2010 in Sports - Cycling

Cycling

• March 20 Milan San Remo Oscar Freire wins first monument of the year over Tom Boonen in predicted sprint finish.
• April 4 Tour of Flanders Fabian Cancellara defeats home favourite Tom Boonen as 1 million people line the streets of Northern Belgium for the Unesco heritage race, famous for its culture, beautiful forests and brutal cobbled hills. Cancellara attacked first on the Molenberg with 44 km to go and Boonen was the only one who could follow. With 15 km to go Cancellara launched a powerful attack on the Muur-Kapelmuur using the last metres of the hill and descent to create a big gap. Once the gap was created, the world tt champion was always favourite and had time to celebrate.
• April 11 Paris–Roubaix Fabian Cancellara launched a surprising attack with over 45 km to go while Boonen was taking a drink behind. The Swiss, nicknamed Spartacus, showed incredible strength to stretch out the gap to over 4 minutes over the rest, before relaxing in the final kilometres to celebrate becoming one of the few people to achieve the Flanders Roubaix double in the same week.
• April 24 Liège–Bastogne–Liège Alexander Vinokourov came out victorious over Alexander Kolobnev with whom he worked to set up a 2 man finish. Vino attacked with 15 km to go, with many teams hesitant to bring him back, as drag Vinos teammate Alberto Contador, would then attack. With 9 km to go an elite group behind formed and home favourite Philippe Gilbert launched an all or nothing attack. Gilbert halved the 40 second deficit, but Vino and Kolobnev used their 2 man advantage to tire him out and ultimately contested the finish among themselves with Vino riding away to celebrate a successful comeback at the age of 36.
• May 8–30 Giro d'Italia Ivan Basso won what was considered to be one of the greatest Grand Tours of all time. With surpringly exciting stages in the first week, including crashes in Holland a ttt and a tough stage through the mud of Strade Bianchi, the race was blown apart on stage 12 when a group of 30 riders, including climbers David Arroyo and Carlos Sastre got a 12 minute lead. This forced the other contenders to push hard in the very difficult mountains of the 3rd week. Cadel Evans Michelle Scarponi Vincenzo Nibali and Basso took minutes over the leaders on 3 mountain stages, one of which was a mountain finish on the Monte Zoncolan, the hardest mountain in Grand Tour history, lined by hundreds of thousands of fans. The race came down to a difficult stage over the extremely difficult Passo di Mortirolo with a finish in Aprica. Basso needed 3 minutes to take the jersey from Arroyo, and looked likely to get it after taking 2 minutes on the ascent of the climb. But Arroyo surprised the world of cycling with an amazing descent of the mountain in very dangerous conditions, taking back 1 minute 30. The final twist came with the final climb into Aprica, were Basso, helped by teammate Nibali, and stage winner Scarponi, was able to take 3 minutes on Arroyo, gaining the jersey and a 2nd Giro win.

• July 3–25 Tour de France Alberto Contador won his 3rd Tour de France and 5th Grand Tour after a close duel with young Luxemburger Andy Schleck. The 2 were always comfortable, and close to each other, but the onus was on Andy who was considered to be a far weaker tter. Going into the stage on the col du Tourmalet Schleck needed to get a gap over Contador, but though he won the stage, Contador finished just behind and won the Tour on the tt 2 days later.
• August 1–7 Tour de Pologne Daniel Martin
• August 28–19 Vuelta a España Vincenzo Nibali won his first Grand Tour after putting in a surprisingly strong performance on the decisive stage. The strong favourite at the halfway point had been Igor Antón but the Euskatel rider had an unfortunate crash and was forced to abandon. This left the Italian to fight it out with Galician climber Ezequiel Mosquera. Mosquera got time in several mountain stages, and needed 40 seconds on the final stage over the very steep Bola del Mundo. Huge crowds cheered on Mosquera as he attacked with 3 km and he was able to initially get 20 seconds. But Nibali came back and caught Mosquera in the last few metres, and though he was unable to overtake the Spaniard for the stage win, he was the overall winner.
• October 29–3 UCI Road World Championships Women's Time trial – Emma Pooley. Mens Time Trial – Fabian Cancellara. Women's Road Race – Giorgia Bronzini. Mens Road Race – Thor Hushovd won an epic race which looked to finish in anything but a sprint finish, until the last few kilometres. Several groups kept forming in attacks that looked likely to succeed, but ultimately always got brought back. Favourite Phillipe Gilbert expected attack finally came on the 1st climb of the last lap. But as he was caught by a 2nd group, the peloton surprisingly appeared just behind them with 3 k to go and a sprint finish it turned out to be.

• October 17 Giro di Lombardia – Phillipe Gilbert made up for his failure at the worlds with a 2nd victory in the final monument of the season. The Belgian was simply too strong throughout and never looked like losing. After a crash took out Nibali, Gilbert was left on his own, and waited for Michele Scarponi for support. But the Italian, who is superior in Grand Tours, was out of his depth contesting a one day race against the classic specialist, who waltzed away with ease in the last few kilometres.