Team Sky – new professional British road cycling team

BSkyB has announced the creation of a professional British road cycling team, Team Sky, to be managed by Great Britain’s Olympic performance director Dave Brailsford CBE.

Team Sky will build on the principles that make British riders a consistent success on the track and will support Sky’s work as Principal Partner of British Cycling, fuelling the sport from grass roots to elite level.

And the team will expect results. Team Sky wants to create the first British winner of the Tour de France, within five years. It also aims to inspire people of all ages and abilities to get on their bikes, through the team’s positive profile, attitude and success, and add further support to competitive cycling in Great Britain.

Team Sky will have a core of British riders, coaches and support staff and its HQ will be in Manchester, home to the GB cycling team. It will compete from the start of 2010, throughout the calendar, with the objective of gaining an invitation to the Tour de France. The race schedule will include the Tour of Britain, a chance to showcase the team on home ground.

An initial squad of around 25 riders will be recruited during the 2009 calendar year. They will be supported by a team of coaches, technicians and support staff from across the cycling world, many of whom work throughout the year with British elite and developing riders. Team Sky will now start to recruit key personnel and approach commercial partners to support the new team.

Since becoming Principal Partner of British Cycling last summer Sky has used its relationship with millions of homes to encourage families to get out and ride in order to help their health, their fitness and the environment. The Sky Sports London Freewheel in September brought more than 50,000 recreational riders together to ride traffic-free streets in the heart of London.

Sky is also working with British Cycling to develop a range of inspiring events, to make cycling fun, easy and accessible to all, which will be announced in the spring.

Does this mean that Mar Cavendish (Columbia-Highroad) , Bradley Wiggins (Garmin-Slipstream), and David Millar (also Garmin-Slipstream) will be bought out of their current team contracts to join this new team?

Cavendish out of Great Britain squad

Mark Cavendish

Mark Cavendish has dropped out of the Great Britain World Championships only hours after being named to the team. It is expected that Geraint Thomas will take his place in the road race. Cavendish was selected by British Cycling to race the Worlds road race, but shortly after the announcement, his name was taken off the list again with the mention that he ‘withdrew’.

So now the men’s road team will have David Millar, Chris Froome, Steve Cummings, Russell Downing, and Ian Stannard. Geraint Thomas is still to be confirmed. Millar and Cummings will also ride the time trial.

Olympic Champion Nicole Cooke will lead the women’s team. She will be supported by Sharon Laws, Emma Pooley, Lizzie Armitstead, and Jess Allen. Law and Pooley will ride the time trial.

For the U-23 team, Ben Swift, Peter Kennaugh, Alex Dowsett, Jonny Bellis and Jonny McEvoy will ride the road race, with Dowsett and Russel Hampton in the time trial.

GB announce Cycling World Road Champs team

The Great Britain cycling team have announced the long list of riders for the 2008 Road World Championships in Italy.

In the events GB will be allowed six riders in the Men’s Elite road race, seven including the Olympic champion (otherwise six) for the Women’s road race, five for the Under 23 road race and two each for the time trials.

The Elite riders for the road race are Mark Cavendish, Steve Cummings, Chris Froome, David Millar, Ian Stannard, Geraint Thomas, Rob Hayles, Russell Downing,  Daniel Lloyd and Dan Fleeman.

The Under 23 riders are Ben Swift, Peter Kennaugh, Alex Dowsett, Jonny Bellis, Jonny McEvoy, Andy Tennant, Russell Hampton and Mark McNally.

Cooke and Pooley are joined in the women’s team by Sharon Laws, Rachel Heal, Jessica Allen, Lizzie Armitstead and Catherine Hare.

In the time trial, the Elite Men are Steve Cummings, David Millar and Chris Froome; the Women are Emma Pooley, Sharon Laws and Nicole Cooke; and the Under 23s are Alex Dowsett and Russell Hampton.

French say British cyclists were taking drugs

Can you believe it? Already all the negative reasons as to why Team GB have done so well at the Olympics have started to flow in.

If you don’t win – you didn’t try hard enough. If you do win, then you must have been using drugs. What is it with people nowadays? Why can’t they just accept that someone could actually be better than what they are?

It seems the French have been making insinuations that  that Great Britain’s cyclists superlative medal haul may be due to “performance-enhancing drugs”.

Wow – what a sore bunch of losers. Seriously! Why don’t they just sort themselves out, look back at what they’ve done wrong (training, selections, etc) and make sure they fix it for the next Olympics. Why go and attack the team that made a huge impression upon the world?  What will their comments really achieve? Nothing. It won’t help them get a medal now will it.

Anyway – I just find it interesting what people resort to when someone else wins.  What do you think?

Pendleton takes maiden Olympic Gold

Pendleton celebrating her victory (Photo credit: Wu Wei/Xinhua)

Victoria Pendleton today won her first Olympic Gold medal in the women’s sprint on the final night of competition for cycling at the Games.  The 27-year-old beat Anna Meares of Australia in two straight races in the best-of-three series.

Pendleton has also written her name into the record books by winning Great Britain’s second women’s medal in Track Cycling in Olympic history.

Pendleton admitted it was a “dream” to finally win an Olympic medal after missing out in Athens four years ago.

She told BBC1: “It doesn’t feel real yet. Everything went to plan but after the success of the team I felt it might be too much to ask.

“I couldn’t expect anything more – it’s a dream scenario. I feel like part of the team because you have to have a medal these days.

“I feel like a completely different athlete (from Athens), I enjoy it a lot more and am lucky to have people around me to help me improve.”

A stunning performance from Pendleton. I look forward to watching her at the next Olympics in London in 2012.

Also seen at the event today watching the cyclists was former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Britain wins team pursuit and sets new world record in Olympic cycling

Clancy, Manning, Thomas and Wiggins going for Gold

What an amazing ride today from the team of four from Great Britain. Now I understand why it’s called ‘Great Britain’. These boys showed true guts and determination.

In the end, they took the gold from their Danish rivals and broke their newly set world record with a new time of 3:53.314 – with an average speed of 61.719 km/h. A truly great performance. The team also made history by ending a 100-year wait for an Olympic team pursuit gold, last won in 1908 at the London Olympic Games.

Of the seven finals held so far, Britain have won five and claimed nine of the 21 medals awarded.  With three finals – the men’s and women’s sprint and the men’s Madison – closing the competition tomorrow and with Britain favourites in all of them, their gold medal tally could grow even more. I hope it does.

Project Pooley Pays Off

The Olympic Woman's Time Trial: Emma Pooley (2nd), Kristin Armstrong (1st) and Karin Thurig (3rd)

Cambridge University graduate Emma Pooley of Britain claimed the silver in this year’s Woman’s Time Trial at the Beijing Olympics.

Project Pooley was set up to help build a special small bike for the 25-year-old to take glory in Beijing. But the key to her success was in the descents, where her light frame would normally be a disadvantage.

At little more than 5ft tall and weighing no more than 49kg, Pooley does not have the traditional physique of an elite cyclist.

Chris Boardman, a consultant on Project Pooley explained: “One of the first things the Project team did was analyse Pooley’s physique.  Her diminutive stature was a problem but the team built a special small-framed bike with special handlebars to help turn it to her advantage.”

“We developed a completely different bike that allowed her to make use of her very small size, which is fantastic for going up hills – but not much good for coming down, when it is about power.  The problem was, there was not a lot of proprietary equipment out there on the mainstream market that was small enough”

“So, we developed something special for her that allows her to get into that really tucked position coming down – because her advantage is that being small she doesn’t hit a lot of air.”

And all hard work and effort seems to have paid off for Pooley and the Project Team.

Pooley also played a pivotal role in teammate Nicole Cooke’s triumph on the hilly sections of the women’s road race Sunday when the Welshwoman handed Britain their first gold of the Games.