April 23rd, 2008

High Road’s Big Day

By Ashton | Add a Comment »

Team High Road’s Kim Kirchen won the 72nd and Gregory Henderson won le Tour de Georgia’s third stage as the sun crossed another continent later that same day. Those victories continued the string commenced about a week earlier as sprinter Mark Cavendish repeated as winner of Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen. High Road’s success has not quite equaled that enjoyed so far this year by CSC and Quick Step, but the remnants of the former T-Mobile squad evidently has decided to try to prove that it is worthy of a sponsor.

All that bodes well as the Georgia Tour heads into the mountains. In addition to strong Gerolsteiner and CSC (who also is riding hard to win a new sponsor next year) teams, High Road faces an Astana team that still is trying to prove it should not have been left out of le Tour de France and the other UCI events. Throw in highly motivated continental teams like Toyota United and Health Net, and more Georgia fire works certainly are in store.

April 3rd, 2008

A Cavendish Cavalcade

By Ashton | 1 Comment »

Mark Cavendish, the Team High Road sprinter from Great Britain who made his name riding indoor tracks, won the second and third stages of the Three Days of De Panne and followed it with a respectable finish in the closing time trial. Cavendish had to sprint from deep in the pack to win the second stage, reminiscent of one of Robbie McEwen’s finishes after a crach or puncture in the Tour de France last year. He had to manufacture a gap near the end of the third stage, barely easing out Liquigas’ Francesco Chicchi, after near constant bumping and pusing among the sprinters in the last 600-800 meters. Rabobank’s Joost Posthuma edged out Manuel Quinziato of Liquigas by two seconds for the General Classification Championship by virtue of his dominating performance in the closing time trial. Any fan would enjoy watching the finish of Stages 2 and 3a of this exciting race.

February 7th, 2008

Upcoming races and their profiles!

By Brett | Add a Comment »

February 17-24 is the Tour of California, which begins with a Prologue in Palo Alto.

March 1 is the Omloop Het Volk, which kicks off the Spring Classics. With Filippo Pozzato as the defending champion, it should be a good indicator of the condition of the Cobblestone warriors.

March 2 is the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. Tom Boonen won last year’s edition after finishing 3rd the previous day in the Omloop.

March 8 is the Monte Paschi Eroica, potentially the next great Spring Classic. The first edition, held on October 9, 2007, was won by Alexandr Kolobnev of Team CSC. Since then, the race has been moved up to this early date to fall in line with the Spring Classics.

March 9-16 is Paris - Nice, but they have yet to release the route details, but they have released the Stages:
Prologue Sunday, March 9th 9.3 km Amilly TT
Stage 1 Monday, March 10th TBA km Amilly-Nevers
Stage 2 Tuesday, March 11th TBA km Nevers-Belleville/Saone
Stage 3 Wednesday, March 12th TBA km Fleurie-Saint-Étienne
Stage 4 Thursday, March 13th TBA km Montélimar-Mont-Serein (Ventoux)
Stage 5 Friday, March 14th TBA km Althen-des-Paluds-Sisteron
Stage 6 Saturday, March 15th TBA km Sisteron-Cannes
Stage 7 Sunday, March 16th TBA km Nice-Nice

March 12-18 is Tirreno-Adriatico, won last year by Andreas Kloden:
Stage 1 Wednesday, March 12th CIVITAVECCHIA-CIVITAVECCHIA (Km 160)
Stage 2 Thursday, March 13th CIVITAVECCHIA-GUBBIO (Km 203)
Stage 3 Friday, March 14th GUBBIO-MONTELUPONE (Km 195)
Stage 4 Saturday, March 15th PORTO RECANATI-CIVITANOVA MARCHE (Km 167)
Stage 5 Sunday, March 16th MACERATA-RECANATI (crono individuale) (Km 26)
Stage 6 Monday, March 17th CIVITANOVA MARCHE-CASTELFIDARDO (Km 196)
Stage 7 Tuesday, March 18th S. BENEDETTO DEL TRONTO-S.BENEDETTO DEL TRONTO (Km 176)

All of this will lead up to Milan-Sanremo, on March 22, which is one of the best sprinter’s races. The profile hasn’t been released yet for the 2008 Edition, but should be very similar to this. Our roving reporter, Jessie, will be there for coverage….

January 29th, 2008

Quick Step’s Qatar Quest

By Ashton | Add a Comment »

Team Quick Step sent a very strong team to Qatar, obviously intent to have Tom Boonen leave wearing the winner’s Gold Jersey. They have made their intentions known at every step so far.

David Millar obviously wanted to make a statement with his new team Slipstream/Chipotle. He practically dragged his following four riders across the finish line of the Qatar Prolog with the then-fastest finishing time, five seconds ahead of Skil-Shimano and six seconds faster than the experienced Liquigas Squad. But Boonen was not to be outdone. Quick Step probably found partial seconds in their skilled maneuvering of the several round-abouts on the course and then Boonen muscled his team to the finish to take first place two seconds faster than Slipstream. Matteo Tosatto crossed the line first, but only after Boonen made a long pull up front down the stretch.

Quick Step evidently came to Qatar determined to control every aspect of this race. They have stayed at or near the front in each of the first two stages setting a tempo that has stretched the Pelaton for at least the last 10km, if not longer. Several other teams have tried to establish their trains at the finish, but they either have attacked too early or too late and Boonen has captured the bonus seconds by winning each of the first two sprints.

The hi lites available at cycling.tv definiitely are worth watching because the pressure starts at the beginning of each race day and never relents. It will be interesting to see whether Quick Step can maintain the pace necessary to win every stage because it looks like no one will be able to catch Boonen at this point.

January 23rd, 2008

Team High Road Wins TDU’s 2nd Stage

By Ashton | 1 Comment »

German rider Andre Greipel frustrated all the local riders by outsprinting them to the finish of the second state of Australia’s Tour Down Under. This represents the first stage win for Team High Road under its present name. Here a link to the UK’s Daily Telegraph video that includes the finish.

Australian rider Graeme Brown of the Rabobank team now leads the GC, followed by Greipel, Stage One winner Mark Renshaw, and Caisse D’Epargne’s Jose Rojas, who all are four seconds back. Mickael Buffaz (Cofidis) remains the points classification leader and Philippe Gilbert (Francaise Des Jeux) still leads the mountains classification.

January 22nd, 2008

Credit Agricole’s Mark Renshaw Wins First Stage of Tour of Australia

By Ashton | Add a Comment »

The Australian outsprinted Spaniard Jose Rojas of Caisse d’Epargne to take his first tour victory on his native soil in the first stage raced in 2008. Cycling.tv broadcast only about 25 minutes of hilites, but here is a link to the official race complete report.

It wasn’t in real time but it certainly was good to see some actual racing again after these past three months of doping and political reports. I am sure all of us hope to avoid a season like last year’s that was filled with repeated, unpleasant interruptions.

Terry McEwen was seen living the true spirit of cycling, taking water bottles up to his teammates in the middle of a stage that almost certainly was going to end in a sprint. Team High Road was hilited by Phil and Paul during their coverage, but they did not play any major parts in the race or the finish today.

A three man break consiting of the Australian Team’s Richie Porte, Cofidis’ Mickael Buffaz, and Dimitri Champion from Bouygues Telecom stayed away for about 75 km and was brought back in about 8 km before the finish. I seem to recall Buffaz took maximun points with Champion finishing second at both of the intermediate sprints. Philippe Gilbert of Francaise Des Jeux won the King of the Mountain points on the one substantial climb of the day.

It sure is good to have the boys back on their bikes.

January 17th, 2008

Welcome Back Pro Tour Cycling With The Tour Down Under

By Ashton | Add a Comment »

The Down Under’s first stage will kick off on Tuesday, January 22nd, and the Tour Down Under Classic on Sunday, January 20th. A full field will be competing, including local favorites CSC’s Stuart O’Grady and Robby McEwen of the Lotto team. CheChu (Jose Luis Rubiera) will make his Team Astana debut. This also will be my first chance to see Team High Road.

After a full winter of almost nothing but stories about doping and with Bama Basketball looking like it’s heading toward the tank, I can hardly wait to watch some live road racing again. So break out your bike if the weather is right in your area, peddal those cobwebs off the rusty muscles and joints, grab a mug of hot cider or a cup of coffee, and let’s get ready to enjoy The Tour Down Under together.

I can hardly wait!

December 27th, 2007

New North American Team With A Special Twist

By Ashton | Add a Comment »

Team Type 1 consists exclusively of riders who suffer from Type 1 Diabetes. Here is a link to their official web site. According to a recent Cycling News report, Team Type 1 intends to participate in North American UCI sanctioned races during the 2008 season.

I sure hope the entire story is true. Cycling could use some good news.

December 23rd, 2007

Big Spill at Revolution 2 in Melbourne!

By Brett | Add a Comment »

In the Future Stars Double Kilo Dash, Trevor Griffiths dominated the Under 18 Men’s racing with three wins from three starts, even if much of the field was nursing injuries from the spectacular final lap pile-up in the opening 2000 metre scratch race. Riders tangled at fourth wheel entering the back straight, and slid across the track; causing a chain reaction that left the following riders nowhere to go. In all, thirteen riders came down, with Toby Dite’s double cartwheel and face first rail slide along the track fence sure to feature on TV and internet clips around the world. Amazingly, all riders walked away from the carnage and most were able to resume racing.

December 13th, 2007

Happy Holidays!

By Jessica | Add a Comment »

It’s been awhile since any of us have posted over here, but don’t think that means we haven’t been thinking about it. So, let us take a moment to wish you all a very happy holiday season, with a little help from the folks at Specialized, who put together this lovely melody - played entirely on bicycle parts.

(The video above is good, but for a higher quality visual experience go directly to Specialized’s website.)

Happy holidays, everyone, and let’s hope next year’s cycling season is a little more scandal-free than last year!