Halfords Tour Series 2011 – Final Round – Canary Wharf

Halfords Tour Series 2011 Champions Rapha Condor Sharp celebrating in Canary Wharf (photo credit: Tour Series/VeloUK)

Rapha Condor Sharp crowned Halfords Tour Series Champions

Jonny McEvoy and Motorpoint take final round honours at Canary Wharf

After their early round dominance wore off, Rapha Condor Sharp finally did enough to clinch their much sought after Halfords Tour Series title at Canary Wharf in the final round of the 2011 Series.

Having come third overall for each of the past two seasons of the unique team based Series, the men of John Herety’s team finally came good, to take a popular and hard fought victory.

Defending Halfords Tour Series Champions Motorpoint Pro Cycling went out with a bang, thanks to Jonny McEvoy soloing to victory in the world famous business and shopping district, leading his squad to the team win on the night, their first of 2011.

Behind Endura Racing came second on the night, to ensure the final deficit to Rapha Condor Sharp was just five points.

Halfords Tour Series 2011 – Round 7 – Woking

The sprint finish in Woking (photo credit: Tour Series/VeloUK)

Superman flies to victory in Woking

Wilkinson leads Endura Racing to the win in Woking, but Rapha Condor Sharp keep lead

Ian ‘Superman’ Wilkinson completed his comeback from an early season injury to lead home teammate Scott Thwaites in an Endura Racing 1-2 in Woking, also handing the Scottish squad the team win on the night.

Wilkinson turned in an impressive performance, riding across a 30 second gap to join five leaders, who he then outsprinted in the Woking finale.

With teammate and Stoke-on-Trent round winner Thwaites taking second, Jack Bauer picked up ninth from the front of the main field to give Endura Racing their second successive round win in the unique team based Series.  Leaders Rapha Condor Sharp picked up second on the night to ensure their advantage slipped to just six points going into the Canary Wharf final round on Thursday 16^th June.

The popular Woking round proved to be the most tactical race of The Halfords Tour Series so far, with the big teams all closely marking the moves of their rivals.

When the main move did get away after around half an hour of racing it contained Endura’s Thwaites, Motorpoint’s Johnny McEvoy, Rapha Condor Sharp’s Dean Windsor and Sigma Sport – Specialized’s Simon Richardson.

Halfords Tour Series 2011 – Round 6 – Oldham

Endura rider Rob Partridge wins in Oldham (photo credit: Tour Series/VeloUK)

Endura Racing break the Rapha Condor Sharp dominance

Series leaders ‘only’ third, as Rob Partridge flies to narrow victory in Oldham

Like buses Endura Racing wait the whole Halfords Tour Series for a win to come along, and then they take two in a week, as Rob Partridge took victory in the Series first appearance in Greater Manchester at Oldham on Thursday night.

Partridge took a narrow victory over Motorpoint’s Marcin Bialoblocki, who appeared to celebrate too soon as they hit the line, raising an arm in salute and allowing the Endura Rider to pip him to the win in a photo finish.  Defeat was a bitter pill for Bialoblocki, who had heroically ridden across a 20-second gap to the four leaders in the last few laps.

Partridge’s win helped Endura to also defeat reigning Halfords Tour Series Champions Motorpoint by the narrowest of margins, as both teams tied on the placing of their three riders, so the Welsh rider’s win gave Endura Racing their first team victory of 2011 and broke the Rapha Condor Sharp dominance.

Rapha Condor Sharp remain at the top of the standings, despite only coming third on the evening, their worst performance of the 2011 Halfords Tour Series season, although their lead slips to just seven points over Endura Racing with two rounds to go.

A tough town centre circuit with very little flat welcome The Halfords Tour Series to Oldham, for the unique team based series’ first visit to Greater Manchester.  As at the previous round at Stoke-on-Trent the pace was high from the start, with splits forming soon after the start as attacks came and went.

A large group of around 12 riders from a variety of teams went clear early on, but as that faltered the move that mattered though formed from it with just under half the race to go, as four riders pulled out a 20-second gap in one tour of the Oldham circuit.  The big three teams were represented with Partridge, Ian Bibby and Dean Downing, with Team Raleigh’s Liam Holohan making up the quartet.

Cycle Show 2010: Condor Leggero

The second post from my 2010 London Cycle Show outing and this one is from local UK cycle store, Condor Cycles.

The Condor Leggero frames are built using Dedacciai tubesets in their Italian factory. Carbon, aluminium, titanium and steel frame bicycles are put through strict testing at point of manufacture, then by staff and professional team riders, ie the Rapha Condor Sharp racing team.

The signature frame in the road race range is the full carbon Condor Leggero. This model is used by the Rapha Condor Sharp race team and has helped riders to significant titles including Dean Downing’s 2008 National Criterium Championship win and Kristian House becoming 2009 National Road Race Champion.

Here is the Silver/White edition of the Condor Leggero:

Condor Leggero in white/silver

Condor Leggero

Condor Leggero in white/silver

Condor Leggero in white/silver

Limited Team Edition

A very nice looking frame that seems to have kept things simple!

And for all the tech heads that understand the ins and outs of the world of carbon fibre, here are the tech specs of the Leggero:
Frame: Dedacciai HM carbon and T900 carbon fibre with nano resins
Fork: Dedo Nero Supremacy full carbon
Colours: White/Silver or Limited Team Edition

And here are the price specs:
Frame & Fork & headset: £1999.99  or complete build: £2389.99

The Tour of Britain 2010

Well, it’s been a full year since The Tour of Britain was last here. And this year’s event did not disappoint. From the outset each stage tested the strength and determination of each team and by stage 3, they were moaning non-stop at how hard it was. So different from the 2009 event where they were moaning at how easy the race was. Seems which ever way the organiser’s take it, they just can’t win.  Oh, and don’t get me started on the home-based fans. When will they get it in their silly little heads that it’s an 8 day event. This means there are not enough days to get around the whole country. In order to do that, the ToB’s event status would need to increase (to maybe even ProTour) and take in at least two weeks of racing. Maybe then each and every town and region could be visited by The Tour. But until the UCI decides otherwise, the event is going to stay an 8-day race.

Anyway, this year I was lucky enough to get an invitation to the finish in Glastonbury for the 176km stage 5. The previous day’s stage was the hardest of the 2010 Tour, so they boys legs were going to be tired in the run into Glastonbury. For the full race report for Stage 5, click here.

Now, as I had a very cosy spot right by the finish line, I tried my best to take pictures of the riders as they came by. Here’s what I managed to get:

Glastonbury stage finish for The Tour of Britain

Dean Downing from Rapha Condor Sharp

The Honda lead car coming through the finish

Marco Frapporti

Marco Frapporti

Bradley Wiggins blowing a kiss to the crowd in celebration of his second place

Michael Golas

Pieter Ghyllebert

Garmin - Transitions' Dan Martin

Ronan Van Zandbeek

The bunch sprint

Stephen Cummings

Team Sky's Geraint Thomas

Cervelo's Dan Lloyd and Roger Hammond

Jeremy Hunt

Mark Renshaw

Mark Renshaw

HTC-Columbia's Mark Renshaw

Kit Gilham

Garmin's Cameron Meyer

Podium Girls' Lauren and Anna

Marco Frapporti

Michael Golas

Michael Albasini

Michael Albasini

British Pro Cycling Teams and Rider Twitter Profiles

So I’ve been thinking of different items to place on my blog that would hopefully be of use to all those that visit this page. One thing that did come to mind was the twitter profiles of all the British professional cycling teams and riders. There isn’t a single source available where you could find this (well. not that I could find), so thought I’d give it a go.

The teams and their twitter profiles are:

CYCLEPREMIER.COM – METALTEK

TEAM @Cycle_Premier

Raphael Deinhart @GermanRacer

Ashley Finn @ash_finn

Simon Wilson @Si_Wilson

James Millard @JamesMillard

ENDURA RACING

TEAM @enduraracing

Rob Partridge @RobPartridge

David Lines @davidlines

Evan Oliphant @evantwats

James McCallum @Jimmy_mach10

Ross Creber @creber1

Scott Thwaites @Scott_Thwaites1

Gary Hand @Handinator

KUOTA – ROAD CC

TEAM @Kuota_RoadCC

Cherie Pridham @CHEZPRO

Jeroen Janssen @FlyingDutchJJ

Jon Mozley @Jon_Mozley

Jefte de Bruin @JeftedeBruin

Dan Davies @dan_davies86

Tom Martin @tommartin7

Martin Smith @Martyvelo

ORBEA – FOR GOODNESS SHAKES!

TEAM @Orbea_FGS

James Whatling @OrbeaJames

Daniel Kogan @dankogan

PENDRAGON COL COLNAGO

TEAM @PendragonSports

Yanto Barker @YBLECOL

Richard Tanguy @richtanguy

Chris Opie @SpeedyOpie

Rhys Lloyd @RhysLloyd

TEAM RALEIGH

TEAM @TeamRaleighUK

Liam Holohan @lh_holohan

Dan Fleeman @Danfleeman

Mike Cuming @mike_cuming

Peter Smith @petersmith35

Chris Truett @christruett

RAPHA CONDOR SHARP

TEAM @raphacondor

Kristian House @kristianhouse

Dean Downing @deanodown

Ben Greenwood @benjigreenwood

Matt Cronshaw @mattcronshaw

John Herety @RaphaJ

Andy Verrall @andyverbals

SIGMA-SPORT SPECIALIZED

TEAM @teamsigmasport

TEAM SKY

TEAM @TeamSky

Greg Henderson @greghenderson1

Russell Downing @russdowning

Chris Froome @chrisfroome

John Lee Augustyn @jlaugustyn

Simon Gerrans @simongerrans

Kurt Asle Arvesen @kaarvesen

Bradley Wiggins @bradwiggins

Kjell Carlstrom @kjellcarlstrom

Serge Pauwels @sergepauwels

Ben Swift @swiftybswift

These are the teams that I have so far. Obviously, when I get more, I will update this post with the additional info. I have also created a page dedicated to these teams and their online profiles. Make sure to bookmark it.