VeloVeritas

Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne 2012(0)

From the point that his Sky Procycling teammates took up station on the front of the peloton with 60km to go, Mark Cavendish never looked like losing today, and so it proved as he swept to an easy bunch sprint win over FDJ-Big Mat’s Yauheni Hutarovich with Vacansoleil-DCM’s Kenny Van Hummel in third.

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2012(0)

Sep Vanmarcke instigated the main splits of the day, survived the many crashes on the slippy roads, rode strongly in the breaks and the final winning move, foxed and feigned heavy legs beautifully in the last couple of kilometres and finished the day with a fine accelerating power-sprint win over Tom Boonen and Juan Antonio Flecha.

Robert Hassan – First Super Six Winner of the Year(2)

If it’s the first weekend of the month and the snow drops have burst through – it must Scottish Super Six time.

VeloVeritas caught up with the first Super Six winner of the year, 19 year-old Dumbarton man Robert Hassan (Endura/Pedal Power Development Team) the day after he’d triumphed over 65 miles of beautiful East Lothian countryside in the Edinburgh Road Club promotion at Gifford.

Kuurne – Brussels – Kuurne(0)

Sky Procycling just missed the win yesterday with Flecha finishing second in Het Nieuwsblad, but the team stepped it up a notch today, setting up Chris Sutton perfectly for a superb win in the bunch sprint.

Tom Boonen tried his hand with around five and a half k’s to go, jumping out of the bunch and with a fantastic turn of pace and joining forces with Jimmy Engoulvent (Saur-Sojasun), the only rider left in front from a small break. However, with 2km to go the pair were reeled back in, and the Sky riders gave Sutton the perfect leadout.

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad(0)

On a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon in Gent, Rabobank’s Sebastian Langeveld took the victory by inches from breakaway partner Juan Antonio Flecha (Sky Procycling and the winner last year), with another Sky rider Matt Hayman third.

The Dutchman had ridden very aggressively throughout the race, attacking and getting clear with more than 55km still to race, to be joined by Flecha with 16km to go the line.

Humbie Mountain Time Trial 2010(0)

Stuart Moran (Perth United) made it a successful trip to East Lothian for the Humbie Mountain Time Trial today, taking the win over a hard two-lap circuit by 20 seconds.

Torrential rain before the start didn’t dampen anyone’s enthusiasm it seemed, but given the instructions that the village hall wasn’t to have turbos or rollers on its beautiful floor, ingenious methods for warming up were needed – with riders utilising umbrella-weilding loved ones, dry spots under the reaching boughs of the local Elm trees, and bus shelters. Some didn’t bother at all and sat in their cars until it was time to meet the timekeeper.

Over the following couple of hours however, the sun came out and the day warmed up, strengthening the south-easterly wind and making it that bit harder for the later starters.

Tour of the Meldons 2010(1)

James Cusick (Glasgow Couriers) showed the rest of the field how to ride a hilly, chilly 20 mile time trial, this one around the picturesque Meldons in the Scottish Borders.

The early starters also had horizontal sheets of rain to contend with, and together with the obligatory cattle grids and potholes, it was another hard lesson in winter under-preparing for many.

There were also one or two fallers on the technical descent down into Eddleston, but thankfully noone was seriously injured.

Tyler Storms the Scheldeprijs(0)

“I didn’t have good legs,” said Tyler Farrar after his surprise victory in the Scheldeprijs today,”but my team did such a great job that I felt I had to give something back in the sprint.”

Gordon Arms Mountain Time Trial 2010(0)

Alan Thomson (Glasgow Couriers) was run pretty close by his teammate Barry McGurk for the win in the Gordon Arms Trophy, a hilly time trial run by the Gala CC near Melrose in the Scottish borders. With Euan Pope backing them up in fourth place, the team prize was never going anywhere else.

Montepaschi Strade Bianche(0)

Kazakh rider Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana) could barely raise an arm in victory, after a crash earlier in the day, and five hours of hard racing over the Tuscan dirt roads.

Thomas Löfkvist (Team Sky) attacked the remains of the front group of 11 men as they got to within 6km of Siena, knowing that a good placing in the final few corners were vital if he was going to repeat his win of last year.

Revolution 28 – Manchester(0)

In a full programme of racing, Sir Chris Hoy showed he’s ready for the forthcoming World Championships and happy with his form by posting the fastest 200m time, and then beating Jason Kenny in the final of the sprint, but, as he told us, he “had to pull his ring out” to do so. The pair nearly took each other out with several no-nonsense switches.

Challenge Ciclista a Mallorca(0)

Robbie Mcewen, Oscar Freire, Linus Gedermann, Rui Costa, and Andre Greipel took the five one-day races that make up this event, which suffered from the weather like other events around the Med.

Great to see Jens Voigt back in action and winning a competition too.

Etoile de Bessèges(0)

Taking his first win of the season thanks to a great leadout from his An Post-Sean Kelly teammates, Niko Eeckhout won the last and fifth stage, the Belgian beating Valentin Iglinsky (Astana) and Hans Dekkers (Landbouwkrediet).

But it was Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis), who 24-hours earlier was relegated for missing out a part of the route, who claimed the GC win. Race leader Arnaud Molmy (Roubaix Lille Metropole) and many others failed to start the last day after a stomach virus spread through the bunch overnight.

Lothian Flyers Road Race(0)

Gavin Shirley (Nevis Cycles RT) made the trip to the Scottish Borders today, and went away with the win in the Edinburgh Road Club promotion, the Lothian Flyer Road Race, narrowly edging out two fast Vets, Chris Brown (Stirling BC) and Steve Nutley (Fife Cycling 2000).