Defending champion Martin Elminger will be one of five past champions contesting the 10th edition of the Tour Down Under, which begins in the South Australian beachside town of Glenelg on Sunday, January 20. Stuart O'Grady (1999, 2001), Mikel Astarloza (2003), Luis León Sánchez (2005) and Simon Gerrans (2006) make up the rest of the past winners back for another crack at the title. However, they may well face their biggest challenge yet.
That's Nolan JAMES Armstrong to you!
Rahsaan Bahati taking a moment to pose!
Year and half old Jackson riding on the 4th of July
Seventeen-year-old Taylor Phinney can pen another page in his quickly growing book of cycling successes. Riding just the seventh individual pursuit of his career, the high school senior rode with the calculated panache of a veteran to grab his first-ever World Cup victory, defeating Dutchman Jenning Huizenga in a winning time of 4:26:09. “I just suffered through it. I think the person who can suffer the most wins this race,” Phinney said. “I didn’t expect to win when I was six or seven laps in.”
Think back to your first impressions of Floyd Landis. Possibly they trace back to his days as a scrappy pro mountain biker. Perhaps you first took note of him when he was a bleached-blonde star of the sea foam-green Mercury domestic road squad. Or maybe you came to know Floyd as Lance Armstrong’s lieutenant at U.S. Postal Service, or as he developed into the underdog GC rider at Phonak who broke through to win the 2006 Tour de France. Remember the permanent grin, the cunning observational comments, and the sarcastic laughter? Those days, at least for the time being, are over.
American Sarah Hammer, the two-time defending world pursuit champion, posted the fastest time of the day in the women’s pursuit at the opening day of the UCI track World Cup at the ADT Events Center in Carson, California. Unfortunately for Hammer, her 3:38:00 in the 3000-meter event took place in the bronze medal round rather than the gold medal final.
When American Mike Friedman takes to the ADT Event Center Velodrome in Los Angeles for the qualifying round of the men’s World Cup scratch race Saturday afternoon, he’ll do so with the confidence that comes with winning a gold medal at the previous round in Beijing, China, in December.
Dear Readers,
Welcome to the latest edition of The Prologue, the weekly summary of news from the world of competitive cycling by your friends at VeloNews.com.
The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month.
...previous NR: You’re not the first to suggest there’s a bit of vigilantism on the side of the anti-doping agencies, all in the name of protecting clean athletes. FL: Honestly, in my heart, I don’t believe they are trying to convict innocent athletes. I don’t think they have the wrong intentions. But when you look at it in a black and white context, the way they are doing things, no one could know. How could you know if they have the right intentions or not? What are they trying to do?
...previous NR: I think the reason people still hold the suspension against Tyler is because he denied having doped, and even had a campaign to believe in him, and
Into The Light
A refreshing break at the top of Te Mata Peak - Hawkes Bay, NZ
Early Bird Crit 1.13.08 Cat 5 Men & Jr Boys Crash
Former world champion Mario Cipollini could be back in the saddle as a professional at next month’s Tour of California as the long-rumored comeback with Rock Racing looks closer to being a done deal. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the 40-year-old colorful Italian has signed a contract to join the U.S. domestic team in a dual role of manager and racer. A formal announcement could come as soon as today at the opening day of the team’s training camp in Malibu, California.
Disgraced former Giro d’Italia champion Ivan Basso said Thursday that his two-year doping suspension was the best thing that could have happened to him. Basso was tipped to win the 2006 Tour de France, shortly after cruising to victory in the Giro, but he was caught up in the infamous Operación Puerto scandal and barred from taking part. He later admitted to having contacted the tainted laboratory involved in the affair with plans to engage in blood-doping, a move that earned him a two-year ban from the sport. He has spent his time working for various charities.
Team CSC, ranked No. 1 in the world, heads the list of 17 squads slated to race this year’s Amgen Tour of California, organizers AEG announced Thursday. The 650-mile stage race starts February 17 in Palo Alto and ends seven days later in Pasadena. The field includes teams that compete on the UCI ProTour as well as U.S. domestic squads. Hoping to defend his 2007 title will be Levi Leipheimer, riding this season for the newly reformed Astana team.
For the third consecutive year, the international mountain bike teams, tech support and race organizers’ group (IMTTO) has awarded the prestigious IMTTO Event Of The Year trophy to Rare Management, organizers of the UCI mountain-bike and trials world championships held in Fort William, Scotland. The management firm also hosted rounds of the UCI World Cup in Fort William starting in 2002, and won the IMTTO award for its World Cup rounds in 2005 and 2006.
North America’s only stop on the 2007-08 UCI track World Cup kicks off Friday at the continent’s premier velodrome, the ADT Event Center Velodrome at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, just south of Los Angeles. As the third of only four World Cup rounds on the 2007-08 calendar, the LA World Cup stands as an important stepping-stone in Olympic qualification for the 2008 Beijing Games. Series winners will earn automatic qualifications for the Games. USA Cycling is to name its track Olympic long teams on Tuesday.
ProTour teams issued a statement Thursday calling on non-ProTour teams to join them in adopting the so-called biological passport. The International Professional Cycling Teams (IPCT), which represents the 17 ProTour teams, said it would refuse to compete with Continental teams that do not adopt the anti-doping measure. "The 17 ProTour teams will only agree to race against teams from the Professional ranks (Continental teams) if they adopt the biological passport for their riders," said the IPCT statement.
I just crawled out of bed after two days of racing and for some funny reason I’m sore. Back, legs, triceps, ego. They all tingle with a slightly bruised sensation. Now, unless you consider repeated swigs of beer followed by swallowing fat-laden hors d’oeuvres a unique type of interval training, I haven’t done much to keep myself in race shape since U.S. cyclocross nationals, and let me tell you, I could feel the burn. Although I suffered like an American cross racer in Belgium (hey, wait a sec’) it felt great to have my tubies rolling on foreign soil.
"Cycling in the News" is a regular service of VeloNews.com. Readers, reporters and friends are encouraged to send links to current stories about competitive cyclists and cycling that appear in the mainstream media. If you come across a news item that you believe may be of interest to other VeloNews readers, we would be grateful if you choose to send it to rosters@InsideInc.com.
Dear Readers,
Two weeks ago, we received a letter to the editor from Darin Baer asking about the availability of insurance for expensive bikes. We received several letters in response, including one asking about protection for the rider. We figured all of it might be a good subject for our legal columnist to take on. - Editor
Dear VeloNews,
Early season European races keep adding top names to their start lists as the 2008 campaign nears closer to opening. Spain’s Vuelta a Murcia, a longtime favorite for Tour de France challengers to kick-start their respective season, will once again see its fair share of marquee riders in 2008. Euskaltel-Euskadi announced this week that Vuelta a España podium man Samuel Sánchez and top-10 Tour de France finisher Mikel Astarloza will both be among the starters for the orange-clad Basques.
A Spanish judge has ordered the French daily Le Monde to pay a fine of 300,000 euros ($440,000) to FC Barcelona after it reported that the soccer team was linked to the Operación Puerto doping scandal. The ruling stems from stories published December 7 and 8, 2006, when the paper reported that several of the top soccer team’s stars were working with controversial Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, the ringleader of the alleged blood doping ring. The paper couldn’t back up the claims and was subsequently sued by the club, one of the most powerful in European soccer.
Team CSC had already closed out its lineup for 2008, but 24-year-old Lasse Bøchman was so impressive at the team’s training camp this month in Mallorca that team boss Bjarne Riis decided to offer him a contract.
Thomas Voeckler knows he’ll never win the Tour de France, but he’d sure love to win a stage someday. Voeckler rose to prominence with his brave run in the maillot jaune in the 2004 Tour de France. Since then, he’s been trying to confirm that scrappy performance with a stage victory. Despite some daring attacks and close calls, he’s come up empty in the hunt for the rare Tour stage win. Voeckler, 28, enters the 2008 campaign as one of the top riders at Bouygues Telecom, the French team lacking GC contenders but packed with riders eager to make a mark on the race.
Self Portrait in Ocotillo CA
L. H. “Ronnie” Thomson, president of the L.H. Thomson Company, died on Sunday. He was 68. Thomson was born on January 17, 1939, in Byron, Georgia. An entrepreneur, inventor, and philanthropist, he was best known in cycling circles for the high-end seat posts and stems his company made. The L.H. Thomson Company holds numerous patents on its components, and has sold more than 1 million Thomson-label products.
Retired Dutch cyclist Michael Boogerd and his former teammate Denis Menchov have denied any connection to a laboratory targeted by anti-doping authorities for storing athletes' blood. The duo were among a number of athletes, including former Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen and a number of biathletes and cross country skiers, named in a report Tuesday by German television channel ARD as clients of Vienna-based laboratory Humanplasma.
The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month.
Scottish time trialist Jason MacIntyre has died after a collision with a van while training in Fort William, according to reports in the British press. The 34-year-old Scot, a multiple British and Scottish time-trial champion who had hoped to make the British Olympic team, died while being airlifted to the hospital. His death came a day after he had been given funding to train for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Police said prosecutors will decide whether charges should be brought against a 35-year-old man.
Paolo Bettini already has back-to-back world titles, so why not aim for a repeat with the Olympic gold medal? Better yet, why not go out big and shoot for the double-gold and bag the world title and Olympic title in one final blaze of glory? That’s the Italian’s thinking, at least, as he rattles off top goals for the 2008 campaign.
Gerolsteiner enters what will be its swan-song reason getting attention for all the wrong reasons. Following the departure of T-Mobile from the German cycling landscape, the team can expect to move up as Germany’s most important team. But the squad faces an uncertain future with title sponsor water-bottler Gerolsteiner closing its sponsorship at the end of the season as well as some lingering questions about star rider Stefan Schumacher.
The wires were crackling Tuesday with headlines of another possible illicit blood bank after a German television station went public with a long-whispered story that as many as 30 elite athletes were using a Vienna-based laboratory to dope. ARD reported that dozens of top biathletes and cross-country skiers and a trio of Rabobank riders were part of an elaborate blood-doping ring, but provided few details. All those involved vehemently denied the story.
On Tuesday, we ran Lennard Zinn's discussion on torque and the options riders have to tighten - but not to over-tighten - those touchy little bolts on pricey components. Reader Ed Buffington wrote in to "tell Zinn to forget about his fancy Italian torque wrenches and check out the Tork-Grip from ShelBroCo!"
Polka-dotted David de la Fuente suffers on l'Alpe, 2006
The new year is just days old and cycling is already looking head-on at another potentially explosive doping story.
The German public television station ARD reported Tuesday that Michael Rasmussen, along with his former Rabobank teammates Denis Menchov and the now-retired Michael Boogerd, were among 30 elite athletes said to have used an Austrian-based laboratory for banned blood-doping practices.
ARD also alleged that biathletes and Nordic skiers used the Humanplasma lab, which has facilities in Vienna.
It was a rocky 2007 season for the three ProTour Spanish teams. Inconsistent results and nagging questions over the Puerto doping investigation overshadowed many of the highlights for the Spanish Armada during last year’s campaign. None of the three Spanish squads – Caisse d’Epargne, Saunier Duval-Scott and Euskaltel-Euskadi – managed to win a major tour or classic, though Samuel Sánchez saved what was an otherwise lackluster season for the Basque team with a late-surge in the Vuelta a España to finish third.
Questions about torque wrenches, torque and threadloc
Stefan bound for Sausalito
Kickin it Old School
The things we do!
Fabian's Canterbury Tale
Checkpoint flat at the NACCC
The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in
USA Cycling on Monday named its elite men's team slated to compete at the cyclocross world championship on January 27 in Treviso, Italy.
Three riders - Jonathan Page, Tim Johnson and Ryan Trebon - earned automatic spots on the team, while USA Cycling coaching staff named Jeremy Powers to fill the remaining discretionary slot.
Page qualified as a silver medalist from the 2007 world championships while Johnson and Trebon earned their spots as the next two Americans in the UCI Cyclo-cross Rankings.
Tour de France champion Alberto Contador and 2006 ProTour winner Alejandro Valverde are to be called before the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) prosecutor Ettore Torri over their implication in the infamous Operación Puerto doping scandal. Torri said on Monday that he wanted to speak to certain foreign-based cyclists, as well as the man central to the whole sorry scandal, Dr Eufemiano Fuentes.
Australia’s Sports Anti-Doping Authority Monday announced anti-doping initiatives to be used at this month's Tour Down Under. The new rigorous program is being implemented in partnership with the UCI and Events South Australia, where the tour will be held, ASADA said in a statement. The 2008 Tour Down Under, from January 22-27, is the first stop on the UCI-sanctioned world professional cycling calendar and the first time that a UCI-sanctioned ProTour event has been held in Australia.
José Rujano, the diminutive Venezuelan climbing sensation who almost rode away with the 2005 Giro d’Italia, hopes he can return to form in 2008 following two second-rate campaigns when he failed to live up to expectations. Caisse d’Epargne is the latest European team to give Rujano a chance following below-par runs at QuickStep-Innergetic in 2006 and Unibet.com last year. Rujano didn’t finish either the Giro or the Tour de France in 2006 and didn’t race a grand tour last year as his Unibet team was excluded from all ProTour events.
Our latest reader-submitted Photo Gallery is now ready for your viewing pleasure. Of course, a new gallery also means the naming of the winner of our most recent contest. Larry Rosa managed to capture a terrific moment of cyclocross in “Mayhem,” reminding how much we love the discipline… perhaps as a spectator in instances like this, though. Thank you, Larry. Terrific work!