Van Garderen Wins Amgen Tour, and Peter Sagan, the Lean Green Machine, Wins Stage 8 Santa Rosa, CA., May 19, 2013. By Jen Benepe The boy from Colorado, Tejay van Garderen sealed his first major stage race win at the Amgen Tour of California, which ended today in Santa Rosa, CA after traveling over...
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By Jim Friebert — May 15, 2013–California Edited by Jen Benepe With his Cannondale team timing their sprint train to perfection, Slovakia’s Peter Sagan delivered his first win at the big California race in stage 3 Tuesday. He was just ahead of Mick Matthews (Orica Greenedge) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda) who was third. Sagan...
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By Jim Freiberg. Photos, John E. Chico.  Editor Jen Benepe. All rights reserved.  The first two days of America’s greatest bike race practically roasted the riders, and the crowds that came to watch them too. Checking every thermometer in the area on Sunday, the temperature on the first day of the Amgen Tour of California...
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Spaniard Luis Leon Sanchez clinched the 14th stage of Tour today alone, after riding away from four other riders. It was a triumph for the Euskaltel-Euskadi rider who suffered in this Tour after injuring his wrist in a crash in the first week. “From the start of the Tour, I have never given up...
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By Jen Benepe, July 14, 2012 Andre Greipel. took advatange of a split in the peloton to push his way to the front in a final sprint by the Mediterranean Sea. Greipel’s Lotto-Belisol team was there to help him out in the lead out, and behind them in a group separated by climbing and...
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By Jen Benepe, July 9, 2012 With the small difference between the top riders in the Tour, could the Yellow Jersey change hands today? There is only a small gap–10 seconds- between Bradley Wiggins, the leader, and runner up for the podium and defending 2011 Tour winner, Cadel Evans. But Wiggins performed better in...
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German rider Andre Greipel clinched the fifth stage of the Tour de France, this time in a straight match against his arch rival and former teammate, Mark Cavendish. It was an exciting finish to a mostly flat stage where the biggest news of the day went on behind the scenes. That news concerned allegations...
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With injuries he sustained to his hand yesterday, there was some question at the beginning of stage 5 whether Team Sky’s Mark Cavendish would be up to a full scale sprint. Well, at least he answered part of that question, with his sprint win at the intermediate point in Breteuil where he won handily...
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This flat 214.5 km stage from Abbeville to Rouen promises to be a strictly sprinter’s stage, even if there is a breakaway off the front. Predictably a break consisting of three riders, Yukiya Arashiro (EUC) one of two Japanese riders to ever finish the Tour, David Moncoutie of France and the Cofidis Team, and...
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By Jen Benepe, July 3, 2012 A tumultous race today over flats followed by multiple crashes and a 4-hill punch in the final 16 km, delivered once again Peter Sagan, first to the finish line. It was the second win in three days for the 22-year-old boy wonder. “This is the new Eddy Merykx...
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By Jen Benepe, July 3, 2012 Cavendish Scolds “Kamikaze Kenny” Wearing the Sky Team’s Yellow helmet, Mark Cavendish handily won the intermediate sprint at Senlecques, but not after being boxed out of the run up to the line by Kenny Van Hummel and Peter Sagan. Not a problem for the fastest man on earth:...
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Stage three is guaranteed to have a breakaway from the start, with a question mark for the winning rider. One reason, though the first half of the 197 km stage that passes onto French soil is mostly flat, at 95 km from the start, the climbing begins. Then there are a series of category...
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In characteristic missile fashion Mark Cavendish won the final sprint for his 21st Tour de France victory, and his first stage for 2012. The Manx Missile answered all questions about who could win a freelance sprint, and in delicious irony, used the wheel of his previous teammate Andre Greipel to come across the line...
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Sagan Wins Stage 1: Cancellara Still in Yellow By Jen Benepe, July 1, 2012 A 22-year-old rookie Peter Sagan racing his first Tour de France challenged the Swiss time trial champion to the line in Saraing, Belgium, clinching his first stage win at the big race. It was strong showing for the Slovak who...
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