kiwis in the Cycling Great Tours

kiwis in the Cycling Great Tours

The Giro Italia starts on Sunday and we have Greg Henderson riding for Sky and Julian Dean riding for Garmin. But poor Haysen Roulston has been left off Team Colombia as still crook. I was hoping all 3 kiwis wd ride and do well stealthkiwi2010-05-19 10:27:12

Henderson was talking about a stage win the in Le Tour not that long ago, would be a real shame if he missed out! Roulston aswell, after a great first year last year he would have been hoping to really kick on.

I hadn't heard yet if Team Sky had scored the wild card entry to Le Tour that they were after since they don't qualify automacticly. They are a little top heavy re sprinters so will be interesting to see how they do in the Giro as its their debut Grand Tour event. I do think Bradley Wiggins is a good leader tho and lol I love that Hendersen the kiwi has two aussie lead out men in Mathew Hayman and Chris Sutton

Giro d'Italia. That is all

I need to watch more cycling, was realing into it as a teen. I'll try to watch some of the Giro, certainly aiming to watch Stage 21

In my head its just the Giro the same way there is only one the Tour lol. Even the Dom Post today called it Giro Italia but i'll fix my header stealthkiwi2010-05-05 12:51:26

Was reading something this morning that made me realise Julian Dean's main job in the Giro is to lead out Tyler Farrar who considers Greg Hendersen one of his main rivals in the sprints. So it will be kiwi trying to outplay kiwi

The Giro started in Amsterdam this morning with a 8.4km time trial

Team Sky is already showing its going to be team to be reckoned with both here and in the tour'd'france as out of 198 riders all up Sky's Bradley Wiggens won and our own kiwi member of it Greg Hendersen came 5th yay

Julian Dean is a lot further back at 150th but thats not even a minute down. Tomorrow is a mostly flat stage of 209km frm Amsterdam to Utrecht

Giro d"Italia = WORST.COFFEE.EVER!!!

stealthkiwi2010-05-10 15:10:41

Stage 3 was another flat stage marred by crashes. Alexandre Vinokourov took the lead overall yay. Henderson rebounded back to 62nd and Dean was at 58th - both at around 5 mins down from the leader.

Care, just not commenting.

correct

stealthkiwi2010-05-12 11:41:10

I'll care when it's actually in Italy. So tomorrow. And I won't necessarily care about the Kiwi cyclists

In last nights team trial Liquigas-Doimo topped Team Sky (Hendersen's team) by 13 seconds, while the Astana team of the previous race leader Alexander Vinokourov imploded in the finale and lost 38 seconds to the stage winners by the line. Garmin (Dean's team) came eighth.

I bet many of the non cycling interested on here don't even realise that the World Cup Football and the Tour'd'France are carefully scheduled to try and not overlap. stealthkiwi2010-05-13 10:40:41

An exicting stage with a three man breakaway managing to stay ahead of the peleton for 147km and actually romping home first for once. Hendersen was one of the main chasers & came in 5th. He's now 53rd with 5mins down from the overall GC leader Vincenzo Nibali

only 193 riders left in the race with Nibali & Basso still 1st & 2nd. Hendersen is now 38th on the GC with Dean at 127th. And in the sprinters points comp they are 11th Hendersen and 40th for Dean

todays stage is 222km Carrar - Montalcin and will be a lumpy one with lots of ups and downs later in the course

A supa wet stage 7 saw crashes and the whole top of the GC get totally shaken up with Vinokourov back at 1st & australian Cadel Evans now in second. Hendersen is at 53rd and Dean at 127th with a few DNF so that there are only 191 riders left

Stage 8  tomorrow is the first major hill climb and is 189km from Chianciano - Monte Terminillo

Tour of California is about to start, that will be much better.

maybe... but it doesn't have any kiwis in it plus if  god forbid Amrstong does well I cdn't bare to recap it. Tho I think Radioshack is gonna give this one to Leipheimer so he'll behave in the Tour and support his team leader. I'm gunning for Andy Shleck to take it

I support Armstrong But yeah, Radioshack will definatly let Levi win it for sure. 4 in a row I think.

I admire that Armstrong is a superior athlete but I can't stand him. He's an arrogant prick and his team dragged him over the Alps in 2004 and at one point his team had a cpl of guys who looked stronger than him but they were always kept on a tight leash. he won those last cpl of tours through having more money and riders whose sole job was to get him into yellow at the right time and by having gear worth three times more than some teams.

also everyone knows he does drugs. personally i dont care if cyclists do as i figure they are all on the same playing field and us ordinary mortals cd never do what they do even with drugs. but he is so holier than thou even tho more than one of his ex-teamates has sworn they've been there whn he was being injected at the same time they were

A 17 man breakaway was chased hard all over the mountainside in stage 8 seeing just 3 of them manage to hang on and beat the pack. Congrats to winner Chris Sorenson who did an epic solo climb up Monte Terminillo  esp considering he broke his collarbone only six weeks ago stealthkiwi2010-05-17 13:46:11

In yesterdays stage 10 if there were any doubts about who the on-form sprinter is at this year's Giro d'Italia, Garmin-Transitions' Tyler Farrar went a long way to answering any questions with a sensational long sprint in Bitonto that netted the American his second stage win and consolidated his lead in the points classification. He was set up perfectly by teamate kiwi Julian Dean who managed to come third. congrats

Australian Brett Lancaster who I don't know anything about currently has the lead in the Tour of California after 2 stages and in fact there are 3 australians in the top 10 out of 125 riders. Oz is really thrashing us with their amount of professional cyclists these days as have loads in both tours

Awwwwwwwwww poor Lance Armstrong - NOT
well sorry for his crash but happy his chickens are coming home to roost with all the Landis drug allegations which you have to be stupid to disbelieve since they were teammates and good friends for years

cycling is way more physical than football. 3miles into stage 5 of the Tour of California a huge crash took out over half the peleton with medical attention being required for many so they had to eventually restart. Armstrong dropped out with a suspected broken elbow which later was cleared but you have to figure he was glad for the excuse to escape the media circus which is gonna follow him everywhere for the next few months

My fave australian rider Michael Rogers is now team leader and I've been picking him in my fantasy team of every tour'd'france for years so i'm thrilled he's finally living up to his potential honed being Richard Virenque's domestique for so many years. This Tour is now 10 riders down on 115. And bad me I just noticed we do have a kiwi in it Jeremy Vennell for Bissell currently 18th

In the Tour'd'Giro yesterday it showed what a complicated race it is with attack after attack with only 14km to go. A few of the big names took advantage of the hill finish and powered off leaving the peleton and these gave the main GD potentials of Vironique, Basso and Nibali some extra lead time for down the track. Aussie Richie Port is still no 1 on the GC. Hendersen is 78th and Dean 143rd with 169 riders left from the 198 who started

for those who think the kiwis are doing badly (lol if anyone reads this as I notice my cake thread had had almost as many views which says a lot about YFites interests) well neither are considered contenders on the really big mtn stages and Dean is always more going for points and to help his leader
stealthkiwi2010-05-21 19:38:04

New Zealand road cyclists Julian Dean and Greg Henderson underlined their world class sprinting status with top-four finishes on the 18th stage of the Giro d'Italia a cpl of days ago

The two New Zealanders took advantage of the final flat stage of the tour, with Dean second and Henderson fourth, with both trailing German star Andre Greipel across the line at Brescia.

It was Dean's second podium finish on the Italian classic, following his third placing on stage three when he led teammate Tyler Farrar to victory. American star Farrar has since withdrawn, leaving Dean as the chief sprinter for his Garmin team.

It was Henderson's fifth top-five placing on the tour and he looked like clocking a first win as his Team Sky took control of the start of the sprint 2km out and set to launch the Dunedin rider. However, at the moment the final Team Sky leadout rider pulled off, Greipel jumped from behind Henderson's wheel and took the lead. Dean followed Greipel while Henderson chased hard but the German's raw speed saw him cross the line with room to spare while Henderon was pipped for third by Italian Tiziano Dall'Antonia.

There is just the 15km time trial left in the Giro with Hendersen starting that in 88th position. Dean dropped out on the final alp stage so is out of the Giro now along with another 55riders who dropped out along the way to the final 21st stage

Teak Sky got their special invite to attend the Tour'd'france starting on July 3rd in Rotterdam. There will be 22 teams all up but kiwi Greg Hendersen hasn't been picked for Sky this time round so will sadly sit the tour out

Tour'd'france starts tomorrow morning with the first stage being a prologue in Rotterdam. coverage on sky sports at 4am so easy watch straight after the germany game

the alp/mountain stages (where most of the excitement happens) are on sky sports
sun 11/7 10.30pm - 3.50am
tue 13/7 9.30pm - 4am
sun 18/7 11.40pm - 3.30am
mon 19/7 12.30am -3.40am
tue 20/7 9.30pm - 4am
thu 22/7 10.10pm - 3.40am
time trial is sat 24/7 12.30am - 3.30am
final into Paris is sun 25/7 12.30am - 4.15am

There are 22 teams of 9 riders ea being 198 starters
We have Julian Dean riding for Garmin as our only entry. Australia has 11 riders with two of them being strong contenders - Michael Rogers yay & Cadel Evans boo

anyway I'm gunning for Contador to win

I'm gonna go see some of this live. Should be brilliant. Can't wait.

Did the'Great Tour of the Tip Track' for first time yesterday.

Rather than king of the mountains I was king of the knackered. The buggers sweeping past me without breaking sweat just rubbed it in more.

Views of Kaikouras and run down to red rocks all worth it though.

I was watching the Tour about 6 or 7 yrs ago and Jon Bridges (of Ice TV) was doing the pre-commentary before they switched to the awesome Phil Leggat. & at the time I was living in Khandallah and Bridges was saying how he'd cycled one of the alp stages the week before and the lead in before the main incline was like cycling up Onslow Rd frm bottom to top and I really felt stink as the riders were pumping up it at an average faster than I can on on a flat with a tail wind

and SH I'm mega jealous. standing on the side of L'Alpe d'Huez or Mont Ventoux for a stage is high on my bucket list
stealthkiwi2010-07-04 21:12:38

man cyclists are tough. Mathias Frank and Manuel Cardoso  both broke bones in their prologue stage but completed only to not start Stage 1. Just as well as it was one of the most crash strewn stages ever. Aussie Adam Hansen was involved in a crash 50km in and contuied to ride another 170km with a broken collarbone even helping set up his leader - he won't be starting Stage 2 as is now in hospital.

beyond tough...

Stage three saw even more crashes and broken bones and another strong rider Franck Schleck ended up in hospital and out of the tour. The paves' were exicting as the organisers had hoped but the majority of the peleton is now riding with scrapes and bruises

Stage 6 tonight on sky sports 1 at 11pm sees the start of the mountains with a medium undulating stage. tomorrow is a killer with two catergory one climbs (the steepest possible) with one being the finish line. expect to see a few sprinters not even start and quite a few are expected to drop out as the peleton is carrying the most cuts and bruises ever. especially major kudos have to go to Tyler Farrar who has ridden the last 3 stages with a broken wrist and he's even trying to fight for the sprint points

Fabian Cancellera still has yellow and might have it by the end of tonight but will def lose it tomorrow

Scrapping cyclists !

lol yeah I saw that. It's a bit girly to hit someone with your bike wheel