Ben Day convincingly won today’s Stage 4 Time Trial with 1.01 separating him from second place and in the process taking both the Yellow jersey (overall leader) and White jersey (points classification).
Ben Day becomes the second only two time winner if Beauce’s 26 year history.
David Tanner has been in scintillating form in recent weeks and has delivered a strong win in Stage 2 of the Tour de Beauce.
Commenting on the team’s performance at the end of the week’s racing, Fly V Australia team owner Chris White said, “We have had a successful week, and all of our riders should be proud of their accomplishments at this week’s race. Coming in, we had two objectives – top 10 overall and a stage win. In what has been one of the toughest races in the world this year, we achieved one of these objectives, and narrowly missing the other with Ben Day going desperately close to taking the stage into Bakersfield after animating the race”.
White went on to say, “We have stepped up from where we were last year, and feel that our journey to Pro Tour status is on track. We are encouraged by where we are at, but highly motivated to keep raising the bar and pushing the envelope and moving forward”.
For the Fly V Australia team, today’s Stage 5 of the Amgen Tour of California was all about planning and executing. Covering 195 kilometers over a sinuous route from Visalia to Bakersfield, and taking in two categorized climbs and finishing with 2 laps of a punishing circuit that featured a tough 1.5 kilometer climb to the line, this was always going to be a stage where the cream rose to the top.
Fly V australia’s plan centered on getting Jay Thomson into an early break to help set the stage for Fly V australia’s fast men with good climbing legs. However just 5 kilometers into the stage in a fast tailwind section, a touch of wheels led to a massive crash which would have a big bearing on the race, the stage and the day’s plans. With the crash taking out Jay Thomson – not to mention Lance Armstrong, Stuart O’Grady and Heinrich Haussler – it was time to enact plan B.
Fly V Australia’s Jonathan Cantwell claimed a second top 5 performance at the Amgen Tour of California.
Stage 4 covered 195 kilometers over largely rolling terrain with a tough first up climb of the Category 1 climb of Sierra Road reached after 10 kilometers. The stage featured an early break that stayed way for the majority of the stage, however Fly V Australia’s plan for the day revolved around an expected sprint finish.
Fly V Australia’s Phil Zajicek finished a grueling stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California safely in the front group of favorites along side pre-race favourites; Levi Leiphiemer, Lance Armstrong, David Zabriskie, Michael Rogers and Peter Sagan.
Fly V Australia has announced the 8 main roster to race the Amgen Tour of California starting in Nevada City on Sunday 16 May. After a successful start to the year, which has netted 35 wins including the first three events of the NRC, with 10 of the fifteen riders contributing to the win tally, choosing 8 riders was a challenge.
Wattie Ink.'s own Joe Gambles of Australia, raced his way to an impressive 2nd place finish against a stacked field at the 28th annual, Avia Wildflower long course triathlon Saturday. Joe's time of 4:01:58 was just 2 minutes and 14 second off Terenzo Bozzone's course record win in 2006. Trek/K-Swiss teammate Micheal Raelert of Germany was the winner with a time of 3:55:57 making it a Team Trek/K-Swiss sweep.
Darren Lill has shown his climbing prowess to attack from the front group to ride to the finish solo and win the Monster stage. On ‘police’ duties Darren rode in the break today in defense of Phil’s GC position, but with 30 kilometers to go sensing that the break would not be caught and his fellow breakaway companions were faltering Darren seized the moment and attacked.
In keeping with the four previous days the weather created another layer of difficulty on top of the battle with the Gila Monster. Low temperatures combined with high winds and at times snow created a stage that befitted such a show down.
With 2,800 meters of vertical climbing and 170 kilometers in length the stage aptly named the ‘Monster’ will have a big say in who is crowned the worthy winner on the 2010 SRAM Tour of the Gila.
The General Classification of the 2010 race has a similar look and feel as the 2009 race with Levi Leipheimer and his teammate Lance Armstrong leading the charge with Fly V australia’s Phil Zajicek gunning for the podium. In 2010 the field is arguably deeper both in numbers and quality with added protagonists in the form of Garmin’s Zabriskie and Danielson staking their claim for the overall and podium honours.
David Tanner conquered the grueling Tombstone stage of La Vuelta de Bisbee that included the 1,800-metre Mule pass. In a day that team Fly V Australia were focused on supporting and protecting Darren’s overall lead, Tanner played the role of helper and winner with aplomb. Tanner was joined in the break by teammate Charles Dionne whilst they not only ‘policed’ the riders in the break but also positioned themselves to take out the stage win. Darren Lill was well supported by climbing sensations Phil Zajicek and Jai Crawford who were at the GC leaders side throughout the race.
The Speed Week criterium series is a seven race series commencing with the Terrapin Twilight race on 24 April and concluding with the Global BMW Sandy Springs Criterium on 2 May.
In his first major race since sustaining a serious wrist fracture in December last year Darren Lill has soled from the break of 7 to take stage 1 of the Tour de Bisbee.
Team Fly V Australia is racing the Tour de Bisbee to continue honing its stage racing performances ahead of the Amgen Tour of California. Bisbee has the benefits of altitude, is an excellent race and provides a springboard towards the Team’s major season goals.
The precarious sixth-tenths-of-a-second lead that Australian Ben Day took into the final day of the Redlands Bicycle Classic stood up for overall victory Sunday on a frenetic final stage.The Fly V Australia rider’s victory will go into the books as the first National Racing Calendar stage race win for Day and
the first for the second-year continental team that has ambitions to reach even higher levels in years to come. The win was also the squad’s 18th of the season and follows Day’s wire-to-wire overall title at last week’s San Dimas Stage Race.
The NRC is a collection of 26 races across America that encapsulates the multi disciplines of criteriums, time trials, oneday races and tours. Fly V Australia has started the 2010 NRC campaign well by winning the first two events on the 2010 race schedule to lead the individual classification (Ben Day) and be second behind Team Jelly Belly in the teams classification.
Ben Kersten racing alongside teammate Alessandro Bazzana have taken 1st and 3rd respectively at the Sunny King criterium, race 1 of Speed Week. Racing under lights in Anniston Alabama the race got off to a cracking start and by halfway a group of 20 (including both Kersten and Bazzana) had lapped the main bunch.
After 80k of pristine rolling country roads Bazzana broke clear of the peloton and was joined by Cesar Grajales (Bahati Foundation), and Matthew Crane (United Healthcare) with 20 kilometers to race. 5 kilometers later Crane succumbed to the pressure being applied by his breakaway companions and was dropped leaving Bazzana and Grajales to ‘two up’ to the finish.