These races are the next stage for the showdown between the top 3 ranked Continental Tour teams, as Team Bianchi, Rapha Condor - Qhubeka, and Jayco - Red Bull will all go head to head to see who will come out on top of the Continental Tour. Hollister Pro Cycling come to the race looking to solidify their lead in the America Tour, with 2nd place Cal Giant being absent. Team WWE are sitting in 3rd. There are now two battles waging simultaneously in this war, as Hollister and WWE are also competing against one another in the Tour of America, where Hollister are currently winning.
Teams
Cerne
Cerne are lead here by veteran Portuguese climber Bruno Pires. His best result this season has been a 6th at Manx International (a similarly hilly race), but aside that he is usually reliable for a top-20. With this in mind, we should expect a respectable result from Cerne, but probably not on par with the big names. Pires' biggest support will come from the predicted star of the future Bruno Borges, as well as Italian sprinter Maurizio Biondo.
Ferrari - ERG
Ferrari come to the race in service of their man Cristiano Salerno. He is very capable in the hills, and his best results including a stage win at the Tour de San Luis, and 4th at Strade Bianchi, have been the result of his opportunistic tendencies in going for breakaways. His strongest support will come from compatriot Mauro Santambrogio, himself a winner of a winner of multiple stages through breakaways as well. Should we expect more aggressive riding from this team here?
Hollister Pro Cycling Alessandro Proni will lead the Hollister team here. He is another of the mid-tier puncheurs who is consistently in the top-20, although he has had several other top-10 performances here and there, particularly in sprints from smaller groups in hilly races. He has a very respectable team backing him up, particularly in riders Juan Miguel Marcado and Staf Scheirlinckx.
Proximus - Trek
While they are set to disband at the end of the season, the riders of the Proximus - Trek team will look to impress as they will all be needing to find a new team for the next season. Alejandro Valverde will lead the team here, and he goes into the race as one of the main favorites. Hassen Ben Nasser will support Valverde, although he is capable of leading the team in his own right.
Rapha Condor - Qhubeka
Rapha Condor are riding here for Chris Froome, who will hope to defend his top-10 in the CT Individual Rankings. He has been suspiciously dominant this year, after coming out of pretty much nowhere to win the Ras de Cymru, Tour of Southland, and seemingly every stage of the Tour of Japan that went uphill, as well as countless other top results in every other race he entered. Many are skeptical of these results, as he was a relatively unknown rider before this race, and critics cite this as an unnatural progression.
Saab - Scania
The Saab squad will be lead by Swiss puncheur Marcel Wyss. While he is not one of the top contenders for this race, he has displayed his class this year by taking a win at the Criterium Hainliete through a late attack. Perhaps a similar tactic is on the cards today? If it is, he will have more than adequate support from Danish powerhouse Matti Breschel Skull Smasher.
Team Bianchi
Here are the big boys of the race: Continental Tour leaders Team Bianchi. Fresh off of his 3rd place overall at the Tour of Pologne, Dimitri Claeys will be right at home as he leads the team over the sharp hills in this tough race. He has a duo of key Spanish lieutenants in David de la Fuente and the aging national champion, Koldo Gil. With this strong team, they have a good chance of moving further ahead of Rapha Condor and Jayco in the team rankings.
Team Bpost Jelle Vanendert heads up the Belgian Bpost team here in Canada. The team has usually been able to count on him for a top 10 in races throughout the season, with his most notable result being a win in the prestigious Giro dell'Appellenio, where he beat Di Maggio, Froome, and Weening, along with several other favorites who are present today. His main support will come from Cyril Gautier and Johan Vansummeren, while the rest of the team consists of neo-pros.
Team CSC - Orbea
The CSC team will be working for Rui Costa here as he attempts to one-up his team mates that are racing to the south in the Tour of America. He has displayed his ability in the hilly races with a win in the Strade Bianchi earlier in the year, and his team, especially Constantino Zaballa, will support his bid to replicate that success.
Team Puma - SAP
Puma have sent one of the most interesting squads of all the teams in the race. It consists of all neo-pros, the most notable of which is Wilco Kelderman, winner of a stage of the Tour of Taiwan. He will lead the team here to see if he can hang with the top guns when given a chance to ride for himself, but more importantly to gain experience with the rest of the youngest team in the peloton.
Team Rothaus - Aegon
Rothaus are the 3rd German team in the race, but they will be lead by the man that all the locals will be cheering for: Ryder Hesjedal. He has been consistently in the top 10 when given the chance throughout the year, and he is very talented when it comes to the terrain like this, so we should expect him to put in a good result. His main support will come from winner of the Barcelona Classic, Valentin Iglinski, while much of the rest of the team is made up of young riders.
Team Venchi ProCycling
Venchi have brought their superstar Cesare Di Maggio here to Canada to vie for the win, as well as seek points in his attempt to catch up to Jose Alarcon to win the overall CT Individual Rankings. He enters as the third favorite, behind Alejandro Valverde and Francesco Ginnani. Valverde beat him in their last head to head battle in the San Sebastian Classic, but it should definitely be an interesting 3 way battle today. He lacks a strong supporting team to back him, but this might not be an issue with the pure strength that he has.
Team WWE
The WWE team will feature two strong riders here in Thomas Voeckler and Chris Anker Sørensen, with Voeckler listed as the official leader for this race. This is an important month for the team and their standings in the America Tour, as they currently have Kessiakoff contesting the Tour of America. They will hope to pull in more points than Hollister if they are to have any hope of dethroning them, although that is looking very unlikely.
UniCredit
Another team set to disband at the end of the year, UniCredit have Pieter Weening in the driver's seat. He will have capable support from Jordi Grau, who would have pleased his team manager by winning the Trofeo Melinda and the King of the Mountains in the Tour de Pologne, if his manager hadn't mysteriously vanished.
Volkswagen - Siemens
The Germans are out in force here in Canada, as Volkswagen makes this the 4th German team. They will be headed by Aleksandar Flügel winner of the Tour of Wellington and the GP de Lugano. His strongest support will probably be from Christian Pfannberger, although support is an area that the team is clearly lacking in. Regardless, Flügel should be able to put in a good result on his own.
I enjoyed racing these ones last year, actually very watchable in real life as they are in pcm11.
A few too many big names to hope to strike a win - so I will ashammedly hope for the usual JRB fare two riders in the top 15. Swaziland was enough panache for us
(A chance for ember to get his own back for my America bashing too, in his report!)
Congratulations to Hesjedal, a great effort against Gil.
Also good work Bushwackers, caught the decisive moments in a race spread over various groups.
But as a neutral and honest observer, that was another dumb "we are the peloton and chase down every f***ing breakaway which would stand no chance anyways until we let the one go we know we'll never bring back" race.
Edited by cio93 on 08-08-2012 01:13
Very dramatic report, it felt like the last kilometer lasted forever
Surprised that Hesjedal held on to beat Gil, very thilling.
Pleased with Costa's 13th due to the tough competition. Plus the fact I pretty much have already threw in the towel for this season.
Edited by Mresuperstar on 08-08-2012 03:12
Somehow missed that this thread had already been launched. Was surprised to see that the report was posted "before" the thread, but then I realized that it really wasn't.
Excellent result for us. Couldn't have asked for any better.
Another predictably ridiculous race though. Some of the best hilly riders in the division let good riders go mid race and build up a lead they can't shut down....
Surely not disappointed. Quite rarely that my leaders did something like this in other races. So I really enjoyed seeing Hesjedal being that aggressive.
True, in the peloton he might have sprinted for a top10, but I prefer seeing him trying to win and with 30s bigger gap, he would have been top5.
The double would have been awesome and I was really hoping it, but winning one of his classics is more I could have hoped for.
