Gilbert dominates post tour races, with four victories

Philippe Gilbert has dominated the post tour races, with four victories in the opening week.

The Belgian champion had to settle for third, in the Tour’s green jersey classification, but is now back in his own back yard. Gilbert opened up his account at the Natour Criterium Aalst, ahead of Samuel Sanchez and Ivan Basso. The Criterium Aalst is one of the oldest post tour crits, it was founded in 1934, and takes an 11 corner tour around the town.

Sanchez got his own back, the following day, with victory in Natourcriterium Roeselare and Thor Hushovd taking third. The new King of the Mountains had plenty of room to breathe, as the two sprinters fought it out behind him. Plenty of fans packed the streets to see the 55 laps, despite the bad weather.

TdF: Sanchez wins in the Massif Central as Voeckler takes yellow

Luis Leon Sanchez sprinted away from his breakaway compatriots, to win Stage 9, while Thomas Voeckler took the yellow.

Voeckler looked like he wanted to add a stage victory to the yellow, but Sanchez was too powerful and put in a 5 second gap in the last 100 metres. The Spaniard, who finished 11th in last year’s tour, now moves in to second in the classification, with a 37 second gap over Cadel Evans. Third across the line was Sandy Casar, who didn’t have the legs to challenge Sanchez and Voeckler.

Tdf: Rui Costa holds it together for victory as Thor Hushovd stays in yellow

Rui Alberto Faria da Costa put in a massive effort to hold off a looming peloton, to win the first mountain stage.

Costa was the remaining rider from a nine man breakaway, which formed after 9km of racing, and had room to celebrate, despite the main bunch closing in. With 5km left there were only four riders left in the bunch, including Tejay Van Garderen, Cyril Gautier and Christophe Riblon.

Tdf: Mark Cavendish makes it two as Bradley Wiggins crashes out

Mark Cavendish sprints to his second victory of the 2011 Tour, while his compatriot Bradley Wiggins pulls out with a broken collar bone.

The Manx express defeated his former teammate Andre Greipel and last year’s green jersey winner Alessandro Petacchi, to move him in to third in the standings. HTC have struggled to get their famous lead-out right, this year, but Mark Renshaw and Matt Goss timed it perfectly to allow their sprinter the best chance.

Video: 2011 Tour de France - Stage 5

TdF: Mark Cavendish wins in crash filled Stage 5

Mark Cavendish has briefly silenced his critics after winning a hard fought final sprint on Stage 5 of the Tour de France.

Cavendish has been out of contention in the sprints so far, but he powered around the outside of the bunch to beat Philip Gilbert to the line. The gradient favoured Gilbert, who won on similar terrain a few days before, but the Manxman went the long way around to edge him out.

TdF: Cadel Evans holds off a closing Alberto Contador to take Stage 4

Cadel Evans claimed his first stage of the 2011 Tour de France on the Mûr-de-Bretagne, by the smallest of margins over Alberto Contador.

It nearly wasn’t to be for the Australian, who had to change bikes with 15 kilometres to go and had to be paced back on by his team, after problems with his rear wheel. The peloton caught the breakaway, which had been away from the start, with just over 3 km to go. With that job dealt with, it was the GC contenders who took to the front and began to play mind games with each other.

Video: Gilbert sprints for the line, while Contador gets caught up in crash

Gilbert takes opener as Contador loses time

Philip Gilbert took the opening stage of the 2011 Tour de France, with a stunning final sprint, while Alberto Contador lost over a minute.

Gilbert made it made it past a crash, which took out half the field in the final eight kilometres, to set himself up for the short climb to the line. The Belgian champion looked like he’d run out of steam as several riders made their challenge. Fabian Cancellara launched an attack, which seemed to be the decisive one, but the Swiss rider wasn’t able to sustain the pace.

Gilbert didn’t panic and held off a closing Cadel Evans and Thor Hushovd, for the victory, this win adds to his stretch which goes back to April. Evans is in a very good position, only three seconds down on the yellow, while Alberto Contador lost over 1 minute 20 seconds.

The bunch had been seriously depleted when a spectator got a bit too close to the peloton, causing an Astana rider to fall into the group. The crash left most of the road blocked and several of the big favourites stranded. Contador was one of those who got caught up in the crash and has his work cut out, with Andy Schleck crossing the line only six seconds down.

Thor Hushovd Wins Norway's First Senior Gold in Men's Elite World Championship Road Race

Thor Hushovd edged out Matti Breschel in a thrilling sprint finish in Sunday’s Elite Men’s Road Race in Geelong, Australia.

The Norwegian had too much power as he shot towards the finish line and it was left to the others to figure out the minor placings. He had shown during the Tour de France that he could survive the hills better than any other sprinter and he hung on to the peloton. He stuck himself behind the wheel of Belgium’s Greg Van Avermaet before flying around the entire group and winning by over a bikes length.

Breschel had initially led the sprint from the 100 metre mark, but he wasn’t able to hang on to the front. The Dan was visibly angry with himself as he crossed the line; he had been inches away from claiming the rainbow jersey when he was passed by the Norwegian. Allan Davis of Australia rounded off the podium position pipping Filippo Pozzato in to third who left it just a bit too late to attack.

Elite Men's Road Race Results

1 HUSHOVD Thor NOR 6:21:49 40.417
2 BRESCHEL Matti DEN " "
3 DAVIS Allan AUS " "
4 POZZATO Filippo ITA " "
5 VAN AVERMAET Greg BEL " "
6 FREIRE GOMEZ Oscar ESP " "
7 KOLOBNEV Alexandr RUS " "
8 BAZAYEV Assan KAZ " "
9 ARASHIRO Yukiya JPN " "
10 FEILLU Romain FRA " "
11 BOLE Grega SLO " "
12 FOFONOV Dmitriy KAZ " "
13 MOERENHOUT Koos NED " "
14 WEGMANN Fabian GER " "
15 CARDOSO Andre Fernando S. Martins POR " "
16 SCHLECK Frank LUX " "
17 EVANS Cadel AUS " "
18 GILBERT Philippe BEL " "
19 TERPSTRA Niki NED 6:21:56 +0:07
20 LEUKEMANS Björn BEL " "

Elite Men's Road Race Start list

1 EVANS Cadel  AUSTRALIA
2 COOKE Baden  AUSTRALIA
3 DAVIS Allan  AUSTRALIA
4 GERRANS Simon  AUSTRALIA
5 GOSS Matthew Harley  AUSTRALIA
6 HAYMAN Mathew  AUSTRALIA
7 O'GRADY Stuart  AUSTRALIA
8 ROGERS Michael  AUSTRALIA
9 SULZBERGER Wesley  AUSTRALIA
10 BARREDO LLAMAZALES Carlos  SPAIN
11 ERVITI OLLO Imanol  SPAIN
12 FREIRE GOMEZ Oscar  SPAIN
13 GARATE Juan Manuel  SPAIN
14 PLAZA MOLINA Ruben  SPAIN
15 SANCHEZ GIL Luis Leon  SPAIN
16 SANCHEZ GONZALEZ Samuel  SPAIN
17 VENTOSO ALBERDI Francisco José  SPAIN
18 ZUBELDIA AGIRRE Haimar  SPAIN
19 BRUSEGHIN Marzio  ITALY
20 GAVAZZI Francesco  ITALY

VaE: Philip Gilbert takes his second victory in La Vuelta while Vincenzo Nibali hold on to Red

Philip Gilbert took his second victory in this year’s la Vuelta a Espana after a huge sprint in to the town of Toledo.

With just over 3km to go several riders launched an attack including Luis Leon Sanchez. They managed to pull out a small gap of around five seconds, but they were caught 1km later. The attacks broke up the peloton leaving the sprinters behind.

This allowed the explosive Belgian to start a 500 metre sprint to the line, but he was almost caught by Tyler Farrar who had survived the earlier escape attempts. Vincenzo Nibali managed to come in not too far behind the Belgian to keep a 50’ gap ahead of Ezequiel Mosquera.

Today’s stage was the longest of this year’s Vuelta and a mixture of terrain and the riders legs were tested immediately with a second category climb. The rest of the stage was very undulating, but gradually moved down and a slight incline in the last kilometre.

A break away was formed after the first and only classified climb of the day. It was Dominik Roels, who was in the break yesterday and Josep Jufre who came of the front of the bunch first. They were soon joined by Manuel Ortega and Xavier Florencio; the four men managed to pull out a massive gap very quickly.

VaE: Mark Cavendish beat JJ Haedo to his third victory in La Vuelta

Mark Cavendish took his third victory just ahead of JJ Haedo in a sprint in stage 18 of this year’s Vuelta a Espana.

The Manxman had a good start to the tour winning the team time-trial, but he went through a brief barren patch during the first week. He took his first victory back in stage 12 and he’s won every sprint since then. The 25-year-old has extended his lead in the green jersey competition and it looks likely that he will wear it in Madrid.

It has been a good day for the HTC Columbia team who took a sprint victory in the guise of Andre Greipel in stage five of the Tour of Britain.