Motorpoint to continue as Node4-Giordana

The Motorpoint team will become Node4-Giordana for the 2012 season. The team has lost two of it's star riders with Ian Bibby and Jonny McEvoy moving across to Endura Racing. The five riders who are staying with the team are Marcin Bialoblocki, Lee Davis, Andrew Magnier, James Sampson and Peter Williams. They will be joined by a number of new signings including Rico Rogers, a New Zealander who joins from Giant-Kenda where he picked up a number of sprint victories in Asia. The other new signings are Dave Clarke, Matt Cronshaw, Kieran Frend, Matt Higgins, Philip Lavery and James Moss.

WorldTour riders 2012

BMC Racing (USA)
Adam Blythe
Steve Cummings

Garmin-Cervelo (USA)
David Millar

Omega Pharma-Quick Step (BEL)
Andy Fenn

Sky (GBR)
Mark Cavendish
Alex Dowsett
Chris Froome
Jeremy Hunt
Peter Kennaugh
Luke Rowe
Ian Stannard
Ben Swift
Geraint Thomas
Bradley Wiggins

Froome wins Vuelta stage 17

Chris Froome has won stage 17 of the Vuelta a España which finished on the climb of Peña Cabarga. Race leader JJ Cobo made an initial move on the climb which only Froome was able to follow, then with 1500m to go Froome attacked hard and was able to get a good gap on Cobo. However Cobo did not panic and was able to gradually close back up to Froome and took the lead with 75m to go. Froome was not finished though, and nipped up the inside of Cobo on the final corner to take the stage win. With the time bonus Froome has reduced Cobo's lead overall to 13 seconds.

Sky announce Rowe signing

Team Sky have announced the signing of Luke Rowe as a neo-professional for the 2012 season, as had been widely expected. Rowe has been one of the stars of the Great Britain academy over the last few years. This year he has taken his second win in the ZLM Tour and a stage in the Thüringen-Rundfahrt as well as numerous other podium placings.

Wegelius announces retirement

Charly Wegelius has announced that he will retire racing after the Giro di Padania this week. Wegelius has been a professional since 1999 and was best known as a domestique particularly in the mountains of the Giro d'Italia which he completed seven times, with a best overall finish of 29th place.

Wegelius has not had any individual victories as a professional but was part of three team time trial winning teams. One of the times he came closest to winning was earlier this year in the Vuelta a Asturias where Wegelius was the last survivor of a breakway but was passed just a few hundred metres from the summit of the Alto del Naranco and finished third on the stage.

Fenn signs with Omega Pharma-Quick Step

Andrew Fenn will ride with World Tour team Omega Pharma-Quick Step next year, his current team An Post-Sean Kelly has announced. Fenn has impressed this year with two victories - a stage of the Tour de Bretagne and the Memorial Philippe Van Coningsloo.

Nibali closing in on Wiggins

Vincenzo Nibali took six bonus seconds at the first sprint of stage 13 of the Vuelta a España to gain time on Bradley Wiggins for the second stage in a row. Bradley Wiggins lead over Nibali has now been reduced to just four seconds.

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

Wiggins wins road race

Bradley Wiggins took victory in the British Championships road race to add to his time trial victory from last September. Wiggins was one of many Sky riders in an initial breakaway of twelve. This then split leaving three of Team Sky clear - Peter Kennaugh, Geraint Thomas and Wiggins. The trio then worked together to build an insurmountable lead over the remains of the breakaway. Kennaugh was the first to try and get away but was brought back by Thomas allowing Wiggins to counter-attack and he quickly built up a 30 second lead to take his first road race title. Reigning champion Thomas took second ahead of Kennaugh who has now finished on the podium four years in a row.



Result
1. Bradley Wiggins - Sky
2. Geraint Thomas - Sky +35"
3. Peter Kennaugh - Sky +35"

Team Sky for Tour de France

Sky has announced their team for the Tour de France as follows:

Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR)
Juan Antonio Flecha (ESP)
Simon Gerrans (AUS)
Christian Knees (GER)
Ben Swift (GBR)
Geraint Thomas (GBR)
Rigoberto Uran (COL)
Bradley Wiggins (GBR)
Xabier Zandio (ESP)

However their are now doubts over whether Boasson Hagen can take part having being diagnosed with shingles at the Norwegian national championships.

Wiggins wins Critérium du Dauphiné

Bradley Wiggins has won the Critérium du Dauphiné after the final mountain stage to La Toussuire today. Wiggins held the lead in the race since his second place finish in the individual time trial on Wednesday, and was able to comfortably maintain his advantage through the two mountain-top finishes this weekend. Both stages were won by Joaquin Rodriguez but he was no threat for the overall win having lost nearly four minutes on the time trial.

The victory is the biggest road race win of Wiggins' career. It is only his second stage race win following a victory in the Herald Sun Tour in 2009. Wiggins is only the third British rider to win the Critérium du Dauphiné following Robert Millar in 1990 and Brian Robinson in 1961.

Overall Result
1. Bradley Wiggins - Sky
2. Cadel Evans - BMC +1'26"
3. Alexandre Vinokourov - Astana +1'49"

Wiggins increases Dauphiné lead

Bradley Wiggins finished on the climb to Le Collet d’Allevard in stage 6 of the Critérium du Dauphiné and actually increased his lead in doing so. The stage was won by Joaquin Rodriguez ahead of Robert Gesink and Jurgen Van Den Broeck. Wiggins finished 53 seconds down but was 15 seconds ahead of Cadel Evans and so increased his overall lead to 1 minute 26 seconds with just one stage remaining.

Fenn solos to win

Andrew Fenn won the Memorial Philippe Van Coningsloo on Sunday in fine style. Fenn attacked from the leading group with 26km of the race remaining and quickly built a good lead. With the group behind not being organised, Fenn took the victory comfortably by a margin of 47 seconds.

Result
1. Andrew Fenn - An Post-Sean Kelly Team
2. Dries Depoorter - Ovyta +47"
3. Alphonse Vermote - EFC-Quick Step +47"

Cavendish wins Giro stage 12

Mark Cavendish took his second victory in this year's Giro d'Italia with victory in Ravenna. Cavendish took the win despite a strong challenge from Davide Appollonio of the Sky team.



Result
1. Mark Cavendish - HTC-High Road
2. Davide Appollonio - Sky
3. Alessandro Petacchi - Lampre-ISD

Cavendish wins Giro stage 10

Mark Cavendish won stage 10 of the Giro d'Italia beating Francisco Ventoso and top rival Alessandro Petacchi in the sprint finish. David Millar had launched an attack with 3km to go in an effort to time-trial to the finish bu he was caught with 1km to go. Petacchi lead out the sprint but had gone to early and Cavendish came past to take a comfortable victory.



Result
1. Mark Cavendish - HTC-High Road
2. Francisco Ventoso - Movistar
3. Alessandro Petacchi - Lampre-ISD

Swift takes California stage win

Result
1. Ben Swift - Sky
2. Peter Sagan - Liquigas
3. Matt Goss - HTC-High Road

Petacchi beats Cavendish in Giro sprint

Alessandro Petacchi narrowly beat Mark Cavendish in the sprint finish of stage two of the Giro d'Italia. However Cavendish was angry with the way that Petacchi swerved across his line several times, believing that otherwise he would have taken the win. He did however have the consolation of taking the leader's Maglia Rosa which had been worn by team-mate Marco Pinotti.



Result
1. Alessandro Petacchi - Lampre-ISD
2. Mark Cavendish - HTC-High Road
3. Manuel Belletti - Colnago-CSF Inox

Podium finish for Wegelius

Charly Wegelius finished third on the final stage of the Vuelta a Asturias today. Wegelius broke away on the finishing climb of Alto del Naranco but was passed about 100m from the finish by Javi Moreno and Constantino Zaballa, the top two overall in the race.

Wegelius is still searching for his first individual win in his 11 year professional career as his only previous victories have been in team time trials. However he may get more opportunities this year having moved to UnitedHealthcare where he will be one of the leaders in stage races.

Swift wins final stage of Romandie

Ben Swift capitalised on a strong leadout by the Sky team to take the win on the final stage of the Tour de Romandie. The victory is his fourth of the year and his third in a World Tour event.



Result
1. Ben Swift - Sky
2. Davide Vigano - Leopard-Trek
3. Oscar Freire - Rabobank

Swift wins final stage in Vuelta a Castilla y Leon

Ben Swift has won the final stage in the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon. Swift took the victory comfortably after a strong leadout by Russell Downing. The win is Swift's third of the year following two stages of the Tour Down Under.



Result
1. Ben Swift - Sky
2. Francisco Ventoso - Movistar
3. Ruben Perez - Euskaltel

Rowe wins ZLM Tour

Luke Rowe has won the ZLM Tour, the third race of the Under 23 Nations Cup. It is the second time that Rowe has won the race - he also triumphed in 2009.

Result
1. Luke Rowe - Great Britain
2. Robin Steeniut - Belgium +0"
3. Youcef Reguigui - Algeria +0"

Paris - Roubaix

British riders starting Paris - Roubaix:

Garmin-Cervelo
Roger Hammond

Sky
Jeremy Hunt
Ian Stannard
Geraint Thomas
Bradley Wiggins

HTC-Highroad
Mark Cavendish

Bibby wins Cinturón stage 3

Ian Bibby has won stage three of the Cinturón a Mallorca by winning the sprint from a nine man escape group. Iker Camaño of Endura Racing has taken the lead after previous leader Jose Belda missed the move forming on a descent. There were three other British riders in the leading group. Camaño's teammate Rob Partidge worked hard to enable the breakaway to be successful, and two riders from Pendragon, James McLaughlin and Rhys Lloyd, also made the escape.



Result
1. Ian Bibby - Motorpoint
2. Erik Hofmann - Activity Racing
3. Bernard Oberholzer - Price Your Bike

Overall Standing
1. Iker Camaño - Endura Racing
2. Tadej Valjavec - Manisaspor +32"
3. Ian Bibby - Motorpoint +58"

Scheldeprijs victory for Cavendish again

Mark Cavendish took the sprint finish of the Scheldeprijs today to record his second victory of the season. Cavendish won the race easily after a crash took out two of his main rivals, Tyler Farrar and Wouter Weylandt. The win is the third time Cavendish has won the race after previous victories in 2007 and 2008.



Result
1. Mark Cavendish - HTC-High Road
2. Denis Galimzyanov - Katusha
3. Yauheni Hutarovich - FDJ

Cinturón Ciclista a Mallorca

Five British teams will be taking part in the Cinturón Ciclista a Mallorca this week. The race starts on Wednesday with a 7.1km individual time trial - the corresponding stage last year was won by Ian Bibby who is amongst those returning for the Motorpoint team this year.

Endura Racing Jack Anderson David Clarke Maarten De Jonge Rob Partridge Scott Thwaites Alex Wetterhall Callum Wilkinson	Motorpoint Marcin Bialoblocki Ian Bibby Will Bjergfelt Tobyn Horton Johnny McEvoy James Sampson Peter Williams	Pendragon-Le Col-Colnago Yanto Barker Rhys Lloyd Jake Martin Tom Martin Jon Mozley James McLaughlin Chris Opie
Raleigh Matt Cronshaw Richard Handley Liam Holohan Matt Jones Matt Kipling Ryan Parnes Jamie Sparling	Rapha-Condor-Sharp Ed Clancy Dan Craven Zak Dempster Kristian House Andrew Tennant Jon Tiernan-Locke Dean Windsor

Ronde van Vlaanderen

The second monument of the season, Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) takes place on Sunday. The overwhelming favourite is Fabian CAncellara due to his dominating performance in winning E3 Prijs Vlaanderen last week.

The British riders on the startlist are Roger Hammond and Dan Lloyd for Garmin-Cervelo, Adam Blythe of Omega Pharma-Lotto, Mark Cavendish of HTC-High Road and the quartet of Jeremy Hunt, Ian Stannard, Ben Swift and Geraint Thomas will all be riding for Sky. They will be hoping to get the chance to be only the second British winner of the race - it is now fifty years since Tom Simpson won in 1961.

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"

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

Swift wins final Tour Down Under Stage

Ben Swift won the final stage of the Tour Down Under and in doing so moved up into third place overall. Australian Cameron Meyer held onto his advantage gained in a breakaway to take the general classification title.

On the final day HTC-Highroad were looking to setup their rider Matt Goss to take the bonus seconds on offer to snatch the overall victory. However it was the Sky team who got their train working to deliver Swift and Greg Henderson to the line for a 1-2 finish.



Stage Result
1. Ben Swift - Sky
2. Greg Henderson - Sky
3. Matt Goss - HTC-Highroad

Overall Result
1. Cameron Meyer - Garmin-Cervélo
2. Matt Goss - HTC-Highroad +2"
3. Ben Swift - Sky +8"

British riders at international Continental teams 2011

An Post-Sean Kelly Team (BEL)
Andrew Fenn
Mark McNally

CC de Tavira (POR)
Tomas Swift Metcalfe

Colba-Mercury (BEL)
Hamish Haynes

Donckers Koffie-Jelly Belly (BEL)
James Spragg

Fuji-Cyclingtime.com (TWN)
Lee Rodgers

Giant Kenda Pro Cycling (TWN)
Alex Coutts

Wonderful Pistachios (USA)
Neil Coleman
Tom Faiers

Swift wins stage two Down Under

Ben Swift has won the second stage of the Tour Down Under to give him the most high-profile victory of his career so far. Swift took the win in a sprint finish ahead of Robbie McEwen and Graeme Brown. Swift was originally set to be part of the lead-out for Chris Sutton but he crashed in an incident that also injured Mark Cavendish.

Swift therefore was lead out by Geraint Thomas who himself crashed as the other sprinters rushed past him at the finish. Robbie McEwwn initially got the jump on Swift but it was the Yorkshireman who was strongest and came through to take the win.



Results
1. Ben Swift - Sky
2. Robbie McEwen - Radioshack
3. Graeme Brown - Rabobank

Tour de San Luis (17/01 - 23/01)

The Tour de San Luis starts off the international cycling season on Monday. Three British riders will be taking part - Charly Wegelius of UnitedHealthcare, as well as Dave Clarke and Rob Partridge of Endura Racing. The tough route facing them features two mountain top finishes as well as a 19.5km individual time trial.

Stage 1: San Luis - Justo Daract



Stage 2: Juana Koslay - Mirador Del Portrero



Stage 3: Buena Esperanza - Villa Mercedes



Stage 4: San Luis - San Luis I.T.T.



Stage 5: La Toma - Merlo (Mirador Del Sol)



Stage 6: Estancia Grande - La Carolina



Stage 7: San Luis - San Luis



Profiles from www.tour-sanluis.com.ar

Tom Faiers moves to US team

Tom Faiers has signed with American Continental team Wonderful Pistachios for 2011. Faiers had ridden as a neo-pro for Footon-Servetto in 2010 but was not kept on when the team became Geox possibly due to his rare heart condition which affected him last year.

While riding in the Tour of Austria, Faiers felt his heart racing due to condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome. Faiers quit the race immediately but that was to be the last time he rode for Footon-Servetto. Ater being cleared to race again, he is now looking to win races on the National Racing Calendar in the USA with the goal of returning to a top European team in the future.

Rapha-Condor-Sharp 2011

Graham Briggs - GBR
Ed Clancy - GBR
Dan Craven - NAM
Zak Dempster - AUS
Dean Downing - GBR
Ben Greenwood - GBR
Kristian House - GBR
James McCallum - GBR
Casey Munro - AUS
Tom Southam - GBR
Andy Tennant - GBR
Jonathan Tiernan-Locke - GBR
Dean Windsor - AUS

Motorpoint team for 2011

Marcin Bialoblocki - POL
Ian Bibby - GBR
Will Bjergfelt - GBR
Lee Davis - GBR
Malcolm Elliott - GBR
Tobyn Horton - GBR
Andrew Magnier - GBR
Jonathan McEvoy - GBR
Andrew Roche - IRE
James Sampson - GBR
Peter Williams - GBR

Endura team for opening 2011 races

Endura Racing has revealed the line-ups it will send to the opening races of the season. The first two races will be the Tour de San Luis in Argentina and the Tour Méditerranéen in France. The team will also take part in two one day races in Mumbai, India.

Tour de San Luis (17/01 - 23/01)
Iker Camaño, Dave Clarke, Maarten De Jonge, Evan Oliphant, Rene Mandri, Rob Partridge

Tour Méditerranéen (09/02 - 13/02)
Jack Bauer, Alexandre Blain, Iker Camaño, Maarten De Jonge, Rene Mandri, Rob Partridge, Alexander Wetterhall, Ian Wilkinson

Tour de Mumbai (11/02 & 13/02)
Jack Anderson, Dave Clarke, Rob Hayles, James Moss, Scott Thwaites, Callum Wilkinson

British riders at ProTour and Pro-Continental teams 2011

Garmin-Cervélo (USA)
Roger Hammond
Dan Lloyd
David Millar

HTC-High Road (USA)
Mark Cavendish

Omega Pharma-Lotto (BEL)
Adam Blythe

Saxo Bank-Sungard (DEN)
Jonathan Bellis

Sky (GBR)
Steve Cummings
Russell Downing
Alex Dowsett
Chris Froome
Jeremy Hunt
Peter Kennaugh
Ian Stannard
Ben Swift
Geraint Thomas
Bradley Wiggins

UnitedHealthcare (USA)
Charly Wegelius