Vacansoleil for the win

Omega Pharma are going to be awesome again next season

2012 Season Recap

	Tour Down Under		Peter Sagan
	Tirreno-Adriatico		Bauke Mollema
	Milano-Sanremo		Jakob Fuglsang
	Ronde van Vlaanderen		Johan van Summeren
	Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco		Pieter Weening
	Amstel Gold Race		Janez Brajkovic
	La Fleche Wallonne		Dries Devenyns
	Liege-Bastogne-Liege		Bjorn Leukemans
	Tour de Romandie		Cameron Meyer
	Criterium du Dauphine		Bauke Mollema
	Tour de Suisse		Chris Froome
	Tour de France		Bauke Mollema
	Tour de Pologne		Davide Rebellin
	Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian		Jakob Fuglsang
	Vattenfall Cyclassics		Tyler Farrar
	GP Ouest France - Plouay		Jakob Fuglsang
	Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal		Alessandro Ballan
	Road World Championship		Bjorn Leukemans

Poor Pieter only got the one win this season, lets hope he has a Great season next time

a lot of dutch winnar, I likey

2013 Calendar

	Race	Date	Category
	Tour Down Under	22/01/2013 - 27/01/2013	2.WT
	Tirreno-Adriatico	06/03/2013 - 12/03/2013	2.WT
	E3 Prijs Vlaanderen - Harelbeke	22/03/2013	1.HC
	Gent - Wevelgem	24/03/2013	1.HC
	Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco	01/04/2013 - 06/04/2013	2.WT
	Paris - Roubaix	07/04/2013	1.WT
	Tour de Romandie	23/04/2013 - 28/04/2013	2.WT
	Giro d'Italia	04/05/2013 - 26/05/2013	GT.WT
	Tour de Suisse	08/06/2013 - 16/06/2013	2.WT
	Tour de Pologne	27/07/2013 - 03/08/2013	2.HC
	Vattenfall Cyclassics	18/08/2013	1.HC
	Vuelta a España	24/08/2013 - 15/09/2013	GT.WT
	Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec	21/09/2013	1.WT
	Road World Championship	29/09/2013	WC
	Giro di Lombardia	05/10/2013	1.WT

Strangely enough only found this now.
Will try to follow from now on

No Tour

It doesn't happen every year

bring on the new season

2013 squads

Ag2r - La Mondiale


Astana


BMC Racing Team


Discovery Channel


Euskaltel - Euskadi


HTC - High Road


Lampre - ISD


Liquigas - Cannondale


Lotto - Belisol


Omega Pharma - Quickstep


Rabobank


Saxo Bank - Tinkoff


Sky Procycling


Team Garmin - Sharp


Team Katusha


Team Movistar


Team Radioshack - Nissan - Trek


Vacansoleil - DMC

Some nice looking squads there, should make for an exciting season

A new season starts in Australia again with the Tour Down Under. The route of the race will be the same as last year, so even though there is the hilltop finish in Willunga Hill it is still a race for the sprinters. Last year classification was so tight that Peter Sagan was the winner with the same time as Tony Gallopin and Sacha Modolo. With such a tight classifications, the bonus seconds will be very important in the race.

Some of the outsiders for the overall win will be last year's winner, Peter Sagan (Vacansoleil), and second placed, Tony Gallopin (Quickstep). A close look will have to be put as well into Jose Joaquin Rojas (HTC), Andre Greipel (Lotto), Yauheni Hutarovich (Lampre) and Lloyd Mondory (Quickstep).

Favorites:

- Tyler Farrar (Saxo Bank): The American is again one of the main favorites to take the overall win in Australia. Last year he couldn't shine here, but it was an atypical season for the American. It looked as though he would end the season with no wins until he got a great one in the Vattenfall Cyclassics. Farrar will be the favorite that will find the stage in Willunga the hardest, but if he takes enough bonus seconds before that he should be in the fight.
- Ben Swift (Sky): Sky was able to retain Ben Swift as the British sprinter finished his contract last year. The British team seems to have fixed some of their financial issues and have built a team around Swift. Ben was already in the top 10 last year, so it should not be a surprise if he fight for something higher this time.
- Sacha Modolo (Euskaltel): Sacha Modolo was tied with the winner last year but had to settle for the third place in the podium. He will be looking for revenge in his new team, Euskaltel. The Italian will surely make a great duo of sprinters in the Spanish team with Francisco Ventoso; however, he could miss the great leading man that Alessandro Ballan was last year.
- Marcel Kittel (Discovery): Kittel has progressed a lot this year and will be the clear reference in the Discovery Channel team for the sprints. The German will also be weak in the hills, but his pure speed should be enough to see him battling with the best in the mass sprints.

Previous winners

	First	Second	Third
2010	Tyler Farrar	Alexandre Vinokourov	Francisco Ventoso
2012	Peter Sagan	Tony Gallopin	Sacha Modolo

Startlist

This will be an exciting season

And here we go again

Podium has been very varied so far... maybe it's swifty's time to shine

Gerrans should be a good bet with the supoort of Radioshack behind him

Santos Tour Down Under
Stage 1: Prospect - Clare



The first stage in Australia is the first clear opportunity for the sprinters. The route has a gentle uphill tendency, but not even the hill where the mountain sprint is located goes above the 3% gradient. The arrival in Clare is very wide and no surprises are expected today.



There was a lot of wind in today's stage and that made the race more unpredictable. Moreover, a lot of riders were very keen on joining the break of the day. The first group of 7 riders reached the mountain sprint in Taylor's Run (67 km to go) 40 seconds ahead of another group of 8 riders. The peloton was losing 4 minutes at that point. Among the most important riders in the first group were: Alexander Kristoff (Euskaltel), Jos van Emden (Rabobank), Mark Renshaw (Discovery) and Arnaud Demare (Lotto).



Luca Paolini was the last rider to get caught by the bunch, 11 kilometers from the finish in Clare. Sky and Quickstep were the teams most interested in chasing the break, as they have two of the favorites for the win today, Ben Swift and Tony Gallopin.



The sprinting trains were all over the road today, as the best sprinters in the world came to Australia for the start of the season. Vacansoleil had the leading train, as Stefan van Dijk was towing Peter Sagan and Matthew Goss was behind the Slovak. On the other side of the road Lotto had Jurgen Roelandts ahead of Andre Greipel and HTC had Taylor Phinney working for Jose Joaquin Rojas.



Gregory Rast was the first rider entering the last kilometer, the Swiss was helping Swift progress and he joined the final sprint. Behind him, John Degenkolb, Andre Greipel and Ben Swift were the best positioned but many other sprinters were progressing as well.



Tony Gallopin wins in Clare! The French starts the same way as last year, winning in Clare. He did not show a great dominance, as he had to recover positions and ended up beating Swift by a tiny margin. Quickstep was the dominant team last year and they look set to continue doing so.

The second and third positions were for members of the team Sky, Ben Swift was very close to Gallopin while Gregory Rast surprisingly held with the best sprinters. The Swiss beat names like Simone Ponzi, Peter Sagan and Tyler Farrar.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Tony Gallopin	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	3h45'54
2		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	s.t.
3		Grégory Rast	SKY PROCYCLING	s.t.
4		Simone Ponzi	KATUSHA TEAM	s.t.
5		Peter Sagan	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	s.t.
6		Tyler Farrar	SAXO BANK - TINKOFF	s.t.
7		André Greipel	LOTTO-BELISOL	s.t.
8		Jure Kocjan	HTC - HIGH ROAD	s.t.
9		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC - HIGH ROAD	s.t.
10		Francisco Ventoso	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	s.t.

General classification

1		Tony Gallopin	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	3h45'44
2		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 4
3		Grégory Rast	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 6
4		Simon Clarke	HTC - HIGH ROAD	+ 7
5		Alexander Kristoff	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	+ 8
6		Edvald Boasson Hagen	TEAM GARMIN - SHARP	s.t.
7		Danilo Di Luca	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	+ 9
8		Simone Ponzi	KATUSHA TEAM	+ 10
9		Peter Sagan	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	s.t.
10		Tyler Farrar	SAXO BANK - TINKOFF	s.t.

Points

1		Tony Gallopin	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	25
2		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	20
3		Grégory Rast	SKY PROCYCLING	16
4		Simone Ponzi	KATUSHA TEAM	14
5		Peter Sagan	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	12

Mountain

1		Alexander Kristoff	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	6
2		Danilo Di Luca	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	4
3		Michele Scarponi	LAMPRE - ISD	2
4		Jos Van Emden	RABOBANK	1

Young

1		Tony Gallopin	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	3h45'44
2		Simon Clarke	HTC - HIGH ROAD	+ 7
3		Danilo Di Luca	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	+ 9
4		Jure Kocjan	HTC - HIGH ROAD	+ 10
5		Sacha Modolo	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	s.t.

Teams

1		OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	11h17'42
2		HTC - HIGH ROAD	s.t.
3		SKY PROCYCLING	s.t.
4		EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	s.t.
5		LOTTO-BELISOL	s.t.

Happy to see Gallopin win although looked a bit messy at the end there. Swifty's off to a bright start I see.

And Gallopin gets his season off to a flying start

Last years winner in fifth place