FDJ climbing guru Pierrick Fedrigo has decided to pull out of his teams line up for this years race due to an on going back injury. The veteran Frenchman won a stage at last years race and this year would be his 8th consecutive start.
FDJ will line up with other French veterans Sandy Casar and Anthony Roux and will hope to have a successful year as one of the 4 wild card teams in this years race.
A pre race illness seems to have the race chances of Team Sky wonder boy Edvald Boassen Hagen on the ropes after he was diagnosed with shingles last week. The 24 year old Norwegian is a 5 time national time trial champion and finished 6th in the points classification at last years Tour de France. His withdrawal is not yet official and I will update as things are announced.
This weekend past was that of the National Cycling championships around the world. This can often be the ideal indicator as to pre Tour de France form for many of the top riders. Here is a link to the results summary (http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/2011-national-champions-summary) but shake ups of note include the pre race favourite in France - Tommy Voeckler of Team Europcar being out ridden by Sylvain Chavanel and Anthony Roux with Chavanel just clinching the victory. All 3 were in an aggressive mood and broke from the pack with 27km to go finishing well in front of the remaining field.
In the Spanish Road championships pre tour favourite Alberto Contador broke away on the final climb along with Movistar sprinter Jose Rojas and was out sprinted by 1 second to steal the national title - which Contador has never won. Rojas will be a hot contender in the points classification at this years race following his 4th place finish in the Green Jersey competition last year.
There were no surprises however in the Belgian nationals when UCI world rankings leader and 2011 show stopper Philippe Gilbert finally stole his first national championship after 4 times finishing second. He broke the field in 2 with 100km to go and pushed hard from the front, with 2km to go on a cobbled section he made his move and went on to win. He will be a hard man to beat in some of the up and coming stages of this years Tour de France.
Also some additional information the Team Europcar riders: Yohan Gene, Vincent Jerome, Perrig Quemeneur and Sebastian Turgot have all been added to this years line up. They are free to be added to your squads with all being classified as "Domestiques" and all will be worth 3 points, excluding Turgot who will also be a "Domestique" but valued at 9 points after his 7th place Points Classification finish at last years race.
Good luck in choosing your squads and remember to get the forms back asap,
Mike
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