2010 Rabobank season

The 2010 season for the Rabobank cycling team began in January with the Tour Down Under and ended in October at the Giro di Lombardia.

Freire scored the team's first victory of the season in the Trofeo Cala Millor, part of the Vuelta a Mallorca quasi-stage race, as he outsprinted Tour Down Under stars André Greipel and Manuel Cardoso.

[4] The squad wore special jerseys for the Giro, incorporating the colors of the Italian flag and the logo for Right To Play, which the team supports.

[6] Flens made the breakaway in stage 2, and Brown took eighth in the sprint for the finish line.

[7] The next day of racing was similar, with Stamsnijder making the morning break and Brown finishing second just behind Wouter Weylandt in the sprint.

Weening was tenth in the overall standings prior to the transfer to Italy, 16 seconds behind the race leader.

[11] The squad was then quiet for several days, but in the final stages in the Dolomites both Mollema and Kruijswijk turned in solid rides.

Kruijswijk, Danilo Hondo, and Damien Monier were the last three riders together at the head of the race and finished well clear of the others.

Monier soloed to victory more than 30 seconds ahead, and Hondo left Kruijswijk behind in the stage's final kilometer, leaving him third.

Freire was also named to the squad, with the intention of acting as a free agent (a sprinter without his own leadout train) in the flat stages.

While the group of overall favorites was climbing the hors catégorie Port de Balès, the chain on race leader Schleck's bicycle slipped.

While Schleck was unable to respond due to his mechanical trouble, Menchov and Sánchez, along with five others, followed Contador and finished 39 seconds clear of the Luxembourger, though their positions relative to both of the leading riders was essentially unchanged.

Contador, for example, who had won the long time trial in the 2009 Tour de France, was 35th on the day, 5 minutes and 43 seconds off the pace.