My Blog: Saxo Bank team for the Tour,news about Frank and main results of the riders who are riding the TdF for SB:

This will probably be my last post for this month,since I'm leaving tomorrow to go on holiday and I'm coming back on the 5th of July.Yes,I know that the Tour starts on the 4th of July and that I'll lose the first two stages of the race,but going to the sea on holiday is always nice,isn't it?

Anyway,my holiday involves the fact that I won't be covering all the pre-Tour stuff and the first 2 stages,but that's not a tragedy: there are lots of other blogs where you can read about this.

Btw I can't go away without telling you the last news about Saxo Bank,can I?

So,the team for TdF will be formed by Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck, Fabian Cancellara, Stuart O'Grady, Jens Voigt, Nicki Sørensen, Chris Anker Sørensen, Gustav Larsson and Kurt-Asle Arvesen.Unfortunately for fangirls,Model Matti Breschel is not included in the team but,as you can see,Frank will race in spite of his knee injury.I've found some news about it on Cyclingnews and it seems that Frank's knee problem dates back to the crash in Amstel Gold Race.The pain was the reason for which the Luxembourgian rider didn't take part in yesterday's TT at TdS.

"Fränk has some problems with his left knee, but nothing that should jeopardize his start at the Tour," Saxo Bank spokesman Brian Nygaard said.

After the Crans-Montana stage (and his retire from the race) Frank said:“It hurt,even though it was a lot better than the day before.I still can't say that it is 100 per cent,but I sure hope that I can ride without pain in the coming days.The decision to pull out was made after consulting the team management.This was just a precautionary measure, I simply don't want to take any unnecessary risk."
Frank is next scheduled to ride the national TT championship on Thursday and to defend his national road title on Sunday.

Let's hope for him that his Tour will be at least as good as last year's one.In fact,as you may remember,last year he wore the yellow jersey for some days and arrived 6th in the GC (5th if you don't consider Kohl).In 2006 instead he won the Alpe d'Huez stage.Between Frank's other main results there are the victories of Amstel Gold Race 2006,Giro d'Emilia 2007,one stage at TdS in 2007,one stage at Tour of California 2009,one stage and the overall classification at last month's TdL.He also won the National road race title twice and also arrived 3rd once in the Lombardy Tour and twice in the Liege.He also arrived 2nd in 2008 Amstel Gold Race and in 2009 Paris-Nice overall classification.He arrived 4th in the 2007 World Championship as well,even if third was Stefan Schumacher,so I think it can be said that Frank actually came 3rd in that race.

Little bro' Andy last year arrived 12th in the TdF final GC (11th if you don't consider Kohl's 3rd place) but got bonked during Hautacam's stage.This year he'll run his second Tour and he's supposed to be Contador's main adversaire.As you probably remember,he arrived 2nd at the Giro d'Italia 2007,won this year's Liege,won the TT national championship twice and the young rider classification in the 2 Grand Tours he's run until now.This year he won a stage in TdL and arrived 2nd in Fleche Wallonne behind Rebellin.Between his other good results there are also the 4th place in 2007 Giro di Lombardia,the 4th one at last year Olympic Riad Race (Rebellin,who came 2nd,was then found positive to an anti-doping control) and the 4th one in last year's Liege.Regarding the other members of the SB team,Fabian Cancellara has just won the TdS,was 3rd at the Olympic road race last year,won the TT Olympic title,one Paris-Roubaix,one Milan-Sanremo,3 stages at Le Tour,some World TT championships and wore the yellow jersey for about 9 days during his career.Last year he didn't win any stage,but you must consider that Stefan Schumacher (who defeated him in the last TT of the race) was then found positive at the anti-doping.And even if he didn't win any stage,Fab Fab raced a great Tour in 2008,helping the team leaders (Andy,Frank and Sastre) during all the mountain stages.Oh and,talking about Cancellara:there's a little village in Basilicata that is called "Cancellara".And Fabian's father actually comes from Basilicata...
Stuart O'Grady is another great rider.He entered the SB team at the end of the year 2005 and in his career he's won 2 stages at Le Tour (plus one TTT) and one Paris-Roubaix.He used to be a track cyclist and he achieved a lot of good results in that discipline,for example he won the gold medal in Men's Madison at the 2004 Olympic Games (that he raced with Graeme Brown).He also wore the yellow jersey at the Tour in 1998 and in 2001.Although last year he broke a collarbone during the Giro he managed to run the TdF and did a very good job as a helper during the mountain stages.This year he had a bad fall in Milan-Sanremo,but now he's back and seems ready to fight in the Tour.Jens Voigt doesn't need any presentation.I think you just have to say that in one German village people decided to dedicate him a street if you want to make someone understand how great this rider is.He became pro when he was 26 year-old,but he achieved some very good results in his career.For example,he wore the yellow jersey at the Tour in 2001 and in 2006,won the Criterium International for 5 times (5!) and the Deutschland Tour for 2 times.Then he also won 2 stages at the TdF,1 stage at the Giro,1 Tour of Poland and he also arrived 2nd in a Liege.Last year he worked very well for the team in the TdF,which he rode after a good Giro in which he achieved his first victory in the corsa rosa.Nicki Sorensen has been riding for team SB since 2001.He's a Dane rider and he started his cycling career when he was 19 year old.He's a very good helper but he's never won any stage at the Tour.Instead,he's won a stage at the Vuelta (see photo).Last year he became national road champion.Chris-Anker Sorensen (which is not the same person as Nicki Sorensen) is racing the Tour for the first time in his life this year but has already ridden the Vuelta in 2007 and the Giro in 2008. He was 28th in 2008 Giro's GC and 19th in the Vuelta's one.He turned pro with Saxo Bank in 2007,lives in Luxembourg and,if somebody hasn't suspected it yet,he's one of my 3 favourite riders.He's won 3 races in his pro career: the TTT at the Poland Tour in 2007,the stage of La Toussuire at last year's Dauphine Libéré and the Kitzbuehel stage at last year Tour of Osterreich (where he even wore the leader jersey for one day and was finally 4th in the GC).He also came in 12th in the Olympic Road Race and in 13th at the Mendrisio World Championship.
Kurt-Asle Arvesen is a Norwegian rider who has been racing for Saxo Bank for the last 5 years. He's been the U23 Road World Champion in 1997,he's been 3 times road race national champion and 2 times TT national champion.He's achievced lots of good victories in his career,for example he's won 2 stages at the Giro and 1 stage at last year Tour.Then he's won the Ster Elektro-Tour once and the Denmark Rundt twice.He also came in 2nd at the 2006 Paris-Tours.
Gustav Larsson is a Swedish rider who's been racing with Saxo Bank since last year.He was born in 1980 and is a very good time trialist.He's been Swedish national TT champion twice and last year he arrived 2nd in the TT Olympic race in Beijing.
So,here are the Saxo Bank riders for this year Tour.I didn't include all the results of the riders but just the main ones and I hope I didn't forget anything of important and that I didn't make any mistake.Good luck to all the riders who are going to race the Tour and let's hope that Fab Fab wins the Monaco's prologue and that Saxo Bank riders will do well in all the other stages.Hear you again on the 5th of July! :)