Bike World News

The riders faced a hilly 205.6kms stage from Bilzen to Heers featuring 7 different climbs in the last half of the course.

152 riders took to the start of today’s 214.4km stage from St-Lievens-Houtem in Belgium to Roermond in the Netherlands.  Though today’s was the longest stage of the Tour, Jaroslaw Marycz (Saxo Bank) decided it was a good day to try to attack his way to victory, launching his first of numerous moves 7kms in.  13kms later, in the peloton, Christian Knees (Milram) crashed into a stop sign and had to abandon the race to go to a local hospital for stitches.
Marycz launched his second attack 35kms in.  Working with Adriano …

Today’s stage was a 204km route from Roermond to Sittard.  Markus Eichler (Milram),  Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil) and Robert Hunter (Garmin-Transitions) all did not start the stage while Jurgen Van De Walle (QuickStep) and Juan Mauricio Soler (Caisse d’Epargne) abandoned during the stage.
As usual, numerous breaks tried to form in hopes of staying away.  The most dominate group was formed with 99kms to go, consisting of: Kenny Dehaes (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Maxim Gourov (Astana), Mauro Da Dalto (Lampre-Farnese Vini), Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskaltel-Eusakadi), Jack Bobridge (Garmin-Transitions), Kevin Hulsmans (QuickStep), Dominique Nerz (Milram), …

Today the riders faced a bumpy 191.8km route through the hills of Ronse. Taking advantage of the early smoother section, Andre Greipel (HTC-Columbia) worked his way into the early break and gained the time bonuses in the two intermediate sprints. As the peloton neared the final five climbs of the day, however, they chased down the break and a new group formed off the front, including Koos Moerenhout (Rabobank), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky), and Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia).
On the Mont Saint-Laurent, these three were in a group of 5 …

Australian Robbie McEwen (Katusha) has won the first stage of the Eneco Tour (Pro Tour) on Wednesday.

In today’s cycling news, HTC-Columbia returns to Tour of Britain, Devolder focusing on Eneco and Worlds, Ricco to Vacansoleil and more…..

The young Norwegian, who won the Oslo Grand Prix earlier in the week, outsprinted last year’s winner Kenny van Hummel (Skil-Shimano), with Stefan van Dijk (Verandas Willems) in third.

Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck wage an epic battle up the Col du Tourmalet to try and settle who will roll into Paris in yellow.

A tragic mechanical at the worst moment costs Saxo Bank’s Andy Schleck the yellow jersey today.

Mark Cavendish apparently did not get the memo from his HTC-Columbia bosses saying that he didn’t have a prayer in the green jersey competition.