Fact: Kelly Benefits Strategies Pro Cycling’s Alex Candelario can flat out handle a bike.

The last stage of the recent 2010 Tour of Langkawi brought the bunch together for a final field sprint and ‘Cando was in the mix for another good finish until another rider decided to wipe an unsightly smudge off of his shoe with the edge of one (or several) of Alex’s rear spokes. Sure, it’s one of those flash ‘pro-only’ moves …

 
Alberto Contador (Team Astana, SRAM Red, Zipp) has won his second overall title at Paris-Nice. Alberto sealed the deal on the final stage by holding off attacks from Alejandro Valverde (2nd) and Luis Leon Sanchez (3rd) to win by 11 secs over his fellow countryman Valverde. Contador arriving in Nice in the yellow jersey on his Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL3 with SRAM Red and Zipp 202 wheels had plenty of time to salute his victory. With a stage win on the only hill top finish of the race to Mende, Alberto showed that …

Team Milram’s Linus Gerdemann (SRAM Red) has won Stage 1 of the 2010 Tirreno Adriatico and holds the leaders jersey. Braving freezing and wet conditions Linus was first to the finish after 148km to Rosignano Solvay. This is Linus’ 2nd win for the year and continues Team Milrams great form in 2010.

Stage Results

1
Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Team Milram
3:36:15
 

2
Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne
 
 

3
Matti Breschel (Den) Team Saxo Bank
 
 

4
Luca Paolini (Ita) Acqua & Sapone
 
 

5
Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) Francaise Des Jeux
 
 

Alberto Contador has put a week of cold, wind and crashes behind him to take Stage 4 of the 2010 Paris-Nice on SRAM Red. Alberto rode away from the opposition on the final climb to the finish of the 208km stage to Mende. The stage was once again run in freezing temperatures but the man from madrid was able to handled the weather better than anyone else and now holds the overall lead by 24 seconds.

Stage 4 Results

1
Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana
4:26:47
 

2
Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne
0:00:10
 

3
Samuel Sanchez (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi
 
 

4
Joaquim …

The Shack has a plan for the year, and racing the 5 stage, 30th Vuelta Ciclista A La Region De Murcia is an important milestone in that plan. We were fortunate to spend a couple of days with the team, checking in on riders getting used to new equipment and working with the techs to dial in new builds. Our visit culminated in a rare race car ride, pencilling split times for cycling legend & The Shack’s Director Sportif Viatcheslav Ekimov during Andreas Kloeden’s fine performance in the 22km Time Trial.

Luke muscles past for the win
Road Diaries regular Luke Roberts (Team Milram) has won stage 3 of the Vuelta de Murcia. Roberts won the Queen stage in a sprint ahead of a select group of 30 riders and sits now 2nd overall ahead of tomorrows 22km Time Trial.
Another SRAM Red rider Astana’s Josep Jufre (Spa) leads the Tour after 3 consistant performances so far. Nine riders share the same time as Jufre with a further 11 riders 5 sec behind including 7x Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong.
Result …

 
After two months of training camp in South Africa, where Jan raced the lions and chased white sharks he is ready for the 2010 season. Jan stopped by the SRAM Marketing office in Munich to plan out some fun activities with the SRAM team and take some fresh pictures for a new ad campaign. His focus on the swim/bike and run showed in the kicker challenge…he will have to come back for a kicker training camp, after the season.

Jan enjoying a Frodissimo …

“Just wave, folks”

Team United Health Care rider and long time saluter Rory Sutherland, gives us a tip we can all put to use while out pedaling our bikes.

Alberto warming up in the Algarve
Two time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador won the Tour of Algarve on Sunday after a 2nd place finish in the final 17km time trial stage. Alberto’s winner was all the more special considering his Specialized shiv TT bike was banned two days before the final Algarve stage. The Team Astana mechanics, Specialized, SRAM and Zipp all with personnel on site, scrambled to get Alberto on a legal bike in time to defend his lead in the TT. In the end Alberto showed …

Contador finishes 2nd in the final day’s time trial, but 1st overall at Tour of the Algarve (photo: Watson)

Alberto Contador (Astana) has again proven himself a champion that can handle turmoil. Hours before Sunday’s final time trial at Portugal’s Tour of the Algarve, Contador’s RED and Zipp equipped Specialized SHIV time trial bicycle was banned by the UCI. Racing on an unfamiliar TT machine, Contador finished second on the stage behind fellow countryman, and primary challenger, Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne).

The final day of the SRAM Apex launch was Thursday and here are some photos from the day’s events. The ride started early morning as editors began to depart in the early afternoon. The sixteen editors came from Europe and US and the online coverage followed almost immediately on many of the World’s largest websites posted stories sameday, including cyclingnews.com (bikeradar.com), roadcyclingUK.com, and bicycling.com.

Thanks to all those who attended for a great few days of riding on the roads of Mallorca!