Graeme Brown wins again in Vuelta Murcia

Good to see Graeme Brown has sorted out his bike problems, or handling issues or whatever they were - you may recall him pulling his foot/getting baulked/breaking something in the finale of the Tour Down Under. He is obviously flying right now... and Rabo teammate Menchov won overall.

Nice result for Graeme Brown at Vuelta Murcia

Seems like yesterday Brownie was the guy we all loved to hate, careening between riders in the sprint... now he's an old hand, almost a steadying influence... almost. Anyway, a nice stage win, beating an NZer in the process ;-)

Stage 1 - March 4: San Pedro del Pinatar - Lorca, 192.3km
Results 1 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank 5.06.37 (37.63 km/h)
2 Greg Henderson (NZl) Team Columbia - High Road
3 Rubén Pérez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
4 Mathew Goss (Aus) Team Saxo Bank
5 Tom Leezer (Ned) Rabobank
6 Luca Paolini (Ita) Acqua e Sapone
7 Mathieu Drujon (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne
8 Luis Pasamontes (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
9 David Herrero (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia
10 David Calatayud (Spa) Spanish National Team

Giro 2008: nice one for Cavendish

A good team result for High Road: Timing his final move perfectly and easily over-taking Daniele Bennati, Mark Cavendish thundered to his first ever Grand Tour stage victory today in Catanzaro Lungomare.

Not so good for Rabo: Graeme Brown, the Aussie Rabobank sprinter was feeling the effects of yeterday's fall. He finished 149th, 6 minutes and 39 seconds back, but said he hopes to recover. "My knee is pretty sore but I struggled though it," he stated. "I hope it will be okay in a few days. Today was pretty sore, it is pretty sore now."

No luck for the Aussies this year, not so far anyway, although McEwen is edging closer with a 7th today. And Matt Lloyd is still in touch on GC, just 1:19 back from Pellizotti. Unless a big escape takes place things look like staying as-is for now. Di Luca is also looking good, but there are plenty of hopefuls and we haven't seen what Soler can do yet.

Brown wins and leads in Murcia

If you can recall those wild days of the Commonwealth Bank Classic you may recall Brownie taking enthusiastic liberties in the sprint. Well he's a seasoned European campaigner now... Rabobank sprinter Graeme Brown took his second of this season in the opening stage of the Tour of Murcia on Tuesday. The 28-year-old Australian easily bested Euskaltel-Euskadi fast man Koldo Fernández and 22-year-old Spaniard Aitor Perez (Extremadura-Gruppo Gallardo) on the 197.3 kilometre stage from San Pedro del Pinatar to Lorca. By taking the first stage, he also donned the leader's jersey.

Rabobank team manager Frans Maassen was pleased with the team's win after Brown and team-mate Oscar Freire botched the finale of the Clasica de Almeria on Sunday and were denied victory by CSC's JJ Haedo. "It is a nice revenge for Sunday," said Maassen, who also was impressed with Brown's finish on a tough stage. "The course was not as difficult as indicated by the course profile, but it was still extremely tricky. Graeme would not have been able to do this two years ago. Now he knows how to ride up a hill and he is also a master in riding in echelons, which was very useful today because of the hard winds."

Both Valverde and Contador are in this race, BTW. So expect to see them stay close to the lead.

Brown gets a win in Poland

Graeme Brown has taken a stage and the lead on GC at the Tour of Poland: Australian Graeme Brown (Rabobank) won the second stage of the Tour de Pologne by winning a traditional sprint on the streets of Olsztyn. He defeated Belgian Wouter Weylandt from Quick Step and Frenchman Said Haddou from Bouygues Telecom. (Cyclingnews.com)

Hayman and Brown best of the Rabos at Denmark Tour

Matt Hayman and Graeme Brown concluded a reasonably good Tour of Denmark for Rabobank, although if Brownie could consistently ride a straight line it would be oh so much better, eh?

Sprinting in straight lines - Tour of Denmark

Yes, I hate the 'fast switchers' too. One moment they are here, now they are there, searching for that elusive best wheel or open space. I understand it, I've probably done it. I've crossed wheels with one and came down hard. But gee Graeme Brown cops a few too many disquals over this, doesn't he? Is he targeted as a bad boy? He's had that reputation, sure, and he'd agree that sometimes it's a fair cop, but... so many others switch lines, too. I guess the test is 'was it dangerous'. Oh well, at least Matt Hayman got fifth.

A wrap-up of results and stuff...

Well first of all an ibike update. Battery is still good at 280V, and I finally filled the data log memory. It takes about 2 weeks of 1-1.5 hour rides. Still works fine, although I suspect that it is adjusting the altitude that I set it at as the barometer rises... that's not a huge error. I should be starting my rides at about 60m above sea level but today my local hill had grown to 175m. Hmmm. I'm getting used to riding for power measurement and remembering to minimise my coasting. I find myself sprinting downhill just to lift my average... with has crept from about 160 up to just under 190W, but if you play with your data (it's a CSV file that you can dump into a spreadsheet program like Excel or OpenOffice) and remove the zeros the average is more like 220W now, up from just under 200. That makes sense as you are really interested in what power you can develop, not how much freewheeling and downhills you can conjure up on a ride...

On other matters, like Basso's suspension and Landis's ongoing laboratory problems, there's a nice summation of where we are at here at Bicycling mag. Cofidis pro Bradley Wiggins reckons it's good for cycling to have Basso suspended (BBC report here). Meanwhile CyclingPost tells us Cunego has won Trentino again. And PEZ on how to ride a Gran Fondo is a good fun read. And lastly don't miss the fun at the Rundfahrt... Graeme Brown is in 3rd overall and has got a 2nd and a 3rd so far. CyclingNews report here.