Team Sky helps close down the gap to the lead peloton. (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Team Sky has announced its line-ups for June's races, including the final warm-ups for the upcoming Tour de France. However, the team's Tour captain, Bradley Wiggins, will not be racing again until the national championships at the end of the month at the earliest.
Wiggins is repeating his preparations from 2009, when he finished fourth overall in the Tour de France. He rode the Giro d'Italia as his last race before the Tour last season and has repeated that this year.
The racing month starts on Wednesday with the Tour of Luxembourg. Sky will send Kurt-Asle Arvesen, Kjell Carlstrom, Juan Antonio Flecha, Simon Gerrans, Thomas Löfkvist, Serge Pauwels, Ian Stannard and Ben Swift to the Grand Duchy.
Sky's directeur sportif will be Marcus Ljungqvist, who won the race in 2002. "We have guys who are capable of riding a good prologue, and a good GC, so we will see what happens on Wednesday and then take things from there. It will be interesting to see how things go," he said.
June features the two final preparation races for the Tour de France, the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and the Tour de Suisse. For the Dauphiné (June 6-13), Sky will look to John-Lee Augustyn, Sylvain Calzati, Russell Downing, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Peter Kennaugh, Nicolas Portal, Geraint Thomas and Davide Vigano.
The Tour de Suisse, June 12-20, will see Kurt-Asle Arvesen, Kjell Carlstrom, Juan Antonio Flecha, Simon Gerrans, Thomas Löfkvist, Lars-Petter Nordhaug, Serge Pauwels and Ben Swift.
The sprinters will get their workout at the Ster Elektrotoer in the Netherlands, June 16-20. Russell Downing, Mathew Hayman, Greg Henderson, Peter Kennaugh, Ian Stannard, Chris Sutton and Davide Vigano will compete there for Sky.
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In the national time trial championships on June 23, Kjell Carlstrom will ride for Finland, Dario Cioni for Italy, and Edvald Boasson Hagen and Lars-Petter Nordhaug for Norway.
The month closes with the national road championships on June 27. "Every European squad member will take part in his own country," the team said.
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