British national time trial races today!

Results so far

Women
1 Emma Pooley VC Norwich 00:30:18
2 Katie Archibald Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International 00:30:57
3 Dame Sarah Storey Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International 00:31:09
4 Elinor Barker Wiggle Honda 00:31:22
5 Laura Trott Wiggle Honda 00:31:27
6 Joanna Rowsell Wiggle Honda 00:31:41
7 Lucy Coldwell Velosport - Pasta Montegrappa 00:31:43
8 Danielle King Wiggle Honda 00:32:28
9 Emily Robertson CC Luton 00:33:06
10 Claire Galloway Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International 00:33:11

Men U-23
1 Scott Davies Madison Genesis 00:27:45
2 Owain Doull An Post - Chain Reaction 00:28:09
3 Daniel Mclay Lotto-Belisol U23 00:28:44
4 Hugh Carthy Rapha Condor JLT 00:28:58
5 Harry Tanfield KTM road-and-trail.com 00:28:58
6 Lawrence Carpenter Catford CC Equipe/Banks 00:29:01
7 Alex Peters Madison Genesis 00:29:05
8 Samuel Williams NFTO 00:29:14
9 Alexander Royle BH-Solidor-WAM Youth 00:29:18
10 Zachery May Metaltek KUOTA RT 00:29:23

Wiggo won the men's time trial with Geraint Thomas 2nd and Alex Dowsett in 3rd

Sky announce their Tour team tomorrow but Wiggins has told the BBC that he hasn't been selected

Highlights from yesterday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=Ti7IY110alo

Sky Team for the Tour announced!

Chris Froome, Richie Porte, Geraint Thomas, Mikel Nieve, Bernhard Eisel, Vasil Kiryienka, David Lopez, Danny Pate, Xabier Zandio.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/28052516

Kreuziger is out of the Tour due to abnormalities in his bio passport during 2011/12: http://www.tinkoffsaxo.com/news/stat...man-kreuziger/

He looked as strong as his team leader Contador in last year's TdF finishing one place behind him. Last week, he was not on consistent high form in the Tour de Suisse.

Last year he had his biggest win at Amstel Gold soloing away from the leader's group and staying clear up the Cauberg

Froome's list of career ailments grows from bilharzia to include asthma, typhoid, hives and blastocystosis:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/oth...-champion.html

Live tracking site for today's national road races:
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/nat...mpionshipslive

The TdF team presentation is on ITV4 this Thursday, 1930-2130 hrs.


Not on Eurosport it seems.

The british Championship race is on Eurosport now......

As usually seems to be the case with races in GB there's no graphics..........remember the Olympic Road race !.......

There's a group of 7 away with 4 Sky riders, the 2 Yates boys and Mark Christian, who's from the domestic Raleigh team but in Cav's training partner and another Manxman

Geraint Thomas is on his own trying to catch them about a minute back

No idea where the peloton is

About 30K to go..........they're doing laps around Abergavenny

4 laps remain

Laura Trott won the women's race........sprint finish in a breakaway group with Dani King, Armitstead, Laws and Pooley

3 more riders who's names you'd recognise came in about a minute or so later then it was 5 minutes back to everyone else

Good to see a group of 8 women coming to the fore, all of whom are recognised riders........

Has anyone looked at the profile on the second of the 3 UK stages?

The 1st and 3rd look fairly nailed on sprints but the middle stage is up and down the whole way, multiple low category climbs all day.

Who will be the favourites for that? Sagan obviously I am sure will target it, if it is a one day type race maybe Cancellara.

Is it too lumpy for a sprinter? I can't see any of the big names, JRod, Valverde being able to get away. Even those good on that terrain, Roelandts, Vanmarke, Terpstra will be probably working for their leaders in the first two cases and Cav or Kwiatovski in the latter, so looks a difficult stage to call.

They've just done a little piece on Sky News about the Tour coming to Yorkshire and the reporter was say how testing the stage would be with the Holme Moss climb of almost 5 kilometres rising as much as 500 metres about sea level.......showing a bit of a lack of understanding of the Alps and Pyrenees........

Apart from that class 2 at Holme Moss it's all little class 3 and class 4 climbs......

The riders will just float over them as though they're not there

almost certainly it'll be a sprint finish

David Millar has been dropped from the Garmin team for the Tour following his illness yesterday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/28093798

Alex Dowsett is also out at Movistar for the same reason.

So it looks like it will just be Froome, Thomas and Cav as Brits in the Tour.

A bunch sprint finish on what is essentially a modified Liège-Bastogne-Liège? A bunch of puncheurs (Sagan, Gerrans et al), perhaps; it definitely won't be a stage for the sprinteurs. There's also a pair of long uncategorised climbs that'll sap their reserves.

http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2014/us/stage-2.html

Beyond pissed off that Garmin has dropped Millar for what would have been his last tour. To say he's gutted and disappointed in his team's lack of faith is a massive understatement.

I've read a few articles this week by people who have recce'd stage 2. The common thought is that it's deceptively brutal - probably too much for so early in the Tour, in fact. They're expecting the peloton to get very broken up and for there to be a real possibility of a few not making the time cut.

Not a hope in hell of that happening... I think a few of the sprinters might get behind the main peloton
Peter Sagan gets my bet for stage two
(Marcel Kittle) for stage one

Stage 2 does not end in a long uphill drag like LBL. The 'climbs' after Holme Moss are too short to cause major time damage to fresh legs

167K - Midhopestones 2.5 km @ 6.1%
175K - Bradfield 1 km @ 7.4%
182K - Oughtibridge 1.5 km @ 9.1%
196K - Jenkin Road 0.8 km @ 10.8%
201K - Finish

They should prevent Giant-Shimano and OPQS forming sprint trains at the front. But, if Cavendish, bereft of teammates, made it over the Cippressa and Poggio in the freezing wet to contest the MSR sprint, I see nothing worse here to stop him being guided back to the lead group in the final 5K.

As I see it, the main problem on the stage is the narrow dale roads and the chance of the yellow jersey awaiting a successful escapee. Every team will want to be near the front and not strung out at the back. There is a predictable outcome.

Er, OK, well there's a bunch of pros who've actually ridden the route who disagree...........

Obviously, no one's saying that the peloton is definitely going to get broken up, but the sentiment seems to be that there's a real risk and that the stage is a lot harder than it appears on paper.

I agree that the Peloton might break up.. where I strongly disagree is i dont think there is a chance in hell of riders being cut due to being outside the time limit... it is just not going to happen

Simon Yates as well apparently! That means England definitely has representation in the 2014 TdF, whether or not Froome counts as one anyway (he rode for England in the 2010 Commonwealth Games).

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/oric...get-stage-wins

As happy as I am for him, he's still a neo-pro so I wouldn't expect him to continue beyond the first rest day in his maiden Grand Tour. Best not to overwork those in the development phases of their career, even those with major potential.

Incidentally, it's been 7 years since Cav (then a neo-pro) made his Grand Tour/TdF debut in London. Who'd have thought he'd have two more chances for a domestic TdF stage victory?!

On the upside, David Millar's joining the ITV commentary team for the Tour............

How's that going to work?

You already have Gary and Chris fronting the show, Ned for live interview segments and Phil and Paul for commentary.

EDIT: Just read that he's only doing it for the Yorkshire leg where there is plenty of airtime to cover.

http://www.itv.com/tourdefrance/davi...rance-coverage

Cannot stand the sight of David Millar after his cheating antics he should of been banned for life... so a kick in the teeth for the clean riders to see him getting a spot on TV

on a different note I was workin in York this morning and there are hordes of Cyclists doing the route stages today along with cars and lights flashing
saw a huge group wearing RAF kit must be doing a charity ride of the course
absolute Chaos on the A59 York to Harrogate road with them having such big groups

I'm on. Froome 7/1 to win the mountains jersey. Seems good value to me in the absencevof Quintaine. If he wins the race, he will probably win polka dot as well.