13 Years in the Making

Busche, Bausch featured on cereal box

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/busche-bausch-featured-on-cereal-box)

For the first time since Lance Armstrong appeared a Wheaties box in 1999, the Post brand breakfast cereal has a cycling-themed box, thanks to USA Cycling. Appearing on the front cover of upcoming Grape-Nuts boxes is a small image of US Pro champion Matthew Busche, and on the back is Dotsie Bausch of the women's team pursuit squad and the elite men's sprint finish of the 2011 UCI world championships.

More than 7.5 million boxes will be produced and will appear on store shelves at the end of April ahead of the USA's National Bike Month in May.

USA Cycling partnered with Post to create the design, which offers tips for the general public on getting started in cycling, training and how to find a club.

Grape-Nuts is a sponsor of USA Cycling for 2012, and had a presence at the national championship events in the past year. The box was another aspect of the marketing, according to USA Cycling President and CEO Steve Johnson. "This will add to the ever increasing high profile of cycling in the US and sends a message of health and wellness that is associated with both Grape-Nuts and cycling."

Busche said he was happy to be a part of the campaign. "I hope that together we can promote USA Cycling and increase interest in the sport of cycling throughout the U.S. and the world," he said.

2011 Tour de France, Stage 3

Stage 3 is classified as a flat stage, although it does have one category 4 climb in it. It starts in Olonne-sur-Mer and ends 198km later in Redon.

Within the first kilometers a 5-man breakaway formed. Niki Terpstra (Quick Step), José Ivan Gutierrez (Movistar), Maxime Bouet (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Mickael Delage (FDJ) and Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskatel-Euskadi) already had 45 seconds at the 3km mark. The breakaway had a maximum advantage of 8 minutes at 84km. The best-placed rider in the attack was Jose Ivan Gutierrez; as of this morning he was in 59th place with only 1:09 down on the Yellow Jersey.

During the race, Charteau was allowed to leave the peloton and greet his family at the roadside



The intermediate sprint had the following results: Delage (20 points), Gutierrez (17), Terpstra (15), Moreno (13), and Bouet (11). When the peloton crossed it minutes later, more points were handed out: Cavendish (10), Galimzyanov (9), Rojas (8), Boonen (7), Gilbert (6), Duque (5), Hushovd (4), Steegmans (3), Bozic (2), Feillu (1).  Note: Cavendish and Hushovd ended up being disqualified from the points in the intermediate sprint. Hushovd lost his line and Cavendish used his head to push Hushovd.

The 1 KOM point today was taken by Delage without a contest by the rest of the breakway.

Three of the 5-man breakaway, Terpstra, Moreno and Bouet, were caught about 13km from the finish when HTC-Highroad really chasing them down. Delage and Gutierrez held on for 4 more kilometers before finally being caught. At 7.5km out, the pace of the peloton was reaching 70kph (43.5mph!!!).

However on America's Day of Independence, it is in fact an American who won. Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Cervelo pulled off a win by millimeters. As he crossed the finish line, he made a 'W' with his fingers to honor his friend and teammate Woulter Weylandt, the cyclist who died in the Giro d'Italia this year. This is the 2nd day in a row that Garmin-Cervelo won a stage.

Results of Stage 3:

1 Tyler Farrar 4:40:21
2 Romain Feillu
3 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil
4 Sébastien Hinault
5 Mark Cavendish
6 Thor Hushovd
7 Julian Dean
8 Borut Bozic
9 André Greipel
10 Jimmy Engoulvent

Fun Fact of the Day: Tyler Farrar is the only American to have won a stage in the Tour de France on the Fourth of July.

Favorite Pictures of the Day:

Thomas Voeckler signing in with his son

Ivan Basso after signing in

Brothers Andy (L) and Frank (R) Schleck riding in the Peloton

2011 Tour de France, Stage 2

Stage 2 consists of a Team Time Trial in a very flat, short stage; only 23 kilometers.

Teams will start 7 minutes apart, starting from last place in the current standings (all team member's times added up). There are two intermediate time checks and the final time of the riders is taken from the 5th man across the line.

The teams left the start gate in this order: Saxo Bank-SunGard, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Vacansoleil, AG2R-La Mondiale, Saur-Sojasun, Rabobank, FDJ, Liquigas-Cannondale, Garmin-Cervelo, Europcar, Quick Step, Movistar, Astana, Katusha, Team Sky, Lampre-ISD, Cofidis, RadioShack, HTC-Highroad, Leopard Trek, BMC, and Omega Pharma-Lotto.

Team Sky have a few different jerseys being worn by the riders. Both the National Champions for Norway (Hagen) and United Kingdom (Wiggins) are sporting their jerseys as well as Thomas, who is wearing the White Jersey

It was a nail-biting finish with BMC fighting for Evans until the very end. However, the stage was won by Garmin-Cervelo, who ended 4 seconds over BMC. Hushovd takes the Yellow Jersey from Gilbert. Hushovd is now 1 second ahead of Evans. Second place to fifth place were within one second of each other.

Stage 2, TTT Results:
1. Garmin-Cervelo 24:48
2. Sky 24:52
3. BMC 24.52
4. Leopard Trek 24.53
5. HTC-Highroad 24:53

Fun Fact of the Day: Thor Hushovd rode today with the mountain jersey. This is unusual for 2 reasons. First, Hushovd is a sprinter, meaning that he aims to be the best in the points category (Green Jersey). Second, he has no KOM points. Nobody has, besides Gilbert, but Gilbert can't wear 3 jerseys, so he gets the most prestige. Then it goes to the rider in second place (or third in this case): Gilbert in Yellow, Evans in Green, and Hushovd in KOM.



Note: I don't have as much free time during the week. I probably won't be able to post summaries until I get home from work. So look for them in late evening. I'll continue posting on Facebook and Twitter when they are ready to go. You can also subscribe to them (follow link on right-hand side toward the bottom). Thank you for reading. Please leave comments.

Blast From The Past III

There have been so many issues/articles posted on the web in the last 2 days that I wasn't sure if I was going to post this Blast From The Past or another one. But, then I remembered that I promised that I would post this one tonight. I will try to get to the other articles soon, but because of all the coverage I'd like to do for the Tour, it might not be feasible until late July/early August...so stay tuned...

Anyway, on to Blast From The Past III:

Do we really need an introduction here?

He is the only man who has ever won 7 Tour de France races...let alone in 7 consecutive seasons! He is...Lance Armstrong!

His #5 was in 2003 to tie Miguel Indurain, Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx and Jacques Anquetil.

Number 6 came in 2004.

Number 7 came in 2005. Armstrong retired after that, only to return in 2009 and place 3rd. Not bad when it was his teammate who came in first for the 2nd year in a row. Then, Alberto Contador repeated it again in 2010.

Will we have another "Lance Armstrong"? He sure looks like he is taking after his former teammate.

Fun Fact of the Day: (Off topic) How many of you hear about the JetBlue delays at JFK yesterday due to turtles on the runway?