Four teams tested before stage 2 of Tour de France, all cleared to race
SAINT-BRIEUC, France: Four teams underwent blood tests before Sunday's second stage of the Tour de France and all 36 riders were cleared to race, organizers said.
The French Anti-Doping Agency, which is handling all the tests in France this year, tested riders from Lampre, Team CSC, Columbia and Saunier Duval.
Because of a long-standing dispute between Tour organizers and the International Cycling Union, the UCI is not involved in any testing at this year's Tour.
Copyright (c) 2008 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved
Contador takes lead as Sella wins 15th Giro stage
PASSO FEDAIA, Italy (AFP) - Spaniard Albert Contador of Astana took the overall lead in the Tour of Italy on Sunday after Italian Emanuele Sella of CSF won the 15th stage.
Sella triumphed on the day in the rain but the plaudits went to Contador, the reigning Tour de France champion, as he managed to negotiate the mountain stage from Arabba to Passo Fedaia including five steep climbs and concede just a handful of seconds to Italian rivals Riccardo Ricco and Danilo Di Luca.
Mountain specialist Sella made it two wins in as many days in the Dolomites to bolster a team which lost Argentine racer Ariel Maximiliano Richeze to a positive doping test before the event.
But CSF were smiling again after Sella's exploits - clad in the green of top event climber - and also a second stage place for Italian Domenico Pozzovivo.
Contador, whose team have had to recover from their own doping-related past woes, was ebullient after bagging the leader's pink jersey from Italy's Gabriele Bosisio, who saw his rival shred his narrow 5sec lead going into the day's action.
"It's great. I think it's a good time to get into the pink," said the Spaniard, noting a Monday time trial to come before a rest day and then two "calm" stages.
It could all have been so different as Astana were only invited to the race after Giro d'Italia organisers performed a dramatic u-turn and invited the Kazakh-backed team.
Contador and his teammates were initially and controversially not invited to either the Giro or the Tour.
Organisers of the Tour de France, run by the Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) said earlier this year that the doping scandals which plagued Astana at last year's race in France left them with little choice despite the team undergoing a mass clear-out.
Italian media suggested the Giro U-turn came as organisers felt Astana would send in a strong team in the absence of Tour opportunities later this summer.
Contador is therefore enjoying the moment.
"To be in pink is a real gift. I've had a lot lot of support from the public. Today, I appreciate this jersey all the more as I had not prepared myself for the Giro," he said.
And if the final triumph comes down to the wire and the final time-trial "that won't bother me," said Contador, though he admitted Ricco was still a major concern.
Sella won through after covering the 154km in 4hr 53min 24sec.
He broke away with teammate, Fortunato Baliani, as well as Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez, to lead through the gruelling Pordoi, San Pellegrino, Giau, San Tomaso Agordino and Falzarego climbs on the way to a difficult final ascent up to 2057 metres altitude at the finish.
Sella pulled away on the final climb at Fedaia to put more than two minutes between himself and Pozzovivo and Ricco, who came in third with Contador happy to come in 16sec further adrift alongside Gilberto Simoni as they finished joint fifth.
Copyright (c) 2008 AFP. All rights reserved.
South Africa announces junior Worlds team
The 2008 UCI Junior World Championships, in Cape Town from July 12 to 20, includes several top South African cyclists who will participate in track, road and time trial events.
The two South African Squads that will be competing against the world's best were recently announced by Cycling South Africa (CSA). The national female road team is made up of Michelle Corbett, Charlotte van der Merwe, Caitlin de Wet and Claire Matthews, with Lorine Jooste and Jeaun-Mari Breytenbach as reserves. The national male road team is Paul de Zweel, Tiaan Swart, Christopher Jennings, Johan van Zyl, Clinton Barrow, Rourke Croeser and Johan van der Merwe. Reserves are Willem Jordaan, Hendrik Kruger and Avery Arendse.
Michelle Corbett will ride the 14.1-kilometre time trial in Wellington, while Paul van Zweel and Tiaan Swart will tackle the junior men's 26.8-kilometre "race of the truth."
The riders who will compete at the Bellville Velodrome during the five-day track events are Michelle Corbett and Natasha Marang representing the females, while Evan Carstens, Gerrit Scheepers, Brandon Christiaans, George Stroebel, Clint Hendricks and Robert du Preez make up the male squad to represent South Africa. The reserve is Avery Arendse.
The time trials are being staged in Wellington, on Friday, July 18, on a closed circuit. The individual road races take place in the streets of Cape Town, on Sunday, July 20. The road race circuit route has a varied profile with some very tight corners, great long sprint sections as well as steep inclines - through the CBD as well as along the Foreshore and out towards the Southern Suburbs, along scenic De Waal drive and back. The total route for the men is 133.6 kilometres which means eight laps of the circuit. The women will complete five laps of the circuit, to make up the total distance of 83.5 kilometres.
Copyright Future Publishing (Overseas) Limited, a Future plc group company, 1995-2007. All rights reserved.
Nuyens has the world at his feet
After a successful Spring Classics campaign, which included a second place at the Tour of Flanders, Cofidis' Nick Nuyens has a luxury problem. Due to his good results he has a number of high profile teams chasing his signature for the 2009 season. His contract with French ProTour team Cofidis expires at the end of the season.
"Most of the big teams who are looking for a leader at the Classics have come knocking," Nuyens confirmed in Belgian cycling magazine Cyclo Sprint.
However the most successful Belgian team of the spring, with wins in Flanders and Roubaix, Quick Step is not among the teams Nuyens is contemplating. "If I signed for Patrick Lefevere it would mean taking a step backwards," he explained. "I don't want to do that. Riding for Lefevere means sacrificing your own chances for [Tom] Boonen and [Paolo] Bettini.
"I think that I have shown over the past few months that I can handle the role of leader," he added. "I have also shown that I can make a real team out of a bunch of individualists which is what Cofidis was. Cofidis has become very strong, and many are scared of us."
Nuyens has not ruled out the idea of re-signing for Cofidis. "The process has already begun," he revealed. "We will see what comes of it."
If he were to stay, the Belgian would like to see a big sprinter come onboard. "Both Thor Hushovd and Wouter Weylandt will be available," he said. "I have asked the team to make them an offer. Now we are riding for bread and water in big Tours. A sprinter would change all that."
Copyrigth Future Publishing (Overseas) Limited, a Future plc group company, 1995-2007. All rights reserved.
Germany over the top on anti-doping, says UCI chief
Reuters, Saturday May 3 2008
By Francois Thomazeau
AIGLE, Switzerland, May 3 (Reuters) - German media and sports authorities have gone too far in the way they publicise the fight against doping, International Cycling Union (UCI) president President Pat McQuaid has said.
"Anti-doping has become a big media show in Germany. They've gone over the limit," Pat McQuaid told Reuters after last week's decision by organisers of the Frankfurt Grand Prix to withdraw an invitation to Italian team Liquigas.
The UCI president warned that German cycling authorities would be asked to show restraint on the matter and stick to regulations.
The Frankfurt organisers rejected Liquigas after the Italian team refused to sign an anti-doping charter which exceeded the UCI rules.
Confessions by former leading riders such as Erik Zabel in the press last year shook Germany, whose state television decided to shun the Tour de France after doping cases involving German riders Matthias Kessler and Patrik Sinkewitz.
Kessler was banned for two years after testing positive for testosterone in April 2007 while riding for the Astana team and Sinkewitz was handed a one-year suspension last year after a positive test for the male sex hormone.
Since then, German team sponsors such as Deutsche Telekom or Gerolsteiner have left or are about to leave cycling.
Deutsche Telekom said they were withdrawing from cycling at the end of last season after the T-Mobile team went through a difficult year with the Sinkewitz affair and former team members confessing to using prohibited substances during the 1990s.
Discovery Channel, the former sponsor of seven-times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong also left the sport at the end of last season.
Cofidis, who had Italian Cristian Moreni testing positive for testosterone during last year's Tour, are unlikely to renew their contract at the end of the season.
(Editing by Julien Pretot and Clare Lovell)
guardian.co.uk (c) Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
Hannah stays "home" for 2008
2006 Junior World Champion and Current Australian National Downhill Champion Tracey Hannah made up her mind to sit out the 2008 World Cup Season. "This year I have decided not to attend the World Cup Series," said Hannah in a statement. "To clear up some things..., it is not because I do not love riding. I am not quitting. I am not finished with this sport."
"I arrived home from the 2007 racing season in September, with a large credit card bill and with perhaps the false expectation that after doing as well as I did I would be getting a better deal from sponsors - a deal that might cover my living expenses whilst I train 100%... This didn't happen."
"To the people that are working every day, and struggling to pay for bikes and gear and just want to ride, the offers I have received are awesome. To most people, I would be considered so lucky. I have had offers of all expenses paid to race World Cups, gear, bikes, accommodation, training facilities, etc. That's great! But it still costs me to race and I have less than no money."
"I have made the difficult decision to not travel this season because I am a professional. I want to be the best and if every effort is not getting put toward that then I must refuse these great offers. At the moment that is how it is, the sponsorship and support that is getting offered to female mountain bikers is less than what I need to be competitive."
Hannah started racing BMX when she was younger, including her first nationals at age 4.5. She commenced downhill mountain biking when she was about 12, following in the footsteps of her brother. "When I was 14, I raced my first MTB [Australian] National Championships. I finished with a second place in elite women. From that year on, [I] have been National Champion five times."
She started racing in the US four years ago, but stayed home for the 2005 season because she "couldn't fund two years in a row of overseas racing and the sponsors didn't offer the support that I needed." Instead, she focused on the Australian National Series and the Australian Championships.
2006 saw her back in America winning the NMBS. At the World Championships in New Zealand as a junior, she took home the gold medal and the right to wear rainbow bands for life. 2007 was her first year racing as an elite rider on the World Cup circuit and she won one round and took third overall plus earned third at the World Championships in Fort William, Scotland.
"There is not the support for the hard work and time spent training in the off-season. I am at home working everyday still paying off my credit card bill from racing overseas last season. Whilst still putting every effort, and time, that I have into training. It isn't working. Going at it like this is going half-hearted. If I am racing at a World Class level, then I must put every effort into working hard toward the top, because there is no time to waste when competing in a high class."
"To be the best in the world is a full time job. I don't want to go back overseas and come home with a second place knowing that I could have done more toward being number one. To race to my full and best potential it takes professionalism."
While she is off the World Cup circuit for 2008, she will keep busy, with an eye toward her future. "I am planning to do a Business Marketing course to learn how to sell brand 'Tracey Hannah', thus making me a better prospect to potential sponsors. I am continuing to put a lot of effort into training and working to pay my bills."
Hannah's candid announcement puts into light just how hard it can be financially to make a successful professional career off-road. "Athletes need the funds to support themselves in the off-season, just like it would be a job. I want to be overseas racing having put all my effort and hard work into being number one. I want to train and race to my full and best potential, and at this time it is not possible.
Copyright Future Publishing (Overseas) Limited, a Future plc group company, 1995-2007. All rights reserved.
A transition year for the Tour de Georgia
Tue, Apr 29, 2008 03:14 PM
by Scott Sowers
SUWANEE - After months of anticipation and hours of setting up the facilities that morning, Suwanee's participation in this year's Tour de Georgia was finished in a span of about 15 minutes.
Before throngs of fans, the riders bunched up near the starting gate anxiously awaiting the word to go. The gate went up and they were off to start stage 5. They made their way through Suwanee's Town Center Park, went north and looped back down Buford Highway a few minutes later to head south to McGinnis Ferry Road.
Then, the tour began packing up to make its way to the next starting point in Blairsville.
This year's event marked a decidedly different affair with the absence of the most prominent American cycling team over the past decade: Discovery Channel (which was called U.S. Postal during most of that time). Of course, Lance Armstrong was the name most associated with that team, but over the years other well-known riders have found themselves donning the jersey including Tyler Hamilton, Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer and George Hincapie.
Despite Discovery's Alberto Contador winning last season's Tour de France (giving the team eight wins in nine years) and Leipheimer placing third, Discovery pulled itself from cycling sponsorship. Now the riders have dispersed - Landis still serving a ban stemming from doping convictions from the 2006 Tour de France - but were there to compete.
"It's been an interesting year for us - more of a transitional year," said Chris Aronhalt, one of the directors of this year's race. "It's been a little tougher to draw fans because you have the absence of Discovery and the name recognition for the fans, but there are still plenty of the top riders here and it's been a good tour."
One face who had been a trusted lieutenant for Discovery for years is Hincapie. This year he finds himself competing on Team High Road, which is the continuation of the former T-Mobile team, one of the other major players in cycling over the last decade who also pulled out of the sport following last season.
"I like this new team and feel like we really have the chance to compete this year, our goal is to protect the yellow jersey and see what happens," he said minutes before the stage 5 start April 25.
Hincapie's premonitions were true as his teammate, Greg Henderson of New Zealand, held the overall race lead at the start of the day. By the time the peloton rolled into Atlanta to conclude the race two days later, High Road's Kanstanstin Siutso of Belarus stood atop the podium as champion.
"This feels great to wear, really makes me feel like a climber," said Henderson with a smile before the start in Suwanee. "I'm more of a sprinter so we'll see what happens when we get to the mountains."
Another familiar rider who was missing from racing the past few years was Tyler Hamilton. The 2004 Olympic Individual Time Trial Champion, Hamilton was later busted for doping following a positive test after the 2004 Vuelta a España, among other positive samples. He was banned for two years and last year returned to the sport. He returned to Georgia as a part of the brand new Rock Racing team.
"It's really awesome to be back on a bike seat. You get to see some of your old friends and all of the new riders. A lot has changed since I was last competing," he said.
Leipheimer continued his strong streak the last few seasons by finishing third in this year's Tour de Georgia, which adds to his list of recent accomplishments including winning the 2008 Tour of California, third in the 2007 Tour de France and the 2007 U.S. Road Race Championship, which allowed him to wear a red-white-and-blue jersey while competing this season for Astana.
"This is a really great race, you've got the flat places which are good for the sprinters and then the mountains, all contained within this stage race across the state," he said. "The Tour de Georgia is always one of the highlights for me since it's one of the country's biggest races."
Suwanee's staging of the event marked a perfect transition for the race to move to the mountains in the northern part of the state. A team time trial the day before at Road Atlanta made it just a short jaunt to Gwinnett County. Stage 5 made its way through Suwanee towards Johns Creek, then Cumming for a power sprint before it eventually ended in Dahlonega.
Mayor Dave Williams said that despite Suwanee's actual participation in the race being just the short start, the amount of build-up and excitement the race generated for his city was tremendous.
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