Blog - Cycling general (except Tour de France)

Information on cycling in general ... except for the Tour de France since it has its own category

Added: wednesday 03 March 2010 at 00:19:00
A tribute to Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky)
As you might know the Tour of Qatar (7-12 February) and the Tour of Oman (14-19 February) took place two weeks ago.

The Tour of Qatar was won by Wouter Mol (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team), with Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo TestTeam) winning the ranking by points and Roger Kluge (Team Milram) taking the best young rider's jersey home. The Tour of Oman was won by Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) but Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) took both the green and the white jersey.

Viral Verse, a UK team of poets and film makers passionate about creating video poetry that rocks, decided to create a video poet tribute to the young Norwegian rider.

...
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this article appears in the following categories: Cycling general (except Tour de France)
Added: sunday 28 February 2010 at 16:49:00
This weekend's cobbled classics: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad for Juan Antonio Flecha and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne for Bobbie Traksel
The 2010 season of cobbled classics has started this weekend with the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne today. If the weather wasn't very good yesterday with some rain, today the riders really suffered with the rain and very heavy wind (and cold!).
Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne: 20 km shorter than planned
Initially planned over 194 kilometers, the organisation decided during the race to remove a circuit from the route and thus reduce it by 20 kilometers.
195 riders came to the start with some drizzling rain and 16 of them formed the first leading group. Lloyd Mondory (AG2R La Mondiale) was also part of this group, but a fall made an end to this K-B-K for him.
When the first leading group was taken back the wind divided the peloton in two parts and the 44 riders who were in the second part massively decided to abandon in the feeding zone ...
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this article appears in the following categories: Cycling general (except Tour de France)
Added: sunday 21 February 2010 at 22:09:03
Christophe Le Mével won the Tour du Haut Var
This weekend the 42nd Tour du Haut Var took place in two stages of 167,5 and 200,7 kilometers.
After a stage victory for Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R La Mondiale) yesterday, it was up to Christophe Le Mével (Française des Jeux) to win the stage today and to take the final win of this race (which is made up of two stages since 2009 only).
1/ La Croix Valmer > Grimaud - 167,5 km - Rinaldo Nocentini as a good finisher
Under a nice sun and with temperatures of about 14°C, concerning the weather only the wind could influence the first stage of the Tour du Haut Var 2010.

This stage contained several climbs: the Col de Gassin (3rd category) after only 6,6 km, the Col de la Garde Freinet (3rd category) about 40 km further, the Col du Revest (1st category) at 60 km from the finish, the Col du Bougnon (2nd category) 20 kilometers before the finish and the very st ...
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this article appears in the following categories: Cycling general (except Tour de France)
Added: sunday 21 February 2010 at 22:09:03
Christophe Le Mével won the Tour du Haut Var
This weekend the 42nd Tour du Haut Var took place in two stages of 167,5 and 200,7 kilometers.
After a stage victory for Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R La Mondiale) yesterday, it was up to Christophe Le Mével (Française des Jeux) to win the stage today and to take the final win of this race (which is made up of two stages since 2009 only).
1/ La Croix Valmer > Grimaud - 167,5 km - Rinaldo Nocentini as a good finisher
Under a nice sun and with temperatures of about 14°C, concerning the weather only the wind could influence the first stage of the Tour du Haut Var 2010.

This stage contained several climbs: the Col de Gassin (3rd category) after only 6,6 km, the Col de la Garde Freinet (3rd category) about 40 km further, the Col du Revest (1st category) at 60 km from the finish, the Col du Bougnon (2nd category) 20 kilometers before the finish and the very st ...
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this article appears in the following categories: Cycling general (except Tour de France)
Added: sunday 21 February 2010 at 22:09:03
Christophe Le Mével won the Tour du Haut Var
This weekend the 42nd Tour du Haut Var took place in two stages of 167,5 and 200,7 kilometers.
After a stage victory for Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R La Mondiale) yesterday, it was up to Christophe Le Mével (Française des Jeux) to win the stage today and to take the final win of this race (which is made up of two stages since 2009 only).
1/ La Croix Valmer > Grimaud - 167,5 km - Rinaldo Nocentini as a good finisher
Under a nice sun and with temperatures of about 14°C, concerning the weather only the wind could influence the first stage of the Tour du Haut Var 2010.

This stage contained several climbs: the Col de Gassin (3rd category) after only 6,6 km, the Col de la Garde Freinet (3rd category) about 40 km further, the Col du Revest (1st category) at 60 km from the finish, the Col du Bougnon (2nd category) 20 kilometers before the finish and the very st ...
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this article appears in the following categories: Cycling general (except Tour de France)
Added: sunday 14 February 2010 at 19:41:00
The Tour Med 2010: a messy race won by Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne)
From Wednesday till today the 37th Tour Méditerranéen took place between Carcassonne and the Mont Faron in Toulon. After Luis Léon Sanchez' victory in 2009 -which was already preceded by a victory for Iván Gutiérrez- this cycling raced finished with a third victory for the Caisse d'Epargne team: Alejandro Valverde, who came to the start as one of the favorites, won this race which didn't really completely worked out as planned!
1st stage: Wednesday 10 February 2010 - Carcassonne > Sauvian - 95 km
The last minute changes already started with this first stage: originally planned over a 123 kilometers distance, an arrêté préfectoral finally obliged the organisers to make it 28 kilometers shorter at only 5 days from the start. This stage thus became very short, followed an almost completely flat route; with the wind playing a big role and with ice cold temperatures it had a big influence on the general classification of this Tour Med 2010.

Indeed, only 20 riders ...
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this article appears in the following categories: Cycling general (except Tour de France)
Added: saturday 14 November 2009 at 23:55:00
Some statistics of the 2009 cycling season
At the end of the season it's always a good time to have a look at the statistics. A cycling season in digits and tables of course reflects the number of stage or race wins, the number of kilometers and the number of race days.

In this article you'll find some of these statistics, thanks to an article in the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad but most of all thanks to the very useful web site Cycling Quotient Ranking.
The biggest number of victories
Individual ranking
The ranking which is probably the most top of mind is of course the one based on number of stage or race wins and this season this ranking is led, as usual and without any surprise, by the sprinters.

This is the top 10 of this ranking: ...
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this article appears in the following categories: Cycling general (except Tour de France)
Added: sunday 08 November 2009 at 02:56:00
Alberto Contador (Astana) wins the Amstel Curaçao Race ahead of Thor Hushovd and Koos Moerenhout
For the 8th time the island Curaçao in the Dutch Antilles was the dream location for the very last race of the season this Saturday: the Amstel Curaçao Race.

A few hours ago the Spanish rider of the Astana team, Alberto Contador, won this race for the second time, after his first win under the sun of Curaçao in 2007.
The route
The race, which started and finished at the Lions Dive & Beach Resort, crossed a big part of the island from east to west with a circuit of 73,6 kilometers.

Below you'll find a map of the route (click on the map to zoom): ...
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this article appears in the following categories: Cycling general (except Tour de France)
Added: saturday 17 October 2009 at 17:07:00
Philippe Gilbert wins the classic Tour of Lombardy (Giro di Lombardia) 2009
Between Varese, where the World Championships cycling 2008 took place, and the Como Lake, the Tour of Lombardy was ridden today, as usual at the end of the season.

This classic, which route goes around the lake and which is the last race in the UCI world calendar, was won by Philippe Gilbert today.

Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) had fever and didn't come to the start in Ivan Basso (Liquigas)'s place of birth.

After 26 kilometers a leading group was formed by Sergey Klimov (Katusha), Reinier Honig (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team), Marco Velo (Quick Step) and Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale).
When this leading group was about to be taken back in the climb of the Madonna di Ghisallo, at about 50 kilometers from the finish, Nicolas Roche decided to continue alone.

He didn't count on the Dutch rider Johnny Hoogerland of the Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team h ...
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this article appears in the following categories: Cycling general (except Tour de France)
Added: sunday 11 October 2009 at 16:42:00
Paris-Tours 2009: Philippe Gilbert (Silence-Lotto) wins two times in row!
It rarely happens in Paris-Tours, but Philippe Gilbert (Silence-Lotto) managed to do it today: to win the Classic of the falling leaves two times in row!
He beats his compatriot Tom Boonen (Quick Step) on the finish line.

Almost immediately after the start, after 9 kilometers, a leading group is formed by 10 riders. In this leading group we find Laszlo Bodrogi (Team Katusha), Cédric Pineau and Martin Elmiger (AG2R La Mondiale), Matthieu Ladagnous (Française des Jeux), Damien Gaudin (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Mathew Hayman (Rabobank), Jean-Luc Delpech (Bretagne-Schuller), Aart Vierhouten (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team, who did his last race today), Jonathan Thiré (Auber 93) and Tom Veelers (Skil-Shimano).
The 10 manage to create a gap of up to 7'45" with the peloton.

At about 50 kilometers from the finish one of the big favourites of this 103rd edition of Paris-Tours, André Greipel (Columbi ...
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this article appears in the following categories: Cycling general (except Tour de France)| Paris-Tours
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