The British All Blacks enter the tour as overwhelming leaders in the Continental tour, but are expecting a tough time as they race 9 ProTour squads, 8 American continental squads, plus a Canadian and Mexican team.
Charly Wegelius returns to action following his strong showing in the Tour Down Under. Charly will aim for a top 10 overall finish, and maybe look to grab a stage along the way, if possible.
For support Wegelius, will have Alex Ardila, Nicholas Roche and Hayden Roulston. Ardila is racing for the first time this season and is still not back to a strong fitness level. Roche will look to stay with Wegelius for as long as possible, returning to his domestique role - following 2 wins in Egypt. Kiwi Hayden Roulston will target the King of the Mountains jersey, and make the most of the hilly stages to attack.
Fin Matti Helminen is our strongest time-trialer and will looks to perform well in California's 2 time trials. he races tough opposition but will look to draw on his strong form and fitness, winning 3 stages in Egypt will certainly help.
Another victor in Egypt, Mark Cavendish will be our sprinter, in his last race before a well-deserved break. He hopes to prove that he can win stages against tougher opposition.
Completing our team is Marcel Wyss, who will go for the breaks on the flat stages.
Predictions
Overall: If he can survive the hills, Dave Zabriskie stands a good chance of winning overall.
Points: If in form, Paolo Bettini could do well.
Mountain: I'd like to think our Hayden Roulston will win this.
Team: CSC or Discovery are my tips for the team classification.
Best BAB Rider: Wegelius of course!
Stage 1
Noone could bet against Dave Zabriskie in the opening prologue, he finished a clear 5 seconds ahead of the next placed ride. Matti Helminen was that rider, and he was very pleased with 2nd place, beating many of the more favoured riders.
1 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC 6'50 2 Matti Helminen THE BRITISH ALL BLACKS + 5
3 Hayden Godfrey COLAVITA - SUTTER HOME PRESENTED BY COOKING LIGHT s.t.
4 Robert Gesink RABOBANK s.t.
5 James Meadley JELLY BELLY CYCLING TEAM s.t.
6 Alexandre Moos BMC RACING TEAM + 8
7 Markus Fothen GEROLSTEINER s.t.
8 Dominique Cornu PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 9
9 Ian McKissick BMC RACING TEAM s.t.
10 Vincenzo Nibali LIQUIGAS + 10
11 Christopher Baldwin TOYOTA UNITED PRO CYCLING TEAM s.t.
12 Henk Vogels TOYOTA UNITED PRO CYCLING TEAM s.t.
13 Ryan Miller TOYOTA UNITED PRO CYCLING TEAM + 11
14 Timothy Duggan TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
15 Stefan Schumacher GEROLSTEINER s.t.
16 Nick Reistad JELLY BELLY CYCLING TEAM + 12
17 Davide Rebellin GEROLSTEINER + 13 18 Mark Cavendish THE BRITISH ALL BLACKS s.t.
19 Charles Dionne COLAVITA - SUTTER HOME PRESENTED BY COOKING LIGHT s.t.
20 Brian Dziewa JELLY BELLY CYCLING TEAM s.t.
Good time trial, I think the climber's jersey is a reasonable target, and hopefully you can sneak Charly into the top 5, as well as getting a couple of stage wins. Come to think of it, you could do quite well here, good luck
Thanks, I dont quite show all your optimism though
Stage 2
A Gerolsteiner rider would win today, but would it be the cosntantly attacking Davide Rebellin, or could it be Stefan Schumacher. You'll have to read on to find out.
An early attack went away and soon split into 2 seperate groups. Anthony Charteau, Hayden Roulston, and Brian Dziewa were the strongest. Attacks from Linus Gerdemann and Davide rebellin were common behind, they led nowhere though.
As the 3 leaders began the final and toughest climb, they held a 1 minute lead over the pack and Charteau moved away from the other 2. They were caught but Charteua would take maxmimum points before being caught. Near the summit,
6 riders attacked.
Chris Horner, Ronny Scholz, Andrew Bajadali, Alexandre Moos, Charly Wegelius and Vincenzo Nibali.
Their gap was never much but it was enough and these 6 would fight for the win and with just 1km to go it was still unclear who would win, that was when the Gerolsteiner riders bolted away.
Ronny Scholz took the win, no time gaps though.
1 Ronny Scholz GEROLSTEINER 3h49'20
2 Alexandre Moos BMC RACING TEAM s.t.
3 Chris Horner PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
4 Andrew Bajadali JELLY BELLY CYCLING TEAM s.t. 5 Charles Wegelius THE BRITISH ALL BLACKS s.t.
6 Vincenzo Nibali LIQUIGAS s.t.
7 Michael Boogerd RABOBANK s.t.
8 Kurt-Asle Arvesen TEAM CSC s.t.
9 Vladimir Miholjevic LIQUIGAS s.t.
10 Dmitri Fofonov CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
11 Matej Mugerli LIQUIGAS s.t.
12 Grischa Niermann RABOBANK s.t.
13 Franco Pellizotti LIQUIGAS s.t.
14 Leonardo Bertagnolli LIQUIGAS s.t.
15 Kim Kirchen T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
Roche and Roulston were in a group 2 minutes behind. Ardila was 3 minuted back and the rest were +10 minutes.
1 Anthony Charteau CRÉDIT AGRICOLE 26
2 Hayden Roulston THE BRITISH ALL BLACKS 22
3 Brian Dziewa JELLY BELLY CYCLING TEAM 16
4 Alexandre Moos BMC RACING TEAM 12
5 Andrew Bajadali JELLY BELLY CYCLING TEAM 10
6 Chris Horner PREDICTOR - LOTTO 8
7 Ronny Scholz GEROLSTEINER 6
8 Franco Pellizotti LIQUIGAS 4
9 Vladimir Miholjevic LIQUIGAS 2
Edited by SportingNonsense on 01-07-2007 23:30
Stage 3
With a couple of mountain points in the stage, Roulston attacked and was joined by Christophe Laurent, Frederik Willems, and Johan Vansummeren. They were caught though and it would come to a sprint.
The sprint was hard to judge and American Brad Huff had worked a lead with just over a kilometre to go, Cavendish realised Bettini was the wrong wheel and fought to Huff's wheel, making his mover with 750 metres left.
1 Mark Cavendish THE BRITISH ALL BLACKS
2 Brad Huff TEAM SLIPSTREAM
3 Gregory Henderson T-MOBILE TEAM
4 Hayden Godfrey COLAVITA - SUTTER HOME PRESENTED BY COOKING LIGHT
5 Paolo Bettini QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC
6 Kirk O'Bee HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS
7 Uros Murn DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM
8 Guido Trenti LIQUIGAS
9 Kurt-Asle Arvesen TEAM CSC 10 Ivan Stevic THE BRITISH ALL BLACKS
Ronny Scholz 1 Hayden Godfrey COLAVITA - SUTTER HOME PRESENTED BY COOKING LIGHT 30
2 Alexandre Moos BMC RACING TEAM 30
3 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC 25
4 Ronny Scholz GEROLSTEINER 25
5 Mark Cavendish THE BRITISH ALL BLACKS 25
1 Hayden Roulston THE BRITISH ALL BLACKS 33
2 Anthony Charteau CRÉDIT AGRICOLE 26
3 Brian Dziewa JELLY BELLY CYCLING TEAM 16
Despite not crashing, Gerolsteiner rider Markus Fothen withdrew with a 'fractured thigh'.
Edited by SportingNonsense on 02-07-2007 00:21
Stage 4
Roulston attacks once more amongst many others, the 4 strong riders were:
Matt Cooke, Dominique Cornu, Pierre Rolland and Hayden Roulston.
Roulston took 47 out of 49 KoM points and after the final climb with 40km left, Rabobank and Discovery Channel looked to have the chase under control - Roulston and co had a 3 minute lead.
The descent ruined the chase though and the 4 riders would go for the win.
and Cornu wins!
3 other survivors from the break were still in front of the peleton and would take 5th to 7th. They were joined by a cheeky Wegelius though as he attacked with 4km to go and grabbed a small time gap.
1 Dominique Cornu PREDICTOR - LOTTO 3h59'10 2 Hayden Roulston THE BRITISH ALL BLACKS s.t.
3 Matt Cooke NAVIGATORS INSURANCE CYCLING TEAM s.t.
4 Pierre Rolland CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
5 Kevin Seeldraeyers QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC + 1'32
6 Brian Dziewa JELLY BELLY CYCLING TEAM s.t.
7 Blake Caldwell TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t. 8 Charles Wegelius THE BRITISH ALL BLACKS s.t.
9 Michael Boogerd RABOBANK + 1'50
10 Kai Reus RABOBANK s.t.
11 Benjamin Noval DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM s.t.
12 Davide Rebellin GEROLSTEINER s.t.
13 Jurgen Van Goolen DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM s.t.
14 Carlos Barredo QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
15 Linus Gerdemann T-MOBILE TEAM s.t. 16 Nicolas Roche THE BRITISH ALL BLACKS s.t.
17 Mario Aerts PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
18 Leonardo Bertagnolli LIQUIGAS s.t.
19 Johan Vansummeren PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
20 Dario David Cioni PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
1 Hayden Roulston THE BRITISH ALL BLACKS 40
2 Dominique Cornu PREDICTOR - LOTTO 33
3 Hayden Godfrey COLAVITA - SUTTER HOME PRESENTED BY COOKING LIGHT 30
4 Alexandre Moos BMC RACING TEAM 30
5 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC 25
6 Ronny Scholz GEROLSTEINER 25 7 Mark Cavendish THE BRITISH ALL BLACKS 25
8 Charles Wegelius THE BRITISH ALL BLACKS 20
9 Matti Helminen THE BRITISH ALL BLACKS 20
10 Brad Huff TEAM SLIPSTREAM 20
1 Hayden Roulston THE BRITISH ALL BLACKS 80
2 Anthony Charteau CRÉDIT AGRICOLE 26
3 Dominique Cornu PREDICTOR - LOTTO 26
4 Matt Cooke NAVIGATORS INSURANCE CYCLING TEAM 24
5 Brian Dziewa JELLY BELLY CYCLING TEAM 22
