Bike Pure Rider Update

What a week it has been for Bike Pure and cycling. We’ve had it all, from witnessing one of the most memorable stages in a Grand Tour for many a moon to Team Sky’s Ben Swift celebrating his biggest success so far on a bike.  Have a look at what’s been happening over the past week with the Bike Pure riders.

Ben Swift Dominates Tour de Picardie
Ben Swift (Team Sky) has won the the Tour de Picardie with team mate Russell Downing also finishing an excellent 4th overall.  Having already finished 2nd in stage 1 and 1st in stage 2, in which Downing also finished 3rd, Swift finished the 3rd and final stage in 9th place and winning the GC by 7 seconds.  The Tour de Picardie, the first General Classification win for Team Sky, also saw Swift pick up the points classification and the young riders jersey as well as Sky winning the Team Classification.  Speaking on teamsky.com, Ben said “It’s the first GC for me and the first for the team so hopefully now we can pick up a few more.”

Tour de l’Aude
Lizzie Armistead (Cervélo) won the 1st stage of the Tour de l’Aude, the longest running UCI event on the women’s calendar, taking the Leader’s jersey while doing so.  This follows a strong performance by Lizzie and Marianne Vos (Nederland Bloeit) who finished 8th and 3rd respectively in the prologue TT.  Stage 3 took the form of a TTT, however fortune was against Armistead who suffered a puncture 1km into the stage and has dropped down to 40th in the GC.  Marianne is currently sitting 13th in the GC and 2nd in the young riders classification, while Amanda Miller (Tibco) sits in 71st in the GC.

Giro D’Italia
The ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ has been living up to it’s name this week after an incredible journey starting with many crashes in Holland, through a mud fight in Tuscany to a painful foggy finish at the top of Monte Terminillo and Bike Pure riders have been doing us proud throughout.  The week started with Adam Blythe firmly making his mark with an outstanding 5th place on stage 3 and Richie Porte holding on to the young rider’s jersey with a 17th place finish in the lead group.  Even the greatest show on earth needs a narrator to move the story along day after day and this role was being performed by Steve Cummings (Team Sky) who ensured the pace of the peloton didn’t let up by spending long shifts of pulling from the front.

Stage 7 introduced the dramatic plot twist with an epic battle in Tuscany with mother nature, this was not a day for the faint hearted and Marco Pinotti (HTC-Columbia) put in a heroic effort to finish 4th in an environment far from what he is used to.  The finale to Act 1 culminated with the valiant efforts of Chris Froome and Steve Cummings spending most of the day in the lead group, only to be caught on the painful final climb up Monte Terminillo.  So we move onto Act 2 with Marco Pinotti and Richie Porte in 5th and 6th in the GC respectively.  Good luck, and certainly don’t break leg, to all of the Bike Pure players performing in this years Greatest Show on Earth: Dan Lloyd (Cervelo), Adam Blythe (Omega-Pharma-Lotto), Jack Bobridge (Garmin), Cam Meyer 99th, Olivier Kaisen (Omega-Pharma-Lotto), Steve Cummings (Team Sky), Chris Froome (Team Sky), Marco Pinotti (Team HTC-Columbia) and Richie Porte (Saxo Bank).

Tour of Japan

The land of the rising sun currently has Australian Michael Matthews (Team Jayco-Skins) wearing the Tour of Japan leader’s jersey.  Matthews won the opening ITT in Osaka and finished 2nd in stage 2 held in the picturesque Nara to cement his place at the top of the GC.  Michael’s team mates, Richard Land and Pat Lane, are sitting 60th & 62nd in the GC while Dean Downing (Rapha Condor – Sharp) is in 88th.  Already looking forward to the next stage Matthews told www.teamjaycoskins.com “Tomorrow we’ll follow a similar plan and see how it pans out.  The finish is pretty flat so if I can get there with good legs and the bunch is all together then I’ll give it a crack for a stage win.”

Jelly Belly Ride For Charity
Jelly Belly-Kenda riders Jeremy Powers and Kiel Reijnen are riding this year’s Tour of California wearing purple wristbands alongside their usual blue Bike Pure ones.  They, along with their team mates, are fundraising for Women of Worth (WOW) in remembrance of Reijnen’s aunt who was murdered in 2005 by her estranged husband.  WOW is a charity who supports victims of domestic violence are opening a Safe House in Nevada (host of this year’s TOC opening stage) and all funds raised by the team during the ToC will go towards utility bills, meals and staff training.  If you would like to show your support and make a donation please visit www.women-of-worth.org

Team Wiggle Tandem
New Bike Pure ambassadors Team Wiggle Tandem will be riding from Pembroke to Yarmouth with the aim of breaking the Side to Side record.  The ‘Wiggle Brothers’ are made up of David Harmon and Jeremy Hastings are looking to ride the 380 miles under the current record of 17 hours 30 minutes.  More details of the event can be found at www.teamwiggletandem.com/side_to_side.html and you can also follow the guys in their build up to their attempt on Twitter.

Coryn Rivera Takes Sacramento Grand Prix!
17 year old Coryn Rivera (Peanut Butter and Co) took the biggest win of her career to date with a fine win at the Sacramento Grand Prix in the USA. Held prior to the finish of the Tour of California, the event drew massive crowds and the high quality field battled it out at one of the largest national events for women in the USA.

With no major escapees the 60 minute event came down to a thrilling sprint with the Peanut Butter and Co. team pulling out all the stops for Coryn to take the win. Speaking to us shortly after her win, Coryn said “Thank you to everyone, I can put all my trust in Lauren Tamayo and if it were not for my team I would have not won today.”

It’s a huge win for Coryn, who at the tender age of seventeen, already holds more than twenty five USA Championship medals across all disciplines of the sport. We’ll be hearing a lot more about Coryn I’m sure!

Please check out Coryn’s website.

Good luck to all Bike pure riders competing this week. We look forward to reporting on your successes next week.

This update was brought to you by Bike Pure Ambassador Stuart MacLean – many thanks Stuart!