Brajkovic finishing the season very strongly indeed

Transfer market update 1

Omega Pharma - Quickstep has made a huge step forward this year, on the back of the results of their leading duo: Devenyns and Chavanel. Those two were the only riders in the team that finished their contracts. Dries Devenyns has been confirmed for the following two seasons, but the French will leave the team. His replacement will be a massive surprise, as Pieter Weening leaves HTC to join the Belgian team. The Dutch spent two years in the American-German team, where he was able to win this year's Giro d'Italia.

Other team that has had an awesome season is Discovery Channel. His main star, Janez Brajkovic ended his contract this year, but the agreement to renew the Slovenian's contract has been reached. Brajkovic has comited his future for the following 2 years with the Americans. Discovery has also anounced the signing of the third placed in the Giro, Mikel Nieve. The Spaniard will strenghthen a very powerful team and will dramaticallly increase their chances in Grand Tours.

Jelle Vanendert has also reached an agreement to extend his contract with the Lotto - Belisol team. The Belgian will lead the campaing of the team in the Grand Tour, with the aim of a podium finish in Paris next year.

HTC - Highroad will need to replace their leader, as Weeningleft the team. Chris Froome also ends his contract and it is doubtful whether he will renew it. They have meanwhile secured the signings of Levi Leipheimer and Taylor Phinney. The signing of Leipheimer makes Froome's renewal more difficult, but the British could well do a supporting role for the American.

Peiter Weening to Omega Pharma, very suprising indeed

Stage 5: Tiananmen Square - Bird's Nest



The last stage in Beijing takes us back to the city for a criterium around the Olympic venues. The riders will start from Tiananmen Square before going north towards a circuit around the Olympic stadium. The stage is short and very flat, so pure sprinters are clear favorites.



A group of 7 riders was formed in the start of the stage, including Maxime Monfort (Lotto), Carlos Barredo (Katusha) and Daniel Moreno (Movistar). At the second intermediate sprint (56 km remaining) they maintained a lead of 4’ 25’’over the bunch. However, a lot of teams were working to bring them down.



The break did finally come to an end when Philippe Gilbert was caught with 7 kilometers to go. Vacansoleil was controlling the front of the bunch for Peter Sagan, but the best train seemed that of Sky, with Mark Cavendish towing Peter Kennaugh.



Tyler Farrar emerges as the fastest in the first part of the sprint. This is the first time that he starts a sprint well positioned in Beijing. Behind the American are Peter Kennaugh, Alexandre Vinokourov and Thibaut Pinot.



Tyler Farrar wins in the Brid’s Nest! The American was the strongest by far today and easily beat Vinokourov and Kennaugh. The sprinters close his season, as they are not expected to play a role in Lombardia. Farrar has been the best pure sprinter again, but Vinokourov has demonstrated to be more suited to all kinds of routes and ended the year with three green jerseys in Paris – Nice, Catalunya and Beijing.

Alessandro Ballan won the GC after winning the “king stage� from a breakaway. Liquigas can at least celebrate something in a very poor year. Hutarovich and Modolo complete the very surprising podium after a race where no team seemed keen to control the race.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1	Tyler Farrar	SAXO BANK	2h45'57
2	Alexandre Vinokourov	TEAM GARMIN-BARRACUDA	s.t.
3	Peter Kennaugh	SKY PROCYCLING	s.t.
4	Janez Brajkovic	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	s.t.
5	André Greipel	LOTTO-BELISOL	s.t.
6	Peter Sagan	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	s.t.
7	Thibaut Pinot	MOVISTAR TEAM	s.t.
8	Pavel Brutt	KATUSHA TEAM	s.t.
9	Francisco Ventoso	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	s.t.
10	Levi Leipheimer	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	s.t.

General Classification

1	Alessandro Ballan	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	15h15'40
2	Yauheni Hutarovich	LAMPRE - ISD	+ 12
3	Sacha Modolo	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 15
4	Beñat Intxausti	KATUSHA TEAM	s.t.
5	Jure Kocjan	HTC - HIGH ROAD	s.t.
6	Thibaut Pinot	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 16
7	Bart De Clerq	LOTTO-BELISOL	s.t.
8	Geraint Thomas	TEAM GARMIN-BARRACUDA	+ 18
9	Heinrich Haussler	HTC - HIGH ROAD	+ 19
10	Kenny Van Hummel	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	s.t.

Points

1	Alexandre Vinokourov	TEAM GARMIN-BARRACUDA	56
2	Peter Sagan	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	44
3	André Greipel	LOTTO-BELISOL	44
4	Alessandro Ballan	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	43
5	Janez Brajkovic	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	39

Mountain

1	Alessandro Ballan	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	50
2	Sacha Modolo	BMC RACING TEAM	25
3	Bart De Clerq	LOTTO-BELISOL	24
4	Daniele Bennati	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	22
5	Beñat Intxausti	KATUSHA TEAM	17

Young

1	Yauheni Hutarovich	LAMPRE - ISD	15h15'52
2	Sacha Modolo	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 3
3	Jure Kocjan	HTC - HIGH ROAD	s.t.
4	Thibaut Pinot	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 4
5	Bart De Clerq	LOTTO-BELISOL	s.t.

Teams

1	HTC - HIGH ROAD	45h49'20
2	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	+ 9
3	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 1'50
4	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	+ 2'09
5	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 2'10

"Mark cavendish towing Peter Kennaugh"
That right there, Is why i Love this story!

That's as crazy as it gets

UCI World Tour rankings riders (after Tour of Beijing)

1	Pieter Weening	HTC	572.11
2	Hubert Dupont	Saxo Bank	568.22
3	Janez Brajkovic	Discovery	512.88
4	Bauke Mollema	Vacansoleil	433.33
5	Dries Devenyns	Quickstep	407.44
6	Jelle Vanendert	Lotto	298.77
7	Mikel Nieve	BMC	292.66
8	Alexandre Vinokourov	Garmin	261
9	Xavier Tondo	Euskaltel	242.77
10	Bart de Clerq	Lotto	242.77
11	Sylvain Chavanel	Quickstep	239.44
12	Jakob Fuglsang	Radioshack	222.88
13	Oscar Freire	Rabobank	218.22
14	Andy Schleck	Katusha	216.33
15	Levi Leipheimer	Discovery	215.89

UCI World Tour rankings teams (after Tour of Beijing)

1	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	939
2	LOTTO-BELISOL	905
3	SAXO BANK	885
4	HTC-HIGHROAD	867
5	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	796
6	BMC RACING TEAM	760
7	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	719
8	EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI	594
9	RABOBANK	524
10	LAMPRE - ISD	489

Transfer market update 2

HTC - Highroad has soon found replacements for their starts. Andy Schleck has reached an agreement to join HTC for the next 2 seasons and strengthen their climbing abilities. The Luxembourgish will probably share the leading role with Leipheimer in the Tour.

Bauke Mollema has been one of the biggest surprises of the season. If he keeps the progression he could be one of the main conteders for next year's Tour. Vacansoleil - DMC has announced today that the Dutch will continue with their team the next three seasons.

One of the new teams joining the World Tour next season, Ag2r - La Mondiale, has announced that his team leader will be the French Sylvain Chavanel. Chavanel will be mainly focussed in the classics, especially the cobbled ones.

The other new team has also signed his star. Astana has obviously picked Alexandre Vinokourov to be their leader and star of the team. The Kazakh ended his contract with Garmin, so now embraces this new adventure leading his country's first cycling professional team.

The Giro di Lombardia closes the cycling season in the nice area of the lakes between Switzerland and Italy. It is the fifth of the monuments and the most mountainous one, as the riders will have to face real climbs like Madonna del Ghisallo, the most famous climb of the race. The favorites are therefore quite different than in the other major classics, as here climbing abilities are needed to end up winning the race.

Favorites:
- Damiano Cunego (Lampre): Cunego is the local favorite for the win in Como. The Lampre rider just missed out on the top 10 in the Giro and this route favors his abilities much more. The Italian will also have the backup of another great rider for this type of classics, as is Filippo Pozzato.
- Dries Devenyns (Quickstep): The Belgian knows how to race classics, but he is missing wins. He was third in Quebec and in the Fleche Wallonne and 6th in the Giro, so he has the legs to fight for the win on a good day.
- Janez Brajkovic (Discovery): Brajkovic can win in almost every terrain you set the riders racing, so why not in Lombardia. Surely he would like a more hilly terrain more than mountains, but after his good performance in the Giro he showed he can also climb. He has already won two classics this year: La Fleche Wallonne and Quebec, let's see if he can make that number three.
- Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto): Leukemans is not having as good a season as he would have hoped, so he has prepared himself to be competitive here. He lacks the climbing abilities of the other favorites, but if he can go up the Madonna del Ghisallo with not too much time lost he will be as dangerous as anyone.

Previous winners

	First	Second	Third
2009	Tyler Farrar	Alessandro Petacchi	Jakob Fuglsang

Mendrisio - Como



The last monument of the season is very mountainous, with several tough climbs in the route, especially the climb to Premana in the middle of the route. The most emblematic climb is the next one, Madonna del Ghisallo sits around 50 kilometers from the finish and it’s the place where the race starts to break up. From there to the finish, a succession of hills will leave the riders in the city of Como, where the last big winner of the season will be crowned.



The break of the day was fairly big, but not many riders were really dangerous apart from Rinaldo Nocetini (Katusha). Other riders in the 11 men break included Vasily Kiryenka (Liquigas), Yauheni Hutarovich (Lampre), Romain Feillu (Euskaltel) and Jurgen Van den Broek (Lotto). At the top of Premana (120 km to go) they had 4’ 40’’ on the bunch.



Some important riders like George Hincapie and Jean-Christophe Peraud tried to break away in the middle part of the stage, but that led Lotto, Lampre and Quickstep to increase the pace and bring them back. That reduced the gap of the break to 2’ 25’’ halfway through the climb to Madonna del Ghisallo (50 km to go).



The break was eventually caught thanks to the great work of Daniel Martin and Bart de Clerq. Mikel Nieve (BMC) was the first rider to attack in the irregular climb to Civiglio (26 km to go).



Mikel Nieve and Davil López opened a small gap in the climb, but where caught back before the top of the climb. The Lotto team is completely blocking the race.



The day had lots of crashes due to the bad weather and the biggest one happened just before the last small climb, with only 9 kilometers remaining. It took out Joost Van Leijen (Rabobank), Pierre Rolland (Quickstep) and Alexandre Vinokourov (Garmin) among others.



Frank Schleck (Radioshack) attacked close to the top of the climb, and David Lopez soon followed. However, he dragged a big group of riders behind him that would fight for the win in the streets of Como. The sprint will be bigger than expected.



Damiano Cunego was the first to start the final sprint in the streets of Como. He is trailed by Frank Schleck, Janez Brajkovic and David Lopez. There is quite a lot of riders fairly matched with 1 kilometer remaining.



Damiano Cunego wins in Como! The Italian takes the biggest victory of his career and meets one of the biggest targets that Lampre can have. Lampre has only been able to win twice this season, but this is a quality victory in home soil.

Janez Brajkovic showed he is still on top of his game to take the second place and Hubert Dupont took third. The French sums enough points to win the UCI World Tour this season. The race was fairly matched today, as the group that got to the line was quite big. In the end it was a disappointing day for Lotto, as all his hard work didn’t get the expected results. Bart de Clerq was 10th and Bjorn Leukenas 16th.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1	Damiano Cunego	LAMPRE - ISD	7h06'42
2	Janez Brajkovic	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	s.t.
3	Hubert Dupont	SAXO BANK	s.t.
4	Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	s.t.
5	David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	s.t.
6	Giovanni Visconti	LAMPRE - ISD	s.t.
7	Dries Devenyns	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	s.t.
8	Matthew Goss	SAXO BANK	s.t.
9	Juan Jose Haedo	SAXO BANK	s.t.
10	Bart De Clerq	LOTTO-BELISOL	s.t.

Out of interest, Is that white jersey about 20ish back. Vanendert in the WC?

Vanendert finished 25th, so it could be him. The biggest white jersey is that of Dries Devenyns though. He came home 7th

A Great win for Cunego at Lombardia

UCI World Tour rankings riders (final standings)

1	Hubert Dupont	Saxo Bank	618.22
2	Janez Brajkovic	Discovery	572.88
3	Pieter Weening	HTC	572.11
4	Bauke Mollema	Vacansoleil	433.33
5	Dries Devenyns	Quickstep	422.44
6	Jelle Vanendert	Lotto	298.77
7	Mikel Nieve	BMC	292.66
8	Alexandre Vinokourov	Garmin	261
9	Bart de Clerq	Lotto	244.77
10	Xavier Tondo	Euskaltel	242.77
11	Sylvain Chavanel	Quickstep	239.44
12	Jakob Fuglsang	Radioshack	222.88
13	Oscar Freire	Rabobank	218.22
14	Andy Schleck	Katusha	216.33
15	Levi Leipheimer	Discovery	215.89

UCI World Tour rankings teams (final standings)

1	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	999
2	SAXO BANK	950
3	LOTTO-BELISOL	907
4	HTC-HIGHROAD	867
5	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	811
6	BMC RACING TEAM	760
7	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	719
8	EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI	624
9	LAMPRE - ISD	589
10	RABOBANK	524

Can't believe that Weening dropped to third place in the UCI World Tour Rankings

Still it was another very good season for him

Transfer market update 3

Lampre - ISD has been dealing in the market during the last days and has announced 3 new signings for next season, totally revamping its squad. The most important one is the Belgian Bart de Clerq, who has been surprising for the Lotto team this year with good places such as 4th in Catalunya and 3rd in San Sebastian. The other two riders joining are the Italians Marco Marcato and Elia Viviani.

There was quite a few doubts over the renewal of Frank Schleck with the Team Radioshack - Nissan, but these have disappeared once the Luxembourg born rider confirmed his commitment to continue riding for the team the next three seasons.

After rumors that the Sky team is hitting financial trouble, Team Garmin - Barracuda has taken advantage of the situation by signing one of his stars, Peter Kennaugh. The British rider has stated that he hopes to find a stronger team to help him raise his level.

HTC - Highroad has completed a trio of fearful climbers, as they secured the renewal of Chris Froome. The American team will not miss Weening too much if A. Schleck, Leipheimer and Froome meet the expectations put in them.

2011 Season Recap

	Paris - Nice		Peter Sagan
	Volta Ciclista a Catalunya		Bauke Mollema
	E3 Prijs Vlaanderen-Harelbeke		Jelle Vanendert
	Gent - Wevelgem		Oscar Freire
	Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco		Janez Brajkovic
	Paris - Roubaix		Lieuwe Westra
	La Flèche Wallonne		Janez Brajkovic
	Giro d'Italia		Pieter Weening
	Critérium du Dauphiné		Frank Schleck
	Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian		Jakob Fuglsang
	Eneco Tour		Davide Rebellin
	Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec		Janez Brajkovic
	Road World Championship		Jelle Vanendert
	Tour of Beijing		Alessandro Ballan
	Giro di Lombarida		Damiano Cunego

2012 Calendar

	Tour Down Under	17/01/2012 - 22/01/2012
	Tirreno-Adriatico	07/03/2012 - 13/03/2012
	Milano-Sanremo	17/03/2012
	Ronde van Vlaanderen	01/04/2012
	Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco	02/04/2012 - 07/04/2012
	Amstel Gold Race	15/04/2012
	La Fleche Wallonne	18/04/2012
	Liege-Bastogne-Liege	22/04/2012
	Tour de Romandie	24/04/2012 - 29/04/2012
	Criterium du Dauphine	03/06/2012 - 10/06/2012
	Tour de Suisse	16/06/2012 - 24/06/2012
	Tour de France	30/06/2012 - 22/07/2012
	Tour de Pologne	31/07/2012 - 06/08/2012
	Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian	14/08/2012
	Vattenfall Cyclassics	19/08/2012
	GP Ouest France - Plouay	26/08/2012
	Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal	09/09/2012
	Road World Championship	23/09/2012

looks to be a good season for the classics specialists, with the ardennes trio, and several other hilly classics!

Hopefull we'll see some serious competition in the long races

It is good for the hills specialists but bad for the cobblers.

I don't know if I said it, but from this season on I will change the riders restrictions for races. Instead of 9 riders per team in every race as has been the case until now it will be as follows:

- 1 day races and tours with less than 7 days of racing: 7 riders
- Tours between 7 and 9 days of racing: 8 riders
- Tours with more than 9 days of racing: 9 riders

Therefore, not every rider will be in every race anymore.