Cycling has a long and sordid history with doping — that is, taking performance-enhancing drugs (PED) to get ahead in the races. In fact, some of the earliest suspected cases of doping in cycling date back to the late 1800s, when riders would employ stimulants like cocaine to survive epic races, like Bordeaux-Paris, which ran more than 500 kilometers.
Cycling has a long and sordid history with doping — that is, taking performance-enhancing drugs (PED) to get ahead in the races. In fact, some of the earliest suspected cases of doping in cycling date back to the late 1800s, when riders would employ stimulants like cocaine to survive epic races, like Bordeaux-Paris, which ran more than 500 kilometers.
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.
Italian Ivan Basso, the sole cyclist to have been sanctioned in the initial stages of the Operación Puerto blood-doping affair, said the inquiry had left him "shattered." Speaking after Thursday's reopening of the Spanish doping inquiry, Basso told El Pais newspaper that the two-year ban he received had left him marooned. "I'm in a sort of hell at the moment: alone, abandoned by everyone and working on in silence," the 30-year-old said. "I made an error, I must pay for that and come back with my head held high."
The Operación Puerto blood-doping affair, which erupted in May 2006, will be reopened, Madrid prosecutors said on Thursday. Last year the case ground to a halt when a Spanish judge ordered it closed. Prosecutors asked an appeals court to review that decision, and a ruling is expected on Friday. The prosecutors' announcement, however, is a strong indication that the court will reopen the case.
Amaury Sport Organization, the company that owns the Tour de France announced Wednesday that the Astana team of defending champion Alberto Contador will not be invited to compete in that race or in any other event it organizes in 2008.
When Johan Bruyneel, Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer and many of their Discovery Channel colleagues switched allegiance to the Astana team last fall they knew there was a risk that their new team might be excluded from events organized Amaury Sport Organisation — including the 2008 Tour de France. Now that ASO has done just that, we aren’t surprised, but like UCI president Pat McQuaid, we “can’t understand” the logic of ASO bosses Patrice Clerc and Christian Prudhomme’s decision.
Alberto Contador never dreamed he would win the Tour de France last year. But he did, thanks in part to Michael Rasmussen’s tangle of lies, and now the Spanish climber is intent on proving to the world that he’s a worthy champion. But there are dark clouds on the horizon in Contador’s otherwise-sunny post-Tour world — the possibility that Tour organizers might follow the lead taken by the Giro d’Italia and leave Astana sitting on the sidelines. Contador, 25, simply says that he cannot imagine being left out of the Tour.
A Spanish appeals court is set to consider the fate of the Operación Puerto doping scandal Friday in a decision that will have major implications for cycling’s fight to clean up the sport. Three judges in Madrid’s Audiencia Province are expected to consider whether to reopen the investigation or take no action and leave the case permanently closed. With the slow hands of Spanish justice, it’s unclear how soon a decision will be released.
Nine ProTour teams have demanded immediate talks with the organizers of cycling's three grand tours after the Giro d’Italia denied entry to four of their number. Though the 18 ProTour teams are supposed to be included in the season's major races, Astana, Team High Road, Bouygues Telecom and Crédit Agricole all were denied invitations to the Giro in the wake of a dispute between major race organizers and the UCI.
Could Levi Leipheimer and defending champion Alberto Contador be left out of the 2008 Tour de France because of the bad-news legacy of the Astana team? That’s what French and Spanish media reports are suggesting as the Tour de France organization mulls its invitations for the upcoming edition. Sources say lingering questions over whether Contador is linked to the Operación Puerto investigation and Astana’s scandalous legacy from 2007 might prompt Tour organizers to leave the team out of the season’s most important race when invitations are announced in the coming weeks.
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.
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.
After more than a year of waiting for Spanish authorities to complete their work, Italy's anti-doping authority announced this week that it intends to take action against suspected offenders in the Operación Puerto doping scandal. Spanish judicial officials dropped charges against several riders in October of 2006, noting that use of performance-enhancing drugs was not illegal at the time of the alleged infractions. Other riders, including Alejandro Valverde and 2007 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador were cleared after a review of documents in the case.
It’s been a while since the editors of VeloNews chose a mountain bike racer as Cyclist of the Year — two years shy of a decade, to be exact. In the years following our choice of Frenchwoman Anne-Caroline Chausson in 1999, the sport of off-road racing steadily slipped into the shadow of its better-funded, better-organized cousin on the road.
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.
Rock Racing team owner Michael Ball is a passionate and polarizing figure.
Against a backdrop of falling television audiences and dwindling roadside support, the organizers of the Vuelta a España on Wednesday called for their shrinking fan base to rally behind the race once again as they unveiled the route for the 2008 edition. "This will be the Vuelta of hope, a chance for a new cycling," said race director Victor Cordero as he unveiled the 63rd edition of the Spanish national tour. The three-week, 3173km race begins August 30 in the southern city of Grenada and ends September 21 in Madrid. Its 21 stages include three time trials, among them a team time trial,
Levi Leipheimer likes what he sees in the new-fangled Tour de France route unveiled last week in Paris for the 95th edition of the grande boucle. Leipheimer says the interesting mix of shorter time trials and four summit finishes represents a perfect recipe for what he expects will be victory for his new home at Astana. He says whether it’s him or defending champ Alberto Contador stepping on the top rung remains to be seen. “It’s a great course for Alberto and me. We’re really looking forward to next year’s Tour,” Leipheimer told VeloNews in a phone interview from his home in California.
Don’t think that disgraced Giro d’Italia champion Ivan Basso is idly wasting his time while he serves out his two-year ban for links to the Operación Puerto doping scandal. The 29-year-old Italian is plotting his return when his ban ends October 24 next year and is already in contact with several teams for what will be a full racing schedule for the 2009 season. According to a story in La Gazzetta dello Sport, Basso has been staying busy since admitting to Italian anti-doping investigators in May that he was a client of Spanish doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, the alleged ringleader of the
Roberto Heras - the disgraced Spanish climber who saw his 2005 Vuelta a España victory stripped after he tested positive for EPO – vows to return to the professional peloton. His two-year ban ends October 27 and the 33-year-old insists he will be with a top team next season and wants to be in a host of major races on the international calendar. Heras says he’s considered offers from Spanish and foreign teams. “I am planning to return and there are several teams interested in me,” Heras told the Spanish daily El Mundo. “I never lost the rhythm of training and I never lost the idea that I
It’s going to take more than a nasty crash to keep Christian Vande Velde from finishing this year’s Vuelta a España. The 31-year-old American is racing what’s his last major European race in a Team CSC jersey before switching to the up-and-coming Slipstream squad for the 2008 season and he wants to go out on a winning note. “I didn’t want to stop the race. The truth is, I felt horrible and I’m still pretty beat up. I still don’t feel great,” Vande Velde told VeloNews. “I want to go out with CSC on a good note. I hope to feel better in the coming days.” Vande Velde crashed twice in the
Aaron Olson always seems to save the best for last. Last year, some of his best results came late in the 2006 campaign, capped by second in a Tour of Poland stage. The T-Mobile rider scored his best-ever result in a European stage race with third overall at the inaugural Tour of Ireland. Olson snatched second place in the race-winning breakaway in stage one and hung on to the podium spot in the surprisingly tough five-day Irish tour. “It’s not bad considering I crashed 10 days ago,” said Olson, referring to a nasty training spill in Spain. “It’s a nice way to finish off the European
Soler keeps lead at BurgosJuan Mauricio Soler (Barloworld) finished safely in the pack at Thursday’s 158km third stage to maintain his slender grip on the overall lead at the Vuelta a Burgos in northern Spain. French rider Aurélien Passeron (Acqua e Sapone) nipped Aivaras Baranauskas (Agritubel) after a seven-man break held off the peloton in the rolling stage into Aranda de Duero along some of Spain’s best wine country. Soler finished 31st with the main pack that roared in 54 seconds off the winner’s pace to retain the leader’s jersey a day after winning the decisive climb up Laguna de
Alberto Contador is on vacation this week, but he’ll probably be spending more time than he would like working the phone after last week’s news that his Discovery Channel team is disbanding at the end of the season. The standing Tour de France champion is without a secure future – not to mention most of the other riders and staff on the Discovery Channel payroll. Where Contador could likely end up depends on what kind of reception his new manager, Tony Rominger, receives from prospective ProTour teams. Doubts over Contador’s alleged links to the Operación Puerto investigation could
Alejandro Valverde headlines this week’s Vuelta a Burgos starting Tuesday in northern Spain in a race that’s replete with Vuelta a España favorites. The likes of Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and José Ángel Gómez Marchante (Saunier Duval-Prodir) are using the five-day stage race as a trampoline for the Vuelta podium, but Valverde is skipping the Spanish grand tour to prepare especially for the world championships. Valverde disappointed Vuelta organizers last week when he said he would be skipping the September 1 start in Vigo, leaving the Spanish tour bereft of its 2006 podium
Tour de France winner Alberto Contador publicly declared he’s a clean rider in the face of increasing suspicions about his alleged links to the Operación Puerto blood-doping ring. On Friday, Contador took the extraordinary step of making a public statement to try to counter growing media antagonism in the wake of his impressive Tour victory. Contador declined to take questions from reporters. “I have never doped and I have never participated in an act of doping,” said Contador, reading from his prepared statement Friday. “I won the Tour clean. I cannot understand the attacks against me by
Despite one of the sport’s most impressive win records, the U.S.-based Discovery Channel team has failed in efforts to secure a new title sponsor and will cease operations at the end of the season. Tailwind Sports, the parent company of the team, announced Friday that the program will end with the 2007 cycling season. Tailwind officials were apparently unable to parlay a series of eight Tour de France victories over nine years into a satisfactory sponsorship arrangement. “Tailwind has had an amazing 10 years of success with U.S. Postal and more recently Discovery Channel as its title
Even winning the Tour de France couldn’t help Discovery Channel in its search to find a replacement title sponsor for beyond the 2007 season. Less than two weeks after Alberto Contador won the team’s eighth Tour in nine years, officials from Tailwind Sports officially threw in the towel in their hunt to procure a new sponsor. They blamed a laundry list of cycling’s ills for their failure to convince a sponsor to pony up an estimated $15 million per year to underwrite the ProTour team’s annual budget. “We couldn’t in good conscience ask someone to spend the sort of money that it would
Tour de France winner Alberto Contador has scheduled a press event this Friday in Spain, but says he will decline to answer reporters’ questions after he reads a prepared statement. Contador issued a release Wednesday notifying media of his plans to read a statement at the offices of Spain’s national sports council – the Consejo Superior de Deportes - in Madrid. Contador will be accompanied by Discovery Channel team director Johann Bruyneel. Since winning the 2007 Tour de France, Contador has been the subject of heightened scrutiny regarding his possible involvement with Eufemio Fuentes,
Tour de France winner Alberto Contador said Thursday that the forced exit of Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen, which paved the way for his own victory, was fundamentally unfair and set a bad precedent for the sport. "I don't know what is really behind it, but I do know that what should not be possible is to be told in the middle of the race that you can't participate when there was no problem at the beginning," Contador said in an interview with radio Cadena Ser. "I would have liked to have won in another way," he added. Rasmussen was kicked off the Tour by his Rabobank team while
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. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company,
Just as Spanish cycling was celebrating the Tour de France victory of Alberto Contador, the breaking news Monday that Iban Mayo tested positive for EPO put a chill on Spain’s cycling renaissance. With six riders in the top 10 and Contador’s dramatic victory seemed to put Spanish cycling back on the forefront of the European peloton, but Mayo’s positive doping test threw cold water on the fiesta. Saunier Duval-Prodir quickly suspended the Basque climber after receiving notification from the UCI that Mayo revealed traces of the banned blood booster in a anti-doping control taken on the Tour’s
Alberto Contador, the 24-year-old surprise winner of a dope-scarred Tour de France, represents the hope of a "new cycling," Spanish media wrote Monday. "Champion of hope," wrote sports daily AS on its front page below a photo of the cyclist wearing a red and yellow Spanish flag around his neck taken after he won the three-week race on Sunday. "Contador was crowned in Paris as the symbol of the new cycling," it added. The rider for the American Discovery Channel team was the first Spaniard to win the crown since the last of Miguel Indurain's five titles in 1995 and the ninth Spaniard
Throw in the two rest days, and Alberto Contador's winning margin at the 2007 Tour de France is destined to equal one tick of the watch per day. Those 23 seconds will represent the second smallest final time difference in the race's 94 renditions, trailing only Greg LeMond's eight-second triumph over Laurent Fignon in 1989. This year's near-record breaker came to pass during a breathtaking stage-19 time trial that left the outcome in doubt until the final kilometer, when Contador narrowly held off stiff challenges from Cadel Evans and Levi Leipheimer to maintain his slim overall lead.
In the chaotic hours before the start of the 2006 Tour de France, officials from the UCI and the Tour de France were frantically scouring a cryptic 36-page facsimile sent by Spain’s Guardia Civil that summarized evidence of one of Europe’s largest and most elaborate blood doping rings. Officials received the fax on Thursday -- just 36 hours before some 189 riders would start the opening prologue in Strausbourg -- and were under the gun to match a series of veiled, soon-to-be-famous codenames to the Tour peloton. The summary document – written in Spanish – included the most explosive and
Perhaps Alberto Contador is just too young and too green to realize precisely what he is on the cusp of achieving if he can drop Michael Rasmussen for good on the slopes of the Aubisque. At just 24, he’s already being hailed as cycling’s next Lance Armstrong (or Miguel Indurain, in the Spanish press). Contador hopes to live up to the pedigree in Wednesday’s decisive climbing stage culminating on the HC steeps of the Aubisque. “I have nothing to lose,” Contador said during Tuesday’s rest day, the Tour’s second. “I will risk all to attack Rasmussen and try to win the Tour,” he
A former amateur mountain-bike racer alleged Thursday that Tour de France yellow-jersey holder Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) attempted to trick him into carrying illegal doping products to Europe in 2002. Whitney Richards, 38, a one-time Colorado-based cross-country racer, told VeloNews that in March of 2002, Rasmussen asked him to transport a box containing cycling shoes. But the shoebox, according to Richards, actually contained bags of an American-made human blood substitute. None of the information Richards provided VeloNews involves allegations of current doping. Asked by VeloNews
It’s been a long decade for Spanish cycling fans. By the 1990s, fans south of the Pyrénées became accustomed to toasting victory in Paris with wins by Pedro Delgado in 1988 and Miguel Indurain with five straight yellow jerseys from 1991-95. It’s been a long wait ever since. Riders such as Abraham Olano, Fernandro Escartín and Joseba Beloki all came close, but could never quite live up to the Indurain legacy. The 2007 Tour marks the return of the Spanish Armada. With four riders securely in the top 10 coming out of the Alps, many are hoping that this is the year to see a Spanish spoken
If history is any indication, the 2007 Tour de France will be full of surprises. Whenever there are no former winners on the start line — as will be the case this year — anything can happen. That was certainly the case with last year’s race, which had the largest number of surprises since Lance Armstrong took the first of his seven victories in 1999 — the only other time in the past 30 years when there were no previous winners in the field. While uncertainty is a given, there are still favorites for the overall. The Astana team is led by two former podium finishers, German Andreas Klöden
Discovery Channel captain Levi Leipheimer is okay despite a fall in Sunday’s final stage of the Dauphiné Libéré. Sport director Johan Bruyneel said Leipheimer wasn’t seriously injured when he slipped on rain-soaked roads while attacking for victory with about 4km to go to Annecy. A frustrated Leipheimer could only watch Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) ride past him and secure the stage victory. “He’s fine. He hit the side of the round-about. There’s no problem,” Bruyneel told VeloNews. “It was very slippery and he was risking a little bit because he was by himself.” The defending Dauphiné
The Italian Olympic Committee (Coni) has recommended a 21-month suspension for 2006 Giro d'Italia winner Ivan Basso for his involvement in the Operación Puerto blood-doping scandal, the ANSA news agency reported on Friday. Coni's anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri has asked the Italian cycling federation to hand out the suspension because of Basso's guilt in "using or attempting to use banned substances," according to the same source. The UCI's ethics rules would keep Basso from signing a contract with ProTour teams for an additional 21 months, but the grand tours do
If Floyd Landis is cleared of charges that he used synthetic testosterone to win the 2006 Tour de France, Monday could go down as the arbitration-hearing version of stage 17. Bolstered by scientific testimony from a pair of defense side experts, the Landis team appeared to poke significant holes in the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s allegation that he cheated his way to victory on the Champs-Elysees. Landis had been scheduled to take the stand on the seventh day of this nine-day hearing at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, but his turn didn’t come up until late afternoon, and the
Day five of the Floyd Landis arbitration hearing started with a public admission of witness harassment and continued with a heartfelt doping confession by a suspended pro cyclist. In between it was more of the less sensational — but likely more critical — scientific testimony that will likely determine whether Landis is found guilty of using synthetic testosterone to win the 2006 Tour de France. The hearing continues Saturday with Landis himself scheduled to take the witness stand. If he beats the rap, he’ll hold onto his Tour title. Otherwise he faces a two-year racing ban, plus an
Editor's Note: Denver-based attorney Antonio Gallegos is in Malibu, California, this week to observe the Floyd Landis arbitration hearing. Gallegos works for the firm of Holland and Hart, concentrating in commercial litigation and government investigation. He is also an avid cyclist and is developing a sports law practice. At the end of each day Gallegos will be providing VeloNews.com with analysis on what happened and why. Here's his take key moments from the fifth day on the Pepperdine University Campus. Today’s evidence was pivotal for both USADA and Landis as testimony from USADA
LeMond testified under oath that Landis implicitly admitted to doping during a phone call. LeMond also testified that he received what he characterized as a threatening phone call from a member of the Landis team on the eve of his testimony.
Day two of the Floyd Landis hearing brought further clarification as to who each side may call to testify before the arbitration panel during the upcoming week. Most of the potential witnesses come from the scientific world, but there are a few names more familiar to cycling fans. Among them is Greg LeMond, the first American to win the Tour de France, and a vocal critic of doping in cycling. LeMond won the Tour title in 1986, and then two more times in 1989 and ’90. He was listed on the USADA side of the ledger, one spot above former pro cyclist Joe Papp. On Monday, USADA lead counsel
Floyd Landis moved a step closer to finding out whether his name will go down in Tour de France history or infamy. Landis’s scheduled 10-day arbitration hearing to determine whether he used synthetic testosterone to win the 2006 Tour commenced in the moot-courtroom of the Pepperdine University Law School in Malibu, California, with science — not cycling — taking center stage. If he wins the case he’ll avoid becoming the first Tour champion in 100 years to be stripped of his title. If Landis loses the win is no more, and he faces a two-year racing ban, and an additional two-year exclusion
Defending Giro d’Italia champion Ivan Basso’s career is on hold ashe awaits an appearance before an Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) investigatingpanel next Wednesday in Rome. The panel has reopened an investigation into alleged ties between the29-year-old Italian and Eufemiano Fuentes, the infamous sports doctor atthe center of the Operación Puerto scandal in Spain. Basso was among nine riders barred from participation in the 2006 Tourde France when notes seized in the police raids that marked the Puertoinvestigation appeared to link them to an apparent doping ring headedby Fuentes. While
Tom Boonen dares to dream of making it three in a row as he lines up as a five-star favorite for Sunday’s Ronde van Vlaanderen. The Quick Step-Innergetic captain talked to the Belgian media Thursday about his chances. “Over these last few days I’ve realized that I really could do something unique – winning the Flanders for the third time in a row, but I’ll also need a bit of luck on my side to do this. It won’t be an easy feat,” Boonen said. “I’m approaching the Ronde in good condition. I’ve done everything possible to be at the Ronde in excellent form.” Boonen has snagged his fair share
The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you havea comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen incycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write toWebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name andhome town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writersare encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month.The letters published here contain the opinions of the submittingauthors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positionsof VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company,
The small town of Zamora in northwest Spain will play host to some of the biggest names in the peloton for Monday’s time trial start of the Vuelta a Castilla y León. Ivan Basso and Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel), Carlos Sastre (CSC), Denis Menchov and Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) and Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d’Epargne) are some of the bigger names taking part in the five-day race across Spain’s northern meseta and rugged mountains. Christian Vande Velde (CSC), Tom Danielson and Jason McCartney (Discovery Channel) are also penciled in for the start. Alberto Contador – fresh off winning
Australian Tour de France hope Cadel Evans isn’t going to become Mr. July. The ex-mountain biker – fresh off finishing a solid seventh at Paris-Nice - is eyeing two form peaks this season, with the first one coming just around the corner, in time for next month’s Ardennes classics. “I’ll race Pais Vasco to get ready for the Ardennes,” Evans told VeloNews. “I want to be good in April this year. Last year, I had some headaches in the races. I am hoping for some good results in the spring classics.” The bumpy Ardennes races obviously best suit Evans’ explosive climbing capabilities and he’s
[nid:37799]The future is now for Alberto Contador after the Spanish climber pulled the double at Paris-Nice on Sunday to win the final stage and claim the overall prize that positions him as Spain’s next great hope. The 24-year-old Discovery Channel rider uncorked a searing attack on the Cat. 1 Col d’Eze to gap overnight leader Davide Rebellin and drove home a stirring victory on Nice’s Promenade des Anglais to turn a six-second deficit into a 26-second winning margin.
[nid:37738]It was expected to be a showdown between Daniele Bennati and Tom Boonen in the first stage of Paris-Nice, but it was French sprinter Jean-Patrick Nazon who surprised everyone with a long charge to the line in Buzançais on Monday. Nazon, who’s been all but invisible since winning a pair of Tour de France stages in 2003-04, burst down the left side of the peloton after sniffing out a hole with 200 meters to go.
If Alejandro Valverde is the here-and-now in Spanish cycling, Alberto Contador is the big hope for the future. The 24-year-old has been nipping at the edge of major success the past few seasons and since signing a two-year deal with Discovery Channel, the Madrileño seems poised for a breakthrough season. Contador revealed he’ll be a factor this season, winning Friday’s “queen stage” in the Volta a la Comunidad Valenciana ahead of Valverde. Only a crash earlier in the week kept him from taking the overall. A pro since 2003, Contador nearly died in the Vuelta a Asturias in 2004 when he
At its customary pre-season training camp in Solvang, California, the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team opened the doors of the Royal Scandinavian Inn to the media on Monday and Tuesday for an opportunity to meet the team’s riders. In lieu of an official team presentation, which will be offered via video on the team’s Web site, thepaceline.com, team representatives arranged one-on-one interviews with print, Web and video journalists in Solvang, a small Danish settlement in central California. Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, a part owner of the team, was in attendance at
Spanish riders Jesus Hernandez and Alberto Contador were the first of some 50 cyclists linked to the Operación Puerto blood-doping scandal to appear in court, legal sources in Madrid said Tuesday. Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, suspected of masterminding a vast blood-doping network in cycling, football and other sports, will be among those heard following the police raids in Spain just before the Tour de France in July earlier this year. Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich and defending Giro d’Italia champion Ivan Basso are among several cyclists suspected of working with
Alexandre Vinokourov’s Astana team could be forced into racing in cycling’s second division in 2007, after the UCI notified the team that it faces an automatic denial of its ProTour application. The UCI sent Astana general manager Marc Biver a fax Thursday, giving the team’s management company a preliminary negative notice that its application didn't fulfill all of the UCI’s required conditions for a ProTour license. The fax said that the team had not submitted evidence of adequate bank guarantees and added that there remains confusion regarding the status of the program’s main
In what Health Net is describing as a “rebirth,” the team announced the addition of ProTour riders Ryder Hesjedal and Rory Sutherland for 2007 following the departures of Gord Fraser, Mike Sayers and Scott Moninger. The moves are part of sweeping changes for the team that includes seven new riders coming onboard for next year. “Both guys have started and finished grand tours, and they have a lot of experience racing at the top level in Europe,” said Jeff Corbett, sport director for Health Net presented by Maxxis. “(Ryder’s) a good time trialist and a strong climber. He and Nathan (O’Neill)
Cycling could be thrown into tumult yet again as the UCI said it’s poised to release more names linked to the ongoing “Operación Puerto” doping investigation in Spain. Reacting from pressure from the top ProTour teams - which met last week in Brussels to demand the UCI release all names linked to inquiry ahead of this weekend’s start of the Vuelta a España - the UCI is expected to reveal even more names connected to controversial Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. The French sports daily L’Equipe reported that the new list could include as many as an additional 50 names from 14 squads, seven
Astana is Vuelta-bound and Alexandre Vinokourov will be team captain. The troubled team filed the necessary paperwork Friday with Vuelta a España organizers to get the green light to start the season’s third grand tour, set to start Aug. 26 in Málaga. While the issue of the team’s ProTour license has yet to be settled, Vuelta organizers will allow the team to race if none of the riders are implicated in the ongoing “Operación Puerto” doping investigation in Spain. Vinokourov, currently racing in the Tour of Germany, said he’s unsure what to expect in the mountainous Vuelta. The Kazakh was
Spanish star Alejandro Valverde will return to competition next weekend for the summer classic Clásica San Sebastián, but isn’t expected to race the weeklong Vuelta a Burgos. Valverde, 26, fractured his clavicle in stage three of the 2006 Tour de France and will use the one-day race on Aug. 12 in northern Spain to prepare for his run at the Vuelta a España title. Illes Balears-Caisse d’Epargne officials said Valverde isn’t quite in condition to race the Burgos tour, set for Aug. 6-10. “As of today he won’t race the Vuelta a Burgos but he will be at the Clásica,” sport director Eusebio
Comunidad Valenciana – the continental team which has taken more licks than most in the fallout of “Operación Puerto” – received some good news late last week from the Spanish courts. The team was notified that none of 13 riders supposedly implicated in the ongoing police investigation have any pending legal action against them, essentially clearing them of allegations that have dogged the team since mid-May. Thirteen riders were cleared after a court secretary notified the team with an official document dated July 28. The riders cleared include: Vicente Ballesteros, David Bernabéu, David
UCI ready to release ‘Puerto’ documents Amid the Floyd Landis doping scandal, the UCI released a communiqué late Thursday outlining the next steps in the “Operación Puerto” doping investigation in Spain. With Spanish authorities continuing its investigation, the UCI is moving forward with its own process to discipline riders with alleged contacts with the suspected blood doping ring operated out of Spain. “The UCI is preparing to send the files of riders involved in [Operación Puerto] to the national federations concerned and has asked for disciplinary proceedings to be started in
Five Astaná riders who were forced out of the 2006 Tour de France because of alleged links to a blood doping investigation have been formally cleared by Spanish courts. Joseba Beloki, Isidro Nozal, Sergio Paulinho, Allan Davis and Alberto Contador have all received a written document officially clearing them of any links to the ongoing “Operación Puerto,” the Spanish newspaper El Diario Vasco reported Wednesday. The five riders received a legal document signed by Manuel Sánchez Martín, secretary for the Spanish court heading up the “Operación Puerto” investigation, stating, “there are not
Spain’s ongoing doping investigation turned into an executioner Friday at the Tour de France, essentially decapitating the peloton’s hierarchy just 24 hours ahead of Saturday’s prologue start in Strasbourg. Pre-race favorites Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) and Ivan Basso (CSC) were among nine riders from five teams who were ruled out of the 93rd Tour in what brought back bad memories of the 1998 Festina scandal. Others not being allowed to start are Oscar Sevilla (T-Mobile), Francisco Mancebo (Ag2r) and five members of Astana-Wurth: Sergio Paulinho, Isidro Nozal, Allan Davis, Alberto Contador and
30/06/2006: Press release : Puerto Operation : The UCI's StandpointHaving examined the EGB n°116 report which the Guardia Civil sent to the examining magistrate in the file "Operaciòn Puerto" on June 27th, 2006, the UCI considered that it results from this report that the following riders, registered to participate in the 2006 Tour de France, are questioned in this case:Sergio PAULINHOIsidro NOZALAllan DAVISAlberto CONTADORJoseba BELOKIFrancisco MANCEBOIvan BASSOJan ULLRICHOscar SEVILLAThe UCI underlines that the questioning does not mean that it is established that the above
Chris Horner rode out of the Dauphiné Libéré ready for next month’s Tour de France. The Davitamon-Lotto didn’t score a stage victory, but he was active on the hardest climbs in the week-long race to show his form is on the rise ahead of July. Horner’s second Tour will be in marked contrast to his debut last year with Saunier Duval. He’s been assured of a Tour spot all season long, eliminating the stress and doubt of last year of not knowing whether he had spot until he won a stage in the Tour de Suisse to sew up his place. “It’s completely different for me compared to last year,” Horner
It’s been nearly six years since former junior national team rider Greg Strock charged that his coach and other team officials had doped him without his consent in the early 1990s, and it will be at least a few more months before a jury hears arguments in the case. On Tuesday, the matter made its first appearance in a courtroom as a U.S. District Court judge heard arguments on defense motions to dismiss. Strock, now a medical doctor and a member of the faculty at the University of Indiana Medical School, joined former teammate and fellow plaintiff Erich Kaiter in Denver as attorneys argued
Former U.S. Junior national team coach René Wenzel has formally denied charges that he doped his riders 11 years ago in papers filed in U.S. District Court in Colorado, in response to a lawsuit filed against him by Greg Strock, a one-time member of the team. Wenzel is also seeking damages from Strock and a U.S. Olympic Committee official for public statements they made in connection with the case. In a lawsuit filed late last year against Wenzel and USA Cycling, Strock outlined a series of charges, including allegations that Wenzel and another coach had on several occasions in 1990 injected
When Greg Strock looks back at what could have been an outstanding pro cycling career, he says he feels more than nostalgia. Along with the good memories is a mix of frustration, disenchantment and even anger. In 1990 Strock hit Europe as a 17-year-old racer and began tearing up the roads in Spain. By April of that year, he traveled to Brittany, France, joined up with the U.S. national junior squad and started down a path that he now says stopped his career in its tracks. Not long after moving into the senior ranks -- with a spot on the U.S. national team's A squad and an amateur deal