fine when he boarded the plane last night but wasn’t 100% when he got off it…He’s really frustrated that he’s come down with this because he’s in great shape condition-wise and was looking to hit the ground running here in Qatar.’

 

Better news greeted fans on Sunday morning (February 5) with a statement from Team Sky’s Sports Director Steven de Jongh saying: ‘We’re all delighted that Mark has been able to battle back from the bug he picked up coming out here and it will be a real boost to the rest of the guys to know that he’ll be starting today. Our medical team have done a fantastic job in looking after him and Mark has followed their advice to the letter. Clearly, he’s not going to be at his best in the next few days but we’re hoping he’ll get stronger with every passing stage… We’ll continue to keep a very close eye on him but hopefully he’s over the worst of it now.’

 

And so it was that Cav took to the Stage 1 route (141.5km, Barzan Towers College of the North Atlantic), understandably sitting back from the sprint but finishing 51st with former world champion Tom Boonen of Omega Pharma-Quick Step taking the win. Bated breath is still required for today (Monday February 6) as he heads out for the 11.3km Sprint Stage…

 

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Sky 2012

Team Sky has officially announced it’s 2012 line-up, which will feature riders from 12 nations (including 10 British cyclists) and eight new signings. In addition to world champion Mark Cavendish, Team Sky has welcomed former HTC-Highroad team-mates Bernhard Eisel, Danny Pate and Kanstantsin Siutsou, neo-pros Salvatore Puccio and Luke Rowe, Sergio Henao, and former Giro d’Italia pink jersey holder Richie Porte.

 

Team Sky Principal, Dave Brailsford, said: “With Mark Cavendish joining riders like Bradley Wiggins, Geraint Thomas and Edvald Boasson Hagen, we have a hugely talented squad of riders with proven ability at the very highest level of our sport…We made great strides in 2011, in what was our second season as a WorldTour team. The challenge for all of us is to build on those achievements and become an even stronger and more successful team.” Adding, “The next ten months will be a huge, but exceptionally exciting challenge. We will be looking to compete on every day of every race and continue the momentum the team has created in 2011. These are exciting times for Team Sky and we can’t wait for the season to start.”

 

The 28-man line up for 2012 is:

Davide Appollonio (ITA), Michael Barry (CAN), Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR), Mark Cavendish (GBR), Alex Dowsett (GBR), Bernhard Eisel (AUT), Juan Antonio Flecha (ESP), Chris Froome (GBR), Mathew Hayman (AUS), Sergio Henao (COL), Jeremy Hunt (GBR), Peter Kennaugh (GBR), Christian Knees (GER), Thomas Löfkvist (SWE), Lars-Petter Nordhaug (NOR), Danny Pate (USA), Richie Porte (AUS), Salvatore Puccio (ITA), Michael Rogers (AUS), Luke Rowe (GBR), Ian Stannard (GBR), Kanstantsin Siutsou (BLR), Chris Sutton (AUS), Ben Swift (GBR), Geraint Thomas (GBR), Rigoberto Urán (COL), Bradley Wiggins (GBR), Xabier Zandio (ESP).

 

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New Year, New Jersey

Many of us may have had new jumpers for Christmas; Mark Cavendish clearly has some new kit. The World Road Race champion has uploaded the first pictures of himself wearing his new Sky team kit which he is now entitles to sport since his contract with his new team began on January 1. As much as he may be enjoying the new rainbow jersey he won’t be wearing it into battle until the Tour of Qatar (February 5-10); he has elected to skip the Santos Tour Down Under (in which he crashed spectacularly in 2011) but has, via Twitter, set out some clear goals for 2012: “What to do this year?” He tweeted, “Remain the fastest. Become the greatest.”

 

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BigMat’s Big Switch

If reports in the Dutch magazine Wieler Revue are true then the future of British riders such as Lizzie Armitstead, Emma Pooley, Lucy Martin and Sharon Laws with Team Garmin-Cervélo could be in jeopardy with less than 9 months to go before the 2012 Olympics. According to the magazine the French firm BigMat were to have supported Garmin-Cervélo as a second tier sponsor but have now switched their wagons to join FDJ, the French cycling outfit, named for its title sponsor, the French national lottery. Whilst BigMat’s decision to back FDJ has seen their WorldTour licence returned for the 2012 season, the shortfall left at Garmin puts the future of their women’s team in doubt. The potentially dire news comes just weeks after former World Champion Emma Pooley publicly criticised the ongoing lack of a women’s team at Sky.