There’s a TT and big mountain still to come in Le Tour, which might just be enough for Astana to grab a 2nd and 3rd on the podium to go with Bert’s likely win. Plenty to look at in today’s Trash including the Tour news wrap-up and a tale of a Goose from Italy. Foie Gras anyone?
Astana’s “Great Day”
Oh Boy! Here we go. While it could be argued that Contador did the perfect job in yesterday’s 17th stage, from Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Le Grand-Bornand, by putting time into the time trialers and opening up the gaps on GC, the fact that two of the guys he gapped were on his own team and are now down a few spots on the GC, means that there have been some very terse comments floating about in cyberspace in the past 12 hours or so.
Astana Team Manager Bruyneel expected Schleck-Squared to want to put as much time between themselves and the superior time trialling abilities of Brad Wiggins on the stage and felt there was no need for Contador to attack, saying after the stage, “I had advised Alberto not to go because he didn’t need to go. He didn’t need to go because it was clear that the Schlecks would go full gas to the finish.”
After the race, where the only clear thing about what went on in the stage was that Klöden had been dropped by Contador’s attack, the Spaniard had his tactics (once again) questioned by Armstrong and now Leipheimer in the very public forum of their Twitter accounts. When he got his chance to put his side of the story Contador said that he had actually spoken with Klöden about the possibility of going alone and the German said he has feeling OK and that Contador could go. Te Astana press release mention’s Klöden ‘bonking’ (going hunger flat).
I’m sure that there were no hard feelings between any of the team mates after the race. After all, as we are constantly told, the internal conflict is figment of the media’s imagination.
Silence At Silence
Cadel Evans hasn’t been having the best of Tours. First, one of the men signed to guide him through the race this year, Thomas Dekker, was thrown off the Tour before it started due to a non-negative EPO test result. Then, due to a combination of punctures and crashes, Silence Lotto lost three minutes in the fourth stage TTT, which means Evans was well behind the other GC contenders before the race proper even started. Throw into the mix, his day on Sunday which he himself described as his worst day ever (from any year) in the Tour and then Tuesday’s comments that his problems were not physical or mental, but his professionalism prevented him from speaking about it in public.
From that we can maybe interpret that all is not harmonious in the Belgian Team. Throw into the mix the super performance of home grown talent, Jurgen Van Den Broeck and there has been a serious shift in attention from their podium proven Aussie to their potential great new talent.
“Jurgen is no longer a helper,” said team sponsor Marc Coucke, “A Belgian who can do this in a Belgian team deserves to the leader. Whether that is with, beside, above or below Evans, we will see.”
After another tough day in the mountains, Cadel is currently in 32nd place on GC (at 37.06 down) and Van Den Broeck is in 17th, 17.23 behind the yellow jersey.
Green With Envy
‘Get yourself some laundry powder Thor!’ Is maybe not what Mark Cavendish meant when he said “That green jersey is always going to have a stain on it”.
There seems to be a bit of ill feeling over Cavendish being relegated on the stage 14 finish where he was penalised for moving off his line and impeding the Norwegian.
After a few days last week when Big Thor made his feelings felt to those non-green jersey contenders, who dared sprint him for stage placings, The Big Guy hit back at Cavendish and his comments with a devastatingly delivered low blow yesterday: He said nothing but attacked out the peloton, taking advantage of the fact that while Cav is faster in a drag race, the man who is twice his size can actually out-climb him. Hushovd set off in pursuit of the two sprints that were on offer and picked up both of them (almost coming unstuck on a wet descent in the process).
It was a classy response and means the Cervélo rider has extended his points lead by 12. He is on 230 while Cavendish is still on 200.
"Today everything just felt perfect. I attacked over the first climb, did a good descent and then had an amazing day in the front," Hushovd said. "I think this is the best day I've ever had on the bike. Maybe I was making a statement, but at least I've got more points in case something happens in the coming days. If I win the jersey by 10 points, I can say that I had built a sufficient buffer on this stage to Le Grand Bornand."
Sastre Suffers
It was a mixed day for Cervélo, with Carlos Sastre making his move on a day that was just as he liked them: Hard from start to finish.
“I went out with the intention of going for the lead on Col de Romme, because although the race was actually going really fast, I was perhaps the one who was best suited to the nature of this pass because of my conditions and my way of riding. I didn’t think twice and tried to make a move right at the bottom. I had a bit of help from my team mate Thor, who helped me out for a few metres, but they were coming up fast from behind and after trying to make a move on several occasions I couldn’t keep up with the pace and had to shift back into my own gear and try to finish the stage as well as I could at my own pace. I tried not to waste too much time with them because I knew today that my chances in this Tour had come to end.”
The defending Tour champ finished the stage nearly eight minutes down and even if he rips the field to pieces on the Ventoux, there is no way he will be able to regain the 11 minutes he is behind on GC.
“Congratulations to Alberto. He’s proved to be a strong leader. And well done to his team too, which has managed to control the race with ease. Now we’re coming to the end of this Tour de France and I’m going to try and finish it with the same enthusiasm as when I started it.”
Menchov Mashes Himself
On a day at the Tour de France when the Giro d’Italia came in for LOTS of discussion (more on that later), Giro winner Menchov repeated the little act he pulled in that finishing time trial of the Italian Grand Tour.
While trying to salvage some stage glory out of a so-far unremarkable Tour, the Russian was in the main break of the day, but while descending in the wet, both he and Txurruka bit the dust (actually, as it was wet, it was mud they were biting) on the same corner that Hushovd had brushed the barriers around while riding with one foot out.
The Russian was able to continue and while entering the town at the bottom of the drop, and almost back in the group, his front wheel slipped out from under him on a right hand bend as he rode across a pedestrian crossing and down he came again .
Up again and away (I think his team mechanic actually travels on top of the car with the spare bikes and they have these things down to a fine art) only to have to stop for a third time in 10km to change a rear wheel. Not sure which mirror he broke or whose black cat he ran over, but I think the big Russian probably feels he has had more than his fair share of bad luck in this Grand Tour.
Jens Voigt
It was a horrifying sight to see the likeable German Jens Voigt get high sided by his bike at speed on the early stages of Tuesday’s descent of the Col du Petit Saint Bernard. Instead of the usual roll and tumble, Voigt dragged his head and face along the ground while the sparks flew out from under his bike.
After being airlifted to hospital, the German was diagnosed with a fracture of the cheekbone, but was able to send a message of motivation to the team, saying, “I think I was very lucky not getting severely hurt from today's crash. Now I hope that you can focus on the race and I wish you all good luck with the hard stage tomorrow.”
Rest Day 2, Mon July 20: Verbier Stage 16, Tue July 21: Martigny to Bourg-Saint-Maurice , 159km: Astarloza scored the first win of is pro career by hitting his breakaway companions, just as they were being caught from behind. Nico Roche and Van Den Broeck impressed again and Contador ‘rested up’ for the Stage 17 epic.
Stage 17, Wed July 22: Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Le Grand-Bornand, 169.5km: It was Schleck Squared and Contador who came off the top of the last mountain together and after a “conversation” on the descent between the three, older brother Frank took the stage win ahead of the yellow jersey. Back out the road were Wiggins, Armstrong, Klöden and Nibali, while at the start line the knives were being sharpened over Bert’s attack that offloaded his ever-silent teammate Klöden from the front group.
Today’s Stage Stage 18, Thu July 23: Annecy - Annecy (ITT), 40.5km: It’s the TT today and Brad Wiggins will be gunning to bring back Schleck Squared and secure his first ever Tour podium (although a top ten would still be bloody fantastic). The word on the street in Annecy at 10.00am local time is that there are lots of clouds and lots of wind. The skinny boys better watch out!
DiLuca Positive In Giro
So, what was the Giro Chat at the Tour de France that I mentioned earlier all about? Well it seems the UCI have finally caught up with another one of “the usual suspects”, with the announcement coming yesterday that Italian rider Danilo DiLuca, twice tested positive for CERA on his way to finishing second at this year’s Tour of Italy.
Long a suspect in dodgy training methods (suspended for his relationship with discredited doctor Santuccione and let off due to lack of evidence after a night raid at the 2007 Giro –which he won - made it appear that he had the same hormone levels as a 7year old boy), DiLuca was informed of the suspension yesterday.
“The decision was made in response to a report from the WADA accredited laboratory in Paris indicating an Adverse Analytical Finding of Recombinant EPO (CERA) in blood samples collected from him at the Giro d’Italia on 20 May and 28 May 2009,” said a press release from the UCI.
DiLuca had been specifically targeted in testing and earlier this year both he and the UCI denied publically that he was under investigation when rumours leaked that he would soon be named as a BioPassport suspect.
Di Luca responded to the news by saying, “Why would I be so stupid to take CERA a year after Sella, Ricco and Rebellin and why at the Giro?” He also said, “For me it is important to have the counter analysis done in another laboratory and not in Paris,” seemingly grasping at that straw we have heard more than a few time recently of “That lab in Paris don’t know what they are doing because they keep catching all of these ‘innocent’ cyclist”.
What came next in his response to La Gazzetta dello Sport was perhaps the strangest thing he could have said.
“If the counter analysis is [also] positive, then I will retire.”
Um? Excuse me? Why not, “If the counter analysis (completed at a different lab) turns up positive I shall fall over in shock as both places will have made the same mistake. I am innocent!”
As for Danilo DiLuded’s question of why would he take something that there is a know test for: Is it possible that riders using CERA have been tested in the past and continued to get away with its use? Maybe they have been under the impression that their method of use is the right way to avoid detection. After all, Ricco said of his two positive tests at the Tour de France, he found it strange that of all the times they controlled him in the race, he was only judged positive twice.
New Giro GC anyone?
1. Denis Menchov RUS RAB 86:03:11 2. Danilo Di Luca ITA LPR 0:41
2. Franco Pellizotti ITA LIQ 1:59
3 SASTRE CANDIL Carlos ESP CTT 3:46
All Change At Astana
It hasn’t been a great season in terms of “future stability” for the Astana Team this year. First there were the unpaid salaries, the questions over the sponsors ability to top up the UCI bank Guarantee, the ‘faded jersey’ design at the Giro, the rumours of Armstrong and Bruyneel going there own way prior to the Tdf (and Contador’s rumoured move to Garmin), then finally came the announcement from a certain A. Vinokourov on the eve of the Tour that basically went along the lines of “I bring the money so when I come back, I call the shots”.
Astana Team manger Johan Bruyneel, told Sporza on Tuesday of this week that this would be his last Tour as manger of Astana and yesterday when pushed on the likely composition of a new team said that there was little chance that Contador would be going with him and Armstrong.
Armstrong has also informed his faithful followers that he would be making an announcement Thursday (today) about just who would be backing the new Bruyneel/Armstrong squad in 2010.
There have been various names bandied about (from Nike, to Livestrong, Oracle, Google etc) but all will be clear by the close of business today.
Before Armstrong’s official announcement, there are some seemingly credible rumours being reported at cyclingfans.com, with Radio Shack being put forward as the new main sponsor of the squad. While an Oracle / Cycling related domain name had been registered yesterday, it seems it was not linked back to the company itself. Teamradioshack.com has also been recently registered and it seems the domain name is owned by CSE Cycling of Austin Texas, which is the company of Armstrong’s agent Bill Stapleton.
Stay tuned for more.
Super-Duper Week
There’s been three races since we last checked in and despite the podium of the ‘double-points’ road races eluding him, Fly V/Australia’s Bernard Sulzberger is still a-top the leader board in the cashed up US series. Monday’s Wheel & Sprocket Whitnall Park Road Race was taken out by Team MTN’s Juan Van Heerden with Garmin’s Dekkers picking up valuable points for his challenge to the lead with a third place and then on Tuesday, Sulzberger was back on the podium for the Criterium. The Columbia St. Mary's Cedarburg Cycling Classic p/b WDSC was won by Andrew Bajadali (Kelly Benefit Strategies) but with Fly V/Australia’s Cantwell in second and Sulzberger in third, the Australian outscored all of his series lead rivals.
Yesterday’s AltoLab Lake Front 150km road race (presented by Hincapie Sportswear), threw up another “new” name (in terms of the current series, at least) in Team Ouch’s 2005 series winner, Karl Menzies. The big-gear-riding Aussie beat Heath Blackgrove to the $400 first prize, also riding away with the double points on offer to leave Sulzberger’s series lead intact (and if I mention Sean Sullivan in 9th place in the race, I have snuck in each of the three Tassie boys to one paragraph!!).
There are four more races remaining in the 2009 series with Garmin’s Hans Dekkers still the biggest threat to the series lead.
1. Bernard Sulzberger (Fly V Australia) 238
2. Hans Dekkers (Garmin Slipstream) 211
3. Jonathan Cantwell (Fly V/Australia) 171
4. Andreas Muller (No Radunion) 163
5. Jay Thomson (Team MTN) 155
6. Christoff Van Heerden (Team MTN) 142
7. Carlos Vargas (Hotel San Jose/RGM Advisors) 119
8. James Stemper (Team Geargrinder) 113
9. Juan Van Heerden (Team MTN) 111
10. Chun-Kai Feng (Team Exustar) 107
Brixia Tour
Giampaolo Caruso (Ceramica Flaminia) is leading Brixia Tour ahead of Francesco Failli (Acqua & Sapone) and Luca Solari (Serramenti Diquigiovanni) after the race’s first two stages on the split opening day.
Caruso won the afternoon’s 86km split-stage, from Prevalle to Mezzane Di Villanuova sul Clisi, beating Failli, (second at 8sec and Solari, third at 11sec) on the final climb of Mezzane.
Earlier in the day, Mattia Gavazzi won the 117km stage from (Orzinuovi-Orzinuovi), beating LPR’s Alessandro Petacchi and Andrea Grendene (Lampre).
Tour Of Britain Teams
The organisers of The Tour of Britain announced the names of nine out of the 16 teams that will be taking part in the 2009 edition that begins in Scunthorpe on Saturday 12 September and finishes eight days later in the centre of London on Saturday 19 September.
The teams confirmed so far are: AG2R La Mondiale, Agritubel, Barloworld, CandiTV – Marshalls Pasta, Team Columbia – HTC, CSF Navigare, Team Halfords Bikehut, Rapha – Condor, Topsport Vlaanderen.
The names of the individual riders taking part in The Tour of Britain from each team will be announced closer to the event in September.
More Italian Suspensions
Here’s some other quirky suspension news from Italy. In the wake of the jersey dramas that Pippo Pozzato encountered with his Katusha-styled Italian Champion’s jersey not meeting the high fashion standards of the Italian Cycling federation hierarchy (he was told to get a new “more traditional one2 or be suspended), comes the news that last year’s champ Filippo Simeoni has been suspended for four months by his federation for having the right jersey, but not wearing it.
Simeoni felt that his Ceramica Flaminia-Bossini Docce team should have been invited to ride the Centenary Giro (partly because the race should have had the current nation champ in it) and when they weren’t selected, he made a symbolic gesture of retuning his jersey to the national federation in protest and raced up to the national championships in his normal team colours.
While at the time, there were accusations that Armstrong’s participation in the Giro may have kept Simeoni out (the two had a run in at the Tour in 2004), the organisers may now be wishing that they had given Ceramica Flaminia-Bossini Docce the ride instead of Danilop DiLuca’s LPR.
Oh well, at least by suspending Simeoni for this heinous crime, the FCI are finally showing they have moved on from the days of soft suspensions and lots of forgiveness and are handing out tough suspensions for riders who bring the sport into disrepute. I wonder if that means Di Luca will cop 100 years for his latest infraction.
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