Second Edition Cycling News, Thursday, February 18, 2010

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Date published:

February 18, 2010, 20:00

• Former East German coach Lindner dead

  

  Article published:

  February 18, 2010, 10:08

  By:

  Cycling News

  Also directed Team Coast, Swiss and Iranian national teams

  Former East German national cycling coach Wolfram Lindner passed away Tuesday night at his home in Berlin, the German cycling federation has announced. Lindner, who would have turned 69 next week, was the head coach for East Germany from 1970 to 1990. His riders on both road and track brought in 1,119 international victories, including three Olympic wins and six World titles.

  In 1992, he became Swiss national coach, working with Alex Zülle and Tony Rominger.

  Lindner helped organise and lead Team Coast (later Team Bianchi) from 2000 to 2003. As sports director, he accompanied Jan Ullrich in the 2003 Tour de France.

  From 2007 to 2008, Lindner was national trainer for Iran, helping the country to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He retired in April 2008.

• Boonen confident despite defeat

  

  Article published:

  February 18, 2010, 10:55

  By:

  Cycling News

  Belgian serene for immediate future, Spring Classics and Tour

  Even though Tom Boonen was beaten in yesterday's Tour of Oman stage four by 20 year-old Australian Leigh Howard (HTC-Columbia), the Belgian feels confident about his season build-up. Having won two stages in the Tour of Qatar, Boonen assured the media that his form as well as his weight was where it needs to be for his further objectives.

  "I think that I am already stronger than last year," he told La Dernière Heure. "I was very cautious this winter and I'm already five kilos lighter than in 2009."

  Boonen hopes to take advantage of this in the coming weeks in his home country, where his main objectives for the first part of the season lie. Moreover, this year, he will not be haunted by jetlag coming back from the Tour of California, once the Belgian Spring Classics start with the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (formerly Het Volk).

  "That's one of the reasons why I've never won this race - the only Flandrian event missing on my palmarès," he explained.

  After the Classics, Boonen will do specific time trial training in order to win the prologue of this year's Tour de France in Rotterdam. "The idea is to enter Belgium wearing yellow in July 4," he smiled.

• Specific training pays off for FdJ

  

  Article published:

  February 18, 2010, 11:49

  By:

  Hedwig Kröner

  French team scores early with four victories so far

  ProTour team La Francaise des Jeux has had a promising start in the new season by taking four victories already. Belarusian sprinter Yauheni Hutarovich won two stages of the Tour Méditerranéen, in which teammate Jussi Veikkanen also took a stage and wore the race leader's jersey for several days.

  Just yesterday, the French squad obtained its fourth victory in the Volta ao Algarve, as Benoît Vaugrenard took off in the final kilometre of stage one to snatch the win from the chasing field. Now, Vaugrenard and his teammates will be defending the overall lead in the Portuguese event.

  Having already been very successful in 2009 when the team finished ninth on the UCI ProTour team ranking and was best French squad, La Francaise des Jeux seems on track to show off similarly good performances this season, if not better.

  "We are very happy for our riders," said sports director Yvan Madiot to Cyclingnews, speaking from the Tour du Haut Var. "This is great for the team, but we are especially happy for our riders because they worked very hard during the winter. This is a great reward for them, and of course everybody shares their joy."

  The thorough training during an especially harsh European winter has paid off for the team, whose three training camps all took place in France - where other squads headed to the South of Spain. "Our three team meets were held in December and in January. They were not very long - only five days each - but filled with intensive workouts under the guidance of our trainer, Frédéric Grappe. After that, the riders all got specific training plans to follow at home," explained Madiot.

  Moreover, for the last two camps, the roster was divided in two groups: one destined to perform at the Classics and another one designed for stage races. "Each group had their own training camps separately," added Madiot.

  The team's objective clearly was to start off 2010 where they had left last year. "We are like to win early at Francaise des Jeux," admitted Madiot. "We want to physically ready early in the season. It's great for the morale of the team!"
   

• Sky gives its sprinters a work-out at training camp

  

  Article published:

  February 18, 2010, 12:07

  By:

  Cycling News

  Andalucia squad practices its leadout train

  After spending the last couple of days perfecting their time trial skills, Team Sky switched disciplines and worked on their leadout train and sprinting at their training camp in Valencia, Spain.

  The riders, who included Greg Henderson, Thomas Löfkvist, Michael Barry, Sylvain Calzati and Simon Gerrans, had a hard day in the saddle. They began with a five-hour ride before sprint work began on a closed circuit.

  The team camp ends Friday with Sky’s camp line-up departing for Andalucia and the Tour du Haut Var.

  The team have already chalked up four wins this season. Edvald Boasson Hagen won stage three in the Tour of Oman but lost his overall lead during Wednesday’s stage 4 after the Norwegian lost over a minute to Daniele Bennati (Liquigas-Doimo).

• Debate continues about stage 4 tactics in Oman

  

  Article published:

  February 18, 2010, 14:59

  By:

  Stephen Farrand

  Boonen and Farrar point out mistakes by Team Sky

  The day after Team Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen lost the overall lead at the Tour of Oman, riders and directeur sportifs were still discussing if cycling's unwritten rules had been broken and by whom.

  Everyone had a slightly different take on exactly what happened and a slightly different opinion on if Boasson Hagen made a mistake by stopping at a key moment in the race.

  Some riders pointed the finger at the Cervelo TestTeam for attacking when the race leader had stopped, but most teams were also quick to jump in their slipstream and join the attack. There was also debate about how far from the finish Boasson Hagen actually stopped and questions were asked why Team Sky didn't really ease up and why they failed to fully let the peloton know what was going on.

  As the Team Sky riders put on their numbers, tightened their shoes and loaded up with bottles, their anger and disappointment from the day before had clearly eased. Smiles replaced their scowls and they seemed to have learnt a lesson. They probably won't forget what had happened out on the road but tried to turn the negative into positive and insisted it will only make them stronger as a team.

  Edvald Boasson Hagen finished sixth in the sprint behind Tom Boonen and is now focusing on Friday's time trial stage. Victory will surely be some kind of revenge.

  "Shit happens," he said, clearly not really wanting to talk about it.

  "But it'll make us stronger. We did a good job in the sprint today and we were good together. Now I'll do my best tomorrow in the time trial."

  Boonen: "It was a race thing, it happens"

  Tom Boonen (Quick Step) was one of the riders who took advantage of the attack but he insisted that he and the other riders who made the front echelon had not broken any unwritten rules.

  "I don't think anybody did anything wrong, it was a race thing, it happens. It could have happened to anybody," he told Cyclingnews.

  "I was near the front when it happened and Team Sky was pulling pretty hard. Then Boasson Hagen went for a piss but they kept pulling pretty hard."

  "Boasson Hagen got back in the group, he wasn't behind, but the problem was that Cervelo passed to the left (forming an echelon) because Sky were pulling with just two guys and not the whole team. Everybody just saw it and 'Vroooom!', 30 guys went and the group split up."

  Boonen suggested that the attack happened because Team Sky failed to let the rest of the peloton know what was happening.

  "If the team had slowed down when he (Boasson Hagen) stopped, making it obvious that it was a piss stop, I don't think there would have been a problem and everybody would have stopped with him," he said.

  "There wasn't so much wind that you couldn't take a piss. But if your team keeps riding at 48km/h and everybody has seen you suffering and you don't make the point that your leader has stopped, the race goes on and sometimes you lose the jersey."

  Farrar: " You can't expect the whole peloton to stop"

  Garmin-Transitions' Tyler Farrar was also in the front group that gained 1:05 on Boasson Hagen and shared his thoughts on what happened.

  "The way I look at it is this. For me it wasn't that the peloton attacked while he (Edvald Boasson Hagen) was standing on the side of the road. He stopped 10km before the crosswinds really picked up but his team kept riding tempo on the front," Farrar told Cyclingnews.

  "It's a pity for Boasson Hagen to lose the race that way because he's very strong. It was just unfortunate the way it played out, but to a certain extent, that's bike racing. I wouldn't have expected them to wait for me if I'd been in that situation."

  Farrar insisted that there is no animosity towards Team Sky in the peloton.

  "I don't feel it. I actually have a lot of friends in that team," he said.

  "This isn't a race decided by big margins and there are only a few opportunities to gain time and so guys wanted to gain time by splitting the field in the wind. No one was surprised when the crosswind came, we all knew it was coming a long time before."

  "That's part of racing and there's only a few moments of racing when things can break up. In those situations, you can't expect the whole peloton to stop when you want them to."

• Team Type 1 jump starts season in Georgia

  

  Article published:

  February 18, 2010, 16:15

  By:

  Kirsten Frattini

  Pro team outlines ambitious program

  One of the fastest growing teams in the USA rolled out its professional squad this week: Team Type 1 is on an ambitious path toward a world-wide presence aimed at not only contesting a Grand Tour but also spreading its message of hope for diabetics.

  Team Type 1 has grown into a huge program centered around the mission to 'instill hope and inspiration for people around the world affected by diabetes.' The squad's UCI Continental men's team was just one of six cycling programs supported under the Team Type 1 umbrella and all were invited to a week long training camp that concluded on Thursday in Gainesville, Georgia.

  Phil Southerland and Joe Eldridge are the two young and highly ambitious co-founders of Team Type 1, both live with Type 1 diabetes. Founded in 2005, the team began to grow after eight Type 1 diabetic cyclists won the Race Across America (RAAM) in 2007. Southerland, soon-to-be 28, is now the CEO of Team Type 1, one of the largest and most successful cycling organizations in the United States of America.

  Team Type 1 hosted a training camp for all six teams that included the men and women's professional cycling team, development team, elite team, triathlon team and Team Type 2 squad. The crew totalled 70 athletes and 16 staff members.

  "To think that we would have this many programs and moving parts was a just evolution every year," Southerland said. "Our guys have a million and a half people in the US alone, pushing them like a tailwind and cheering for them to accomplish this. I'm pumped with where we are and I'm even more excited about where we can go."

  "We are a good organization but we need to be great," he added. "If we are great we will affect that many more lives. If everyone on this team makes small changes to be better than we will hit the sky and the sky is the limit here."

  Eldridge is now a leading member of the Team Type 1 pro men's team, an 18-man roster aiming to step up to UCI Professional Continental ranks with ‘wild card' status and hoping for an invitation to the Giro d' Italia next year. Its long term goal is to be the first team to send a cyclist with Type 1 diabetes to the Tour de France in 2012.

  This year's roster was bolstered with the addition of Type 1 diabetic Javier Megias Leal from Spain. He was recruited out of the ProTour ranks from Fuji-Servetto. Other riders on the team with Type 1 diabetes include Fabio Calabria, Martijn Verschoor and Alex Bowden.

  "I believed I was the only rider in Europe with Type 1 diabetes," Megias said. "I never had a teammate with diabetes before this. This team contacted me last year and I decided that it was a program that I liked. It is interesting to have other teammates that have Type 1 diabetes too. I have a lot of experience and one of my goals is to win a stage of the Tour of California."

  Returning riders include Eldridge, Calabria and Michael Creed, Will Dugan, Ken Hanson, Daniel Holt, Aldo Ino Ilesic, Chris Jones, Valeriy Kobzarenko and Shawn Milne. Megias is one of seven new riders including Verschoor, Bowden, Thomas Rabou, Alexi Shmidt, Davide Frattini, Thomas Soladay and Scott Stewart.

  "I'm very excited to see the guys race," said Director of Operations, Vassili Davidenko. "This year we have huge reinforcement in our stage racing side and our sprinters made a big step up too. At the stage races we will have what I always dreamed of having, a full roster of guys who can climb in GC and guys who can climb and also sprint. I am very confident and very excited to see what they can do."

  Sponsorship introductions and media relations were the focus in the first three days of camp held in the team's headquarters in Atlanta. The team headed north to Gainesville for the second portion of camp that involved long hours training on the bike under near freezing temperatures. Davidenko and new Directeur Sportif Michael Carter designed five plus hour training days with revisits to Wolfpen Gap and Brasstown Bald, notorious ascents from the former Tour de Georgia.

  "We had some great training in the last few days," Davidenko said. "It has been a little bit cold but the guys were really excited. I think overall this camp was important to bring everyone together. It was to see new riders with old riders and build their chemistry. My impression is that this is the best roster I have ever worked with. Overall, I am really proud to be apart of this organization because we have so many athletes and divisions and that's what makes this a really unique project."

  Team Type 1 pro men target overseas races

  Sanofi Aventis and its brands Epidra and Lantus return as one of the leading financial sponsors of Team Type 1. Other returning sponsors include Dex 4 Glucose, Abbott Diabetes Care's Free Style Navigator and Omni Pod. The team signed on Italian bike manufacturer Colnago and Biemme clothing and domestic sponsors Shimano, VSP Vision Care, Map My Ride, Limar and SpiderTech among others.

  "There are a lot of changes compared to last year," Davidenko said. "There are more international sponsors involved in this team now because they heard about us, they know this is a really unique program and they want to be a part of it. There is a lot of excitement which is why we want to spend more time overseas so that we get more attention. It will help us with our mission and sponsors will get excited."

  Tentative events on the Team Type 1 international calendar include the Tour du Maroc, OCBC Cycle Singapore Criterium, Tour of Japan, Le Tour de Langkawi, Tour de Taiwan, Tour de Korea, Qinghai Lake, Circuit des Ardennes International, Rhône-Alpes Isère Tour, Le Tour de Bretagne Cycliste - Trophee des Granitiers, the FBD Ras, Tour of Ireland and Tour of Rwanda.

  "We plan to have a dual program," Davidenko said. "This year we will try to do more races in Europe, Asia and Africa because that is the only way we can reach our mission maximally. We will go overseas and hopefully we will do well, educate people who are affected by diabetes and spread our message. That is why we are here. Moving more internationally is our target and Pro Continental is our goal for next year. We want to be there and race there and do well."

  Davidenko admitted that juggling a dual program means it will be hard to focus on the National Racing Calendar (NRC). Team Type 1 will target events in the North America that include the San Dimas Stage Race, Redlands Bicycle Classic and the Tour of California, should it receive an invitation, and other UCI races like the Tour of Battenkill and the Tour de Beauce scheduled in the early season.

  "It is difficult because there are so many great races in the US and to win the NRC you need to be here full-time," Davidenko said. "Winning the NRC is a good target but I also know that it will be a difficult especially if you plan on being overseas."

  "We really want to be at the Tour of California," he added. "I think we have a very competitive team and I believe that we should be able to have something special happen in California. Our roster is strong and I believe that we deserve a spot. It is obviously AEG's decision but with our roster and our unique mission, we change peoples lives and that is huge."

• Haedo goes close in Oman sprint

  

  Article published:

  February 18, 2010, 17:33

  By:

  Stephen Farrand

  Saxo Bank sprinter shows form in the Gulf

  JJ Haedo (Saxo Bank) was unable to beat to Tom Boonen (Quick Step) in the sprint that decided stage five of the Tour of Oman but the Argentinean was pleased to have pushed Boonen so close and pick yet another good result.

  Haedo finished third in two stages at the Tour of Qatar and was fifth on another. He was 13th on stage four in Oman, but more importantly, he was in the front echelon that decided the race. On other days he helped teammates Baden Cooke and Stuart O'Grady by providing some excellent leadouts and even helped his younger brother Lucas Sebastien in other sprints.

  "I should be proud of a second place like that but we've been so close for two weeks now, it's not something that makes us happy at the moment," he said to Cyclingnews as he tried to recover from his effort.

  "The legs are okay, it's just a matter of timing. Today I was trying to help (Baden) Cookie and so I burned some matches before the sprint. Then when I went, I went really well, but Boonen got my wheel and caught me on the line."

  Haedo is an aggressive sprinter and was not afraid to bump shoulders with Boonen but he is professional and did not even think of trying to block Boonen against the barriers.

  "It was on the right, then the middle and then I went to the right. But I didn't close the gate on Tom. I'm not the kind of sprinter who'd try to kill someone for a win," he said.

  Saxo Bank have ridden well in the Tour of Qatar and the Tour of Oman but missed out on victory. However the consolation is the excellent team spirit that has developed during two weeks on the road together.

  We're just lacking a win to break our luck," Haedo admitted. "We've been riding well, and we had five guys in the front when it split yesterday. We didn't win that stage but at least the team is working well and as a unit. That's important for the future. The guys really know each other now."

  After a big block of early-season racing, Haedo will take a break while some of his teammates here in Oman will head quickly to Belgium for Het Nieuwsblad.

  "I'm riding Paris-Nice and then the Vuelta a Catalunya. So I'll leave these guys to go to Belgium and have some fun in the cold," he said, with a laugh.

• Rain-soaked misery for the peloton in Portugal

  

  Article published:

  February 18, 2010, 19:45

  By:

  Peter Cossins

  Cold, wet day for difficult 207km stage

  Last year the peloton basked in 25-degree heat at the Tour of the Algarve, and this year they seem to be paying the price. After wind, rain and cold with a touch of sun on day one, day two brought incessantly heavy rain and biting cold.

  The stage, at 207km through some rugged Portuguese mountain terrain, would have been tough enough on a decent day. On an appalling one, it was brutal. So it was no wonder that André Greipel's winning time of six hours plus was 75 minutes beyond the scheduled finish.

  There was no chance of a quote at the finish from riders who looked as stony-faced as Lot's wife. It would have been unfair to ask. However, Greipel and runner-up Jurgen Roelandts did hang around long enough to give the riders' perspective.

  "It was horrible out there," said Greipel. "It's not really healthy to do 207km in rain like that, and if I've got a cold tomorrow I'll know why. It was very hard all day and I just tried to eat as much as I could to keep off the cold. I told the team not to do any work at all as I felt really bad all day. I didn't want them riding to chase the break down, we let the other teams do that for a change.

  "To be honest, we didn't expect to catch the last breakaway rider [Footon's David Vitoria] at all. We got up to him at the last roundabout with 200m to go just as we hit the steep climb up to the finish. I don't know what happened then, I can't really remember anything about the sprint, who I beat or what happened. But it certainly helped that we looked over the last 3km of this stage in the team car yesterday."

  Roelandts was pleased with his ride, although disappointed to have finished second once again. "At some points today I couldn't feel my legs because of the rain and the cold, but they must have been good because I was climbing alongside [Alberto] Contador and [Levi] Leipheimer. I do like cold and wet conditions. I won last year at the Tour of Poland when it was very similar.

  "When we came to the last hill I just followed the first attack and went by that guy. But I just knew that Greipel was on my wheel and I knew there was probably nothing I could do to hold him off as he was coming up alongside me. But at least this does show that my form is good and I've got to be pleased about that."

  The good news for all is that the forecast for tomorrow's key stage to the Malhao summit finish is good. At least that's what the local weatherman is telling us…