Wet weather getting you down?

Well, a lot has happened in the last 2 weeks, so today will be an attempt to catch up on it all. This way you'll have heaps of reading to do and videos to watch over the weekend while it's raining outside. Well, if you are in Sydney at least. For those of you living where it isn't raining, lucky you! And I hope you make the most of it! :-)

First up, when I last updated, the Giro D'Italia and the Tour of California were both underway. Both races saw exciting racing right up until the final stage, with the top 5 riders not giving in and attacking right up until the end. Great stuff to see! In the end, Ivan Basso took the win in the Giro, despite the best efforts of Cadel Evans, and Aussie Mick Rogers took the win in California, denying Team RadioShack rider Levi Leipheimer his 4th consecutive victory, despite his best efforts.




Photo courtesy of VeloNews.com

Despite Basso winning the overall, it was great to see all the other jersey's in the Giro won by Aussies! Cadel took the red points jersey, Matt Lloyd the green climbers jersey and Riche Porte, the young sensation of the race, the white U23 jersey. An excellent race for Australia.

Meanwhile, the build up to the Tour de France is building. Although the exact make up of Lance Armstrong's preparation for the Tour was still undecided recently, he is now competing in the Tour de Luxembourg, finishing in 5th in the very short opening prologue, and currently sitting in 3rd place overall after the first stage. Fellow Team RadioShack riders Gregory Rast and Andreas Kloden are also in the top 10.

The other Trek sponsored road team, Trek-Livestrong U23, also had a win recently with Taylor Phinney winning the U23 Paris-Roubaix for the second year in a row. This is a great result and confirms the talent this young rider has. You can see a video from the race here.

Although denying rumors that he will get called up to Team RadioShack early, no doubt there is a bright future ahead for him.

Photo courtesy CyclingNews.com

That's it for now. I'll have more stories from the world of Trek soon.

Team RadioShack hitting the Road

The international road cycling season is kicking off in earnest now!

Last week saw the running of the Volta Ao Algarve in Portugal, which was won by Alberto Contador. Team RadioShack riders Tiago Machado and Levi Leipheimer were close behind in 3rd and 4th after finishing 2nd and 3rd on the Queen third stage finishing at the top of the Alto do Malhão climb.

Levi Leipheimer at the Volta Ao Algarve. Photo courtesy Team RadioShack

The high point for the team however was the win on stage 4 by Sebastien Rosseler who soloed to the win ahead of four former breakaway companions. This was the first victory for the Team and is a good indication that the team is in good form in the lead up to the coming Classics season.

Sebastien Rosseler winning Stage 4 at the Volta Ao Algarve. Photo courtesy Team RadioShack

This week sees the running of the Giro di Sardegna, or Tour of Sardinia, and Team RadioShack has fielded a  different team to the Volta Ao Algarve. Yesterday saw the Queen stage that finished atop the first category Monte Ortobene. Team RadioShack rider Chris Horner was with the leaders setting a cracking pace the whole way up the final 12km climb, but unfortunately was beaten to the line by Roman Kreuziger. Still it's a great start to the year for Horner who was plagued by bad luck last year.

Chris Horner on the way to second in stage 2 of the Tour of Sardinia. Photo courtesy CyclingNews.com

Team RadioShack have also announced the riders who will be racing in the first of the cobbled classics this weekend in Belgium. Luckily Tomas Vaitkus and Gert Steegmans have no lasting consequences from their small crashes at the Volta Ao Algarve which saw Steegmans suffer a slight concussion and Vaitkus land heavily on his shoulder. The riders will be: Fumiyuki Beppu, Sam Bewley, Daryl Impey, Gregory Rast, Sébastien Rosseler, Bjorn Selander, Gert Steegmans & Tomas Vaitkus.

Check out the team website for more news and great photos from all the races.

Stage One Down Under

By now the second day of racing will be underway at the Tour Down Under, but the first day provided some great racing while showcasing the beautiful surrounds of South Australia’s wine growing regions.

Photo Courtesy CyclingNews.com

The main breakaway of the day included 20 year old Tim Roe, a member of the Trek-Livestrong U23 team who is from Glenelg, just outside of Adelaide. While the rest of the Livestrong U23 team is at a camp in Califormia, Tim stayed with the breakaway while they opened up a gap of close to 10 mins, and then dropped his fellow breakaway riders going up the major climb of the day, Menglers Hill. Despite a short off-road excursion on the descent, he managed to hold on a little longer until the peloton caught up as the pace quickened in preparation for the sprint finish. Tim’s riding was following UniSA team orders to be aggressive and earned him the King of the Mountains jersey and the most aggressive rider jersey, a great achievement for him.

 

Photo Courtesy CyclingNews.com

Once the race got to the finish town of Tanunda the pace quickened in preparation for the sprint. Team Radioshack was up near the front of the field to lead out Gert Steegmans. In the frenetic finish Gert got himself up for a fantastic 2nd place, behind stage winner Andre Greipel. This has got to be the first time a member of Lance’s team has been so closely contesting a sprint! Great to see Gert up at the front and we’re looking forward to Team RadioShack pushing for a stage win in the next few days. You can read more reports from PezCyclingNews and CyclingNews.

 

Photo Courtesy CyclingNews.com

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Trek Bicycle Corporation is helping to grow the sport of cycling in it’s home state of Wisconsin. Bike Radar recently did a short article on the bicycle manufacturers support of cycling through working closely with advocacy groups and government officials. The fact that Trek has a full time “director of advocacy and government affairs” goes to show how much they are committed to helping more people enjoy cycling, whether competitively or purely for transport and recreation. Great to see from such a large bike company, but probably easier to believe as it is still a family owned business rather than a public company.

And now for the Road.

Of course the big talk over the last few months has been the movements of individuals to and from the various Pro Tour teams. Although by far and away the most talked about team and rider was Lance Armstrong and his new Team RadioShack.

Since then we’ve had Trek confirm that they are sponsoring the team (Duh!), close looks at the team bikes, including a You Tube video below, the final team roster, featuring many of the riders from the previous Team Astana, the team training camp in Arizona and a sneak peek at the possible jersey design. Phew!

Lance has also said that he’s planning on riding for another 2 years, so there’s plenty of time to see him ride!

In other road related news, Bike Radar reviewed the Trek 2.5 and found it to be a very solid, dependable and sprightly bike. The didn’t like the height of the headtube, however those wanting a lower position are probably better off with a Pro fit 5 or 6 Series Madone.

Speaking of which, Bike Radar also happened to have reviewed the latest 6 Series bike and found it to everything the 5 Series did, but being stiffer for those racers wanting more of an edge.

And to round out 2009, there was the auction of Lance’s ‘Stages’ bikes to raise money for the Livestrong charity. They were auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York at the beginning of November and raised an incredible $1.25 million US! The undeniable show stopper was the Damien Hirst ‘butterfly’ bike that went for $500,000. What a great result for Livestrong and for the fight against cancer.