Stuart Shaw leading Aussie at Tour of Korea

Drapac Porsche rider Stuart Shaw is just 35secs back from the lead on GC in the Tour of Korea... that's gotta be a good sign, surely, with APEC hosted in Australia right now? Maybe, maybe not.

Vuelta a Espana 2007 Stage 5: Oscar takes advantage

With no McEwen around to spoil the party, Oscar Freire is clearly taking advantage. Petacchi was well out of it, as was Davis, minutes behind. Strangely, Brad McGee was last in... wassup, Brad? Bennati and Bettini picked up 2nd and 3rd.

Vuelta a Espana 2007 Stage 4: Efimkin takes a minute or 2

Look what happens when the road goes up: Efimkin puts a minute into Menchov and 2 minutes into Evans. Wow. Of course there was a small trick to it - he escaped with the right bunch and the others had to play catchup. Still, he had the power to get away and stay away...

Vuelta a Espana 2007 Stage 3: Bettini swerves to victory

Nothing like pinning a faster rider against the fence, is there? Not as badly as he once did to Baden Cooke, however there was a deviation in line... but that's sprinting, isn't it? Bettini first, Freire 2nd and still in gold. Davis remains consistent. Evans remains close on GC.

Vuelta a Espana 2007 Stage 2: Oscar the cat pounces

Chalk a grand tour stage win up for Oscar Freire, and a golden fleece as well. It's his first. It's nice to see Freire take both the win and the lead overall. He is a rider who seems to struggle at times then suddenly crop up and take the unexpected, like his surprising first world road championship - let alone his 2nd! More here at CN.

Vuelta a Espana 2007 stage 1: Bennati takes sprinter's stage

Italian ace Bennati takes the first prize of this last Grand Tour of 2007, besting Spaniard Freire, Italian Petacchi, Aussie Davis and Belgian Boonen... nice to see so many sprinters from so many countries in the mix. Bennati of course won teh last stage of Le Tour, so he's very much picking up where he left off. CN report here.

3rd for Sulzberger in Tour of Ireland

Good result for Tasmanian Wes Sulzberger against a class field. More here from Cyclingresults.net.

Aussie 1-2 in Olympic test TT

What does it mean? Not a lot. Evans was 2nd in the test RR and now Evans and Rogers are 1 and 2 in the test TT. Against good but not the best competition. As a result it shows little but as a test of how Beijing will cope with the road cycling events it's a step forward. The Aussies weer there to test the facilities and scope the course, so it's job done. It at least means they know the course more intimately than the likely top-flight competition.

CN reports here on the 23km TT.

Speculation and all that: Leaping Levi to Lotto?

Well there are plenty of good riders up for grabs, and they may be prepared to bargain... but why would Predictor-Lotto suddenly have the wherewithal to grab a rider of Levi's quality? Is it for real? If so, it makes some sense, in that old 1-2 fashion. Can they afford 3 stars? Will they let someone go? Hmmm.

From CN: Belgium-based squad Predictor-Lotto is interested in having the signature of American Levi Leipheimer, third in the recent edition of the Tour de France. The 33 year-old is looking for a new team after it was announced that current team Discovery Channel will be folding its operations at the end of 2007.

Aussie ProTour pipedream?

There's been talk but little action. Now we see Yahoo and CN are reporting some pretty weak but hyped news, though: "Roamfree.com has shed some light on its ProTour intensions, after announcing earlier this week it would throw $20 million dollars behind an Australian ProTour team. The Australian company, owned by former Australian Rules footballer turned businessmen Tony Smith, has revealed its eight figure pledge will be made over a period of five years, meaning another estimated $15 million in additional funding is required to make the plan viable."

Yawn.

Roamfree is an online accommodation service, so we can see the links here. An Aussie ProTour team would certainly need to roam around a bit. And the travel links nicely into tourism and government support. But do we need this? Why an Aussie team? What's wrong with just a Aussie corporate ProTour team of mixed nationality? Why not beef up one of the existing Aussie-based Continental pro teams? I'm all for giving Australians a chance to race as pro cyclists, and I like the idea of improving the image of cycling in Australia, but I really think that national teams are a side issue and a distraction.

National squads are a convenient label that we have become used to, especially at the Olympics, but they attract as much flag-waving-nutter hypocrisy as genuine support. It could become just another political lever for a government. A lever that is as easy to push to "off" as it is to "on". Instead let's distance ourselves from politics and nationalism and ground our professional cycling teams on rock, not shifting sands. If there is some bedrock under this suggestion, let's see that commitment.

Joe Lewis gets gastro, wins 100 Euros

From Cyclingresults.net, an excellent read from Joe Lewis. It's a gripping tale of gastro followed by some smart attacking after the prime to win the race. This is not an Aussie crit.

Good result for Meadley in HKS Tour

I forgot to mention that Jelly Belly's James Meadley picked up a win in the Hong Kong-Shanghai Tour...

A win for Gilmore, McGee still up there

Speedy Gilmore had another win... and Brad's obviously flying at the moment. It was Zabel's 13th D-Tour win and Voigt retained yellow, btw.

McGee best Aussie in D-Tour stage 1

Wondering where Brad went? Well here he is, 10secs back in stage 1 of the D-Tour.

Aussies dominate Junior Track Worlds

The Aussie juniors seem to be lighting up the track...from CN: The Australian team added another two gold and two silver medals to their collection overnight to finish on top of the medal table in the track events at the Junior World Championships being raced at altitude in Aquascalientes, Mexico. The latest victories came in the women's points race and the men's 1km time trial with Australia claiming silver in the Madison and women's keirin to give the Australians a final event tally of seven gold, three silver and two bronze medals.

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?

Ouch. Manion down

CN reports Caleb took a fall... and is out with "the usual".

Charlotte Criterium crash adds to Toyota-United injury woes. A crash that took out Caleb Manion less than 15 miles from the finish of Saturday night's Presbyterian Hospital Invitational Criterium dashed the hopes of the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team. The 26-year-old Australian suffered a fractured right clavicle (collar bone) and will miss the remainder of the season.

McPartland leads Tour de Alsace

As the heading says, David McPartland has won the 2nd stage and leads overall.

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.

2007 Criterium De Bethel

Ahhh, helmet cam... every crit should be neutralised in the middle 8 like this one was...