Mark Cavendish enjoying the taste of Champagne following his win of the Prologue

Tour of Britain heads North

Following the prologue at Crystal Palace won by Mark Cavendish, earning him the yellow jersey before heading into the race proper, the Tour of Britain took some interesting twists and turns as it raced across the UK.

Stage 1 saw the T-Mobile team defending the yellow jersey, only for it to be lost on stage 2, a super fast stage that included the mighty Porlock Hill. With Tinkoff’s Nikolai Roberts now in yellow, stage 3 featured yet more tough climbs as it headed for Wolverhampton, with the peloton mostly staying together, spearheaded by the Tinkoff riders.

Highlight of the stage for British fans was Roger Hammond’s impressive third place. The stage spent much of it’s time in the Midlands, where Hammond is part-based. Hammond picked up enough points along the way to earn the green jersey.

“It was great to finish in the top three for in my home region and a real boost following such a tough day for the T-Mobile team yesterday,” said Hammond. “There were lots of spectators out cheering along the route today and it was fantastic to part of a break-away full of so many Brits.”

By stage 4, the yellow jersey had again changed shoulders, with Adrian Palmorares from the Fuerteventura-Canarias team was part of a decisive break forcing the previous yellow jersey Nikolai Roberts out of contention.

The highest placed brit rider as we right this is Daniel Lloyd (DFL-Cycling News-Litespeed) in 15th. T-Mobile’s Roger Hammond resides in 33rd while Mark Cavendish languishes in 42nd. Here’s hoping he Cavendish can turn his fortunes around on the remaining stages.

Stay tuned to www.londoncyclesport.com for the latest news on the progress of the race.

New signing for Lampre

Lampre-Fondital have signed 29-year-old Christian Murro, winner of the Tre Valli Varesine earlier this year. The Italian rider has been a pro since 2004 and has three victories to his name. “Murro is a rider with persistence and good qualities. We’re happy he will be with us in the next years,” added Lampre general manager Giuseppe Saronni.

Barloworld and Astana racing in Belgium this weekend

British registered Barloworld will be heading to Belgium this weekend to take part in two races, the Paris-Brussels and GP Fourmies events. The races could be a great chance for Belarus’ Kastantsin Siutsou who has been well placed in lots of races and deserves a major result. He will be backed by Russia’s Alex Efimkin, Portugal’s Hugo Sabido, Italy’s Fabrizio Guidi (in case of a sprint finish), Gianpaolo Cheula, Paolo Longo, Borghini, James Perry and Colombian stagiaire Ramiro Rincon.

The Astana Cycling Team will also be in contention in the 219km Paris-Brussels event, with Maxim Gourov, Sergey Ivanov, Benoit Joachim , Aaron Kemps , Gennady Mikhaylov, Dimitriy Muravyev, Michael Schär and Yevgeny Sladkov flying the Astana flag.

97 French World Champion breaks collarbone

Laurent Brochard, the last French World Champion and pro for 15 years, crashed heavily in the Tour of Poland this week, resulting in a broken collarbone. The 39-year-old has notched up 41 wins since becoming a pro, and the French rider seems reluctant to throw the towel in just yet, he’ll continue to compete in 2008.

La Vuelta coming soon

The 62nd edition of the Tour of Spain, the final of the three Grand Tours, will take place from 1-23 September. Riders will race over 3,241km clockwise around some the finest parts of Spain, with two time trials and a couple of days in the Pyrenees. It should be a good race.

Tour of Germany

The 1292.5km race was fought out by 176 riders from 22 teams last week, finishing in Hannover at the weekend. The nine stage race was closely fought, and finished with T-Mobile’s Gerald Ciolek taking his third sprint finish win of the Tour.

Jens Voight (Team CSC) won the race overall (his second such victory of the race), with third place Tour de France rider Levi Leipheimer in second, with David Lopez Garcia (Caisse d’Epargne) the best of the rest. Erik Zabel won the sprinters jersey.

Results

1 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team CSC 30.57.21
2 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 1.57
3 David Lopez Garcia (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 2.10
4 Leonardo Bertagnolli (Ita) Liquigas 3.05
5 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank 3.15
6 Chris Anker Sørensen (Den) Team CSC 4.06
7 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Cofidis-Le Crédit par Téléphone 5.22
8 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Unibet.com 5.26
9 Gustav Erik Larsson (Swe) Unibet.com 6.08
10 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner 6.16

Soler wins Vuelta a Burgos

Tour de France Polka Dot jersey winner Mauricio Soler has confirmed his climbing ability by winning stage two of the four day race, going on to win the race outright.

Results

1 Juan Mauricio Soler (Col) Barloworld 14.31.37
2 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 0.02
3 Carlos Castaño Panadero (Spa) Karpin Galicia 0.30
4 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Relax – Gam 0.47
5 José Ángel Gómez (Spa) Saunier Duval – Prodir
6 Moises Duenas Nevado (Spa) Agritubel 1.23
7 David Herrero Llorente (Spa) Karpin Galicia 1.52
8 José Miguel Esp Elías Galindo (Spa) Relax – Gam 2.08
9 Javier Moreno Bazan (Spa) Extremadura – Spiuk 2.15
10 Rubén Plaza Molina (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne

Alessandro Ballan wins Vattenfall Cyclassics

The 12th Cyclassic, held on the sunny streets of Hamburg, was marred by a crash 2km from the finish. Attacking with 500metres to go, the Italian held a lead to cross the line ahead of the chasing group.

The Ronde van Vlaanderen winner said afterwards: “I was thinking about [Daniele] Bennati [for the sprint]. I really did not think I could do it, seriously.”

Britain’s David Millar, in his fresh National’s jersey, finished in 11th.

Results

1 Alessandro Ballan (Ita) Lampre – Fondital 5.21.05 (42.811 km/h)
2 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank
3 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) T-Mobile Team
4 Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Lampre – Fondital
5 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram
6 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner
7 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick.Step Innergetic
8 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) Predictor – Lotto
9 Peter Wrolich (Aut) Gerolsteiner
10 Olaf Pollack (Ger) Team Wiesenhof Felt
11 David Millar (GBr) Saunier Duval – Prodir

Mark Cavendish will ride Tour of Britain

T-Mobile has confirmed they’ll put a team into the Tour of Britain, just 22 days away. Cavendish will be joined by fellow Brit Roger Hammond. Team leader duties will fall on the young Linus Gerdermann’s shoulders, winner of stage 7 in the Tour de France and holder of the yellow jersey briefly. The remaining T-Mobile team lineup will be confirmed before this year’s race.

Unibet disband

It’s been reported that the Belgian-Swedish outfit has decided to call it a day at the end of the season. This follows a diffiult year for the new team, as it became embroiled in a struggled between UCI and the organisers of the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana.

This effects, amongst others, brit Jeremey Hunt who is now looking for a new team to sign him up.

Where now for Andreas Kloden?

With the Astana team effectively out of action, following its removal from the Tour de France and subsequently refusal of entry into the Tour of Spain, will the German rider will be on the hunt for a new team for 2008? The German’s contract with Astana expires at the end of 2008, and writing on his website, Kloden commented: “Even if the future of the team appears uncertain at present, I would like to wait for the development of the coming days only once, before I think over a change.”

Contador and Leipheimer will ride Discovery’s last race

Discovery’s Tour de France winner Alberto Contador and runner up Levi Leipheimre will race in the Tour of Missouri on 11-16 September. It will be the teams last race of the season.

The Tour of Missouri is North America’s newest elite cycling stage race and patterned after the successful Tour de Georgia and Amgen Tour of California statewide stage races. The race will start in Kansas City, Tuesday, September 11 and conclude 600 miles later in St. Louis the following Sunday.