Happy 2008 to everyone! I hope everyone has had a great couple of months. It is finally that time! Cycling has begun to swing back into action. For Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle, the 2008 season began today with the Tour of Qatar. Slipstream-Chipotle brought some of their best talent to Qatar: David Millar, Magnus Backstedt, Julian Dean, Huub Duyn, Christophe Laurent, Martyn Maaskant, Kilian Patour, and Christopher Sutton.

The team started this race and the season with a great finish in today’s Team Time Trial around Doha. Up against great ProTour teams such as Credit Agricole, Quick-Step, Lampre, and Silence-Lotto, the boys finished a strong and convincing 2nd behind Quick-Step by a margin of 0.02! As this was a Team Time Trial, 5 of the 8 riders all finished with the same time and ranked between 7 and 12. Below are the individual standings of each rider.

7 Christopher Sutton
8 David Millar
9 Martyn Maaskant
10 Huub Duyn
11 Julian Dean
83 Magnus Backstedt
128 Christophe Laurent
130 Kilian Patour

Tomorrow, Stage 2 will take the field 137.5 km from Al Zubarah to the Doha Golf Club and offer several sprints. Keep an eye out for the Slipstream boys!

The winner of the 2008 Team Slipstream/Chipotle jersey design contest is Joe Yule from Redondo Beach, California.

Read the official Slipstream/Chipotle press release here. (slipstreamsports.com)

Check out the 2008 Slipstream/Chipotle jersey behind the “Read More” link.

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Nevertheless, voting continues through tonight for the 2008 Team Slipstream/Chipotle Pro Team jersey. Team Slipstream held a contest and accepted fan submissions for the 2008 Team S/C jersey design. after over 600 entries, a panel of judges narrowed the selections down to 5 entries. They have opened up voting to the public and the design that receives the most votes will be the 2008 Team S/C jersey!

So head on over to SlipstreamSports.com and Place your vote! And feel free to comment here and let me know what you thought of the final 5 selections. I am interested to hear everyone’s thoughts.

Danny Pate from Boulder, Colorado was selected for the Elite Men’s Road Race team. After his solid performance in Missouri last week, this came as no surprise to many US Cycling fans. It speaks volumes to Danny Pate’s talent and potential. After taking Stage 5 of the Tour of Missouri, as well as notching a top 15 GC finish, Danny will join other US notables such as George Hincapie, Dave Zabriskie, Jason McCartney, and Bobby Julich in the US Road Race.

Peter Stetina, another Boulder, Colorado native was named to the US U23 Road Race team. As I highlighted in my Tour de L’Avenir report, Peter recently rode for the US National team at the Tour de L’Avenir, and performed well. This, no doubt, helped in the decision to place him on the US U23 squad. Peter is a former U23 US National Champion.

Tom Peterson is yet another Boulder, Colorado Team Slipstream/Chipotle rider who was selected for the US U23 Road Race team. I again refer back to my Tour de L’Avenir report. Tom rode for the US national team in France last week and placed 5th overall at the Tour of Gila earlier this year.

Craig Lewis from Spartanburg, S.C. was also selected for the US U23 Road Race team. This is a great selection for Craig, who won both the US U23 Road Race and Criterium championships last year. There are many who have touted Craig Lewis as the next great American cyclist, and he will get the opportunity to prove himself at the World Championships next month.

In addition to current Team Slipstream/Chipotle riders who were selected, four other US Elite Men’s team riders will join the Team S/C squad in 2008:
David Zabriskie (Salt Lake City, Utah)
Christian Vande Velde (Boulder, Colo.)
Jason McCartney (Coralville, Iowa)
Tyler Farrar (Wenatchee, Wash.)

You can view the official USA Cycling Press Release, which includes the full team listing for Elite Men, Elite Women, and U23 Men, here. (Source: USACycling.org)

A Brief History
Most literally, Tour de l’Avenir means “Tour of the Future”. And it’s name perfectly describes it. It’s a stage race designed to showcase the up and coming talent in the sport of cycling. The exciting part of the Tour de l’Avenir is that in many cases, the riders are amateurs or ride for small city or state teams and this is a great opportunity to see what the future holds for the sport.

I enjoy the Tour de l’Avenir because it IS the Tour de France for these future cycling stars. A quick look at the list of winners since 1961 only serves to show the caliber of race Avenir is. Greg Lemond, Miguel Indurain, Marc Madiot, Johan Bruyneel, Denis Menchov, Egoi Martinez, 2005 winner Lars Bak, and 2006 winner Moises Duenas Nevado, to name a few.

That being said, from a Team Slipstream perspective, this year’s Tour de l’Avenir was equally exciting because several members of the Slipstream team rode for the USA National Team. Thomas Peterson, Craig Lewis, and Peter Stetina made up one half of the Team USA team.

Because I am just now getting to covering this race, I will not do a detailed recap of each stage. But I am going to recap each rider’s results.

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Stage 5
As is evident from my previous post, Stage 5 was, without doubt, the best stage of the ToM for Slipstream. Danny Pate capped off a great ToM performance so far by capitalizing on a perfectly executed bridge. Pate was part of an initial 10-man break to go ahead early in the stage. With less than 10 km to go, Pate attacked and bridged across to catch a 2-man break of Matti Helminen (Navigators Insurance) and Bernardo Colex (Tecos). Without hesitation and with only 1km to go, Pate passed Helminen and rode into St.Charles, MO solo! He crossed the finish 8 seconds ahead of 2nd place finisher John Fredy Parra.

28 Michael Friedman
32 Brad Huff
47 William Frischkorn
70 Patrick McCarty
87 Huub Duyn
95 Timothy Duggan

In a bunch sprint from the peleton, Steven Cozza took 19th place (9th place in the sprint) and retained his Best Young Rider jersey for the third day in a row. Will Frischkorn remained in 2nd place overall, and Michael Friedman stayed in 5th overall.

And in the Team Classification, Team Slipstream continued their lead, extending it to 13.38. Yesterday’s stage was a fantastic demonstration of Danny Pate’s talent and it is easy to see how he placed 2nd at the US Pro Time Trial Championships several weeks ago. What a victory for this team!

Stage 6
The Tour of Missouri came to a close today in St. Louis, and Team Slipstream finished the race with a surprise, albeit not the kind of surprise anyone wanted. Brad Huff, part of the sprint for the stage, collided with a barrier mere feet from the finish line and flipped off of his bike. (See the official Tour of Missouri Press Release here, which includes a good photo of the crash.) Thankfully, Brad was able to get back on his bike and rode over the finish line along with teammate Huub Duyn. The rest of the Team Slipstream doubled back and crossed the line with Huff and Duyn.

In better news, Steven Cozza secured the 2007 Tour of Missouri Best Young Rider jersey and Team Slipstream-Chipotle finished as the 2007 Tour of Missouri Best Team. Slipstream also finished with 2 top 5 riders in the general classification!

STAGE 6 RESULTS
24 Michael Friedman
26 Steven Cozza
27 William Frischkorn
30 Patrick McCarty
51 Danny Pate
63 Timothy Duggan
98 Brad Huff
99 Huub Duyn

FINAL CLASSIFICATION
2 William Frischkorn
5 Michael Friedman
13 Danny Pate
18 Timothy Duggan
25 Steven Cozza
29 Patrick McCarty
70 Huub Duyn
84 Brad Huff
Best Young Rider: Steven Cozza
Best Team: Team Slipstream-Chipotle

(According to cyclingnews.com’s race report, Mike Friedman was also involved in the crash, although from the Live Coverage, I could not tell if this was the case and the stage classification shows Mike finished. I do not want to discount that information, but I cannot verify whether Mike crashed from any other sources.)

Up next: My final thoughts and more information about what happens next for Team Slipstream!

Stay tuned and along for the ride.

Danny Pate won the 5th stage of the Tour of Missouri today in a solo finish in St. Charles.

I have not had a chance to watch the archive of the stage yet, I will have a full report once I have.

I’m a couple days behind, but nevertheless, I’m going to go ahead and cover the Tour of Missouri so far.

Stage 1
Missouri native, Brad Huff, wasted no time in making his presence known and posted an impressive 7th place finish in the first stage of the Tour of Missouri. The rest of the Slipstream team finished strong:

49 Timmy Duggan
55 Steven Cozza
58 Danny Pate
60 William Frischkorn
79 Michael Friedman
83 Huub Duyn
84 Jonathan McCarty

Stage 2
An even better day for Team Slipstream! Michael Friedman finished 4th, and William Frischkorn added another Slipstream name to the Top 10 by finishing 10th.

31 Brad Huff
38 Steven Cozza
78 Jonathan McCarty
94 Huub Duyn
100 Timmy Duggan
104 Danny Pate

Slipstream was not left disappointed when it came time for the podium. Will Frischkorn was named Most Aggressive Rider and will wear the Drury Hotels Most Aggressive Rider for Stage 3.

And perhaps most exciting, Team Slipstream took over the Team classification! Congratulations to Team Slipstream and a job very well done!

Stage 3
The Time Trial went very well for Team Slipstream. Danny Pate finished 5th, ahead of GC Leader George Hincapie (of Team Discovery Channel). Timmy Duggan posted an impressive 7th place finish, as did Will Frischkorn who finished 12th.

15 Steven Cozza
20 Huub Duyn
23 Patrick McCarty
29 Michael Friedman
59 Brad Huff

Steven Cozza was the Best Young Rider for Stage 3 and took over the Best Young Rider classification, with Huub Duyn ranking 2nd by just 0.29.

Will Frischkorn’s solid ride boosted him into 2nd in the GC standings! Michael Friedman moved up to 5th overall. Slipstream also retained their lead in the Team classification.

Stage 4
Today’s stage was long and windy, with very little hill or mountain terrain. As expected, there were 2 breaks. The first was a solo breakaway by future Slipstream rider Ryder Hesjedal (Health Net! The second break eventually became a 10-man break, and included Timmy Duggan and Steven Cozza, as well as Ryder Hesjedal again.

Although the break was caught with 5km to go, Slipstream still posted impressive results. Brad Huff finished 14th in the bunch sprint.

26 Michael Friedman
43 William Frischkorn
51 Patrick McCarty
63 Steven Cozza
78 Timothy Duggan
87 Danny Pate
89 Huub Duyn

Will Frischkorn stayed in 2nd place in the GC, just 1.40 behind race leader George Hincapie. Steven Cozza retained the lead in the Best Young Rider, and Huub Duyn is still in 2nd place. In the Team classification, Slipstream is still leading, with over 11 minutes on Discovery Channel.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s stage, which should be exciting! You can catch Live Coverage of the stage. Check out for the latest Live Coverage!

Until tomorrow, stay along for the ride!

This is the cyclingfans.com Team Slipstream blog!

Here, I will highlight what’s going on with Team Slipstream, including race results, team news, and photographs. Keep an eye out this week for the first set of race results!

I do want to go ahead and make the standard disclaimer. I am not a member of, related to, or connected with Team Slipstream sponsored by Chipotle in anyway. All statements, recaps, or opinions posted here are mine and do not reflect the views of Team Slipstream or cyclingfans.com.

While I get things set up over here, please check out cyclingfans.com for live cycling coverage. Also head on over to my fellow bloggers Pete - cyclingfans.com editor, and MJ - cyclingfans satellite coverage blogger.

Until next time, keep along for the ride.