Tom the Butcher

Rabobank withdrew their public sponsorship of the Dutch team in the wake of USADA's reasoned decision which led to allegations, of which many have since been proven to be true, that the outfit had a chequered past of utilising drugs administrated by doctors to ensure top results by its riders. The team continues with the financial support of Rabobank but as the new team name Blanco suggests, this is a blank team with more or less a blank image. Many of the riders on the team will be riding for contracts this season not only for personal gain but to find a willing sponsor who is keen to back and support the team under a new name. To attract a sponsor before the Tour de France is a team goal and the only way that Blanco can absolutely ensure this is so is by winning and winning as often as possible. 

Tour Down Under Stage 4

Sky will once again be defending the general classification lead that Geraint Thomas has over Tom-Jelte Slagter which is a slim 5 seconds. In a race where seconds determine placing in almost the top 30 riders the gc won't be shaken up today with Stage 5 to Old Willunga Hill still looking like the decisive stage. Today's race will be another chance for the sprinters and could be the day that Greipel wins his 13th TDU stage and becomes the first rider to have done so in the 15th edition of the race. The 126.5km stage begins in Modbury and contains just one big climb, Kersbrook Road on Humbug Scrub, after just 30kms but after that there are undulating roads but nothing dramatic. The final few kms are almost dead flat and will see Greipel, Goss and Kittel fighting it out for the win. Orica-GreenEdge has had a disappointing return to the TDU after Simon Gerrans overall win in last years edition and Goss looks good after finishing second on yesterday's stage. Last year Óscar Freire won the sprint but in 2010 it was Greipel who won in the Barossa Valley town.
 

Geraint Thomas leads the overall, climbers and sprint classifications but could lose his sprinters jersey to one of the fast men. The gc shouldn't really change at the pointy end but with Jack Bobridge tied for points in the KOM he may just try to take the lead in the polka classification. With Thomas wearing the ochre jersey, Bobridge will wear the Kom jersey and Slagter should be in the points jersey. This gives Gorka Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) a day in the young riders jersey or if Slagter wears the young riders jersey, Daniele Pietropolli (Lampre-Merida) will be in the blue points jersey. GreenEdge will have some joy with Simon Clarke in the aggressive rider jersey and RadioShack Leopard will once again be leading the team classification, continuing their team form from last year when they won the classification.

Course Map 

Course Profile

 

Tour Down Under Stage 2

On Stage 1 André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) equelled Robbie McEwen's 12 stage win as he obliterated his rivals in the finishing sprint. Today Greipel will be wearing the leaders ochre jersey but with the tough Corkscrew climb to shake things up in the final kilometers, he will lose the jersey. The two favorites behind Greipel in GC who look most likely to inherit the ochre are defending champion Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) and current world champion Philippe Gilbert (BMC).

As the course profile shows the stage is rather undulating with an even descent into Rostrevor. There is a loop around Hahndorf, otherwise this is a point a to point b race.The first sprint of the day comes just after 32kms of racing in Echunga which should be hotly contested with the points classification rather tight after Stage 1. Following the Hanhdorf loop and feeding station there is a second sprint point 71kms into the race at Oakbank and from here on in the sprinters will conserve energy and hope not to lose too much time over the Corkscrew climb which has been the talking point of the stage. Here several attacks will be launched by the likes of Gerrans and Gilbert with a fast descent into Rostrevor offering a stage win and possibly the ochre jersey for the first rider over the line. Jordan Kerby (Uni SA) won the maximum king of the mountains points yesterday and will be wearing the green polka dot jersey today but it will be a tough ask to defend the jersey up against the Euro pros.


Results:
Team Sky recorded their first win of 2013 on Stage 2 with Geraint Thomas attacking on the Corkscrew ascent and outwitting his escapees to sprint across the line in first place. Behind Thomas was a group that looked too disorganised to stay away with a second group catching the front four riders in the final few 100 metres. Thomas took the initiative and ensured his move wouldn't fall flat due to the lack of organisation in the bunch. On the descent a crash took out the chasing riders with several big names involved which alleviated some of the pressure on Thomas and co as the Welshman rode away to his first road race win since 2010 when he won the British national championships.

Stage 2 Result 

Geraint Thomas Sky

Javier Moreno Bazan Movistar ST

Ben Hermans Radioshack Leopard ST

Tom-Jelte Slagter Blanco ST

Tim Wellens Lotto-Belisol ST

Standings After Stage 2

General Classification  Geraint Thomas Sky 6:19:32

Points Classification Daniele Pietropolli Lampre-Merida 19 pts

Mountains Classification Geraint Thomas Sky 16 pts

Young Rider Classification Tom-Jelte Slagter Blanco 6:19:46

Team Classification  Radioshack Leopard 18:59:15

Aggressive Rider Christopher Juul-Jensen Saxo-Tinkoff

Course Map

Race Profile

2014 Tour de France Grand Depart

In 2014 the Tour returns to England for the first time since the 2007 London depart. The race begins in Leeds on July 5th on a stage which could give Mark Cavendish his first yellow jersey if he doesn't pull one on this year. The race moves north from Leeds to finish in Harrogate with Stage 2 beginning in York and heads south to Sheffield on a stage which has been likened to Liège–Bastogne–Liège and should be great stage. Stage 3 is further south with the start in Cambridge and a finish in London on route yet to be confirmed. 

2013 Vuelta de España Route

2013 Australian Men’s Road Nationals Preview

The Australian nationals are always one of the first races of the year let alone national championships on the calendar. New Zealand also tends to hold early January national championships so that the competition is fierce and contains the top national riders, following Australia’s lead. With the major cycling races taking place in Europe to fly back for a national race in June when the majority of other nationals are held while preparing for the Tour de France would be for many cyclists untenable. Therefore with the Bay Series and Sun Tour in early Jan the Australian riders use the two early events to build for the nationals and the first UCI World Tour, Tour Down Under event of the year. The summer cycling calendar is now a packed affair with the Sun Tour but this allows for riders to arrive at the nationals in to form with some racing in their legs after the Christmas break.

2012 Race Results

With the 2013 Season now beggining in earnest the 2012 race results tab has been moved into a blog post. Results from 14th August below...

Team Sky 2012 Season in Review

When Team Sky announced its five year goals the aim to have a British rider on the podium in France wearing yellow sounded fanciful. Forget five, Sky and Bradley Wiggins had a dream year in which they completely dominated the Tour de France and racked up stage win after stage win. Mark Cavendish joined the team to once again team up with Wiggins after they rode Madison together. His season on the team started well but tensions came to fore with Cav unhappy over his lack of support and a dedicated lead-out train. He still snared three Tour stages but in 2013 Sky will be GC focused not only in July but have the squad to challenge for GC wins in every race they enter.

Vacansoleil-DCM 2012 Season in Review

In 2012 the Dutch team rode the celeste Bianchi’s so it was fitting that the biggest win of the season came in Italy. That win was Stage 20 of the Giro d’Italia on the grand Stelvio as Thomas de Gendt stayed away for one of the rides of the season and in doing so ensured a podium placing in Milan. Paris-Nice was a team highlight and gave the team important World Tour points but they still finished a rather low 16th. Gendt and Westra were the best performing riders of 2012 but there numerous riders who added flourishes to their team leader’s achievements. 

Radio-Shack Nissan 2012 Season in Review

During the 2011 Vuelta de España what had previously been rumour and private became public knowledge. There was to be a merger between two new but big teams. RadioShack which had been created to accommodate Lance Armstrong’s return to racing and the Luxembourg backed Leopard team joined forces for the 2012 hoping their union will bring about Grand Tour success and a successful classics and one day onslaught. Instead this was an annus horribilis with injuries and doping scandals engulfing the team with the future of ex-director and star Fränk Schleck to be decided in coming weeks. Andy Schleck was retroactively awarded the 2010 Tour de France and in 2012 was focused on winning the race on the road. Swiss maestro Fabian Cancellara was looking to recapture his form of 2010 and had looked good early in the season till he crashed out of Ronde van Vlaanderen. Despite the dysfunction of team management and underperforming rides, surprisingly there were ten team classification victories which were more than any individual rider. 

Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank 2012 Season in Review

The season for Saxo Bank begun in Argentina at the Tour de San Luis with Alberto Contador winning two stages. These stage wins would later be annulled as the CAS ruling was handed down in February which stripped Contador of his 2010 Tour de France and 2011 Giro d’Italia. He also lost his contract with the team and was given a further six month suspension leaving him unable to race until August. With Richie Porte leaving for Sky at the end of 2011 there was no direct internal replacement for Contador as a GC rider and as a result the approach for the season was one day races and stage wins. 

Rabobank 2012 Season in Review

Rabobank have consistently been one of the most recognisable teams in the peloton not only because of their orange kit but there regular appearance on winners podiums. The team began the year with two challenges for Grand Tour podiums in Robert Gesink and Bauke Mollema and several sprinters who could mix it with the fastest men in the world. The team had successes across the season and continents but ended the season with a new name and without their orange kit with the Armstrong affair the final doping scandal storm the Dutch Rabobank could weather. 

Omega Pharma-Quick Step 2012 Season in Review

In recent years Tom Boonen has had indifferent seasons on the road with limited successes. Several positive tests for Cocaine at the end of last decade raised questions of whether the Flemish star was still interested in competing. Podium places at Flanders and Roubaix in 2010 suggested the fire was still burning but 2011 yielded just two wins in the whole season. The collapse of the HTC-Highroad team and signing of several riders from the American team alongside and the new sponsor Omega Pharma joining the team 2012 was a chance to start a fresh not just for Boonen but for the entire team. 2011 was also a very lean year for the team who had just as many national championships’ wins as trade race wins. The star rider of the season was Boonen but the team had 15 different winners suggesting the changes over the off season had a positive effect for the Belgian team.