Vuelta lead switches from Froome to Wiggins

Bradley Wiggins has taken over the lead of the Vuelta a España from team-mate Chris Froome on the climb of the Manzaneda. Despite leading the race Froome continued to work for Wiggins but lost touch with the group of leaders towards the end of the stage and dropped 27 seconds. Bradley Wiggins now leads Froome by seven seconds in the overall classification, Vincenzo Nibali is a further four seconds back.

Froome takes Vuelta lead in time trial

Chris Froome has taken a suprise lead in the Vuelta a España time trial in Salamanca today. Froome finished 59 seconds behind Tony Martin to take second on the stage and gain enough time on the general classification to move upto first. It had been expected that Bradley Wiggins would take the lead but after starting out on a similar time to Tony Martin, Wiggins slowed dramatically in the final section to finish 23 seconds behind his Sky team-mate.

Chris Froome has a 12 second lead over Jakob Fuglsang and 20 seconds over Wiggins. However defending champion Vincenzo Nibali may be the most dangerous - sitting in fourth place 31 seconds behind after the time trial.

David McLean at Meridiana-Kamen

David McLean has been signed as a trainee for the rest of the season by Italian/Croatian Continental team Meridiana-Kamen. The team hit the headlines earlier in the season for signing Riccardo Riccò after he was let go by Vacansoleil-DCM after falling ill allegedly because a blood transfusion went wrong. Riccò is now provisionally suspended.

McLean has already started his first race for his new team and this week will take part in the Settimana Lombarda stage race.

Wiggins leads up La Covatilla

Bradley Wiggins gained time on his main rivals in the Vuelta a España with an impressive ride up the climb of La Covatilla. After Sky team-mate Chris Froome had worked hard to bring back a break of Dan Martin and Vincenzo Nibali, Wiggins took over the pace-setting. On what was a very windy climb Wiggins went into time trial mode and was able to drop most of the riders considered to be a threat in the general classification.

Only five riders were able to stay with Wiggins to the last 100 metres where Dan Martin sprinted past to take the stage win. Bauke Mollema took second and the overall lead. Wiggins finished fourth with Froome hanging on to take fifth place.

Wiggins now sits one minute off the race lead with the individual time trial around Salamanca to come tomorrow. That stage had been were Wiggins was expecting to take time rather than today, so he said he viewed the time gained today as a bonus.

Dowsett wins final stage of Poitou Charentes

Team Sky rider Alex Dowsett has won the final stage of the Tour du Poitou Charentes for his first professional victory. Dowsett attacked late on the stage and soloed home to win by six seconds. Along with the time bonus this was enough to move Dowsett upto second place overall behind young New Zealander Jesse Sergeant.

Stage Result
1. Alex Dowsett - Sky
2. Davide Appollonio - Sky +6"
3. Moreno Hofland - Rabobank Continental +6"

Overall Result
1. Jesse Sergeant - Radioshack
2. Alex Dowsett - Sky +18"
3. Michal Kwiatkowski - Radioshack +18"

Rider quotas for world championships

The UCI have announced the numbers of riders each country will permitted to enter in the world championships road race. This has been determined from UCI World Tour and Continental Tour points rankings upto the end of last week. Great Britain are in the top ten nations on the World Tour so would be allowed upto nine riders - however only eight British riders have scored points so this is the maximum number of riders allowed.

The full list is as follows:

9 riders
Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, USA

8 riders
Great Britain

6 riders
Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, Iran, Luxembourg, Morocco, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Venezuela

4 riders
Kazakhstan, Norway, Switzerland

3 riders
Argentina, Austria, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Eritrea, Estonia, Ireland, Japan, Lithuania, New Zealand, Slovakia, Sweden, Turkey

1 rider
Algeria, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Romania, Serbia, Uruguay

Team Sky for Vuelta a España

Team Sky have announced their team for the Vuelta a España which starts this weekend. Bradley Wiggins will lead the team and is looking to impress after his unfortunate exit from the Tour de France. The line-up is:

Kurt-Asle Arvesen (NOR)
Dario Cioni (ITA)
Chris Froome (GBR)
Thomas Lofkvist (SWE)
Morris Possoni (ITA)
Ian Stannard (GBR)
Chris Sutton (AUS)
Bradley Wiggins (GBR)
Xabier Zandio (ESP)

Swift-Metcalfe working hard in Volta a Portugal

Tomás Swift-Metcalfe has been competing in the Volta a Portugal over the last 11 days. He finished the tough race in 62nd place overall. However, he has been riding as a worker for his Tavira-Prio team which has been a great success with Ricardo Mestre, Andre Cardoso and Nelson Vitorino finishing in 1st, 2nd and 4th place overall.

You can read his thoughts on the race on his blog

McNally wins in Brittany

Mark McNally took the overall victory in the Mi-Août en Bretagne on Sunday. His victory in the race was setup by a second place finish in the second stage as part of a breakaway group. McNally was then able to keep with the leading group on the final two stages to take the win despite finishing on the same time as Stian Remme courtesy of better placings - Remme had been third in the stage two break.

Overall Result
1. Mark McNally - An Post-Sean Kelly Team
2. Stian Remme - Joker-Merida +0"
3. Gilles Devillers - Wallonie Bruxelles-Crédit Agricole +5"

Cavendish wins Olympic test

Mark Cavendish has won the test race for the 2012 Olympic road race. The race known as the London - Surrey Cycle Classic was run over a shorter course featuring only climbs of Box Hill rather than the nine ascents that will take place next year. The was a crash leading into the finish which Cavendish managed to escape and was then able to take a comfortable victory in the sprint.

Result
1. Mark Cavendish - Great Britain
2. Sacha Modolo - Italy
3. Samuel Dumoulin - France

Finish video

Two in a row for Rapha

Kristian House won the final stage of the Vuelta a León today. House won the sprint from a breakaway group of four riders. His team-mate Jonathan Tiernan-Locke finished in second place overall following his stage win on the previous day. Tiernan-Locke was just three seconds behind Marc Goos of Rabobank in the general classification.

Stage Result
1. Kristian House - Rapha-Condor-Sharp
2. Jonathan Gonzalez - Diputacion León
3. Frode Solberg - Sparebanken Vest

Overall Result
1. Marc Goos - Rabobank Continental
2. Jonathan Tiernan-Locke - Rapha-Condor-Sharp +3"
3. Enzo Moyano - Caja Rural +39"

Tiernan-Locke wins in León

Jonathan Tiernan-Locke has won the second mountain stage in the Vuelta a León. It was two wins in as many days for Rapha-Condor-Sharp after Dan Craven's solo win on the previous stage. Tieran-Locke beat Angel Vallejo and Marc Goos at the finish line and is now in second overall - three seconds behind Goos.

Result
1. Jonathan Tiernan-Locke - Rapha-Condor-Sharp
2. Angel Vallejo - Supermercados Froiz
3. Marc Goos - Rabobank Continental