I'm still wiping the bleary-eyed celebration out of my eyes: the Tour is over, and the latter part of the season is officially upon us - ProTour one-day races begin anew and hopefully no more daily doping updates. The trash assortment provided by the Tour is ample though, so we'll sort through it, take care of it, and get ready for a fresh August. Oh wait, it just got bad...read on...
No EFFING Way
Spanish paper, Marca, is reporting that Iban Mayo tested positive for EPO on the second rest day of this year's Tour, July 24th. Mayo's Saunier Duval squad received the results from the A-Test today.
Saunier Duval immediately suspended Mayo following the news, and if the expected positive B-Test follows, he'll get the axe...not to mention a lengthy suspension and all that jazz.
I guess it was all too perfect. Finally, Iban Mayo returns to his supposed rightful spot as one of the best climbers in the world. He'd been down for so long, and finally, here he is, climbing with the best...
I'm depressed.
Bye Bye Vino
It was a simple press release from Astana, and it was bound to come soon:
Alexandre Vinokourov Excluded From The Astana Cycling Team
Astana Cycling Team received the confirmation that the B-sample of Alexandre Vinokourov was also “non negative”. The rider is then fired from the Astana Cycling Team with immediate effect.
Not Everyone Pleased With Contador
Outspoken German doping critic, Werner Franke is up in arms over Alberto Contador's victory in Paris yesterday. From the quotes, it sounds like he's nearly beside himself. He calls Contador's win, "the greatest swindle in sporting history."
Franke, of course, has proof that Contador was/is involved in doping practices stemming from Operacion Puerto as he told German tv station ZDF: "The name of this Mr Contador appears on several occasions on the court and police documents. All of this has been simply concealed and hidden under the carpet whilst the name Contador was erased from the list of suspicious riders...He took insulin, HMG-Lepori, a hormone to stimulate the secretion of testosterone and also a product for asthma called TGN - in brief I have before my eyes a protocol for doping...All of this has been covered up, at least in Spain."
Now, you'll notice that there was no mention of blood doping in that long list of doping. You might recall that Contador readily gave up DNA to absolve himself from any involvement in Puerto, and if he wasn't blood doping, then he really had nothing to fear, right?
Of course, this is coming from Franke, who some say straddles a fine line between crazy and almost sane, so there's no telling, but then there's this...
Jaksche Weighs In As Well
Joerg Jaksche, who confessed whole-heartedly and seemingly happily to a decade of doping just a few weeks ago, has a few things to say about our young Tour winner, Alberto Contador. Again, this is by no means proof of anything, but it is worth noting, if only to highlight the questions that still remain, and according to Jaksche he saw proof with his own two eyes.
Jaksche first addresses Contador's fervent denials of any wrongdoing, which Jaksche easily dismisses: "I was also in the same situation for ten years, always having to lie. I wouldn't ask him any questions, because I probably couldn't accept his answer." It's a well-made point - if you're in the game and doping, lying is a way of life.
As for proof of Contador's guilt? Jaksche was obviously a former client of Fuentes' and one time in 2005 he saw the medication plan for the riders of the whole Liberty Seguros squad: "I recognized Fuentes' handwriting on the sheet. On the sheet there were nine initials, all corresponding to the nine riders from the former team. Next to RH (Roberto Heras) were the initials AC (Alberto Contador)."
One Piece Of Positivity, Maybe?
After Patrik Sinkewitz' booting, the whole T-Mobile clean team thing wasn't looking all that great, but according to Herr Jaksche, he thinks that was an isolated incident, and that the actions and steps taken by the T-Mobile squad are in the right direction.
He goes so far as to say that he "would put [his] hand in the fire for the rest of the team," meaning - he believes that the rest of the team is clean clean clean.
It helps with the veracity of Jaksche when he notes certain positive aspects as well as his well-known whistle-blowing efforts of late.
As for Sinkewitz - his B-Sample test will be up in a few days time, and there's speculation that Sinkewitz might come out completely in the hopes of getting a reduced sentence by doing a tell-all, much like Jaksche did. For Sinkewitz, this would be a smart thing - he's still very young and there's a lot of racing still to be done if he so chooses.
Tour Money!
They don't race for free, and there's money aplenty to be had at the Tour de France for able-bodied riders and teams, and at the end, it's worth taking a look at the race winnings of the squads after three weeks of the hardest racing on the planet.
You'll notice three teams are not on the list: Astana, Cofidis, and Rabobank. Astana and Cofidis will apparently not receive a penny due to their exits from the Tour amid scandal. Rabobank's winnings are being held for the moment as Tour organizers wait for an official UCI stance on what exactly will become of Michael Rasmussen. And one wonders, what will become of Rasmo?
Vaughters Going Big
Slipstream director, Jonathan Vaughters, has grown his team into an already impressive squad, but there appears to be no end in sight for just how big the team will go... Vaughters spoke with EuroSport a few days ago, and fellow EuroTrasher, Matt Conn, was ready with pen in hand:
In speaking with EuroSport, Vaughters has continued with the theme that until September 1 he is bound by the UCI not to announce signings unless he has the permission of the rider's current DS....
“David Millar, Dave Zabriskie and Christian Van de Velde are definitely coming to the team. We have also signed a recent Paris Roubaix winner and group of great up and coming young Americans that will form the core of the team. We had the opportunity to sign some bigger names, but we wanted people who will really buy into the concept of the team.”
I'm very interested to see the final roster for the 2008 Slipstream squad. Will they be Tour bound? At the very minimum, they'll be seeing some serious ProTour time with that line-up.
Levi's Penalty
VeloNews has an interesting little piece on the what could have been concerning Levi Leipheimer. As we all now painfully know, Levi was a scant EIGHT seconds behind Cadel Evans in the race for 2nd, and not too terribly much further behind his teammate, Contador.
If we go back about a week to Stage 12, back to the Alps, en route to the stage finish in Tignes. On the long descent of the Roselend, Levi's chain came off and wrapped up in his rear derailleur. He made the rest of the descent on freewheel alone, but had to stop to get a new bike, had some more problems, and eventually began the lengthy chase back on, and of course he got the welcomed, appreciated bidon pull for some bit of it. Unfortunately for Levi, the commissaires were watching, and they were cracking down, and Leipheimer was nailed for 50 Swiss Francs, 5 points, and 10 seconds on general classification.
"If it was for the win, it would have been more heart-breaking. We have two stage wins, the yellow jersey, the white jersey and two guys on the podium. I think we can be happy with this Tour."
Mr. Leipheimer doesn't seem to have too much luck with these overall positions on GC does he? I won't even mention a few years back when he got Vino'd on the Champs Elysees to lose his top 5 overall spot. I guess I just did mention it.
Petacchi Makes His Return
Alessandro Petacchi will make his comeback following his tightrope walk with a one-year suspension for his asthma meds this week.
Petacchi was cleared of any wrongdoing last week amid little fanfare (the Tour de France WAS going on after all), and now is getting ready to resume what has been a great season - remember that Giro? Fantastic.
Ale-Jet will start anew at the post-Tour crit in Graz, Austria Tuesday night, which will also interestingly enough be attended by none other than Petacchi's arch-rival, Robbie McEwen.
Welcome back Ale.
Updated ProTour Standings
Alberto Contador obviously took a monstrous leap up the ProTour standings with his unbelievable Tour de France victory, but
01. Danilo Di Luca (ITA/LIQ) 207
02. Alberto Contador (ESP/DSC) 191
03. Cadel Evans (AUS/PRL) 174
04. Alejandro Valverde (ESP/CEP) 165
05. Davide Rebellin (ITA/GST) 157
06. Kim Kirchen (LUX/TMO) 129
07. Vladimir Karpets (RUS/CEP) 115
08. Damiano Cunego (ITA/LAM) 112
09. Oscar Freire (ESP/RAB) 95
10. Christophe Moreau (FRA/A2R) 88
11. Tom Boonen (BEL/QSI) 87
12. Frank Schleck (LUX/CSC) 86
13. Andy Schleck (LUX/CSC) 81
14. Stuart O'Grady (AUS/CSC) 79
15. Levi Leipheimer (USA/DSC) 77
Tour Stage Winners
It has been such a long three weeks since the Tour started...Fabian Cancellara's Prologue win seems eons ago. Let's look back over the stage winners from start to finish, along with some notable asterisk's.
Prologue, London, 7.9 km Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland/ Team CSC)
Stage 01, London to Canterbury, 203 km Robbie McEwen (Australia/ Predictor - Lotto)
Stage 02, Dunkirk to Gent, 168.5 km Gert Steegmans (Belgium/ Quick Step)
Stage 03, Waregem to Compiegne, 236.5 km Cancellara (Switzerland/ Team CSC)
Stage 04, Villers-Cotterets to Joigny, 193 km Thor Hushovd (Norway/ Credit Agricole)
Stage 05, Chablis to Autun, 182 km Filippo Pozzato (Italy/ Liquigas)
Stage 06, Semur-en-Auxois to Bourg-en-Bresse, 200 km Tom Boonen (Belgium/ Quick Step)
Stage 07, Bourg-en-Bresse to Le Grand-Bornand, 197.5 km Linus Gerdemann (Germany/ T-Mobile)
Stage 08, Le Grand-Bornand to Tignes, 165 km * Michael Rasmussen (Denmark/ Rabobank)
Stage 09, Val-d'Isere to Briancon, 159.5 km Juan Mauricio Soler (Colombia/ Barloworld)
Stage 10, Tallard to Marseille, 229.5 km Cedric Vasseur (France/ Quick-Step)
Stage 11, Marseille to Montpellier, 182.5 km Robert Hunter (South Africa/ Barloworld)
Stage 12, Montpellier to Castres, 178.5 km Boonen (Belgium/ Quick-Step)
Stage 13, Albi, 54-km time trial ** Alexander Vinokourov (Kazakhstan/ Astana)
Stage 14, Mazamet to Plateau-de-Beille, 197 km Alberto Contador (Spain/ Discovery Channel)
Stage 15, Foix to Loudenvielle, 196 km ** Vinokourov (Kazakhstan/ Astana)
Stage 16, Orthez to Col d'Aubisque, 218 km * Rasmussen (Denmark/ Rabobank)
Stage 17, Pau to Castelsarrasin, 188.5 km Daniele Bennati (Italy/ Lampre)
Stage 18, Cahors to Angouleme, 211 km Sandy Casar (France/ Francaise des Jeux)
Stage 19, Cognac to Angouleme, 55-km time trial Levi Leipheimer (U.S./Discovery Channel)
Stage 20, Marcoussis to Paris, 146 km Bennati (Italy/ Lampre)
* Rasmussen was sacked by his team Rabobank after stage 16 for lying about his whereabouts in pre-Tour test period, an allegation the Dane denies. ** Vinokourov failed a dope test after winning the 13th stage time-trial and was sacked by his team Astana when the result emerged three days later. The Kazakh denies blood doping. (Reuters)
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