Fly V Australia teammates Charles Dionne and Alessandro Bazzana went one-two on Saturday in stage 5 of the Tour de Beauce. Otavio Bougarelli (Garneau) was third in the 125km Ville de Québec criterium. A 14-man break formed up on the third lap and went on to build a lead that surpassed five minutes.
Tyler Farrar kept the overall leader’s jersey Saturday at the Delta Tour Zeeland race in Holland. Just a day after winning the prologue, the Garmin-Slipstream sprinter dashed to second in the 181.7km second stage and retained the leader’s jersey in the three-day Dutch race. Italian star Alessandro Petacchi (LPR) was fastest in the stage from Middelburg to Goes, crossing the line 3h59.10 (45.58lph). Farrar came through second with Bobbie Traksel taking third and Baden Cooke (Vacansoleil) coming across fourth in the mass sprint.
For the second day in a row, a Frenchman won in a breakaway at the Dauphiné Libéré, this time with veteran head-banger David Moncoutie snagging an impressive victory in the week’s hardest stage over the French Alps. And for the third year in a row, it appears that Cadel Evans will finish runner-up, but it’s not for a lack of trying. The Silence-Lotto captain has finished second twice in a row at the Dauphiné before going on to second at the Tour de France in 2007 and in 2008.
Saxo Bank’s Fabian Cancellara may well have put a tough spring behind him as he scored an impressive win in the opening time trial of the Tour of Switzerland on Saturday. Cancellara covered the tough 7.8km course from Mauren to Ruggell, in Liechtenstein, in a time nine minutes and 21 seconds. Defending champion Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) was 19 seconds slower with Astana’s Andreas Klöden rounding out the podium at 22 seconds.
Bike racing is quite unlike the mainstream “stick-and-ball” sports that most Americans grew up playing, and can often be confusing, or a even a complete mystery. Even other endurance sports, such as marathon running or triathlon, lack the complexities and tactics of professional road cycling. In those sports, the person that is in the front of the race is usually the one that wins. That’s seldom always the case in cycling. In fact, it’s possible to win the Tour de France without crossing the line first on any of the 21 stages.
Colavita’s Sebastien Haedo and Brooke Miller (TIBCO) delighted fans on the crowded streets of Uptown Minneapolis by uncorking powerful sprints to win Stage 3 of Minnesota’s Nature Valley Grand Prix on Friday evening. The second criterium in a busy week of racing brought the racers back into the Twin Cities. This year, however, the race was moved to Uptown Minneapolis from the downtown course that has been used in years past. The pancake-flat, six-corner criterium was the perfect venue for fans to take in the action as the racers sped around Calhoun Square at twilight.
Heather Irmiger and Todd Wells both rode 29-inch wheeled mountain bikes to victory at the Carmichael Training Systems Sand Creek short track in Colorado Springs. The event was the second round of the 2009 Trailwatch.net national short-track series, and was held at Bear Creek Terrace Park on the western edge of the city.
Tyler Farrar is back in the winner’s circle Friday after claiming an impressive victory in the prologue of the Delta Tour Zeeland in Holland. The Garmin-Slipstream rider put his sprinter legs to good use on a short, 2.7km course in Hulst to open the three-day race in Holland, posting the fastest time of 3 minutes, 8.29 seconds (51.622kph). The blistering pace meant another win for Farrar, who has shown in the past he can put down a good prologue performance.
Scott Zwizanski (Kelly Benefit Strategies) took over the lead of the Tour de Beauceon Friday, after winning the stage 4 20km time trial. It was a battle of the Z's as Zwizanski took a narrow stage victory over Fly V Australia's Phil Zajicek, who put up the fastest time for awhile, before Zwizanski came in 26 seconds faster. Trek-Livestrong's young New Zealander, Jessie Sergent, was third. Overnight race leader Sergio Luis Henao of the Colombia national team was 21st at 1:42 behind Zwizanski and fell to second on the GC, at 1:03 behind. His teammate, Darwin Atapuma, is third.
Pierrick Fedrigo (Bouygues Telecom) delivered a French stage victory Friday out of a breakaway in the short, 106km sixth stage from Gap to Briancon at the Dauphiné Libéré. Overnight leader Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) rode confidently in the main pack as 14 riders escaped over the day’s main obstacle up the Col d’Izoard to finish 16th with the same time as archrivals to retain his narrow 16-second lead going into the final weekend of racing.
Editor's Note: On June 9, VeloNews editor in chief Ben Delaney reported on the failure of a Mavic R-Sys front wheel in a Boulder criterium. The following is Mavic's response to that article.
MAVIC’S RESPONSE TO VELONEWS ARTICLE PUBLISHED JUNE 9, 2009
This letter is to address Ben Delaney’s article 'A Shattering Experience' posted on Velonews.com on June 9, 2009. We thank VeloNews for their continued help in investigating this accident and giving us the opportunity to respond.
Twenty-one teams are heading to the Vuelta a España in late August, but not everyone is going to be happy. Among the major teams left on the sidelines for the season’s third grand tour are two ProTour squads, the Russian-backed Katusha and Spanish Fuji-Servetto teams, as well as the Italian continental standout, LPR. The Vuelta organization, which released its list of invitees Friday morning, included 16 of 18 ProTour teams among the starting lineup.