It’s Thursday again and there is a whole load of cycling for us to look at this week. We’ve got Track from Bremen, Road from Aus, Cross news from France via Italy, MTB from the UCI as well as Classics predictions, legal latests and more. Click on. Read on. Enjoy!
Just In: Tour Of Califormia Teams Announced!
LOS ANGELES, January 17, 2008 – A world-class field of 17 domestic and international cycling teams set to compete in the 2008 Amgen Tour of California was announced by AEG, owners and presenters of the upcoming cycling road race. Team CSC, the world’s No. 1-ranked cycling team; 2007 Amgen Tour of California winner Levi Leipheimer's new team, Astana; and Health Net presented by Maxxis, winner of USA Cycling’s 2007 National Race Calendar, will lead some of the world’s top cycling teams in the third annual race. The 650-mile, eight-day stage race runs from Palo Alto-Stanford University to Pasadena from February 17-24.
The teams:
Astana (LUX)
Bissell Pro Cycling Team (USA)
BMC Racing Team (USA)
Bouygues Telecom (FRA)
Crédit Agricole (FRA)
Gerolsteiner (GER)
Health Net Presented by Maxxis (USA)
High Road Sports (GER)
Jelly Belly Cycling Team (USA)
Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast (USA)
Quick Step (BEL)
Rabobank Cycling Team (Netherlands)
Rock Racing (USA)
Saunier Duval-Scott (ESP)
Team CSC (DEN)
Team Slipstream Powered by Chipotle (USA)
Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team (USA)
ProTour Ready To GO!
The official start to the UCI ProTour is this weekend in one of Australia’s premier wine producing regions.
In order to ease the riders into their long (loooooooooong) season, the stages of the race all start and finish within the immediate vicinity of the city of Adelaide, negating the need for long transfers and daily hotel changes.
All of the ProTour teams will be lined up for the Down Under classic on Sunday night, event though it doesn’t officially form part of the GC for the race proper. The real stages start on Tuesday, with the hardest day of the race coming on Saturday with 147kms worth of circuits through the hills around Willunga.
As the race is the first ProTour event of the season, the winner will take charge of the white leaders jersey until the Tour of Flanders in early April.
Here’s the low down on the local hopes from the event organisers:
Adelaide-born Paris-Roubaix winner Stuart O’Grady is the leader of Team CSC, the winners of the UCI ProTour team competition for the third consecutive season in 2007. O’Grady is the local hero of the race, especially after winning the race in 2001 and recovering from a terrible crash in the 2007 Tour de France.
His Australian rivals will include sprinter Robbie McEwen (Silence-Lotto), Simon Gerrans (Credit Agricole) and Graeme Brown (Rabobank). Major international competition will come from Philippe Gilbert (Francaise des Jeux), 2007 Tour Down Under winner Martin Elmiger (Ag2r) and former world champion Igor Astarloa (Milram).
2008 Tour Down Under
Sunday 20 Jan Down Under Classic Glenelg 50km
Monday 21 Jan Rest Day
Tuesday 22 Jan Stage 1 Mawson Lakes to Angaston 129km
Wednesday 23 Stage 2 Stirling to Hahndorf 148km
Thursday 24 JanStage 3 Unley to Victor Harbor 139km
Friday 25 Jan Stage 4 Mannum to Strathalbyn 134km
Saturday 26 Jan Stage 5 Willunga to Willunga 147km
Sunday 27 Jan Stage 6 Adelaide City Street Circuit 88km
Bad News from Spain
Courtesy of the one and only, Alastair Hamilton... 2002 Vuelta a España and Tour de France stage winner, Aitor Gonzalez has been in the news again in Spain. Last year he had a brush with the law as he was found to be drunk while in charge of a car, which resulted in a one year ban and a fine of over 1,000 Euros. This week Aitor was arrested by the Spanish National Police after he and others assaulted a real estate agent and his assistant. The case is waiting to heard.
Keisse And Bartko Take Six Number Three
Belgian rider Iljo Keisse has put his name on the winners board of the Bremen 6Day race for the first time in his career, with the all important help of his German Partner, Robert Bartko.
With three teams on the same lap coming into the final moments of the 6 night event, it was the eventual winners who put in an attack with only four laps to go to ensure that they held off the second placed German pairing of veteran Erik Zabel and Leif Lampater.
Bremen was the third win of the season for Keisse and Bartko, who had set the German event as one of their objectives at the start of the season.
French Worlds Cyclo-Cross Challenge
‘Less is more’ is the tactic being taken by part time French cyclo crosser, Francis Mourey in the lead up to next week’s world championships is Treviso, Italy.
Mourey prefers to think of himself as a road rider, but is confident that his form will be exactly where he needs it to be, to take on the dominant Sven Nys.
Even though the fourth year pro has only won one road race in his career at Française des Jeux, he still thinks of himself as a roadie first, saying in an interview with championships organisers that, “the Treviso circuit is ideal for a road rider like me. I’ve proved that with my victory in the World Cup race there in 2006 winning a sprint with Sven Nys and Erwin Vervecken. So I have a great ambition to do this World Championship.”
Unlike many of his competitors, Mourey will not be racing the World Cup round in Hoogerheide this week, instead taking a more relaxed approach to his worlds preparation.
“Let’s say that I’ve [only] made twenty races during the last months. So I must be fitter than Nys, Wellens and the other riders who did the whole circuit. That must be my advantage,” he added.
More Signings at CSC
You may remember a few weeks ago that we reported on a group of four uncontracted riders who were invited to the Team CSC training camp in Majorca? Well, it seems that Lasse Bøchman made a great impression with Mr Riis and and the 24 year old Dane has signed a contract for the season.
After performing beyond expectations at the camp, Riis decided to expand the team slightly and give the young rider a chance, saying on the team website that , “we weren't actually planning on any more additions to the team this year, but Lasse is simply too big a talent to pass up. He deserves to get a contract and I think, we'll get to see a lot more of him."
Bøchman rode as a stagiare for CSC last year but was not signed on as a result of is short stint in the big time, however, the young rider took the second chance he was given and made sure he impressed at the camp.
“I was well aware that it was now or never, so I was keen to do well during this training camp. I got the chance to do some races with the team last year, but as I didn't get a contract then, I was determined to be on absolute top form for the first camp,” said CSC’s newest signing,proving the age old saying of ‘if at first you don’t succeed…’
2008 Tour of Flanders Winner, Please Step Forward
Team training camps and presentations are a great chance for everyone to get a look at the new team strips and see some great pics of the 20+ strong squads rolling out for a ride (or parading across a stage).
As well as seeing how the team is shaping up, there is the chance for riders to have their say about the coming season and set out their objectives for the year. One such prognosticator is Silence-Lotto’s Lief Hoste, who has finished in second place in the Tour of Flanders three times in four years. Can you maybe guess his objective for 2008?
If you said the Ronde van Vlaanderen (that’s the Tour of Flanders in local speak) you would be spot on.
Speaking to the Gazet van Antwerpen from the team training camp in Portugal, Hoste has outlined just how much the most recent defeat has played on his mind over the past seven months and how he is looking forward to making amends for his loss to Ballan this year.
“I feel good now and I have the idea that I am stronger. My winter was perfect and the mistake I made against Ballan, I won’t make again.
“Silence-Lotto is also stronger in depth. Tjallingi and Gardeyn have joined and Van Avermaet is a year stronger. Everyone is good and motivated,” said the man aiming to add his name to a distinguished list if home town winners of DeRonde this coming April.
Cycle Collstrop At Odds Over Riders
There seems to be trouble brewing at Cycle Collstrop between the man who signs the cheques and the man who directs the team.
It seems sports director Hilaire Van der Schueren has some serious reservations about some of the names that have been bandied about for the squad that has been formed out of the ashes of the old Unibet.com team.
Van der Schueren has told Het Laatste Nieuws that he does not want to lead a team that welcomes ex-dopers with open arms and certainly doesnt want to read newspaper headlines that say “All doping sinners are welcome with Van der Schueren.”
The Belgian team leader did have a lighter view or riders who had been caught out, previously employing both Frank Vandenbrouke and Dave Bruylandts once they had served their suspensions, but says things have changed.
“Too much has happened since then. If I did the same these days, I would be immediately branded by the media.”
So, if Van der Schueren is calling the shots, no Jörg Jaksche, but the big boss at Collstrop, Jacques Hanegraaf, sees things differently.
His attitude is that as long as there is legal indecision with regard to a rider’s guilt, he can and will talk to anyone.
“As long as there is no clarity from the UCI, I will follow my initiative. I have already asked Andrej Kashechkin how it stands with his process. If he becomes free, I will immediately be at the table [to sign him],” Hanegraaf said.
More Blood Bank Back & Forth
Just as quickly as German TV station ARD can drop the names of cyclist allegedly involved with the Vienna laboratory at the centre of the latest doping probe, the cyclsist are coming forward to deny any involvement.
On Tuesday, ARD named embattled former Tour leader Michael Rasmussen, Michael Boogerd and Denis Menchov (all of whom raced for the Dutch Rabobank outfit in 2007) as being amongst the clients of the Humanplasma lab in the Austrian capital.
Both the IOC and German Olympic Committee are demanding to know which names are uncovered by the Austrian investigation, the list of which is said to include a number of top cross country skiers and biathletes.
Eurosport have reported the denials of all three of the cyclists alleged to be involved, with Boogerd saying, “I always wondered throughout my career whether I would be accused of doping. And now that it (career) is over, I hear this. It's put a black mark on my career.”
Menchov, who is the Rabobank team leader, said, that “it won't be the first rumour going around. (But) I don't know anything about this affair.”
And Rasmussen, who has left his home in Denmark for an undisclosed location and is not speaking to the press for the immediate future, was defended through a statement issued by his manager, Mads Rasmussen.
“It's not at all professional when certain media outlets report these kind of unfounded allegations, as ARD have. Michael Rasmussen has never been found guilty of doping. And each time there's a story linking him to doping it always comes to nothing."
Time will tell if it is just more unfounded mud throwing at some of the usual suspects, or if there is once again a case of guilty athletes being caught out, not by the doping controls at races, but by tip offs and police investigations, which then tend to drag on for months.
Some Answers For Pantani Family
The legal decision has come far too late to save Marco Pantani, but the man who stood accused of supplying cocaine to the Italian champion has been sent to prison.
Former disco manager, Fabio Carlino has been sentenced to four and a half years in jail and will have to pay 300,000 Euros in damages to Pantani’s family.
While lawyers for the family say that the matter is over, Italian sports daily La Gazetta dello Sport have quoted Pantani’s mother Tonina as questioning exactly what happened between February 9 2004 when her son acquired the cocaine and February 14 when he was found dead from a pulmonary and cerebral edema.
“There are still many mysteries,” she said. “Five days where there could have been other people and other substances.”
Pantani’s father asked that his son be respected in death, saying, “they speculated on my son when he was alive, they continue to speculate on my son also when he is dead. We want that he is respected, that he is re-valued.”
2008 Injury List Off And Running
AG2R’s Moldavian rider, Alexandr Pliuschin is on the in jury list after an accident that has left him with a badly broken collarbone and slight abrasions to the head. The rider suffered a fall while training in Switzerland on Monday and will miss the Tour of Langkawi in Malaysia in early February, where his spot will be taken by Cédric Pineau.
Pliuschin will undergo further examinations in the coming days to see if surgery will be necessary to repair the fracture and dislocation.
Specialized "Innovate Or Die" Winner
Press Release —Google, Specialized Bicycles, and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners—Bay Area companies that share a passion for innovation, technology and the environment—are excited to announce the winner of the Innovate or Die Pedal-Powered Machine Contest. The contest challenged participants to create a pedal-powered solution for offsetting climate change. When it comes to efficient energy use, the bicycle leaves all other modes of transport in the dust; for the same effort required to walk three miles, a person can easily travel 15 miles by bike.
In a matter of three months, contestants poured in from across the globe, ranging from one-time inventors to students at prestigious universities like MIT. Of the more than 100 qualified entries, ”Aquaduct: Mobile Filtration Vehicle” won based on environmental impact, creativity and design.
“Aquaduct” was the brainchild of five California-based design students who wanted to address the 1.1 billion people in the world who don’t have access to clean drinking water. The pedal-powered machine successfully transports and filters water without burning fossil fuels or wood, which contributes to a reduction in CO2 emissions. To see the winner and five runners-up, go to www.innovate-or-die.com.
"The diversity, creativity and potential impact of the proposals was impressive," said Dan Reicher, Director of Climate and Energy Initiatives for Google.org and former US Assistant Secretary of Energy. "I was interested to see if bicycle powered technologies could help address global problems like climate change and water pollution. These proposals convinced me that human brainpower can harness muscle power to help solve some of our biggest environmental challenges."
Olympic Offroad Spots Announced
Following on from last weeks report of the nations qualified for the cross country events for this years Olympic Games in Beijing, the UCI have announced how many riders each of the nations will be able to field.
In the men’s cross country event, which will feature the top 24ranked countries on the UCI standings, the top five nations will each have three riders, nations six through 13 (including the USA, Canada and Great Britain) will have two riders on the start and the remaining 11countries (including NZ and Australia) will each have one representative at the start.
In the women’s event where the top 18 countries qualify for the games, the top eight nations (including the US and Canada) will have two riders on the start, while the remaining 10 nations will have one rider each. Even though Australia and South Africa fall outside the top 18, they will each have one rider on the start thanks to continental qualifications.
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