Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong on Friday gave the thumbs-up to the imminent return to the peloton of disgraced former teammate Floyd Landis. Landis, who once rode with Armstrong at U.S. Postal, won the 2006 Tour de France but was stripped of that title and suspended for two years after a sample from the race's 17th stage tested positive for testosterone. Next month the 33-year-old will mark his return to road racing at the Tour of California.
Doubling up on his victory two days before and gaining a valuable 10 second time bonus Friday in Angaston, Quick Step’s Allan Davis has given himself a realistic shot of going one better than last year in his bid to become the sixth Australian winner of the Tour Down Under.
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It hasn’t been all that often in Carlos Sastre’s long and durable career that he was the absolute center of attention. The 33-year-old Spanish climber was typically floating just off center-stage, not quite in the hot glare of the spotlight that beamed down on former CSC captains such as Tyler Hamilton, Ivan Basso or the ascendant Schleck brothers. In Sunday’s team introduction at his new home at Cervélo Test Team, it was the smiling and humble Sastre who was introduced last as the centerpiece of an ambitious new squad.
Sizes: 1.2mm Price: $36.95 to $69.00 Web site: www.powercordz.com Power Cordz now offers 1.2mm derailleur cable sets and a complete cable system. The difference between 1.2mm Cordz and traditional 1.2mm steel cables is that Cordz are made from Zylon, a fiber that Io Dupont suggests is as strong as steel yet reduces weight by 75 percent. In terms of compatibility, Derailleur Cordz are just that — fully compatible with Shimano, SRAM, Campagnolo, and any standard 4mm housing.
Former winners Michael Rogers and Stuart O'Grady are shaping up to repeat their past triumphs on the Tour Down Under, which ends Sunday. The six-stage race which opens the Pro Tour cycling season has famously been won by both sprinters and stage race specialists in the last 10 years. O'Grady — the winner in 1999 and 2001 — and 2002 champion Rogers have in recent years kept a low profile in the race, or failed to show up at all. But on Thursday they showed their determination to challenge for the ochre jersey.
The International Court of Arbitration for Sport has rejected Michael Rasmussen’s challenge that his two-year suspension for a doping-related offense was too severe. The sporting world’s final court of appeals ruled that a two-year ban originally handed down by Monaco’s national cycling federation was appropriate and that Rasmussen’s request that it be lessened was not justified.
David Cañada said Thursday he is aiming for a return to competitive cycling in 2009, his recovery from melanoma permitting. "I'm feeling much better than I ever imagined and I would like to be able to ride at the end of the season if I feel that I'm well enough physically," the Spanish cyclist told a press conference in Zaragoza, Spain. Cañada was treated for a melanoma in 2007 and had cancerous growths removed from his left arm last October, since when he has undergone a course of treatment.
German sprinter André Greipel will likely face three months on the sidelines after a dramatic crash in the third stage of Australia’s Tour Down Under on Thursday. Greipel, the defending champion who won four stages last year, dramatically crashed into a motorbike parked on the side of the road early in the 136km stage from Unley to Victor Harbor. As he hit the ground, his bike flew back into the peloton, taking down more riders.
Ask any motorist what irritates them most about cyclists, and you’re likely to get an earful about cyclists who behave as if stop signs and red lights don’t apply to them. It’s a sore point in relations between motorists and cyclists, and is the single most cited contributor to the negative stereotype that cyclists are arrogant scofflaws. It’s even a sore point between those cyclists who do observe the law, and those who don’t, with the law-abiding cyclists resenting the negative stereotype of cyclists that the law-breaking cyclists generate.
Johan Museeuw has finally fessed up to taking the banned blood booster EPO during the final year of his career. The Belgian classics specialist has revealed details of his doping ways in a new book, entitled, “Museeuw Speaks,” released this week which covers the period from September 4, 2003, when his home was raided by Belgian authorities, to December 16, 2008, with a decision by the courts that led to a 10-month suspended sentence and a 2500-euro fine.
Saris Cycling Group is working with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to recall about 2,000 stationary bike trainers. The company and the CPSC are advising consumers to stop using the trainers immediately. A handle pin on the trainer can loosen during use, causing the machine to become disengaged. No injuries have been reported.
What appeared to be a relatively innocuous stage was turned on its head Thursday in Victor Harbor. Courtesy of a howling westerly wind and some of the world’s best riders, a star-studded break created havoc in the Tour Down Under and threatened to leave no more than a dozen riders in contention to win the race overall.
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Spanish rider David Cañada is the latest professional rider fending off a brush with melanoma, but his case has taken a turn for the worse. While riders such Magnus Backstedt and world time trial champion Amber Neben caught the aggressive form of skin cancer in its early stages, the Fuji-Servetto rider is being forced to postpone his 2009 debut after undergoing more aggressive treatment.
Team Bissell's Tom Zirbel was second in Wednesday's third stage of Argentina's Tour de San Luis, a 19.8km individual time trial.
The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority announced Wednesday that the International Court of Arbitration for Sport has ordered an increase in an earlier suspension handed down to Nathan O’Neill. Following a hearing in June of last year, O’Neill received a 15-month suspension for testing positive for the stimulant Phentermine at the 2007 Tour of Elk Grove, in Illinois. A hearing panel had found that O’Neill had not intentionally used the drug for competition and gave him a sentence lighter than the usual two-year ban for a first-time offense.
Scores of top names are heading to Spain in February and March to log some early season race miles ahead of the season’s first major races. Officials at the Mallorca Challenge (February 8-12) and the Vuelta al Castilla y León (March 23-27) announced that some of cycling’s biggest stars are expected to attend their respective races. Among the top names heading to Mallorca include Robbie McEwen (Katusha), Beijing Olympic gold medalist Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and 2006 Tour de France winner Oscar Pereiro and Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne).
Cycling chief Pat McQuaid on Wednesday welcomed a Spanish judge's decision to reopen the Operación Puerto inquiry into blood doping. Operación Puerto, Spain's most far-reaching doping investigation, was put on ice last September but a Madrid court ordered it to be restarted this month. Public prosecutors, the Spanish Sports Council, the Spanish cycling federation, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and the World Anti-Doping Agency were among those calling for the probe to be re-opened.
Clif Bar is recalling 14 products in the U.S. and four in Canada because the peanut butter in those products was sourced from the Peanut Corporation of America. "PCA is under investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a recent salmonella outbreak thought to be caused by tainted peanut butter," a Clif Bar press release said. "In light of this investigation, and with an abundance of caution, Clif Bar & Company has enacted a voluntary recall. We take the health and safety of our consumers very seriously."
The SRAM Cycling Fund will make a $400,000 contribution to the League of American Bicyclists and the Thunderhead Alliance for Biking and Walking. The funds will be used to launch a nation wide initiative to dramatically strengthen state and local advocacy groups and help them make their communities more bicycle friendly.
Australian journalist Benjamin Fitzmaurice got a look at the underside of Lance Armstrong's Trek Madone at the Tour Down Under this week, and saw something unexpected: "The bike has some letters and numbers on the bottom bracket," Fitzmaurice said. "The guy from Trek said that he would show us but could not tell us what they meant. When we shot the bottom bracket a guy from Astana staff came rushing over to question what we were doing ..."
[nid:86746]Mark Legg is Katie Compton's husband, mechanic and one-man support crew at most races. He also captures Compton's races in still pictures and, more recently, in video. This week he is sharing his video of Compton's dominant win at the Roubaix World Cup on Sunday. Compton is skipping this weekend's Milan World Cup to focus on preparing for the world championships. Legg is preparing her worlds bike in part by removing the SRM Dura-Ace crank and replacing it with a Rotor Agilis crank. Compton will use round chainrings, instead of Rotor's oval rings.