Tag: The Tour of Britain 2009

Mason Hollyman, the 20 years-old ex-‘Zappi Man’ from Huddersfield riding for Israel Cycling Academy continental team took fourth in the Italian u23 classic Trofeo Piva and fifth in the extremely tough u23 Liege-Bastogne-Liege. He’s also been riding at the highest level with the Israel – Premier Tech World Tour team in races like the Coppi e Bartali where the big teams joust with gung-ho ProTeams desperate for recognition.

Le Cap d’Agde and we're puzzled. We've steadfastly avoided getting involved in speculation over the ‘d-word’ – if you regard yourself as a serious journo, you have to be able to distinguish between factual information from a good source and wild speculation on twitter from individuals who may well have never seen the race, let alone spoken to anyone on it. Maybe it's because we've been on le Tour during the Ulrich, Basso, Mancebo, Bottero, Landis, Morreni, Rasmussen, Contador - and if we forgotten any, sorry - 'affairs.'

One of the more interesting transfers over the winter was that of Garmin’s US rider Tom Peterson to Dutch team Argos-Shimano. The 26 year-old from North Bend, Washington has been with Jonathan Vaughters’ outfit since the TiAA-CREF days back in 2006.

After a strong season with the Swiss Racing Academy, Edinburgh’s Sean Flynn will be joining his countryman Oscar Onley at the Dutch World Team DSM, riding alongside big name riders like Romain Bardet and John Degenkolb.

Sergio Henao will head Team Sky’s charge in his homeland at the inaugural Colombia Oro y Paz (6-11 February). The Colombian heads a lineup including fellow countrymen Sebastian Henao and Egan Bernal for the new six-day stage race, which will see Team Sky race in Colombia for the first time ever. Debutant Jonathan Castroviejo, Tao Geoghegan Hart and David Lopez complete the six-man squad.

- by Janette Hazlett - I rode round the course for the Trossachs time trial the other day - ouch... now I'm feeling just a little bit guilty that I make them race round it! There were no crowds for me on the Duke's Pass - and I was flying up it too, honest!