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2010 Cervélo TestTeam season


The 2010 season for the Cervélo TestTeam, its second and final, began in February with the Étoile de Bessèges and ended in October at the Giro di Lombardia. As they did in 2009, Cervélo TestTeam competed in 2010 as a UCI Professional Continental team with wildcard status, meaning they were eligible to be invited to any UCI ProTour event.

Most of the team's riders were retained from 2009, but the team experienced one major offseason change – the replacement of Thomas Campana as team manager with Joop Alberda.

Ages as of January 1, 2010

The team entered the spring season with high hopes after having been successful in the classics in 2009. Hushovd's delayed season start meant that he was not at as strong of form for the traditional spring season opener, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, as he was in 2009 when he won it. Though he admitted that repeating his victory would be a longshot, he claimed the team had "four or five guys" who could win the race. The race was won by Team Sky's Juan Antonio Flecha in a solo breakaway, and Haussler won the 18-man sprint for second place 18 seconds behind him. The next day, the team claimed its first win of the season with Bos in the Clásica de Almería. Though Bos had lost contact with the peloton near the beginning of the race, the work of Cuesta, Deignan, and Wyss brought him back. Along with Bos came Mark Cavendish, who the young Dutchman pipped at the line for the victory.

The team's season began at the Étoile de Bessèges. This race was supposed to be Hushovd's season opener, but he pulled out days before it was run, citing illness. They did not get any victories at the event. Their next stage race was the Tour of Qatar, an event in which they were extremely successful in 2009 and thus had high expectations in 2010. In the opening stage team time trial, they originally finished second, 8 seconds behind stage winners Team Sky, but were later assessed a minute penalty because Haussler pushed Rasch at one point. The team protested the penalty. Haussler denied he pushed Rasch at all, and sporting director Jens Zemke stated that the push was for Rasch's safety, to avoid a crash, and not to gain a competitive advantage. Nonetheless, the protest was denied, and the team was put into a distant last place because of the penalty. This effectively eliminated the general classification hopes for Haussler, who had finished second in this event in 2009. Zemke considered withdrawing the team from the race, but decided against it. Haussler vowed the team would continue to be combative, though a mistake made by Haussler in the sprint finish to stage 4 kept them from a possible victory. Just as he had in 2009, Haussler won the event's points classification without winning a stage, finishing eighth or higher (and second twice) in the five road race stages. The team had also recouped the minute penalty after the race's final stage and won the teams classification, also for the second year in a row.


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