Road

American Tom Danielson will be starting his second season with Garmin next year, but he’s looking at it as a fresh start. After a frustrating year that started with a broken shoulder and little fitness, the former Discovery Channel rider and Tour de Georgia champion is eager to get cracking with off-season training this winter. He sat down with VeloNews during team camp to talk about Belgian racing, rehabbing a shoulder and battling with his own brain. VeloNews: What’s new, Tom?

Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador will train together for the first time in the Astana team in Spain's Canary Islands this month, Astana said. Seven-time Tour de France champion Armstrong, who announced his comeback to cycling after a three-year hiatus earlier this year, and Contador, who has won all three of the sport's three-week grand tours, will take part in the November 30 to December 8 session on the island of Tenerife, an Astana spokesman said.

Rain drops fall heavily on my jacket as I weave my way through throngs of haughtily dressed Japanese women, each staring disapprovingly at me though their transparent Hello Kitty umbrellas, as they go about their upscale shopping in downtown Kobe city. I am searching for an elusive Coffee/Bike/Dog Grooming/Hair Salon that is rumored to hold the best coffee in the Kansai region of Japan. It is closed. I end up at a eerily familiar Mr Doughnut and, two cups of grime and five doughnuts later, I make my way back out into the rain and begin my search for home.

Weston Schempf and Betsy Shogren turned in strong performances to win the Men’s and Women’s 1-2-3 classes at the Squadra Coppi Tacchino Ciclocross (i.e.: “Turkey Cyclocross”) on Sunday at Ida Lee Park in Leesburg, Virginia.

Colavita-Sutter Home has announced its 2009 team roster, which includes most of re-signed its core squad for the 2009 season and added Aaron Olson, who comes to the team from Bissell.    Returning riders include Cuba's Luis Amaran, Argentinean sprinters Alejandro and Anibal Borrajo and Sebastian Haedo, climber Anthony Colby, Kyle Wamsley, and all-arounders Luca Damiani, Davide Frattini, and Tyler Wren.  Olson raced for Colavita in 2004 and 2005 before heading to Europe to ride with Saunier-Duval and T-Mobile.  He returned to the domestic peloton last year with Bissell.

Retail price: $18.95 Web site: www.velopress.com Pages: 224 Weight Training for Cyclists: A Total Body Program for Power and Endurance by Ken Doyle and Eric Schmitz is now available in a revised second edition. The new edition features: • All-new illustrations for clarity and ease of use • A new chapter on stretching and warm-up • Expanded coverage of core strength and lower-body strength exercises

Should I wax my carbon seatpost?

Bradley Wiggins may be Garmin’s highest-profile signing for 2009, but Christian Meier may be the team’s most promising young hire. Along with Svein Tuft, Meier comes to Garmin from the Canadian Symmetrics team. But in a way, Meier was already there; the tri-lingual 23-year-old spent the last half of the 2008 season as a stagiare with Garmin.

Bouygues Telecom has signed a former Japanese national champion for the 2009 season, the French team announced Tuesday. Yukira Arashiro, the Japanese champion in 2007, becomes one of just a few riders from his country to be given a chance to compete in the European peloton. Bouygues is hoping the 24-year-old, who is said to be comfortable on most types of terrain, will show his full potential in one of cycling's three grand tours.

Spanish cyclist Manuel Beltran has been banned from racing in France for two years after testing positive for the banned blood booster EPO at this year's Tour de France. France's national anti-doping agency (AFLD) made the announcement Tuesday.

If there was a representative moment of Saturday night’s Garmin-Slipstream 2009 team presentation, it came as the squad took the stage of the Boulder Theater following a few short videos and words from both team sponsors and management. As the 27 riders sauntered single-file up a short staircase and onto a stage scattered with couches in no particular order, the last men onstage were left to sit in chairs placed at the front of the stage.

The price of 11s
Dear Lennard,
I have been riding Campagnolo components for years and years. The new 11s stuff looks great, but the new 11s cranks are not inexpensive.

I cannot understand why given a 5.5 to 5.9 mm difference in changes the 10s crank would not work fine. Do you have any experience with the 11s parts used with a 10s crank. I happen to have a carbon 10 crank, first generation, Record.
Jeff

Dear Jeff,
I think you’ll find that your Record crank will work just fine with the 11-speed group.

Web site: www.fizik.it Weight: 145 grams Are lightweight saddles a pain in the butt for you? Well, Fi’zi:k has created a new saddle that may satisfy your lightweight obsession without sacrificing the comfort of your backside. The Antares is the third ‘a’ between Fi’zi:k’s two other premium a’s: Aliante and Arione. Compared to others in the ultra-lightweight saddle category, Antares has 300 percent more padding and 50 percent more flat sitting area, yet it weighs only 145 grams.

Colors: White, Silver, Grey White, Black Sizes: 38 to 48 Price: $400 Web site: www.gaerne.com There is no question of whether or not the Gaerne Myst is a high quality road shoe. Every stitch, perforation, and bit of material was designed to serve a function, and do it well.

Jeremiah Bishop (Trek-Volkswagen) and Melanie Swartz (Vela Bella- Kona) won Saturday's events at the North Carolina Grand Prix in Hendersonville, North Carolina. The UCI Cat. 2 events were part of the North Carolina Cyclocross series, which concludes next weekend the finals in Salisbury, North Carolina. The Hendersonville races continue Sunday.

Jeremiah Bishop (Trek-Volkswagen) and Melanie Swartz (Vela Bella- Kona) won both events at this weekend's North Carolina Grand Prix in Hendersonville, North Carolina. The UCI Cat. 2 events were part of the North Carolina Cyclocross series, which concludes next weekend the finals in Salisbury, North Carolina.

The UCI Licenses Commission has granted an additional seven ProTour licenses, bring the number of teams holding the governing body’s top designation to 16. In release issued on Monday, the UCI announced that the panel has approved the applications of Cofidis (F), Française des Jeux (F), Katusha (RUS), Quick Step (BEL), Saxo Bank-IT Factory (DEN), Silence-Lotto (BEL) and Rabobank (NED). The commission is still reviewing the applications of Euskaltel-Euskadia and BBox-Bouygues Telecom.

Triple grand tour winner Alberto Contador underwent a successful surgery on his injured nose, a spokesman reported Monday. "Doctors who operated on him fixed a deviation in his nasal partition," his spokesman said in a statement. The 2007 Tour de France winner's injury resulted from a fall during this year’s Giro d’Italia, which resulted in breathing problems. The statement said Contador will leave hospital on Tuesday and can join his Astana team at a training camp in the Canary Islands on November 30.

A pair of UCI category one and a pair of cat. 2 events made up this past weekend's USA Cycling Cyclocross National Calendar. At Long Island's Whitmore's Landscape Super Cross Cup — the cat. 1 events — Ryan Trebon (Kona) won on Saturday while Todd Wells took Sunday's event. Trebon moved into the USAC calendar standings lead for the first time this season. Meanwhile Georgia Gould (Luna) won both days in Long Island to increase her lead in the standings.

Bernhard Kohl, who last month admitted to using drugs in the Tour de France where he finished third, was banned from cycling for two years on Monday. The suspension was handed down by the disciplinary commission of Austria's anti-doping agency, NADA. Kohl tested positive in retroactive controls carried out by France's national anti-doping agency last month for CERA, the new generation of banned blood booster EPO.

Despite authorization from the UCI for a late application, USA Cycling declined last week to review an application to replace the Tour of Georgia in 2009 on the UCI America Tour with a two-day race in upstate New York, passing up an opportunity to fill a gap in the international calendar. As the 2009 USA Cycling National Racing Calendar stands, there will be a nearly month-long gap in NRC racing between the March 26-29 Redlands Bicycle Classic and the April 26 Dana Point Grand Prix of Cycling. In 2008 the Tour de Georgia was part of USA Cycling's Professional Tour.

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With Scot time trial specialist David Millar in the mix, Garmin-Chipotle won the Giro d’Italia’s opening team time trial this May. Having added Olympic and world pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins to the team along with Canadian strongman Svein Tuft, Garmin is anticipating an even stronger TTT crew for 2009. With a team time trial back on the menu at the Tour de France, Millar is already eager for July.

To a cycling enthusiast, the fall Garmin-Chipotle team camp may look like Christmas for the 28 riders on the squad, but to them it’s another day at the office. Whether they’re thumbing through Fi’zi:k’s ‘Blackbook,’ the brand’s 2009 saddle catalog, trying to decide which saddle to choose or test, or they’re submitting sizes for 2XU compression gear, or sitting through a lecture on wheel selection by sponsor Zipp — it’s all work. [nid:85344]

Georgia Gould delivered a knock-out at the Whitmore’s Landscaping Super Cross Cup in the Hamptons Sunday to take both the race and the North American Cyclocross Trophy Championship. Meanwhile, Todd Wells went toe-to-toe with Jeremy Powers to win the men’s race while Ryan Trebon refused to tap-out after a bad break on lap one.

Alberto Contador will undergo surgery on Monday to repair a nasal injury from a crash and remove a polyp from his vocal cords. The Astana rider said he thinks a spill in the Giro d’Italia that drove his glasses into his nose left him with breathing problems. “Doctors have detected a deviation of the nasal partition toward the right that doesn't allow me to breathe properly,” he said. As regards the polyp, Contador said he has suffered from hoarseness for more than a year, and that an examination determined that the polyp was the cause.

American Floyd Landis has challenged the ruling of the international Court of Arbitration for Sport that stripped him of the 2006 Tour de France title in U.S. Federal court, charging that the system for resolving doping cases is inherently biased against the accused.

Christophe Moreau endured a forgettable 2008 season, suffering through a winless season that collapsed when he abandoned in the seventh stage of the Tour de France without making much of an impact. Moreau -- the last active rider from the “Festina 9” from the Festina Affaire of the 1998 Tour de France – wants to have at least one more strong performance before hanging up the cleats for good.

A day of surprises greeted the NACT competitors at the first day of the Whitmore’s Landscaping Super Cross Cup on Saturday. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the UCI C1 event occurred before most of the Elite competitors had even arrived at the venue. Earlier in the morning, Tim Johnson, tested his injured knee on the trainer and found he couldn’t even pedal a full circle. Johnson injured his knee when he banged it on a wood post while riding to victory in the USGP in New Jersey last Saturday.

Australia's national team won the Melbourne round of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics series here on Saturday. The Australian Cyclones, with 112 points, edged out compatriots Team Toshiba, which scored 98 points over three days of competition. Although an impressive performance, the win came in light of only limited participation by the world's strongest track squad, the British national team. Australian Shane Perkins went one better than his Manchester World Cup silver earlier this month to claim the men's sprint with a straight heats win over Frenchman Michael D'Almedia.

Floyd Landis will race next year for the new domestic squad OUCH, a revamped version of the Health Net - Maxxis team. The team's title sponsor is the OUCH Sports Medical Center in California. The sports center's co-founder, Dr. Brent Kay, is Landis' personal physician and oversaw his hip resurfacing surgery in 2006.

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This week’s column begins with an apology. My act of contrition goes out to anyone who had the misfortune of witnessing one of several temper tantrums I threw at the last couple Colorado Front Range cyclocross races. See, after having one of my best career ’cross races (a come-from-the-back-of-the-pack 11th in the 35+/cat. 4s at round No. 2 of the Boulder Cup), I’ve gone three straight without making it to the finish line. And in each case I was well ensconced inside the top 10 before being taken down by mechanicals (two poorly timed punctures, one busted chain).

Team Barloworld will continue into the 2009 season with hopes of forgetting an embarrassing doping scandal during the Tour de France and hinging its hopes on a bevy of young riders. The South African sponsor initially said it would end its three-year backing of the Italian-based, Britain-registered team after Spanish rider Moises Dueñas tested positive for EPO during the 2008 Tour.

Italian cyclist Leonardo Piepoli, one of seven riders to fail a drugs test at the Tour de France, saw his hopes of clearing his name shattered Friday when his B-sample showed traces of banned blood booster EPO CERA, the French anti-doping agency (AFLD) said. Piepoli tested positive at the end of the tenth stage of this year's Tour and was then dumped by his Saunier-Duval team.

Rock Racing is hiring former Telecom and T-Mobile coach Rudy Pevenage as director sportif for the 2009 season, adding some top flight team management to complement its expanded roster. The team's choice of Pevenage, however, is sure to get attention for another reason: as Jan Ullrich's former director, Pevenage was tied up in the Operacion Puerto scandal that ended the German racer's career.

Alejandro Valverde has won just about everything he’s wanted in his productive career, except a grand tour. Prolific in one-day classics and smaller stage races, Spain’s “Balaverde” has struggled in GC in three-week grand tours. With two podium finishes in the Vuelta a España, Valverde still believes he can win a major tour.

Australia's emerging pursuit talent staked their claim as the riders of the future with a dominant win over Spain in the 4km team pursuit final on day two of the Melbourne round of the 2008-09 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics series on Friday. Olympians Mark Jamieson, 24, and Jack Bobridge, 19, along with reigning junior World Champions Rohan Dennis, 18, and Luke Durbridge, 17 were the clear favorites after a strong qualifying round and they lived up to the expectation.

Well, today was my first meeting with Andy Pruitt at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. I was warmly greeted by staff, filled out the requisite paperwork and waited to be called in. As I waited I noticed, among the many motivational photos of the outdoors, that there were various autographed photos of athletes from around the world thanking Pruitt for his help; I was quietly hoping that the day would soon come when I’d be able to send him a photo of myself offering him my thanks…

One of the neatest features of Garmin Edge GPS bike computers is the "Virtual Partner," which lets you race against a previous trip over the same course, with your relative positions marked by little cartoon riders on the screen. It's a geeky fun distraction, even if its name is a little creepy. But what if you are a professional racer, looking for tools, not amusement? How could you use that feature?

Andre Greipel will be back to defend his title at the Tour Down Under Jan. 18-25 as Team Columbia confirmed its presence at the season kick-off in Australia. The big, burly German sprinter won four stages and the overall in the 2008 edition and later finished fifth overall in the UCI ProTour rankings. Supporting Greipel will be a strong Columbia lineup, including 2002 champ Michael Rogers and George Hincapie.

Team officials say they are confident of landing new sponsors to allow the Spanish squad Saunier Duval to continue next season despite the departure of its title sponsor. Team manager Joxean Fernández Matxin told the Spanish daily MARCA that the appropriate paperwork has been filed with the UCI to assure the team a presence in the peloton next year. Matxin said negotiations are continuing with potential new title sponsors, but he’s confident enough that he’s moving forward with plans to race in 2009.

The Tour de France is heading back to Holland in 2010. Tour officials announced Thursday that the 2010 Tour will start in Rotterdam. More details will be provided in an official ceremony on Dec. 11 in the Dutch port city, officials said. “Rotterdam is an important metropolitan area with assurance of success,” Tour director Christian Prudhomme told AFP. “It’s doing everything so that people can get around on the bike. It’s in this spirit that the city wants the grand départ.” The Dutch city was picked ahead of Utrecht, Holland, and Dusseldorf, Germany.

Garmin-Chipotle’s fall training camp started out with a bang this week. A literal bang, actually, as the team kicked off its second annual November meet-and-greet camp with a round of paintball in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, near the team’s U.S. headquarters of Boulder, Colorado. After three unseasonably warm days of the weeklong camp — which started on Monday and ends on Sunday and includes bike and clothing fittings, sponsor meetings, casual training rides and a Saturday evening team presentation — the paintball excursion stands out as the highlight.

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We’re back and the racing has been abundant. I picked up a win in Toronto two weeks ago and a podium last weekend at the USGP in New Jersey. Now the biggest races of the year loom on the horizon and I’m looking forward to them all: the USGP Finals in Portland and the national championship weekend in Kansas City. But, as a change of pace, this diary isn’t going to be about racing.

Michael Barry was back in the spotlight in 2008, winning his first race since the 2005 season with a dramatic stage victory at the Tour of Missouri. He also rode to fifth in the Tour of Ireland and finished ninth in the grueling Olympic road race in Beijing. The 32-year-old Canadian returned to form this year after struggling through a challenging 2007 campaign that was wiped out with a nasty bout of pneumonia. Though he missed out on a slot on the nine-man Tour de France squad, Barry regained his confidence with a consistent and steady season that will carry over into 2009.

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Todd Wells (GT Bicycles) is on top of the Crankbrothers U.S. Grand Prix of Cyclocross standings for the first time in his career, following his win Sunday and second place Saturday at the Mercer Cup in New Jersey.[nid:85247] Wells, a two-time national champion in cyclocross, passed Jesse Anthony (Jamis) who had led the series after the first weekend. Anthony fell to sixth place following a disappointing weekend in the Garden State. (Complete men's standings)

Why do my Speedplay cleats wear out?

Katie Compton (Spike Shooter) won the third round of the Superprestige cyclocross series on Sunday at the Aspere-Gavere race in Belgium. World champion Hanka Kupfernagel skipped the race, run in wet and very muddy conditions. The hallmark of the course was a steep, muddy downhill chute that caused many falls, some of them race-ending, like the one that sent Niels Albert to the hospital with an injured spleen. Compton got off to a comfortable start in third position after a front-row start, with Saskia Elemans leading and Daphny van den Brand in second.

Following her double wins at the USGP Mercer Cup races in New Jersey this weekend, Georgia Gould (LUNA) has landed on top of the USA Cycling national cyclocross standings. Gould takes over the lead from Laura Van Gilder.[nid:85220] Jeremy Powers (Cyclocrossworld.com-Cannondale), who finished fourth and third in New Jersey, remains on the top of the men's rankings although his teammate Tim Johnson is closer, thanks to his first place Saturday (Johnson did not start Sunday).

With only the Whitmore’s Landscaping Super Cross Cup remaining, the battles for the inaugural North American Cyclocross Trophy series are still tight.   

Women's battle: eight is enough

Lance Armstrong has revealed that he fears being attacked by spectators when he makes his return to the Tour de France next year. The American, a seven-times winner of the Tour, believes he could be targeted by French fans angry that doping allegations surrounding him have helped to destroy the credibility and the magic of cycling's most famous race.

With Lance Armstrong, Carlos Sastre, Damiano Cunego and Ivan Basso already confirmed to start the centenary celebration of the corsa rosa, another big name has announced that he will race the 2009 Giro d’Italia. Denis Menchov (Rabobank) is the latest to confirm his presence in the Giro, set to begin May 9 in Venice. “Why would we want to change the program?” asked Rabobank sport director Erik Breukink in the Dutch daily De Telegraaf. “We saw last year the double worked well, so this year we’ll follow the same program, with the Giro before the Tour.”

Dear Lennard,

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Alberto Contador brushed off a minor crash in a Sunday criterium honoring compatriot Joan Llaneras just as he’s poised to join Lance Armstrong at an Astana team camp early next month. The Giro-Vuelta double champion hit the deck during the ACP Criterium on Sunday and was showing some minor cuts and scrapes as a result. “I’m fine, I have some superficial scrapes on my shoulder and face. In the end, it wasn’t as bad as I thought,” Contador told reporters. “The impact was hard despite going at a slow speed. It was no big deal.”

Rock Racing has added a wealth of European and domestic talent to its 2009 team roster, signing several top riders in recent days. In a release issued over the weekend the team announced that it had reached deals with former ProTour riders Baden Cooke, Francisco Mancebo, and José Enrique Gutiérrez, as well as top domestic talents Ivan Dominquez, Glen Chadwick, Chris Baldwin and Caleb Manion.

German cyclist Patrik Sinkewitz, who last year admitted to doping, plans to make his comeback in January at the Tour of Majorca riding for Team PSK Whirlpool, it was announced on Monday. "I have signed a one-year contract," the 28-year-old told German television channel TVnews Hessen having joined the Czech Republic-based team and is looking forward to the five-day race around the Spanish island early next year. Having tested positive for the steroid hormone testosterone on June 8 2007, Sinkewitz was later banned for a year.

The Cervélo TestTeam keeps adding firepower and filling out both its roster and support staff as the squad prepares for its 2009 debut.   The latest addition is the arrival of Marcello Albasini as sport director. The 51-year-old coach, who’s worked with several young budding Swiss pros, including Fabian Cancellara as a junior, is the father of pro cyclist Michael Albasini.   “This is a dream come true,” Albasini said in a team release. “I’m really happy to have the opportunity to develop myself and to work next year together with the Cervélo TestTeam riders.”  

Italian cyclist Riccardo Riccò on Monday filed an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), seeking a reduction in his two-year doping suspension, noting that he had cooperated with investigators after being found positive at the Tour de France. Riccò, 24, was suspended from riding by the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) in July after admitting to using a new variant of the EPO. He was kicked out the Tour and was subsequently fired by his Saunier-Duval team after testing positive following the Stage 4 time-trial.

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As advertised, the ‘cross course through the Washington County Fairgrounds in Hillsboro, Oregon, was wide-open, grassy and void of anything resembling elevation gain. Several days of dry weather and Sunday’s beautiful, mostly blue skies only added to the warm feelings about how quickly the course could be covered.

Hayden Roulston revived his stalled professional career with two breakout Olympic medals on the track this summer in Beijing, but for 2009, the Kiwi will return his focus to the road. Roulston will put his track ambitions on hold as he joins Cervélo on a one-year contract for 2009 that will mark his return to the elite levels of the European peloton for the first time since a chaotic 2005 season.

Cooler, windier weather on Day 2 of the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross Mercer Cup, presented by Knapp's Cyclery, in New Jersey, made Saturday's tough race conditions look easy by comparison. Thicker, stickier mud competed with gusting winds for an extra punch in the gut but Day 2 saw a repeat for the women, with LUNA teammates Georgia Gould and Katerina Nash clinching gold and silver by a wide margin. It was GT’s Todd Wells who emerged the victor in the men’s event.

Samuel Sánchez continues to soak up the attention that comes with the Olympic gold medal. Everywhere he goes, journalists are knocking down his door for an interview. This week, “Samu” is on vacation in Spain’s Canary Islands and told reporters there more details about his racing schedule for the upcoming season. He’ll skip the 2009 Tour de France (where he finished seventh overall last year) and focus on trying to win the Vuelta a España.

Mud so thick that racers had to pedal downhill set the stage for Day 1 of the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross Mercer Cup, in New Jersey on Saturday. In races of attrition, in which time gaps grew to a minute or more among the top five, Georgia Gould (LUNA) and Tim Johnson (Cyclocrossworld-Cannondale) bested the competition through tough, power-stealing conditions.

“This is definitely my favorite race and that’s my main motivation,” said Costa Rican cyclist Federico Ramirez (BCR-Pizza Hut) after finishing the 2008’s La Ruta de los Conquistadores, on Saturday in Limón, Costa Rica.

Johan Bruyneel expressed optimism about the return of Lance Armstrong and promised that the powerful Astana team would ride for the strongest rider. In a lengthy interview in the Belgian daily, La Dernière Heure, the Astana sport director said Armstrong’s imminent return would help him rediscover the thrill of directing a professional team.

Behind the story there is always a greater story, one which is often missed. The Tour of Lombardy unfolded in traditional fashion: a breakaway, a gauged acceleration in the peloton, the knife-stabbing attacks that seal most riders’ fate, and then, finally, the winning attack and the defeated sprints for the places of honor. The favorite won.

A grim reality sets in at the midpoint of any multi-day mountain bike stage race. The anxious buzz of the event’s first half has all-but petered out, and riders no longer speak only in the tone of optimism. Legs are drained and bodies are exhausted, perhaps injured. Bikes creak and squeak. Butts are sore. For some, the knowledge that half of the journey still remains is enough to drive the motivation straight into the basement. Many contemplate quitting, or simply wonder how in God’s name they plan to reach the finish line. [nid:85129]