I see someone called Bibby won the British TT Championship. Good for him.
Good luck with this, will be quite interesting to see what the game does with him. Although, knowing PCM as I do, his contract will run out with Garmin and he won't get signed again. Maybe six years later someone like De Rijke will sign him but...
Manager of Bunzl - Centrica
ICL's World Tour Champions and Talented Bottlers
We come back again to Lewis after a few early season rides to his warm up for the classics. Garmin has chosen to take the young rider to Ronde van Vlaanderen, Paris - Roubaix, and Amstel Gold Race, to help work for the leaders.
His ability to really help the leaders still seems to be limited to either flat races where he can stay with the peloton, or early in other races before he is dropped from the main group. He is going to have to work hard to improve if he wants to become even a domestique in one of the grand tours.
Edited by Kentaurus on 28-04-2012 19:26
Kyle Lewis gets a rude welcoming to the best of the professional level as he goes into some of the legendary classics and faces some of the best riders in the world. He does continue to finish races, yet to withdraw and he fights all the way to the end, but unfortunately he isn't ready to be competitive and continues to just be a prospect on the team, capable of limited help during these races.
At the Ronde van Vlaanderen, Kyle would finish with a pack of 12 riders near the back of the field. Cobbles are probably his least favorite thing to deal with, like many American riders he hasn't really seen or dealt with the cobbles of European countries and will take time to adjust. Unfortunately Paris-Roubaix awaits him next week.
Paris-Roubaix offers even more of the cobblestones for Lewis, though his experience in Belgium seemed to help a little. His ride here was better, but still far from being good as he and a pack of 8 crossed nearly 11 minutes off the pace. I'm sure he will be happy to see that his next ride won't feature these stones.
Without cobblestones we would have thought Kyle Lewis would perform better, but perhaps the two long hard rides over the past weeks have just ripped his legs too much. The third long race was a test of the mind and we should applaud his focus to finish and not give in, but he finished 6th from last almost 23 minutes behind the Valverde, Schleck (Frank) and Gilbert.
Another stage race in the books for Kyle, and his best placed finish since turning pro. Clearly 96th isn't what he wants to be his best, but he is still incredibly young. Getting experience and finishing races is by far the number one priority for both Kyle and Garmin - Barracuda.
Edited by Kentaurus on 28-04-2012 21:57
Another trip to the cobbles and continual progression for Kyle Lewis. This was a significantly better showing that Kyle had on the earlier classics, though the level of competition was no where near the same, and the distances were shorter, probably both good for Lewis at this point in his career.
Showing that Kyle Lewis is getting better, he finishes 20th overall in the Ster ZLM Tour, and 6th in the Young rider classification. At just over 2 minutes off the leader this is easily his best race since joining Garmin - Barracuda. I think everyone is hoping this becomes more of the norm for the rest of the year and top 20 finishes become standard.
After a very strong June that culminated in a 9th place finish in the United States Championship Kyle Lewis's July feels similar to the early months of the year. Perhaps the few weeks off while the team was focused on the Tour de France (where Contador, now with Garmin, finished 2nd) was detrimental to Lewis, maybe getting back into racing every week again will be good for the young legs.
fcancellara wrote:
Very short reports, but still fun to read. I think you found a new way of story-writing!
Keep it up!
Well the reports are really short right now because all I can see are the results, I'm not actually there for any races. I probably could make up more of what is possibly going on, and I probably will as we get farther into his career. Once we get to the point where he is contending for top events I will actually watch some of the major races and give some more detail. Then again I might not, still not exactly sure how I want this to work out.
Areniscas de los Pinares - Lagunas de Neila (Mountains)
25th, +1'43"
July was tough, not much racing, and not doing well either. August starts with a big bang though for Kyle Lewis. For really the first time all season Kyle was really able to be a very good teammate and US Champion Andrew Talansky was the primary beneficiary of his help in the climbs on the last two days of racing. The Team Time Trial really helped boost Lewis into the top 10, but his performances in the climbs kept him high on the rankings. It seems now we are finally starting to see what Garmin - Barracuda was thinking when they signed the 18 year-old.
A very excited Kyle Lewis makes his first trip to the US to race for Garmin - Barracuda and takes on the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. Very good finishes in the second and third stages would keep him in the top 10 overall, and would win Kyle his first jersey, taking the Young Rider classification by 26 seconds over Carlos Betancourt of Colombia. This will be a tremendous boost to Lewis and should provide great closure as we near the end of a long season.
Instead of getting down on himself after several finishes in the 100s to start his career, he focused, got better and is now starting to finish near the top consistently in these races. A few more rides remain in the season for Lewis, but this trip home will certainly always be special.
A short tour to end the season, entirely a sprinters race, and never meant for Lewis to do anything spectacular to end the season. Kyle did his responsibilities, helping the before the sprints and aiding the sprinters over any little climbs in the way.
