There’s a whole load of racing in Italy and up north the Tour of Germany gets underway tomorrow. Alberto Conador finds he isn’t welcome in Hamburg but then neither are questions at his ‘press conference’ tomorrow. There’s news from the Swedish Champion, a host of world champions plus lots more from the two wheeled world in EuroTrash this Thursday.
Magnus is the Man for Slipstream
Big blonde Swede (and PEZ contributor) Magnus Backstedt has confirmed via an announcement on his website that he is indeed headed to Slipstream next year.
As reported in last Monday’s EuroTrash, team leader and former pro Jonathan Vaughters, made an announcement live on TV during the final stage of the Tour de France about several of his signings. In addition to confirming Christian Vande Velde, Dave Zabriskie and David Millar, he also said that he had signed a “former Paris Roubaix winner”, but that the world would be kept guessing as to their identity for just a little bit longer.
The smart money had been firmly on new Swedish Champ Backstedt, and yesterday he announced that he was leaving ProTour team, Liquigas, to take up a spot on the US continental squad.
“Hi Everyone,” Backstedt wrote to his fans, "as you might have heard there is a rumour that an ex Paris-Roubaix winner has signed with Team Slipstream/Chipotle for the next 2 years.
“I can today confirm that it is me who has signed!!!!!!”.
Backstedt’s open letter detailed the fact that his previous relationship with Vaughters, while the pair were at Credit Agricole, was the key to his move to the up and coming ProTour aspirants.
“I decided a while back that I needed a move and change of scenery for the future of my career. I was contacted by my old team mate in Credit Agricole Jonathan Vaughters, who is now running Slipstream and immediately I was very interested. One of the biggest selling points for me is the active work that the team is doing against Doping. I feel that the internal anti doping program they have and the public stance that the team has made against doping suits me very well.
“Another big point is that we have everything to ride for. We need to prove ourselves next year to get in to the really big races and anyone who knows me also know that I perform so much better under pressure, but the right kind of pressure.
“All in all I am so happy that I have signed another 2 year contract with a team that has a brilliant future and I can’t wait to get stuck in there.”
With Backstedt on board and Vaughters’ blossoming relationship with ASO, expect to see the plaid-clad boys with a wild card entry to next year’s Paris-Roubaix. Also with sprinter Julian Dean joining the ranks, the team is certainly not lacking in fire power should ASO grant them a wild card to what is their ultimate goal, a spot in the Tour de France.
Astana Taking a Beating: This Time Kashechkin
The Astana Cycling Team is having a month it would rather forget. As the team management does their best to put a ‘positive’ (sorry) spin on their Tour de France exit with a high profile training camp in the Swiss Alps, Andrej Kashechkin goes and pulls the rug from under their feet with the news that he has returned a positive test for a homologous blood transfusion.
Kashechkin was tested on August 1 in Belek, Turkey during a surprise out of competition test and is the second rider on the squad to return a positive A-Sample for a blood transfusion, following team leader Alexander Vinokourov’s dramatic exit from the Tour de France.
“The rider is suspended from the team with immediate effect while waiting for the analysis of the B sample,” read a team statement.
“Whereas the Astana Cycling Team makes great efforts to be rebuilt on new bases, the positive control of Kashechkin once more damages the credibility of the team. This new hard blow does nothing but reinforce the will of the Astana Cycling Team’s management to set up drastic measures for a clean cycling.”
The statement overshadowed the announcement earlier in the day by Astana, detailing their August 11-24 training camp in the Haut Valais, which was to be attended by 19 riders from the team.
“The schedule contains an intensive training programme, including the not always obvious exercise of a team time-trial.
“Various medical and physiological tests will be performed to monitor and control each cyclist’s progress as close as possible. At the same occasion the new directives of the team will be presented to the members of the Astana Cycling Team.”
The first statement finished by singing the praises of Skoda, the team’s vehicle sponsor, who have decided to stick with the squad, but also took a swipe at un-named bike sponsors BMC and clothing sponsor Craft, who have both walked away from their Astana deals.
“Unlike other suppliers, Skoda is willing to support a team that is fully committed to a new start.”
Presumably this new start will be put on hold until after the testing of Andrej Kashechkin’s B-Sample.
Crunch Time for T-Mobile Today
The cycling world will discover today at a press conference in Saarbrücken if Bob Stapleton will be losing his team’s naming rights sponsor, as T-Mobile announce their intentions for the future with regard to cycling sponsorship.
As one of the ProTour teams who are leading the fight against doping with their own in-house testing program, the T-Mobile team have surfed an up and down wave since the start of the year.
They have endured the lows of the confessions of former riders (racing under the “old” management structure led by Walter Godefroot) and glorified in the highs of Gerard Ciolek, Mark Cavendish and Linus Gerdemann leading the charge for the next generation.
After a great start to this year’s Tour de France, with Gerdemann wearing the yellow jersey, the withdrawal of Michael Rogers through injury was relegated to minor news as Patrick Sinkewitz tested positive and then confessed to using testosterone while at a team training camp in preparation for the French event.
With all of the negative publicity that sponsor T-Mobile has had to endure, there will be more than a few people crossing their fingers in hope that the forward thinking ‘clean team’ program continues in magenta for a few more years yet.
Watch this space.
Tour of Germany
After today’s announcement by T-Mobile, the Tour of Germany is either going to be a last hurrah for the long running sponsor or, more likely, the home soil chance to prove to all that the continuation of the team is the way forward for a cleaner sport.
T-Mobile are placing their hopes for the race on the shoulders of Tour de France stage winner and yellow jersey wearer, Linus Gerdemann, with sports director Allan Pieper saying that the German race will be a good chance for the team to see how the rider backs up from the Tour de France and also handles the expectations of his home press.
"Linus is still only 24, so it will be important for the team to see how he fares after the efforts of the Tour. Plus, it is his home race and there will be a lot of pressure on him now.”
Gerdemann will have some tough competition in his bid to win his national tour, in the form of CSC’s Jen Voigt who won three stages on his way to winning the 2006 event.
Voigt has played down his own chances, saying that the tougher course will make it harder for him to win, although with CSC the recently crowned top team time trial squad in the world, there will be other opportunities for him to gain a time buffer on the pure climbers.
The T-Mobile team will also have a strong presence in the sprints with the aim of taking home stages as well as their overall challenge.
"Gerald Ciolek and André Greipel are fresh and fast - and have both enjoyed stage winning success recently in Austria and Saxony, so they will be keen to add to their season tally,” said Peiper on the team’s website.
The decisive day of the event will be the fifth stage up the Rettenbachferner glacier in Austria. If the summit finish at 2,671m is not enough to smash the field to pieces, the fact that the road gains 1,300m of altitude in the final 12km, should be enough to make even the most petite pro regret having that extra gelato after dinner.
Pieper expects that T-Mobile’s experienced Italian and l’Alpe d’Huez stage winner, Giuseppe Guerini will fulfil the role of Gerdemann’s chaperone on the tough climb.
"Giuseppe will try to keep Linus up there with the best climbers on the glacier. If Linus can do well on that stage he has a chance to make a top-ten finish.”
As well as the Team Time Trial the Tour of Germany features a 33km individual time trial, which should give one last chance to the non-climbing chrono-men to peg back time lost in the mountains.
Stage 1: Saarbrücken - Saarbrücken (183.7 km)
Stage 2: TTT Bretten - Bretten (42.2 km)
Stage 3: Pforzheim - Offenburg (181.8 km)
Stage 4: Singen - Sonthofen (183.8 km)
Stage 5: Sonthofen - Sölden/AUT (157.6 km)
Stage 6: Längenfeld/AUT - Kufstein/AUT (175 km)
Stage 7: Kufstein/AUT - Regensburg (192.2 km)
Stage 8: TT Fürth - Fürth (33.1 km)
Stage 9: Einbeck - Hannover (143.1 km)
Camaiore Kicks Off Italian Week
Defending Champion Luca Paolini will be backed by a full strength Liquigas team in today’s 58th edition of the G.P. Camaiore.
The tough Tuscan semi-classic is the opening race in week of central-Italian events and is run over a course made up of two circuits, linked together by a bigger loop, giving the riders a total of just over 190km.
The five laps of the shorter circuit are based around the beach-side town of Lido di Camaiore while the other five circuits take in the local hills, passing through the start finish line and including a KOM climb each lap
Four ProTour teams will take the start in Camaiore with Aussie fast man Brett Lancaster leading the Italo-German Milram team and Italian Matteo Tosatto leading Quickstep. Unibet.com are also on the start line and feature a slightly race starved line up in comparison to the other top squads with Michal Golas and Marco Zanotti joined by Baden Cooke.
This year’s Tour de France wildcard revelations Barloworld, will be sending a small team of six with Britains Geraint Thomas hoping to capitalise on his post Tour legs to take a strong result in Italy.
The second leg of the big week of racing will be the Giro del Lazio on Saturday, followed on Sunday by the Trofeo Matteotti.
The Liquigas team’s embattled Giro d’Italia champ, Danilo Di Luca will take the start in all three events, as will team-mates Filippo Pozzato and Manuel Quinziato. Also from the squad, Camaiore local Francesco Chicchi will be hoping to carry the good form that saw him take two stages in the recently completed Tour of Denmark, into his home town event today.
Vuelta Aims to be Cleanest Grand Tour Ever
A raft of anti-doping measures by Tour of Spain organisers, in collaboration with the UCI, have been set out to try and prevent the third grand Tour of the year succumbing to the doping scandals that have plagued both the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France.
180,000€ will be invested in a program to combat doping with test scheduled for both before and during the September event.
All riders registered for the race will be eligible to be tested without notice throughout the month of August and then every rider taking the start will be screened via both blood and urine on the eve of the race start.
A team of 27, including doctors, analysts, technicians and anti doping inspectors will oversee medical controls detailing 30different parameters as well as urine tests to test for prohibited substances on the UCI and WADA lists.
"This proves the importance the cycling family and the Vuelta puts on the credibility of our sport. There is no other sport that makes as big an effort in this field as professional cycling," said race organisers, Unipublic.
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1st-23rd September
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For 21€ you'll get live streaming up to 1200kbs, "as live" re-run available in video on demand 1 hour after each stage and on demand highlights up 1800kbs.
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Rabobank Replaces de Rooij
The Rabobank Cycling Team announced this week that the interim head of the organisation would be the experienced administrator, Henri van der Aat.
Van der Aat takes over from Theo de Rooij who resigned last Friday following the team’s sacking of yellow jersey wearer Michael Rasmussen, during last month’s Tour de France.
The former Dutch national sailing coach told De Telegraaf for the coming three months his focus will be on the team, seven days per week, with his goal at the end of this time to bring calm and stability to the team’s sponsor.
Currently, an independent inquiry, led by former Dutch Olympic Committee head Peter Vogelzang, is looking into the details surrounding Rasmussen’s inclusion and subsequent exclusion from the Rabobank Tour de France team, on behalf of the sponsor.
Contador Not Welcome in Hamburg
German sporting administrators are continuing their tough, but at times hypocritical, stance against doping, this time with the Hamburg ProTour race stating that riders involved in the Operation Puerto investigation will not be welcome at their race.
Nothing new there, but this time they have specifically said that they will not be accepting the entry of Discovery Channel’s latest Tour de France winner, Alberto Contador. While it is only the initials “A.C.” that appear on Fuentes’ list of clients, the ongoing rumour and speculation has cast doubt in some camps about the legitimacy of the Spaniards recent Tour victory.
Meanwhile, VRT Nieuws report that Contador will be hosting the press tomorrow in Madrid to enable him to read a statement that may address some of the ongoing issues surrounding his time in the Liberty Seguros team.
The event will not be a press conference as such, as the journalist present will not be able to ask questions, however Discovery Channel Team manager Johan Bruyneel will be present when Contador makes his statement.
More Contract News
José Luis Arrieta will be staying on with AG2R Prévoyance in 2008 for his 15th year riding as a professional. Arrieta has spent all but the last 2 years of his amateur and professional career with the Spanish Banesto squad, in its various guises and transformations, but has now found a happy home at AG2R.
Also staying on with the French team is another rider on the retirement side of 35, Stéphane Goubert. The 37 year old Frenchman will be in his 14th year as a pro and his third year at AG2R when the season kicks off next year.
Not everyone in France is happy, however, with rival ProTour outfit, La Française de Jeux saying “thanks, but no thanks”, to Christophe Detilloux en Thierry Marichal.
The two Belgian riders will be looking elsewhere for employment in 2008, with only a few months of racing remaining to make their presence felt amongst the other team directors.
Junior World Track Champions
The track events of the world junior cycling championships have just wrapped up in Aquascalientes Mexico with the Australia team topping the medal table. The road races for men and women will be held today and the championships will conclude on the weekend with the road time trials.
Here is a quick run down then, of the new Junior World Track Champions. Say the names a few times over to yourself so that when some of them hit the big time not long from now, they should already have a familiar ring to them.
Men’s Track Champions:
Omnium: Glenn O'Shea (Australia)
Team Sprint: David Daniell, Christian Lyte and Peter Mitchell (Great Britain)
Team Pursuit: Jack Bobridge, Leigh Howard, Travis Meyer and Glenn O'Shea (Australia)
Keirin: Christian Lyte (Great Britain)
Scratch Race: Travis Meyer (Australia)
Points Race: Nikita Novikov (Russia)
Sprint: Thierry Jollet (France)
1000m Time Trial: Thomas Palmer (Australia)
Madison: Evgeny Kovalev (Russia) and Alexander Petrovskiy (The Russian)
Irish National Team Confirmed for Home Tour
- Press Release-
Cycling Ireland today confirmed the Irish team for the forthcoming Tour of Ireland professional cycle race 22nd 26th August. Cycling Ireland High Performance director Frank Campbell will manage a mixed team of youth and experience on the inaugural tour sponsored by Fáilte Ireland.
Nicolas Roche (Dublin/Juan Les Pins), Phillip Deignan (Letterkenny), Paul Griffin (Tralee), Brian Kenneally (Dungarvan) and Dermot Nally (Cork / Valencia) make up the experienced group who all have international cycling experience. Roche and Deignan ride for the Pro Tour professional French teams Credit Agricole and Ag2r respectively. Martyn Irvine (Newtownards)and Derek Burke (Tuam) are representative of the talent emerging through the under-23 ranks in Irish cycling.
Paul Griffin will be racing on familiar roads as the race travels through his home town of Tralee. His rise into the professional ranks with the Giant Asia team in 2005 was well overdue. Paul’s climbing ability continues to give him great results in tough races despite his 34-years. He has won the Irish hill climb championship for a record four times. Griffin finished seventh and ninth respectively overall in the Tours of Malaysia and Taiwan this year.
Dermot Nally is originally from Cork but lives permanently in Spain returning to Ireland for squad duty on the track and road. The 26-year-old was a semi professional for a number of years with the Costa de Almeria – Paternina and Columbia-Selle Italia outfits. He made the podium on three stages of the 2004 FBD Rás including winning stage three into Charleville.
Irvine rides for the Ards cycling club and has confirmed his form ahead of the 2.1 UCI ranked tour by taking victory in the Madigan Grand Prix road race earlier this month. The Newtownards man represented Ireland in this year’s FDB Milk Rás where he rode with Nally and Griffin. He was selected for the Rás team following good rides in the U23 National Team in the Tour of Picardie and the Liege- Bastogne- Liege road race which he followed up by winning the first stage in the Tour of Ulster.
21-year-old Burke rides for the Murphy & Gunn/Newell Group/M Donnelly/Sean Kelly cycling team and has been an Irish team regular since his formative days riding in the junior Tour of Wales. The youngster from Tuam, Co Galway has been in good form this year winning stage one of the Paddy Flanagan memorial race and taking the silver medal in the U-23 Irish road race championships.
Kenneally has been training specifically for the Irish tour. The Dungarvan man’s preparation has allowed him time to win the Eddie Tobin Memorial road race in Enniscorthy at the end of July. The myhome.ie/BDCB rider has had a successful season winning two stages of the FBD Insurance Rás and taking the overall victory in the tough Rás Mumham stage race.
Cycling Ireland CEO Declan Byrne is looking forward to seeing the Irish team in action when the 5-day race leaves Kilkenny on August 22nd heading for Dublin via five stages and 864-km of Irish roads. “Cycling Ireland are very excited to have both of the Irish Pro Tour riders on the team,” said Byrne: “Having Roche and Deignan on the team gives us some possibilities with results and it is good exposure for the Irish team too. It will also be great experience for our under-23 riders to ride in a race of this magnitude."
The official Tour of Ireland website can be found on www.tourofireland.ie
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