End of Season Fun

Another big weekend that leaves me wondering what I’ll write about when the cycling season ends. Anyway, until then there are some results to wrap up for you.

To deal with the newest event first, there was a World Championship for trade teams in the Team Time Trial. Sky were aiming to do well here but put in a performance that left them in 9th.

Sky were somewhat more successful in the Tour of Britain. At the end of last week they seemed to be falling apart with a ride that put all the main contenders in the team too far back to really challenge, with only Christian Knees in the top ten. However the team managed to pull it back together to ride to set Cavendish up for a powerful win in Guildford on his last appearance in the World Champion’s stripes.

The real story of the Tour of Britain was from other British riders. Kristian House secured the King of the Mountains jersey after being in nearly every break on the hilly stages, and Peter Williams won the sprints jersey (sponsored by literally the least efficient delivery company in the UK) ahead of two of his Node 4- Giordana team mates. Then there was Jon Tiernan-Locke the Endura Racing rider who went into the Tour as a favourite following his KOM win last year. His intelligent and powerful climbing makes him the first British winner of the Tour of Britain in its modern incarnation. Taking this win in a year where competition was fierce and included some real challenges from major names including Ivan Basso and Samuel Sanchez really shows his talent and sets him up for the future. Seeing him slotted in with the Sky team in the chase almost made you think he might be just about to join that team…

have a look here:



The other big end of season do was in Hafjell in Norway where the DH World Cup wrapped up. The men’s race was a chance for the new guard to come through as Da Vinci racing took first and second, with Steve Smith making his first World Cup win ahead of George Brannigan, Greg Minnaar, and Gee Atherton. The final standings left Minnaar in second and Atherton in third over behind Gwin who had wrapped it all up at the previous round. Catch up here.

The women’s race had more to play for but, having missed the first round this season, Rachel Atherton stormed through to take the win on the day and also the overall title.

So just the World Championships really left for more British success this season. It’s not one for Cavendish, but it’d be great to see yet another British win.

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