Contador Fights Off Schleck
July 25, 2010
Alberto Contador has virtually claimed the 2010 tour de France cycling crown after a strong performance in the stage 19 time trial.
The Spaniard stretched his lead to 39 seconds over Andy Schleck after going into the stage with an eight-second lead. The 52km time trial was won by Fabian Cancellara.
As the final stage is normally not contested by they yellow jersey rivals it is likely that Contador will claim his third race title. Schleck is set to come in second as he did in 2009. Last year he was 4 minutes 11 seconds behind the race winner so this year he has improved.
Maybe next year is the one for Schleck.
What happened while I was away
July 16, 2010
I have just returned from a ten night cruise on the Pacific Jewel. While onboard I had limited internet access so was not able to post to this blog. Since my return I have been catching up with what has happened in the world of sport.
The big news was of course Spain winning the World Cup soccer, or was it LeBron James deciding to leave the Cavs and signup with the Miami Heat?
Spain defeated the Netherlands 1-0 in extra-time. I managed to watch some of the match on the ship and was glad to see Spain win. The Netherlands came so close to scoring when a shot by Arjen Robben was just deflected wide by the boot of the Spanish keeper Iker Casillas. As the teams battled it out in extra-time it was Andres Iniesta’s 116th-minute strike that saw Spain get the one goal that gave them the World Cup victory.
The big news in the NBA was of course the LeBron James decision to join Miami Heat and create the dream team of himself, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. He said the reason was that he wants to win championships. You can see the reasons why for yourself in the video below.
Mark Webber winning the Brittish Formula One grand prix was another big item. Webber was a bit annoyed with his team after they gave exclusive use of an updated front wing to Sebastian Vettel. Vettel took pole ahead of Webber however the Australian got the jump on his teammate at the start of the race and was never headed. The win moved Webber to third on the driver’s championship.
“I’ve always loved Silverstone,” said Mark. “I won at the track in Formula Ford, Formula 3000 and in Sportscars and to win there in F1 is the icing on the cake. The British Grand Prix is one of the most prestigious races on the calendar; every driver wants to win it and I’ve now got the trophy sitting on my mantelpiece.”
Another big event taking place right now is le Tour de France. I saw that Australia’s Cadel Evans had taken the leader’s yellow jersey only to see him drop off the pace in a later stage. It was revealed later that he had broken a bone in his elbow after a fall. Following stage 11 Evans was in 18th position 7 minutes 47 seconds behind race leader Andy Schleck.
The big news out of stage 11 was the disqualification of Mark Renshaw for headbutting Kiwi Julian Dean during a sprint finish.
Tour de France has started
July 3, 2010
Amongst all the excitement of the FIFA World Cup it has to be noted that the bid daddy of all cycling road races has started with a prologue ride in the Dutch city of Rotterdam.
The ride was just 5.5 miles through the rain-dampened streets.
Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara who the world and Olympic time trial champion grabbed the yellow jersey with a time of 10 minutes flat. Tony Martin was ten seconds behind, then David Millar at 20 seconds off the pace and Lance Armstrong was 22 seconds slower to hold down fourth spot.
The 2010 Tour de France is held over 20 stages and ends in Paris on Sunday July 25th.
Cycling – Tour Down Under
January 18, 2010
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
September 28, 2009
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?
July 23, 2009
“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?
July 18, 2009
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?
July 7, 2009
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
March 24, 2009
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
January 23, 2009
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.
