Tag: Team Sky

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Wiggins Takes Time Trial

Team Sky’s Bradley Wiggins has strengthened his lead at the Tour de France, winning his first stage, the Time Trial, in 51 minutes and 24 seconds across the 41.5km from Arc et Senans to Besancon. Resplendent once again in the yellow jersey he now leads the overall classifications by a margin of one minute and 53 seconds ahead of reigning TdF champion Cadel Evans (BMC), a massive improvement on the mere 10 second lead he had at the start of the day.

 

A naturally delighted Wiggens commented, ‘Time trialling’s what I do best… I get into my zone, know exactly the routine I have to go through during the stage and I felt great today. The minute I turned the first pedal stroke on the warm-up I felt fantastic so I knew I was on a good one. “This is what we’ve trained for”, Sean (Yates) was saying to me on the radio in the last 10km – “think of all those hours, all those sacrifices you’ve made”, this is what that was all for and that really motivated me. All the hard work during the winter, missing my children’s birthdays being on training camps and things – this is what it’s all for – these moments.’

 

A double reason for Team Sky to celebrate with Chris Froome taking the second place on the TT and RadioShacks Fabian Cancellara third.

 

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Sky Nationals Line-up Announced

Alex Dowsett, Jeremy Hunt, Luke Rowe, Ian Stannard and Ben Swift have been confirmed by Team Sky as their riders competing at the 2012 British National Road Race Championships which takes place on June 25 in Ampleforth, North Yorkshire. Stannard will be looking to match or better his two previous top-five finishes whilst veteran Hunt will be looking for his third white jersey to add to those from 1997 and 2001. Neither 2010 winner Geraint Thomas nor reigning champion Bradley Wiggins will attend, concentrating instead on both TdF and Olympic preparations.

 

Race coach Rod Ellingworth comments, ‘It’s an honour to wear the national colours and if a Team Sky rider can make it three wins from three, it’ll be a massive achievement.’ Adding, in reference to the star riders not attending, ‘In an ideal world we’d have our full British contingent competing, but with the Tour de France and Olympics now very much on the horizon, it simply isn’t possible. Bradley, Chris (Froome) and Mark (Cavendish) are all fine-tuning their condition ahead of a busy summer on the road, while Pete and Geraint are now mid-way through a crucial block of Olympic track training.’

 

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Get Your Crayons Out

Fresh from the Criterium du Dauphine and flushed with victory Team Sky have just launched a competition to give you the chance to design the next official Team Sky t-shirt. Ben Swift, Mark Cavendish and Michael Barry have each already had a crack at this and their designs are now available at the Wiggle Team Sky shop; but if you think you can do better then you can download a PDF template from teamsky.com and submit your design by Saturday, June 30. Entries will be judged by a panel (including Team Principal Dave Brailsford, plus Swift, Cavendish and Barry) and the winner will receive £500 and the chance to head to the Tour de France and present the finished shirt in person to the team. Further details, terms and conditions, and the template all on the website. See if you can work the Cyclo logo into your design too…

 

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Sky Fly at Criterium du Dauphine

More great news for Team Sky at the Criterium du Dauphine today (June 6) with Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen taking first place on the 167km Stage 3 (Givors – La Clayette) in a time of 4h 22’ 13” and defending champion Bradley Wiggins maintaining his overall lead in the standings for yet another day.

 

Speaking after the exhausting stage the Norwegian commented: ‘The team did a good job to keep Bradley up the front and I could just sit behind. Yesterday I was riding a lot at the front but today I was able to conserve my energy for the sprint… I knew I had to find my own way to the line and at the finish I was sitting on Ciolek’s wheel and he had a good lead-out; I was just waiting for the last 150 metres before opening up my sprint and it was great to get the victory.’ Adding, ‘The main goal this week is the yellow jersey and I’m here to help Bradley win the race but I got the chance today to try for the sprint; I’m really happy to be in a team like this, it’s the best one you can be in.’

 

The Criterium du Dauphine continues with Stage 4 tomorrow with the 53.5km Individual Time Trial from Villié-Morgon to Bourg-en-Bresse.

 

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The Brute of Britain

Yodel, the parcel delivery provider, has announced that it will renew this year as the official logistics partner and sprints sponsor of the Tour of Britain, which is set for the off on September 9 on the streets of Ipswich – the first time the city has played host to the event. The eight-stage race, the UK’s biggest pro cycle outing and largest free-to-watch sporting event of 2012, has been described by Race Director Mick Bennett as ‘certainly our toughest yet’ and despite the lack of London finish (due to the ‘strain’ on the Capital of the Olympics and Paralympics) looks certain to involve some truly challenging competition. Not only will teams battle the notorious British weather – which last year saw the curtailment of the Blackpool promenade stretch – but hilly brutes involving the Pennines, Cannock Chase, the Brecon Beacons and the Caerphilly mountain climb will test the toughest legs.

 

If all that wasn’t enough the final day’s racing (September 16) will involve an uphill sprint along the cobbled high street of Guildford in Surrey; no wonder Bennett has described this as ‘…a race of two halves.’ Thus far Liquigas-Cannondale, Vacansoleil-DCM, Team Sky, Garmin-Barracuda and GreenEdge have all confirmed their attendance.

 

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Sky Gears Up for Giro

Team Sky’s squad for the Gito d’Italia has been finalised and formally announced. The 95th Giro, which runs from May 5 to 27, starting in the Danish town of Herning and ending in Milan, will see  Mark Cavendish making his fourth appearance at the Italian classic and heading up a formidable looking nine-man Sky line-up. The 26-year-old will be joined by Bernhard Eisel, Juan Antonio Flecha, Sergio Henao, Peter Kennaugh, Ian Stannard, Ben Swift, Geraint Thomas and Rigoberto Urán. Eisel and Flecha alone have already notched up 27 Grand Tours between them and look set to add considerable experience to the team.

 

Commenting on the squad’s announcement Mark Cavendish said, ‘The Giro is one of my favourite races of the season and I’m very happy to be riding it. We’ve got a good squad to go and win stages. Geraint, Pete and Swifty have just come off the track so they should have that explosive power which will be important in the first week, and the rest of the team have all done well in the Classics. We want to win the team time trial as well and hopefully that will get us the pink jersey. If we could achieve that it would be a massive honour for the team. It should be a really good three weeks because we’re all friends and have a good understanding on the road. The Tour de Romandie has allowed me to get some miles in the legs so come the start in Denmark I’ll be raring to go.’  With Ben Swift adding: ‘The Giro will always be a special race for me because it was the first Grand Tour I rode back in 2009 and I lived in Italy whilst on the British Academy…’

 

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Thomas Takes Prologue

A first/third finish for Team Sky at yesterday’s 3.34km Prologue in the Tour de Romandie, with Geraint Thomas finishing in 3:29, Mark Cavendish with +6 and RadioShack Nissan’s  Giacomo Nizzolo filling in the second place gap on +4.  Bradley Wiggins, competing for the first time with Cavendish in the same team and going out in later, wetter, conditions, finished a respectable 9 seconds off that of Thomas.


Speaking at the end of Day 1, Thomas said: ‘I always knew that I had a good chance. But it’s one thing knowing that you have a good chance and another thing winning… Obviously the weather played a big part in that but there was only really one corner and you can only lose so much time. But it’s great to win and at a lovely race as well… Today was an objective as it’s similar to the track but for the rest of the race I’ll help Cav in the sprints on which ever stages come down to that and then look after Bradley. He’s here to do a good ride on the GC.’

 

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Paris-Nice Win for Wiggins

Yesterday (March 10) saw a decisive overall win for Team Sky’s Bradley Wiggins at Paris-Nice. Wiggins went into the eighth and final stage – Nice to Col d’Eze (individual time trial) – with a 6 second lead which he spectacularly managed to stretch to 8 seconds across the 9.6km route to be crowned king of the ‘Race to the Sun’, arguably the biggest win of his career to date. Vacansoleil-DCM’s Lieuwe Westra finished two seconds down on the ITT to take second on the stage and overall with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) taking the third overall spot.

 

The 31-year-old becomes only the second Briton to win what is one of the biggest races on the cycling calendar outside of the three Grand Tours, emulating Tom Simpson who triumphed at Paris-Nice in way back in 1967. Team Sky’s Sports Director Sean Yates summed things up saying, ‘Everything’s gone our way except the rain on the prologue day. But Brad’s capped it off with a perfect scenario winning the stage and the GC and it’s quite a big day for the team.’

 

Wiggins himself commented, ‘I always said it was about me doing my ride, emptying it to the top which was always going to be horrible. It was a 19-minute effort and pacing wise we got it absolutely perfect. Then it just depended on what everyone else did and there was one guy in Westra who got very close but it’s job done.’ Adding in typically gracious style, ‘I’m pleased more for everyone else rather than myself after all the hard work the boys have put in this week. Ultimately it fell on my shoulders to finish the job off and I’m just made up that I was able to do that.’