Bont`s Roulston 3rd in tour Stage!

  

18-Jul-2009: Cervélo Test Team was once again in the thick of the action Saturday at the 2009 Tour de France as Hayden Roulston joined the winning 12-man breakaway and attacked to finish third in the 199km 14^th stage from Colmar to Besancon.

 

Russian rider Serguei Ivanov attacked with about 11km to go to solo to victory. Roulston chased in vain, but the Russian crossed the line 16 seconds clear.

 

“I was there to win the stage. You had to be strong and smart to win today, and I just missed out, so I am a little bit disappointed,” said Roulston, a winner of two Olympic medals on the track last summer in Beijing. “It’s always a 50-50 thing (when a rider attacks out of break), do you or don’t you. Do you chase and let someone else attack you or do you wait? There was still 10km to go (when Ivanov attacked), so I waited. It turns out it was a harder day than people thought.”

Albasini Wins Tour of Austria wearing Bonts!

 

The Columbia-HTC team added to its tally of victories in the Tour of Austria on Sunday, delivering Andre Greipel to the sprint victory and safely ushering Michael Albasini to the overall win in Vienna. Greipel secured the win in the sprint classification thanks to his third stage victory.

"I'm very proud of this win because it's the first stage race victory for Columbia-HTC this season, and it was a real team effort, too" Albasini said. "We only had six riders for a lot of the race, and that made it difficult to control at times, but we managed to do it. I'm very grateful to my teammates for all the hard work they did. Over the last two years I've worked hard to improve my climbing and that has helped me win here. It's very encouraging."

Coming into the penultimate stage, Albasini had just 11 seconds on Italian

 

Giampaolo Caruso, but put in a strong performance to extend his lead in the overall. "Time trialling remains my biggest weak point, but I managed to get through the race's time trial and then after that I could begin to think about celebrating overall," said Albasini

Bont`s Albasini extends overall lead on penultimate stage

Team Columbia-HTC's Michael Albasini pulled himself closer to the overall victory in the Tour of Austria with a solid time trial on Saturday. With his fifth place, the Swiss rider was able to extend his lead in the general classification to 1:12 over Ruslan Pidgornyy (ISD). 

Rabobank's Koos Moerenhout was the victor on the day, edging out Garmin-Slipstream's Svein Tuft by just two seconds.

Albasini, who does not normally excel in the time trial, was surprised with his result on the day. "Today it was an absolute surprise for me. I have done the best time trial ever," he said. "Now we have to ride well at tomorrows stage to Vienna and I can celebrate my first victory of this tour."

Time trial specialist Pidgornyy moved into second overall thanks to a poor performance by previous second place rider Giampaolo Caruso, who lost three minutes to Albasini. Yet the day was still a disappointment for the Ukrainian, who had hoped to win the stage

Bont`s Greg Henderson gives his take on the Tour

Hey there.

 TDF. My dark horse is Bradley wiggins. He won't beat Contador. Noone will actually. But he has stripped so much weight and now shows his class on the road switching from the track.

I really believe Astana will have 2 on the podium. This can be dangerous as everybody knows you need teammates to win the Tour. I still believe Contador will win.

Our GC hope will probably be Tony Martin the young German. He also has stripped a ton of weight but still has so much power and strength. Unfortunately Kim won't be ready in time and Mic wasn't up to scratch for a good GC after such a long season already including the Giro. He is a class rider but a sprained verterbrae isn't helping things now and is struggling to put power through the pedals.

Kiwis in the tour is so cool. I think if we design a road program with some proper guidance or direction and try to move away from our track orientated mentality then we can definitely see more guys riding the tour.

Julian is pure class. He has been racing at this level for so long now and delivers time and time again in positioning Tyler in the sprints.

Roly is going to have a hard time because I know the pressure he puts on himself. Its unfair to think for one minute that he can support sastre in the mountains. And then TDF sprints are crazy and finding the front to guide Hushovd will be very difficult for him also. I really hope Roly doesn't stress himself about these situations and just concentrates on riding from day to day. If Sastre get the Jersey then Roly will be perfect to ride the front. He is as strong as a ox on the flat.

Green jersey will be won by Cav if everything goes along incident free. Too many guys haven't scored points on some days. And our train is too good for anyone ...bar Julz...to come close too. But even Julz would have a problem competing against our boys.

Poor ol Cadel. Has the legs for the podium but unfortunately is let down by his team. He has no support up high in the mountains and his ttt was poor. But he is a fighter and will never say die.

I'm interested to see if there will be any in house fighting in Astana. You would think under Bruynel he will have this under control. If there is any then that's when other teams could take advantage. But...Kloden looks already set to ride for LA and AC.

I think Tony Martin will ride our GC. Maybe Kim will get better but the others will be looking for stages or helping Cav in the groupetto

Later,

Greg.

 

 

Sky-lee`s Report

 

Hi Everyone,

 

I have now been in Holland for a week now and had three races. I am over here with a great bunch of girls and i'm very honoured to be part of a very highly respected cycling group which includes : Josephine Tomic , Tess Downing, Sarah Kent, Ashlee Ankudinoff and Belinda Goss will be joining us after the Giro.

 

Our first race saw us in a small town called Epe which had some really great cafe. As 40mins before our race we were all having a cafine fix so we would be ready to rock and roll for our first race. As we got of the plane the day before the race our coach Gary Sutton didn't put to much stress on us about getting a great result at this race as we all were still abit jetlag. For four of us this was our first europen race Josie raced here last year so she know what to exspect. When we all got to the start line and looked up and the lap counter said 60 laps we look at each other and said ach. The race sure it start from the gun shoot. The girls at the front of the start line took off like rockets making it pretty hard for the once that got called up last like myself.It didn't take us to long to get into the swing of thing as we all slow moved up to the front. Josie and tess found the front of the bunch quite early in the race but myself it took me a while. Once i got to the front i look up at the lap counter and i saw 25 to go i don't think i should of as i think this played with my head abit. The next thing i saw was Josie pulling off to the side of the road with something wrong with her bike.. As she done this the chef told her she can still hop back in the race but she couldn't race for a place or couldn't help your team mates. This really put a blow to this as with 5 laps to go Josie and i were in great spot to help each other out but then she tells me i have to go to the back i can't help you. So then for the next couple of laps i tried to stay in the top 5. We get the bell lap  i was sitting second wheel thinking to myself i have a great chance from here. But coming into the 3rd last corner i lost to many place through the corner and finished up 7th. At the end of the day we were all happy to get through the race since it was our first race and all. Sarah had a great ride since she was sick for the race with just dropping off with 10 to go.

 

The next day we were lucky and had no racing. Then came along Saturday were we heading to a town called Zwijndrecht for our second race. The course was diffrent to what we have race on before as every straight was cobble stone. Sarah sat out for this race as her health wasn't 100%. Having the cobble stone meant no free pedaling at all.With this race i was happy how i rode the race for once i rode the 10 ten in the bunch nearly all day covering what i could. With 7 laps to go saw Josie and one other girl up the road so for the rest of the race saw myself and the other girls chasing everything. Then with a lap to go Josie attacked the other girls endede up taking the win solo. And my finishing 14th.

 

Sunday saw us turning up at Leiderorp for our third race. This race had a U turn init and lot of us found this a bit tuff. Before 10mins into the race see Tess in a break with one other girl. So for the rest of us it saw as on the defensive. Tess stayed out there to 10 to go then Josie and three other joined her. Josie ened up second and Tess 5th. Tess and Josie had a great day and Sarah, Ash played a great team role.

 

 

 Thats all to next time.

 

 

Skye-lee

BONT`S Albasini Holds on to Tour of Austria Lead

Czech rider Jan Barta (KTM Junkers) claimed the first win of his professional career when he attacked out of the breakaway group on the Tour of Austria's longest stage. Barta powered away to the win nine seconds ahead of Cervelo's Joaquin Novoa.

Both riders were part of a five man breakaway that escaped the field after a rapid and aggressive start to the 217.2km stage. The group, also containing Oliver Kaisen (Silence-Lotto), Reto Hollenstein (Voralberg Corratec) and Luis Angel Mate Mardones (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni), went clear 70km into the stage.

With none of the riders a threat to Michael Albasini's overall lead, the Columbia-HTC team was content to let the five men roll away and gain large chunks of time.  Hollenstein was the best placed on GC, some 20 minutes behind Albasini. The break was allowed to gain up to 14 minutes before the Columbia-HTC team got to work.

The five men worked together until the final mountain sprint with 20km to go, then the gloves came off. After a series of attacks and counter-attacks, Barta broke free with 4.5km to go and only Menedez continued to chase. Barta took the sprint easily, while the remaining three finished a minute behind.

The peloton was led home by Columbia's Andre Greipel nearly 11 minutes

 

Bont`s Albasini Wins in Austria !

Swiss rider Michael Albasini took the overall leader from his teammate Andre Greipel on the second stage of the Tour of Austria. The Columbia-HTC rider took the stage win atop the Kitzbuehler Horn five seconds in front of last years winner in the mountain general classification Giampaolo Caruso and Ruslan Pidgornyy to give his team its second stage and second yellow jersey of the race.

"It was a spectacular victory. Michael managed to wear out all the other guys in a break on a really steep 10km final climb and finally he went for the win," said Columbia-HTC directeur sportif Tristan Hoffman. "He and [teammate] Gert Dockx had been away most of the day in a 13-rider break that always looked like it might be able to stay clear, and that's what happened.

Albasini broke away with 12 other riders in the first 20km of the stage, and was the sole survivor on the demanding 7.7km ascent to the finish line. Coming into the climb with a 2:30 deficit, Caruso rocketed from the bunch in search of the stage victory, but lost all chances when he suffered a flat tire. He finished just five seconds behind Albasini, and is now in second on GC at nine seconds.

"But it was a real team effort because Gert did a lot of the work to ensure the break stayed away," continued Hoffman. "Then Michael helped a bit because we wanted to be sure the move had a good few minutes at the bottom of the final climb. After the break started the ascent, Michael kept in front, and the group shrank to four and then two. He just wore them out!

"Finally Michael was able to win the stage, although it was close because a rider caught him with 200 metres to go. And now he's race leader as well."

It wasn't all good news for Columbia-HTC - the squad lost two of its riders, which makes the overall victory a harder task in the coming days. "We lost two riders today. Adam Hansen is sick and Kanstantsin Sivtsov pulled out because his wife is just about to give birth, so we'll have to play our cards right. Still, two wins in two days is a great result, and whatever happens it's been a very good race for us," said Hoffman.

Team VBR Performs in Fitchburg.

Hello all, Just completed the 4day stage race Fitchburg Classic, the 2nd oldest race in the USA. 113 riders competed in the 2009 event making it the biggest in history. All the top teams and riders in the US were present including the 7 time World Champion Jennie Longo. Team VBR powered by D7S won the Green points jersey easily by 55 points. Riders attending event were: Theresa Cliff-Ryan Jessie Maclean Trica Carnilla Davina Summers Sarah Maguire Stage 1 ITT Best placed rider 27th with Davina followed by Jessie, Theresa, Sarah then Trish. Stage 2, 5km/lap circuit race with a 12% grade hill on the finish straight. Theresa points sprints: 1st, 3x 2nd and 1x 3rd. Finish saw Theresa 4th, followed by Jessie, Sarah, Davina and Trish Green jersey: Kelly Benjamin (Colivita), Theresa 2nd by 10 points Stage 3, 64mile Road race 20km lap with rolling hills and a 3km climb to finish. Theresa scored a 3rd place points sprint putting her only 5 points down on Benjamin. Best placed rider was Theresa with a bunch finish pushing her into 27th overall followed by Jessie, Sarah, Davina and Trish. Green Jersey: Kelly Benjamin 70, Theresa 65 Stage 4, Criterium 1.5km/lap. Total of 28 laps. Theresa won 5 points sprints, 1x 2nd to win overall Sprint jersey by 35points. Finish saw Davina the highest place followed by Theresa, Jessie, Trish and Sarah. Green Jersey Overall: Theresa 180, Kelly Benjamin 125 Thank you all for your help to make this possible. Next the USA crits series or Iron Hill twilight. Gary Ryan VBR powered by Delta 7 Sports __

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