News shorts: Movistar and Velon; don't write Van den Broeck off yet
Pospoels leaves, Degenkolb frustrated, Cyclingnews Tour Tracker download
Movistar teams up with Velon for Giro d'Italia on-board video production
Velon, the commercial association of 11 major WorldTour teams, has revealed that the Movistar team will race with on-bike video camera's later in the Giro d'Italia. The Spanish team is not a signed-up member of Velon but is keen to be part of the on-bike video project and help further develop professional cycling.
Velon and their teams have produced different on-bike videos so far during the Giro d'Italia and plan to capture more video and fit more cameras to bikes in the second half of the Giro d'Italia. Movistar is expected to have on-bike camera during Sunday’s ninth stage to San Giorgio del Sannio.
"We're going to step up the number of camera during the second half of the race, to improve the quality of the video," Graham Bartlett, the CEO of Velon told Cyclingnews. "Everybody wants to see the most exciting moments of the race but it's not easy to capture them. It's like fishing and can be a bit hit and miss but we're trying to show some of the great things the riders do on their bikes at such incredible speeds.
"The Movistar team was part of the original Avignon project but they're not a full member of Velon. They're owned by Telefonica, who have their own telecoms rights ownership company. They're reviewing their position right now and we'd love to have them a full member of Velon in the future."
Van den Broeck: "I am always too quickly written off"
Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto Soudal) is over two minutes down on the maglia rosa after seven stages of racing but the veteran grand tour rider has warned journalists and fans not to write off his chances of a high overall place in this year’s race, citing the difficult final week as a reason to be optimistic.
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After two mountain stages the Belgian sits 18th overall, 2:27 down on Alberto Contador.
"It's not over yet, an the race hasn’t really begun. How often do riders in the final week come back? And it's not that I'm already an hour down," he told Sporza.
"We have had preliminary short, explosive climbs so far. That's not my thing. There are riders now in front of me in the standings, but in the real mountains I’ll be with the leaders."
Liv Plantur terminates Polspoel's contract
Team Liv Plantur has terminated its contract with Maaike Polspoel, at her request. The Belgian has been diagnosed with autoimmune pancreatitis. The disease is treated with corticosteroids, and the Movement for Credible Cycling, of which the team is a member, forbids riders receiving corticosteroid treatment from racing.
"Being diagnosed with this disease has been a shock for me," Polspoel said. "Thanks to the treatment, I am currently feeling well and able to train. I actually feel fit enough to race again. Due to the MPCC regulations, however, I am not allowed to race while using corticosteroids. I asked the team to terminate my contract, which they did, so that I can go elsewhere and race with immediate effect."
The team noted that autoimmune pancreatitis "is a serious disease and proper long-term treatment is necessary, as the pancreas could otherwise deteriorate, with severe consequences."
Fridge pays for Degenkolb's "beginner’s mistake"
John Degenkolb lost the leader’s jersey in the third stage of the Bayern Rundfahrt and missed the stage win through a "beginner’s mistake". The German, riding for Giant-Alpecin, finished only seventh on the stage, and took out his frustration later on the team bus.
His mistake? He was on Nacer Bouhanni's rear wheel "and wanted to go by him on the right. But then he simply closed the 'door', which I would also have done in his situation. The way would have been open on the left, but in the decisive seconds, I simply chose wrong."
The Paris-Roubaix winner "would have liked to have taken my frustration out by destroying something," he said on his website. "My helmet suffered, because I threw it around the bus. And fortunately our bus is strongly built, but the refrigerator might have been dented. I may have hit it a bit too hard when I passed it."
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