First Edition Cycling News, Monday, July 27, 2009

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July 27, 2009, 03:00

• AFLD to re-examine some 2008 Tour urine samples

  

  Article published:

  July 26, 2009, 12:00

  By:

  Richard Tyler

  Bordry says French anti-doping agency looking for CERA

  The French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) will re-examine urine samples from the 2008 Tour de France according to comments made on Sunday by the agency's President, Pierre Bordry.

  "Before this year's Tour start in Monaco, we warned some 15 riders that in conformity with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code, we would analyze retrospectively (the) samples taken in the 2008 Tour," Bordry told Reuters.

  Reuters reported that the samples are being re-tested in order to detect traces of doping products, in particular the third generation EPO variant, CERA. Bordry did not name the riders whose samples will be re-tested.  The re-testing is expected to be carried out in September and October.

  In previous testing, four riders from the 2008 Tour de France were positive for EPO CERA: Bernard Kohl, Stefan Schumacher, Ricardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli.

  "Our decision is based on a number of indications we obtained from various sources," said Bordry.

  The AFLD President also told Reuters that the re-testing is not related to the biological passport program of the International Cycling Union's (UCI). According to Bordry the French agency has no access to that program's data.

  Bordry's announcement comes after he told French newspaper Le Figaro that he believes new doping products may be in use in the peloton.

  The AFLD and UCI worked in tandem to conduct doping controls at this year's Tour de France. As of the final stage of racing, no riders have been announced as testing positive in this year's edition of the race.

• Tolleson hospitalised in motorcycle accident

  

  Article published:

  July 26, 2009, 15:58

  By:

  Kirsten Frattini

  Other driver fled scene

  BMC rider Taylor Tolleson was hospitalized on Thursday after a car crashed into the back of him while he was riding a motorcycle on Highway 1 just outside his hometown of Santa Cruz, California.

  An unidentified driver in a 1998 Audi hit Tolleson from behind, according to police reports. He was subsequently dragged for 300 feet along the road way. He was airlifted to the San Jose hospital where doctors determined that he suffered a concussion, a fracture to his L1 vertebra, extensive abrasions and several significant lacerations.

  "As of Friday night, Tolleson was fully conscious, lucid, and moving well enough to indicate that his joints did not suffer significant damage," BMC directeur sportif, Chilcott said. "At this point it is believed that he will be able to make a complete recovery.

  According to Gavin Chilcott, the driver was believed to have been intoxicated at the time and fled the scene of the accident. As of Friday, the driver of the car had not been apprehended.

  "With the input of the team physicians, Taylor is currently determining the timeline for resuming his training. His girlfriend Meghan and his family are there with him."
   

• Rivera moves to the fast lane in American sprinting

  

  Article published:

  July 26, 2009, 17:40

  By:

  Kirsten Frattini

  Young junior sprinter beats the pros

  Sixteen year-old Coryn Rivera (ProMan Hit Squad) captured the biggest win in her young cycling career when she out sprinted five-time US national criterium champion Tina Pic (Colavita-Sutter Home) and Australian Kristy Broun (Lip Smackers) in stage five, a downtown criterium, of the Cascade Cycling Classic.

  "It's such a long straightaway, so I just stayed patient." said Rivera who recently won the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix and the San Rafael Criterium. "I actually don't think the other sprinters were expecting me to be a player in the final. I guess that surprised them!"

  As a junior rider, Rivera is forced to use a smaller gearing ratio or what is termed 'junior gears' which are a 52 front chain ring and a 14 cog on the rear cassette, whereas the standard rear gearing for elite riders is as low as a 12 or even an 11 cog.

  Rivera, followed by Pic, found her way onto Broun's wheel with 300 metres to go. She waited until the last possible moment to jump around for the win. "I ride with junior gears, and I have a fast acceleration, but I can't hold it long," Rivera said. "That means I really have to time it right every time I sprint."

  Rivera practiced her victory salutes in training prior to the Cascade Cycling Classic in hopes of winning a stage. Last night she chose a folded-arm salute but according to the young speedster, there are more to come. "I've done it [victory salutes] twice before, and my director and I have some more up our sleeves," she laughed. "That was only one of them!"

  Rivera, from California, is a 23-time US junior national champion in a multitude of disciplines; road, time trial, track and cyclo-cross. She began racing when she was six years old, encouraged by her father, Wally, and mother, Lina, who started her riding tandem with them, together, until she was big enough to rider her own bike. She is now known for her tactical prowess amongst the peloton and her great passion for cycling.

  "Cycling, to me, isn't a sport, it isn't a hobby, it isn't an interest. Cycling, to me, is a passion," Coryn expresses her love for cycling through her writing and in quotes on her blog. "And where passion comes from, there is no pain, there is no suffering, but only the love of pain and suffering. And a passion is something you never quit, you never forget, and something you will always love. A passion is forever, cycling is forever."

  Rivera has been selected by the US national team to compete in the junior world championships time trial and road race on August 7-9 in Moscow, Russia.
   

• Steven De Jongh to retire at the end of season

  

  Article published:

  July 26, 2009, 18:11

  By:

  Richard Tyler

  Quick Step rider to close the book on 15 year pro career

  Quick Step rider Steven De Jongh will retire from racing at the end of the 2009 season after what will be 15 years of racing as a pro.

  "Cycling has been my life for a long time, so the decision wasn't easy. I'll turn 36 this year, and it's time to focus more on my private life and on my two kids," said De Jongh.

  De Jongh has claimed over fifty wins during his professional career, including the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen in 2003 and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne twice, in 2004 and 2008.

  He began his career with TVM in 1995, moved to Rabobank in 2000 before he signed with his current team, Quick Step, in 2006.

  De Jongh indicated that he may not leave cycling altogether. "I will quit, but that doesn't mean I won't be active in cycling anymore - in what kind of function I don't know yet. I have some time to make a decision. 'Til that time, I will be a rider 100%."

  On Sunday De Jongh completed the Tour de France in Paris. It was his sixth participation in the French Grand Tour.

• Tour result changes everything for Wiggins

  

  Article published:

  July 26, 2009, 20:35

  By:

  Daniel Benson

  Stage races and transparency the priorities for fourth placed rider

  Britain’s Bradley Wiggins finished fourth in the Tour de France on Sunday in Paris, equalling compatriot Robert Millar’s achievement in the 1984 Tour. At the finish Wiggins said that he will now aim for stage race wins in the future, including the Tour podium in 2010.

  "I’m relieved it’s all over," Wiggins said on the Champs Élysées. "This last week has been very long but I’m pleased it’s all done. Everyone laughed when I said I could go top twenty but these last three weeks have changed everything for me and I have to re-think the next few years."

  Wiggins, who had built his reputation on the track - winning six Olympic medals, including three gold - came into the race with an un-tested pedigree for overall contention in a Grand Tour, despite showing flashes of promise at May's Giro d’Italia. "Realistically I think that I can come back next year and get on the podium. I’m not going to say I can win the Tour now, but to repeat this or podium would really be something. I’ve gone from being a mediocre rider to top four in the Tour."

  Until the penultimate stage to Mont Ventoux Wiggins was within touching distance of Lance Armstrong’s third place. However he lost contact with the American less than three kilometres from the summit finish. "I wasn’t going to try and do something stupid and end up getting dropped and end up in seventh. I thought realistically I could hold fourth. I realised I wasn’t going to drop Lance [Armstrong] and I was starting to lose my legs a bit."

  Fourth place may give Wiggins the confidence and mindset to return and take on Armstrong, Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador next season, but he ruled out a desire to focus solely on the Tour de France - something that Armstrong did during his seven year winning stretch. "Next year I’m going to concentrate more on the Tour but I don’t see why I couldn’t win something like the Vuelta a España and smaller races like Tirreno-Adriatico. This has opened up a whole new set of doors for me now."

  Wiggins also praised the work of his Garmin-Sliptream team, with teammate David Millar saying that, "they were now one of the top three teams in the world." However, early in the race, Wiggins and his teammates had found themselves on the wrong side of a split in the peloton, caused by crosswinds on stage three. Wiggins, along with most of the overall contenders, lost forty seconds to Armstrong as a result of the incident. When asked if those forty seconds could have secured him a place on the podium, Wiggins said: "If you think like that you end up in a straight jacket. If I had forty seconds on Lance yesterday he would have attacked the hell out of me, and it would have changed the whole pattern of the race."

  "We rode a near perfect race though. You look at a guy like Cadel [Evans] who was four minutes down after the first week, so we didn’t do to bad to be within five minutes of Contador in Paris. I’m not ashamed to admit that the three guys ahead of me were by far better bike riders than me. It’s no shame to be fourth."

  Teams and transparency

  In the coming days Wiggins and his Garmin-Slipstream team will also post their International Cycling Union (UCI) anti-doping test data online, something that their rider Christian Vande Velde did last year after he finished fifth. "That’s the next step and it will dismiss the doubts if people have them. Everyone knows where we stand as a team and that level of transparency is important. I have nothing to hide so why not put it out there? Christian did it last year. Maybe it’s the way forward in this sport."

  Many have pointed to Wiggins’ drastic weight loss for his improvements but in a press conference on the second rest day he played down those suggestions, something he did again at the finish in Paris. Wiggins, who left the Columbia team at the end of 2008, explained that the surroundings within the Garmin camp had been a major factor in his Tour result. "There’s a reason I’m doing to well here and that’s because of the people around me. A lot of teams say that they’re a bit like a family but this one really is. A lot us live in Girona and there’s something quite special about it that I’ve not had in other teams."

  This may finally squash any question of Wiggins moving to the new Sky HD squad after rumours circulated that he would ride for them in 2010. "Matt White is like an older brother and Jonathan Vaughters is a bit of a court jester, but at the same time he’s a good boss and someone you can really talk to. In other teams you can fear the boss and fear being open with him. So, across the board, it's been very relaxed but very professional in what we strive for, which is the whole anti-doping message and leading the way forward."

  For images of Bradley Wiggins' Tour de France click here
   

• Cavendish and Renshaw close Columbia's Tour in style

  

  Article published:

  July 26, 2009, 21:03

  By:

  Daniel Benson

  Team boss Stapleton says there's more success to come

  Columbia-HTC put on their most impressive performance of the Tour de France as Mark Cavendish and Mark Renshaw delivered a one-two display in the final stage on the Champs Élysées. Their performance left the remaining sprinters trailing in their wake and team boss Bob Stapleton warning that there was more to come.

  It was Cavendish’s sixth stage victory of the race and meant that he has now collected ten Tour stage wins in his short career. "I think six stage wins and a great performance by Tony Martin is thrilling. It's more of what we’ve been doing all year with a lot of wins and riding at the front and we’ve been a generally competitive team from start to finish," Stapleton said in Paris.

  Despite such success, Stapleton added that the team will not rest on their laurels, with the new formations of Sky HD and Lance Armstrong’s RadioShack entering the sport in 2010. The new arrivals have sparked the possibility of many of Stapleton’s young and talented riders turning their gaze to a big money move or the chance to ride with the seven-time winner.

  "Monday is the start of next season for us and you can always improve. We’ve had a lot of success and that will carry on for the rest of this year by just doing what we’re doing, but we’re hard at work on 2010."

  "I'm not concerned," said Stapleton when asked if some of his rider might leave the Columbia team. "I think it’s a good thing. Five or six guys may leave but we’ll bring in five or six more and the team will grow. We’ll bring in riders that fit in and we can develop."

  Stapleton’s policy on youth development has been good. Cavendish aside, he has helped the progress of Edvald Boasson Hagen, as well as Tony Martin, who held the white jersey for the best young rider in the Tour for fourteen straight days. In 2008 several riders including Gerald Ciolek, Linus Gerdemann and Bradley Wiggins left the team, with only the latter having a successful Tour this year.

  "We look at the whole package; of guys that can move up a level and to try and get as much leadership out of our veteran riders as we can. That’s the formula for the team and the success is in the balance of that. We have to be really smart with how all the pieces come together.

  "Every young athlete that has talent wants to be on this team. I’ve got far more interest than I’ve got space available so I feel like there’s a clear recognition of the quality and support. So I don’t worry about the competition of other teams."

  Columbia, Stapleton added, pride themselves on their diverse line up of riders, something that he says can be demonstrated by the twenty international flags splashed along their team bus. "We market it internationally. We’re not a British team or an American team. We draw from the whole talent pool. I have a Slovakian kid joining, one from Denmark, America and Belgium.

  "We select based on merit and not passport and it’s a huge advantage. Some teams focus on a small pool of riders, but I like the multicultural feel to the team. I like the fact that there twenty flags on our bus and not one."

  For images of Mark Cavendish's Tour de France click here
   

• Vande Velde was realistic about Tour leadership

  

  Article published:

  July 26, 2009, 21:23

  By:

  Gregor Brown

  Two top tens for Garmin

  Christian Vande Velde ended the Tour de France on Sunday in Paris happy with his eighth overall and the support he was able to offer to Garmin teammate Bradley Wiggins, who finished fourth.
  
  "I kept realistic with myself because of the crash I had at the Giro d'Italia. I was very realistic about what I could do here and Brad had superb form," Vande Velde told Cyclingnews.
  
  Vande Velde crashed on stage three of the Giro d'Italia in May and fractured five vertebrae, a rib and his pelvis. He could only train for three weeks and said he raced half-heartedly at Tour de Suisse prior to the Tour de France, July 4 to 26.
  
  Wiggins came into the Tour de France after a 71st overall in the Giro d'Italia. Vande Velde decided to ride in support from day one of the Tour based on Wiggins' form and his crash in the Giro.
  
  "We are really happy; we have two guys in the top ten. We did not know what we could possibly achieve this Tour and the final outcome ended up being great."
  
  Wiggins lost some time on stage 17 to Le Grand-Bornand, but stayed with the favourites for the other stages of the Tour. Alberto Contador (Astana) won the race 6:01 ahead of Wiggins. Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) finished second and Lance Armstrong (Astana) third.
  
  Contador said on Saturday that it does not work to have two riders who want to win the Tour within the same team. Vande Velde does not completely concur with that sentiment.
  
  "I really do believe that it is such a hard race that you have to fire all your bullets for one person. Lance believes the same, I saw him doing some nice work for Alberto during the race.
  
  "You play it how it comes. I am not saying that you can't come in with two or three leaders. I am just saying that you have to be realistic during the race when you have seen the cards that have been dealt."
  
  Vande Velde finished fourth last year, 3:05 behind winner Carlos Sastre. He said the eighth he achieved this year, given the crash he had, re-affirms his desire for 2010.

  For images of Christian Vande Velde's Tour de France click here
   

• Reaction from stage 21

  

  Article published:

  July 27, 2009, 02:41

  By:

  Cyclingnews

  Paris, pain, pride and a well-deserved rest

  Thor Hushovd (Cervélo TestTeam) - sixth on stage, 106th overall @ 2:46:00 - points classification winner

  "I started this morning with one aim: to keep the green jersey. I battled throughout the race to win this jersey. I didn't take any risks in the final sprint. There are a lot of things that can happen to that final rush to the line.

  "I won this jersey because I'm more experienced. I know how to win it. I've done it before and I've fought for the jersey many, many years. Cavendish is the fastest sprinter, but I am the most consistent, and that's why I won the jersey.

  "It's very emotional to stand on the podium and receive this jersey. I'm proud of what I've done. It was a hard battle to get more points than Cavendish, but that's what I've done in the end. His big goal is to win the green jersey and I know he's going to get many of them in the future, but I am going to give him a big fight in the next few years."

  Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - 69th on stage, 11th overall @ 14:44

  "The truth is that I'm very happy with this Tour. I've come to the Champs-Élysées seven times before and all are special but it's true that the first and last are a bit more. The first being your debut and this one because of the [stage] victory, but every year I'm emotional when I enter Paris. The team has demonstrated a very high level in the race and every day we fought for a goal."

  Carlos Sastre (Cervélo TestTeam) - 109th on stage, 17th overall @ 26:21

  "I've realised a number of things. Perhaps the first and for me the most important is that I've come to the conclusion that one can't perform at a very high standard for so long. In my case, I haven't stopped since I won the Tour de France [last year].

  "I've competed in four grand tours in less than a year: Tour, Vuelta, Giro and Tour, plus the Olympic Games, as well as an incredible number of events and activities, and that hasn't left me any time to rest. I think that's the reason for my tiredness and for the fact that at the moment I feel as if my body has nothing left to give. So the only thing I can think of right now is resting."

  Gerald Ciolek (Team Milram) - fourth on stage, 126th overall @ 3:15:12

  "Over these three weeks we have continually presented ourselves well and next to Columbia was the most active team in the sprints. You have to pay the greatest respect to Mark Cavendish, who didn't make any mistakes this year and was simply unbeatable.

  During the Tour I noticed that I was close to a stage win. I think that it is only a question of time until I win a stage at one of the Grand Tours."

  Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (Euskaltel-Euskadi directeur sportif)

  "After five years of drought, Euskaltel-Euskadi has returned to get a stage victory in the Tour de France, an important victory for us. The victory came through a lot of work for the whole group, it was based on teamwork so it tastes better.

  "I am left feeling that we should have finished with two more riders in the Tour; that's the only pain I've got. We were very combative and courageous. We led for a few days in the mountain classification, and out riders did a good job ... I think Mikel's [stage] victory has done justice to the work done."

  Linus Gerdemann (Team Milram) - 81st on stage, 24th overall @ 38:35

  "Things certainly didn't go as wished this year. I came to the Tour with other ambitions. In the end, the Tour showed what happens when you are not 100 percent at the start. Nevertheless I had a good first week and rode relatively consistently. Looking to the coming years, I can see what I have to work on."

  Kim Andersen (Saxo Bank directeur sportif)

  "We are very pleased with the rewards of this year's Tour de France which has been a race beyond all expectations. The whole team has demonstrated world class and with Andy and Frank as leading figures, we have demonstrated that we can compete for the overall victory in the years to come.

  "I would say thank you to the fans who turned up during the stages to support our team. It has an enormous impact on the riders especially when it hurts the most out there."