The Peloton & The Podium: Pro Cycling Update for 4/11/11

What can you say about Paris-Roubaix? It was exciting, intense and just plain brutal watching the world’s best cyclists suffer through 258kms/160mi defined by 27 sections of cobble. The wild ride ended with two laps around the Roubaix Velodrome where someone claimed the highly coveted cobble stone trophy weighing twice as much as the bike he rode in on.

That someone was dark horse Johan Van Summeran of the US based Garmin-Cevelo team. The Belgian domestique emerged as this year’s winner by hammering through the final kms of the grueling race known as “Hell of the North” to  clear the finish :19 seconds ahead of favorite Fabian Cancellara (Leopard-Trek). Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank) followed Cancellara with a 3^rd place finish and  Gregory Rast (Team RadioShack) finishing at a close 4^th.

The Peloton & The Podium: Pro Cycling Update for 4/8/11

Another hot day in the Basque Country as Stage 5 of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco ended with a victory for Spain’s Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre-ISD) followed respectively by Jurgen Van De Walle (Omega Pharama Lotto) and John Gadret (Ag2r La Mondiale). Oscar Freire (Rabobank) was actually the first to cross the line, but disqualified after race officials ruled that teammate Luis Leon Sanchez gave him a push in the final km. Freire was dumped down in the rankings to #48. (And you thought pro cycling would be boring without Lance).  If you look close enough in this video you may be able to see the push by Sanchez. It's beyond me why Universal wouldn't attempt to post a video that clearly shows the move. http://www.universalsports.com/video/assetid=6370a9fd-bc5e-4749-b366-e25c0b1e77fc.html

The Peloton & The Podium: Pro Cycling Update

Sammy Sanchez (Euskaltel) picked up a win today in a mountainous Stage 4 of The Tour of the Basque Country, with Adreas Kloden (Radio Shack) and Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) following on the podium. Sanchez attacked during the final km of a very tough stage which included seven graded climbs. GC remains the same as yesterday (see below), and USA's Chris Horner holds on to 4th place. Overall, this is a close one that is expected to be decided on Saturday with the Tour's Time Trial finish.