We’re proud to have access to former world silver and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist – and now Eurosport commentator – Tony Gibb, who is providing us with a daily insider’s view of life in and around the Olympic velodrome. Here’s his view of the second day of track action yesterday (Friday).

The GB gold rush continues

Well, no rubbish today about my trip to the track or my run-in with a black cab driver. Today is simply about the bike riding.

Gold for Pendleton after the disappointment of the team sprint (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

Put simply, GB were unstoppable! Vicky Pendleton won the keirin with a dominance I have never seen her show before, and with such power, speed and superior tactics it was a joy to watch. She moved women’s racing on to a new level today. Utterly fantastic, confirmation that retirement is just days away, yet while in this form it seems a waste, it’s understandable given the years of commitment.

In the men’s team pursuit, New Zealand took a deserved bronze but this night was all about the ‘old firm’. As the Aussies and Brits lined up for the start the velodrome hushed with tension, then the six bleeps from the starting system (the longest ten seconds I have ever spent stationary on a bike). And then it was on, with the Brits – Steven Burke, Ed Clancy, Pete Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas - taking almost half a second out in the opening lap. They held it there for a few laps until the golden-clad quartet brought the gap back. I sensed all along that this was to be their undoing. Despite the mind games they tried to play in qualification and the rounds, deep down I think everyone sensed they were going to come up short, and eventually come up short they did. The British quartet put the hammer down and finished with a blistering new world record of 3.51.659, nearly three full seconds ahead.

I don’t care who you are …

Brad Wiggins was in the crowd with wife Cath and the kids and he was good enough to come down to the track centre and give me an interview. He wanted to congratulate the team pursuit boys. He had received a standing ovation earlier in the night but all he kept saying was “it’s not about me, it’s about the lads”. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, a true, true gent!

Does this man look like a security risk? (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

What happened next will haunt me forever. In a flurry of branded t-shirt and tabard activity I was told that he needed to leave the track centre with immediate effect. Apparently his accreditation didn’t have the necessary number on it – really! Yeah, but it’s Brad and he really wants to just say well done to the TP boys … “I don’t care. we are not having the medal ceremony until he leave this area.” Yes, they were serious! Apparently he was presenting a security risk. I don’t know the name of the bloke that was with him, but going by the size of him and the “I’m a nice guy but I can kill you with a spoon” look that came with him I’m guessing he had all the high-level security he needed!

A last mention to the team pursuit girls – Dani King, Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell – who qualified for Saturday’s main competition in a world record time of 3:15.669, nearly four seconds clear of the rest of the field. Every British rider who has taken to the track so far has broken the world record in competition. Incredible stuff.

Roll on tomorrow, I say. At this rate, given how lucky I’m being, Elvis with be giving me an interview!

Switching lanes: Cavendish fancies a move to the track (Picture: Reuters)

The 27-year-old from the Isle of Man won the world title in Copenhagen last September and has 23 Tour de France stage wins, but an Olympic medal is missing from his impressive CV.

Cavendish finished 29th in the road race on the opening day of London 2012.

However, he is tempted to return to the velodrome, where his career began, after watching Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Steven Burke and Peter Kennaugh win Olympic gold.

‘I watched the guys and looked at the camaraderie and thought “I want to be part of that again”. I’ve spoken to the coach [Dan Hunt] this morning,’ he said.

‘I don’t think a road race would suit me too well around Rio but I’d love an Olympic gold and to share it with the guys I’ve grown up with. I’d like to push for a position at Rio in 2016. 

‘I’d like to be part of the team pursuit because I thrive working with other people, gaining their trust. I enjoy working like that and that’s what I aim to do.’

Swishing competition away

Men’s Cycling Team Pursuit sped forward as Great Britian bested Denmark to qualify, before the Brit boys continued forth to gain the gold medals in another tantalising race in the velodrome.

Geraint Thomas, Peter Kennaugh, Ed Clancy and Steven Burke romped home with clean interlocking changes, set a new world record at a swift 3.51.659

Jake Humphrey of BBC Sport announcing claimed the cycling team would probably hear a crowd noise from Manchester, whilst in London. They didn’t.

He would go on to add, a “remarkable, special moment” aren’t they the exact same meaning?

Golden Boys

Australia lost a man along the way, and ended with silver in a challenging effort.

New Zealand entered in third for bronze.

The boys put on an expert race.

JH – “Chris Hoy crowned our greatest Olympian.” Hoy at six medals is behind Bradley Wiggins, who accumulated seven before the cycling, earlier in the week.

Female Team Pursuit

The Women’s team pursuit claimed another line from Mr.Humphrey “you grew up with this kind of thing” he uttered to Mark Cavendish, who used to do this “thing” we call cycling/sport.

Vickie Peddle-ton

After dismay one day prior, Victoria Pendleton rode home to grab the gold also. Someone get her a golden V-plate!

Golden V-Plate!

China’s silver medalist Guo Shuang and Hong Kong’s bronze medalist Lee Wai Sze also made the podium.

Viewers complaining, prompting a demotion or depletion of Humphrey’s character in prominence on BBC Sport was asked.

Giving viewers the hump.

Men’s Hockey played out with GB beating Pakistan at the riverbank arena to continue to the next round. The atmosphere was relaxed and communal with a band of drummers and trumpeteers enthusing the crowd with renditions of Rule Britiannia and I love you baby.

Brit Jocks jack pucks!

Men’s Trampoline had China win gold with Dong Dong and Lu Chun Long taking a bronze as Russian Dmitry Ushakov took silver. All where gentlemanly sports. Dong even signed an autograph for a fan after dropping a programme magazine and pen, from above, before leaving to the side entry.

Dong Dong merrily on high…

After Badminton’s awkward underline two days ago, mixed doubles saw China take on China. One of the South Korean’s involved in the hubbabaloo beforehand was said to be retiring from the sport as a result.

Judo jousters

Karina Bryant nabbed bronze in the +78 kg classification, after losing to Sugimoto. Idalys Ortiz of Cuba took a monumental gold for her nation.

Teddy Riner of France obtained a gold medal in the event for the +100kg final.

Ricardo Blas, at a beefy 35 stone, put Guam on the map for Judo with an impressive outing before leaving the completion in defeat.

Take the label off that drink, Woh-Oh-Oh-a-Ohhh!

President Vladimir Putin, who previously popped in for a chat with Dave Cam in number 10, discussing Syria briefly, both watched on in attendance, filling a few more empty seats. He had celebrated Tagir Khaibulaev’s judo-ific win on Thursday.

Alan Campbell raced to an excruciating exertion though secured a bronze for Team GB in a pleasing effort. in the single sculls.

4 man 1500m quads gave Germany a gold as Croatia landed second. Australia rowed into third to catch a bronze in another sensational rowing bonanza.

Christopher Morgan, Karsten Forsterling, James McRae, Daniel Noonan.

Argentina lost out to Roger Federer in Tennis at the Wimbledon grounds over a 4h 26m duel on the grass court.

Roger was fed to Murray once more as both clash for the final in a Wimbledon replay, this time for Olympic gold. R-Fed downed Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina as Murray mashed Djokovic.

Racket Rogue Roge

Murray with his Team GB sweatbands on, till he threw them in the crowd.

Boxing

Andrew Selby and Freddie Evans of GB both advanced into the quaterfinals.

Men’s 50m freestyle gained a new perspective when Florent Manaudau of France clocked 21.34 over Cullen Jones and Brazilian Cesar Cielo to mass delight, where he splashed the water and wet the guy above the pool’s trousers! Manaudau is already being hailed as the new force of swimming to ascend by the media.

Goin’ with the Flo

Flo Rida, to gold

Women’s 50m Freestyle also saw the semi’s go on, with Ranomi Kromowidjojo take time of 24.07 going forward to finals. Brit’s Fran Halsall and Amy Smith raced too, though only Halsall advanced, as Smith narrowly missed out. Belarus also took Aliaksandra Hersimenia through.

Sploosh! She done it again!

Rowing rapture

Men’s double sculls 

After ending near every race in first to qualify in all heats, Will Satch and George Nash, both 22, landed victory in a groundbreaking win for the talented pair as the ones to beat, with a worthy bronze medal.

Joseph Sullivan and Nathan Cohen took gold for New Zealand.

We were all on Satch-watch!

The New Zewi’s win gold.

Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins steered to success in the Women’s double sculls. Supporting one another perfectly, another batch of electric crowds roared generously, willingly them to cross the line for country as well as themselves.

This is what needs fixing in the country to build a sustainable nation to greatness once more, as what Britain is, yet slightly defragmented with society at large. Sport has proven to bring the country closer together, a testament to reform the nation positively. Government need to implement ways to re-integrate society through social standing and not dividing the nation. To do that, we need incentives, programmes and motivation to encourage a future, helping people gain work as a starting point of that rather than forcing them into things as a dominance, sport adds with this relevance.

Ben Ainslie’s rivals made him angry and he said he would make them pay. Ainslie could be on course for a medal, in the Sailing events after finishing fruitfully to lead into a strong start for silver in the Finn event.

Swimming  Sensations!

Backstroke 200m

Missy done good

Seventeen year old Missy Franklin took the water by storm, sheering off competition to claim a new world record at 2.04.06. She took it way over the WR lining. Excellent work.

Elizabeth Simmonds of GB held her own, competently in second for most of the time, until final legs saw her hold a sustainable fourth place. Anastasia Zueva and Elizabeth Beisel held the top two positions after first.

Butterfly 100m

Paragon Phelps

The butterfly ended with the paragon of the pool Michael Phelps who leaves his last individual race of the games with a time of 51.21 putting him in first place for gold once more. Phelps now bests his medal count of twenty yesterday to twenty-one today, including seventeen gold’s overall. Extraordinary.

Le Clos, with a picturesq outline

Chad Le Clos again proved profitable, however ripples sent as he and Russian Evgeny Korotyshkin both tied for silver in a dramatic race all round, at 51.44. All were closely tailing one another in a tense swim.

Women’s 800m

Fear the unknown. Ledecky lavishes gold.

Hometown hero Rebecca Adlington took her esteemed race notoriety respectably though fell at the final stretch in a gruelling swim earning a bronze medal for her hearty efforts. Mireia Belamonte-Garcia of Spain played possum until powering through to silver.

15, 21 and 23. Youth proving profitable for swimming.

The shockwaves came from the unknown contender Katie Ledecky. The fifteen year old American astonished the race, and proved to be a ground-breaking star up and coming for Olympic swimming in a well-deserved debut outing. She would take our Goggle Guru award today. Exceptional.

Rebecca Adlington had high expectation placed on her shoulders, enforced by the media and them alone, where Adlington also expressed it was too much, even though doing so with grace and intent. As Adlington further expressed, winning bronze is no easy feat and is no embarrassment against extreme competition, aswell as comprising the sport itself valuably.

The only way is Ennis!

Jessica Ennis started athletics today at the Olympic stadium in East London, with events in shotput, hurdles, 200m sprint and women’s bar.

In heat five, Ennis, in lane seven, crossed the line as Dafne Schippers of Netherlands, lane two, powered through, with a time of 22.83, which became a tie for both. Both crossed in first place in extraordinary scenes. Katerina Johnson-Thompson for Team GB also raced to 23.73 at just 19 years of age.

Upon our results postings, the BBC said it was “impossible to cover everything” after seeing us give results to the Olympics for a worldwide audience as well as cover the “minor sports” unrecognised/neglected. Now, the Beeb have chosen to mention words written by this writer in glorious animation and now placed onto their agenda to cover all the sports available.

Only when I do it, eh?

Another interesting notion to mention, that the BBC, the official and only Olympic broadcaster in the country opened up a staggering twenty-four Olympic TV channels to cover all the sports, which initially stated they couldn’t “cover everything.”

Forgive me for being professional.

They even had The Times journalist Alyson Rudd on the show, even answering a question from a fourteen year old stating he “wanted to be a journalist.” Journalism takes years to ‘do’ and isn’t just about writing a few words. It is as fierce, if not fiercer than sport to get into. Journalism is a stubborn market that will only tend to accept those who look good on paper than those with artistic flair.

The country and the profession should be looking toward those who work their back hinds off, with immense passion and dedication to the industry who can provide tenfold than some already taking their so called ‘jobs’ for granted and abusing their ‘ethical’ rights, which causes a mass mockery of the industry and has forced journalism to become the shoddy outlook it receives today. You should look to freelance before choosing random people who are ‘interested’ or ‘fancy a go’ before choosing to be bored and then move on afterwards.

Choose commitment, first and foremost.

Only then, will we enforce social mobility so that youth can be thrust into the educational system to develop and work towards a goal. Increase those who have it today, in late twenties, and then early teens will be able to fill the void afterwards, obviously. There are still 50-60 working years left in a late 20 year old, according to the government, so how do you get them moving when you hold them back?

We would welcome a response, should you be able to find a valid solution. Think about it before answering, please.

Courtesy of ‘The Thinker‘

Golden glow: Victoria Pendleton is hoping to continue her phenomenal form (picture: AP)

Pendleton delivered in thrilling style last night to go some way towards erasing the disappointment of her disqualification from the previous night’s team sprint.

Targeting gold, she said. ‘I’m really looking forward to the sprint.

‘I hope my time trial will be a little bit more special than it’s been over the last couple of years, I have been working on it a lot and I’m hoping I’ve got a good chance in the sprint.

‘I have got to take confidence from this into tomorrow and come back with a vengeance in the sprint.’

In the keirin, which begins behind a motorised Derny bike, the 31-year-old from Stotfold in Bedfordshire – who is set to retire after these Games – stormed to victory.

Guo Shuang, of China, was second, with Lee Wai Sze, of Hong Kong, third.It was Britain’s third gold of the track programme after victory in the men’s team sprint on day one and men’s team pursuit.

World champion Anna Meares, of Australia, made an early move as soon as the pace-setting bike went off the track but Pendleton accelerated with one-and-a-half laps to go and took to the front before sensationally pulling away to add a second gold to her sprint title from 2008. Told she had produced the perfect tactical race, Pendleton said: ‘I think Jan [van Eijden, coach] might have something to say about that.

‘But he said to me: “Don’t look for their race. Just make your own. When it’s your moment, just go.”

‘My legs were good from last night and I still wanted to really show what I’ve got and it worked out okay, I guess.’

Earlier, Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Peter Kennaugh and Steven Burke clocked a world record three minutes 51.659 seconds to take gold in the team pursuit.

Thomas revealed the foundations were laid last autumn, saying: ‘In November we were at the track in Manchester at half seven in the morning. They stopped us going to see a Rihanna concert back then.’

PICTURES: Check out the cycling gold rush images here:

Dani King, Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell set a new world record (Picture: PA)

Just half an hour after the men’s quartet of Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas , Steven Burke and Peter Kennaugh set our pulses racing with a new world record to win gold in the men’s team pursuit, Vicky Pendleton was climbing to the top of the podium after destroying the field in the final of the women’s  keirin.

Last, but by no means least, there was also a new world record for the Team GB trio of Dani King, Laura Trott and Joanna Roswell in the women’s team pursuit qualifiers.

And who in their right mind would bet against them adding to the gold medal tally in the final?

We were all wondering how our lads and lasses could possibly match the brilliance of Beijing but, at this rate, they may not be that far off.

I had been worried about the way the Australians had reached the men’s team pursuit decider but our awesome foursome  enjoyed what turned out to be a comfortable victory.

Pendleton had suffered the agony of disqualification in the women’s team sprint the previous night but used that to spur herself on in the keirin and she is quite simply the fastest women’s track cyclist.

Praise also has to go to the coaches and performance analysts behind the scenes and Team GB obviously feeds off the winning displays put in by their team-mates on the track and road colleagues from Team Sky.

This never-to-be-forgotten night will set up the Great Britain squad for the remaining events in the  velodrome as our cyclists have no fear in meeting new standards whenever the bar is raised.

PICTURES: Check out more gold rush images on the track here:

I used to have a mountain bike, for some reason, and I completely neglected it when I was younger. Preferring to lock myself in my bedroom with heavy music and video games, it soon got pretty obvious that I was neglecting my fitness and – basically – got really fat. Things improved towards sixth form; despite now only having one sports lesson a week, which diminished to nothing a couple of years later, I adored the team sports of football, basketball – even ten-pin bowling down at the arcades! Obviously, nothing beats the home-made hobby of plaszyball (if you don’t know… maybe later, but it’s a cross between football and volleyball on a tennis court) but the biggest fitness thrill was starting to get out on that bike and exploring my home town.

Nobody could ever consider me to be a ‘cyclist’; I couldn’t exactly get up to much speed and was scared to even ride up onto a kerb, but the freedom of speeding down roadsides and whizzing past plodding pedestrians was second to none. The furthest I ever left town on my bike was probably about four miles – hardly a Tour de Yorkshire. Still, had I kept up with this, taking it with me to uni, I could have gone further and further. Further than Messrs Wiggins and Froome? Probably not.

July had the Tour de France. August has the Olympic Games. In the space of two short months, I’ve been given a crash course (no pun intended, promise) in the complex, tactical sport of cycling and there’s still the disciplines of cross-country mountain biking and the BMX to go. The terms ‘peloton’, ‘yellow jersey’ and ‘groupe maillot jaune’ have been thrown at me and have started to actually make sense but, at the end of the day, it’s just 200 cyclists having a race. Obviously, there’s a lot more to it than that, and I’m captivated, but it’s fantastic that people can jump on a bike and emulate their heroes. Sadly, I don’t have a bike anymore so I can’t go out and sprint down the high street like Mark Cavendish, so I’ll just have to sit in front of the telly and spur him on.

It isn’t quite the same same in the velodrome. Nobody can just get on their bike and speed to their local arena, drifting around those iconic corners. It’s hard to take away their achievements and events like the men’s team pursuit are hugely enthralling, but 4000m hardly compares to a 250km road race. The training is largely identical and they all put their body through torture – I just feel I can relate to the road racers more. I’d love to get out into the countryside and race with my friends, wind on my helmet. Moreover, I’d love for the rest of our cyclists to go all out and win more golds to inspire a future generation.

Although it seems like false praise for the track cyclists, all my congratulations go out to Victoria Pendleton and the pursuit team for grabbing golds, tonight. It goes to show how far British cycling has come when I’m complacent about winning way before the halfway walk. Geraint Thomas, Ed Clancy and the team were so far ahead by 2000m that the result was never in doubt and I decided to get on what more risky activities – like eating my girlfriend’s baking. Pendleton’s victory in the Keirin was a lot closer and she would probably have lost it with another 20m, but she deserves that win so much after severe disappointment last night. Add that to medals from Wiggins, Froome, Armitstead, Hoy, Kenny and Hindes and we are top of the world.

The rest of the world can get on their bike.

==

Let’s not forget the great win achieved by Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins in the women’s double sculls final this morning. A lot of coverage has been set aside for Grainger finally getting the gold, but Watkins deserves it just as much and both are fitting winners. That’s not to mention the second judo medal in two days from Karina Bryant, more rowing prizes from Alan Campbell, George Nash and Will Satch and the second bronze of the Olympics for Rebecca Adlington. It was a such a shame that she couldn’t repeat her exploits at Beijing but she was heavily beaten by an amazing teenager and she shouldn’t lost heart. I’d kill for an Olympic medal, not to mention four of them.

Golden boys: Edward Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Steven Burke and Peter Kennaugh of Great Britain (Picture: Getty Images)

Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas , Peter Kennaugh and Steve Burke produced an empathic show in an electric Velodrome to see off Australia and successfully defend the title they won four years ago in Beijing.

Team GB opened up a three tenths of a second gap over the Aussies after 1km, and stretched that to six-tenths after 2km.

At that point the British quartet were in full flow, and Australia were powerless to stop Clancy, Thomas, Kennaugh and Burke from romping home a whole 2.9sec ahead.

Thomas told the BBC: ‘The amount of work we’ve had to put in…

‘In November we were at the track in Manchester at half seven in the morning. They stopped us going to see a Rihanna concert in November.

Force: Geraint Thomas of Great Britain (Picture: Getty Images)

‘They’ve been on our backs since then. It’s been full on.

‘To finish it off is amazing.

‘I was ill last week and mentally it’s been very hard trying to get back to where I was.

‘Without these boys I couldn’t have done it. They were super.

‘The crowd is unbelievable. My ears are ringing. It’s too loud.’

Earlier, New Zealand streaked away from Russia to easily take the bronze medal in a time of three minutes 55.952 seconds.

PICTURES: Check out more gold winning  images here:

Away from the track, the UCI decided that for reasons as yet unexplained, teams were only allowed to announce transfers from the 1st of August, were as previously, teams did it when they wanted, usually during the Tour de France. Combined with their marvelous points system which ruins the whole season and just makes it so that whichever team has the best budget succeeds as they can buy all the talent, and of course the riders want the security and money those teams can provide, this makes everything quite a pickle, although hypocrite Jonathan Vaughters can’t quite decide whether he loves it or not – the result is what he’s been campaigning for, yet he still moans about it somehow. Weird.

Anyway, now that the date has passed, we can finally start to see who is going where. Personally however, I think the more interesting thing is to think about who should go where, and consider what the teams actually need. To anyone who has played the frighteningly addictive ProCycling Manager, they’ll know this is the best part of the season really – trying to lure those riders you see potential in away from other teams, preferably with very low salaries, whilst simultaneously trying to ensure your big star doesn’t move to FDJ for reasons unknown. So here’s some thoughts on where riders should be going, although baring in mind that many of the deals will already have been done:

Team Sky

Team Nucleus: Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Mark Cavendish, Geraint Thomas, Edvald Boassen Hagen

It’s tricky to see where Sky can really improve. They will probably lose Michael Rodgers to GreenEdge, Flecha to Vacansoleil and have already lost David Appolliono to Ag2R, but will they lose Cavendish as well? If the rumours are true, its certainly possible, and if we’ve learnt anything over the last couple of years, it’s that rumours usually have some substance behind them. If they keep Cavendish, it’s unlikely they’ll do too much business – the core of their team is so strong, with Wiggins, Froome and Porte for GC and Thomas, Boassen Hagen and Stannard in the classics. Even if they do lose him, they’ll probably simply concentrate on developing what they have.

Suggested buys: Jens Voigt (RadioShack)

Dream buys: Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack)

BMC

Team Nucleus: Cadel Evans, Tejay Van Garderen, Phillipe Gilbert, Greg Van Avermant, Taylor Phinney

BMC continued the super team trend that showed that money doesn’t always buy you success, something that Sky discovered in their first year and Leopard-Trek discovered (and still are) through out their existence. With the defending Tour de France champion, the most successful rider of the previous year in Gilbert and Thor Hushovd on their roster, everyone was expecting BMC to destroy everything in sight and take most of the classics. Instead, they’ve so far taken none, with only one Tour stage win in their history. So what to do? Van Garderen and Evans will be powerful contenders in grand Tours, but Hushovd was already looking a bit past it in the classics in his year at Garmin, let alone BMC. You get the feeling they’d be better off developing Phinney, a double U23 winner of Roubaix, now that he has got the Olympics behind him, and working to get Gilbert back to form. Van Avermant may be keen to move away from the man he left OmegaPharma to avoid anyway mind.  The classics squad needs some boosting despite the big names, and if Cavendish is free, they’d probably go for yet another past World Champion, although he wouldn’t get in their Tour squad.

Suggested buys:  Gregory Rast (RadioShack), Alexander Kristoff (Katusha, no idea why they got rid of him in the first place!)

Dream buys: Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack), Mark Cavendish (Sky)

Liquigas-Cannondale

Team Nucleus: Peter Sagan, Ivan Basso, Elia Viviani, Moreno Moser, Daniel Oss

With Nibali gone, Liquigas will, if the team continues anyway, be left with arguably the worlds best rider, Peter Sagan, who can essentially ride for himself as well. That leaves the team free to build around the aging Basso’s last chance saloon ride in the Giro. Elsewhere, the team has very strong young talent avaliable to develop in Viviani, Oss and especially Moreno Moser. It would be nice to see them buy in some talent however, and although my dream of them merging with Lampre to create an Italian super team would be a strong move, they are still probably just going to go for a couple of young Italians. Some more sprinters would be good, as would bringing back a past classics star…

Suggested buys: Andrea Guardini (ISD), Sacha Modolo (Colnago), Fillipo Pozzato (Farnese-Vini)

 Orica-GreenEdge

Team Nucleus: Matthew Goss, Simon Gerrans, Sebastian Langeveld, Leigh Howard, Luke Durbridge

The Aussies look like they’re on a similar plan to Sky, building a team over a few years to get the team they want. Whilst they’ve missed out on Porte, Michael Rodgers would be a good buy off Sky, whilst they could try to lure Matthew Hayman away as well to boost their classics squad. With Rabobank in a bit of crisis, it wouldn’t be a suprise to see Michael Matthews make the move across at some point as well. The teams youth, coming out of the Olympics, will be key to their success in years to come.

Suggested buys: Matthew Hayman (Team Sky) , Michael Rodgers (Team Sky) , Michael Matthews (Rabobank), Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Sharp)

Dream buys: Cadel Evans (BMC), Richie Porte (Team Sky)

OmegaPharama-QuickStep

Team Nucleus: Tom Boonen, Sylvain Chavanel, Tony Martin, Niki Terpstra, Peter Velits

We can safely say that OPQS’s classics team needs little reinforcement, but the forever pesky Grand Tour team continues to be a nail in their side. Over the years, they’ve tried Jose Rujano, Michael Rodgers, Juan Manuel Garate, Richard Virenque…and this year they had Levi Leipheimer, who finished on the podium 5 years previously but was never going to repeat that form. Tony Martin might be able to develop into more of a GC rider at some point, but I doubt it – OPQS would be better suited looking at the Velits twins. More intriguingly though, they appear to be best suited to nab Cavendish – something that would deliver them a near guarenteed Tour stage win, something they haven’t had for some time (2008 by my count). They do have a history of poaching riders from rivals Lotto, so maybe they could poach their GC riders.

Suggested buys: Maxime  Monfort (RadioShack)

Dream buys: Mark Cavendish (Team Sky), Jurgen Van den Broeck, Jelle Vanendert (Lotto Belisol)

Astana

Team Nucleus: Vincenzo Nibali, Robert Kivierlovski, Maxim Iglinisky, Enrico Gassporotto, Janez Brajkovic

Having all ready confirmed the signing of Nibali, and with Olympic Road Race champ Vinokourov retiring (for the third time?!), it’s something of a new era for Astana without their talisman. Luckily they have a strong team already, and will be keen to mirror their classics success with Iglinsky and Gassporotto. Their Grand Tour ambitions will be helped by Nibali, but will he now go for his home race, the Giro, rather then the Tour? If so, then a move for Andy Schleck is still on, as rumoured…

Suggested buys: Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil, to add to their Italian contingent), Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago, the Italian deserves a big team move, perhaps Astana will be the ones to take him on?) Jacob Fugslang (RadioShack)

Dream buys: Andy Schleck (RadioShack)

SaxoBank-TinkoffBank

Team Nucleus: Alberto Contador, Nicholas Roche, Nick Nuyens, Juan Hose Haedo, Chris Anker Sorenson

Saxo are back to concentrating on one man by the looks of things, despite how that strategy has played out this year, with the team languishing at the bottom of the ProTeam standings. Somehow, the team has found money through Tinkoff and Oleg Tinkov to fund new riders, and the buying in of Nicholas Roche, as well as the rumoured Romain Kreuziger, Matti Breshel and possibly Jacob Fugslang. Riis is obviously still a big pull, and the team will be back to its usual strength at this rate.

Suggested Buys: Romain Kreuziger (Astana), Matti Breschel (Rabobank), Jacob Fugslang (RadioShack)

Dream buys: Jens Voigt, Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack)

Katusha

Team Nucleus: Denis Menchov, Joaquim Rodriguez, Daniel Moreno, Alexandr Kolobnev, Mikhail Ignatiev

For all their money, Katusha have really flatlined the last few years. Whilst Rodriguez has been their Bastion, they clearly want Russian success, but would do better to look at the other talents avaliable to them. Moreno is hugely under rated, and of they could only get Kolobnev to get on the form he has in the Olympics or Worlds in other one day races, they would be onto a winner. Getting rid of an unhappy Pozzato ruined their classics campaigns on the cobbles, and so they need to look there. Rodriguez is still key though.

Suggested Buys: Matti Breschel (RaboBank), JJ Rojas (Movistar) Bjorn Leukmans (VacanSoleil)

Garmin-Sharp

Team Nucleus: Ryder Hesjedal, David Millar, Sep Vanmarke, Daniel Martin, Andrew Talanksy

Van de Velde is simply past it, as much as he keeps claiming he can do well in a major tour. Whilst the trend is increasingly to keep going a long way into the thirties for GC riders, the trend is also that this is followed by a decline in performance (see Messrs Armstrong, Leipheimer, Horner). So instead, Garmin has Hesjedal and Talansky for GC, although they’ll no doubt be keen to point out that Dan Martin is one as well: er, no. He should concentrate in his podiums in the hilly classics – as riders dont seem to realise and Paolo Bettini knew, 20th-6th in a grand tour is worthless compared to victories in races such as Liege or Lombardy. The classics team looks good still with Vanmarcke, and if Haussler ever returns to his 2009 form, so expect to see few buys from them.

Suggested buys: Brent Bookwalter (BMC), Matthew Busche (RadioShack), Benjamin King (RadioShack)

Dream buys: Tejay Van Garderen (BMC)

I believe the Lightweight Men’s Four won Silver in a fantastically fought Race over at Eton Dorney to start the day off with a bang.

GB Shooter Peter Robert Russell Wilson wins GOLD in Double trap coached by Prince Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum, a member of Dubai’s Royal Family. I hope that the funding will continue after all the issues British Shooting had to go through after Beijing 2008.

Tim Baillie/Etienne Scott  & David Florence/Richard Hounslow win GOLD & Silver in Canoe Slalom C2 first ever C2 medals, beating the best C2 Crew in history from Slovakia, even though they believed the course was a bit easy.

David Cameron was seen locked in talks, with Vladimir Putin (Judo Black Belt) while watching, US Judoka Kayla Harrison wins GOLD against our Girl Gemma Gibbons. Russia got GOLD in the Men’s under 100kg division, a little smile spread across the Premier’s face.

Andrew Murray was a double winner today, singles in straight sets and likewise in the Mixed D’s with Miss Robson…. There is a GOLD here somewhere….

Welcome to the Pleasure-dome (Oops, Velodrome)

The UCI have been given full information from Team GB Cycling, including The Secret Squirrel Club, Rubber Suits (banned after Beijing) and what these “Hot Pants” courtesy of TeamGB’s quaintly named “The Marginal Gains Team” really are for. We don’t want any complaints after the malarkey we had after Beijing. So the first day in the Velodrome gave us, GB Gold’s, World Records, 2 Relegations, a dubious crash and a “Knight of the Realm” in tears…again. Jess Varnish & Victoria Pendleton were relegated by the Cycling Commissaries, for passing to early, bloody 15m Rule… Do not worry the Chinese followed, giving the German’s GOLD and the BBC a lesson in German Diction!

In the Team Sprint Sir Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny & 19 yr old Philip Hines win GOLD

Do the Maths – WR 42.747 + WR 42.600 = GOLD

In the Team Pursuit Ed Clancy, Stephen Burke, Geraint Thomas, Peter Kennaugh are so fast they knock 8/10^th of a second off the World Record and qualify for the Finals.

WR 3.52,499 = Finals

Over in the Gymnastics, The Flying Squirrel, 16 yrs old, Gabby Douglas, wooed the crowds with a GOLD medal performance for the USA. GB finishes 13^th & 24th.

GB Boxer Anthony Ogogo beat Ukrainian World Champion after a count back and what can only be called a Lucky Dip.

Ben Ainslie ramps up the stress in the Finn Class Sailing, after a Dane & Dutchmen try to “Press Gang” our Brit. Ben spoke out about such ungentlemanly conduct, their methods and won’t stand for such skullduggery on the Open Seas around Weymouth. Many choice words were exchanged.

Finn Classer’s beware, “Don’t make Ben Angry, you won’t like Ben Angry”

“The Duel in the Pool” went to Phelps, after some last minutes tips from the US President, GB swimmers all did well, but not with metallic reward, Becky’s 800m Freestyle is tomorrow night (Day 7)

US Men’s Dream Team hit 156 points to 73 from Nigeria to set an Olympic points record. GB nearly caused a shock, but finally lost by a point to Spain’s NBA All-stars. Putin arrived at the Basketball to see Russia behind with 2 seconds left, the 3 Pointer to win, took the roof off the Arena and a another smile to Vlad’s face…

Vezzali wins Gold again that is nine Medals for the Italian Swords-tress

Post Boxes going Gold all over the Great British Isles… check out our GB Hero’s on a Royal Mail Stamp.

Some rules are made to make life difficult for dominant Nations including, Table Tennis again China, Cycling against Great Britain and Swimming against Australia.

Who is next?

Please check out: Australia, Suck it Up, Gold’s will come

www.tourofbritain.com starts in September… Get on your Bike

Later

Rich

Medals could come in a variety of sporting disciplines for Great Britain on day six of their home Games.

At the top of that list comes track cycling in the new state-of-the-art Velodrome inside the Olympic Park, where Team GB’s star names will to build on from the momentum following Bradley Wiggins’ superb victory on the road time-trial.

The first day of action sees Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish riding for team sprint gold against Australia, while Jason Kenny, Philip Hindes and Sir Chris Hoy team goes up against formidable French and German opposition in the men’s equivalent.

Rowers Helen Glover and Heather Stanning delivered Team GB’s first gold medal of the entire London 2012 Games on the waters of Eton Dorney on day five, and there will be plenty of strong British contenders for medals on day six.

All three finals will feature British interest, including the lightweight men’s four and women’s eight.

Target sports feature heavily during the day, with the medals set to be decided in the women’s individual archery at Lord’s, and the men’s double trap shooting final takes place over at the Woolwich Artillery Barracks from 3pm, where GB’s Peter Wilson and Richard Faulds are set to star.

On the final day of the Canoe Slalom competition at Lee Valley, the men’s C2 and women’s K1 canoe slalom finals both have strong British interest, with David Florence and Richard Hounslow becoming the first paddlers to compete in two separate events at the same Olympic Games.

At tea-time inside the North Greenwich Arena, expect a ferocious battle between the US and Russia to be crowned women’s all-around gymnastics champion, featuring names such as Jordyn Wieber and Aliya Mustafina.

In the pool, another epic Michael Phelps v Ryan Lochte battle is anticipated in the men’s 200m individual medley, with GB’s James Goddard also involved in the same race, while Fran Halsall is Britain’s outstanding hope in the women’s 100m freestyle.

GB teams in action include men’s Basketball (v Spain, 8pm), men’s Handball (v Argentina, 4.15pm), women’s Hockey (v Belgium, 7pm), men’s Volleyball (v Italy, 10pm), and men’s Water Polo (v United States, 6.20pm)

Ensure you don’t miss anpther busy day of action live on the BBC. You can make your choice of Olympic viewing by pressing the Red Button on your digital remote, or by accessing the BBC’s Olympics channels or the BBC Sport website.

You can follow all the action from Day 6 at the London 2012 Olympic Games across the BBC. Details below:

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News round-up from the Games and beyond, plus a look ahead to today’s events.

Coverage of the opening events on day six of the Games, featuring women’s archery, and men’s / women’s rowing semi-finals.

Lord’s is the venue for the opening action from 9.00, as the women’s individual archery reaches the last-16 stage.

The focus then switches to Eton Dorney, where John Inverdale introduces the semi-finals of the 10.10 men’s four, 10.30 women’s lightweight double sculls, 10.50 men’s lightweight double sculls and 11.10 women’s single sculls.

Three more rowing finals take places, with British medal hopes in all of the races. The schedule featuring: 11.50 men’s double sculls, 12.10 men’s lightweight four and 12.30 women’s eight.

Bill Lucas and Sam Townsend compete in the double sculls, with Chris Bartley, Peter Chambers, Richard Chambers and Rob Williams in the lightweight four.

Coverage switches to BBC Two at 1.00pm (details below).

An afternoon of archery, tennis and shooting, with the latest medals set to be decided. The archery at Lord’s provides the first live coverage, as the women’s individual discipline heads towards a conclusion, with the quarter-finals from 2.00, semi-finals from 2.52, bronze-medal match at 3.21 and the final at 3.37.

The men’s double trap shooting finals get under way at 3.00, with medal chances for Great Britain coming in the shape of Peter Wilson and Richard Faulds, with the latter aiming to win a second gold after claiming victory in Sydney 12 years ago.

Tennis at Wimbledon also continues with the knockout stages of the men’s and women’s singles and doubles, and the mixed doubles.

Track cycling competition begins at the London Velodrome, including the finals of the women’s team sprint.

Great Britain have an outstanding recent history in this sport, and will expect to be challenging for medals in most of the disciplines, with Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish going for gold this evening, and the Australians likely to be their closest rivals.

The schedule features the women’s team sprint qualifiers from 4.00, first round from 4.45 and finals from 5.50, with the men’s team sprint qualifiers from 4.15 and first round from 5.40, and men’s team pursuit qualifying from 4.50.

Coverage switches to BBC Two at 6.00pm (details below).

Another busy evening of swimming at the Aquatics Centre, where four finals and the semi-finals in a further three disciplines are scheduled, featuring the finals of the 7.38 women’s 200m breaststroke, 7.46 men’s 200m backstroke, 8.16 men’s 200m individual medley and 8.34 women’s 100m freestyle, and the semi-finals of the 7.30 men’s 50m freestyle, 7.54 women’s 200m backstroke and 8.51 men’s 100m butterfly.

Britain’s best chance of a medal tonight appears to be in the women’s 100m freestyle, in which former European champion Fran Halsall will hope to have a decisive part to play, while American stars Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte will once again expect to continue their rivalry in the individual medley.

Phelps won an incredible 14 gold medals over the last two Olympics in Athens and Beijing, and is confident of adding to that tally, although Lochte matched him during the dramatic US trials, and the pair are hard to separate in a number of disciplines.

In the company of star guests from the world of sport and beyond, Gabby Logan looks at the stories and personalities that have made the headlines.

Final round-up of the day’s events, with guests from the world’s of Olympic sport and sports journalism.

Coverage from the grass courts of Wimbledon, where the tennis singles and doubles competitions have reached the knockout stages. Weather permitting, the men’s and women’s singles and the mixed doubles quarter-finals are set to take place, along with the semi-finals of the men’s and women’s doubles.

Coverage of the concluding track cycling final of the day at the London Velodrome, where the men’s team sprint discipline reaches a climax from 6.10.

Four-time Olympic champion Chris Hoy led the British team to glory in this event in Beijing four years ago, along with Jason Kenny and Jamie Staff, and Hoy and Kenny return with Philip Hindes as one of the favourites to triumph once again.

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More action from the Games, where men’s boxing and volleyball, and women’s hockey are still taking place.

The middleweight boxing last-16 bouts are the concluding ones of the day at the ExCeL London. The British men’s volleyball team play their latest Pool A match against Italy at Earls Court, and the women’s hockey Pool B fixture between New Zealand and Argentina is set to reach a climax at the Riverbank Arena.

First session on the sixth day of London 2012, including the latest swimming heats at the Aquatics Centre.

The schedule features the 10.00 men’s 50m freestyle, 10.27 women’s 800m freestyle, 11.21 men’s 100m butterfly and 11.46 women’s 200m backstroke. Rebecca Adlington will be the focus of most of the attention as she gets the defence of her 800m freestyle title under way, having won in a world record time four years ago in Beijing, and claimed bronze in the 400m on Sunday.

Plus, updates on the fifth day of the sailing regatta at Weymouth.

Coverage concentrates on the concluding canoe slalom finals and the women’s individual artistic gymnastics all-around final.

The Lee Valley White Water Centre is the first port of call, featuring the 2.12 women’s K1 semi-finals, 3.18 men’s C2 final and the 3.57 women’s K1 final. David Florence and Richard Hounslow demonstrated their credentials with victory in the C2 discipline at the World Cup meeting in Cardiff in June, and were expected to be challenging for medals.

The gymnastics begins at 4.30 at the North Greenwich Arena, where the leading 24 competitors from the qualifying sessions will be in action. The USA provided the gold and silver medallists in Beijing, with Nastia Liukin edging Shawn Johnson into second place, and China’s Yang Yilin winning bronze.

Final sessions on day six of the Games, featuring Belgium v Great Britain in the women’s hockey, Spain v Great Britain in the men’s basketball and Great Britain v Italy in the men’s volleyball.

The Riverbank Arena is the setting for the hockey coverage from 7.00, as Belgium and Team GB play their third Pool A match of the competition, with the Brits seeking their third successive victory having already defeated Japan and South Korea.

The focus then switches to the Basketball Arena from 8.30 to pick up on the basketball Group B fixture, as Britain attempt to claim a first victory after suffering losses to Russia and Brazil, but face a tough test against the Spanish, who won the silver medal four years ago in Beijing.

Plus, the start of the men’s volleyball Pool A match at Earls Court from 10.00, where Great Britain are looking for a reversal of fortunes after losing 3-0 in their two previous contests.

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Races can be won or lost depending on how adept a rider is. Descending is thrilling, yet scary and the only thing that can combat the fear is confident handling skills at very high speeds. But what does it actually feel like when you’re racing down a mountain at incredible speeds? And who in the peloton are masters of the descent?

If you’re the heaviest, you’ll fall the fastest

This spring I had the opportunity to attend my team’s four-day training camp in the mountains of West Virginia. Each day we rode between 90 and 120km over some of the most beautiful scenery in the eastern US. I was a little apprehensive because at 1.96 meters tall and 82kg, I’m not the greatest of climbers and we were going to be doing a lot of climbing.

Panache doing his best impersonation of Bernie Eisel – please note the facial hair …

On the first day, at about the 50km into the ride, we began to ascend a category 3 climb. I was pleased with my ride as I was the last of a select group to reach the summit. The rest of the team had been dropped and we would not be waiting for them. As I approached the top, my teammates were stuffing their short, lightweight bodies (yes, I’m jealous) with food and starting to hit the road again. I was just trying to catch my breath when one of them said to me, “Come on, Giraffe, you don’t want to get left behind here. It would be a long way back to camp if you were alone.” He was right and with those words, we began the descent.

The way up the climb had been on a long, open, steady, clean, wide road. The 11km descent was just the opposite. This road was narrow, twisted, and full of potholes, dirt and gravel. A kilometre into the descent we were reaching speeds over 80kph. A gap started to open up between me and two other teammates, and the rest of the group. The three of us were falling behind! Being the heaviest, I was told to move to the front and pick the lines. Supposedly, I could “fall the fastest”.

We needed to stay to the right-hand side of the road because there was oncoming traffic from time to time. I was doing all I could to catch the leaders but I was nervous. We were going so fast and I wasn’t confident in my ability to pick the correct lines. I was afraid. My heart rate was elevated. I had a death grip on my handlebars (a big no-no when descending) I felt like I was expending more energy going down the mountain then I had going up! And then it happened…

On one particularly hairy turn, I misjudged the line.

I was going too fast but was able to scrub some speed with my brakes before the corner. I shifted my weight to do the counter-steering technique I had been taught. Still, I had to use the entire road. I came within inches of going off the edge but somehow carved the turn and kept my bike upright. If an oncoming vehicle had been coming, I would have been toast. The two behind me recognised my error, slowed down, and picked a better line.

After that experience, I realised that I need much more practice.

The pro peloton descends

This fact is evident in the pro peloton where the speeds are 20-40kph faster than my meagre attempts. Stages 12-15 of last year’s Tour were a lesson in descending. In stage 12, the wet roads reminded Geraint Thomas how cautious and mentally acute a rider must always be while going downhill. He lost traction in a corner and had to bail off of his bike to avoid falling off a cliff. He then lost traction again moments later!

In stage 13, Thor Hushovd skillfully took time out of two French riders, David Moncoutie and Jeremy Roy on the descents. He then rode away from them both in the final kilometres to take the stage victory.

Finally, Cadel Evans and Alberto Contador schooled Andy Schleck on stage 15 during the final, rainy descent into the town of Gap, gaining over a minute. Andy would go on to complain that “a finish like this should not be allowed”. People were critical of the Schlecks but who can blame them for being cautious after Frank’s harrowing experience in the 2008 Tour de Suisse? Regardless, if the Schlecks had better descending skills, they would have had more courage.

There are plenty of current pro riders to watch and emulate when learning to descend – Fabian Cancellara, Vincenzo Nibali, Peter Sagan, David Arroyo, and Danilo Di Luca are all really good. But in my humble opinion (which means this is a fact), the greatest of all time is Paolo Savoldelli. Now retired, Paulo was known as Il Falco (the Falcon) because he could drop off of a mountain like a bird of prey. The world got a glimpse of his truly unique ability in the 14th stage of the Giro d’Italia in 1999. Flying though Italian villages, with no helmet, he would take the stage because no one would take the risks that he did. He would later use this courageous ability to win the Giro d’Italia in 2002 and 2005!

I’m no Il Falco yet, but I have been practicing a bit and my ability and my confidence have increased. We’ll see if the descents in this year’s Tour de France play such a critical role like they did in 2011. If they do, I hope Frank Schleck has been practicing as well.

Reblogged from Sport Techie:

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Allyson Felix is very responsive to her 40,600 fans on Twitter

By Greg Lee – Email  |  Twitter |  Articles

There are many entertaining Olympians on Twitter, but here are 10 you should definitely be following as the Opening Ceremonies are now less than a month away!

Lolo Jones (@lolojones) – U.S. Track and Field: She gained notoriety recently by admitting she’s a virgin on 60 minutes and let the world in on her incredible life story. 

Read more… 793 more words

Frank Schleck will attack in the Alps

99th TOUR de FRANCE  June 30th – July 22nd 2012

YELLOW JERSEY – LE MAILLOT JAUNE

This weekend sees the start of the 2012 Tour de France, cycling’s Blue Riband event and leader of the Grand Tour gang, it begins with a 6.4 km prologue through the streets of Liege in Belgium.

The parcours is as follows;  twenty one stages in total, there is a prologue, two individual time trials, nine flat stages, four medium mountain stages and five high mountain stages (three summit finishes).

The main misnomer of the 99th edition of Le Tour de France is centered around the fact that with fewer high mountains summit finishes (three) than usual, the race will be won by a non-climber or Rouleur. I do not concur with this, there is a good chance that with relatively few summit finishes, the race is likely to explode into action very early on and as a result becoming extremely messy, I can see heaps of time lost by the best TT riders as their legs acclimatise. The main specialist grimpeurs/climbers cannot afford themselves the luxury of holding back and allowing themselves to be paced up the mountain passes by the race leader’s team, as they have in recent tours. In those tours, they had more mountain finishes and could afford to time their attacks, for this reason, I can see this Tour being more of a stamina test than usual.

That is why I can pass over on current favourite, Bradley Wiggins, obviously, he is well suited by the two ITT’s and having the backing of the strongest team in Sky (he will supported in the mountains by a crack team of climbing domestiques in Richie Porte, Chris Froome and Michael Rogers). But, he is not an A+ climber and the loss of any of these domestiques will leave him vulnerable to attack, especially with the other riders in his team protecting Green Jersey contender and World Champion, Mark Cavendish.

British star, Wiggins can grind it out on his own and limit his losses but he also has the capacity to be lose five minutes if he gets lache on a mountain stage, especially, if the attacks come earlier than usual. He will be competitive and in the hunt for a podium place, but I am sceptical whether his stamina will last out with the recent victories in the Criterium de Dauphine and the Tour de Romandie in his legs, good form can only last a certain amount of time.

Winner of the Maillot Jaune in 2011, Australian Cadel Evans, has had a very quiet start to the season, albeit by design. However, he has yet to hit top form this season and that is a major concern, he has also been struck by illness and this lack of racing miles will take their toll. Even more worrying for Cadel supporters was the lack of pace in his strong suit, the time trial, he was easily beaten in the Criterium de Dauphine by Bradley Wiggins. He has the backing of a top team in BMC, who have the luxury of targeting the one discipline, overall winner.

What can I say about Robert Gesink, the Rabobank rider was mightily impressive at the Amgen Tour of California and I thought he was guaranteed to be contending for a podium finish, however, he returned to Europe and put up an abject performance in the Tour de Suisse, he was the first of the specialist climbers to be beaten on the mountain stage finishes. I can pass him over.

Samuel Sanchez always has a bad day in the Grand Tours and loses time needlessly, he either misses a move or can’t react to a incident, many times his team just can’t control the peleton. Euskaltel-Euskadi will try to dominate the Pyrenees stages and please their hoards of adoring fans, look out for the orange massif.  Euskaltel will save up all their ammunition to try and win stage 17, which culminates in a summit finish in Peyragudes.

Thomas Voeckler, Alejandro Valverde and Vincenzo Nibali will all be fancied but don’t expect them to be in contention for a podium finish. Voeckler has been battling a knee injury and freely admits that he won’t be able to mount as big a challenge as last year, Valverde will lose too much time in the high mountains while Nibali saves all his best form for the Giro D’Italia and La Vuelta de Espana. We also do not know if he will be required to help out Liquigas Captain, Ivan Basso, Basso is a shadow of his former self and has struggled consistently in the mountains when under pressure.

Team Radioshack Nissan were dealt a massive blow when Andy Schleck was ruled out of the TDF with injuries after a fall in the Criterium de Dauphine. If this was not bad enough news, we have subsequently learnt that Radioshack General Manager, Johan Bruyneel, will miss the race too, due to the ongoing USADA investigations into his relationship with Lance Armstrong and the alleged doping offences. He has decided to miss the race to help the media concentrate on the race and riders and avoid making himself an unwanted distraction.

In this instance, I am reminded of the American drama series, Dexter, and the quandaries that the lead part faces on a regular basis, very often, he needs to make a quick and incisive decision that instantaneously saves a grave situation. Indeed the ” what would Dexter do ” phrase could easily be applied to Bruyneel, so other team managers ought to be aware, very aware. Bruyneel always comes out fighting and I fully expect one of his riders to grab the race by its horns, Frank Schleck is that rider and his ” dark passenger ” will do all that he can to assist him and manufacture a race winning opportunity in La Grand Boucle. Schleck has slowly been riding into form and I was impressed by his attack in Verbiers at the recent Tour de Suisse, Radioshack will use Chris Horner and the evergreen Jens Voigt (riding in his 15th TDF) to launch Frank away from the peleton in his favoured Alps, stage 11 is a summit finish that they will target, up to the ski resort of Alpine La Toussuire. If he can gain enough time, the TT’s will not be as important. Don’t be surprised to say ” chapeau ” to the Luxembourger, who will look to emulate his brother and take home the yellow jersey.

Expect the following young riders, Steven Kruijswijk and Lieuwe Westra, to make cameo performances at some stage of Le Tour, as they give us a glimpse of their huge potential. Westra in particular, could get close to a podium finish.

Jose Joaquin Rojas is the new Oscar Freire

GREEN JERSEY

In the battle for the Green Jersey, there are many scenarios that could play out. I will attempt to explain them as concisely as I can.

Last year’s winner, Mark Cavendish, will be fancied to follow up on his win in the points jersey, but I fear that he may come into this race a little short in his sheer sprinting acceleration and speed. You may find that a strange statement as ” Cav ” is without doubt the pre-eminent sprinter of modern times but his preparation is complicated by this being Olympic Year, and more importantly, taking place on home soil. The World Champion has been shedding weight, so that it helps him negotiate the steep Box Hill in the Olympic Road Race, which occurs just after the TDF,  this could leave him vulnerable not only to other out and out sprinters but also to finishing the race on the Champs-Elysees in Paris. Team Sky has a decent lead-out team in Bernard Eisel and Edvald Boasson Hagen but lacks the protection that Geraint Thomas brings to Cav from the flamme rouge to the sprint. Expect Cav to win a couple of sprints but abandon half-way through, the World Champion will be dedicating himself to winning that covetted gold medal in London. I think he will do it too, good luck to him !

Of the other contenders, expect the ” Gorilla “, Andre Greipel to win a couple of stages, he has raw sprinting power. Matthew Goss and Tyler Farrar will be in the mix for stages without managing a win, whilst the jersey may come a little early for Slovakian phenom, Peter Sagan, who will flatter to deceive and flag badly as the race reaches week three.

Therefore, the race for the Green Jersey may well go to someone who doesn’t win a stage but picks up consistent points on the sprints, intermediate sprints and on medium mountain top bunch finishes. Such a rider is Movistar’s Jose Joaquin Rojas, who like Oscar Freire, can sprint with the best but can also negotiate the medium mountain stages. He will also get plenty of assistance from his team, as team leader, Valverde will be out of contention for the overall and he will get full use of the domestiques in the Spanish outfit, (including Valverde). Points will be critical in the last week and he will receive that extra boost when he requires it most.

My recommendations are

Frank Schleck to win overall in Le Tour de France  1 pt win @ 55

Jose Joaquin Rojas to win Green Jersey 1 pt win @ 20

Samuel Sanchez to win King of the Mountains 1 pt win @ 10

Let’s get right to it!

Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan)

Fabian Cancellara at Tour de Suisse 2012 (image courtesy of Danielle Haex)

Results: 2nd in stages 1 and 7 of Tour de Suisse.

WorldTour ranking: 29th, 94 points.

For his legion of fans, the absence of Spartacus in the peloton since his collarbone break in the Tour of Flanders had made April and May a little lonely. So it was with a sigh of relief that we saw Cancellara back on the start line for Bayern-Rundfahrt in late May. Getting back into racing form after two months off was never going to be easy and the German race was more a gauge of how much more work he had to do than a chance for him to win. He only managed 14th in the time trial (which was won by Sky’s Michael Rogers) and abandoned the race on the final stage due to illness.

His performance in the Tour de Suisse was markedly better, with two second places in the time trial stages. Peter Sagan beat him by 4 seconds in stage 1, a tough 7.3km time trial around Lugano. This is what he told Cyclingnews:

I am still getting better and I am feeling better. I will continue to concentrate and focus on what is coming. On the top of the climb I had gone so deep today. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m coming back from injury and so what I did today makes me happy. That’s my little victory.

Of course, why bother with the cycling press when you can plug right into what Fabian says on Twitter? This is what he said after the TT:

Fabian has also just reclaimed the time trial Swiss National Championship (his seventh TT title). The next time we will see him is at next week’s prologue for the Tour de France in Liege, where he took his very first TdF win (and his first maillot jaune) in 2004. He’ll want to win it again this year, as a few days in the yellow jersey will certainly go some way to compensating for the disappointments of the spring. After the Tour, he will be defending his gold medal in the Olympic time trial and hoping to improve on his silver medal in the Olympic road race. It’s a tough course, but if he can get away before they come back into London, he could very well get a double gold (because, of course, I am assuming My Beloved will win the TT gold).

Taylor Phinney (BMC)

Results: Won stage 1 at the Giro d’Italia and spent three days in the maglia rosa.

WorldTour ranking: 91st, 16 pts

Taylor Phinney collected both fans and girls’ phone numbers at the Giro in May (image courtesy of BMC)

After an astonishingly successful under-23 career, Taylor Phinney has always been tipped as a future peloton superstar and the fact that he signed with BMC out of the juniors in 2011 made that prediction just that much more tantalising. BMC however were wise to let him settle in for a year before putting him into some of the biggest races, and that patience paid off. Phinney rode his first Paris-Roubaix (he won the under-23 version in 2009 and 2010) this year and he crossed the line in a very respectable 15th. One of these days he’ll no doubt be crossing the line first. This is what he told Cyclingnews about the race:

Every time I was on the cobbles I felt at home in a sick and twisted way, and if I was too far back I would just move up. Even in the Arenberg I went into it in 30th wheel but then moved up to the front and then gave it a go. With 80km to go I was already having cramps but the team made sure I was eating and drinking.

But it really came together for Phinney in his first Giro d’Italia. A bit of a hometown race for him, as he has lived a lot of his life in Italy and is fluent in Italian – something that went over very well with the Italian press – he went into the race with one objective:

And damn, if he didn’t do it! Geraint Thomas had been sitting in the lead position for a good part of the day and looked like he was going to take the stage until Phinney stormed through the TT a full nine seconds faster, taking his first maglia rosa in the first stage of his first Giro.

Phinney spent three days in pink, losing it in the team time trial on stage four. BMC was 31 seconds off the pace and it certainly didn’t help that he was still nursing an ankle injury from stage three‘s wild sprint crash. He had hoped to top and tail the Giro with the final stage TT win, but he was misdirected on the course by the preceding motorbike and his teammate Marco Pinotti took the honours. However, this Giro will not be the last time we see Phinney in pink, I’m sure. And it wasn’t just his racing that did the talking in May – he spoke frequently and enthusiastically through his many tweets during the Giro, documenting his race with humour and sparkle, winning many new fans and delighting existing ones.

Phinney won’t be riding the Tour de France this year, instead he will be using that time to prepare for the London Olympics. He’s targeting the time trial but I think he’ll have some pretty high level competition from Cancellara and Tony Martin. But no matter what colour medals he may collect, he will be a crowd – and Twitter – pleaser.

Geraint Thomas (Sky)

Results: Won the prologue at the Tour de Romandie. 2nd in stages 1 & 21 of the Giro d’Italia.

Geraint Thomas in yellow at Tour de Romandie, 2012 (image courtesy of Sky)

WorldTour ranking: 75th, 21pts.

Geraint Thomas was back on the road after his medal-winning track racing exploits earlier this year. Riding in the service of Bradley Wiggins in the Tour de Romandie, Thomas won the opening prologue, four seconds clear of RadioShack’s Giacomo Nizzolo, to take the first yellow jersey of the race. Sky went on to dominate that race, with Wiggins at the top of the podium and Richie Porte just missing a podium place.

Thomas also rode the Giro d’Italia in support of Mark Cavendish and topped and tailed the Italian stage race with two second places in the opening and closing time trials. On stage 1 he was pipped at the post by BMC superstar-in-the-making Taylor Phinney and on stage 21 by Phinney’s teammate Marco Pinotti. As Thomas is concentrating on the London Olympics at the end of July as part of the Team GB track team, he will not be riding the Tour de France this year. Hopefully once that is out of the way, we’ll see him back on the road, infusing the race with his hard riding and fierce joy.

Previous updates: April 11th, February 21st

Rider profiles: Fabian Cancellara, Geraint Thomas

Websites: Fabian Cancellara, Taylor Phinney, Geraint Thomas

Twitter: @f_cancellara, @taylorphinney, @GeraintThomas86

                                    Moreno Moser (ITA)                                Liquigas-Cannondale

4 JOURS DE DUNKERQUE (FRANCE)

STAGE 1:                   John Degenkolb (GER)                             Argos-Shimano

STAGE 2:                   John Degenkolb (GER)                             Argos-Shimano

STAGE 3:                   Jimmy Engoulvent (FRA)                       Saur-Sojasun

STAGE 4:                   Zbenek Stybar (CZE)                                 OPQS

STAGE 5:                   Matteo Pelucchi (ITA)                             Team Europcar

GC:                             Jimmy Engoulvent (FRA)                        Saur-Sojasun

SZLAKIEM GRODOW PIASTOWSKICH (POLAND)

STAGE 1:                   Marko Kump (SLO)                                   Adria Mobil

STAGE 2:                   Marek Rutkiewicz (POL)                         CCC

STAGE 3:                   Tino Thomel (GER)                                 Team NSP

STAGE 4:                   Radoslav Rogina (CRO)                           Adria Mobil

GC:                             Marek Rutkiewicz (POL)                         CCC

GIRO D’ITALIA (ITALY)

STAGE 1:                   Taylor Phinney (USA)                               BMC Racing

STAGE 2:                   Mark Cavendish (GBR)                            Team Sky

STAGE 3:                   Matt Goss (AUS)                                       Orica-GreenEdge

STAGE 4:                   Garmin-Barracuda

STAGE 5:                   Mark Cavendish (GBR)                            Team Sky

STAGE 6:                   Miguel Angel Rubiano (COL)                 Androni Giocattoli

STAGE 7:                   Paolo Tiralongo (ITA)                               Team Astana

STAGE 8:                   Domenenico Pozzovivo (ITA)                Colnago-CSF Inox

STAGE 9:                   Francisco Ventoso (ESP)                         Movistar

STAGE 10:                Joaquin Rodriguez (ESP)                         Katusha

STAGE 11:                Roberto Ferrari (ITA)                               Androni Giocattoli

STAGE 12:                Lars Bak (DEN)                                           Lotto-Belisol

STAGE 13:                Mark Cavendish (GBR)                            Team Sky

STAGE 14:                Audrey Amador (CRC)                             Movistar

STAGE 15:                Matteo Rabottini  (ITA)                           Farnese Vini

STAGE 16:                Jon Izaguirre (ESP)                                   Euskaltel-Euskadi

STAGE 17:                Joaquin Rodriguez (ESP)                         Katusha       

STAGE 18:                Andrea Guardini (ITA)                             Farnese Vini

STAGE 19:                Roman Kreuziger (CZE)                           Pro Team Astana

STAGE 20:                Thomas De Gendt (BEL)                          Vacansoleil-DCM

STAGE 21:                Marco Pinotti (ITA)                                  BMC Racing

GC:                             Ryder Hesjedal (CAN)                             Garmin-Barracuda

YOUNG RIDER:       Rigoberto Uran (COL)                              Team Sky

MOUNTAINS:         Matteo Rabottini (ITA)                           Farnese Vini

POINTS:                    Joaquin Rodriguez (ESP)                         Katusha

VUELTA A MADRID (SPAIN)

STAGE 1:                   Jonathan Castroviejo (ESP)                    Movistar

STAGE 2:                   Sergey Firsanov (RUS)                             RusVelo

STAGE 3:                   Sergey Firsanov (RUS)                             RusVelo

GC:                             Sergey Firsanov (RUS)                             RusVelo

TOUR DE PICARDIE (FRANCE)

STAGE 1:                   John Degenkolb (GER)                             Argos-Shimano

STAGE 2:                   Kenny van Hummel (NED)                      Vacansoleil-DCM

STAGE 3:                   John Degenkolb (GER)                             Argos-Shimano

GC:                             John Degenkolb (GER)                             Argos-Shimano

TOUR OF CALIFORNIA (USA)

STAGE 1:                   Peter Sagan (SVK)                                     Liquigas-Cannondale

STAGE 2:                   Peter Sagan (SVK)                                     Liquigas-Cannondale

STAGE 3:                   Peter Sagan (SVK)                                     Liquigas-Cannondale

STAGE 4:                   Peter Sagan (SVK)                                     Liquigas-Cannondale

STAGE 5:                   David Zabriskie (USA)                              Garmin-Barracuda

STAGE 6:                   Sylain Georges (FRA)                               Ag2R

STAGE 7:                   Robert Gesink (NED)                               Rabobank

STAGE 8:                   Peter Sagan (SVK)                                     liquigas-Cannondale

GC:                             Robert Gesink (NED)                               Rabobank

CIRCUIT DE LORRAINE (FRANCE)

STAGE 1:                   Anthony Roux (FRA)                                FDJ-BigMat

STAGE 2:                   Sebastien Chavanel (FRA)                      Team Europcar

STAGE 3:                   Thomas De Gendt (BEL)                          Vacansoleil-DCM

STAGE 4:                   Anthony Roux (FRA)                                FDJ-BigMat

STAGE 5:                   Romain Feillu (FRA)                                 Vacansoleil-DCM

GC:                             Anthony Roux (FRA)                                FDJ-BigMat

PRO-RACE BERLIN (GERMANY)

                                    Marcel Kittel (GER)                                  Argos-Shimano

RONDE VAN BELGIE (BELGIUM)

STAGE 1:                   Lieuwe Westra (NED)                              Vacansoleil-DCM

STAGE 2:                   Andre Greipel (GER)                                Lotto-Belisol

STAGE 3:                   Aidis Kruopis (LTU)                                   Landbouwkredit

STAGE 4:                   Philippe Gilbert (BEL)                              BMC Racing

STAGE 5:                   Andre Greipel (GER)                                Lotto-Belisol

GC:                             Philippe Gilbert (BEL)                              BMC Racing

BAYERN-RUND FAHRT (GERMANY)

STAGE 1:                   Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR)                 Team Sky

STAGE 2:                   John Degenkolb (GER)                             Argos-Shimano

STAGE 3:                   Michael Albasini (SWI)                           Orica-GreenEdge

STAGE 4:                   Bradley Wiggins (GBR)                            Team Sky

STAGE 5:                   Giacomo Nizzolo (ITA)                             RNT

GC:                             Geraint Thomas (GBR)                            Team Sky

TALLINN-TARTU GP (ESTONIA)

                                    Angelo Furlan (ITA)                                  Christina Watches

GP DE PLUMELEC-MORBIHAN (FRANCE)

                                    Sylvain Georges (FRA)                             Auber 93.3

SEBTARTU GP (ESTONIA)

                                    Jean Eudes Demaret (FRA)                    Cofidis

BOUCLES DE L’AULNE (FRANCE)

                                    Martijn Keizer (NED)                               Vacansoleil-DCM

As the Giro entered its third and final week, Joaquin Rodriguez (ESP) of Katusha held the lead by just 30”.  Behind him was Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin-Barracuda, a relatively unknown (maybe it was just me) Canadian.  By the end of the week, Hesjedal would win the Giro and become the first Canadian winner of a Grand Tour.

Hesjedal was born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1980.  He is a former mountain biker, winning a silver medal at the 2001 Under-23 World Championship.  In 2005, he turned professional and got involved in road racing, joining the old Discovery Channel team.  Since then, well let’s be frank, he has hardly made a great impact.

PALMARES

MOUNTAIN BIKING

1998              UCI Mountain Bike World Championships (Junior) – Silver Medal

2001              U23 World Mountain Bike championships – Silver Medal

2003              UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships (Cross Country) – Silver Medal

ROAD RACING

2007              National Time Trial Champion (Canada)

2007              1^st Mountains classification – Tour of Georgia

2009              Stage 12 – Vuelta a Espana

As you can see it is hardly the most awe inspiring set of Palmares, most “success” consists of 4^th, 5^th or 6^th places at various events such as a 5^th place in the GC in the Tour of California (2010).  His highest finish in a Grand Tour came in the 2010 Tour de France, with a 6^th place.  It is this background that makes Hesjedal victory in this year’s Giro d’Italia all the more remarkable.

So this is how Rydar Hesjedal clinched this victory…

STAGES 16, 17 AND 18 – ADVENTURES IN THE DOLOMITES

With the Rest Day over, the race headed north towards the Dolomites, Stage 16 took place between Limone sul Garda and Falzes/Pfalzen (174km), whilst there were no official categorised climbs, however, the race slowly climbed throughout the day.

When the day started the GC looked like this…

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION (GC):

Joaquin Rodriguez            (ESP)             Katusha                                  65:27:34

Ryder Hesjedal (CAN)                 Garmin-Barracuda                          @30

Ivan Basso (ITA)                             Liquigas-Cannondale                   @1’22”

Poalo Tiralongo (ITA)                   Pro Team Astana                           @1’26”

Roman Kreuziger (CZE)               Pro Team Astana                           @1’27”

With 80km left to go, a 10 man breakaway had managed to gain a lead of 6’07”.  This is how it remained, as the riders enjoyed a bonus rest day ahead of the Dolomites.

The breakaway included…

Alessandro De Marchi (ITA)                              Androni Giocattoli

Jon Izaguirre (ESP)                                               Euskaltel-Euskadi

Lars Bak (DEN)                                                       Lotto-Belisol

Nikolas Maes (BEL)                                              OPQS

Matthias Brandle (AUT)                                     Team NetApp

Mathias Frank (SWI)                                            BMC Racing

Luka Mazzanti (ITA)                                             Farnese Vini-Selle Italia

Jose Herrada (ESP)                                                Movistar

Stef Clement (NED)                                              Rabobank

Manuele Boaro (ITA)                                           Team Saxo Bank

With 20km left to go, their lead had increased to 12’28”.  With 4km left to go there was a climb (unclassified), this stretched the leading group still further.  Mathias Frank set the pace, but it was Izaguirre that pressed forward with an attack.  With 1.3km to go, he had achieved a 14” lead.  Izaguirre took the win, the Peloton containing all the front runners drifted in some time later.

Stage 17, and the Peloton faced the Dolomites, the Stage between Falzes/Pfalzen and Cortina D’Ampezzo (187km) contained 2 x 2nd Cat and 2 x 1^st Cat climbs.  The last of these 1^st Cat climbs was the final mountain of the day, the Passo Giau 2236 metres above sea level.

With 48.6km left to go, there was just one rider up ahead, Kevin Seeldraeyers (BEL) of Pro Team Astana.  He was 1’49” ahead of the Peloton.  Behind him was a chasing group, just 36” ahead of the Peloton.  This contained Jose Serpa (COL) – Androni Giocattoli, Matteo Rabottini (ITA) of Farnese Vini-Selle Italia, Branislau Samoilau (BLR) of Movistar and Mikal Nieve (ESP) of Euskaltel-Euskadi.

As always on these days in the mountains, the Peloton slowly became smaller and smaller as more and more riders began to feel the pressure of the climbs.  With 40km left to go, the Peloton was down to just 25 riders.  One of the riders struggling was Roman Kreuziger (CZE) – Pro Team Astana, it was at this point that he cracked, losing the back of the Peloton.

On the final climb up the Passo Giau, Damiano Cunego (ITA) of Lampre-ISD, John Gadret (FRA) of Ag2r-La Mondiale and Paolo Tiralongo (ITA) – Pro Team Astana were all dropped.  Slowly the Peloton reeled in all the riders out front, bringing the race back together.  As the race reached the peak of the mountain, there were just 6 riders in the front, Joaquin Rodriguez (ESP) – Katusha, Ivan Basso (ITA) of Liquigas-Cannondale, Michele Scarponi of Lampre-ISD, Domenico Possovivo (ITA) of Colnago-CSF Inox, Rigoberto Uran (COL) – Team Sky and Ryder Hesjedal.

Scarponi and Uran appeared to be in trouble, fighting to hold the wheels of the other 4 riders.  They were saved by the descent, which allowed them to claw their way back onto the group.  Then with 11km left to go, Scarponi started to suffer from cramp, this forced him to slow up, it wasn’t until the 2km mark that he finally managed to rejoin the group.

Basso attacked with 1.5km left to go, he was quickly caught back, and in the final sprint Rodriguez powered to a second victory.  Gadret, Tiralongo and Cunego all lost valuable time (Kreuziger lost over 11 minutes), this put what chances they had of winning the Giro firmly to rest.

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION (GC):

Joaquin Rodriguez  (ESP)             Katusha                                         74:46:46

Ryder Hesjedal (CAN)                 Garmin-Barracuda                       @30

Ivan Basso (ITA)                             Liquigas-Cannondale                   @1’22”

Michele Scarponi (ITA)               Lampre-ISD                                     @1’36”

Rigoberto Uran (COL)                  Team Sky                                          @2’56”

Rodriguez wins another Stage

Stage 18, headed back out of the Dolomites, essentially it went downhill all the way between San Vito Cadore and Vedelago (139km).  This was a crucial Stage for the sprinters, their last realistic chance to score points before the end of the Giro.  Mark Cavendish (GBR) of Team Sky led the Points Competition and was clearly targeting the Maglia Rosso.   He needed to win Stage 18, if he was going to be guaranteed a victory in this competition.

The first breakaway contained Angelo Pagani (ITA) of Colnago-CSF Inox, Stef Clement (NED) – Rabobank, Pierpaolo De Negri (ITA) of Farnese Vini-Selle Italia and Manuele Boaro (ITA) of Team Saxo Bank, however this was caught with 66km left to go, and a new breakaway formed containing 6 riders.

These riders included…

Emanuele Sella (ITA)                    Androni Giocattoli

Sandy Casar (FRA)                         FDJ-Big Mat

Adam Hansen (AUS)                     Lotto-Belisol

Marco Pinotti (ITA)                      BMC Racing

Maciej Bodnar (POL)                    Liquigas-Cannondale

Oliver Kaisen (BEL)                       Lotto-Belisol

Guardini wins despite Chippo’s criticisms in the Italian press

By 40km, their lead was just 40”, Team Sky was clearly keeping a tight control of the race.  The catch was finally made with 14km left to go.  There was one last desperate attempt to get away.  Lars Bak (DEN) of Lotto Belisol and Mickael Delage (FRA) of FDJ-BigMat tried to get away with 10km left to go.  They were caught by the 3km mark. 

The Sky Train now took to the front of the Peloton, Geraint Thomas (GBR) acted as Mark Cavendish’s lead out man, but it was not to be.  The final sprint was won by Andrea Guardini (ITA) of Farnese Vini-Selle Italia, much to Cavendish’s frustration as he lost out on those all important points.

STAGES 19 and 20 – MOUNTAIN MADNESS

Stage 19, was the hardest day so far, from Treviso to Alpe di Pampeago/Val di Fiemme.  The Stage contained 3 x 1^st Cat, 1 x 2^nd Cat and 1 x 3^rd Cat climbs.  The day was not too hot, but occasional showers did affect the riders.

A breakaway of 17 riders gained a lead of 6’32” over the Peloton.

Adriano Malori (ITA)                                Lampre-ISD

Audrey Zeits (KAZ)                                               Pro Team Astana

Stefano Pirazzi (ITA)                                Colnago-CSF Inox

Emanuele Sella (ITA)                                Androni Giocattoli

Ivan Santaromita (ITA)                            BMC Racing

Pierre Cazaux (ESP)                                  Euskaltel-Euskadi

Andrea Guardini (ITA)                             Farnese Vini-Selle Italia

Mikhail Ignatyev (RUS)                           Katusha

Francisco Ventoso (ESP)                         Movistar

Sandy Casar (FRA)                                     FDJ-BigMat

Adam Hansen (AUS)                                 Lotto-Belisol

Juan Antonio Flecha (ESP)                      Team Sky

Lucas Sebastian Haedo (ARG)               Team Saxo Bank

Serge Pauwels (BEL)                                OPQS

Juan Manuel Garate (ESP)                      Rabobank

Thomas Rohregger (AUT)                       RNT

Cesare Benedetti (ITA)                           Team NetApp

On the descent of the Passo Manghen, Rohregger and Pirazzi attempted to get away from the rest of the group.  It was not to be, on the first passage up the Passo Pampeago (1^st Cat), this leading group began to break up.  Rohregger launched the attack, and Pirazzi and Casar followed.

It is ironic that whilst Rohregger was the most determined to form a smaller breakaway, as he was the first to be dropped by this new three man breakaway.  So with 44km left to go, the Stage was down to two leaders.

At the top of the climb, the two leading riders had a lead of 3’24” over the Peloton.  As soon as the riders reached the bottom of the Pampeago, they faced the climb of the Passo Lavaze (2^nd Cat).  The Peloton started to become more active, first to launch themselves off the front was Dario Cataldo (BEL) – OPQS.  With 25km left to go, he was followed by Roman Kreuziger (CZE) – Pro Team Astana (who had been struggling on the Pampeago).

As the Stage reached the final climb (a second time up the Passo Pampeago), both Sella and Rohragger had managed to catch up with the leading pair.  There recovery was short lived, they were quickly dropped by Pirazzi and Casar, and then caught by Kreuziger and Cataldo with 4km left to go.

Kreuziger on the attack

The leading pair, had a lead of just 17”, Pirazzi, in particular, fought all the way, but Kreuziger inched his way up to his wheel.  With 3km left to go, Kreuziger had left everyone else behind, Casar, Pirazzi and Cataldo all cracked and fell behind.

In what was left of the Peloton, Scarponi had started to look the most active, stretching his legs, slightly increasing his pace, testing the reactions of the other riders.  Then Hesjedal attacked, Basso and Rodriguez appeared to have been cooked.  In the final kilometre, Scarponi also cracked, unable to hold Hesjedal’s wheel.  Kreuziger took the Stage, but the winner as far as the GC was concerned was Rydar Hesjedal.  Rodriguez managed a slight recovery to reduce his loses, overtaking Scarponi in the last few metres.

As for Basso, whilst he still had a slim chance of winning the Giro, he was not looking competitive.  Ironically, one of the main problems was a lack of support from his team (Liquigas-Cannondale).  Was this because they wore themselves out chasing all down every breakaway over the past two weeks?

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION (GC):

Joaquin Rodriguez  (ESP)             Katusha                                            84:06:13

Ryder Hesjedal (CAN)                 Garmin-Barracuda                       @17”

Michele Scarponi (ITA)               Lampre-ISD                                     @1’39”

Ivan Basso (ITA)                             Liquigas-Cannondale                   @1’45”

Rigoberto Uran (COL)                  Team Sky                                          @3’21”

On Stage 20, the initial breakaway was somewhat smaller, just two riders had managed to work up a 3’18” lead over the Peloton (with 60.7km left to go).  They were Oliver Zaugg (SWI) – RNT and Matteo Carrara (ITA) of Vacansoliel-DCM.  Behind them was another small group consisting of Audrey Amador (CRC) – Movistar, Jose Serpa (COL) of Androni Giocattoli and Christian Vande Velde (USA) of Garmin-Barracuda.

Ahead of them was another tough day in the saddle, travelling between Caldo and the Passo dello Stelvio.  It was another day going up and down mountains, the riders faced 2 x 3^rd Cat, 1 x 2^nd Cat, 1 x 1^st Cat and then one final Hors Cat climb up the Stelvio, reaching 2341m above sea level, this was the highest finish in the history of the Giro.

Zaugg and Carrara were busy climbing the 1^st Cat Mortirolo, behind in the Peloton.  Rodriguez was already stretching his legs, testing his rivals.  Rodriguez was well aware that Hesjedal was a far better time trialist, if he was going to win the Giro he was going to have to gain at least a couple of minutes off Hesjedal by the end of the day.  However, it was Thomas De Gendt (BEL) of Lotto Belisol who launched the successful attack, getting away from the rest of the Peloton.  Behind him, Basso was hanging onto the back of the Peloton. 

Zaugg was all by himself by the time he reached the top of the Mortirolo, Carrara appeared to be completely cooked, as well being dropped by Zaugg, he was unable to hold the wheels of Serpa, Amador and Vande Velde.

On the flat run before the Stelvio a number of riders sought to form a new breakaway, catching up and working with De Gendt.  As they reached the bottom of the climb, the Peloton was down to 15 men, 5’45” behind Zaugg.

By now the Stage was becoming confusing with riders all over the road (it was about to get a lot worse), the race now looked like this…

Oliver Zaugg (SWI)                                    RNT

Christian Vande Velde (USA)    Garmin-Barracuda           1’40”

Audrey Amador (CRC)                 Movistar

Jose Serpa (COL)                            Androni Giocattoli

Thomas De Gendt (BEL)              Lotto-Belisol                       2’50”

Damiano Cunego (ITA)                Lampre-ISD

Alberto Losada (ESP)                   Katusha

Matteo Carrara (ITA)                   Vacansoleil-DCM

Gorka Izagirre (ESP)                     Euskaltel-Euskadi             3’10”

Mikel Nieve (ESP)                         Euskaltel-Euskadi

Amets Txurruka (ESP)                  Euskaltel-Euskadi

Peloton                                                                                             5’45”

Vande Velde was called back into the Peloton to provide support for Hesjedal who was clearly starting to feel the pressure.  Tanel Kangert (EST) – Pro Team Astana attacked off the front of the Peloton joining the leading groups which were starting to come together at the base of the Stelvio.

High above the snow line

At the early part of the climb Zaugg was caught by a group of 5 riders.  This group consisted of Amador, De Gendt, Nieve, Cunego and Kangert, they quickly dropped Zaugg and started the climb.

With 17.3km left to go the front group exploded, Kangert cracked first, then Amador and then finally Cunego.  De Gendt and Nieve now led the Stage, with a 3’36” lead over the Peloton.  Cunego slowly recovered clawing his way back.  Then with 12.7km left to go, De Gendt attacked dropping both Nieve and Cunego, Nieve never recovered, but once again Cunego tried to pull himself back up to De Gendt.  With 10km left to go, De Gendt had increased his lead to 4’54”, Cunego was 57” behind.

Hesjedal, Scarponi and Rodriguez had now moved on ahead of the rest of the Peloton.  Basso was cooked and had fallen out of the back.  Scarponi finally attacked, perhaps it too little, too late, but it is clear that he did not have the strength in his legs to do any more.  Rodriguez fought back, overtaking Scarponi.

De Gendt took the Stage, 2^nd was Cunego @55”, 3^rd Nieve @2’49”, 4^th Rodriguez @3’22”, Scarponi @3’33” and then in 6^th Hesjedal @3’35”.  Hesjedal was now the favourite to win the Giro, all he had to do was produce his usual time trial performance.  Rodriguez performance was enough for him to overtake Cavendish and clinch the Points Competition.

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION (GC):

Joaquin Rodriguez  (ESP)             Katusha                                            91:04:16

Ryder Hesjedal (CAN)                 Garmin-Barracuda                       @31”

Michele Scarponi (ITA)               Lampre-ISD                                     @1’51”

Thomas De Gendt (BEL)              Vacansoleil-DCM                          @2’18”

Ivan Basso (ITA)                             Liquigas-Cannondale                   @3’18”

STAGE 21 – INDIVIDUAL TIME TRAIL IN MILAN

Hesjedal time trials to victory

The final Stage (21) was the now traditional individual time trial for 28.2km around the streets of Milan.  Of the early riders, Jessie Sergent (NZL) – RNT set a fast time of 33’59”.  This was eventually beaten by Geraint Thomas (GBR) of Team Sky.  Ultimately, Thomas was beaten by Marco Pinotti (ITA) – BMC Racing with a time of 33’06” (winning the Stage).

The more interesting race happened afterwards, as the contenders for the GC fought it out for the final positions. 

At Checkpoint (1)…

Ryder Hesjedal                               13’55

Thomas De Gendt                         13’56”

Michele Scarponi                          14’07”

Joaquin Rodriguez                       14’24”

Rodriguez had already lost 29 seconds to Hesjedal, all the Canadian needed was another 3 seconds and he would win the Giro.

At Checkpoint (2)…

Ryder Hesjedal                   24’32”

Thomas De Gendt             24’32”

Michele Scarponi              25’04”

Joaquin Rodriguez                    25’16”

Hesjedal had now won the Giro, there was now a real danger that Scarponi might lose his 3^rd place.  This would mean that there would be no Italian on the podium.

At the finish…

Thomas De Gendt             34’07”

Ryder Hesjedal                   34’15”

Michele Scarponi              35’00”

Joaquin Rodriquez                        35’02”

Ryder Hesjedal had won the Giro, Thomas De Gendt had climbed into 3^rd place and the Tifosi had to suffer the indignity of not having a single Italian on the podium.

FINAL GENERAL CLASSIFICATION (GC):

Ryder Hesjedal (CAN)                 Garmin-Barracuda                       91:39:02

Joaquin Rodriguez            (ESP)             Katusha                                            @16

Thomas De Gendt (BEL)              Vacansoleil-DCM                          @1’39”

Michele Scarponi (ITA)               Lampre-ISD                                     @2’05”

Ivan Basso (ITA)                             Liquigas-Cannondale                   @3’44”

OTHER CLASSIFICATIONS

YOUNG RIDER:       Rigoberto Uran (COL)                              Team Sky

MOUNTAINS:         Matteo Rabottini (ITA)                           Farnese Vini           

POINTS:                    Joaquin Rodriguez (ESP)                         Katusha

STAGE VICTORIES:

STAGE 1:                   Taylor Phinney (USA)                               BMC Racing

STAGE 2:                   Mark Cavendish (GBR)                            Team Sky

STAGE 3:                   Matt Goss (AUS)                                       Orica-GreenEdge

STAGE 4:                   Garmin-Barracuda

STAGE 5:                   Mark Cavendish (GBR)                            Team Sky

STAGE 6:                   Miguel Angel Rubiano (COL)                 Androni Giocattoli

STAGE 7:                   Paolo Tiralongo (ITA)                               Team Astana

STAGE 8:                   Domenenico Pozzovivo (ITA)                Colnago-CSF Inox

STAGE 9:                   Francisco Ventoso (ESP)                         Movistar

STAGE 10:                Joaquin Rodriguez (ESP)                         Katusha

STAGE 11:                Roberto Ferrari (ITA)                               Androni Giocattoli

STAGE 12:                Lars Bak (DEN)                                           Lotto-Belisol

STAGE 13:                Mark Cavendish (GBR)                            Team Sky

STAGE 14:                Audrey Amador (CRC)                             Movistar

STAGE 15:                Matteo Rabottini  (ITA)                           Farnese Vini

STAGE 16:                Jon Izaguirre (ESP)                                   Euskaltel-Euskadi

STAGE 17:                Joaquin Rodriguez (ESP)                         Katusha       

STAGE 18:                Andrea Guardini (ITA)                             Farnese-Vini

STAGE 19:                Roman Kreuziger (CZE)                           Pro Team Astana

STAGE 20:                Thomas De Gendt (BEL)                          Vacansoleil-DCM

STAGE 21:                Marco Pinotti (ITA)                                  BMC Racing

Bradley Wiggins has his eyes on bigger prizes than the national title this summer (Picture: AFP/Getty)

The Tour de France begins on June 30 and Team Sky have confirmed that of its riders,  Wiggins, Mark Cavendish and Chris Froome are all concentrating on preparing for that rather than the domestic championships.

Another former winner, 2010 champion Geraint Thomas , and Peter Kennaugh will also be absent as they are fine-tuning for the Olympics.

However, five Team Sky riders will compete at Ampleforth as the team goes for a third straight victory in the competition – Alex Dowsett, Jeremy Hunt , Luke Rowe, Ian Stannard and Ben Swift.

‘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,’ said race coach Rod Ellingworth.’The riders that have entered this year are all looking forward to it and every one of them will be going all-out to take the victory.’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.’

Tom James (2nd from left) celebrates Team GB’s Gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He is just one of Wales’ sporting stars to have their place at London 2012 confirmed.

From the inspirational business people, groups and entrepreneurs honored at the 3rd Inspire Wales Awards held at City Hall last night, to the comments made by Sir Steve Redgrave, Britain’s greatest Olympian, about our own potential gold medalist rower, Tom James, whose place in the GB flagship coxless IV has been confirmed after the final rowing trials. Indeed, with other Welsh Olympic hopefuls including hurdler Dai Greene, cyclist Geraint Thomas, world champion triathlete Helen Jenkins and other selected members of Team GB, Wales should once again be punching above its weight and help Britain to its greatest medal haul yet.

While we all worry about the crisis in the Eurozone, over which we mere mortals have little or no control, it is reassuring that our little nation still produces more individuals per head of population than any other region of the UK that go the extra mile to improve their sporting performance or help and inspire their communities with dedication and creativity.  Such can also be said of our business men and women, scientists, academics, writers, artists, and so on, Wales continues to produce “winners” in every sector. Let’s celebrate it!

And let’s start with a resounding Good Luck to Sam and his boys in Melbourne tomorrow. To coin a phrase used by a certain Rebekah Brookes recently - “we are rooting for you!”

Shanaze Reade and Liam Phillips (far right) pictured with track cyclists Geraint Thomas and Sir Chris Hoy. (Picture: PA)

The 23-year-old will be keen to make amends for her disappointing Olympic debut in Beijing four years ago, when she crashed out in the final having been a major medal hope, and showed encouraging pre-Olympic form last year when she won the test event over the London 2012 BMX circuit.Joining Reade in the  team is 23-year-old Liam Phillips, who has been selected for the men’s event despite breaking his collarbone at last month’s world championships.’I’m really excited to have been selected for the London 2012 Olympic Games,’ said Reade.’If the test event and the recent World Championships in Birmingham are anything to go by, the home support will be a massive boost to me.’I feel that I am in good form at the moment and I’m really motivated for this. I just can’t wait to race.’

Giro d’Italia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I really enjoyed this year’s Giro. There was drama right from the beginning in Denmark and it carried through the entire three weeks. On the first day, I remember being disappointed as I saw Taylor Phinney coming around the final turn with a time that I knew would be good enough to handily beat Geraint Thomas and take away his rare opportunity to wear the pink jersey in the Giro. However, I quickly realized what it meant to Taylor and his family, and couldn’t help but like him more. He’s such a character in cycling and it was a huge dream of his to wear pink that it wouldn’t have been right for anyone else to have worn it at that time, especially as he had planned for that time trial since October.

Taylor fought like a champion to keep the jersey despite a catalogue of crashes and mishaps and endeared himself to the fans even more. The Italians especially, as he now lives there and speaks the language fluently. He was involved in a crash on stage 2 and had to chase back on as it happened outside of the 3 kilometre to go mark, and then again on stage 3. This time causing him a scare and an extremely painful ankle, and also saw Mark Cavendish hit the ground hard in a scary incident at high speed. This incident haunted both until the end of the race. Phinney battled on but his injury got the better of him and a below par performance in the Team Time Trial caused him to lose pink to Garmin and Ramunas Naverdauskas.

It was an interesting race for Mark Cavendish. Three stage wins is no mean feat for any rider, but considering his lofty standards and what else happened in the race, he’ll probably have mixed feelings about the event. The crash on stage three may have cost him another win, or at least a strong points finish, the stage where Pozzato and Goss collided cost him another potential win as he had to go the long way around and then was brought down at slow speed. The stage won by Roberto Ferrari (who probably should have been kicked out for causing the crash on stage 3) also could have been better for Mark. He had to check his speed on the final tight corner and he couldn’t get back on terms. The last sprint stage was won by Andrea Guardini. That was a stage everyone expected Cav to take with ease as almost all of the big contending sprinters had gone home. Maybe he underestimated his opposition and didn’t start sprinting until it was too late or maybe he was just tired, but whatever the case, those extra points certainly cost him the red points jersey.

It’s a far tougher proposition than the Tour Green Jersey as in that race, all sprint stages offer double points, whereas the Giro doesn’t offer that. To only lose that competition by 1 point must have been excruciating after all the pain he and the team went through to protect it. Having said that, you can’t say Joaqiun Rodriguez didn’t deserve a jersey in this race. Only the final time trial was his undoing in the GC fight and even in that he did himself proud, outdoing most people’s expectations.

There were so many other moments I loved. The solo win of Matteo Rabbotini was absolutely incredible. When Rodriguez overtook him in the final stretch for the line and he came back at him to win, I couldn’t help yelling at the TV, cheering him on and getting excited the same way I would for Cav or another of my favourite riders. Cycling inspires that passion in people, and that’s what I love.

Other stand out moments include the wins of Paolo Tirralongo, Lars Bak, Joaquin Rodriguez, Rubiano, Pozzovivo, Kreuziger and I almost forgot about the incredible win of Thomas De Gent on the final road stage up to the highest ever Giro finish. That was an absolutely brilliant stage win and he positioned himself perfectly for the final time trial where he once again produced a stunning ride to seal a podium place.

The General Classification was an interesting fight throughout the event with lots of guys being in touch with the main contenders for quite a long time due to the profiles of the stages in the first two weeks. In the end though, it was clear coming into the final week that it was going to be a two man fight between Hesjedal and Rodriguez. Former twice champion Basso, last year’s inherited winner Scarponi and his team mate and former winner Cunego among the others such as Roman Kreuziger, Dominico Pozzovivo and the two Columbian Sky riders all didn’t quite have the legs to challenge for the overall. I must say I was impressed by Ivan Basso and Liquigas. Despite him being a twice former champion, his form this year has been poor for the most part and I expected him to get dropped earlier than in the final 2 stages like he was.

It was a great battle and I’m so pleased for Ryder Hesjedal and Garmin Barracuda. They desperately needed a big win like this as they haven’t had a huge amount this year. The TTT win was also huge for the team and gave them a solid base from which Hesjedal could build from and win this race. It was great to see Ryder become the first Canadian grand tour winner.

91:39:02 - Total race time for overall winner Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Barracuda), an average speed of 38.21kph.

157 – Number of finishers, out of 198 starters.

Rodriguez shares an unenviable record with the late Laurent Fignon (Image courtesy of Katusha)

16 – In seconds, Hesjedal’s winning margin over Joaquim Rodriguez, the fourth smallest ever in Giro history.

2 – Joaquim Rodriguez became only the second rider to lose the maglia rosa on the final stage of the Giro. In 1984 Laurent Fignon lost out to Francesco Moser on the final stage, also an individual time trial.

5 – Number of different riders who wore the leader’s pink jersey during the race (Taylor Phinney, Ramunas Navardauskas, Adriano Malori, Hesjedal and Rodriguez).

5:27:06 – Euskaltel’s Miguel Minguez was the last classified finisher, five hours and 27 minutes slower than the winner. Only seven stages took longer to complete.

The champion

31 – Age of Ryder Hesjedal (he turns 32 in December).

1 – Hesjedal became the first Canadian rider to wear the leader’s pink jersey at the Giro, and was the first Canadian to take overall victory at any of the three Grand Tours.

Hesjedal holds the winner’s trophy aloft in front of Milan’s Duomo (image courtesy of Giro website)

0 – Individual stages won by Hesjedal during the race. (He was, however, part of the TTT-winning Garmin-Barracuda team.)

60 – Hesjedal had only completed one Giro before this year. He was 60th in the 2008 edition.

6 – Previous best performance at a Grand Tour – sixth at the 2010 Tour de France.

0 – Number of previous stage race wins.

6 – Number of professional victories: three individual races and three as a member of a winning team time trial, including the Verona TTT in this race.

The stage winners

17 – Number of different stage winners (excluding the team time trial).

Despite 3 stage wins, Cav just missed out on the points jersey (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

2 - Number of riders who won more than one stage: Mark Cavendish (three) and Joaquim Rodriguez (two). It was no surprise, then, that the two riders also topped the points standings.

13 – 13 of the 22 teams won stages during the race, with Sky leading the way with three (all by Cavendish). Six other teams (BMC, Androni Giocattoli, Movistar, Katusha, Farnese Vini and Astana) won two each.

6 – Italian riders won six stages, more than any other nation. Spain (four) and Britain (three) were the only other multiple stage-winning countries.

21 – At the age of 21 years 313 days, stage one winner Taylor Phinney became the youngest rider since Laurent Fignon (in 1982) to lead the Giro.

1 – After stage four‘s team time trial, Garmin-Barracuda’s Ramunas Navardauskas became the first Lithuanian to don the race leader’s jersey at any of the three Grand Tours. He wore it for two days.

2 – Astana’s Paolo Tiralongo won stage seven to record only his second professional win. The 34-year old’s first win also came at the Giro, last year.

13 – This may just be Mark Cavendish‘s lucky number. He won stage 13 of the Giro for the third time in his career, and is the only rider to have won stage 13 at each of the three Grand Tours.

A maiden Giro win for Costa Rica (image courtesy of Movistar)

1 – In winning stage 14, Andrey Amador (Movistar) became the first cyclist from Costa Rica to win a stage at any of the three Grand Tours.

100 – Joaquim Rodriguez won stage 17 on May 23rd to register Spain’s 100th Giro stage win on the first anniversary of fellow Spaniard Xavier Tondo‘s death.

49.429 – In kph, the average speed for stage 18 (won by Andrea Guardini), the fastest non-time trial stage in Giro history, breaking a record which had stood since 1966.

6:54:41 – Time taken for Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) to win stage 20, the longest stage of the race in terms of duration.

2 – Sky’s Geraint Thomas finished second in the two individual time trials which book-ended the race. On each occasion he was beaten by a BMC rider: Taylor Phinney (stage one) and Marco Pinotti (stage 21).

And a few other random stats …

38 – Farnese Vini’s Luca Mazzanti was the oldest participant in this year’s Giro, starting at the age of 38 years and 91 days.

20 – Age of FDJ sprinter Arnaud Demare, the youngest rider in the race.

De Gendt was one of the Giro’s big surprises (image courtesy of Vacansoleil)

63 - Third-placed man Thomas De Gendt had only ridden in one previous Grand Tour. He finished 63rd at the 2011 Tour de France.

5 – This was only the fifth time in the history of the race that no Italians finished in the top three overall (also 1972, 1987, 1988 and 1995).

22 – All 22 teams put a rider in at least one breakaway during the race. Liquigas-Cannondale (stage 20) and Sky (stage 19) were the last two teams to do so, on the last two road stages.

1 – Joaquim Rodriguez became the first Spanish rider ever to win the Giro points classification, edging out Mark Cavendish.

1 – Cavendish fell just one point short of becoming only the fifth rider to win the points competitions in the Giro, Tour and Vuelta.

Some data is courtesy of Infostrada Sports.

Link: Official website

This year the Giro continued its attempt to raise its global profile by having its Grande Departe on the Jutland peninsula in Denmark.  Stage 1 took place in the town of Herning, the birth place of Bjarne Riis (who won the Tour de France in 1996).  As you would expect in Denmark the Prologue style ITT, was flat, lasting just 8.7km.  The riders were lucky, they benefited from the brief respite in the rain that had gripped Europe over the previous few weeks.

For a long time the Lithuanian rider Ramunas Navardauskas of Garmin-Barracuda held the fastest time (10’48”).  A good couple of hours went by before he was beaten, and when it finally did happen it was done by 3 people in quick succession.  Firstly by Manuele Boaro (ITA) – Saxo Bank (10’40”), then Geraint Thomas (GBR) – Team Sky (10’35”) and then finally by Taylor Phinney (USA) – BMC Racing (10’26”).  Phinney went on to win the stage and become the first Maglia Rosa.

TIMES OF POTENTIAL WINNERS:

Roman Kreuziger (CZE) – Pro Team Astana             11’02”

Ivan Basso (ITA) – Liquigas-Cannondale                   11’05”

Joaquin Rodriguez (SPA) – Katusha                            11’09”

Frank Schleck (LUX) – RNT                                            11’25”

Damiano Cunego (ITA) – Lampre-ISD                        11’29”

Michele Scarponi (ITA) – Lampre-ISD                       11’32”

John Gadret (FRA) – Ag2r-La Mondiale                    11’42”

In many ways Taylor Phinney was to emerge as the star of the first week.  He has clearly established himself as a potential big talent for the future.  Born in Boulder (Colorado) in 1990, he is now aged just 21.  The child of 2 racing cyclists (his mother was also a speed skater) he appears to be destined for greatness. 

Taylor Phinney wins the opening time trial

He started his career as a Track Cyclist competing in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games where he came 7^th in the Individual Pursuit.  After working through the junior ranks via Lance Armstrong’s Trek-Livestrong team, he turned pro in 2010, signing a contract with BMC Racing.  Gaining the Maglia Rosa on the first Stage of the Giro is undoubtedly his biggest success to date.

STAGES 2 AND 3 (THE DANISH STAGES)

Stage 2 was another flat day designed for sprinters, a 206km circuit from Herning to Herning essentially covering the north-western corner of Denmark.  Once again the race was lucky with the weather, a cloudy day at around 9C, but it was dry.  The day’s breakaway included, Miguel Angel Rubiano (COL) – Androni Giocattoli, Afredo Balloni (ITA) of Farnese Vini-Selle Italia and Oliver Kaisen (BEL) of Lotto-Belisol.  At one point their lead topped 10 minutes, but by 95km this was falling rapidly, down to 6’29”.  Behind them the nervous Peloton was having the pace set by Team Sky who were clearly setting up a sprint finish for Mark Cavendish (GBR).  As the race approached the 40km mark, the gap had come down to a few seconds.  Lars Bak Ytting (DEN) of Lotto-Belisol then attacked, quickly gaining a lead of 29”, he managed to get to around the 20km mark, leading the race in front of his home crowd, but it came to nothing, the catch was made with 17km to go.

The Peloton now stayed together all the way to the finish, 2 crashes happened in the last few kilometres.  First down was the Maglia Rosa, Taylor Phinney; he lost more seconds due to slipped chain ring.  However, BMC Racing successfully towed him back into the pack.  Then on the final corner Rabobank sprinter Theo Bos (NED) crashed, injuring his back.  This made Mark Renshaw (AUS) the team’s leading sprinter for the rest of the Giro.  As for the final sprint, Team Sky got its wish; Mark Cavendish won his 10^th stage in the Giro.

The race travels through Denmark

Stage 3, and another circuit (or set of circuits), this time around the city of Horsens, total distance 190km.  The Peloton held a minutes silence before the start of the stage to remember Wouter Weylandt (BEL), who died competing on the third stage last year (2011).

 The breakaway of the day consisted of…

Miguel Minguez (SPA)                            Euskaltel-Euskadi

Ramunas Navardauskas (LTU)              Garmin-Barracuda

Mads Christensen (DEN)                          Team Saxo Bank

Alfredo Balloni (ITA)                                Farnese Vini-Selle Italia

Reto Hollenstein (SWI)                           Team NetApp

Martijn Keizer (NED)                               Vaconsoleil-DCM

With 65km to go, they had a lead of 2’45”, unsurprisingly by the time the race reached the 40km mark, this lead started to fall rapidly as the Teams with sprinters raised their pace.  Christensen desperately tried to prevent the inevitable by launching a lone breakaway.  But by the 24^th km the entire breakaway had been caught. 

In a repeat performance Lars Bak Ytting (DEN) of Lotto-Belisol launched an attack, and just like before, the attack came to nothing, he was caught with 11.5km to go.  In the final sprint, Orica-GreenEdge set up a successful sprint train that allowed Matt Goss (AUS) to win the Stage

However, the real drama was happening behind, Cavendish had crashed.  Roberto Ferrari of Androni Giocattoli had swung in front of him.  Cavendish suffered from severe road rash, Taylor Phinney was brought down again, he was clearly suffering from his ankle injury but made it across the line, fortunately no fractures occurred but a spoke impaled his foot and he required 4 stitches.  Ferrari was relegated to the back of the pack, fined 200 Swiss Francs and deducted 25 points from the sprint competition.  Despite all the falls Phinney had managed to cling on to the Maglia Rosa.

So the Giro makes its usual dramatic start, Tuesday was a rest day as the race transferred to Italy and the city of Verona, the site of the Team Time Trial….

The infamous crash

OVERALL STANDINGS:

(1) Taylor Phinney (USA)                   BMC                                       9:24:31

(2) Geraint Thomas (GBR)                SKY                                         @09”

(3) Alex Rasmussen (DEN)               GARMIN                               @13”

(4) Manuele Boaro (ITA)                   SAXO BANK                        @15”

(5) Ramunas Navardauskas (LTU)  GARMIN                               @18”

WW108

STAGE 4 – TEAM TIME TRIAL IN VERONA

So the beautiful city of Verona saw the race return to its native Italy.  Team Time Trials are always difficult stages for the GC contenders, as they are completely reliant on their team mates for a fast time.  The time taken is that of the fifth rider across the line.  Michele Scarponi’s (ITA) Lampre-ISD team provides a good example this.  They ensured that they had 5 riders left when they crossed a line with a time of 37’38”.

Once again Scarponi lost time, his biggest rival Ivan Basso (ITA) of Liquigas-Cannondale crossed the line with 37’30” (a further 8” lost).  Joaquim Rodriguez’s (SPA) – Katusha team took just 37’09” (gaining 29”).

Phinney fights to keep Pink

Taylor Phinney was still clinging on to the Maglia Rosa, from the start of BMC Racing’s time trial he appeared to be in discomfort.  He struggled around the course, at one point losing control and riding across a grass verge.  But despite his brave effort he appeared destined to lose the Jersey.  BMC Racing finished with a time of 37’35”

The winning team was Garmin-Barracuda with a time 37’04”; this victory cemented their position at the top of the GC.  Ramunas Navardauskas took over the Maglia Rosa.

OVERALL STANDINGS:

(1) Ramunas Navardauskas (LTU)  GARMIN                               9:24:31

(2) Tylar Farrar (USA)                         GARMIN                               @10”

(3) Robert Hunter (RSA)                   GARMIN                               @10”

(4) Hyder Hesjedal (CAN)                 GARMIN                               @11”

(5) Taylor Phinney                               BMC RACING                      @13”

THE RACE TO THE SOUTH, STAGES 5, 6, 7 and 8

Stage 5 saw the race take the 199km trip between Modena and Fano.  It was another flat day, with the race virtually taking a straight line between the 2 cities.  The breakaway of the day contained 4 riders they were; Oliver Kaisen (BEL), Brian Bulgac (NED) from Lotto-Belisol, Alessandro De Marchi (ITA) – Androni Giocattoli and Pierpaolo De Negri (ITA) of Farnese Vini-Selle Italia.

It was clear that the Peloton saw an opportunity to have a quiet day, controlling the break at around the 5 minute mark.  With 20km left to go, the Peloton led by Liquigas-Cannondale had brought the race together.  The last 4^th Cat climb saw a number of sprinters dropped out of the back, including Thor Hushovd (NOR) – BMC Racing, Tylar Farrar and the controversial Roberto Ferrari.

The Peloton passes through Italy

The Peloton stayed together until the finish, Team Sky put together a successful lead out train and Mark Cavendish powered to a 2^nd victory, narrowly ahead of Matt Goss.  One last event is worth commenting on this stage, Taylor Phinney… crashed!

During Stage 6, the Giro entered the terrain used by the Tirreno-Adriatico, rolling hills and sharp, steep climbs.  It would be a long hard 211km in the saddle, on the plus side, the sun had come out and the temperature had increased to a warm 24C.  Little did we know at the start of the day that we were watching a stage that would change the race completely.  A large breakaway had escaped gaining a 5 minute lead.  The 2^nd Cat climb of Passo Della Cappella broke this group up.

This left an 8 man group consisting of…

Miguel Angel Rubiano (COL)                             Androni-Giocattoli

Adriano Malori (ITA)                                            Lampre-ISD

Alexsandr Dyachenko (KAZ)                              Pro Team Astana

Gatis Smukulis (LAT)                                            Katusha

Jack Bauer (NZL)                                                    Garmin-Barracuda

Michal Golas (POL)                                               OPQS

Cesare Benenati (ITA)                                         Team NetApp

Luke Roberts (AUS)                                              Team Saxo Bank

On the descent Pablo Lastras (SPA) – Movistar crashed out of the race.  He joined Thor Hushovd (NOR) – BMC Racing and Tylar Farrar (USA) of Garmin-Barracuda who also abandoned during this stage.

Liquigas led the chase, but by the 3^rd Cat climb on the Montelupone the lead had increased to 6’32”.  More importantly, the Maglia Rosa, Ramunas Navardauskas, was struggling on the hills and had been dropped out of the back of the Peloton.

With 40km left to go, the leading group were climbing the Morrovalle; their lead had fallen to 3’50”.  Then on the Montegranaro, Rubiano who had been looking active all day, decided to launch his attack, this time he got away.  By 20km he had managed to gain a lead of 1’12” over what was left of the leading group (Malori, Dyachenko, Golas and Benenati).

The beauty of It

The chase was on, with 6km left the gaps still looked solid, 1’31” to the chasing group, and 3’17” to the Peloton.  Rubiano took the win, in the sprint between the chasers, Molari gained 2^nd (12” bonus), Golas came 3^rd (8” bonus).  The Peloton finished 1’52” behind.

The gap was enough to change the GC. 

Adriano Malori (ITA)                    Lampre-ISD                         20:25:28

Michal Golas (POL)                       OPQS                                     @15

Rydar Hesjedal (CAN)                  Garmin-Barracuda             @17

Miguel Angel Rubiano (COL)     Androni Giocattoli              @30

Christian Vandevelde (USA)      Garmin-Barracuda              @32

The 2^nd Saturday (Stage 7), and the Giro had a stage finishing on top of a hill climb (a 2^nd Cat) for the first time.  The breakaway of the day consisted of Matteo Rabottini (ITA) of Farnese Vini-Selle Italia, Reto Hollenstein (SWI) – Team NetApp, Fumiyuki Beppu (JPN) – Orica GreenEdge and Mirko Selvaggi (ITA) of Vacansoleil-DCM.  With 77km left, they had a lead of 7’39”.

That’s how it remained until the final climb, with Lampre-ISD and Katusha leading the Peloton.  With 27km remaining, the breakaway began to fall apart, Beppu attacked first, then Rabottini attacked twice, before managing to get away. 

Sorry, you are going to see a lot of pictures of Italy, I like it a lot

As the hill cranked up, the Peloton began to fall apart; the sprinters fell out of the back forming an autobus to get them home within the time limit.  Amongst the sprinters was the Maglia Rosa, Adriano Malori and he started to lose chunks of time.

The front of the Peloton fragmented as well, Stafano Pirazzi (ITA) of Colnago-CSF Inox attacked, quickly making the bridge to Rabottini.  Jose Herrada (SPA) of Movistar joined them.  Rabottini’s tiredness now took its toll, and he was dropped, and quickly caught by the Peloton.  With 8.3km left to go, the leading pair had a 34” lead.   They didn’t survive, in the final metres, Scarponi attacked, followed by Paolo Tiralongro (ITA) of Team Astana.  Tiralongro outsprinted Scarponi to the line, taking the stage.

Hesjedal was now in Pink and once again the GC had changed dramatically…

Ryder Hesjedal (CAN)                 Garmin-Barracuda                       26:16:53

Paolo Tiralongo (ITA)                   Pro Team Astana                          @15”

Joaquin Rodriguez (ESP)             Katusha                                            @17”

Christian Vandevelde (USA)      Garmin-Barracuda                       @21”

Peter Stetina (USA)                      Garmin-Barracuda                       @26”

Stage 8, saw the race reach its most southernly point, as usual a breakaway made an attempt to win the stage.  This time it was a 4 man breakaway containing; Julien Berard (FRA) of Ag2r-La Mondiale, Miguel Minguez (ESP) of Euskaltel-Euskadi, Tomasz Marczynski (POL) of Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling and Audrey Amador (CRC) – Movistar.  At the 54.5km, they had built up a lead of 3’02”.

By the 30km mark, the Peloton had started to accelerate and the gap was falling rapidly.  At 17.5km the catch was made, and as the Peloton hit the final climb, both Pro Team Astana and Liquigas-Cannondale took to the front the Peloton to control the pace.  One of the favourites Damiano Cunego (ITA) – Lampre-ISD was struggling at the back of the Peloton. 

The Stage was won by Domenenico Pozzovivo (ITA) of Colnago-CSF Inox, who attacked on the steepest section.  The favourites also took the opportunity to have a skirmish, leading to minor changes in the GC.

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION (GC) AT THE END OF THE FIRST WEEK:

Ryder Hesjedal (CAN)                 Garmin-Barracuda                       32:23:25

Joaquin Rodriguez (ESP)             Katusha                                            @9”

Paolo Tiralongo (ITA)                   Pro Team Astana                          @15”

Roman Kreizinger (CZE)              Pro Team Astana                          @35”

Benat Intxausti (ESP)                   Movistar                                          @40”

The first week of the Giro was over, Hesjedal was in Pink.  But the star of an excellent week of racing was undoubtedly Taylor Phinney.

STAGE VICTORIES:

STAGE 1:                   Taylor Phinney (USA)                               BMC Racing

STAGE 2:                   Mark Cavendish (GBR)                            Team Sky

STAGE 3:                   Matt Goss (AUS)                                       Orica-GreenEdge

STAGE 4:                   Garmin-Barracuda

STAGE 5:                   Mark Cavendish (GBR)                            Team Sky

STAGE 6:                   Miguel Angel Rubiano (COL)                 Androni Giocattoli

STAGE 7:                   Paolo Tiralongo (ITA)                               Team Astana

STAGE 8:                   Domenenico Pozzovivo (ITA)                Colnago-CSF Inox