MONDAY'S BRITISH NEWS ROUND-UP

• Monday, 4 August 2008
• Lionel Birnie & Andrew Canning
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CUMMINGS IS RUNNER-UP IN TOUR OF DENMARK
Steve Cummings took an excellent second place overall in the Tour of Denmark, which finished on Sunday.

The Barloworld rider moved into the top five on stage three, when he was sixth, ten seconds down on CSC’s stage winner Matti Breschel.

Cummings, who will ride the road race and time trial at the Olympic Games next week, was second in the time trial behind another CSC rider, Gustav Erik Larsson.

He was six seconds slower on the 14.5-kilometre course to move up to second overall, behind Denmark’s Jakob Fugslang, riding for Team Designa Kokken.

That’s how it stayed on the final stage, won by CSC’s Argentinian sprinter Juan Jose Haedo.

Team Columbia’s Roger Hammond, who is also bound for Beijing, had four top ten finishes – two eighth places and two tenth. Hammond finished 14th overall. Ireland’s Dan Martin (Garmin-Chipotle) finished 58th overall, at 7-48.

THIRD PLACE FOR FROOME
Chris Froome (Barloworld) was third in the Giro dell’Appennino one-day race in Italy on Sunday. The Kenyan-born Brit was behind Alessandro Bertolini (Serramenti) and Eddy Ratti (Nippo-Endeka). On Saturday, Froome abandoned the GP Nobili Rubinetterie. The other British rider in the race, Charly Wegelius (Liquigas), was 30th in a race won by Barloworld’s Giampaolo Cheula.

STANNARD IN ACTION
Ian Stannard (Landbouwkrediet) finished 69th in the French Cup race, La Poly Normande, which was won by Française des Jeux rider Arnaud Gerard ahead of Jerome Pineau and Sandy Casar.

BRITS IN ALSACE
Adam Illingworth, a British rider with the Lyon Vaulx-en-Velin club, finished 11th overall in the Tour d’Alsace in eastern France. Andy Tennant was the Great Britain team’s highest finisher, in 31st place. Russell Hampton (52nd), Alex Dowsett (62nd), Peter Kennaugh (66th) and Mark McNally (82nd) were the other finishers. The Great Britain team had won the opening team time trial stage. The final stage was won by Brice Feillu, brother of Roman, who wore the yellow jersey in the Tour de France last month.

OLIPHANT WINS IN SCOTLAND
Evan Oliphant of the Plowman Craven squad will certainly be glad the weekend is over, having ridden three races in three days. After riding the British national criterium championships on Friday and the East Yorkshire Classic on Sunday (where he finished 11th), he made a quick trip across the border to win the Scottish national road race championships on Saturday, taking the title ahead of Gary Hand and John Kermode.