2011 USA National Road Race Championship Won By Matthew Busche
Team RadioShack’s Matthew Busche surprised the cycling world by winning the 2011 USA National Road Race Championship title in downtown Greenville, South Carolina. Busche outsprinted hometown favorite George Hincapie (BMC Racing Team) to claim the title.
Busche managed to take the victory, in spite of racing with only two teammates. He followed Van Garderen on the fourth and final climb up the mountain and secured himself in the group that raced for the victory over the last 10 miles. Busche called the win on Memorial Day "career-changing and life changing while appreciative of his early success.
In last week’s Amgen Tour of California where Busche rode in selfless support of his teammates Chris Horner and Levi Leipheimer, surprised the cycling world. After a successful college career in running, Busche only started to focus on cycling in 2008. He was offered a contract with RadioShack in just his second year of racing after a first year with continental team Kelly Benefit Strategies.
Against Busche, BMC Racing Team’s George Hincapie narrowly lost a sprint to the line. Hincapie said he was cramping near the end of the 185 kilometer race in his hometown, riding as part of a four man breakaway. In 1998, 2006 and 2009, Hincapie won national road titles and was second in 2007 and third in 2001.
The US Pro road race weekend was deemed a success by all involved as the streets of Greenville emptied and the fencing was removed.
2011 Amgen Tour Of California Begins On May 20
On Friday, May 20, the 2011 Amgen Tour of California Women's International Time Trial Challenge will kick off. The world's best female cyclists will be competing in the inaugural event. The 2011 Amgen Tour of California is a Tour de France style cycling road race presented by AEG that challenges the world's top professional cycling teams to compete along a demanding course is the largest cycling event in America.
Competing for the best time along the 15-mile course, stage 6 of the Amgen Tour of California will feature 18 teams and 144 riders. The pro ride will commence at 12:30 and end at 3:35 p.m. See the downtown Solvang map for start and finish lines. An awards ceremony will be held afterward.
The race will feature a 13 person field comprised of world champions and Olympic medalists battling it out on the same course that their male counterparts will also be competing on later in the day, which will held in conjunction with Stage 6 of the 2011 Amgen Tour of California. For a $10,000 prize pool the women will be racing.
During the entire race (estimated 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.), the race route will be closed to all traffic. Many find themselves landlocked if they do not make other arrangements as those who live along the route will not be able to exit their driveways during that time. Roads with different closing times include: Mission Drive (Highway 246) will close from Fifth Street to Alisal.
Trinidad And Tobago Cyclists Missed Out On Qualification 2012 Olympics
For the 2012 London Olympics, Trinidad and Tobago cyclists missed out on qualification when they could only finish sixth in the team sprint on Sunday at the Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia.
The T&T riders were originally given a time of 46.515 seconds before the disqualification on the first day of the Championships. It would have placed them only sixth, even had the time stood which would not have been enough for an automatic qualifying spot for the Olympics.
The United States trio of Dean Tracy, Jimmy Watkins and Michael Blatchford in 44.707 won the event and Colombia was second in 45.248. Mexico, Sellier, Phillip and Azikiwe Kellar clinched the bronze medal with a clocking of 44.09, at last year's Pan Am Championships in Aguascalientes which would have given them the gold this time.
For the Olympics through next year's World Cup series, the T&T sprint team will still have opportunities for qualification. Trinidad and Tobago's Joshua Alexander placed ninth in the scratch race on Sunday even as his brother Adam was 21st and last of the riders who finished the event.
In the Flying 200 behind Christian Leandro Tamayo of Colombia (10.270) in a time of 10.276, Phillip was the second fastest. As the 16th and 21st fastest qualifiers, Sellier (10.795) and McLean (10.943) also progressed to the next round.
“Tour of the Dragons” Bicycle Stage Race Scheduled to Begin April 30
Bennington County will host the 2011 "Tour of the Dragons" bicycle stage race, scheduled to begin April 30. Known as a "stage race" because every rider competes in all three races, or stages, the Bennington Race Weekend has the potential to become a major event on the cycling calendar. The race will attract professional riders from North America.
According to organizer Jim Marshall, president of the Bennington Cycle Club, the three-stage race is an official USA Cycling event. He said, including a criterium in downtown Bennington that will bring up close action to spectators, it will feature three separate races.
In a NASCAR-style loop, riders will sprint at speeds over 40 mph that includes Main Street, Silver Street, Hillside, and South Street.
Other riders will race against the clock on a very challenging Time Trial course that starts on Beech Street playground and continues out South Stream Road, turning onto Maple Hill, Middle Pownal, and Barber Pond roads before rejoining South Stream Road heading north for a finish near Niles Road while the Criterium is under way. In the morning, riders will be selected to ride one race and, after a rest, the other race in the afternoon.
For the third and final race of the stage, on Sunday, May 1, the action shifts to the Northshire, a tough 62-mile road race, named in memory of local cyclist and community and business supporter, Daniel S. Maneely.
With proceeds to benefit UCS programs for children and families, the Bennington Race Weekend is being organized by the Bennington Cycle Club and United Counseling Service.
2014 Road Cycling Worlds Will be Hosted by Spain
The International Cycling Union (UCI) has announced that the 2014 road race world championships are set to be held in the northern Spanish city of Ponferrada, located in the province of Leon in the northwest of the country.
After last year’s event in Geelong and Melbourne, Australia, this year, the UCI World Road Championships are being held in Denmark. That was the first time they had been held outside Europe since Hamilton, Canada, hosted the races in 2003.
The decision was taken after a rigorous assessment by its relevant services of all the elements "particularly sporting and economic of the different candidatures," the International Cycling Union says in a statement.
In September in Copenhagen, Denmark, the management committee is expected to confirm the choice. The Sultanate of Oman and the U.S. city of Richmond, Virginia have already presented their bids to host the 2015 worlds, the UCI also said.
Ponferrada regularly hosts stage starts and finishes of the Vuelta a Espana, with Stage 13 of this year’s race due to end there on 2 September. The town is on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. It is home to a 12th Century Templar castle and is completely surrounded by mountains, which opens up some intriguing route possibilities for the race. Ponferrada was also being considered to host the 2015 UCI Para cycling Road World Championships, what the UCI added.
The event will be held in Limburg in The Netherlands next year, followed by the Italian city of Florence in 2013, with Ponferrada an unsuccessful candidate to host that year’s championships.
Only applications from potential host cities outside Europe will be accepted, and it has confirmed that so far the Sultanate of Oman and the city of Richmond, Virginia have put themselves forward, the UCI has said.
Alessandro Petacchi Wins Second Stage Of Volta Of Catalunya
On Tuesday, Italian veteran Alessandro Petacchi won the 169.3km second stage race of the Volta of Catalunya. With cycling's governing body close to its decision over whether to appeal his clearance of a doping ban, Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador remained ninth in the overall standings. The Volta of Catalunya, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary, finishes on Sunday.
Petacchi's last triumph was in a Tour of Spain stage in September and he is one of cycling's most prolific winners with more than 160 victories to his name. The 37 year old Lampre ISD rider raised his arms after flashing across the finish line at Banyoles ahead of Jose Joaquin Rojas of Spain and Portugal's Manuel Cardoso.
It was only midway through Monday's opening stage that he knew the health problems that have plagued him this season were definitely behind him, Petacchi said.
The favorites for the overall classification are likely to move to the fore, after Wednesday's uphill finish in Andorra. The 8 km final ascent is preceded by three first category climbs and one second category ascent on the 166.9 km trek through the Pyrenees.
Spain's Alberto Contador, 22nd in Tuesday's stage, former world champion Cadel Evans of Australia and double Tour of Italy winner Ivan Basso are the top contenders for overall victory in Spain's second biggest stage race.
Contador tested positive for clenbuterol but was later cleared of wrongdoing by the Spanish cycling federation. The International Cycling Union will decide by Thursday whether to challenge the decision. The World Anti Doping Agency has three more weeks than the UCI to also decide on an appeal.
Since escaping a proposed one year ban in late January, Contador has competed twice, finishing fourth in the Tour of Algarve in Portugal and winning the Vuelta of Murcia in Spain.
Tony Martin of Germany Has Overall 2011 Paris-Nice Victory
After taking a convincing individual time trial victory in the race’s sixth stage, from Rognes to Aix-en-Provence, Tony Martin has powered into the overall lead of Paris-Nice.
The HTC-Highroad rider, already the fastest at the intermediate time check, confirmed his domination of the 27 kilometer stage when he crossed the finish line with a 20 second advantage over Britain’s Bradley Wiggins, with Richie Porte of Australia in third at 39 seconds. Young team mate Tejay Van Garderen also turned in a very strong ride, finishing tenth on the stage 1-29 back whilst Martin averaged an impressive 48.5kmh average for the rolling course.
The German National Time Trial Champion now leads with a 39 second advantage on former leader Andreas Klöden, with Bradley Wiggins third, with two days racing remaining. Martin found his inspiration for cycling at a time when the sport garnered plenty of coverage in Germany but this is no longer the case.
Klöden stated that journalists from his country don't have his number, twenty four hours prior to Martin's call for German media to come back to cycling. In recent years, he hasn't helped the sport to get a positive exposure but his young compatriot is likely to start a new era for German cycling together with John Degenkolb and Marcel Kittel who are strong time trialists as well as sprinters in the making.
For his powerful style, a former track specialist, Martin has often been compared to former Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich and is widely considered a potential Tour de France winner.
Jason Allen – 2011 National Track Cycling Championships Winner
At the national track cycling championships in Invercargill, Christchurch based Jason Allen with 11 national titles to his name, finally won the individual pursuit.
After a week which saw Allen’s home in Christchurch receiving significant damage in Tuesday's earthquake, with his Scottish girlfriend leaving the city to stay with his parents in Blenheim, he said it had been difficult to focus. He went home and spent the afternoon with his cell phone and the television off to try and get himself prepared mentally for the final, the Tasman representative said. He was keen to get home on Monday and assess the damage to his house himself, Allen said.
Karwowski, who finished in 4:29.880, said he had tried to keep something in reserve for the second half of the final, but his race plan didn't quite work out. Allen, who rode 4min 27.732sec in the final, paid credit to Karwowski.
Simon van Velthooven comfortably won the men's keirin title from Canterbury's Elijah May, with Southland's Matt Archibald third, in other results. Waikato Bay of Plenty's Rushlee Buchanan dominated the women's 20km points’ race. With Otago's Kathryn Jones third, the New Zealand representative twice lapped the field to win from Southland's Sequoia Cooper. After beating her own national record during qualifying, Southland's Natasha Hansen beat Auckland's Henrietta Mitchell in the ride for gold in the women's sprint, even as Otago's Katie Scholfield beat Auckland's Vanessa Quin for the bronze medal.
After holding off defending champion Tom Scully over a furious final lap, Allen capped off a good night by winning the mens' 15km scratch race. Scully, still on the comeback from a serious crash last year, had to settle for third place behind Southland team mate Lee Evans.
Transport For London Dedicate £4m To London Biking Boroughs
Thirteen of London's outer boroughs, the so-called Biking Boroughs, are to get £4m to spend to create a local cycling culture, what the Transport for London and the Mayor's Office has announced.
Each Borough will be able to bid for a share of the funding from Monday Feb 21st, to spend on the likes of new on street cycle parking spaces, the training of 200,000 lorry drivers in cyclist awareness, training courses for 66,000 cyclists or 100km of quiet cycle routes in suburban areas. Each Borough would be able to choose which combination of improvements it spends the money on, if successful in the bid.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson said, “This funding will enable our friends in outer London to develop exciting ways to make cycling bloom in their boroughs making it easier to replace some short car journeys with pedal power. We want healthier Londoners breathing better quality air on less congested roads and we all want an economic boost to our local shops and town centers. I believe developing Biking Boroughs can make this happen."
Transport for London explained that, the aim of the funding is to create a local culture of cycling, creating cycle hubs in town centre locations with a high density of potential cyclists and trips where boroughs should invest in cycle infrastructure. Other strategies include forging cycling communities, where residential areas of high cycling potential would receive investment to break down the barriers of cycling.
Lees McRae College to Offer Minor in Cycling
This year, a Bicycling Studies minor is being added to the curriculum of Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, North Carolina, making it the only school in the US to offer a degree in the sport.
College president, Dr. Barry M. Buxton, who rides with members of the multiple national championship-winning collegiate racing team, is himself a cycling enthusiast. He believes that by approving the program, either on or off the bike, it will help graduates enter professional cycling as a career.
Business and Economics of Sports, History and Principles of Bicycling, and Athletic Performance and Creativity and Innovation are the courses included, which make up the program. Before graduation, students will also complete a field study in cycling and an internship in cycling.
To obtain positions in fields such as bicycle design, education, training, planning, marketing, team management, coaching, urban design, retail, event promotion and more, this program will position graduates. In 2003, the Lees-McRae College cycling team won its first national title, and in the past seven years, it has won ten team national championships and many more individual titles. Promoting bicycle safety and preparing future generations of bicyclists, promoting the art and science of the bicycling industry and providing quality education to support the knowledge and skills of bicycling competitors and enthusiasts are identified as the goals of the program. The team was petitioned and it was granted admission in the fall of 2006, to compete at the Division I level. That same year, the Bobcats won their first Division I national title.