House wins Tour of South Africa

Kristian House has won the Tour of South Africa after finishing safely in the peloton on today's final stage. House won with a breakaway of over two minutes on stage 1 and was then able to hold onto the lead throughout the race. The win is his second international stage race victory after the FBD Insurance Ras in 2006.

Overall Result
1. Kristian House - Rapha-Condor-Sharp
2. Johann Rabie - Bonitas +2'09"
3. Daryl Impey - MTN-Qhubeka +2'11"

Belgian season kicks off

The Belgian cycling season starts this weekend with the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne races. Threee British riders will be taking part in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday for both Sky and Garmin-Cervelo.

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Russell Downing - Sky
Jeremy Hunt - Sky
Ian Stannard - Sky
Roger Hammond - Garmin-Cervélo
Dan Lloyd - Garmin-Cervélo
David Millar - Garmin-Cervélo
Adam Blythe - Omega Pharma-Lotto

Ian Stannard will also be taking part in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne where he finished third last year in horrendous weather conditions. Several smaller teams will also take part in this race enabling Hamish Haynes and James Spragg to make their season debuts.

Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne
Jeremy Hunt - Sky
Ian Stannard - Sky
Dan Lloyd - Garmin-Cervélo
Hamish Haynes - Colba-Mercury-Dourphonie
Andrew Fenn - An Post-Sean Kelly Team
Mark McNally - An Post-Sean Kelly Team
James Spragg - Donckers Koffie-Jelly Belly

Meanwhile Dan McLay will be racing for the Omega Pharma-Lotto-Davo team in the Beverbeek Classic and in the Netherlands the Ster van Zwolle will be taking place with British teams Raleigh and Pasta Montegrappa-Zheroquadro in the race.

Ster van Zwolle
Matt Cronshaw - Raleigh
Dan Fleeman - Raleigh
Richard Handley - Raleigh
Matt Jones - Raleigh
Mark Holt - Pasta Montegrappa-Zheroquadro
David McLean - Pasta Montegrappa-Zheroquadro
Matt Myers - Pasta Montegrappa-Zheroquadro

House keeps lead in South Africa

Kristian House remains in contol of the Tour of South Africa after stages 3 and 4 of the race. The Rapha-Condor-Sharp finished in the leading group on both days to keep his 2'22" advantage intact. Team-mate Jonathan Tiernan-Locke has also kept with the leaders on the climbs to move to eigth place overall.


© raphacondor.cc

Overall Standings
1. Kristian House - Rapha-Condor-Sharp
2. Daryl Impey - MTN-Qhubeka +2'22"
3. Johann Rabie - Bonitas +2'22"

First victory of year for Cavendish

Mark Cavendish has won the final stage of the Tour of Oman. Cavendish comfortably outsprinted Russian rider Galimzyanov to take the victory in Mattrah.



Result
1. Mark Cavendish - HTC-High Road
2. Denis Galimzyanov - Katusha
3. Andrea Guardini - Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli

Kristian House grabs solo stage win

Kristian House of the Rapha-Condor-Sharp team won the first stage of the new Tour of South Africa today. House had broken away with Martin Blaha but dropped the Czech rider with at least 50km still to go. House had a lead of over seven minutes at one point and held on to two minutes advantage at the finish perhaps due to a miscalculation from the chasing peloton arising from the lack of team radios.

Result
1. Kristian House - Rapha-Condor-Sharp
2. Herman Fouche - DCM +2'22"
3. Milan Kadlec - Czech Republic +2'22"

Cummings wins stage 3 in Algarve

Steve Cummings has won stage 3 of the Volta ao Algarve from Tavira to the climb of Alto do Malhão. Cummings sprinted to the victory from a group of five including Alberto Contador at the end of the 2.6km climb. The British rider also now leads the general classification by six seconds over Contador.



Result
1. Steve Cummings - Sky
2. Tejay Van Garderen - HTC-Highroad
3. Alberto Contador - Saxo Bank-Sungard

Volta ao Algarve

The Volta ao Algarve starts on Tuesday with the big news being that Alberto Contador will take part having been cleared of doping by the Spanish cycling federation. However there are also three British riders taking part:

David Millar - Garmin-Cervélo
Tomás Swift-Metcalfe - Tavira-Prio
Charly Wegelius - UnitedHealthcare

Update: Steve Cummings is also taking part in the race for Sky despite not originally being scheduled to do so.

Tour of Oman stage 1 - Bos wins, Cavendish second

Mumbai roundup

British teams Endura Racing and Motorpoint were in the thick of the action in Mumbai over the weekend, with Ian Wilkinson finishing fifth in the first race on Friday. In the criterium race in Mumbai on Sunday Jonathan McEvoy finished in third place in the sprint with Wilkinson in fourth and team-mate Ian Bibby in fifth.

Nashik Cyclothon - Tour de Mumbai I
1. Elia Viviani - Liquigas
2. Robbie McEwen - Radioshack
3. Tyler Day - Bonitas
4. Robbie Hunter - Radioshack
5. Ian Wilkinson - Endura Racing

Mumbai Cyclothon - Tour de Mumbai II
1. Robbie Hunter - Radioshack
2. Elia Viviani - Liquigas
3. Jonathan McEvoy - Motorpoint
4. Ian Wilkinson - Endura Racing
5. Ian Bibby - Motorpoint

Endura and Motorpoint in India

Both the Endura Racing and Motorpoint squads are in India for the two one-day races that make up the Tour de Mumbai. Other teams in the race include Liquigas, Radioshack and Team Type 1. Pole Marcin Bialoblocki was due to be part of the Motorpoint team but failed to receive his visa in time. The first race, which takes place on Friday, is 176km and includes 6 finishing laps around the city of Nasik.

Endura Racing Rob Hayles James Moss Evan Oliphant Scott Thwaites Callum Wilkinson Ian Wilkinson

Motorpoint Ian Bibby Will Bjergfelt Johnny McEvoy James Sampson Peter Williams

Another day for strongmen in Qatar

Heinrich Haussler won his second stage in a row on another day where strong winds in Qatar caused big splits in the peloton. Russell Downing and Andrew Fenn were in the day's breakaway of six but were swept up on the final 50km circuit. In a high-speed finale, a lead group of 25 riders were together 6km from the finish including Mark Cavendish but the Manx rider lost contact in an echelon and finished 1'33" down on the winner.

Jeremy Hunt and Roger Hammond were able to stay in the lead group alongside the likes of Mark Renshaw, Daniele Bennati and Gert Steegmans but no-one was able to challenge Haussler in the sprint. Haussler is now the overall leader whilst Jeremy Hunt has moved up to fifth overall and Roger Hammond to seventh.

Tour Méditerranéan

The Tour Méditerranéan gets underway tomorrow with Both Sky and Endura Racing taking part. The Tour consists of five stages - finishing on Sunday with the climb up Mont Faron. The lineups for the British teams are as follows:

Endura Racing Alexandre Blain Jack Bauer Iker Camaño Dave Clarke Maarten De Jonge René Mandri Rob Partridge Alexander Wetterhall

Sky Davide Appollonio Michael Barry Kjell Carlström Steve Cummings Christian Knees Serge Pauwels Morris Possoni Xabier Zandio

Tour of Qatar prologue

Lars Boom was victorious in the prologue around the Cultural Village in Doha today. The Dutch star attacked the course and finished four seconds quicker than Fabian Cancellara. Alex Dowsett performed well on his Sky debut by setting the fifth best time, by contrast Mark Cavendish had a day to forget afther crashing and eventually rolling home in last place.

Result
1. Lars Boom - Rabobank
2. Fabian Cancellara - Leopard-Trek +4"
3. Tom Veelers - Skil-Shimano +5"
4. Juan Antonio Flecha - Sky +5"
5. Alex Dowsett - Sky +6"

Tour of Qatar

The Tour of Qatar starts on Sunday and will be the first race of the season for many British riders. Alex Dowsett will be making his debut for the Sky team and will be looking to impress in 2km prologue time-trial. The British riders starting the race are as follows:

An Post-Sean Kelly
Andrew Fenn
Mark McNally

Garmin-Cervélo
Dan Lloyd

HTC-Highroad
Mark Cavendish

Sky
Russ Downing
Alex Dowsett
Jeremy Hunt
Ian Stannard
Bradley Wiggins