Bont Rider Chris Sutton Wins in Britain!

Chris Sutton (Garmin-Slipstream) won the battle of the sprinters in York today at the end of stage one of the Tour of Britain. Sutton held off Michel Merlo (Barloworld) and Ben Swift (Team Katusha) as the peloton thundered down the narrow finishing straight in the Yorkshire city.

Sutton was delighted to have won the sunny 173km stage, which averaged nearly 42kph. "Wearing the yellow jersey is one of the highlights of my career," said Sutton afterwards. "I came so close to winning a couple of stages last year and to sprint for myself and win one is kinda nice. Our team is on a roll at the moment with three victories in the last 24 hours."

Garmin-Slipstream rode on the front for long periods to bring Sutton into contention for the sprint.

"The team knew I was motivated," said Sutton: "I told them I could win three or four stages here. They stuck their heads out into the wind and rode on the front. It is hard to control a bike race with only six riders but everyone is in the same boat and we pulled it off today.

"Anything is possible now and I just have to take it day by day. You can have good legs one day and bad ones the next. It's a good sign for me because I didn't feel super great today but still pulled off the win and I can only get better from here, I hope. For me to win the overall is a big ask. I would love to win the stage in London."

 

Bont`s Hendy wind Veulta stage 3!

They say that only two things in life are inevitable: death and taxes. Most forget to add that in cycling there's a third inevitability - the break on a dead-flat stage of a grand tour is always going to be swallowed up as the sprinters chew up the offerings available.

Today in Venlo that preordained fate met those brave enough to break away. Another day in Holland - albeit via Germany - tailored to sprinters delivered more rich rewards for the fast men. It wasn't without a trio of souls whose intentions were good, but in reality the three escapees never stood a chance.

What was unpredicted was the day's winner - New Zealander Greg Henderson benefited from the work done by his Columbia-HTC teammates in the final five kilometres to take his first win in a grand tour. The affable kiwi wasn't the intended 'go to man' but when he found himself in second wheel, sitting behind Borut Bozic, with only a handful of metres remaining, it was going to be Henderson's day.

Just as compatriot Hayden Roulston has enjoyed a fantastic resurgence this season with Cervélo TestTeam, his former national track teammate Henderson has carved himself a solid position in Columbia-HTC's squad and his win in Venlo is evidence of this. The 2004 scratch race world champion showed the speed he is capable of, finishing ahead of Bozic and Oscar Freire.

It moved Henderson to second on the overall standings, just six seconds behind Fabian Cancellara, who will wear the golden jersey heading into tomorrow's tricky stage to Liège. Gerald Ciolek moves down to third overall, a further two seconds behind Henderson.

"We were setting up the sprint for [André] Greipel - all day we were saying, 'Let's set it up for André'. Just after a k to go though, there was a sharp corner and Vacansoleil came flying through," said Henderson. "I was waiting and looking for Greipel but it was 150 metres to go so I thought I better go myself."

Henderson was jovial when informed it was the team's 72nd victory this season before paying tribute to the work done by team owner Bob Stapleton and directeur sportif Rolf Aldag. "Whenever there's a sprint stage, Columbia-HTC is always well represented," he added.