Friday, April 19, 2024

Tag: Omega-Pharma Lotto

A Good Start for the Team

Dear VeloVeritas readers, tables have turned in Omega Pharma Lotto: we have had some success already in the season. Three wins is nice for the team at this early stage in the season - two with Phil [Gilbert, the 1st Stage of the Volta ao Algarve and the recent Montepaschi Strade Bianche] and one with André [Greipel, Stage 4 of the Volta ao Algarve]. André also bagged third in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne last week, and so the team's moral is much better than last year at this time.

Adam Hansen Blog – A New Season and a New Start

Thanks for checking out my Adam Hansen Blog - I'll be updating it with news, what I'm up to, and where I'm doing it throughout the season. First thing to tell you is that I met up my new Omega-Pharma Lotto teammates for the first time here in Australia, for the Tour Down Under.

Introducing Our New Blogger – Omega-Pharma Lotto’s Adam Hansen

T-Mobile, Slipstream and HTC stalwart Adam Hansen; a key cog in the 'Cavendish sprint machine,' surprised many when he decided to leave the US team and follow HTC's 'other sprinter,' Andre Greipel to Lotto. But that's not all!

At Random

Jack Bauer – New Zealand’s new Elite Road Champion

It was Vik (who else?) first spotted the man; 'there's a New Zealand rider winning a lot of races for Kingsnorth Wheelers in Flanders just now, you should get hold of him!' he told me, last summer. We duly tracked down Jack Bauer and have been keeping an eye on him and talking to him, ever since.

Roadside at the Tour of Britain 2022; Stage Two

Originally we hadn’t planned to go down to The Scottish Borders to see Stage Two of the Tour of Britain 2022 – but the sun came out, we made a few time calculations and as I said of yesterday; ‘it’s not every day you get the chance to see some of the world’s best bike riders on home soil.’ One of life’s simple pleasures is surely sitting on the grass verge in the sunshine, waiting on a bike race coming up the hill.

Sean Flynn – the Young Scot with Top 12 and Top 20 in UCI 1.1 Races

In a solid 12th place at the British Road Race Championships in Lincoln was 21 year-old Scot, Sean Flynn, riding for top Dutch development team SEG Racing, in what was one of the team’s last races before sadly, it folded. We caught up with Sean not long after another fine ride, this time in the last race of the European season, the  188.5 kilometre UCI 1.1 Ronde van Drenthe.

A Superb Start for GreenEdge

If perfection is a 10/10, and the attainment of perfection is impossible, then GreenEdge have had a 9/10 first month of racing. They have won both the road and TT Australian jerseys for the year, and have won the overall on their first ProTour race. Simon Gerrans is top of the UCI World Rankings, and GreenEdge are 3rd (see the full lists).

Jason MacIntyre – British 25 Mile Time Trial Champion

Ten years after Graeme Obree became the first Scotsman to win the British 25 Mile Time Trial Championship, Jason MacIntyre has taken the holy grail of time-trialling north of the Antonine Wall again - all the way to Fort William. A common denominator over the ten years has been the presence on the podium of former world points race and team pursuit champion who won the 25 in 1999, Chris Newton [now Recycling, back then with North Wirral].

Callum Skinner – Hong Kong Track World Cup Gold Medallist

It was March 2015 when we last spoke to Scottish sprinter, Callum Skinner, his seventh in the kilometre the only bright spot in a below par Worlds for the GB Sprint Squad. Skinner was ‘quieter’ in 2015 than he was in 2014 when he took a ‘clean sweep’ of the British sprint disciplines and the European kilometre title.