First Edition Cycling News, Saturday, November 7, 2009

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Date published:

November 7, 17:00

• Cioni joins Team Sky

  

  Article published:

  November 6, 17:32

  By:

  Richard Tyler

  Italian veteran to race tenth season with British ProTour squad

  Italian veteran Dario Cioni will ride for Team Sky in 2010, according to La Gazzetta Dello Sport.

  The Italian newpaper reported on Friday that Cioni, 34, will join the British ProTour team after one season with Italian pro continental outfit ISD-Neri. He becomes the second Italian, after Morris Possoni, to join the inaugural Sky roster.

  2010 will mark Cioni's tenth season in the professional peloton. He raced as a mountain biker in his late teens before signing with Mapei-Quick Step in 2000. Two years with Fassa Bortolo (2003 and 2004) were followed by similar stints at Liquigas and Silence-Lotto.

  In 2004, he finished fourth overall at the Giro d'Italia and claimed the title of Italian national time trial champion. He has also been a stage winner a the Ruta del Sol (2007).

  Cioni's career has not been without controversy. He was ruled out of the Italian team for the 2004 World Championships with a hematocrit level over the legal limit. He was later certified by the International Cycling Union (UCI) has having a naturally high hematocrit level.

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• Enter to win the Cyclingnews Capo Clothing fall sweepstakes

  

  Article published:

  November 13, 18:00

  By:

  Cycling News

  Three weeks to go: Winner will receive free custom kit for their club

  You've already started preparations for next season - upgrades to your ride, and tweaks to your training, but what about the most important pre-season decision your team needs to make: What is your kit going to look like for next year?

  Thanks to our partner, Capo Custom clothing, ordering your team kit could be the one thing you could have taken care of well in advance. Simply enter our fall sweepstakes for the chance to have yourself, and your teammates, decked out in a brand new Capo custom kit.

  The Grand Prize for our fall sweepstakes is a full set of team clothing for your club. The set includes 25 custom printed short-sleeved jerseys and 25 bib shorts. If you're our lucky winner, you'll be kitted out in custom sublimated version of Capo’s high-end Super Corsa Custom series which features race-inspired short-sleeve jerseys and bib shorts with Capo’s next generation, EIT chamois inserts.

  Capo Clothing comes from Emeryville, California based Upland Sports Group. Capo offers an inline range of race apparel as well as custom sublimated team clothing.

  For more information about the prize and to enter the contest, click here. The sweepstakes is open from November 6th to midnight GMT December 5th, 2009 to most residents of the United States, United Kingdom and Australia (check the terms and conditions in the contest page for full details).

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• De Goede to Vos' team in the Netherlands

  

  Article published:

  November 7, 10:06

  By:

  Susan Westemeyer

  Team still looking for sponsor

  Suzanne de Goede will join Marianne Vos' team for the coming season. The team has at the moment no name, sponsor or manager, but Vos and the rest of the team management have decided to continue on and seek new sponsor.

  De Goede, 25, rode with the Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung the last two years. She had two wins this season, including the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

  Others on the Vos team will include fellow Dutchwomen Loes Gunnewijk and Loes Markerink.

  DSB Bank had previously announced that it would stop sponsoring the team after this season, and declared bankruptcy late last month. It is not expected that Vos, Olympic champion and the woman with the most wins this season, will have difficulty finding help.

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• UCI holds first training programme for Sport Directors

  

  Article published:

  November 7, 11:50

  By:

  Susan Westemeyer

  DS's praise educational efforts

  The International Cycling Union (UCI) organised its first instalment of a training programme for Directeurs Sportif last week, with participants calling it a worthwhile experience. About 25 Directeurs from ProTour and Professional Continental teams attended a series of workshops and discussions.

  “This seminar was a total success. It was important to get together with the other DS's someplace other than at races,” said Raoul Liebregts, Directeur Sportif and Human Resources manager for the German ProTour team Milram. “There were many interesting lectures and workshops in small groups. Cycling is on the right path. We still have a lot to do for the future. With this program we have take the first step in the right direction.”

  John Lelangue of BMC Racing Team was one of only two Professional Continental representatives. “This is the first time that the UCI has sponsored a course like this, even though in a lot of countries being a sports director is a regulated job for which you need to take a university degree,” he said.

  The sessions were aimed toward the management aspects. “The experts would talk to us about the psychology of dealing with riders, the technical aspects of our jobs and we also had the UCI’s anti-doping head, Anne Gripper come in to talk to us also about how to face the challenges of doping in sport,” Lelangue said. “It was all so interesting, I was really happy to be there.”

  The gathering at the World Cycling Centre in Aigle, Switzerland, was the first step in a UCI programme which will require the Sports Directors of all ProTour and Professional Continental to have a management diploma by 2013. ProTour Manager Alain Rumpf called it. “an important step forward for the UCI ProTour with its objective of promoting excellence in cycling over all five continents. “

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• Rujano plans for big return in Giro d'Italia

  

  Article published:

  November 7, 11:56

  By:

  Gregor Brown

  'You can bet on me,' says Venezuelan climber for mountainous Giro

  Venezuelan climber José Rujano looks ahead to returning to Europe and racing the 2010 Giro d'Italia with team ISD.

  "I am their man for the classification, I am thinking only of the Giro. The route seems to suit me: mountains, mountains, mountains," he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

  The Giro d'Italia, May 8 to 30, ends with mountain stages in the Dolomites and Alps. Organiser RCS Sport will take the riders up the Zoncolan, Plan de Corones, Mortirolo and Gavia climbs in the final week.

  Four years ago, Rujano won the Giro's Sestriere stage, which included the gravel Finestre climb. It helped him take third overall and the green jersey of best climber.

  He left Gianni Savio's Selle Italia the following year after the two argued over money. He rode with Quick Step, Unibet.com and Caisse d'Epargne, but this season returned to race at home in Venezuela. He won three stages of the Vuelta al Tachira, four stages and the overall of the Vuelta a Colombia and two stages and the overall of the Vuelta a Venezuela.

  "I threw away almost four years," he continued. "But I am only 27, I am still fresh and strong. [With ISD] I have a contract plus bonus payments for wins, I am obligated to win in this manner."

  If a win does come at the Giro Rujano plans to name his second baby Vittoria (or "victory").

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• Cunego is a man for the Classics, says team manager Saronni

  

  Article published:

  November 7, 12:20

  By:

  Gregor Brown

  'The Damiano who won the Giro no longer exists'

  Lampre team manager Giuseppe Saronni puts his faith in Damiano Cunego for next season's one-day classics.

  'The Damiano Cunego who won the Giro d'Italia in 2004 no longer exists," Saronni told Tuttosport. "The Lampre-Farnese staff and I consider him predominantly a rider for the Classics and we are satisfied with this new approach."

  Cunego won the 2004 Giro, but in recent years has performed better in one-day races and stages of multi-day races. He won two stages at the Vuelta a España in September: Alto de Aitana and La Pandera. He gave Lampre five of its 16 wins for the season.

  "It's true Damiano was not able to win Lombardia for a fourth time, but who can criticise someone who has already won it three times?"

  Cunego ended his season at the Giro di Lombardia, October 17, with a 14th place. He attended the presentation of the 2010 Giro d'Italia route the following weekend.

  "It is too stressful," Cunego told Cyclingnews of racing for the overall classification. "It is easier to aim for a particular stage, you can show yourself better this way."

  He will aim first for the Ardennes Classics in April. He will decide in the coming months if he will race the Giro d'Italia or Tour de France.

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• Vande Velde supports Giro d'Italia visit to Washington, DC

  

  Article published:

  November 7, 14:29

  By:

  Gregor Brown

  'It would be great for US cycling and the Giro'

  US stage racer Christian Vande Velde supports a possible visit to Washington, DC, by the Giro d'Italia in the coming years.

  "There would be nothing better than having a prologue down the National Mall in DC," he told Cyclingnews. "I think it would be the biggest thing for the Giro; it would put the World's eyes on the Giro."

  Giro race director Angelo Zomegnan said Wednesday that there is interest from District of Columbia officials to be a host city. The city's mayor, Adrian Fenty will help the bid. He is a fan of cycling and competes in triathlons.

  "It's my understanding that there have been talks, but nothing is final," Fenty's press officer, Mafara Hobson, told DCist.

  Vande Velde met Fenty for the first time last year at the Capital Criterium. He said Fenty "rides a lot".

  The Giro first started outside of Italy 44 years ago, from San Marino in 1965. It starts with three stages in The Netherlands, all based from Amsterdam, next year. But none of the three Grand Tours (Giro, Tour de France, Vuelta a España) has ever begun outside of Europe.

  "The jetlag, getting back into the time zone," Vande Velde said of the riders' main difficulties. "The stress that your body goes under from not sleeping, wanting to eat in the middle of the night and not in the day. It would be nuts, but it would be cool to do it."

  The Giro could also hold an additional two to three stages along the east coast. It could travel to Philadelphia, former home of the national championships for many years, or a stage to New York City.

  "You could make it really hard," continued Vande Velde. "I never rode the Tour duPont, but I know that a lot of the stages were in that [District of Columbia] area. There are lots of gorgeous, hilly roads through the woods."

  Vande Velde, 33, won the Giro's opening team time trial last year with team Garmin. He held the overall leader's pink jersey for one day.

  He finished fourth overall in the Tour de France and eighth this year.

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• Rasmussen poised to reveal new team

  

  Article published:

  November 7, 17:24

  By:

  Shane Stokes

  Dane claims CDC-Cavaliere agreement has been dissolved

  Michael Rasmussen met with the CDC-Cavaliere team today and said afterwards that the situation between them has been resolved, making him free to compete elsewhere.

  It had previously insisted otherwise, claiming that he had signed a contact with him and was thus obliged to race for the squad in 2010. Rasmussen said that the agreement he put his name to was only a pre-contract and that he intended to compete for another, as yet-unannounced team.

  "It was a positive meeting where there was goodwill on both sides,” he said today, according to TV2 Sport. “The two parties have commenced the liquidation of the cooperation that has never existed. The two parties' lawyers must speak together on Monday."

  Rasmussen recently returned after a two-year ban from competition, incurred after he lied about his whereabouts prior to the 2007 Tour de France. The Danish rider looked poised to win the event but was then withdrawn from the race days from the finish in Paris by his former Rabobank team.

  He has said that he intends to ride a Grand Tour in 2010. The identity of that team is coming soon, according to Rasmussen, 35.

  "It is entirely up to my new team to announce that the agreement has fallen into place,” he said. “It will come in a press release and, in my opinion, it can’t come fast enough.”

  Rasmussen and Alexander Vinokourov, who was also ejected from the 2007 Tour, are currently awaiting a CAS ruling. They are contesting the UCI’s insistence that they must pay a year’s salary as an additional penalty and, in the meantime, were allowed to race.

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