Second Edition Cycling News, Wednesday, July 21, 2010

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Date published:

July 21, 2010, 20:00

• Transfer season in full swing as more riders move

  

  Article published:

  July 21, 2010, 07:03

  By:

  Cycling News

  Rabobank reportedly courts Breschel, chasing Sanchez

  While teams can’t confirm their new signings for 2011 just yet, the rider transfer market is in full swing with reports Rabobank has signed Matti Breschel for next season. Dutch paper De Telegraaf reported the Saxo Bank rider will move to the squad to bolster its Spring Classics lineup.

  The paper has also linked Caisse d’Epargne’s Luis León Sánchez to the Dutch squad. It claims the Spaniard has a two year deal on the table from Rabobank while Team Radioshack is also chasing the rider to strengthen its general classification ranks, but is only offering a one year deal.

  In other transfer news Rabobank’s continental squad will lose a rider in Martijn Keizer next season. Keizer has been officially announced as a member of the Vacansoleil Professional Continental squad for 2011.

  The 22-year-old finished inside the top 10 at the Under 23 Liege-Bastonge-Liege this year and also claimed a top five overall finish at Olympia’s Tour. Vacansoleil manager Daan Luijkx said the team always keeps its eye on young Dutch talents.

  “He is a real strong rider who fits the team,” said Luijkx. “We are always looking for young and talented Dutch riders and wish to find a balance for Martijn to grow and to perform at the pros. Keizer is ready to become pro. It is good for the Dutch sport of cycling to have several Dutch teams for the talented riders.”

• Bruyneel acknowledges that Discovery bikes were sold on eBay

  

  Article published:

  July 21, 2010, 08:48

  By:

  Cycling News

  Denies knowing where the money went

  Johan Bruyneel has confirmed that one of his past teams sold bikes, but said it was after Discovery Channel had ended its sponsorship in 2007, and that he had “no idea” where the money had gone.

  Floyd Landis had claimed recently that the US Postal team sold bikes to help fund the team's doping programme. He said that some 60 bikes were not accounted for, and that they had been sold for cash.

  "What Floyd is saying is that 60 bikes were missing," Bruyneel said to the AP. "I have absolutely no idea where he got that from."

  Bruyneel acknowledged that "At the end of the Discovery Channel's sponsorship, I think there were bikes sold on eBay. It was done by the team.

  He said the bikes were team property and that Trek Bicycle Corp. knew some were given away "for the purpose of maintaining relationships" with the other team sponsors.

  Trek has allegedly been subpoenaed to provide documents to a grand jury investigation looking into Landis' claims of doping. The US-based bike producer denied any knowledge of the actions as charged by Landis.

  "Trek has no knowledge of the sale of any team bikes to purchase drugs," Trek said in a statement issued earlier this month. . "We did not, and never would, condone such activity. Trek does not support doping in cycling and has included in all of its sponsorship contracts the right to terminate any athlete who violates the doping rules."

• Stevic thrown out for aggressive salute in Qinghai Lake

  

  Article published:

  July 21, 2010, 09:33

  By:

  Shane Goss

  Rider apologises for any unintended insult

  Serbian Ivan Stevic (Partizan SRBIJAN) has been removed from the Tour of Qinghai Lake for his middle-finger salute at the finish of stage four at Qinghai Lake. An emotional Stevic raised his finger in a gesture directed at his team’s mechanic who had previously joked with him about his form.

  He has also been hit in the pocket with a fine of 1,000 Swiss Francs as well as losing his prize money from the stage win. Runner-up on the stage, Ukraine rider Yuriy Metlushenko (Amore & Vita-Conad), was elevated to the win.

  “I don’t know why he did this,” said Chief Commissaire Jean Francois Camoin. “Sometimes you don’t know what is going on in the mind of some people.”

  “Everywhere in the world you have to show respect,” he added. “This finger was for whom, i don’t mind for whom, but you can’t do this”.

  Partizan SRBIJAN team manager Dusan Banovic was disappointed with the outcome. ”We are not happy definitely, you know, but it happened,” he said. “We apologised to everyone here and we feel bad.”

  “I think the most important thing is that he didn’t show that (finger) to anyone, it was just some anger that he let out because for three years he hasn’t won anything”, explained Banovic.

  “We will pay everything but also contact the UCI,” added the despondent team manager.

  Stevic was extremely apologetic for his actions. “I just really wanted to apologise not only to the Chinese people but to all of the riders,” he said. “Those are the emotions, those are the moments, and they come out.”

  “It wasn’t because of the race or the people around me or the riders”, he explained. “The last thing i wanted to do was offend the organisation or the Chinese people, i didn’t think it like that way.”

  “I am an emotional guy, that’s how I race. It was totally wrong, i am aware of that now,” he said.

• Team Milram still has no new sponsor for 2011

  

  Article published:

  July 21, 2010, 11:59

  By:

  Susan Westemeyer

  Manager Van Gerwen still hopes to continue

  Team Milram does not have a sponsor for the 2011 season, but team manager Gerry van Gerwen has said he is not giving up hope. The Dutchman apparently still has two inquiries from potential sponsors, but admits that nothing will be settled until September.

  Milram had been sponsored by Nordmilch AG since 2006, but the dairy product company announced in October 2009 that it would stop its sponsorship at the end of this season.

  Van Gerwen, 57, said at a press conference, Wednesday, that he would apply to the International Cycling Union for the team's licence by the August 15 deadline. He must submit his team roster by October 1. If he does not have a sponsor by that time, he said, he will continue to look for a sponsor for the 2012 season.

  It is questionable as to what roster he might present. His riders have been told that they are free to look for new teams. So far, Linus Gerdemann has been linked to the new Luxembourg team and Gerald Ciolek is said to be in talks with HTC-Columbia.

  Only last week van Gerwen said that three potential new sponsors had expressed interest in the team, with one said to be a European bike manufacturer. The Süddeutsche Zeitung today reported that the company was the Belgian company Ridley, but that it has decided to go with another team.

  In a statement issued Wednesday morning, Nordmilch noted that its sponsorship “was tied to clear marketing goals from the beginning and defined to attract attention to Milram. These goals have been reached.” The company thanked the management and riders for the “successful cooperation.”

  Milram was founded in 2006 with an Italian licence, with its top stars being sprinters Alessandro Petacchi and Erik Zabel. The team's suffered a series of doping-relate crises in 2007. The most long-reaching one was when team manager and ProTour licence holder Gianluigi Stanga was accused by Jörg Jaksche of organised doping practices in the past. Up until then, van Gerwen had been the team's business manager, but he took over the ProTour license and became the general manager.

  In that same year, Zabel confessed to having used EPO in 1996. The team was apparently more upset at his making his confession at a press conference sponsored by his former team and Milram's German rival, T-Mobile, than at the the contents of the confession itself.

  The same month, Petacchi tested positive at the Giro d'Italia for the asthma drug salbutamol. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ultimately suspended him for one year, noting that the dosage was probably unintentional. The team fired him in May 2008, when the suspension was announced.

  Igor Astarloa was released by the team in 2008, after he had shown “irregular blood values”. The former World champion had first signed with the team in 2007.

  Team Milram has had 10 victories so far this season, with two coming form captain Linus Gerdemann. It has not lived up to its own expectations in this year's Tour de France. Sprinter Gerald Ciolek finished second in the fifth stage, and surprisingly stayed with the favourites' group in Tuesday's difficult Pyrenean stage. The team's other captain, Gerdemann, is currently 84th overall, over two hours down. The team is last in the team rankings.

  Milram's departure would leave Germany without a top-league pro cycling team for the first time since the early 1990s. As late as 2007 there were three German ProTour teams, Milram, T-Mobile and Gerolsteiner. T-Mobile ended its sponsorship in 2007, and the team moved to the USA. Gerolsteiner ended in 2008.

• Tour de France takes a day of rest in Pau

  

  Article published:

  July 21, 2010, 15:53

  By:

  Cycling News

  Photo gallery from the second rest day

  The Tour de France is only four stages away from crowning its victor for 2010, but before the riders could turn a pedal in anger, they had their second day of "rest" in Pau.

  Race leader Alberto Contador did not hold the normal rest day press conference, but was spotted heading out of town for a ride with his team and a number of enthusiastic fans.

  His main opponent Andy Schleck was also followed out of town by some amateur riders, but quickly burned them off his wheel, setting pace behind the Saxo Bank team car.

  For RadioShack's Lance Armstrong, it was a time to catch up with his ever-growing family: his three children from his first wife as well as his one-year-old son with his current partner Anna Hansen, who is also carrying the couple's second child.

  Enjoy this photo gallery from the rest day in Pau.

• Cervélo leaders planning final flourish

  

  Article published:

  July 21, 2010, 17:00

  By:

  Peter Cossins

  Sastre and Hushovd are hoping to make an impact in Tour's closing days

  Cervélo team leaders Carlos Sastre and Thor Hushovd are both optimistic about their their prospects going into the final four stages of the Tour de France. The pair were prominent on the pre-rest day stage to Pau. Sastre tried to attack to get across to the lead group, but when that attempt was foiled the Spaniard then helped his Norwegian teammate to stay in the yellow jersey group over the Tourmalet and Aubisque. That resulted in Hushovd contesting and winning the bunch sprint for 10th place that gave him the points he needed to regain the green jersey from Alessandro Petacchi.

  Sastre admitted that the mountain stage to the summit of the Tourmalet offers him his final chance of Tour glory. "The first eight days of the race were very complicated for me, breaking two wheels in a crash on the cobbles in which I also fractured a rib. But over the last few days I've been riding much better, enjoying it more, and things have been going much more how I like them to.

  "All I've been lacking in recent days is a bit of luck. I made an attempt for the stage win at Ax-3 Domaines and it didn't work out, I tried again yesterday and it was the same result. But I've got one final opportunity and if I've got the legs I will certainly be going for it again," said the 2008 Tour winner, who is lying 15th overall.

  "I've always been an attack-minded rider, and I feel like I've got the form back to take advantage of that, but the stage looks particularly tough. Looking beyond that to the time trial, the roads for that are good and if the wind is behind the riders the gaps between the main contenders will be minimal. Consequently, I think the Tourmalet stage is crucial in the Tour de France. I will be up there, but quite where exactly I don't know," Sastre explained.

  "I've only finished on the Tourmalet the once, when Ivan Basso won the stage at La Mongie and I was 5th or 6th. It's a mythical climb. I've felt much happier and stronger for the last three days. I'm not a rider who attacks simply for the sake of attacking, although I did do that last year because I had no form at all. But not this year. If I attack on the Tourmalet it will be because I can give my best and suffer in order to try to win."

  Hushovd, meanwhile, is focusing on what he needs to do to claim a third points title, although he admitted there had been no plan to ride in the yellow jersey group to Pau. "I didn't want to take the risk of sitting in the gruppetto in case it didn't arrive inside the time limit. I had a good day and just wanted to hang on as long as possible and got the six points I needed to take back the jersey," said the Norwegian.

  Asked about Petacchi's form with two likely bunch sprints in Bordeaux and Paris to come, Hushovd responded: "He is going really well this year. It's not a surprise to see him doing so well because I know he's a good rider and a good sprinter. But he's 36, and although I did mention him before the race I didn't see him as my biggest rival."

  Hushovd then admitted: "The sprints haven't really gone well for me. I wish I had more power in the sprints. But in the last week of the Tour I think it's more important that you have fresh legs and feel strong when it comes to the sprints. I like sprints that are hard, but this year's have all been quite flat."

  He also acknowledged that he's still mulling over the neutralisation of stage 2 to Spa. "Like I said that day, I could lose the green jersey because of what happened that day, and at the moment that's still the case. If it had gone to a sprint I would have got 20 points or maybe more, and those points would have been important today."

  Hushovd then explained how the ejection of HTC-Columbia's Mark Renshaw is likely to make the final sprints more unpredictable than ever. "It will change things because if he was here everyone would know that he is going to lead out Cavendish. Now I think everyone will be expecting Lampre to lead out, so that means that we're missing one team that can guarantee a high speed for the last few hundred metres."

• Moerenhout to retire at end of the season

  

  Article published:

  July 21, 2010, 17:55

  By:

  Cycling News

  Rabobank's Tour road captain calls it quits after 15 years

  Koos Moerenhout of Rabobank announced Wednesday that he will retire at the end of the season. "I will turn 37 years old in November. I'm still enjoying myself and it's still good, but at some point you have to stop," he said.

  Moerenhout made the announcement Wednesday in Pau on the Tour de France's second rest day. He is the team's road captain at the race, which is his seventh Tour.

  He turned pro with Rabobank in 1996, and rode for Domo-Farm Frites from 2000 to 2002, Lotto-Domo from 2003 to 2005, and Phonak in 2006. He returned to Rabobank in 2007.

  Moerenhout was Dutch national road champion in 2007 and 2009. He has a number of wins in his career, with the most recent being the individual time trial in the 2009 Tour of Austria.

• Andy Schleck talks tough before Tourmalet showdown

  

  Article published:

  July 21, 2010, 19:02

  By:

  Stephen Farrand

  Saxo Bank will go on the attack on final climb

  Just 24 hours before their Tour de France showdown on the slopes of the Tourmalet, Alberto Contador opted to avoid the media and enjoy a low key rest day in Pau. However his big rival Andy Schleck was happy to be in the spotlight and held court in front of a hundred journalists.

  Schleck sat next to Saxo Bank team manager and owner Bjarne Riis. Their partnership will soon end when the Schleck brothers move to their own Luxembourg-based team. However they both still want to try and win the Tour de France.

  Schleck is only 25 and so will win the best young rider's jersey even if he fails to take the yellow jersey. Yet he is mature for age and seems able to handle the pressure and expectations on his young shoulders.

  He knows he has to go on the offensive if he is to have any chance of victory in the Tour, and is not afraid to say it.

  "The Tour is ending and I'm running out of time. I can't wait until he has a bad day. There's only one chance left and that's tomorrow. I've got to try everything," he said to the media gathered at his feet.

  "I know I need to be in yellow for the start of time trial to have a chance of winning the Tour. If I have the jersey I'll be really motivated in the final time trial. I don't know if 30 seconds or a minute would be enough. I'd prefer to have two minutes. I was really bad in the Rotterdam time trial but now things are different after three weeks of racing. I think I can do something."

  All on the Tourmalet

  Bjarne Riis made it clear that Saxo Bank's strategy is all built around Schleck attacking Contador on the slopes of the Tourmalet and hopefully gaining enough time to win the Tour. Schleck totally agreed.

  "There's only one way (to win) and that's on the climb of the Tourmalet. If you go before you won't succeed," he said.

  "I've always said that the guy who has yellow tomorrow, will have it in Paris. I still believe that. Tomorrow is definitely the queen stage of the race. It's a really hard climb and the hardest in this year's race, especially the side we go up tomorrow. Yesterday we went up the other side. It's hard but nothing crazy. The side we go up tomorrow is bloody hard."

  Respect for Contador

  Schleck was angry with Alberto Contador for attacking him while he was struggling to put his chain back on the Port de Bales. Yet he has quickly forgiven him and admits that, despite their cultural and nationalistic differences, they are very similar.

  Indeed, they are so equally talented that their battle at this year's Tour de France could mark be the start of one of cycling's greatest rivalries.

  "We're different but I admire him because he's got his feet on the ground. He is who he is," Schleck said.

  "I think I'm the same. I don't want to be somebody I'm not. He lives for cycling like I do. I know for the next 10-15 years I'll live totally for cycling, but after that I'll have another life. He thinks in the same way and I think that's a pretty good thing to have as a cyclist."

  Many people believe that Contador does not have the same form as in his previous Tour de France victories, but Schleck disagrees. He is convinced he is the one who has improved and so closed the gap on Contador.

  "There was a big difference between us in the time trial and even on the climbs last year, I couldn't follow him. But this year is different," he explained.

  "He's eight seconds ahead of me in GC but I don't think there's a big difference between him and me on the climbs now. I think I've improved because I look at the gaps behind to other riders."

  "Last year I was second and I said I'd come here to win it. That's the main goal of the season. The first part of my season didn't go as I wanted it to. So that gave me extra motivation and I trained really hard for that. That's why I'm at the level I am."

  Confidence from 'Chaingate'

  Schleck again talked about what has been dubbed Chaingate - his mechanical problem on stage 15, and the subsequent tension and polemics about who attacked, when and where. For Schleck it is all in the past.

  "We spoke during the stage yesterday and Alberto apologized and said he made a wrong decision in the heat of the moment. I'm not angry at him anymore," he said.

  "It's finished for me and I think it should be finished for the public too. I didn't like it when they whistled at him because he's a great champion. I think people should stop it."

  Schleck is even ready to accept the consequences of what happened, even if it cost him victory in the Tour de France.

  "Then it just means I'm not meant to win the Tour this year," he said.

  When asked if he would wait for Contador if his chain slips on the Tourmalet, he said: "It won't happen. The Tour won't be decided because of a chain slipping or not."

  He has even taken confidence from the incident and the from the results of the huge effort he was able to make on the climb to try and hang onto the yellow jersey.

  "When I dropped my chain, the moment I got back on the bike I was 50 seconds back. At the top I was only 15 second down, I bridged a pretty good gap there and that gives me confidence," he said.

  "I know I haven't given it everything yet."