Since the end of the Tour de France, things have been a bit slow in cycling land. Well, wake up everybody because the peloton is at full speed again on both sides of the Atlantic. This week the big question isn’t “What to put in?” but “What will we have to leave out?”. Get the truck, it’s a huge Trash! today.
ENECO Tour
First off we’ll start with the Big Boys racing in the Netherlands and Belgium at the ENECO Tour. With a prologue start on Wednesday night, Tyler Farrar (Garmin) just missed out on taking his third win of the week as QuickStep’s Sylvain Chavanel won the 4.4km test around Rotterdam by one second, with Tom Boonen in 3rd on the same time as Farrar.
“One of my goals was to do well in this prologue,” said Chavanel after the stage, “and I managed to do so. I’m very happy for this victory. I chose to take off before some of the others who were favoured to win this stage. I knew I’d had an excellent run but I had to wait and suffer for over an hour and a half until all the riders had crossed the finish line before I could celebrate.”
Chavanel also expressed his desire to maintain the leader’s jersey, but after just one day proper of racing, it moved to the shoulders of the Man of the Moment, Tyler Farrar.
The ProTour race’s first road stage, from was won in a bunch sprint by Tyler Farrar, outclassing Tom Boonen in the process, but more importantly staying clear of a spectacular crash , around 100m from the line.
Farrar, who won a local race in Belgium ahead of his win last weekend in Hamburg (see Ed’s post-win chat with the American here ), now has a second place in the prologue, a win on the opening stage and the race leader’s jersey to show just how quick he is.
“I'm in the best form of my life. The team was totally behind me. I couldn't disappoint,” said the American after the stage.
As a result of the crash in the closing stages of the sprint, Koldo Fernandez, Koen De Kort, Baden Cooke, Sébastien Turgot, Yoann Offredo and Gorik Gardeyn all hit the deck hard, with Gardeyn breaking ribs in the fall and Offedo also out of the race for today’s second stage, which finishes in the Belgian capital of Brussels.
GC After Stage 1
1. Tyler Farrar, Garmin – Slipstream, 4h23m26s
2. Tom Boonen, QuickStep at 4sec
3. Sylvain Chavanel, QuickStep at 9ses
4. Edvald Boasson Hagen, Team Columbia - High Road at 10s
5. Bradley Wiggins, Garmin – Slipstream, at 11sec
6. Joost Posthuma, Rabobank
7. Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas at 13sec
8. Juan Antonio Flecha, Rabobank
9. Maarten Tjallingii, Rabobank at 14s
10. Nikolas Maes, Topsport Vlaanderen – Mercator
Tour Of Utah
PEZ man Dave A was in Salt Lake City for the opening prologue of the 2009 Tour of Utah, which was won by BMC’s Brent Bookwalter by just one second from Garmin’s Dave Zabriskie.
The opening road stage, from Ogden to Salt Lake, was a Rock Racing dominated affair with twoof the pre-race favourites, Oscar Sevilla and Francisco Mancebo crossing the finish line together with a 25second gap over the chasing bunch.
The tough finish from Emigration Canyon has ensured that the GC now has some significant gaps after just one stage of racing on the road, with Mancebo taking the race’s overall lead to go with his stage win.
Canada’s David Veilleux, (Kelly Benefits Strategies) finished third on the stage and is leading the Under 23 rider category.
What is being billed as the US’s toughest stage race heads from Thanksgiving Point to Mount Nebo on today’s 124km second stage, which includes some tough climbing which should further open the gaps on GC.
GC After Stage 1
1. Francisco Mancebo, RRC 3.31'07"
2. Oscar Sevilla RRC at 9"
3. Brent Bookwalter BMC at 30"
4. David Zabriskie GRM at 32"
5. Ben Jacques-Maynes BPC, at 33"
6. Jeff Louder BMC at 34"
7. David Veilleux KBB at 36"
8. Sam Bewley TTL at 39"
9. Christopher Baldwin OCM at 44"
10. Bradley White OCM at 45"
Remaining Stages: Stage 2: Thanksgiving Point to Mount Nebo, 124km Stage 3: Miller Motorsports Park Individual Time Trial, 14.5km Stage 4: Park City to Snowbird, 155km Stage 5: Salt Lake Downtown Criterium (90minutes)
Tour Du Limousin
Being raced through the three French regions, Haute-Vienne, Creuse and Corezze, in the Limousin region in central France, the Tour du Limousin will cover 716km this year.
Vacansoleil’s Borut Bozic has continued his good run of success by taking the opening stage in a bunch sprint.
The race’s second stage, over 186.6km from Eymoutiers to Felletin was won yesterday by Cofidis rider Samuel Dumoulin in another bunch sprint (after the early break was brought back with around 9km left to run). The Frenchman also took over the lead from Bozic with two stages left to run.
GC After Stage 2
1. Samuel Dumoulin, COFIDIS, LE CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE 08:29:28
2. Borut Bozic, VACANSOLEIL PRO CYCLING TEAM +01''
3. Xavier Florencio Cabre, CERVELO TEST TEAM +04''
4. Romain Feillu, AGRITUBEL , +04''
5. Paul Martens, RABOBANK, +07''
Trittico Lombardo
Three one day races in the Lombardy region of Italy form the series known as the Trittico Lombardo and with two races down, Mauro Santambrogio of Lampre is the man putting on a great show in front of the Italian world’s selectors.
Santambrogio won the opening race of the series, the Tre Valli Varesine, with a well timed attack inside the final kilometre of the race. Having been part of a breakaway group for most of the day’s racing, Santambrogio was one of just three riders in with a chance of the win at the top of the finishing climb. While Francesco Masciarelli set the tempo in front, Alexandre Botcharov and Santambrogio sat in the wheels until the Italian attacked to win alone.
In Yesterday’s Coppa Agostini, it was Santambrogio again who forced the pace on the tough finishing climbs, going away with a small group which maintained a 20 second advantage over the chasing bunch (including Ivan Basso). In the sprint, Santambrogio looked set to take a double header, but another man looking for a win to put him into contention for the World’s squad, Giovanni Visconti, managed to get past the Lampre rider just before the line.
The final race is today’s Coppa Bernocchi, the flattest of the three events, won in 2008 by Barloworld’s Steve Cummings.
Tour of Ireland
It might only be three stages this year, but with Lance Armstrong leading the Astana team in the 2009 Tour of Ireland, the race is attracting an incredible amount of interest from around the globe.
With a good mix of local, UK based and ProTour teams, the racing will be of a very high quality and the organisers have chosen stage routes to show off as much of the famous country side as possible in the three days, as well as providing a tough test for the riders.
Stage 1 Friday August 21, Enniskerry to Waterford, 196km: The first stage sees the race climbing over Mount Leinster on tough scenic route to Waterford from the Ritz-Carlton Powerscourt, Enniskerry. Stage 2 Saturday August 22, Clonmel to Killarney, 196km: Starting in the Tipperary town of Clonmel, stage 2 will take in three categorised climbs offering the riders spectacular views of the countryside as well as king of the mountains points. The race zigzags across the counties of Waterford, Cork and Kerry heading to the finish in the centre of Killarney. Stage 3 Sunday August 23, Bantry to Cork City, 184km: Stage three finishes with three laps of the same finishing circuit used last year and includes the 25% climb of St Patrick’s hill as well as three other climbs each lap.
Tragedy Strikes In Ireland
On the eve of the nation’s premier cycling event, one of Irelands top cycling talents, Paul Healion has been killed in a road accident. The 31 year old died in a single vehicle accident last Sunday night and was due to take part in the Tour of Ireland as part of the National Team.
Philip Leigh, director of Cycling Ireland’s high performance unit, said, “Paul was an integral part of our team and we're struggling to come to terms with the loss. I spoke with him last week and he was in top spirits, training well and looking at London 2012 with a view to competing.”
In June this year Healion won the Irish national criterium title and was also the current Irish time trial champion.
Paul Healion is survived by his wife Ann and the PEZ community send their condolences to the family, friends, club-mates and fans of the Irish rider.
GP Stadt Zottegem
AN Post-Sean Kelly’s veteran Belgian, Nico Eeckhout has shown the young guns a thing or two by taking out the GP Stadt Zottegem in a mass sprint.
Around half race distance, four riders escped the peloton and built up a maximum lead of 5.40, but thanks to Silence Lotto,Skil Shimano and AN Post, everything was back together for the finish.
Eekchout had previously finished second in the race...behind Hendrik Redant...in 1995! It took him a while, but he finally took that step up on the podium. Second place in the gallop went to Martin Pedersen with Cyril Lemoine third.
Results of 67th GP Stadt Zottegem
1. Niko Eeckhout (Bel) - 193km in 4h22'00"
2. Martin Pedersen (Den)
3. Cyril Lemoine (Fra)
4. Jürgen Roelandts (Bel)
5. Jempy Drucker (Lux)
6. Sven Vandousselaere (Bel)
7. James Vanlandschoot (Bel)
8. Nicholas Walker (Aus)
9. Luc Hagenaars (Ned)
10. Theo Eltink (Ned)
US Pro Criterium Title
On Monday we brought you comments from the winner of the US title, John Murphy, however the OUCH rider claimed the title as the first US rider home, but not the title of winner of the race. That honour went to Fly V/Australia’s Ben Kersten, better known for his exploits on the velodrome than a road bike.
"This is my first year on the road after a 10 year track career that has included Commonwealth Games Gold and World Championship medals. It has taken me a while to get a feel for the road and to work on my aerobic base but I am starting to feel more at ease now,” Kersten said after the race.
With solid results leading into the Championship, Kersten said he was confident of his speed in the closing stages of the race: “Coming into the last corner I was on Bahati's (Rock Racing) wheel, until he crashed himself out. From there I was left on the front and just kicked and put my head down. After Hanes Park last weekend I knew my top end speed was good and that it would be difficult for the others to get round me inside the last 200 meters.”
Armstrong Tweets Up A Training Bunch
With 1,766,533 (and counting) followers on social networking site Twitter, Lance Armstrong was sure to be able to rustle up a few training partners when he sent out the word earlier in the week that he was going to be hitting the road in Glasgow, Scotland for a 90minutes training run.
Heading back to Europe from the US to take part in the Tour of Ireland and the Oslo Grand Prix, Armstrong stopped off in Scotland to catch U2 in concert and using twitter, put out the “when and where” for his Tuesday training run.
Despite being slightly delayed arriving at the designated meeting point, Armstrong was greeted by between two and three hundred fellow cyclists who hit the road with the seven times tour winner for a rainy ride.
Lance’s Ride: A Fan’s Perspective
While most of the time I’m covering a bike race, I still feel a bit like the kid in the candy shop. It is sometimes difficult for me to remember, however, exactly what it was like that first time I met (or even saw in person for the first time) my own cycling heroes. So, here’s a fan perspective on Lance’s Paisley ride from Mark Champion, who took his son Lewis along for his first ever bunch ride with the guy that finished third in this year’s Tour de France ( and won seven others as well).
Mark Takes up the story...
A wet Tuesday in Perthshire, last day of the summer holidays and the day before you start high school... not the best recipe for a 12 year old... until Lance Armstrong tweets an invite to go for a ride. Even better when you turn up to find you're the only kid there!
Lewis and I drove the 50 miles to Paisley to join this impromptu sportive and far from the dozen or so riders Lance expected, what seemed to me to be a couple of hundred had turned up. All human velo life was there, in the rain, waiting for the man.
When Lance did turn up, the inevitable media scrum started. Lewis and I found some space and waited, and watched. At this point we didn't know what was going to happen, where the ride was going or how fast. Neither of us had ridden in the bunch before and neither of us ever imagined that we'd be rolling through a wet Scottish countryside with and sporting icon. After cameras were clicked, hands shaken, and a bespoke Trek assembled he started his way through the throng passing just a couple of feet from us - this is the point we put on our foolish grins (we were still wearing them hours later) and the point that we started to pedal.
Lewis rode like a demon, enjoying the potential to weave and race through the bunch for the first time. The atmosphere was electric and really supportive, and running mostly on adrenaline Lewis made it to the eighth mile, outlasting many others as the steadily increasing tempo reached about 20mph.
We turned and headed back while Lance and the rest carried on for another hour or so. What a great thing to do and even better when we found out that we'd also been in the company of Graeme Obree - we would have turned out for him alone!
Other pro riders should follow the lead, imagine the possibilities..... come on guys just tweet and we'll be there!
World’s List Finalised
Last Thursday I mentioned a few of the nations that would be eligible to star nine riders in next month’s World Road Race Championship in Mendrisio. I stopped short of trying to explain in 1000 words or less the selection process, let along look at the world rankings and try and determine which countries would have how many starters.
Well, thanks to my procrastination (laziness?), Alain Rumpf and his crew at the UCI have done all of the hard work for us, so here is the list of who gets how many on the start line at the worlds.
9 Starters : Spain, Italia, Australia, Germany, Russia, Luxembourg, Belgium, Great Britain, Norway, United States of America. 6 Starters: South Africa, Colombia, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, France, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Poland, Ukraina, Denmark, Switzerland 3 Starters: Tunisia, Argentina, Brasil, Canada, Iran, Japan, Portugal, Estonia, Austria, Slovakia, Croatia, Hungary, Sweden, Serbia, Latvia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Ireland, Belarus 1 Starter: Lithuania, Finland, Namibia, Cuba, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Uruguay, Bulgaria, Chile
Under the qualification rules, Switzerland are eligible for three starters, however, as the host nation they will be able to send six men to the line on September 27.
Awesome Indoor Cycling
Can you do a wheelie? Can you do one while riding backwards? What about while riding backwards with no hands? Ok, how about up on the back wheel, riding backwards, no hands and with someone on your shoulders?
No it’s not the circus; it’s the European Junior Indoor Cycling Championships . As someone who once ended up with a crushed vertebra while trying to do a “Robbie McEwen” (much to the amusement of my riding partners), I can tell you that “impressive” does not quite cut it as a descriptor of the skill level of Carla and Henriette Hochdorfer.
Wedding Bells
Finally, a shout out to PEZ man Martin Williamson, who is getting married this weekend. Martin is the man who pilots the PEZ Mobile when Ed Hood is “in country” doing road-sides. Martin also snaps his share of great pics along the way and is in charge of the daily search for La Gazzetta dello Sport or L’Equipe.
Unfortunately my spies in Scotland were not able to deliver on any juicy ‘Stag Night’ (or ‘Bachelor Party’ I think you North American folk call it) shenanigans, so all that is really left to be said is good luck and best wishes to Martin and Gillian, for their walk down the aisle in Peebles this Saturday.
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