Tour de France combativity award to be voted via Twitter - News shorts
Bystrom, Morkov miss Tour team; WADA suspends UCLA lab; Enter and win sports survey
Social media users will get a bigger say in the winner of this year's Prix de la combativité or most aggressive rider competition at the Tour de France. New rules allow further nominations via the social media platform Twitter on the two rest days and a final vote on the most aggressive rider in the race on the final day in Paris.
A jury of esteemed French journalists and race technical director Thierry Gouvenou will still decide the Prix de la combativité on a daily basis. However, anyone can vote for the two rest day 'super-combatif' riders from first two weeks of the race. The rider who secures the most retweets will be declared as the winner and so nominated for the final vote.
Peter Sagan won the super-combatif prize last year, beating Romain Bardet, who finished third overall behind Chris Froome.
Mørkøv and Bystrøm left out of Katusha-Alpecin Tour de France squad
Alexander Kristoff has said he was surprised to find out that fellow Norwegian and key lead out man Michael Mørkøv has not been selected for the Katusha-Alpecin Tour de France team.
The full Katusha-Alpecin line up has yet to be confirmed, but Norwegian media reported the absence of Mørkøv and Sven Erik Bystrøm on Monday, suggesting the tension between Kristoff and team management as one of the possible reasons. Mørkøv explained that the Tour de France had been on his original race programme, while Kristoff admitted he had not been contacted about the line up for the Tour de France.
The relationship between Kristoff and Katusha appeared strained in May when the rider told the media that the team were not happy with his weight.
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
"I'm surprised and disappointed and find it odd that Mørkøv has not been selected, and that no one has asked me about it," Kristoff told TV2 on Tuesday.
"I don't know what they're thinking. I still believe we have a good chance (in the sprints) but our chances would have been even greater with Michael on the team."
WADA gives UCLA anti-doping Laboratory partial suspension
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced today that it has partially suspended the accreditation of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory (UCLA Laboratory) for three months. The laboratory in Los Angeles, one of only two WADA-accredited labs in the US, may not report any Adverse Analytical Findings (AAFs) for four specific prohibited substances, all in the steroid class.
The UCLA lab must get a second opinion from another WADA-accredited lab before reporting an AAF for the glucocorticoids prednisolone and prednisone, and anabolic steroids boldenone and boldione effective June 14 as a result of "WADA's quality assessment procedures that identified non-conformities with best practice".
The laboratory is allowed to continue to carry out all other anti-doping activities and can appeal the partial suspension.
The only other accredited lab is in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Take our big sports survey to be in with a chance of winning one of ten prizes, each worth £100!
We're inviting you to take part in a really important piece of research. We're trying to better understand your relationship with cycling and other sports you might take part in, and find out more about how the sports media you use fits into your life - to do this we need your help! Whether you're addicted to social media, check our website once a day or once a week, or read cycling magazines to get your fix of news, reviews and advice, we want to hear from you.
As a thank you for taking part we're also giving away £100 worth of Cycle Surgery vouchers to 10 lucky people who complete the survey*.
Click here to start the survey.
The survey will be available to complete until 11.59 p.m. on Sunday, August 13, 2017.
*Please note, the prize draw is only open to UK participants.
