Expecting Dupont to suddenly come on the scene as he has had a quiet season so far

I think we will not see much more from him. It is only Montreal and the World Champioships left. Anyway, he got to the podium in the Tour which was his target this year. He couldn't win, but it hasn't been a horrible season anyway.

Transfer market update 1

Omega Pharma - Quickstep seems to have a non ending budget, as they are signing Denis Menchov for next season. The Belgian team will improve their Grand Tours presence, but it will be interesting to see who gets the leading role in a team that already has Pieter Weening and Dries Devenyns. Even though there are two Grand Tours next year there could be some discussions there.

The most improved riders of the year, Tejay van Garderen, has finally signed a new contract with BMR - Racing. The American will find the Grand Tours next year to have few time trial kilometer, but he will probably do a good result if he keeps performing at the level he showed this year. This is a big loss for Garmin as the team will have it very difficult to find a rider with the same talent.

Probably the biggest surprise of the signings announced before the Montreal race is the depart of Jakob Fuglsang from Radioshack. The Dane will move to Vacansoleil - DMC. The Dutch team was too dependent on Mollema to get results and will massively improve in the classics and in the mountains support for Mollema.

The future of Movistar was uncertain, as both their lead riders were ending their contracts at the end of the season. However, the Spaniard team announced that they had reached an agreement with Davide Rebellin and Steven Kruijswijk to renew their contracts. The two riders will give the Spaniard team continuity after a year in which they have made a step forward.

Omega-Pharma getting stronger and stronger

The World Tour teams pack their bags for the closing race of the season. It will take place overseas in Montreal. Janez Brajkovic has dominated the races in Canada so far, as the Slovenian took the wins in Montreal 2010 and Quebec 2011. He will be among the favorites for today's race as well. Even though it could well be a race for surprises in the closing stages for the season, the preparation for the World Championshppip is usually a strong enough reason for the best riders to be committed to the racing.

The Quickstep team will have to be watched today, as they bring Dries Devenyns, Johan van Summeren and Simon Gerrans all in top shape. Alessandro Ballan, Bauke Mollema and Jure Kocjan will also be among the outsiders, even though the Dutch is not having much luck in the classics of the end of season.

Favorites:
- Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto): Leukemans has been improving his performance in the late season classics and got to the podium in Plouay. He will be looking to add another win to his Liege - Bastogne - Liege and Montreal looks like a good place to get it. He would probably like a longer and hillier race, but in his current shape he can definitely win here.
- Davide Rebellin (Movistar): Rebellin hasn't been in top shape since he won the Tour of Poland. He could only get a top 10 in Plouay, the sensation was that he was past his best shape. He will probably use the race to improve his shape towards the World Championships.
- Janez Brajkovic (Discovery): Janez Brajkovic got a fantastic second place in San Sebastian but was rather disappointing in Plouay as he couldn't follow the last attack. He ended up finishing 7th in the race. However, Canada seems to be his favorite country and he has won the two races here so far.
- Simon Gerrans (Quickstep): The Quickstep team will be fearsome in Canada, as most of their riders are better in not so hilly and not so long races. The profile of Montreal's race is perfect for them. Gerrans has had a season well over expectations and he got to the podium in the shorter races of the Ardennes. He should be getting atention here and probably he will have the leading role for Quickstep.

Previous winners

	First	Second	Third
2010	Janez Brajkovic	Oscar Freire	Dries Devenyns

Startlist

Looking forward to the race in Canada

Should be interesting with Fuglsang in such good form

Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal
Montreal - Montreal



The circuit in Montreal is not too hard and with the only hill 10 kilometers from the finish it will be tough to maintain the lead all the way to the end of the race. A late attack or a sprint in a reduced group should be the way to go today.



The break of the day was rather strong, as riders like Roman Kreuziger (Rabobank), David Lopez (Euskaltel), Rein Taaramae (Radioshack) or the local Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin) filtered in the 8 men break. However, Saxo Bank was willing to control the race and never let them go too far. Halfway through the race they had 3' 20'' on the bunch.



BMC wanted to make the race harder so one of their best men, Giovanni Visconti, attacked with a bit more than 50 kilometers remaining. He soon reached the break group and triggered a reaction by the bunch, which started chasing. Saxo Bank led the chase, but there were other teams joining the chase.



The bunch caught everyone but Roman Kreuziger easily enough. However, the Czech still had a small advantage of 20 seconds during the penultimate climb (24 kilometers remaining). Miguel Angel Rubiano (Lotto) was chasing hard during that climb and some riders were starting to suffer.



Kreuziger was finally reeled back in before entering the last lap of the race. The final climb was not so hard, as a lot of riders managed to stay in the front group. The chances of a mass sprint for the line are increased dramatically.



Alessandro Ballan tried a late attack within the last 5 kilometers, while Sebastian Langeveld and Sylvain Chavanel unsuccessfully tried to follow him. The Italian has the power to maintain it if he is feeling good. The mass sprint could still be in danger.



Ballan reaches the hill in the last kilometer 15 seconds ahead of the pack. The Italian has a great opportunity for the win. Bjorn Leukemans started sprinting very early hoping to get to Ballan and has got himself a few meters ahead of his rivals. Sylvain Chavanel is currently third, while Ben Swift is fourth.



Alessandro Ballan wins in Montreal! The Italian managed his gap on the group in the uphill sprint in Montreal. This is the second win of the Italian this year, after the first stage in the Basque Country. His season wasn't very good but this win will change the perception dramatically.

Second behind Ballan was Bjorn Leukemans. The Belgian had a strong finish but couldn't quite close in Ballan. Joining them in the podium will be Jure Kocjan. The "other" Slovenian is finishing his season quite strong and could be another chance for Slovenia in the World Championships of Limburg. Jose Joaquin Rojas and a surprising Ben Swift completed the top 5 of the race.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Alessandro Ballan	BMC RACING TEAM	5h42'36
2		Bjorn Leukemans	LOTTO-BELISOL	s.t.
3		Jure Kocjan	HTC - HIGH ROAD	s.t.
4		Jose Joaquin Rojas	LOTTO-BELISOL	s.t.
5		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	s.t.
6		Simon Gerrans	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	s.t.
7		Yauheni Hutarovich	LAMPRE - ISD	s.t.
8		Dries Devenyns	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	s.t.
9		Alexandre Vinokourov	ASTANA	s.t.
10		Sylvain Chavanel	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	s.t.

That was an exciting sprint finish

UCI World Tour rankings riders (after Grand Prix Cycliste Montreal)

1		Bauke Mollema	Vacansoleil	764
2		Mikel Nieve	Discovery	522.42
3		Dries Devenyns	Quickstep	402.71
4		Pieter Weening	Quickstep	377.09
5		Davide Rebellin	Movistar	371.25
6		Bart de Clerq	Lampre	355
7		Bjorn Leukemans	Lotto	338.25
8		Tejay Van Garderen	Garmin	326.25
9		Frank Schleck	Radioshack	316.66
10		Jakob Fuglsang	Radioshack	311.66
11		Tony Gallopin	Quickstep	310.3
12		Janez Brajkovic	Discovery	288.67
13		Sacha Modolo	BMC	254.06
14		Hubert Dupont	Saxo Bank	247
15		David Lopez	Euskaltel	242.77

UCI World Tour rankings teams (after Grand Prix Cycliste Montreal)

1		OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	1444
2		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	1009
3		DISCOVERY CHANNEL	932
4		BMC RACING TEAM	902
5		HTC-HIGHROAD	894
6		LOTTO-BELISOL	741
7		RABOBANK	713
8		TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	695
9		LAMPRE - ISD	653
10		MOVISTAR TEAM	588

Mollema still the man to beat

Transfer market update 2

Hubert Dupont has surprisingly announced his depart from Saxo Bank after 4 years with the team. The French won a Tour de France and a Vuelta a España with his now former team and will be joining Rabobank. The Dutch team has also secured that Rob Ruijgh will continue with the team, as he has signed a 2 year contract with them. Two big climbers could mean trouble in the Grand Tours but could also mean a very interesting race.

The Quickstep team seems to be finding their first trouble after a magnificent year as Simon Gerrans declined their offer to renew his contract and will be going to Team Radioshack - Nissan. The Australian will try to fill the gap left by Jakob Fuglsang in the Luxembourgish team, a rather complicated task. Radioshack also announced that Roman Kreuziger will be joining them.

Euskaltel seems to be widening their range of potential signings, as they have hired the Italian sprinter Sacha Modolo for the next 3 seasons. Modolo has surprised this year by getting 6 wins, as Euskaltel aims to improve their chances in mass sprint finishes.

Another sprinter, Tyler Farrar has again renewed his contract with Saxo Bank. The American sprinter, who was having a bad season, won the Vattenfall Cyclassics this year.

Looks like Radioshack are putting together a very strong team

The World Championships of 2012 will take place in Limburg, the Netherlands. Probably everyone will recognize the place better if we say that the finish line of the race will be placed 1.5 kilometers after the Cauberg. The final part of the race will be very similar to the ending kilometers of the Amstel Gold Race, where Janez Brajkovic won earlier this year. The circuit main attractive is obviously the Cauberg but there are doubts over how selective it will be. Also, an attack in the last lap could not be enough to win due to the flat to the finish.

The outsiders for the World Championship include: Davide Rebellin (Italy), Johan van Summeren and Dries Devenyns (Belgium), Jure Kocjan (Slovenia), Bauke Mollema (Netherlands) and Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark). The Belgian team is very strong and will probably be given the responsibility to control the race.

Favorites:
- Bjorn Leukemans (Belgium): Bjorn Leukemans will be leading the Belgian team in Limburg. He has only won one race this year, but it was the Liege - Bastogne - Liege. The Belgian race was tougher than this World Championship, but Leukemans comes from taking a second place in Montreal. He should be fit enough to be the clear favorite for the rainbow jersey.
- Janez Brajkovic (Slovenia): Brajkovic has been a bit disappointing in the classics of the end of the season. However, he still has a lot of class in his legs. Not by chance he is in the top 15 of the World Tour without having a good season. He has traditionally lacked support in the World Championships, but with Jure Kocjan also in the team he can now share the responsibility.
- Simon Gerrans (Australia): Simon Gerrans did his last race with Quickstep in Montreal scoring another top 10. The Australian will deservedly be the leader of his nation in Limburg, but even though he has prepared thoroughly this race there are question marks about his performance as he has only won one stage in Romandie this season.
- Alessandro Ballan (Italy): Alessandro Ballan increased his odds to win the World Championship after he won the GPC de Montreal 2 weeks ago. The Italian seems to be arriving in top shape to Limburg. However, he might have the enemy at home as there are other Italians that could also do well today.

Previous winners

	First	Second	Third
2009	Tom Danielson	Jelle Vanendert	Edvald Boasson Hagen
2010	Joost Van Leijen	Damiano Cunego	Peter Sagan
2011	Jelle Vanendert	Denis Menchov	Chris Froome

Startlist

I wonder who will win this year, hopefully it will be Pieter

Road World Championship
Maastricht - Valkenburg



The 2012 Road World Championship follows the trend we have seen lately for this kind of races. The race will not be held completely in a circuit, but there will be a first section of around 100 kilometers around the province of Limburg. Once in the circuit, the riders will have to climb the Cauberg 11 times. However, it is not a very demanding layout and we could see quite a big group approaching the Cauberg for the final climb.



There was not much of a fight to get the break today. The strength of the Belgian and Dutch teams means that the break stands little chance today. In the end, a group of 5 riders jumped right after the start: Gregory Rast (Switzerland), Rein Taaramae (Estonia), Richie Porte (Australia), Pavel Brutt (Russia) and Carlos Betancur (Colombia). As they were halfway through the race, they had 11 minutes on the peloton, but that is 134 kilometers from the finish and 8 laps remaining.



As expected, Belgium, the Netherlands and Slovenia worked hard to control the break. With 3 laps and 50 kilometers to go the gap for the break is only 1' 30''. There was only a timid attempt by Chris Froome and Mikel Nieve to get away, but that was quickly controlled by the bunch.



The last of the men from the break to get caught was Richie Porte. The pace is increasingly high and after 235 kilometers the first victims start to drop from the pack.



Janez Brajkovic tried the first serious attack in the penultimate climb to the Cauberg. The Slovenian managed to open a small gap and is soon followed by Tejay van Garderen and Simon Gerrans. Let's see if they can manage to maintain a gap on the main group.



Brajkovic's attack was soon followed by a group of other favorites and that group of 9 opened quite a good gap. With 9 kilometers remaining the bunch seems to have given up. This is quite strange as Spain has no one in front. There are two Americans in the front group (Van Garderen and Leipheimer) and the rider from Italy is Rebellin instead of Ballan.



Tejay van Garderen suffered in the approach to the last climb of the Cauberg and lost contact with the group of favorites. It looks like the medals will be for the group of 8 that remains in front.



Bjorn Leukemans seems to have gone through the Cauberg with the best legs. The Belgian is the first to start the slightly downhill final sprint. Behind him are Simon Gerrans, Frank Schleck and Janez Brajkovic. None of them is a particularly good sprinter, so it will be down to the strength they have left.



Bjorn Leukemans wins in Valkenburg and is the new World Champion! Belgium and Lotto retain the rainbow jersey as Leukemans finishes a great job by his teammates to put him in position to contend for the win. The podium will be completed by the Australian Simon Gerrans and the Slovenian Janez Brajkovic.

Leukemans win will give him enough points to finish third in the World Tour. The winner of that classification, the local Bauke Mollema, was able to hang on to the favorites group but it was clear that he doesn't have the edge on classics as he could only take the 7th final spot. Remarkably bad was the performance of the Spaniard team, as Mikel Nieve was their best classified rider in the 34th position.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Bjorn Leukemans	BELGIUM NATIONAL TEAM	7h15'18
2		Simon Gerrans	AUSTRALIA NATIONAL TEAM	s.t.
3		Janez Brajkovic	SLOVENIA NATIONAL TEAM	s.t.
4		Frank Schleck	LUXEMBOURG NATIONAL TEAM	s.t.
5		Davide Rebellin	ITALY NATIONAL TEAM	s.t.
6		Tejay Van Garderen	USA NATIONAL TEAM	s.t.
7		Bauke Mollema	NETHERLANDS NATIONAL TEAM	s.t.
8		Levi Leipheimer	USA NATIONAL TEAM	s.t.
9		Hubert Dupont	FRANCE NATIONAL TEAM	s.t.
10		Cadel Evans	AUSTRALIA NATIONAL TEAM	+ 1'29

And Belgium provides the World Champion yet again

UCI World Tour rankings riders (final standings)

1		Bauke Mollema	Vacansoleil	779
2		Mikel Nieve	Discovery	522.42
3		Bjorn Leukemans	Lotto	418.25
4		Dries Devenyns	Quickstep	402.71
5		Davide Rebellin	Movistar	401.25
6		Pieter Weening	Quickstep	377.09
7		Frank Schleck	Radioshack	356.66
8		Bart de Clerq	Lampre	355
9		Tejay Van Garderen	Garmin	346.25
10		Janez Brajkovic	Discovery	338.67
11		Jakob Fuglsang	Radioshack	311.66
12		Tony Gallopin	Quickstep	310.3
13		Sacha Modolo	BMC	254.06
14		Simon Gerrans	Quickstep	253.48
15		Hubert Dupont	Saxo Bank	252

UCI World Tour rankings teams (final standings)

1		OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	1444
2		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	1009
3		DISCOVERY CHANNEL	932
4		BMC RACING TEAM	902
5		HTC-HIGHROAD	894
6		LOTTO-BELISOL	741
7		RABOBANK	713
8		TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	695
9		LAMPRE - ISD	653
10		MOVISTAR TEAM	588

Mollema totally deserves being at the top of the rankings after the season he had

Transfer market update 3

Omega Pharma - Quickstep kept strengthening with two more signings in the last hours. Cameron Meyer will arrive from HTC after surprisingly winning the Tour de Romandie last year. The Australian will also be a good help in the team time trials in the Grand Tours. John Degenkolb will have the role of supporting Johan Van Summeren and will be a good alternative for the mass sprint finishes.

Vacansoleil - DMC has also moved in the market to improve their performance in the mountains. Carlos Barredo and Robert Gesink should make Mollema more comfortable in the mountains this year, as they are a better support than what the Dutch had last year. Another Dutch, Stefan van Dijk has joined in a bid to help Sagan in the sprint finishes.

Jose Joaquin Rojas will abandon the Lotto team to join HTC - Highroad. The American team has their Grand Tour options covered and will be looking to improve in the classics, where only Jure Kocjan seemed ready to have a decent performance.

Saxo Bank - Tinkoff seems to be hitting financial trouble facing the new season. The Danish team had to let go Dupont and is trusting the GT leadership to two Portuguese: Tiago Machado and their new signing Rui Costa. The team will probably have a harder time next year, after having been in every podium of a GT in the story.