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With just five days to go the countdown is on for the second of this year’s three Classic Tours. The 96th edition of the Tour de France begins on Saturday, July 4 in Monaco. The 2009 Tour will cover 21 stages that include: 10 flat stages, 8 mountain stages, 2 individual time trials and 1 team time trial. The Tour will make its way over 3500 km through France, Spain and Switzerland before the final in Paris on the Champs Elysées on Sunday July 26. The Team has a great mix of riders with various skills as sprinters, climbers and GC riders and from that we have chosen the final roster of nine athletes and three reserves (see below). Carlos Sastre (ESP), as the defending Tour champion and sprint ace Thor Hushovd (NOR) will serve as the team captains. “The decision for the final Tour de France Team was certainly not an easy one,” said Thomas Campana, Managing Director. “Though we are fortunate to have many excellent riders who are in good shape and ready for the Tour, in the end only nine riders per team are allowed to start. “The goal, for our first Tour de France, will be ...

Cervélo TestTeam’s Emma Pooley won yesterday the Grande Boucle Feminine Internationale – ‘the ‘women’s Tour de France’. Pooley was one of five riders to launch an attack on the first climb of yesterday’s stage. The Briton was supported in the break by two of her Cervelo team-mates, and the trio effectively countered the numerous attacks by her rival Marianne Vos, who was out to overthrow Pooley at the top of the table. Although Vos won the last stage in Anglet, she only gained three seconds over Pooley plus a 10 second time bonus – not even enough for her to pass Pooley’s team mate and 2008 winner Christiane Soeder in the overall, giving Cervelo a one-two at the top of the final overall classification. “I’m very happy,” said Pooley after the stage. “It was a hard day, probably the hardest stage of the race because the team had to work to defend the yellow jersey. When we ended up with three girls in a break of five we knew that the race was saved. The Grande Boucle is a really special race with a big history and I’m very happy to win it. My next goal will be the National ...

Emma Pooley won the opening stage of the Grande Boucle yesterday, beating Mariane Vos by 24 seconds over the 18.3km circuit. It was a dominant performance all round by the Cervélo TestTeam who’s riders also filled spaces three to six, putting them in a strong position to defend the leader’s jersey. Pooley, however, was in a class of her own as only two riders got within a minute of her in what was a relatively short course around Bressuire, north of Bordeaux. Pooley was pleasantly surprised, not only with the stage win but the winning margin. “I didn’t expect to do well on that time trial course,” she said. “It wasn’t particularly lumpy but there was lots of gradual downhill, so it was very fast, then short, sharp climbs. It was very technical, on narrow winding roads with lots of gravel – which I’m not a big fan of – so I am really pleased. “Someone said before the stage I wouldn’t do very well because it is technical, so that showed them!” The Olympic silver medallist expected more of a challenge in the TT, especially from Cervélo team-mate Christiane Soeder. “I was really surprised by Christiane: she is normally ...

“We have had a dream start to our inaugural season,” said Thomas Campana, Managing Director, Cervélo TestTeam. “The Men’s TestTeam already have 14 victories to their credit, including four stage wins at the Giro d’Italia. We are looking forward to our first Tour de France and are particularly pleased to have the great Carlos Sastre riding for our team as the Tour’s defending champion. Carlos knows he has the entire team’s support to help him reach his goals. We would also like to win a couple of other stages on the way to Paris and with talents like our top sprinter Thor Hushovd and Heinrich Haussler anything is possible.” Pre-selection Cervélo TestTeam – Tour de France 2009 1       Inigo Cuesta, ESP 2       Xavier Florencio, ESP 3       Simon Gerrans, AUS 4       Volodymir Gustov, UKR 5       Heinrich Haussler, GER 6       Thor Hushovd, NOR 7       Andreas Klier, GER 8       Brett Lancaster, AUS 9       José Angel Gomez Marchante, ESP 10     Gabriel Rasch, NOR 11     Hayden Roulston, NZL 12     Carlos Sastre, ESP

Cervélo TestTeam is currently the number one ranked pro cycling team following an impressive spring season and a strong showing at the Giro d’Italia. The Team gained 120 points as a result of their Giro performance for a total of 608 points, placing them 37 points in front of second place Caisse d’Epargne and 50 points up on Quick Step, who dominated the rankings throughout the April Classics. “We didn’t set any goals for race performance, but are certainly excited about the success the riders have achieved in the first five months of the team’s existence,” said Gerard Vroomen, co-owner of Cervélo TestTeam. “I’m equally happy with the activities around the other two pillars of the TestTeam project; aiding the bike industry in product development and creating fan access opportunities. TestTeam Partners like Rotor, Zipp, Vittoria, 3T, Castelli and ZipVit, as well as Cervélo, have all made good use of the team’s resources in the development of new products. Our fan access events are also off to a good start, with three travel events to date and autograph sessions at a lot of races. In the Giro, our riders were available for autographs before most stages, and even after some. ...