Third Edition Cycling News, Friday, May 21, 2010

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Date published:

May 21, 2010, 20:00

• Specialized give California an American Flyers feel

  

  Article published:

  May 21, 2010, 11:00

  By:

  Cycling News

  Video with Specialized's Nic Sims

  Specialized have kitted-out Saxo Bank with retro-style bikes at the Amgen Tour of California. The team bikes were given the 'American Flyers treatment', in homage to the 1985 cult cycling film staring Kevin Costner. Specialized's Nic Sims takes us through the changes they made.

  Specialized give Saxo Bank the American Flyers treatment
  

   

  
   

  Cyclingnews' Amgen Tour of California video is brought to you by Specialized

  

  

• Mach recaps California break

  

  Article published:

  May 21, 2010, 11:20

  By:

  Cycling News

  Video with Bissell's aggressive rider

  "I'm here to race my bike," declared Paul Mach (Bissell) after the stage 5 finish at the Amgen Tour of California. Mach was the leader virtuel on the road after breaking away with Grischa Niermann (Rabobank), Kurt Hovelynck (Quick Step), Mark Renshaw (HTC-Columbia), Benjamin Day (Fly V Australia) and William Dickeson (Jelly Belly-Kenda). Unfortunately for Mach, he and his five companions were caught before the finish in Bakersfield. Here, in this exclusive video he talks about the stage break and his aggressive racing style.

  Mach recaps California break
  

   

   

  Cyclingnews' Amgen Tour of California video is brought to you by Specialized

  

  

• Euser and Boily talk crashes in the Tour of California

  

  Article published:

  May 21, 2010, 12:10

  By:

  Cycling News

  Video with SpiderTech duo after stage 5

  The Amgen Tour of California was marred by a crash on stage 5 with Lance Armstrong (RadioShack) forced to abandon. Lucas Euser David Boily of SpiderTech survived the carnage, with Euser finishing in the lead group of overall favourites. Here, the duo re-live the action from the stage and explain who really dictates the racing in California.

  Euser and Boily talk crashes in the Tour of California

  Warning: this video contains explicit language.

   

  
   

  Cyclingnews' Amgen Tour of California video is brought to you by Specialized

  

  

• Keukeleire out for a month with broken wrist

  

  Article published:

  May 21, 2010, 12:15

  By:

  Susan Westemeyer

  Cofidis looks to extend with Belgium's Spring sensation

  Jens Keukeleire, who burst on to the pro scene with a series of wins for Cofidis this spring, has broken his left wrist in a training accident. The Belgian, who is also currently negotiating a contract extension with his French team, will be out for at least a month.

  On Wednesday, Keukeleire was being motorpaced when he crashed. According to his personal website, he had been travelling at 65km/h when he hit a large stone in the road. He thought he was uninjured, but doctors discovered the a break in his wrist and the injury has been set in a plaster cast.

  Keukeleire has had to cancel his planned start in the Tour of Belgium next week, but anticipates being able to ride again in the Belgian national championships the end of June.

  The 21-year-old first-year pro got off to a spectacular start this year by winning Le Samyn, the opening stage and the overall title in the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen and Nokere Korse, all within a 14 day period. After a pause in racing, he had returned to ride the Tour de Picardie last weekend.

  Earlier this month, Cofidis started negotiations to extend his contract, which currently runs through to the end of 2011. However, his manager, former professional Nico Mattan, told the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws that things weren't going well.

  "Cofidis wants Jens to remain, but obviously they want him as cheaply as possible," Mattan said. "We must find a happy medium."

  "Keukeleire does not need to earn 200,000 euros a year, but he should not ride for 40,000 euros, either," Mattan said. .
   

• Video: Armstrong rejects Landis allegations

  

  Article published:

  May 21, 2010, 12:30

  By:

  Cycling News

  Radioshack leader says he has nothing to hide

  After Floyd Landis rocked the cycling world with his allegations of widespread drug taking, Lance Armstrong, one of the individuals implicated, made this public statement. 

  Read Lance Armstrong's full statement as well has his response to questions from the press by clicking here.

  Armstrong rejects Landis allegations
  

   

   

  Cyclingnews' Amgen Tour of California video is brought to you by Specialized

  

  

• Kimmage: Landis allegations will decide the sport’s future

  

  Article published:

  May 21, 2010, 13:04

  By:

  Peter Cossins

  McQuaid defends UCI's position

  Irish journalist Paul Kimmage has described Floyd Landis’s allegations of widespread doping at the US Postal team as an issue that “that will decide the future of the sport”. Speaking on Irish radio sports programme Off the Ball, Kimmage said of Landis’s allegations as “He’s not saying, ‘I doped to win the Tour de France.’ Or at least he’s not just saying that. He’s pointing his finger pretty much everywhere. The picture he paints is pretty bleak to say the least.”

  Kimmage added: “For me the most damaging element of it is the relationship between Armstrong and the governing body, and the allegation that Armstrong tested positive in 01 or 02 and went to the UCI, to UCI president Hein Verbruggen, and gave him some money to cover it up. That is the most devastating revelation of all because the relationship between Armstrong and the governing body is something that we’ve had reservations about.

   “It’s been no surprise that Pat McQuaid, the now president of the UCI has come out and rubbished it as he’s done in the time-honoured tradition of the UCI, depicting Landis as someone with a grudge, which is exactly what he said about me, and someone who’s got no love for the sport.”

  Kimmage then suggested that Armstrong’s participation at this year’s Tour de France must now be in doubt. “The allegations are so grave that Armstrong is going to have trouble with this… I really cannot see him going to the Tour de France. My understanding is that there is now a federal investigation under way, and you don’t mess with those people. I think this could be the end of him, to be honest.”

  Kimmage did offer praise for the UCI’s recent efforts in fighting doping, but argued they must look more closely at Armstrong’s past performances. “As much as they’ve tried to clean up the sport over the last three years, I’ve always been particularly uncomfortable with the way they’ve treated Armstrong. I don’t know of any other sport where an athlete would say, ‘Here’s a few quid, now look after that.’ They needed to take one further step and that was to investigate Lance Armstrong’s performances since 1998 and they have never done that.”

  Asked what he hoped what happen now given that Landis has already said that he cannot prove a lot of what he is saying, Kimmage responded: “How it moves forward now is that Floyd has named a number of witnesses to what he saw. What needs to happen now is for those people to corroborate what Landis has said. That will take a lot of courage and I don’t know if there is that much courage out there in terms of tackling Lance Armstrong.

  “If you look at US Postal and look at the number of riders who tested positive after they left that team… What Landis is saying is not coming in isolation… We need people to stand up and be counted and say, ‘Yes, I was there, what Landis says is true.’

  “It brings into question Armstrong’s attitude with regard to dopers. I had a go at Armstrong at California a year ago and I mentioned Floyd Landis to him and how pleased that he seemed to be that the sport was allowing cheats like Landis and Ivan Basso back in with open arms. Armstrong’s attitude to dopers has always been a very curious thing to me. While some people might want to believe him, when you examine how he has treated some people who have stood up about doping, then you’ve got to wonder, ‘This doesn’t stand up. This is not normal.’”

  UCI president Pat McQuaid had been listening to Kimmage’s comments and was then given the chance to respond. “Let me say it was the UCI who caught Floyd Landis,” he pointed out straight off, adding: “I’m going to tell you something now because I’ve never said this before publicly. I did something that was very unorthodox. Four days after his positive test, I picked up the phone and I called Floyd Landis and spoke to him about it. I said to him, ‘Floyd, please, come clean, do not go into the usual train of denial, denial, denial.’ He refused to listen to that.

  “The UCI, WADA, the USADA spent a lot of money prosecuting Floyd Landis and all the time he was living a lie. Now he comes out with this statement and we’re supposed to act accordingly.”

  Asked what he thought Landis’s agenda might be, the UCI president said: “I don’t know what his agenda is. To go back to the allegation that Paul Kimmage pointed up as the most important allegation that Lance Armstrong paid the UCI to cover up a positive doping test. That is absolutely, completely untrue.”

  After pointing out that Armstrong did not ride the 2002 Tour of Switzerland, as had been suggested, McQuaid responded to the alleged cover-up of a positive test by saying: “The results of any tests that came out of the Tour of Switzerland in 2001 would have been sent to the international ruling body, which is the UCI, and the International Olympic Committee, so the IOC would have been aware of any positive tests on the Tour of Switzerland in 2001. There’s no way the UCI could have covered up something like that. It’s a complete fabrication.”

  He did acknowledge that the UCI had received money from Armstrong. “The UCI received $100,000 from Lance Armstrong in 2005, four years after this incident was supposed to have taken place.” McQuaid then explained: “The UCI would accept donations from anyone who’s prepared to give. We’re a non-profit-making organisation so we’re prepared to accept money from anyone who’s prepared to assist us in developing the sport.”

  He also insisted that the UCI will take action if an USADA investigation into Landis’s allegations suggested other riders had cheated. “If they can come up with enough proof from these allegations against any of the riders involved, the UCI will support them 100 per cent in going forwards with that process. But even Floyd Landis has said that he has no proof to back up the statements he’s made.

  McQuaid concluded by saying: “Floyd should have met with USADA directly and I was involved in trying to get him to do that. But instead he’s gone to the media. I know one thing that could be playing a role in this. He wanted to ride the Tour of California, but the organisers wouldn’t take him into the race. He tried to blackmail the organisers of the Tour of California and if they didn’t take him in he was going to come loose with a big story, and this is exactly what he’s done.”

• Evans and Righi apologise after exchanging blows

  

  Article published:

  May 21, 2010, 17:09

  By:

  Cycling News

  Both riders get away with a fine

  On Thursday Cadel Evans (BMC) and Daniele Righi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) swapped blows as the Italian domestique tried to slow the chase and the world champion lost his cool after missing the break that included many of his overall rivals.

  The morning after, before Friday’s stage to Cesenatico, the two were friends again and apologetic about turning the final kilometres of the stage into a boxing match. They shook hands and admitted they had lost their cool. They had risked disqualification or a time penalty, which would have hurt Evans more than Righi, but the race judges were lenient and they got away with just a fine of 2000 Swiss francs or 1500 Euro each.
  
  Evans admitted he lost his usual self-control. "I exaggerated. I'm sorry. What happened is bad for the image of cycling. Riders during the race can be very different than in the normal life," he said.

  In his blog, Evans said: “My fault for not being there, I didn't position myself very well. I was relying on Sky and Garmin to chase a bit more. Hence me getting frustrated with those who were purposely slowing down the chase, not the done thing in professional cycling. I let it be known to them, much to everyone's entertainment – sorry about that - not bad for a boring rider who never attacks, hey?”

  Righi criticised Evans but was also apologetic. "Cycling is a team sport and slowing down the pace at the front of the bunch is part of the game. I didn't brake, I didn't do anything wrong. When Evans pushed me and hit me, I defended myself but he’s the world champion. He should be an example. However we have apologised. What we did wasn't nice.”
   

• UCI suspends Larpe, Coló for drug positives

  

  Article published:

  May 21, 2010, 17:46

  By:

  Richard Tyler

  Cycling's governing body lists fines, sanctions handed to Dekker, Astarloza

  Mickael Larpe (Roubaix Lille Metropole) and Alessandro Coló (ISD-Neri) have been provisionally suspended by the International Cycling Union (UCI) after respective positive tests for EPO and clenbuterol. The UCI have also confirmed sanctions and fines issued by four national federations to eight individual riders, including Thomas Dekker and Mikel Astarloza.

  Larpe tested positive for EPO in an in-competition blood control conducted at the Cholet-Pays de Loire race on March 20. The test had been carried out by the French Anti-doping Authourity (AFLD) and had initially raised the ire of the French Cycling Federation on the grounds that the UCI should have been the only body with jurisdiction to carry out the test. However, the UCI have now validated the AFLD result and hence imposed the provisional suspension.

  Coló tested positive for asthma medication clenbuterol in an in-competition urine test conducted at the Tour of Mexico on April 25.

  "The provisional suspensions of Mr Larpe and Mr Coló remain in force until hearings convened by the riders’ National Federations determine whether they breached the UCI Anti-Doping Rules," said the UCI in a statement issued on Friday.

  The UCI also announced a list of bans and fines issued to riders by the Monegasque (Monaco), Spanish, Italian and Polish national cycling federations over the past 12 months. The following is a list of the federations, the relevant riders and the sanctions issued:

  Monegasque Cycling Federation (FMC):

  Thomas Dekker - two year ban.

  Italian Cycling Federation (FCI):

  Gabriele Bosisio – two year ban and 9,625 euro fine.

  Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC):

  Mikel Astarloza - two year ban and 154,570 euro fine
  Hector Guerra Garcia - two year ban and 35,000 euro fine.
  Alberto Fernandez De La Puebla Ramos – two year ban and 42,000 euro fine.
  Isidro Nozal Vega – two year ban and 17,500 euro fine.

  Polish Cycling Federation (PZK):

  Kacper Szczepaniak - four year ban and 1,680 euro fine.
  Pawel Szczepaniak - eight year ban and 750 euro fine.