First Edition Cycling News for September 22, 2005

Edited by Jeff Jones

WADA Chief continues debate with UCI

By Mark Zalewski, North American Editor

The president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) held a press conference Tuesday following the annual meeting of its executive committee. On the agenda for the day was approval of the prohibited substance list for 2006, the 2006 budget, FIFA's compliance issues with WADA and others. Not on the agenda was anything involving Lance Armstrong or the UCI. However, that was certainly not off limits for the assembled press.

When asked about the UCI's president's comments asking WADA to sanction its own chief, Pound replied jokingly, "I thought about sanctioning myself and decided against it! "[laughs] "After full consideration of all the issues." Following some awkward silence, another reporter asked how Pound would like to see the 'bickering' between WADA and the UCI be resolved. "It's really a matter for the international federation to resolve," Pound said. "This [case] was a sample given for doping control purposes, during either the 1998 or 1999 Tour de France. These are showcase events for the UCI. They are the ones responsible for imposing whatever sanction can be imposed in accordance with their rules. WADA doesn't impose sanctions at any time, all we do is say we think there was a doping infraction - go and deal with it. If we don't think they dealt with it properly we can go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and seek what we think would be the proper outcome."

As for the back-and-forth between his organization and the UCI, Pound replied, "We have indicated that we are prepared to help with any information in our possession, provided they are going to do a complete and thorough and complete investigation, and not simply look at how this information found its way into the public. We hope that the investigation will be full and complete but it is not full and complete at this point, so we will have to wait and see what it will be, and then decide what, if anything, we should do about it on our own."

Pound was then asked why he thinks the UCI is expecting documents from or action on the part of WADA in regards to the Tour de France cases. Pound expressed his uneasiness about the situation, saying, "Yes, it is quite unusual. We didn't even exist in 1998 - we weren't formed until after all of these events took place in 1999. We tried to provide, to the best of our abilities, all of the information we had. I am unable to answer questions as to what may be in the minds of the UCI, what may be in the minds of the labs, or what may be in possession of the labs. We are concerned about the generally accusatory approach to what we may have done. We are a bit nervous about the way this is going. While we want to be helpful in the context of a full investigation, we are not there to participate in something that amounts to a search as to how the information made its way into the public domain."

Swedish young talent signs in advance with FDJ

By Jean-François Quénet

Johan Lindgren
Photo ©: JF Quénet

Young Swede Johan Lindgren has signed a two years deal with Française des Jeux...starting in 2007. The 19 year-old from Falun completed the U23 time trial world championship in 23rd position in Madrid. "I'm disappointed with my ride," he commented. "I started pretty well, then I suffered back problems." He was ranked 12th after 7.6km but couldn't keep the same rhythm.

Lindgren wasn't riding with the idea of chasing a pro contract and he doesn't have to worry about his future since he has secured a start with Française des Jeux already. After finishing 5th and 17th at the Junior World's in 2003 and 2004, he was recommended to Marc Madiot by his fellow compatriot Thomas Lövkvist and joined FDJ's training camp in December before riding for French amateur club Team U Nantes-Atlantique, for which he won two time trials and an Elite stage race overall. He's also the only Swedish rider who can say he's French Champion, because he took part in his team's success in the French cup when he rode the French TTT championship.

"I'm very happy with the way it went for my first season in France," Lindgren said. "I couldn't expect anything better than signing a pro contract so early. But I need to ride one more year as an amateur to develop properly before riding for FDJ." Lövkvist, who recently finished 4th overall in the Tour of Poland, aged just 21, also likes the idea to have "someone in the team to speak Swedish to."

Madiot said, "I've followed Johan in a time trial and I've seen straight away that this is another diamond to be polished." Lindgren's other option was to join Rabobank but he preferred to put his feet in Lövkvist's path.

Erik Dekker finishes season

Dutchman Erik Dekker (Rabobank) has finished his season slightly earlier than planned, after getting sick recently. "Ten days ago I became sick and I haven't been able to train yet," he wrote on his personal website erikdekker.nl. "Today I got the results of an extensive blood test, and these gave me the clear answer: don't do any more efforts, because I have a virus in me. I'll spare you the details, but this season is finished. It's also not too serious. Time will do its work and I can't exert myself. Unfortunately."

Van der Ven to leave Rabobank

Remco van der Ven will be leaving the Rabobank continental team next year, destination unknown. The team directed by Nico Verhoeven will also lose Kai Reus, Marc de Maar, Stef Clement, Hans Dekkers, Michiel Elijzen, Mathieu Heijboer and Serge Pauwels, some to the Rabobank Pro team, and some to other professional squads. Reinforcements for the continental team include Jos van Emden, Rob Ruygh and Arjen de Baat.

Victory Brewing boosts potency for 2006

By Mark Zalewski, North American Editor

Sponsorship for professional cycling in the U.S. is always a challenge every year, and even more so for women's professional cycling. It seems that at this time of year there is doubt for many teams as to whether funding and other support will be around next year. However, for Mike Tamayo and his Victory Brewing team, Christmas came early this year. His top five NRC team will be joining forces with the young Diet Cheerwine team for 2006 with the goal of finishing on top next year.

The new team, which will still be called Victory Brewing, will include riders from Diet Cheerwine - but most importantly a significant increase in funding. This will allow Tamayo to bring on board more riders to help launch his team to the top spot. "I think we'll have an honest shot," says Tamayo. "I've never said we would be the top team in North America because we have never had a rider who can compete against a Christine Thorburn or Kristin Armstrong. We've always held our own in the criterium or a stage of a race, but never really in the GC. But our goal for next year is to be the top NRC team. And with changes for next year it seems that there will be more parity among the teams. It's very healthy. "

The Diet Cheerwine team is not going away either, remaining as a developmental team for the riders who cannot commit full-time, and to help feed talent into the Victory Brewing team. "We'll have the Diet Cheerwine team as a developmental team - and then the Victory Brewing team will be the professional team. We've hired a few different riders and we are able to spend more on them, which will obviously boost our team. And we are taking a few from the Diet Cheerwine team onto the Victory Brewing team."

The new riders include Laura Yoisten and Leah Hobsen from the current Diet Cheerwine team and Chrissy Ruiter from the Ford-Basis team. Additionally, Tamayo has a deal in the works with an international-caliber rider currently racing for a European team and is racing at the World Championships this week, which will really solidify the GC spot for the team.

Jittery Joe's not jittery about sponsorship

Coffee company inks ten-year sponsorship deal

The Jittery Joe's Cycling Team has evolved from a small regional team selling coffee out of their cars to pay for racing to a major domestic team, contending in many of the major North American races and winning the best young rider category of this year's Tour de Georgia. Subsequently, the team's sponsor has recognized the value in that by signing a ten-year extension to its sponsorship contract. "As far as I know, this is the first time any sponsor has signed a ten-year contract with a pro cycling team," said Micah Rice, General Manager of the team. "What an amazing commitment to our sport - we are so excited to know that we will be around for a long time."

"Growing the team and Jittery Joe's Coffee together has been a successful and rewarding partnership," said Keith Kortemeier, President of Jittery Joe's. "We are excited to now offer franchises of our coffee shops in the southeast which has enabled us to commit to a ten year partnership with our pro cycling team. Huge thanks to the cycling community for the support they have given Jittery Joe's and the riders on our team."

As it always has, the team will still continue to benefit 100% from the sales of coffee - and the company hopes to utilize the growing popularity of the team to increase its reach nationwide. "Being a small grass-roots company and team, we couldn't do it without them," said Kortemeier. "I can't wait to see what triumphs we can earn over the next ten years."

UCI TTT World Cup in Denmark

For the first time ever, Denmark will be the hosting a World Cup race. It is a Women's World Cup on the 30th of July, 2006, in Aarhus, and will be one out of 11 races that will be held in 10 countries all over the world. The race is a 45 kilometre team time trial for six riders, which is a new initiative in terms of UCI World Cups. It's expected that 25 trade and national teams will compete.

The event will be organised by Concept Tryk, which has 12 years of experience organising cycling events in Denmark. Jesper Tikiøb, manager of Concept Tryk, is satisfied at being able to present Denmark's first World Cup: "We have been involved with races for many years, and we always find it exciting with a new challenge," he said. "This will absolutely develop our professional competence as race organizers. Now, we have to live up to not only our own, but also the expectations of UCI. For our business, this is a major progress."

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