The technical course was made even more challenging by a mid race rain shower, however Eva showed her experience and technical prowess by building a small advantage on a climb to hold it on the rough and slippery descent the last lap to then power her Colnago C29-Italia over the line.

By winning the opening round Eva now leads the World cup standing and will take the leaders jersey to the next round in Nove Mesto in the Czech Republic.

Gaining valuable experience race on race, he last weekend won stage 2 of the Tour of Picardie and took the leader’s jersey. Ultimately he had to relinquish the lead on the final stage, but it was nevertheless a fine showing and further demonstration of his immense talent.

Giorgia Bronzini rode her C59 Italia in a great race to victory, with a sprint coming from 200m from the end and triumphing over Jolien D’hoore and Martina Zwick to take the win.

Despite a valiant effort from Berhane and the rest of his team, a surprise winner on stage 6 unseated the Europcar rider from the overall lead, but a fantastic second place overall was just rewards for their hard work.

The team have so far stayed safe and clear of the carnage that befell much of the race on stage 2. According to the team manager Vassili Davidenko “everybody feels good, everybody is so excited, let‘s see what we can make happen.“

Good luck to the team in the rest of the race.

]]> http://www.colnago.com/team-novo-nordisk-at-the-presidential-tour-of-turkey/feed/ 0 http://www.colnago.com/cyril-gautier-triumphs-in-finistere/ http://www.colnago.com/cyril-gautier-triumphs-in-finistere/#comments Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:37:19 +0000 Simon Richardson http://www.colnago.com/?p=21037 Cyril Gautier, one of the most devoted and loyal domestiques in professional cycling, has won the prestigious Breton classic, the Tour du Finistere, aboard his Colnago C59 Italia.

A rider of formidable talents, he has worked tirelessly for his teammates over the past few years. This victory, his first for three years, is just reward for his hard work.

They really took it to the big names and put them under great pressure. One of the riders of the season, Damien Gaudin, showed that he has a very bright future on the cobbles with a fine 5th place after a brave, attacking ride.

The classics season is well underway and Team Europcar put in a great effort at the Tour of Flanders with Sebastien Turgot placing a very creditable eighth. The race was almost a forgone conclusion with most believing that it was between Cancellara and Sagan as it indeed proved to be, but to place inside the top ten at a race like the Tour of Flanders is an achievement in itself.

This coming weekend is Paris – Roubaix where the team look forward to trying to go one better than Sebastien Turgot’s second place finish last year.

The week was also bookended by two prestigious races. In the first, Giorgia Bronzini took an emphatic sprint victory at the Grand Prix di Padova after a dominant performance from her Wiggle-Honda teammates. The second, the Alfredo Binda World Cup round, was a slog in terrible conditions, with Lauren Kitchen the team’s best placed finisher.

Elsewhere, his teammates were contesting an epic Milan-Sanremo, battling apocalyptic conditions in what is also the longest race of the year. Sebastien Turgot finished a brave 15th, showing that his classics form is definitely coming in time for the next Belgian races.