May 14, 2008

Giro d’Italia Results - Stage 4

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from RoadCycling….

Matt Cavendish (High Road) has won Stage 4 of the Giro d’Italia. The 21-year-old took a crash-marred sprint to win the rolling, 183-km run from Pizzo Calabro to Catanzaro-Lungomare. Robert Forster (Gerolsteiner) finished second, and Daniele Bennati (Lampre) took third. Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) remains the maglia rosa.

The hostilities began early. At the gun, Rik Verbrugghe (Cofidis) surged into the lead. He led the field by 8:33 at 50 km and 9:30 at 64 km. The Belgian’s advantage maxed out at 10:00. Liquigas, Milram, High Road, Euskaltel, and Quick Step went to the front and chiseled away at Verbrugghe’s lead.

Quick Step led the charge up the day’s final climb. The bunch reeled in Verbrugghe. Two Quick Steppers, Paolo Bettini and Kevin Seeldrayers, launched attacks but were reeled in. LPR Brakes, High Road, Lampre, Milram, and Liquigas took turns at the front to support their sprinters.

Milram led the field into the last km. A crash sent riders and bicycles flying. Nick Nuyens (Cofidis) abandoned with a broken collarbone. Nikolai Trussov (Tinkoff) received a cut that required three stitches to close, and Danilo Hondo (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni) suffered a contusion to his pelvis. Only 10 riders contested the finish.

Milram brought Erik Zabel (Milram) to the finish, but the German could not close the deal. Bennati started the sprint, but Cavendish and Forster passed the Italian on the left.

In the overall, Pellizotti (Liquigas) leads Christian Vande Velde (Slipstream) by 0:01 and Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes) by 0:07. Stage 5, a 203-km run from Belvedere Marittimo to Contursi Terme, has a rolling parcours that should allow an escape. Who will be in it? Will someone gain enough time to take the maglia rosa?

May 12, 2008

Giro d’Italia Results - Stage 2

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Riccardo Ricco (Saunier Duval) has won Stage 2 of the Giro. The Italian surged into the lead in the last 100 m to take the rugged, 207-km ride from Cefalu to Agrigento in 5:48:35. Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes) and Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) finished second and third, respectively, while Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) took the maglia rosa.

After an early sally by Dioniso Galporoso (Euskaltel), Jeremy Roy (Francaise des Jeux) and David Loosli (Lampre) escaped at 37 km. The peloton did not lift a pedal to stop them, and at one point, the pair led by 10:10. The bunch woke up and reduced the fugitives’ advantage to 9:20 at 102.8 km, 8:15 at 122 km, and 4:40 at 146 km.

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May 10, 2008

Giro d’Italia Results - Stage 1

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Slipstream has won Stage 1 of the Giro d’Italia. The American squad smoked the technical, 23.6-km team time trial in Palermo in 26:32. CSC finished second at 0:06, and High Road took third, a fraction of a second behind CSC. Christian Vande Velde (Slipstream) is the 2008 Giro’s first maglia rosa.

Milram was the first team to start, and the German outfit posted a 27:17. Tinkoff bettered Milram’s time by 0:12 to set the early standard. Several teams made unsuccessful attempts to take the lead before Slipstream, which shed David Millar in the last km, blasted across the finish line with the day’s fastest time.

Astana finished next with a 27:01, and Euskaltel followed suit with a 27:49, the second slowest time of the day. (Francaise des Jeux’s 27:59 was the slowest.) CSC posted the day’s fastest time (until then) at the 10-km checkpoint, but Slipstream finished well and the Danish squad might have faded slightly. Barloworld had the fastest 10-km time of the day but faded more than CSC to finish fifth in 26:46. High Road shed Kanstantsin Siutsiu and waited for him, which might have made the difference between winning and losing.

In the overall, Vande Velde leads teammates Dave Zabriskie and Ryder Hesjedal by fractions of a second. Stage 2 will be a challenge for the American squad in its bid to keep the maglia rosa. The 207-km ride from Cefalu to Agrigento is hilly and will end with a four-km climb. Will the Slipstreamers keep the overall lead, or will someone take it from them? If the latter, then who? Check in at www.roadcycling.com and find out!

April 28, 2008

Tour de Georgia - Final Results

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from the AP…

ATLANTA — Kanstantin Sivtsov kept his tires full Sunday. The rest was easy.

Sivtsov, competing in his first race in the United States, survived a rash of flat tires on the streets of Atlanta to win the Tour de Georgia.

 

Sivtsov won the week-long Georgia race as his Team High Road teammate Greg Henderson won the 63-mile final stage — 10 laps on a 6.3-mile course.

The course in downtown Atlanta was swept before the race, but late-morning rain washed debris back onto the streets, possibly including broken glass from the March 14 tornado that hit downtown Atlanta. Windows in high-rise hotels and office buildings near Centennial Olympic Park — the site of Sunday’s start and finish — are still being replaced.

According to one estimate, there were 17 flat tires in the first 30 minutes of Sunday’s final stage.

“The problem was the rain was kicking up a lot of debris on the road,” Henderson said. “As the course dried out a little more, that stuff doesn’t stick to your tires as much.”

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April 25, 2008

Tour de Georgia - Stage Four Results

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from VeloNews…

Starting the day one man down after Timmy Duggan’s frightful crash on Wednesday, an inspired Slipstream-Chipotle won the Tour de Georgia’s stage 4 team time trial Thursday at the Road Atlanta automotive raceway.

Slipstream rode four laps of Road Atlanta’s rolling 2.5-mile racetrack in 19:36, 3.41 seconds faster than Astana, at an average speed of 29.14 miles per hour.

The High Road team of race leader Greg Henderson finished third, 5.2 seconds back. Henderson retained the race lead, and because of time bonuses during the first three stages now sits 15 seconds ahead of race favorites Tom Danielson and Trent Lowe and 19 seconds ahead of race favorite Levi Leipheimer.

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April 24, 2008

Tour de Georgia - Stage Three Results

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from VeloNews…

After two slight misfires, High Road’s heavy artillery got its coordinates dialed Wednesday, firing Greg Henderson into the yellow jersey with an explosive win on stage 3 of the Tour de Georgia. Toyota-United’s Ivan Dominguez, winner of stage 1, lost the leader’s jersey when he came off the group in the hilly closing circuits of Gainesville.

With less than a kilometer to go, George Hincapie wound up High Road’s lead-out with Tour Down Under winner André Greipel on his wheel. Greipel, a big sprinter himself, took over right before the crest of a hill at 300 meters to go. Henderson jumped on the fast, downhill finish and bombed across the line, Greipel on his flank and Slipstream-Chipotle’s Tyler Farrar just behind for third.

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April 23, 2008

Tour de Georgia - Stage Two Results

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from VeloNews…

A tender hand didn’t slow CSC’s J.J. Haedo in the sprint finale of the second stage of the Tour de Georgia. Haedo took a convincing win in Augusta ahead of High Road’s Greg Henderson, stage 1 winner Ivan Dominguez (Toyota-United) and Tyler Farrar (Slipstream-Chipotle).

Just a week out of a cast, Haedo is riding Georgia with his left hand heavily taped.

Tuesday’s flat to rolling stage from Statesboro concluded after two, 5-mile laps of Augusta that ventured across the Savannah River into South Carolina.

A few riders went down coming into the final corner, but the crash occurred about 15 riders back and didn’t disrupt the contenders. Toyota’s Henk Vogels and Dominique Rollin led out the sprint from almost 1km to go. Rollin took Dominguez out of the last corner, and Dominguez jumped with 200m to go. It was just a little too soon. After waiting on the wheel for a few pedal strokes, Haedo launched past Dominguez so fast that the pair joked afterwards about Dominguez’s helmet getting blown off.

By finishing third, Dominguez keeps the leader’s jersey for another day.

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April 22, 2008

Tour de Georgia - Stage One Results

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from VeloNews…

The sixth Tour de Georgia began Monday with a short and — for Toyota-United — sweet stage from Tybee Island into Savannah. Ivan Dominguez battled his way through the well-orchestrated lead-outs of Gerolsteiner and High Road to take a commanding sprint win on the 70.4-mile flat stage ahead of Jelly Belly’s Nic Sanderson and Gerolsteiner’s Robert Förster.

“With 2K to go I had my guys in front of me: [Ivan] Stevic, Henk [Vogels] and Dominque [Rollin],” Dominguez said. “I was telling them to keep it calm, that we go at the right time. At 1K Henk went, and at the same time [George] Hincapie went. So Henk got right on his wheel. At 500 meters Dominque went, and I was on him. He was going so fast I thought I would have a hard time coming around.

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April 18, 2008

Race Preview: 2008 Tour de Georgia

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from Velonews…

With no individual time trial and a trip planned up the steep Brasstown Bald mountain, the seven-day 2008 Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T, appears to be a climber’s race. Odds-on race favorites include 2006 overall winner Tom Danielson (Slipstream-Chipotle), Astana’s U.S. national champion Levi Leipheimer and Rock Racing’s Spanish climbing sensation Oscar Sevilla.

However, as last year’s Tour de Georgia proved, when a 13-man breakaway took 29 minutes on the race’s GC favorites, stage races don’t always go according to plan.

No defending champ, but several former winners …

Last year’s race winner, Janez Brajkovic (Astana), will not be in Georgia to defend his title. The 2007 runner-up, American Christian Vande Velde (Slipstream) will return to Georgia.

Two former overall winners return to Georgia — Danielson, overall winner in 2005, and Astana’s Chris Horner, who won the inaugural race in 2003, prior to the introduction of the climb up Brasstown. Horner was originally scheduled to race Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race, but was asked to fly to Georgia.

“The team is going for the win in Georgia,” Horner told VeloNews.

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March 21, 2008

Slipstream vow to bring fresh breeze to Tour

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by Julien Pretot

PARIS, March 21 (Reuters) - Newcomers Slipstream vowed to bring a fresh breeze to the Tour de France after being invited to cycling’s greatest stage race.

Slipstream, a ProContinental team, will hit the French roads with two other second-division teams that have already competed in the Tour and 17 ProTour teams.

However, team owner Doug Ellis was undaunted by the task awaiting his riders.

“There are a lot of experienced riders in the team, with two having worn the yellow jersey, David Millar and David Zabriskie,” Ellis told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“I think (Tour organisers) ASO saw there was experience in our team. They are also interested in getting access to the U.S. cycling audience, and we have so many U.S. riders in the team,” he added.

Led by Zabriskie, the only U.S. rider to have won at least one stage in all three big Tours (France, Italy and Spain), the team has 14 Americans on its 25-strong roster.

This gives ASO an opportunity to lure back the American audience three years after seven-times winner Lance Armstrong retired.

Ellis promised that his team, under the guidance of former professional rider and founder Jonathan Vaughters, would stand out during the Tour.

ANTI-DOPING STANCE

“We’re not only going for publicity. We are going for the yellow jersey, to take it and try to hold on to it,” Ellis said.

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