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Cycling – Tour Down Under

The professional cycling season kicks off this week with the Tour Down Under which runs from 19/1-24/1. It takes place in South Australia. It covers 800 kilometres (500 miles).

Stage 1 is 141km and will go from Clare to Tanunda.

The Tour Down Under once again features Lance Armstrong who will be riding with the new Team Radio Shack. Another big name to keep an eye on will be Australia’s Cadel Evans. He is also riding for a new team which is BMC Racing Team. Evans will be seen in the World Champions jersey after his big effort to capture the Road title.

The Tour Down Under consists of 19 seven man teams for a total field of 133 riders. The teams taking part in the race are:

Ag2r La Mondiale (France)
Astana (Kazakhstan)
BMC Racing Team (USA)
Caisse d’Epargne(Spain)
Euskaltel-Euskadi (Spain)
Footon-Servetto-Fuji (Spain)
Francaise des Jeux (France)
Garmin-Transitions (USA)
HTC-Columbia (USA)
Katusha (Rus)
Liquigas (Italy)
Milram (Germany)
Omega Pharma-Lotto (Belgium)
Quick Step (Belgium)
Rabobank (Netherlands)
RadioShack (USA)
Saxo Bank (Denmark)
Team Sky (GBR)
UniSA-Australia (Australia)

There are 24 Australian riders with some of the better know ones being Robbie McEwen riding for Team Katusha, Stuart O’Grady riding for Team Saxo Bank. The UNISA team is the only all-Australian team. Even though Garmin Transitions is a USA team four of the seven riders are from Australia.

It should be an interesting race. Lance Armstrong says based on pre-season training he is in better shape than last year however he does not expect to win. He said the main goal is to see someone from his team at least win a stage.

Cadel Evans wins cycling road race world championship

Cadel Evans failed to live up to expectations at this years Tour de France. He hit back with a third place in the recently completed Tour of Spain. He has now taken that a step further and done what no Australian rider has done in the past. Evans has won the world championship road racing title.

He setup the win in the 262.2km race when he made a solo break at the start of the final climb. The race was held in Switzerland not far from Evans’ home base in Europe. Next year he will defend his rainbow jersey when the championships are held near his Australian home at Barwon Heads. Geelong will host the 2010 championships.

Evans completed the race in six hours, 56 minutes and 26 seconds ahead of Russia’s Alexandr Kolobnev and Joaquin Rodriguez of Spain finished third, both were 27 seconds behind Evans. Fellow Australian Simon Gerrans was 10th.

Robbie McEwen is the only other Australian in the history of the event to win a medal. He took second place behind Mario Cipollini in 2002.

Evans had a strong team behind him. After an early breakaway he was helped by Michael Rogers who launched a crucial counter attack, then Stuart O’Grady, Wesley Sulzberger and Simon Clarke pushed the pace to help the peloton close the gap.

Later in the race a nine-man breakaway led by time trial champion Fabian Cancellara took charge. From that Evans launched a final attack which saw him claim gold.

‘‘The world’s been telling me for years I can’t win big races, can’t win one day races, because my job is to win stage races, and then today I come out and win the world championship, I don’t quite believe it.’’ Evans said after the race.

Armstrong a team player but is Contador?

“The harmony is back in the team, at least it was, we will see how everyone feels about what happened on the Colombiere,” admitted Astana team manager Bruyneel.

The above comment came after stage 17 of the Tour de France. It is about Alberto Contador who made a move that split his Astana team and allowed the Schleck brothers to move to second and third on the classification.

Frank Schleck won the 17th stage ahead of Contador and Andy Schleck.

Bruyneel had made it clear that Contador had gone against team orders when he made his break which only the Schleck brothers could match.

Instead of a possible 1-2-3 for Astana the Schleck brothers have moved up in the classification. The Astana team know that the individual time trial comes tomorrow and that Armstrong and Contador are far superior than the Luxembourg brothers. Astana’s main concern was Bradley Wiggins and they had done the job of dropping him.

It will be interesting to see how team Astana handle the singlemindedness displayed from Contador.

Stage 18 is a 40.5 time trial held in Annecy.

Stage Win For Aussie at Tour de France?

Heinrich Haussler is a name that not too many Australians were familiar with when he came onto the cycling scene around four years ago. You look at it and think it is a German. SBS commentators admitted the same when talking about him in years gone by. Why would Australians want to know about him?

It is not until you dig into his history that you become aware that he was actually born in Australia and spent the first 14 years of his life in Inverell and inland town in New South Wales, Australia. He was born to a German father and an Australian mother. He decided it was best for his cycling career to go to Germany when he was 15.

Haussler is now someone you can put down as a Tour de France stage winner. On a wet miserable day in the east of France and not far from his base in Germany Haussler took advantage of some steep climbs to break away from the field. It was a 200km stage from Vittel to Colmar.

It was after going over the summit of the category one-rated Col du Platzerwasel along with Sylvain Chavanel that the Cervelo team rider attacked on the descent to quickly open up a gap on the Frenchman.

Haussler, who said he loved the wet and cold conditions was now out on his own with the stage to be won. He had around a seven minute advantage as he headed towards the finish line in Colma . In the end he crossed 6min 43sec ahead of the peloton. The look on his face said it all as he crossed the line. He was overcome with emotion and thanks to his huge advantage he could enjoy the moment.

Chavanel really bombed and could only just manage to cross the finish line seconds ahead of the peloton. Spaniard Amets Txurruka of the Euskaltel team was second, at just over four minutes behind, while Frenchman Brice Feillu of Agritubel was third at 6:13.

In an interview after the stage it was clear that Heinrich Haussler had spent time in Australia as he still had more of an aussie accent than a German one. There is also talk of him now wanting to get and Australian cycling license which will see him compete for Australia in the future.

In the overall classification things did not change up front. Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong are still poised to snatch the yellow jersey from Rinaldo Nocentini who is just six seconds ahead of the Spaniard and eight ahead of Armstrong.

Not much is expected to change in stage 14, it is Sunday’s 207.5km 15th stage from Pontarlier to Verbier in Switzerland that is likely to see the yellow jersey hopefuls put up their hand.

Can Lance Armstrong win Le Tour de France?

The Tour de France started on Saturday in Monaco. The first stage was a time trial which was taken out by Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara. Lance Armstrong who is making his return to the tour after leaving the sport in 2005 completed the stage 40 seconds off the pace. This placed him 10th after day 1.

In the second day Armstrong just went along with the bunch and maintained 10th position. Stage three is where things have become interesting. With around 30km left in the stage the Columbia team decided to chase down a small breakaway. Much to everyone’s surprise when they did this the peloton was left behind.

A group of 29 riders ended up ahead of the rest with a nice gap back to the peleton. The group consisted of the entire Columbia team and more importantly, Lance Armstrong. As the stage unfolded it was Stage 2 winner Mark Cavendish who took the stage victory. He has to be the hottest sprinter around at the moment.

With Armstrong part of the winning group he now finds himself in third spot overall. He is still 40 seconds behind Cancellara who holds the Yellow jersey.

Many of the big names were caught out in the windy conditions that meant working together to chase down the breakaway. It has been said that 2007 winner Alberto Contador allowed the break to happen. According to French rider Christophe Le Mevel it was Contador who failed to stick with the wheel ahead of him and that created the gap.

Now with Armstrong sitting in third position the question has to be asked, Can Armstrong Win? The man himself is not ruling himself out. He won the tour seven times in the past and despite having a disrupted return to cycling he has experience on his side.

The tour continues with stage 4 on Tuesday. This stage is a team time trial and is to be held in Montpellier. The team time trial was dropped from the race after 2005 but obviously makes a return in 2009.

Armstrong Hurt In Race Fall

Lance Armstrong has broken his collarbone after taking a tumble in an event in Spain on Monday. He fell along with some other riders while competing in the first stage of the Tour of Castilla y Leon in Central Spain.

Armstrong was taken to hospital after the fall where he underwent an x-ray which revealed he had suffered a break in the middle of his right collarbone.

The cycling legend in now in doubt for the Giro d’Italia in May and also this will obviously hamper preparations for the Tour de France later this year.

Armstrong will head back to the US to recover from the accident. It is the first such injury for Armstrong.

Armstong Just One Of The Pack Down Under

Cycling great Lance Armstrong is in 39th place in the Tour Down Under after day 3 action. The third stage saw eight riders go out of the tour after going down in a crash early in the stage.

For Armstrong the event marks his comeback to professional cycling after several years in retirement. He has been keeping things low key this week as he does not want people to expect too much too soon.

In the third stage of six Armstrong crossed the line in 32nd place but was credited with the same time as the winner. Rabobank’s Graeme Brown took the stage. Allan Davis with team Quickstep holds the leader’s jersey.

The Tour Down Under runs from 18-25 January. It is held in South Australia and will end in Adelaide on Sunday.

After this event Armstrong heads back to the USA for his next race which is the Tour of California which starts on February 14.

One thing that did not impress Armstrong during stage three was a helicopter that hovered overhead for much of the day. “Also it’s a little nauseating listening to that thing all day long, no offence to helicopters”, Armstong said afterwards.

Lance Armstrong to return to cycling in Australia’s Tour Down Under

In good news for Australian cycling fans, Lance Armstrong will get back into professional cycling as he take his place in the Tour Down Under. The race takes place in South Australia and will run from January 20-25, 2009.

Armstrong recently announced he would make a comeback to cycling with the aim of winning his eighth Tour de France. He is also cycling once again to promote the fight against cancer worldwide.

Armstrong is himself a cancer survivor having overcome testicular cancer in the 90’s before going on to win his first of seven Tour de France titles in 1999.

The inclusion of Armstrong in the Tour Down Under is a huge boost for Australian cycling. Armstrong does have plenty of star appeal and his participation is great news.

Sastre draws inspiration from yellow jersey

In the time trial stage 20 of the tour de France it was Carlos Sastre who rode an inspired race to keep his challengers at bay. In the 53km time trial many expected Cadel Evans to chase him down.

It did not turn out this way as Sastre rode the time trial of his life to keep a lead of just over one minute going into the final stage. Evans was seventh in the stage and this was not good enough to grab the yellow jersey.

Unless there is some accident that claims Sastre on the final day it appears that the tour victory is his. There is an unwritten rule that prevents riders from challenging the yellow jersey on the 143km ride into Paris.

In stage 20 it was Stefan Schumacher who won the time trial as he powered home in 1 hour 3 minutes and 50 seconds.

Time trial to decide le Tour de France?

Since Carlos Sastre grabbed yellow at the summit of L’Alpe-d’Huez we have witnessed two flat stages that as expected did not see any changes in the top places in the tour.

The real action is likely to place in stage 20 on Saturday. The riders will participate in a 53km time trial that takes them from Cérilly to Saint-Amand-Montrond leaving the start at regular intervals. The stage is quite flat and is not very technical.

The key to the stage is just how much juice do the riders have left in the tank after battling it through the French Alps. In a one off time trial of this length Cadel Evans is always expected to be able to take around two minutes from Sastre.

Going into stage 20 Evans needs to make up 1 minute 34 seconds to be wearing yellow at the end of the stage, providing Denis Menchov does not better him. Frank Schleck and Bernhard Kohl are not expected to figure in proceedings during the time trial. This makes the tour a race between three riders. Sastre, Evans and Menchov.

Can Sastre use the inspiration of wearing the yellow jersey to keep him ahead of the chasing Evans and Menchov? All will be revealed on Saturday 26 July as the riders take to the roads of France.

There is some talk that if after the time trial there is a slim margin to one of the riders the final stage into Paris may be a competitive stage. In more recent years it has been more a procession stage where the riders just cruise into the French capital and no effort is made to change the placings.

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