After a huge weekend of racing with big finales in Italy, Mexico, France, and Belgium, it's time to take a deep breath, pause for a moment of contemplation, and ready ourselves for one last blow-out: next Saturday's Giro Di Lombardia. The season has been a long one, but I don't know about you, Lombardia has me feeling like it's Het Volk, er, Nieuwsblad again. First up, let's catch up on the News!
Gilbert Does It Again On The Avenue De Grammont
I know that sprints have a habit of being a lot different at the end of a long, hard day of racing, but heading into the finale, it must have been a bit tense for Philippe Gilbert, knowing that he was going up against two guys who regularly win bunch sprints. Tom Boonen and Borut Bozic aren't the two best sprinters in the world, but Boonen is surely top 5, and Bozic is top 10.
And yet, Gilbert timed his sprint perfectly, leaped from 3rd wheel and profited hugely from Tom Boonen's moment of hesitation as he waited on a fried Bozic to open up a sprint that just wasn't there. Boonen was a frustrated second on the line - he had more than enough speed in his thunderous thighs to take the win, but potential amounts for little in a sprint: Gilbert got the job done.
Behind the threesome, Filippo Pozzato put on a dazzling display of force to hold off the chasing field solo. That should say a lot for his chances for Saturday's Lombardia. Of course, the same goes for Gilbert.
Results
1 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Silence-Lotto 5:12:23
2 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step
3 Borut Bozic (Slo) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team 0:00:02
4 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Team Katusha 0:00:16
5 Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank
6 Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Lampre - N.G.C.
7 Gerben Löwik (Ned) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team
8 Pablo Lastras (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
9 Martin Reimer (Ger) Cervelo Test Team
10 Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Française Des Jeux
The Winner's Words
Philippe Gilbert managed to pull off the first back to back victory at Paris-Tours since Nicola Minali in 1995/1996 on Sunday, but of course, it's much more of a feat considering that Gilbert is not a sprinter...and he managed to finally break the sprint/break pattern, which has ruled the race for years.
Gilbert wasn't too surprised by the result and a conversation with the Walloon is telling: "500 meters from the line, my intention was to go at 250 meters, but then I decided to go at 300. I jumped away from Boonen in order to surprise him and hopefully avoid him getting on my wheel."
He executed the move perfectly, and as Boonen hesitated for a moment, the race was lost to Boonen, won by Gilbert.
"In order to win this race, you really have to think about a strategy before the start. I looked very closely at the weather report and realized that the chances were high that there would be a tailwind on the Avenue de Grammont." For this reason, Gilbert picked a 54 for his big ring...the rest is history.
Speaking of not history, in face, speaking of the future, Philippe Gilbert feels like his chances at a hat-trick in 2011 are even better with next year's new finish (the Avenue de Grammont will be under construction next year): "I heard that the finale will be harder."
Ventoso Back On Top At GP Beghelli
It wasn't all that long ago that Francisco Jose Ventoso was a young prodigy sprinter. He clipped off some great wins in 2004 and 2005 at the advanced ages of 22 and 23 - first with a win at Philly in 2004, then the big bunch sprint stage win at the Vuelta in 2005, and even a 4th at Gent-Wevelgem in 2007. After that, things started to head downhill, until finally, last year, he went an entire season without a win. His team, Saunier Duval of course folded, and he could only find a home with Italian continental squad, CarmioOro-A Style.
He has regained some of his former quickness with a number of wins this year, namely Paris-Correze, a stage at the Vuelta Comunidad Madrid, a stage at the Cinturo de l'Emporda, and finally, this weekend, a big win: the GP Beghelli.
Coming the day after the Giro dell'Emilia and only a few kilometers down the road, Beghelli is normally a sprinters affair. It's not one of those run of the mill sprinter races though - it's an aggressive race that leaves possibilities for the bold. Once again, one of the boldest was Alexandre Vinokourov. Like the day before at Emilia, Vino was on the attack. This time he got free solo with 10k to go and held off the tsunami until 2k to go: from there, there was no doubting the outcome of the 2009 edition: bunch sprint.
On the line, it was Ventoso who was strongest, followed by a frustrated Giovanni Visconti. Visconti has a lot of podium finishes this year, but not so many wins. That should change in the very near future: he's Paolo Bettini's protege after all.
Gesink Storms To Glory Atop The San Luca
I don't think there's too much that needs saying following Alessandro Federico's great Roadside PEZ report on the Giro dell'Emilia, but that's never stopped me before.
Robert Gesink, like Giovanni Visconti, is in that unfortunate position of being really, really good, but not quite great yet. Both are constantly on the doorstep, beating like hell on the door, but they're rarely let in to the party. Visconti was once again left outside this weekend, but Gesink enjoyed the warm glow of success after a gutsy final ascent of the San Luca to hold strong over Saxo's talented climber Jakob Fuglsang and the headed to Sky Eroica winner, Thomas Lovkvist.
The break went away with a trio of laps remaining of the tough finishing circuit in Bologna. Gesink, Lovkvist, Fuglsang, and Vinokourov managed to get free of a hard-working field. They kept their lead solid the fourth time over the climb and managed to get to the final ascent with more than enough time to settle the race amongst themselves.
Cadel Evans was the best of the chasing group behind, but he left his nitro a bit too late.
Just before the climb, Jakob Fuglsang jumped free and started the first slopes all by his lonesome. Being the bull of a rider that he is, Vinokourov, put his head down and made sure that Fuglsang was caught before he popped and was dropped. Fuglsang wasn't completely done in though from his efforts and gave Gesink a decent run for his money, but there was no stopping the lean Dutchman on the line.
Up next? Lombardia, Lombardia, Lombardia. The Italians didn't show well in the finale on Saturday, but there's little to worry about. Cunego was born to win Lombardia, Basso is still plugging along with solid form, and Pippo Pozzato is fire hot at the moment after a dazzling effort en route to Tours. The Italians will have a hard time keeping the win at home though, as the likes of Gilbert, Gesink, Lovkvist, Vinokourov, Evans, Kolobnev, and many more are going damn well at the moment. We'll have all the Lombardia you can stomach this week as we pull out all the stops for one more race.
Results
1 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank 4:49:31
2 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Team Saxo Bank
3 Thomas Lövkvist (Swe) Team Columbia - Highroad
4 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence-Lotto 0:00:20
5 Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana 0:00:30
6 Fredrik Kessiakoff (Swe) Fuji-Servetto 0:00:32
7 Alexandr Kolobnev (Rus) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:40
8 Chris Anker Sorensen (Den) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:43
9 Alberto Fernandez (Spa) Fuji-Servetto
10 Paolo Tiralongo (Ita) Lampre - N.G.C. 0:00:50
Jayco Herald Sun Tour Update: Kirsipuu Leads
After a Preface and a stage that counts, Jaan Kirsipuu is at the head of affairs in Australia's Herald Sun Tour. The sage veteran at 41 years old had more than enough to come around his much younger Australian rivals, Jonathan Cantwell and Chris Sutton. It was like a return to the olden days when Kirsipuu was an ox on wheels with a nitrous boost when the line approached. His celebration was his traditional Estonian battle cry of jubilee.
Jonathan Cantwell took the 'Preface' on Saturday. I wasn't aware that bike races were run like books now, but anyway, he took the two hour Stage 0 that counted for naught save for glory.
There's much more to come from Australia this week. We'll have another update come Thursday.
General Classification After One Stage
1 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) LeTua 3:41:44
2 Jonathan Cantwell (Aus) Fly V Australia 0:00:01
3 Chris Sutton (Aus) Garmin-Slipstream 0:00:04
4 Richard Lang (Aus) Budget Forklifts 0:00:11
5 Dean Downing (GBr) Rapha Condor 0:00:12
Cross Compote
This weekend saw the OTHER two year-long cross series get going. Last weekend, the World Cup started in Treviso, whilst this weekend the Gazet van Antwerpen series started in Namur followed by the first Superprestige event in Ruddervoorde/Oostkamp. The big news so far this year has been the utter dominance of World Champion Niels Albert and the utter non-dominance of everything winner, Sven Nys. Nys has been appallingly bad so far. I was just getting ready to watch a slow moving train wreck for awhile, but I forgot for a moment that this is Sven Nys we're talking about. Sven Nys is a Cross God. Sure, he might have a bad minute, even an hour, and in this insane instance - a couple weeks. However, to expect a drawn out depression is silly, and he proved that with a 2nd on Saturday and the win on Sunday.
Saturday's GVA #1 in Namur has widely been heralded as one of the hardest of the year. The pictures from the event suggest nothing less. Nys enjoyed a last row start, whilst Albert got pole position - they'd be a lot closer to that in an hour's time. Albert wasn't to be touched on Saturday, but Nys was less than a minute back, with the field days in arrears.
Heading back into proper cyclocross country on Sunday, Nys finally got it right as he left a visibly dragging Albert well in his wake.
And suddenly, this cross season just got a whole bunch more intriguing. There's nothing like a good duel. And since it's cross, we'll probably get some great polemics too.
Really, if you haven't paid attention to cross up to this point, you really should.
Sevilla Takes It All In Chihuahua
For all the lambasting we do of Rock Racing, they do win a lot of bike races. The duo of Sevilla and Mancebo have accounted for much of Rock's success - and so it was again this past week. Oscar Sevilla made the race defining move with three other riders on the race's hardest day, Stage 3. The GC group was made up of Sevilla, Gregorio Ladino (Tecos), PEZ-favorite Dario Cioni (ISD), and eventual stage winner, Rui Da Costa (Caisse). Former race leader and returning former almost Tour de France winner back from suspension, Michael Rasmussen, was more than peeved by the race's contents. He felt he had been slighted by his Mexican team, who opted to let their Mexican GC hope go up the road instead of bringing it back together for Rasmo to show everyone how fast he is.
Well, he got a chance to show everyone how fast he is the next day, but the only thing he really did was pave the way for another Caisse win, this one courtesy of Daniel Moreno. Rasmussen's return to big bike racing was a solid one though. It's obvious that he's still a creature genetically engineered for going uphill and it seems possible that he's still pretty unpopular...even within his own team.
After the story of Sevilla's overall win and Rasmo's return, the only thing left to discuss are the sprints: Contentpolis' Javier Benitez took three stages whilst young gun Cesar Vaquera managed to get one for himself.
And that's all I've got from Chihuahua.
Results
Prologue: Michael Rasmussen (Tecos) - uphill TT
Stage 1: Javier Benitez (Contentpolis)
Stage 2: Javier Benitez (Contentpolis)
Stage 3: Rui Da Costa (Caisse) - small group sprint
Stage 4: Daniel Moreno (Caisse) - two-up sprint, Rasmo the victim
Stage 5: Cesar Vaquera (Orven)
Stage 6: Javier Benitez
Final General Classification
1 Oscar Sevilla (Spa) Rock Racing 20:32:43
2 Gregorio Ladino (Col) Tecos Trek 0:00:06
3 Rui A. Da Costa (Por) Caisse d'Epargne 0:01:03
4 Dario Cioni (Ita) ISD 0:05:13
5 Daniel Moreno (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:07:18
6 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Tecos Trek 0:07:20
7 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) Rock Racing 0:07:39
8 Jesús Del Nero (Spa) Fuji-Servetto 0:07:54
9 Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia 0:07:58
10 Alberto Losada (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:08:01
Sky Goes With Pinarello
Team Sky Press Release: Team Sky has agreed to a three-year technical partner deal with Italian bike manufacturer Cicli Pinarello.
Pinarello, who have been making bikes for more than five decades, will supply the frames, forks, seat posts and headsets to the new professional road team. The announcement brings the first major technical partner to Team Sky and follows the award of a UCI Pro Tour Licence to the team.
Founded in 1952 and based in Treviso, Italy, Pinarello has real heritage in road racing having created bikes for a number of successful professional teams and seen its bikes win the Tour de France eight times.
Announcing the deal, Fausto Pinarello, President of Cicli Pinarello said: "We are very happy with this new partnership. Team Sky's goal of becoming one of the world's leading cycling teams, fits with our objective of continuing and growing our presence as one of the world's leading bicycle manufacturers. We have signed a three-year agreement and we look forward to a long, prosperous and successful collaboration."
Dave Brailsford, Team Principal for Team Sky said: "We are thrilled to be riding Pinarello bikes. Joining up with this great producer is a crucial step for Team Sky. With Pinarello we have found the perfect partner to supply and develop an extraordinary line of bikes for our riders.
"The choice of bike has been a key decision. From the first talks, we found an immediate understanding with Pinarello on what this team is about; performance and perfection. The ways that Pinarello combine their life-long passion for the bike with the latest technology are genuinely inspired. Pinarello are now a fundamental part of the team and will help our relentless efforts to have the best possible tools for Team Sky."
To date, Team Sky has revealed 16 riders for the new team with more to be announced. Six British riders - Geraint Thomas, Steve Cummings, Pete Kennaugh, Chris Froome, Ian Stannard and Russell Downing - line up with 10 international riders; Edvald Boasson Hagen, Thomas Lovkvist, Kurt Arvesen, Simon Gerrans, Juan Antonio Flecha, Kjell Carlstrom, John Lee Augustyn, Greg Henderson, Lars Petter Nordhaug and Morris Possoni.
The initial squad of around 25 riders will be supported by a team of coaches, technicians and support staff drawn from across the cycling world, many of whom work throughout the year with British elite and developing riders.
Team Sky will compete from the start of 2010, beginning with the Tour Down Under, and hopes to gain an invitation to next year's Tour de France.
Milram Gets Two Belgians
Roy Sentjens will move from Silence-Lotto to Milram for 2010 with an option for 2011. The 28-year-old will be joined by countryman, Wim De Vocht, who is making the move from Vacansoleil.
Sentjens comments: "The choice for Milram was deliberate, because I'll get a chance to race the Spring Classics as a leader, something I'm ready for at this age. I will be starting from scratch, it will be a whole new opportunity, one that I was grasp with both hands."
Klier And Lloyd Extend With Cervelo
Cervélo TestTeam Press Release: The Cervelo TestTeam is pleased to announce that Andreas Klier (GER) has extended his contract with the team for another two years, until December 2011. Klier, a likable all-rounder, is a very experienced rider, especially in the spring classics. The 33-year-old German was one of the key riders on the team in its first year. Klier had an excellent classics season and has played a significant role in the success of Cervélo TestTeam to date.
“I feel very confident as part of Cervélo TestTeam,” said Klier. “Besides riding, we also have the possibility of working together with our partners to help develop our equipment, as well as interacting closely with the public. It is fun to be focused not only on race performances and results, but also on testing new equipment. It is also great to have the chance to work together with such outstanding riders as we have on this team. It is really a pleasure to ride with them.”
“We are very pleased that Andreas will be with us at least until 2011. He is a rider who plays an important role on the team. Besides being a terrific person, he brings a lot of experience and cycling skills to our organization. A rider of his caliber can provide expert support for our leaders and serve as a strong mentor to the younger riders,” said Thomas Campana, Team Manager.
Daniel Lloyd (GBR) has also extended his contract with the team until 2011. The British rider had an auspicious start to the 2009 season, taking 4th place in the GC at the Tour of Qatar. Lloyd also provided strong support and was an integral part of the team’s remarkable success at the Giro d’Italia.
"I am delighted to have signed a contract extension with Cervélo TestTeam. This year they gave me my first opportunity to compete at the top level of the sport,” said Daniel Lloyd. “Despite the fact that the team is less than a year old, we already have a great ethos and atmosphere, and I'm really looking forward to continuing with that over the next two seasons. I am already thinking about next year’s race goals, and continuing with product development and supporting fan access."
“Daniel is a really strong support rider for the classics group, and he proved at this year’s Giro d’Italia that he can also perform the same role in stage races,” said Campana. “Daniel is very focused on the success of the team, and that is exactly the kind of rider with whom we want to work.”
Questions? Comments? Happy? Sad? Send me an email.
There's always the trusty JeredGruber.com if you ever get really bored.
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