Astana make some big name signings, but what bikes will they be riding? Who’s the most victorious cyclist of the last three years? Who’s paid the most? Who’s the new head of the WADA and how long is Patrik Sinketwitz suspended for? For all the latest on these questions and more, it’s time to check out today’s EuroTrash!
Gusev, Rubiera And Horner To Astana
The migration from Discovery to Astana just goes on and on with Astana announcing that they have signed ex Discovery riders, Jose Luis 'Chechu' Rubiera and Russian talent Vladimir Gusev for next year.
After the signing of Gusev & Rubiera this week the ex-Discovery staff at Astana now numbers an amazing 11 with three managers (Bruyneel, Yates & Ekimov) and eight riders, Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer, Jani Brajkovic, Benjamin Noval, Sergio Paulinho, Tomas Vaitkus, Rubiera and Gusev.
Also announced at the same time by Astana is the big signing of Chris Horner (Predictor-Lotto) to the team where he will be vital support for the Tour de France hopeful trio of Leiphiemer, Contador and Kloden in the mountains. The 36 year old has 13 years experience as a professional rider in American, French, Spanish and Belgian teams and in the last two seasons, the American rider was of extreme help for Cadel Evans in the stage races. Horner is not just a team helper though, obtaining stage victories in the Tour of Switzerland and Tour of Romandy as well as numerous top 20 places in stages of the Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Flèche Wallonne and Paris-Nice.
Speaking on his latest signings, new team General Manager, Johan Bruyneel stated,
“With Astana’s new style we want to invest in riders for stage races as well as for one-day-races. We believe in Chris Horner. He will be of extreme value in the mountains for our leaders. Chris is extremely motivated to join our team. For us, the capacities of Rubiera and Gusev are known well enough. We are delighted that both riders kept confidence in the team staff. We are very ambitious. In the next days, we will announce more details about the Astana Cycling Team 2008.”
With these last three signings, the warnings to other teams are clear – the new look team Astana will be a real force to be reckoned with in 2008.
Trek To Astana Too?
With the new look Astana, basically becoming a new look Discovery squad – will Trek be coming on board also to replace BMC who quit Astana immediately following the Vinokourov & Kashechkin blood doping scandals?
According to sources inside Trek themselves, the company is looking at the prospect of either signing on once again with Johan Bruyneel and supporting his new look squad – or sitting out the year and then making a bid for another ProTour team for 2009. With at least 9 ProTour teams coming off bike contracts at the end of 2008, the field would be wide open for Trek to make a move for any one of these teams in 2009. Whatever the case though, both Astana and Trek have to decide soon as final sponsorship papers are due at the UCI by the end of this month.
Astana To Pay All Their Bills
Team Astana 2007 have, according to certain media reports, been a bit slow in paying some of their rider and employee salaries for this year with some riders claiming not to have been paid since September. The squad which is backed and funded by the Kazakh Cycling Federation (KCF) have released a statement confirming the recent problems this weekend and their commitment to pay all outstanding monies,
“The Federation assured that all financial obligations towards personnel and staff of the 2007 team will be fulfilled. Apparently, a certain number of Astana 2007 Team members did not receive all their salaries from the former team management (Zeus Company of former manager Marc Biver). As KCF did not have the exact information on outstanding debts, payments could not yet be made. As soon as clarity exists about the magnitude of claims - a complex affair due to impact of social security, taxes, etc. - all payments will be made by KCF in the forthcoming days.
KCF, that ended collaboration with Zeus due to mismanagement/lack of confidence, does not exclude to start a legal procedure against Zeus and/or Marc Biver.”
Fresh Faces In France
With last Thursday’s EuroTrash all about Italy, it’s only fair that this week we take a close up look just across the border in France at what is happening in the country of the World’s Greatest bike race – but not the World’s best riders these days…
To improve their standing in World Cycling all the big French teams are looking for young, fresh faces with ‘youth’ being the buzz word amongst the five big teams, Credit Agricole, Française des Jeux, Ag2r, Cofidis and Bouygues Telecom. Each team is taking on a minimum of two neo-pros for next year, with Bouygues Telecom and Cofidis taking on an impressive 5 neo-pros each, proving that they are truly committed to their ‘young, fresh’ talent theme. Bouygues are so committed to their youth policy in fact that they haven’t actually hired any ‘established’ pros this year – each new member of the team for 2008 will actually be a neo-pro.
Let’s take a closer look at the recruits of each team, their neo-pros and the reasons for their new signings – their departing riders:
Crédit Agricole :
• The recruits: Eric Berthou (FRA, Caisse d'Epargne), Simon Gerrans (AUS, Ag2r Prévoyance), Jeremy Hunt (GBR, Unibet.com), Maxime Médérel (FRA, Auber 93), Gabriel Rasch (NOR, Team Maxbo-Bianchi)
• The néo-pros : Ignatas Konovalovas (LIT, VC La Pomme Marseille), Julien Simon (FRA, SuperSport 35-ACNC)
• Departing Riders: Francesco Belloti (ITA, Barloworld), Anthony Charteau (FRA, Caisse Epargne), Julien Dean (NZL, Team Slipstream), Christophe Edaleine (FRA, Ag2r Prévoyance), Mads Kaggestad (NOR), Christophe Laurent (FRA, Team Slipstream), Benoît Poilvet (FRA, Bretagne-Armor Lux)
Française des Jeux :
• The recruits : Yaroslav Hutarovich (BLR, Roubaix Lille Métropole), Yoann Le Boulanger (FRA, Bouygues Telecom), Guillaume Levarlet (FRA, Auber 93), Gianni Meersman (BEL, Discovery Channel), Tom Stubbe (BEL, Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen), Jelle Vanendert (BEL, Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen)
• The néo-pros : Jérôme Coppel (FRA, CR4C Roanne), Yoann Offredo (FRA, CC Nogent-sur-Oise), Anthony Roux (FRA, UV Aube)
• Departing Riders : Guillaume Auger (FRA, retirement), Carlos Da Cruz (FRA, retirement), Christophe Detilloux (BEL, retirement), Johan Lindgren (SUE, retirement), Tomas Lovkvist (SUE, T-Mobile), Thierry Marichal (BEL, retirement), Bradley McGee (AUS, Team CSC), Fabien Patanchon (FRA, Caisse d'Epargne)
Bouygues Telecom :
• The néo-pros : Damien Gaudin (FRA, Vendée U), Perrig Quémeneur (FRA, Vendée U), Evgeny Sokolov (RUS, Vendée U), Yuri Trofimov (RUS, Moscow Stars), Sébastien Turgot (FRA, Vendée U)
• Departing riders : Laurent Brochard (FRA), Pierre Drancourt (FRA), Andy Flickinger (FRA), Yoann Le Boulanger (FRA, Française des Jeux), Didier Rous (FRA, Retirement)
Cofidis :
• The recruits : Florent Brard (FRA, Caisse d'Epargne), Samuel Dumoulin (FRA, Ag2r Prévoyance), Sébastien Portal (FRA, Caisse d'Epargne)
• The néo-pros : Alexandre Blain (FRA, AVC Aix-en-Provence), Jean-Eudes Desmaret (FRA, AC Besançon), Julien El Farès (FRA, AVC Aix-en-Provence), Didier Henriette (FRA, VC Saint Antoine-Gavotte), Rein Taaramae (EST, RO Saint-Amandoise)
• Departing Riders : Michiel Elijzen (PBS, Rabobank), Tyler Farrar (USA, Team Slipstream), Geoffroy Lequatre (FRA, Agritubel), Cristian Moreni (ITA, suspension), Chris Sutton (AUS, Team Slipstream), Bradley Wiggins (GBR, T-Mobile)
Ag2r Prévoyance :
• The recruits : Christophe Edaleine (FRA, Crédit Agricole), Vladimir Efimkin (RUS, Caisse d'Epargne), Cédric Pineau (FRA, Roubaix Lille Métropole), Tadej Valjavec (SLO, Lampre-Fondital), Stijn Vandenbergh (BEL, Unibet.com)
• The néo-pros : Tanel Kangert (EST, RO Saint-Amandoise), Alexandr Pliuschin (MOL, Chambéry CF), Jean-Charles Sénac (FRA, Chambéry CF)
• Departing riders : Samuel Dumoulin (FRA, Cofidis), Simon Gerrans (AUS, Crédit Agricole), Christophe Moreau (FRA, Agritubel), Carl Naibo (FRA, Team Differdange)
Who’s The Most Successful Rider?
Once again the guys at French website, Velo-club have had too much time on their hands as they have decided to search through all the UCI categorised races since 2004 in a bid to determine the most victorious cyclist of the last three years.
And the winner of this rather unique competition? Not surprisingly it was won by a sprinter, with Alessandro Petacchi taking the title with a total of 78 victories. In a top 10 dominated by sprinters, Petacchi took the win ahead of Tom Boonen on 66 victories and Robbie McEwen with 44.
Two non-sprinters appear in the top 10 with the surprising Damiano Cunego recording 29 victories over the last three years – the same number as Mr Aggressive, Jens Voigt. With all UCI catgeorised races from across the world counting for this competition, some of the names in the top 30 aren’t quite as well known as Petacchi and co. from the ProTour. High on the list of the ‘lesser knowns’ is the ‘King of Portugese Racing’, Candido Barbosa (21 victories) & recent UCI Asian Tour winner, Aussie Robert Mclachlan (18 victories). Most infamous name in the top 30? That title would have to go to Ivan Basso who with 17 victories makes it into the top 30 in equal 27th position.
Victories From 2004 to 2007 : The top-30 Riders
1 PETACCHI Alessandro 78
2 BOONEN Tom 66
3 MCEWEN Robbie 44
4 VALVERDE BELMONTE Alejandro 32
5 CUNEGO Damiano 29
5 GIL CORDOBES 29
5 FREIRE GOMEZ Oscar 29
5 VOIGT Jens 29
9 BENNATI Daniele 25
10 HUSHOVD Thor 24
10 BETTINI Paolo 24
10 GABROVSKI Ivaïlo 24
13 CANCELLARA Fabian 22
13 ZARADNY Piotr 22
15 BOZIC Borut 21
15 VINOKOUROV Alexandre 21
15 BARBOSA Candido 21
18 DEKKER Thomas 20
18 NAPOLITANO Danilo 20
18 SCHUMACHER Stefan 20
21 HONDO Danilo 19
21 SIMON Edgardo 19
23 HUNTER Robert 18
23 COOKE Baden 18
23 MCLACHLAN Robert 18
23 BOASSON HAGEN Edvald 18
27 BASSO Ivan 17
27 DAVIS Allan 17
27 VAN HEESWIJK Max 17
27 MIZBANI IRANAGH Ghader 17
Who’s The Best Payed Cyclist?
Ok, so we’ve worked out who’s the most victorious cyclist – but who earns the most? This was a question that French Belgian newspaper, Le Derniere Heure investigated this weekend with some surprising results.
The winner of this competition, which I dare say many would prefer to win than the above ‘Victories’ competition is Alejandro Valverde with just over 200,000 Euros per month for a total of 2.5 Million Euros per year. That’s more than 100 times the minimum salary for a professional rider set by the UCI!
Valverde rests on top of this classification just beating double World Champ Paolo Bettini (2.4 million Euros) and his well paid team mate, Tom Boonen (1.9 million Euros). Still not even in the same ball park as the tennis and golf players of our world, but when you look at the two salaries of these Quickstep stars you can quickly see how each ProTour team spends on average 80% of their annual budget just on rider’s salaries. Perhaps the big four French teams mentioned earlier above are not just after a new, younger aspect for their squads – but also a cheaper option?
Valverde Still In Hot Water?
On top of the rider salaries – but not on top of the world, according to several Spanish newspapers over the weekend who are claiming that the WADA are going to initiate proceedings against the Spanish cyclist this week in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland and ask for a two year ban over his alleged involvement in the infamous ‘Operation Puerto’.
Valverde has apparently hired the same lawyers that successfully fought against the UCI earlier this year which enabled him to start the World Championships in Stuttgart. Should the case go ahead as expected this week it could well drag out long into the new year with arguments expected to be a mostly technical legal affair rather than ‘cold facts’ based with Valverde arguing against the CAS’s legal grounding as he has been previously cleared by Spanish Authorities in the affair.
CSC Signs Another Strong Time Triallist
27-year old Swede Time Trial Specialist Gustav Larsson has had a good weekend this last weekend, as he spent the time signing a contract with the World’s Number 1 team, Team CSC for next season. The Swedish all rounder has had a great 2007-season – when he could actually race that is - with overall top-10 results in both the Deutschland Tour, Tour de Luxembourg and Tour Down Under, plus third place in the ProTour race, Eneco Tour.
”Of course I'm very happy with the contract with Team CSC and I look at it as a fantastic opportunity for me to develop as a rider. Looking from a distance in seems to be a well organized team with a big bunch of impressive riders. At the same time it looks like a team where everyone is working for a common goal and they're still able to make results for themselves as well. I am looking forward to meeting the entire team next week in Norway and to being a part of Team CSC.”
After having had some great results this year despite the whole debacle around his team (Unibet), what could Gustav actually do in a team that always gets invited to the big races? Obviously Bjarne Riis sees potential in the tall Swede, as he explained on Team CSC’s website,
”Gustav has a really interesting profile, and I think we can profit a lot from having him on the team. Apart from riding very well in the time trials he is also performing well in the mountains and he has impressed us this season by delivering strong results throughout the whole season. I think he will be a nice fit to the team and he certainly has a lot of potential for developing further.”
Sinkewitz Gets Reduced Suspension
Patrik Sinketwitz has finally received his suspension for testing positive to testosterone on June 8, 2007, with the BDR (The German cycling federation) handing down a significantly reduced suspension – thanks to Sinkewitz’s testimony and confessions in relation to doping in the cycling world.
Instead of receiving a full two year suspension Sinkewitz instead received a one year suspension backdated to when the positive was made public (July 17, 2007) along with a fine of 40,000 Euro. Sinketwitz has also been disqualified from this year’s Tour de France and the Tour de Suisse, and will have to return any prize money to race organisers that he earned at the two events.
With the backdating of the suspension, Sinketwitz will be free to ride from July 18, 2008 onwards – a sentence which most people are seeing as pretty light, although the rider himself is a little upset about the fine received,
"The uncertainty is finally over. I think I have been punished enough. I can live with the one-year ban. But the fine is a shock. I would have wished for a lesser punishment there.”
Fahey To The WADA
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has finally elected their replacement for outgoing President, Dick Pound with the man in the hotseat to be ex Aussie Politician, John Fahey. Fahey pledged on Saturday straight after his election win that he would,
“forge stronger ties with governments in a bid to enforce a new doping code and crack down more effectively on cheats.”
The election of Fahey as the new President wasn’t without controversy though as numerous European governments tried to block the election after their candidate resigned only weeks before the vote. This left Fahey as the only candidate – a situation that the Europeans weren’t happy with as they feel that Fahey will ‘go soft’ on drug cheats – a charge that Fahey has continuously denied.
Eventually Fahey was elected unopposed though for a three-year term starting on Jan. 1, and despite the fact that the complaining European nations abstained from the vote and are obviously critical of his posting, Fahey is looking forward to working with them in his role to help eliminate the scourge of doping from International Sport,
"I do not underestimate the task. I come from government and I hope to bring governments even more to the table than in the past. I believe there is a need to ensure that there is greater government commitment. Each of the Europeans in the room came to me (after the vote) and indicated they look forward to working with me."
Subjects Needed!
It is a common story that competitors at major championships have their chances ruined by digestive disorders. Countering this is a functional food, colostrum,
the milk produced in the first days after calving. Sourced from New Zealand¹s largest dairy, Neovite colostrum is supporting a clinical trial by research gastroenterologist,
Professor Ray Playford, FRCP, vice principal of Queen Mary's Medical School. He will investigate the link between competitive exercise and intestinal permeability (leaky gut) and whether colostrum can prevent this cause of upset.
Candidates take colostrum or placebo supplement for 2 weeks then change to the other for a further 2 weeks. At the end of each stage they run at a competitive pace on a treadmill. After the run, they take a drink with complex sugars that are not readily digested, sugars too large
to pass through a healthy gut wall. Urine samples are collected to see what proportion of these sugars enters the body and so calculate the increase in permeability.
The study is taking place at Kingston on Thames University¹s sports science laboratory, supervised by Dr Ross Sherman.
Initial results are very encouraging but more candidates are needed. Runners within range of Kingston can contact trials@neovite.com if
you¹d like to take part or know more.
Chris Selden lives down under in Palm Beach, Queensland, Australia - but spends his summers riding, racing and guiding cycling trips in Europe.
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