Stannard 200m from winning Gent-Wevelgem

Ian Stannard came within 200m of winning the Gent-Wevelgem race today. Stannard had attacked his remaining two breakaway companions Sylvain Chavanel and Peter Sagan with 2km to go and the peloton closing them down. Stannard got a good gap initially and looked strong but was unable to hold off the sprinters all the way to the line.

Tom Boonen won the sprint ahead of Daniele Bennati, Tyler Farrar and Andre Greipel. Mark Cavendish had looked like he would also be there at the end but was the victim of a crash with 20km remaining which split the peloton in two and also denied the likes of Thor Hushovd, Chris Sutton and Robbie McEwen of a chance of victory.

Another Taiwanese podium for Dean Downing

Dean Downing finished in second place in the 6th stage of the Tour de Taiwan today, his third podium finish of the race so far. Dowing was beaten by young Australian Adam Semple in the sprint finish.


© tourdetaiwan.org.tw

Result
1. Adam Semple - Drapac-Porsche
2. Dean Downing - Rapha-Condor-Sharp +0"
3. Chan Jae Jang - Korea +2"

Luke Rowe leads Tour de Normandie

Young British rider Luke Rowe took the lead of the Tour de Normandie after the third stage this morning. Rowe finished third in the sprint finish and took the yellow jersey courtesy of a two second bonus. He then finished safely in bunch on stage 4 this afternoon to maintain the lead with four more stages remaining.

Thomas close to win in Dwars Door Vlaanderen

Nick Nuyens won Dwars door Vlaanderen finishing ahead of his breakaway companion Geraint Thomas with Tyler Farrar winning the field sprint to take third just behind the pair.

Nuyens and Thomas had attacked the peloton with 20 km to go, catching and then dropping a leading trio. The escapees never had a big lead but the duo were able to hold on to the end where Thomas lead out the sprint from 300m but did not have enough to get away from Nuyens who came past for the victory.

Geraint Thomas later said that he had lead out the sprint too early fearing that the bunch were about to catch them.

Result
1. Nick Nuyens - Saxo Bank-Sungard
2. Geraint Thomas - Sky
3. Tyler Farrar - Garmin-Cervélo

GB Team 2 and 3 in Normandie

Luke Rowe and Mark Christian finished 2nd and 3rd in the 4.8km individual time trial in Mondeville near Caen. The stage was won by Swedish rider Tobias Ludvigsson who finished with half a second advantage.

Result
1. Tobias Ludvigsson - CykelCity
2. Luke Rowe - Great Britain +0"
3. Mark Christian - Great Britain +2"

Tour de Normandie

Three British teams are taking part in the Tour de Normandie this week - Rapha-Condor-Sharp, Endura Racing and the Great Britain national team mostly featuring members of the academy. The race starts with an individual time trial in Mondeville today.

Endura Racing Jack Anderson Jack Bauer Alexandre Blain Alex Wetterhall Callum Wilkinson Ian Wilkinson

Great Britain Mark Christian Andrew Fenn Tom Moses Jonathan Mould Luke Rowe Erick Rowsell

Rapha-Condor-Sharp Graham Briggs Dan Craven Zak Dempster Kristian House Casey Munro Jonathan Tiernan-Locke

Downing third in Taiwan prologue

Rapha-Condor-Sharp have split their team this week and will be contesting both the Tour de Normandie and the Tour de Taiwan. Dean Downing won a stage in last year's Taiwanese race and has got off to a good start by finishing third in the 2km prologue in Taipei. The prologue was won by Australian Adam Phelan finishing a tenth of a second ahead of Estonian Mart Ojavee.

Result
1. Adam Phelan - Drapac-Porsche
2. Mart Ojavee - Champion System +0"
3. Dean Downing - Rapha-Condor-Sharp +3"


© tourdetaiwan.org.tw

Milan - San Remo

La Primavera is the first monument of the season taking the riders on a 298km route from Milan to the coast at San Remo.

Mark Cavendish will be looking to repeat his 2009 sprint victory but will face competition from fellow sprinters Tyler Farrar, Oscar Freire, Heinrich Haussler and Andre Greipel. Other favourites who will looking for a breakaway to succeed this year include Fabian Cancellara and Phillipe Gilbert who has been in great form so far this season.

The other British riders in the race are Roger Hammond, Ian Stannard, Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins.

The race will be live from 13:30 GMT on gazzetta.it

Wiggins third at Paris-Nice

Bradley Wiggins has finished third in Paris-Nice behind Tony Martin and Andreas Klöden. The final two days of the "Race to the Sun" took place in terrible weather conditions and the leaders finished together on both occasions to keep the standings as they were after the time trial.

Wiggins' third place is the best result for a British rider since Chris Boardmann also finished third in 1996. Only Tom Simpson had better results in the race - winning in 1967 and finishing second in 1962.

Overall Result
1. Tony Martin - HTC-High Road
2. Andreas Klöden - Radioshack +36"
3. Bradley Wiggins - Sky +41"

Paris-Nice time trial

Tony Martin has won today's time trial stage of Paris - Nice ahead of Bradley Wiggins who finished in second position. The German rider won the stage by twenty seconds from Wiggins who moved up to third place overall behind Martin and Andreas Klöden.

Result
1. Tony Martin - HTC-High Road
2. Bradley Wiggins - Sky +20"
3. Richie Porte - Saxo Bank-Sungard +29"

Thomas leads out Henderson for Paris-Nice win

Geraint Thomas played a key role in Greg Henderson winning the second stage of Paris-Nice today. Thomas lead the Kiwi past the HTC-High Road train to begin his sprint at the front of the pack.

Vuelta a Murcia time trial

Alex Dowsett finished fourth in the time trial on the final day of the Vuelta a Murcia. Dowsett was an early starter on the 12.4km course and held the lead until the final three riders came to the finish. Alberto Contador, Jerome Coppel and Denis Menchov were contesting the overall victory and finished 1,2,3 on the stage as well as the general classification.

Stage Result
1. Alberto Contador - Saxo Bank-Sungard
2. Jerome Coppel - Saur-Sojasun +8"
3. Denis Menchov - Geox-TMC +12"
4. Alex Dowsett - Sky +19"