2010 Team Saxo Bank season

2010 roster

Ages as of January 1, 2010.

;Riders who joined the team for the 2010 season

;Riders who left the team during or after the 2009 season

One-day races

In February, before the spring season and races known as "classics" began, Haedo won the first-ever Mumbai Cyclothon, the first UCI-rated race in the nation of India. He was first over the line after outsprinting a breakaway companion.{{cite web

Spring classics

Fall races

Stage races

Cancellara got the team's first victory of the season, winning the inaugural Tour of Oman after a second-place finish in the event's closing individual time trial.{{cite web

Grand Tours

Giro d'Italia

Team Saxo Bank came to the Giro without its top stars, the Schleck brothers and Cancellara, preferring to hold them back for the Tour de France. The squad included time trial specialist Larsson, sprinters Cooke and Sebastian Haedo, and Grand Tour rookies Didier and Porte. |url-status=live

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This ostensibly gave the team a chance to take the jersey in the stage 4 team time trial, but with Larsson and Porte the only solid time trialists on the squad, they were only able to ride to ninth place at 50 seconds back of stage winners . Porte dropped to eighth because of this result.{{cite web |url-status = dead |url-status = dead

In stage 11, the Giro's longest, more than 50 riders formed the day's breakaway. This group attained a maximum advantage of 20 minutes, paving the way for significant changes to the overall standings. Chris Sørensen, Didier, and Porte, who had risen to sixth overall, all made the selection. Team Saxo Bank helped to drive the break, since Porte as the highest placed rider stood to take the pink jersey should they stay away. Porte finished 13th on the stage, but was minutes clear of the peloton, becoming the new race leader with the result.{{cite web |url-status = dead |url-status = dead

Tour de France

Team Saxo Bank's leader for the Tour de France was Andy Schleck, who was often mentioned as an overall favorite having finished second overall the year before.{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704035044/http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/38022368/ns/sports-tour_de_france |archive-date=2010-07-04 |url-status=dead |access-date=2010-09-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819082732/http://www.roadcycling.com/Team-Saxo-Bank-Presents-2010-Tour-De-France-Line-Up |archive-date=2014-08-19 |url-status=dead

Though Andy entered the race as the Luxembourgian national time trial champion, he was noted to be weak in the discipline relative to other overall favorites. In the 8.9 km prologue time trial which began the Tour, he lost over 30 seconds to most of the other overall contenders. Cancellara won the stage and as such took the first race leader's yellow jersey, as he had three other times in his career.{{cite web |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100704102925/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/97th-tour-de-france-gt/prologue/results |archive-date = 2010-07-04 |url-status = dead

In stage 2 two days later, Cancellara used his status as race leader to negotiate a neutralization of the finish. After a rider from the morning breakaway crashed and inadvertently set off a cascade of other crashes on the Col du Stockeu in Spa, Cancellara spoke to race officials and came away with an agreement that the peloton would not contest the stage finish. This agreement effectively cost Cancellara his yellow jersey, as breakaway rider Sylvain Chavanel was still out front at the time, and finished almost four minutes ahead. Both Schleck brothers were among the multitude of riders to crash on this day, and Andy rode his chase back to the peloton on Breschel's bicycle after his was too damaged to continue riding.{{cite web |archive-date=2010-07-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100706234029/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/97th-tour-de-france-gt/stage-2/results |url-status=dead

The team had another dramatic day in stage 3. This stage, while flat, was expected to be difficult and feature many crashes, as it incorporated numerous cobbled sectors at the Belgium-France border. Cancellara, who in addition to being a superlative time trialist is also one of the best classics riders in the sport, effectively guided Andy Schleck in the front group for the entire stage. Both were exhausted at the finish from their work throughout the day, and finished fifth and sixth in the six-man sprint for the stage win. His position in the leading group gained Andy solid time against his rivals – 53 seconds over Denis Menchov and Jurgen Van den Broeck, a minute and 13 seconds over Alberto Contador, and over two minutes against Lance Armstrong, Ivan Basso, and Robert Gesink. Cancellara also reclaimed the yellow jersey, as Chavanel lost back almost the exact amount of time he had won the day before. However, earlier in the stage, just as the cobbled sections began, Fränk Schleck crashed hard. He was unable to continue and retired from the Tour with a broken collarbone.{{cite web |archive-date=2010-07-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707232151/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/97th-tour-de-france-gt/stage-3/results |url-status=dead

Cancellara comfortably retained his race lead over the next three days in stages won by sprinters before losing it in stage 7 – incidentally, to the same man who took it previously, Chavanel. The Frenchman again won the stage from a solo breakaway.{{cite web |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100913224049/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/97th-tour-de-france-gt/stage-7/results |archive-date = 2010-09-13 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100915234053/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/97th-tour-de-france-gt/stage-8/results |archive-date = 2010-09-15 |url-status = dead

In stage 9, Contador and Schleck made a move which all but assured that one of them would be Tour champion. Schleck attacked from the group of overall contenders on the Col de la Madeleine, and drew Contador and Sánchez with him. After they had distanced themselves from the elite group for a short while, Schleck attacked again, and this time only Contador followed. They met up with Voigt, who had made the morning breakaway and paced them vigorously before bonking. They continually added to their advantage over the other top riders in the race and ended up reaching the remainder of the breakaway at the front of the race. They finished together with the five riders who were left from the morning escape, though neither tried for the stage win. This result installed Schleck as the race leader, with Contador in second 41 seconds behind him, and Sánchez two minutes behind Contador in third, a time gap that was unlikely to be overcome.{{cite web |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110304064049/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/97th-tour-de-france-gt/stage-9/results |archive-date = 2011-03-04 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100716175221/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/97th-tour-de-france-gt/stage-12/results |archive-date = 2010-07-16 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100819044812/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/97th-tour-de-france-gt/stage-14/results |archive-date = 2010-08-19 |url-status = dead

Perhaps the Tour's biggest controversy ensued in stage 15. While the group of overall favorites climbed the Port de Balès, the chain on Schleck's bicycle slipped. It was at this exact moment that Contador put in an attack, with Menchov and Sánchez following him. Due to his mechanical trouble, Schleck was unable to follow until receiving support from team mechanics. He rode an aggressive descent of the Port de Balès, but still lost 39 seconds on the day, which was enough for Contador to assume the race leadership. When interviewed after the stage, Schleck angrily declared that he would recover his time losses on the Col du Tourmalet in the stage that ended there three days later. The incident touched off a widespread debate over whether Contador and the others who attacked should have waited for Schleck to receive mechanical assistance rather than ride away when Schleck, through no physical limitation of his own, could not follow.{{cite web |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100819075548/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/97th-tour-de-france-gt/stage-15/results |archive-date = 2010-08-19 |url-status = dead

In stage 17, Schleck and Contador again distinguished themselves as the two strongest riders in the race. They easily rode away from everyone else in the race on the Col du Tourmalet. Schleck tried repeatedly to distance himself from Contador, in hopes of regaining the yellow jersey, but Contador was able to follow his every move. At the finish, Contador did not sprint, and Schleck took his second stage win of the Tour. The day's results gave them an even larger gap over third-place man Sánchez, who now stood three and a half minutes back.{{cite web |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110304064940/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/97th-tour-de-france-gt/stage-17/results |archive-date = 2011-03-04 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110304065202/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/97th-tour-de-france-gt/stage-19/results |archive-date = 2011-03-04 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100815033234/http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/97th-tour-de-france-gt/stage-20/results |archive-date = 2010-08-15 |url-status = dead

Two months after the race concluded, it was revealed that Contador had tested positive for clenbuterol on July 21, the rest day before the stage ending at the Col du Tourmalet.{{cite web

On 6 February 2012, Contador was given a backdated two-year ban and stripped of both his 2010 Tour win for Astana – giving victory to Schleck – and the 2011 Giro d'Italia win for .

Vuelta a España

Riis' expulsions of Andy Schleck and Stuart O'Grady

Season victories

Footnotes

References

References

1. (6 February 2012). "CAS sanctions Contador with two year ban in clenbutorol case". Cycling News.