Reimer finishes 4th in Stage 2, Tour of Britain
Today's 153 km ride from Darlington to Newcastle Gateshead, in good weather with light rain, turned into a solo win for Rabobank's Kai Reus who attacked from a two-man breakaway to take the stage victory some 12km from the finish. Alexander Kristoff (Joker-Bianchi) placed second, Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-HTC) was third and Cervélo's German Champion Martin Reimer took fourth.

"Today we had an up and down stage, ideal for breakaways," said Jens Zemke, Sports Director. "We also saw also a lot of them going and then coming back into the peloton. At the end, Kai Reus from Rabobank managed to win solo – he had been part of the three-rider break that away but he was the only one who “survived” the chase by the peloton. Our guys did a great job. At the end of the race we did a lead out for Reimer, who finished at the end in fourth place. I want to especially mention the performance of our stagaire
Davide Appollonio today who was a great help to Reimer in the final sprint. However, Daniel Lloyd did not have such great luck today. He crashed during the race but is not injured and was able to finish the race in the peloton without any problems."

Stage 3 of The Tour of Britain, which will see the peloton racing on a tough, yet picturesque terrain, from the town of Peebles to the finish in Gretna Green. This is the first time The Tour of Britain will be visiting the Scottish Borders, this iconic region of Scotland.



CyclingNews
VeloNews
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Hushovd wins green jersey at Tour of Missouri
Thor Hushovd captured his second green jersey this season with his win at the Tour of Missouri which finished today. Hushovd was one of dominant riders throughout the week long race making it to the Tour of Missouri podium for six of the seven stages (winner stage 3, and top three for five stages). Hushovd finished third in today's final 116.4 km circuit race around Kansas City. Martin Gilbert (Planet Energy) won the stage in a bunch sprint to the line. Glbert out sprinted fellow Canadian Andrew Pinfold (OUCH p/b Maxxis) who placed second.

"What I heard about the race from last year is that is was a sprinter's race," said Thor Hushovd, "and that's what I expected. But I also thought today maybe there was a break away and I could go all the way to the finish but it didn't happen; it was quite a controlled race. I had many opportunities to get a stage win, every day except the time trial. It was a bunch sprint, but it was a really nice race, though I'm really tired now, so we will see what I can do in the worlds in a couple of weeks. I think I have to go there and try my best."

"The last stage of the Tour of Missouri, also the last time we will have all this team together in these conditions. The classic riders with captain Andreas Klier, Thor Hushovd, Heinrich Haussler, Brett Daniel Lancaster, Jeremy Hunt and with a few of the youngsters like Edward Carrington "Ted" King, this is a beautiful team and they did a good job here." said Jean-Paul van Poppel, Sports Director.

"The last stage was seven laps of 16.4 km a super hard stage, actually it was the hardest stage of the whole week. This morning we spoke together and Thor mentioned he was really motivated to win the stage. So we rode full gas the whole day, we controlled the race, like we know how to do. We brought back the break away that was on the road in the last kilometres, but unfortunatly we had a mechancial problem. Thor broke his cable for shifting the gears and rode the whole last lap over the hills only with the 11th gear. So he had to go with the big gear to the finish line, then on top of that he and Brett missed each other on the last 40 metres and Thor ended up doing a super lead out for the Canadian rider who just beat him on the line with another rider. But he won the green jersey, a stage and some podium spots. I think we have nothing to be ashamed of, we did a good race and hope to come back next year to ride again for a good result."



CyclingNews
VeloNews

Reimer moves into 5th on the GC
The 153 km third stage of the Tour of Britain from Peebles to Scotland's Gretna Green was won today by Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Clumbia-HTC), second place went to Michel Merlo (Barloworld, and Chris Sutton (Garmin-Slipstream) finished third. Cervélo TestTeam stagaire Davide Appollonio came 5^th.

"Martin Reimer attacked early today, about 1 km into the stage," said Jens Zemke. "Accompanying Martin was Thomas De Gendt, who was in the break yesterday as well as the day before. The group added two more riders (Lapthorne and Ruigh) at the 15 km mark. Reimer attacked out of this group on all three intermediate sprints and won them all. That earned him 9 bonus seconds and moved him up on the GC to fifth position. Unfortunately the breakaway was chased back from the peloton 15 km ahead of the finish and the race ended with a bunch sprint. Our team made the lead out today for our stagaire Davide Appollonio who did a good job and finished up fifth place in the stage. The team had a great and very offensive performance today and it paid off. Martin Reimer was awarded for the most offensive rider."

Daniel Fleeman fell today but went back on the bike and finished the race.

Tomorrow's stage is a 143 km course that starts and ends in Blackpool, the UK's favourite holiday resort and one of the most visited venues for the race outside of London. Perhaps a good omen for Cervélo TestTeam is the fact that Roger Hammond has won the previous two stages that have started or finished in Blackpool. And though Hammond is currently racing for the Team in the Vuelta, good karma never hurts.



CyclingNews
VeloNews

Reimer third in fourth stage, Tour of Britain, Stage 4: Blackpool
Today's stage in and around Blackpool (148 km) again saw a lot of attacks right from the beginning including a serious break away early in the race of 6 riders, including Vladimir Karpets (Katusha), Maxime Monfort (Columbia-HTC) and the 2008 Tour of Britain winner Geoffroy Lequatre (Agritubel). We also helped Garmin chase the breakaway back, the maximum gap of the group was around 2 minutes with the last rider neutralized 1 km from the finish.

"In the final today we prepared the sprint for Martin Reimer and he finished third behind Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia) and Christopher Sutton (Garmin)," said Jens Zemke, Sports Director. "With this time bonuses he also shaved some seconds off the GC enabling him to move up from fifth to fourth place."

"If we look at the average age of our team, we are the youngest team in the race. They ride well and offensive. But we constantly need to pay attention for the breakaway groups that can easy take some minutes. We need to have one rider in and so far we have four riders all in a very good position for the GC. In addition to Martin Reimer there are Daniel Lloyd, Serge Pauwels and Davide Appollonio still close in the GC.

Stage 5 tomorrow does a 134 km circuit in the Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire area, a unique Great British City made up of six separate towns: Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley (the City Centre), Stoke, Fenton and Longton – affectionately known as 'The Potteries'. Known for the rich heritage of time-honoured skills this is the centre of the British pottery industry. The stage finishes at the heart of the city centre in Hanley, in front of the Town Hall.



CyclingNews
VeloNews

Fleeman in breakaway, Reimer 4th in GC
Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-HTC) took his third victory in as many days as the 5^th stage of the Tour of Britian finished with a tough uphill sprint at Stoke On Trent today. With his win Hagen also replaced Kai Reus (Rabobank) as the race leader. The tough weather conditions saw many riders arrive over fifteen minutes behind the race winner. Filippo Pozzato (Team Katusha) finished second and Russell Downing (Candi TV- Pinarello RT) placed third.

"Today's stage was really fast, only 134 km and all up and down, with the longest climb maybe 4 km long. It took them almost 40 km before the first group was able to break clear," said Jens Zemke, Sports Director. "Cervélo's Daniel Fleeman was in that breakaway with Nicolas Vogondy (Agributel), Darren Lapthorne (Rapha Condor) and Alan Marangoni (CSF Navigare). The group had a maximum gap of over five minutes on the peloton but the sprinter teams chased the group back shortly before the finish that ended in a bunch sprint. Once again Boasson Hagen won the stage. Our best rider today was Serge Pauwels who placed 16^th. Martin Reimer is still in fourth place in the GC. Our team rode a strong race today and really did a good job."

Tomorrow's stage 6 will see the riders racing 183.7 km from Frome to Bideford. This will be another testing stage for the riders especially as they make their way over Exmoor to a great finish in Bideford. This will also be The Tour's third visit to the counties of Somerset and Devon.



CyclingNews
VeloNews

Reimer 2nd in stage moves up to 3rd in GC
Cervélo's Martin Reimer finished second today to Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-HTC) who won his fourth stage in as many days four days in another bunch sprint on the Bideford Quays. Russell Downing (Candi TV- Pinarello RT) was third in today's stage. The second place finish for Reimer puts him into 3rd place in the GC, 21 seconds behind Boasson Hagen. Cervélo's Serge Pauwels also had an active day taking part in a long breakaway with Geraint Thomas (Barloworld), Ian Stannard (ISD-Neri), Ben Swift (Katusha) and Thomas De Gendt (TopSport – Vlaanderen). Pauwels was also involved in all of the mountain and sprint bonus points available today and now sits in tenth position in the overall GC.

“The break away today went for a long time.” said Sports Director Jens Zemke. "It is the third time in this Tour that our team has been involved in a long break. It was Martin on the second stage, Daniel Fleeman at the third stage and today Serge Pauwels was part of a breakaway of 5 riders. The group attacked shortly after the start and Columbia chased the five riders back with 1.5 KM to the finish, the group had a maximum advantage of 3 minutes. So, the race ended in a bunch sprint again and the team brought Martin into a good position and he finished second behind Edvald Boasson Hagen who won his fourth stage in this race. Martin moved thanks to the bonus seconds up to the third place in the GC and that is super. With two stages to go we will make sure he ends up on the podium. Tomorrow is the hardest stage of this tour with a uphill finish. There is a great atmosphere over here, the stage is live on television and there are a crowds of people on the road, unbelievable. Cycling is really popular in Great Britain."

Stage 7 of the 2009 Tour of Britain is the penultimate day of the race as the peloton retraces its steps, from Hatherleigh in Devon – possibly the smallest village they've ever started from in The Tour – all the way to Yeovil in Somerset. This gruelling 159.7 km stage will be the most testing for the Tour.



CyclingNews
VeloNews
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Inside Britain With Cervelo's Dan Fleeman

Reimer still on the podium
“There was nothing particularly special about today's stage," said Jens Zemke, Sports Director. "We are still in third place in the GC. Martin Reimer is 25 seconds behind leader Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia) and 2 seconds behind Kai Reis (Rabobank). Martin sprinted today and finished in 12th place, The main work today was done by Columbia and we had several groups in breakaways, twice with Davide Appollonio. But they chased the last groups back in the final and Katuscha worked hard in the last km; Pozzato did the lead out for his teammate Ben Swift who won the stage in front of Pozzato with Boasson Hagen third."

Tomorrow's 92.5 km finale will see the Tour of Britain come to a spectacular end. With its start in Whitehall, the riders will embark on the 92km stage to compete on the 10-lap circuit that takes in iconic landmarks such as Big Ben, the Tower of London and the London Eye.

The circuit takes the riders east from Whitehall Place, past the entrance of Downing Street, along the Victoria Embankment in front of famous locations like Cleopatra's Needle, Somerset House and Middle Temple. The gentle climb of Tower Hill makes the turning point outside the Tower of London as the lap retraces its steps back along the Victoria Embankment with stunning views across the Thames.

From the banks of the River Thames the route takes the riders over Westminster Bridge with 1km to go before going past Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament and back to the onto the Start/Finish straight of Whitehall.



CyclingNews
VeloNews

Not just a Vuelta news, so to everyone form DJPM.
Link!

DJPM:

From Vuelta website:

Team Cervelo, the team with the most winners this season

The numbers are clear: Team Columbia is not only the team with the most victories this season (82 so far, including Edvald Boasson Hagen’s 4 wins in the Tour of Britain), it is also the team with the most wins in Grand Tours. Bob Stapleton’s riders have so far notched up 16 stage wins in the Giro, Tour and Vuelta, a figure which is beyond the reach of almost all other teams.

Nevertheless, Team Columbia doesn’t hold all this season’s records. Test Team Cervelo, a non-UCI ProTour team that has been invited to participate in this season’s 3 Grand Tours, holds the record for the number of riders who have won stages so far this year. Whilst Columbia has 5 stage winners (Edvald Boasson Hagen, Konstantin Sivtsov, Mark Cavendish, Greg Henderson and André Greipel, plus a Team Time Trial stage win in the Giro), Test Team Cervélo took its tally to 6 riders following Philip Deignan’s win in Avila yesterday. In addition to the Irishman, Simon Gerrans, Ignatas Konovalovas, Carlos Sastre, Thor Hushovd and Heinrich Haussler have all won at least one stage each in this year’s Giro, Tour or Vuelta.

Reimer finishes Tour of Britain on the podium
“The last stage today was over 92.5 km throughout London's downtown with many spectators and a great atmosphere," said
Jens Zemke, Sports Director. "We had the first time bonus sprint after 29 km and that was really important because of the small time differences at the top of the GC. We won the first sprint with Martin Reimer placing him second at that moment in the GC. After that, there were another two time bonuses and we organized them with a lead group of 5 riders that included Davide Appollonio. With this group we once again tried to keep Martin in the second spot and to keep the seconds on the riders behind him in the GC. Garmin Slipstream brought the group back before the last bonus sprint and in this sprint Chris Sutton from Garmin took the two seconds making Sutton third in the GC 2 seconds behind Martin. The final sprint was won by Merlo from Barloworld in front of Chris Sutton and he ended up finishing in front of Martin in the GC, which means that Martin ended third overall. The GC was won by Edvald Boasson Hagen who won 4 stages in this Tour of Britain.

"So, Martin ended third in the GC, and second in the points classification. The team finished second in the team classification, so all in all a really super performance from the entire team. We were worked hard for this second place, we were fighting for every second and the riders did a great job. For Martin this is the biggest international performance of his career.”

"I am happy with my third place finish in such a big stage race," said Martin Reimer. Second place would have been better, I was well placed in the final sprint but we chose the wrong wheel in the sprint and unfortunately I ended as 14^th. I am now looking forward to the World Championships, next weekend in Mendrisio."



CyclingNews
VeloNews

Theo Bos signs with Cervélo TestTeam
Cervélo TestTeam is pleased to announce the signing of the talented Dutch Sprinter Theo Bos who has signed with the team through 2011.

The 26-year-old Bos lives in Harderwijk in the Netherlands and comes to the Team with a distinguished track cycling background. He won an Olympic silver medal on the Sprint in 2004 and is a five-time World Champion. He is currently the most successful track cyclist of all time from the Netherlands. In 2009 he sought a new challenge and moved to road cycling. Earlier this season he rode for the Continental Team from Rabobank and achieved his first road victories in races like the Ronde van Noord-Holland and the Omloop der Kempen.

“Theo Bos is an interesting rider and an important person for our team,” said Team Manager Thomas Campana. “We will help Theo take his award winning track process and hone those skills for the road. Our goal was to find another sprinter and in Theo we have found the right rider. As we’ve gotten to know Theo we’ve realized that the mentality of the team and Theo’s are very closely aligned. He likes the way we think and where we want to go, so now Theo is the newest member of Cervélo TestTeam. We are look forward to having one of the fastest riders in the world in our team next year and will help him to reach the same level of excellence on the road that he has achieved on the track.”

“Cervélo TestTeam has proven to be a successful team and with riders like Carlos Sastre Candil, Thor Hushovd and
Heinrich Haussler they have also developed a strong base,” said Theo Bos. “On this team I can use the best equipment and they have presented me with a plan where I can develop myself to the level I want to achieve. In the shadow of the big stars on this team they want to build a team around me for the sprints in the Grand Tours.”

“I am looking forward to learning something from Thor Hushovd and Sports Director Jean-Paul van Poppel. I was really impressed with this team’s set-up when I visited their base in Switzerland. In speaking with with Thomas Campana, Team Manager and Cervélo co-owner Gerard Vroomen I now see this really as a life project. It is great that the Cervélo team has that kind of faith and wants to invest in me. It is now up to me to make it happen and to improve myself, step by step.”



CyclingNews
VeloNews
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Anyone remember?

Cervélo TestTeam won a "preferred status"

THY:

Anyone remember?

Speaking of which, Daryl Impey has signed with Armstrong's with Radio Shack team and hopes to do be racing again this October.  THY, do you still think Bos is crazy? What would be the dynamics of having a raving madman on the team?  

 

 

DeepCover:

THY:

Anyone remember?

Speaking of which, Daryl Impey has signed with Armstrong's with Radio Shack team and hopes to do be racing again this October.  THY, do you still think Bos is crazy? What would be the dynamics of having a raving madman on the team?

Of course, he is totally maniac..
Regarding the dynamics of having him on the team, well I don't konw.

That's not my problem, but the Cervélo leadership isn't stupid, they have talked about it before they signed him.

THY:

That's not my problem, but the Cervélo leadership isn't stupid, they have talked about it before they signed him.

Well, I beg to differ. I think the CTT management is stupid! Calling back Pauwels when he's this close to a stage win is stupid. Leaving Gerrans off your Tour team when he is the best attacker on your team is stupid.

Theo Bos isn't a bad signing necessarily - he shouldn't be branded forever for what he did - but since Sunderland picked the whole roster and then was shown the door, the direction of this team worries me.

mudrock:

Well, I beg to differ. I think the CTT management is stupid! Calling back Pauwels when he's this close to a stage win is stupid. Leaving Gerrans off your Tour team when he is the best attacker on your team is stupid.

Pauwels has admitted that it was his own fault, please accept it.
Maybe they had a good reason (disciplinary case or something) to leave Gerrans out, what do you know?
If it wasn't any disciplinary thing, maybe they really think Klier/Cuesta/Roulston was a better support rider than Gerrans..
They are hired to make those decisions, please accept it. Even if you disagree, like me.

mudrock:

but since Sunderland picked the whole roster and then was shown the door, the direction of this team worries me.

Don't talk about things you don't know anything about! You are talking like it's a fact..
What do you know what the reason was for him to not continue?

Hushovd eyes Paris-Roubaix and World title in 2010
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Gerard Vroomen - September