Cycling 2014

I was wondering that too- I know the An Post guys do get a salary, even if it's pretty low.

Great win for Bennett- posted about it last night but it disappeared and couldn't face retyping it on the phone.

Brammier meanwhile has been in two more breakaways and has kept the mountains jersey after the queen stage- but it's tighter now. He has the sprint jersey as well, but haven't seen the full results from today yet. He's clearly going really well though.

Mr A and co, keep up the good work here. It is great to read about the exploits of our established and upcoming riders. Is Bennett as good as the hype suggests?

Found some video:



Spanish commentary, watch from about 17.20 minutes to capture the sprint. Very impressive stuff- Movistar had five guys there and still had a leadout man there when Bennett went. He was blocked slightly too but blasted past them and never looked like losing. Not the greatest sprinters in the final but still a super win.

Irish Times Report: http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/othe...pain-1.1710104

Originally Posted by Macy

Sam Bennett's win is being called his first pro win (even on the likes of cycling news not just general media). Are the An Post team not pro? I thought Continental level teams were pro?

There's 3 main levels of cycling team

World tour
Professional continental
Continental

Bennett has moved from the Continental An Post team to the Pro-continental NEt App Endura team so I assume that's what they mean

Continental teams can be professional, amateur or a mix of both. pro-Conti teams are all professionals

EDIT; bit of background here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...tinental_teams

Report on Brammeier's progress: http://www.stickybottle.com/races-re...ntains-leader/

Points jersey lost despite being on equal terms with holder, 1 point lead in KOM.

Originally Posted by Dodge

There's 3 main levels of cycling team

I get all that, I just thought An Post were a pro team. So I'm still going with they're wrong to say it's his first pro win

Brammeier down to fourth in the sprints classification, but extends lead to three points in mountains: http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/le-...tage-6/results

There are five cat fours left in the race, all early in stages. He'll be hoping breaks go and hoover up the points. Or even better, perhaps he'll attack again himself.

No change in KOM today fro Brammeier.

Meanwhile the the Sean Kelly Team are looking at stepping up a division, have registered in Ireland rather than Belgium and are generally employing English speaking riders. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime...medium=twitter

Sticky Bottle piece on Bennett: http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-n...ll-get-better/

His program is ride Tirreno Adriatico, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Gent Wevelgem and possibly Paris-Roubaix and he feels there's better form to come.

No change in KOM standing in Langkawi today- only 2 more cat 4s to come, both early in tomorrow's penultimate stage.

Interview with Jack Wilson: http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-n...-or-be-killed/

Booyah- Brammeier just needs to finish inside the time limit on the last stage to win the Mountains jersey after successfully defending his lead today. http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/le-...tage-9/results

Well done Brammeier - KOM jersey - what a start to the year!

Ryan Mullen interview: http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-n...-im-up-for-it/

Nothing in the way of excitement this weekend as Roche didn't feature prominently in the Strade Bianche and the SKT lads had a tough time in West Flanders.

Martyn Irvine meanwhile has begun his road season in Taiwan, Stephen Clancy is there also.

Big news for Irish Track cycling: http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-n...oor-velodrome/

Still a lot of hurdles to get over before it's a reality though.

Dan Martin Interview about Tirreno and beyond: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dan-...reno-adriatico

Bennett 4th at Stage 2 of Tirreno.

Result:

1 Matteo Pelucchi (Ita) IAM Cycling
2 Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ.fr
3 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Belisol
4 Sam Bennett (Irl) Team NetApp - Endura
5 Peter Sagan (Svk) Cannondale
6 Davide Appollonio (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale
7 Filippo Fortin (Ita) Bardiani-CSF
8 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre-Merida
9 Tony Hurel (Fra) Europcar
10 Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) MTN - Qhubeka

Netapp Team report: http://www.netapp-endura.com/en/news...up-of-the-day/

Sam Bennett finished 4th in today's stage in Tirreno!


Mr A raced me to this!

Roche and Martin today at Tirrenno Adriatico.

Just read Sean Kelly's book, Hunger. Very good, although so far it has been very expensive so I'd wait for the paperback.

Roche piece from Eurosport: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/...074709661.html This will be a regular thing it seems.