First Edition Cycling News, Wednesday, July 8, 2009

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Date published:

July 8, 03:00

• Swiss precision makes the difference

  

  Article published:

  July 7, 14:30

  By:

  Hedwig Kröner

  Cancellara retains jersey by a split second

  At the Tour de France's much anticipated team time trial, overall leader Fabian Cancellara was able to keep his yellow jersey for another day, even if his Team Saxo Bank only rode to a third placing behind Garmin-Slipstream and the winning team, Astana. Saving the precious garment by a mere fraction of a second from American Lance Armstrong, the Swiss powerhouse was pleased with his team's achievement.

  "I was a bit nervous, I think Bjarne [Riis] and Kim [Andersen] were also nervous, we didn't know if we'd still be in yellow with this small amount of time," said Cancellara about the situation when officials rushed to calculate the time difference between the two, a mere 0.22 second. "My team and I can be proud of doing what we did today. Everybody did the maximum of what was possible. With Swiss time precision... time was born in Switzerland, so that was on my side!" he said.

  In the end, the team lost 40 seconds to Astana, but Cancellara explained that the conditions and the twisting course were part of the reason the squad could not make the most of its strengths. "We had different tasks for different riders," he continued. "It was hard because of the wind and because of the nature of the course - it wasn't a good course for a team time trial. It obliged us to remain calm and not go flat out right away.

  "We knew the last kilometres were more suited to a high rhythm. It was only 40 kilometres, not very long, but it was important to stay calm and concentrate, especially in the first part. Our preview of the course also helped a lot, and I think we deserve to retain this yellow jersey today. We can be very proud of what we have done."

  Cancellara - also known as 'Spartacus' - was often seen in front during the race, pulling for long turns and constantly looking back to make sure he wasn't actually dropping his teammates. When asked about this, he emphasized that "it was the whole team's performance that made up the result", but still admitted that, "I had to watch out not to go too fast when I accelerated, not to challenge my teammates too much. That was a major concern over the whole parcours. I had to think about the others more than about myself, and that's also the reason why we retained the jersey."

  Team Saxo Bank will thus start the fifth stage from Cap d'Agde to Perpignan on Wednesday bearing the yellow jersey for one more day. With another flat and windy stage coming up tomorrow, no one can predict the day's outcome.

  "We don't know what will happen tomorrow," said Cancellara, whose team seems to be looking for allies down the Mediterranean coastline. "There will be a lot of wind again. For sure, we will try to defend the jersey another day. But with Columbia being so strong, the other sprinter's teams ask themselves why they should work to catch a break if Cavendish wins anyway."

• Armstrong admits attaining yellow jersey, overall victory harder than expected

  

  Article published:

  July 7, 14:40

  By:

  Richard Moore

  "The Tour is finished for some riders"

  "This Tour will be exciting," said Lance Armstrong, after narrowly losing out on his first yellow jersey since 2005. "You're not going to write your final story until we're all on the top of Mont Ventoux: that's a guarantee."

  For most of Tuesday's team time trial it seemed that the relationship between Armstrong and the Tour was about to take yet another extraordinary twist. With the time he clawed back in Monday's great escape, he appeared poised to take the yellow jersey from Fabian Cancellara, whose Saxo Bank team was no match for the Astana machine, even though the Danish squad seemed, for large parts, to be dragged along by the Swiss time trial star.

  At 37, Armstrong would have become the oldest man ever to wear the yellow jersey. His friend, the actor Ben Stiller, was even waiting on the podium to present it to him. But on the line he missed out - by 0.22 seconds.

  Yet it was a content Armstrong who faced the press, his satisfaction perhaps owing most to something he said towards the end of a long, expansive press conference.

  "I think today the Tour de France is finished for some riders," said the seven-time winner. "It's [going to be] difficult - with no disrespect - to make up that time."

  Armstrong revealed that he had spoken to Alberto Contador before the stage, telling him, "Let's ride perfect and make this race almost impossible to win for others." He added, "I think we can say we accomplished that."

  Though Armstrong wouldn't name names, it isn't difficult to imagine that Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto), almost three minutes down, Denis Menchov (Rabobank), almost four back, perhaps even Carlos Sastre (Cervelo), now at 2:44, are the riders whose challenge he considers "finished."

  As for his near miss with yellow, he said, "That's the way it is. We did our best, at one point we thought we had it, but if I look back on our performance...it would be one thing if we had a crash, a flat tyre, or the team didn't perform: that would be a disappointment. But the team was perfect.

  "We lost a couple of guys, which we expected to do, but technically speaking, we were as sound as we could be. I have no regrets, I don't look at it and lose sleep or get disappointed. That's when they stopped the clock. It's a long race; maybe there's [a yellow jersey] in my future."

  Armstrong admitted for the first time, though, that he had doubted his ability to perform at this Tour, saying that, when he announced his comeback, he had been too optimistic about his prospects. And he offered an apology, of sorts, to Sastre and Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream).

  "Twelve months ago, I expected it," he said in response to the question of whether he had anticipated wearing yellow again. "Here's a confession: I expected it to be easier.

  "Six months ago, I did not expect it. I realised, oh shit, this is harder than I thought. That's the truth. As has been reported in the press, I was disrespectful, to Carlos Sastre, to Christian Vande Velde, to the guys who were a presence in last year's Tour - and that was not correct.

  "This is not easy," continued Armstrong. "It will not be easy to win if I'm lucky enough to win [the Tour] again. There are two answers to the question: 12 months ago I expected to be here; six months ago I didn't expect it. In the Giro, I didn't expect it. Today, I'm realistic. I've got both feet on the ground; it's not going to be easy. I'm not going to be last. But it won't be like 2004, 2005, 2001; it's going to be a lot harder than I expected. That's as honest as I can say it."

  Armstrong also returned to the hot topic of Monday's stage, when he made the split instigated by Columbia-HTC in the final 32km, and his two Astana teammates, Yaroslav Popovych and Haimar Zubeldia, helped drive the move clear, even though the team's apparent leader, Contador, was missing.

  "A day like yesterday was exciting because it was a surprise," said Armstrong. "Yes, there was wind and a group went clear, but everybody would expect that group to contain the eight leaders, or 10 leaders, of the Tour. It was a surprise that only one of them was there.

  "There were some questions about that tactic and why I was there. It's interesting to me that a press room that ought to know so much about cycling would question that. If you're in the front in the wind and there's a selection made...the question ought to be, why aren't you there?"

  Perhaps that was a question Armstrong asked Contador over dinner on Monday evening.

• Schumacher's Olympic b-sample confirms CERA

  

  Article published:

  July 7, 19:19

  By:

  Cyclingnews

  German insists he is innocent, takes case to CAS

  German Stefan Schumacher has been declared positive for EPO-CERA in the B-analysis from his 2008 Olympic Games sample. The second check has confirmed the presence of the blood boosting drug found in his A-sample in April of this year, AFP reported Tuesday.

  The rider of the former Gerolsteiner squad tested positive for the same substance in samples taken during the 2008 Tour de France, just weeks before the Beijing Games. Both positives were the result of re-testing of samples performed months after the respective events. 

  The urine test for the new variant of the drug EPO were first used during the July, 2008 Tour de France when Italian Riccardo Ricco' was the first to be declared positive for the substance. At that time, Schumacher's samples were considered suspicious, but were not confirmed as positive until October, when the French anti-doping agency (AFLD) analyzed blood samples from the Tour.

  The AFLD case resulted in Schumacher receiving a two-year suspension in March of this year, just weeks before the re-analysis of the Olympic Games samples were announced.

  In April, Schumacher and with fellow cyclist Davide Rebellin were among five athletes to be declared positive for CERA after the additional testing. Weight-lifter Yudelquis Contreras of the Dominican Republic was later cleared after his B-sample came back negative.

  According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Schumacher will be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland on Wednesday. His lawyer, Michael Lehner, has been working with the attorneys of the other athletes to pursue a consistent defense argument.

  Lehner said that the Chatenay Malabry laboratory made procedural mistakes in testing the samples, and argued that the IOC had the B-samples tested without permission and without allowing Schumacher to have a witness present at the testing.

• Menchov unsatisfied after team time trial

  

  Article published:

  July 7, 20:03

  By:

  Hedwig Kröner

  Rabobank rider sinks in the GC after crashing

  The team time trial in Montpellier was not an easy day at the office for any of the riders involved, but was even worse than usual for some outfits. The technical course was made even harder by some serious gusts of wind, resulting in more than the normal number of crashes. One of the biggest names to go down was Giro d'Italia winner Denis Menchov.

  The Rabobank leader slid on the tarmac in the very first corner of the circuit, inside the opening kilometre, and lost another 2:20 to Astana's overall contenders.  The team are now clear favourites for the victory in Paris: the only question which could remain is which of them will take home the maillot jaune?

  Going into the time trial, Rabobank's sports director Erik Breukink was sure that Menchov had overcome his initial difficulties - he already lost some time to the favourites on the first stage in Monaco. After Tuesday's stage, the Russian sits way back in the classification in 72nd position, 3.52 minutes behind Lance Armstrong, who himself is just 22/100ths of a second from the overall lead.

  "He had some difficult moments and lost some time, but now he is motivated and we expect him to get better this week," a confident Breukink told Cyclingnews before the stage. As it turned out, the Russian's woes were only about to begin.

  Menchov crashed on his left hand side and suffered some scrapes and bruises on his knee and elbow. "Fortunately, he is not really injured," the team's press officer Luuc Eisenga assured on Tuesday evening.

  Going into the collective race against the clock, the team's goal according to Breukink had been "close to the top five. If we achieve this, then we did a very good time trial, losing maybe 30 seconds to one minute to the other GC contenders."

  But Menchov's crash disrupted the squad's cohesion. "The rhythm was gone, and the riders had to wait for him. We had 50 seconds on Caisse d'Epargne at the first time check, and never recovered from that," added Eisenga. "We are not satisfied, we did not achieve what we wanted."

  Morale at Rabobank was understandably low, as the Russian Giro d'Italia winner now stands only very small chances to make up for the time he lost in Monaco, but also in yesterday's stage to La Grande-Motte.

  Menchov was close to making the critical split forced by the Columbia-HTC team on Monday's stage, but missed out in the strong cross-wind because he was on the wrong side of the bunch, according to Breukink. "Denis was in front, but he took the corner on the left side and then he couldn't get back up again - which was why he wasn't in the first group with Lance Armstrong," Breukink explained. "He was with Garate, almost bridged back up but it was not enough."

  The American seven-time Tour winner bluntly stated that "today, the Tour de France is finished for some riders. It will be difficult - with no disrespect - to make up that time," very probably thinking of Menchov, but also of Cervélo's Carlos Sastre who ended the day 2.44 minutes down of the yellow jersey.

  Nevertheless, the old rule still applies: It ain't over 'til it's over, and these were also Eisenga's thoughts when he added, "If Oscar Pereiro had thought that, too, then he would have never won the Tour," alluding to that 2006 Tour when the Spaniard initially lost 29 minutes on the first mountain stage, only to win the whole event two weeks later.

• Armstrong discusses doping, doubt in first Tour press conference since 2005

  

  Article published:

  July 7, 21:32

  By:

  Richard Moore

  Seven-time champion responds to tough questions from the press

  Lance Armstrong's first appearance at a Tour de France press conference since 2005, when he faced the media wearing the final yellow jersey of his seven-year winning run, was different in some respects and familiar in others.

  As well as questions about the race, he fielded a couple that, even if they didn't explicitly mention doping, were concerned with the dreaded D-word. He also responded to a recently published interview with Patrice Clerc, who was ousted as president of Tour organisers ASO at the end of last October. In the story, Clerc said that Armstrong's return coincided with the "return of doubt" to the Tour de France.

  When asked if his return to the Tour, and its first four stages, had put cycling back centre stage in the press for the right reasons, ie. rather than for doping, Armstrong replied succinctly, "I don't know. It's difficult to know if you're not paying that much attention, which I haven't been, other than the few sites or outlets I visit.

  "It's the Tour, It's cycling. There were some issues at the beginning, which I think got exploited a little bit; that's just the nature of the times we're living in within this sport," he continued before taking a dig at the press.

  "I do think it's important [to] not to forget to talk about the race. Sometimes I get the impression that too many journalists come to the race for one reason, and that's to write the doping story.

  "Granted, if someone crosses the line and breaks the rules you've got to write the story, but you've also got to sit back and analyse the great stuff that happens: the great performance of a team like Astana today [in winning the team time trial], or the closeness of Saxo [Bank]; all the things that make up the dynamic and the beauty of a sport like cycling.

  "Let's hope we're getting there," he added, "but I don't have any predictions."

  Was the Tour perfect under Clerc?

  In response to Clerc's comment about his return coinciding with the "return of doubt" to the Tour, Armstrong turned the question around.  "I have a question for you – was the Tour and ASO a perfect situation while I was gone?"

  In the period since Armstrong ‘retired',  the Tour has been blighted by the fallout from Operacion Puerto, Floyd Landis's positive test in 2006 and his later disqualification, Michael Rasmussen's expulsion while wearing the yellow jersey in 2007 and eight positive tests during last year's Tour.

  Armstrong appeared to place the blame for much of the 'doubt' on the race organiser. "When you look at any company, any organisation, and you have dissension in the ranks, you have to look at the boss," continued Armstrong.

  "[Clerc] was the boss, and under his leadership cycling was not perfect. The question really ought to be turned back to him. I understand he's upset he no longer has a job, but the fact that I'm back here is ‘the return of doubt'… I would turn the question around and analyse the four years I was gone, under his leadership."

  Tags:

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  Tour de France

• Riders unhappy with Tour’s TTT course

  

  Article published:

  July 8, 00:50

  By:

  Hedwig Kröner

  Risky route caused multiple crashes

  Tuesday's team time trial provided for some controversy at the Tour de France, as the route chosen by the organiser around Montpellier was quite a special one. For the first collective race against the clock in four years at the event, Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) designed a short, but very technical circuit course that could hardly please everybody.

  Instead of the usual long, wide and straight boulevards on which the nine-rider teams can practice a rotational turn-taking to perfection, ASO picked rather narrow, twisty and bumpy roads for the exercise. The nature of the course - together with some heavy gusts of wind - made many riders hit the deck and triggered discussion: even if a route such as this one needed even more team cohesion to be mastered successfully, did the novelty really outweigh the risk?

  Former cyclist and Tour de France winner Laurent Fignon, now a consultant with France Television, did not think so. "I don't understand why this type of course is chosen for a team time trial,” he said. “That's not its philosophy. Whose interest is it to make the riders take so many risks?"

  Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank) also had some harsh comments. "It was a very atypical time trial circuit," he told Cyclingnews. "I saw Quick Step crashing already before the way to the start on some slippery stone panels. Then, I saw Denis Menchov crashing in the first corner, somebody from Lampre crashing in the second corner and then on those really narrow country roads, four from Bouygues Telecom literally went out into the field - that's just not what we need. I mean, we got all these rules, we have to wear helmets, more security - so why do they send us on a course that has ‘broken bones’ written all over it? I just don't get it. I'm sure there's a million better roads down here.

  "We have bikes worth 10,000 Euro, and in the end we can't use them properly because we're just busy trying to hold balance instead of putting our power on the pedals," added the German, who nevertheless wasn't completely upset with the organiser.

  "We had really good first two days: big roads, easy, steady, not too many crazy corners, nice finishes,” he added. “But today was just the complete opposite. We tried to keep it smooth, tried to keep the boys together and concentrate our strenghts on the last, flat part. We couldn't make up enough to have the best time, but, at least we didn't crash. That [not crashing - ed.] is an achievement in its own right, regardless of our result."

  Cervélo TestTeam’s Heinrich Haussler was happy with the team’s ride, but also noted that the course was designed to break the team's rythm rather than intensifying it. "We tried to ride as smoothly as possible, as far as this was possible," said Haussler. "The course was so irregular that it was very hard to do this. I thought we had a good ride because we sort of achieved it.

  "Our sports directors told us that many riders already crashed, so it was decided to give only 99 percent, and to lose a few seconds in the first three kilometres to be able to make it to the finish intact," he added.

  The wind topped off the day's difficulty according to Liquigas' Brian Vandborg. "The course was difficult, and hard to memorize all the corners and turns," he said. "You have to figure out how the other guys feel and have to find a steady speed. Nibali, Kreuziger and these guys were pulling hard on the climbs, and we had to shout at them to slow down a bit...it's definitely a hard course.

  “We got through without crashing,” he added. “I did take one descent pretty fast and almost went into the ditch. It was definitely too risky for nine people, with the wind."

  Rabobank, whose leader Denis Menchov went down in the first curve, had previewed the course only once on Tuesday morning. "It's a very strange team time trial, I've never seen such a course before. It's pretty dangerous," said team manager Erik Breukink.

• Testing conditions for team test against the clock

  

  Article published:

  July 8, 02:44

  By:

  Cyclingnews

  Reaction from stage four

  Alberto Contador (Astana) - first on stage, third overall @ 0:19

  "I think that today we have to be very, very happy. I still don't accurately know the differences that we could have created, but we have distanced enough riders like Sastre, Evans, Menchov and even the Schleck brothers.

  "I have been good enough. It's a pity that there were neither more climbs nor mountains, which is where I was feeling more comfortable".

  "For the moment things are very good overall, but, well, it is necessary to maintain concentration, because we have done only four days, though it seems that a lot of the Tour has passed.

  "In this Tour there are no more places to attack [than any other Tour] and with the differences that have been opened now, people have to risk a lot from far away."

  "You always like to have the yellow jersey and particularly Lance, as it means so much to him. But it's also true that this allows us to go ahead more relaxed, though at the end it was a pity not to take it by such a small margin."

  Carlos Sastre (Cervélo TestTeam) - eighth on stage, 29th overall @ 2:44

  "The fourth stage of the Tour de France has been a very technical and really hard team time trial. It was really windy today and the stage was technical because it was a very narrow road which was a bit of a squeeze for all our team's riders.

  I think it's a very positive result, as it was a time trial that needed the riders to be very experienced and we partly compensated for that with the strength of our team. I'm happy with the result of the work that each one of my team mates have carried out and I'm also happy as there haven't been any mishaps or incidents that could have made us lose our options.

  Losing 1:37 against Astana with all the potential they have, or the time we lost against teams like Saxo Bank, Garmin and Liquigas, which are teams with bags of experience in this discipline, is something that we can be happy with. In fact, I'm feeling satisfied and we have got through another important and dangerous day in this year's Tour de France."

  Lance Armstrong (Astana) - first on stage, second overall @ 0:00

  On missing yellow:

  "We did what we could. That's cycling. We can look at each other and say that we did our best. The most important thing is that we won the stage and took time on the other rivals. I said it earlier to Alberto as well that it is so important that we take time to Evans, Sastre and the others. We were fairly successful. I wouldn't like to be two minutes down right now."

  On the stage:

  "We came last week to Montpellier to see the stage. Johan Bruyneel already had the order of riding in his head. We tried that order that day and we did the same today. Like usual, he was right. The result speaks for itself. You always feel that somebody is stronger than you. For me, if I analyze our performance, I would say that Klöden and Popovych were the strongest, but overall the team was consistent. We were smooth. We didn't make any mistakes. No mis-turns, no crashes, no flat tires."

  On this year's Tour overall:

  This is a confession: 12 months ago I expected it to be easier, so yes, I expected it. Six months ago I did not expect it any more. I realised that it was harder than I thought. I was just disrespectful to Carlos Sastre or Cadel Evans. This is not easy at all. Today I am realistic. I have both feet on the ground. It will not be like in 2001 or 2005. It will be harder. That's as honestly as I can say it."

  On his favouritism for the overall:

  "I am happy with where I am. I don't know if I'm the best in the race. I came in this race thinking that I would be one of the best, based on the trainings and tests that I've done, based on the trainings with Levi Leipheimer. "

  On team harmony:

  "It's not nearly as difficult as the media makes it up to be. The first week of the Tour the media have to find something to write about. In Monaco it was about Vinokourov and Bruyneel, yesterday it was about Contador and me. Next week it will be something else.

  "In the meantime we just ignore those things and Alberto does that too. We proved today that we are just a good team. Most of this falls to the responsibility of Johan Bruyneel and our directors. They have to direct the team and the tactics and attitude in the team. We go forward with two leaders. I am confident we will find a good solution. "

  On defending the yellow jersey:

  "There will probably be less pressure, but this will not change the race for us. We wouldn't have tried to control the race tomorrow anyhow. The Tour will not be decided in week one but in part two of week three."

  Cervélo TestTeam manager Thomas Campana

  "We are very happy with the performance. The most important thing was to not have any crashes or lose too many riders. We decided to not risk anything in the first part of the course and to go full-gas once it opened up and we got back onto the wider roads.

  "That was a smart decision and you could see our speed increasing and we avoided errors. We expected to be among the top seven or eight teams and I think we can be satisfied with our riders today."

  Robert Gesink (Rabobank) - 11th on stage, 62nd overall @ 3:36

  "I was completely spent 15 kilometers before the finish. I had absolutely nothing."

  "In the beginning it was very hard. That's not bad, but for me the pace was too high. Then we just lost the rhythm. But we remained quiet. Today I didn't contribute much. But we go the rest of the Tour to see." (Telegraaf.nl)

  Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo TestTeam) - eighth on stage, 43rd overall @ 3:07

  "There was always a side-wind, rough roads, always up and down. It was a hard time trial. We had guys like Brett, Hayden and me go hard on the flats and downhills and the climbers took over on the hills. We had a good pace."
   

• Evans: I have my work cut out

  

  Article published:

  July 8, 02:45

  By:

  Greg Johnson

  Aussie hopeful laments TTT outcome

  Tour de France contender Cadel Evans isn’t underestimating the challenge that lays ahead if he’s to ride back into contention at this year’s event. Evans’ Silence-Lotto squad dropped 2:36 minutes to general classification favourites Astana on yesterday’s team time trial, with the Australian saying bad luck and pressure took a toll on his young team.

  “As expected, Astana put in a great ride, which puts me at 2:59 - not a position I wanted to be in,” Evans wrote on CadelEvans.com.au. “Still close to guys like Andy Schleck and Carlos [Sastre], but a long way behind the favourites of Astana. I certainly have my work cut out for me now.”

  The team’s first blow came when it waited for Jurgen Van den Broeck following a crash, only for the rider to be dropped when he stopped a second time. The remaining seven riders were then forced to chose whether or not to wait for Johan Vansummeren, who punctured.

  "I knew Matthew Lloyd and Charles Wegelius were not at ease in this type of effort and we are a team with lots of young riders who were a little bit stressed," he told AFP. "They're young riders and they haven't had many chances to ride a team time trial. I'm a time triallist and they're worried to disappoint me so it's a lot of pressure for the guys."

  Evans said the incidents with van den Broeck and Vansummeren cost the team at least a minute. More crucial seconds were lost over the closing kilometre, with Evans proving too quick for most of his team-mates as the group separated. The team’s time is taken from the fifth rider across the line.

  Evans now sits in 35th place on general classification, with overall contenders Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong both more than 2:30 minutes ahead. In fact all but two Astana riders lay ahead of Evans in the general classification. Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream) also has more than 90 seconds on the Australian, who finished second in 2007 and 2008 by less than a minute.

  The team time trial may have placed Evans on the back foot but its still early days at the Tour de France, with the event yet to reach the mountain stages. Having general classification hopefuls with strong teams like Cervélo TestTeam’s Carlos Sastre and Saxo Bank’s Andy Schleck should provide Evans with allies when it comes to clawing back the time from Astana.