Team Sky announce Tour de France squad
Team Sky have revealed the names of the eight riders charged with guiding Chris Froome towards a successful defence of his Tour title. As expected there is no place for 2012 champion Bradley Wiggins, with the full squad consisting of Chris Froome, Richie Porte, Geraint Thomas, Bernard Eisel, Mikel Nieve, David Lopez, Vasil Kiriyenka, Xabier Zandio, and Danny Pate.
The squad has been slightly weakened by injuries to Ian Stannard, Sergio Henao, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Peter Kennaugh, but the team can still count on plenty of Tour experience, with seven of the nine riders having been a part of Sky’s victories in the previous two editions of the race.
Speaking to the Team Sky website, team principal Dave Brailsford said: "We know how hard it is to win this race and that it takes a totally focused and carefully constructed team, with the right blend of riders, to give us the best chance of victory. Each rider has been selected to play a specific role which will involve total sacrifice and commitment to the team’s ambition of reaching the Champs-Élysées in yellow.”
On the non-selection of Bradley Wiggins, Brailsford argued that the team had “stuck to a performance-first philosophy which has bought us considerable success, firstly at British Cycling and then with Team Sky, for more than a decade. It has been a golden decade for cycling. Bradley Wiggins lies at the heart of a lot of that success, and although he has not been selected for this race he is still a key member of Team Sky and a great champion.”
National Time Trial Championships
A new collection of national time trial champions have been crowned as riders across the globe battle it out for the right to wear their nation’s jersey for the next twelve months.
In Great Britain, reigning champion Alex Dowsett (Movistar) was pushed onto the last step of the podium by the Sky duo of Wiggins and Thomas, with the former capturing his third national title. Meanwhile the women’s event was won by Emma Pooley (Lotto-Belisol).
Across the channel Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling) and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Rabobank-Liv) took the French titles, while Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) showed his form ahead of the Tour de France in the Spanish championships, as his team dominated the event taking the top six places.
Both Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) and Bob Jungels (Trek Factory Racing) lost their national titles to teammates, with world road race champion Costa defeated by Nelson Oliveira in Portugal, while Laurent Didier got the better of Jungels by a mere five seconds in Luxembourg.
In Eastern Europe titles were won by Ramunas Navardauskus (Garmin-Sharp) in Lithuania, Jan Barta (NetApp-Endura) in the Czech Republic, Gatis Smukulis (Katusha) in Latvia, and Anton Vorobyev (Katusha) in Russia.
And finally special mention must go to Svein Tuft (Orica-Greenedge) who won his ninth maple leaf jersey as he took the honours at the Canadian championships.
Hushovd to retire at end of season
Former world champion Thor Hushovd (BMC Racing) has announced that he will call time on his racing career after this year’s world championships in Ponferrada, Spain. The 36-year-old Norwegian told a specially convened news conference that he has been suffering from a long-term virus, but was philosophical what the future might hold.
“On March 12, 2012, I woke up with high fever. I lay in bed for two and a half days. That's when my nightmare began.”
“I've been knocked out by a virus that is a mononucleosis virus. I have pushed myself with the virus in the body. I've had some flashes which made me want to ride, but I've been too far down physically and mentally,”
“Cycling is not the most important thing in life. Not everything in life you can plan and calculate. This decision I took very long ago.”
Hushovd has spent fourteen years as a professional rider, taking sixteen Grand Tour stages plus the green jersey at the Tour de France in 2005 and 2009. Notable one-day successes have come in Gent-Wevelgem and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, but the highlight of his career was surely victory in the 2010 World Championships in Geelong.
The BMC rider will spend the rest of the season racing the tours of Austria, Wallonia, and Poland, as well as the Artic Race of Norway, before bringing down the curtain at the world championships in September.
Larsson out for three months
IAM Cycling’s Gustav Larsson has been ruled out for at least three months after suffering a bad crash on a training ride. The 33-year-old broke several vertebrae in the crash shortly before his attempt to capture a seventh Swedish time trial title.
Larsson had been in good form of late, taking fourth in the Tour of Norway and second in a stage of the Criterium du Dauphiné. However the Swede had not made the IAM’s nine-man team for the Tour de France.