Hushovd to skip Tour de France
(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/hushovd-to-skip-tour-de-france)Thor Hushovd, a two-time green jersey winner at the Tour de France, will skip this year’s event as he recovers from a viral infection.
The Norwegian pulled out of last month’s Giro d’Italia after less than a week of racing and will now forgo the Tour – instead competing in the Tour de Pologne later this month.
"We did perform some tests at the Mapei Sport Center after the Giro and found that he had signs of a viral infection from earlier in the year," said Max Test, BMC chief doctor.
Hushovd is hoping that the stint of racing in Poland will help him towards the Olympic Games which take place in London after the Tour de France.
"I needed more time to recover and it's always been a goal of mine to do well at the Olympics," Hushovd said.
"I also hope to be a part of the BMC Racing Team's team time trial squad at the world championships and to compete in the road race as well. So there are still a lot of goals left to prove to myself this year."
In other news, Johan Bruyneel and the Schlecks are at it again. Here is the newest from the boxing ring:
Bruyneel justifies press comments over Schlecks and RadioShack results
(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bruyneel-justifies-press-comments-over-schlecks-and-radioshack-results)Since Fränk Schleck's controversial withdrawal from the Giro d'Italia, reports of increasing differences between the Schleck brothers and RadioShack-Nissan manager Johan Bruyneel have been abundant in the media. Most recently, Andy Schleck criticised Bruyneel's outspokenness, saying that if he was team manager, he "wouldn't try to solve problems with my riders through the press, but discuss them internally."
Now, the Belgian director has justified his comments, holding his ground on his ways of communicating. "I found it was the right moment to announce my opinion. Some people told me not to do this in the media, but I can't play-act, either. When a journalist asks me about the state of my team, then I have to say it's insufficient," Bruyneel told Sporza, blaming a lack of results for the frustrating situation.
"We should have won everywhere, but when I look at the outcome so far I see two wins by Cancellara and some placings of honour. Of course, there are the circumstances, but nobody can be satisfied.
"So I'm increasing the pressure. I'm seeing to it that there is no relaxing. It's also my task to point everyone at their responsibilities. Sometimes, hard words have to be said. If some guys don't like what I'm saying but then improve their performances, then that's fine my me," he added.
Another issue has been Bruyneel's decision not to include directeur sportif Kim Andersen in his Tour de France team. Andy Schleck, who is known to have a strong relationship with Andersen from the seasons spent together at Saxo Bank and Leopard-Trek, was adamant that the Dane's support was very important to him. "Even if Kim is not in the car behind us, he will be with us in another way. I will be talking to him every day at the Tour," said the Tour de France overall contender.
Again, Bruyneel justified his actions. "We decided this already in December. I don't understand why we have to talk about it again now," the Belgian told Sportweekend. "In any case, the situation is very clear to me. Andy rode his best Tour in 2010, even if Andersen was not present that year due to circumstances."
As a consequence of the publicly-staged quarrel, the collaboration between Lance Armstrong's director and the Schleck brothers can hardly be called a success so far, and Bruyneel did not deny this. "I knew it would take some time, but it takes longer than I expected," he said, before taking another opportunity to provoke his riders and especially Andy Schleck.
"This year, we'll do the best with what we have and I think in the coming years Andy has a great chance to win the Tour. But this year we are not the top favourite. We'll lose a lot of time against the clock. We'll have to take risks and race smart. But in a Grand Tour anything can happen."
And I guess I should also post the results from Stage 1 of the Criterium du Dauphine...especially since Andy Schleck came in over 3 minutes down on Cadel Evans, winner of the stage! Not a good sign if he is looking to ride in the Tour de France:
June 4, Stage 1: Seyssins - Saint-Vallier 187km
Evans wins Dauphiné stage 1
(http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/criterium-du-dauphine-2012/stage-1/results)
Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) showed his pre-Tour de France form by winning the first stage of the Criterium du Dauphine. The defending Tour champion won the sprint of a three-man group which got away near the end, taking the win only seconds before the onrushing peloton. Jerome Coppel (Saur-Sojasun) took second and Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) in third.
Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) moved into the overall lead, as yellow jersey Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEdge) was dropped on the last of the day's six climbs. Also dropped, and more surprisingly, was Andy Schleck of RadioShack-Nissan. Riding next to Astana's Alexandre Vinokourov, the younger Schleck crossed the finish line more than three minutes after Evans, which will undoubtedly bring the next lecture from Johan Bruyneel.
Evans got away on the final descent. “It was a bit of difficult descent, quite narrow. I saw a bit of an opportunity there in the little group in the peloton. Sometimes you see these opportunities and you have to try something.
“I rode a lot to try and keep the distance on the peloton and that isn’t normally favourable for the finish. But I came with good speed out of the corner and kept it to the line. It shows that the work I’ve been doing is good but we’ve still got a lot of work to do and some improvements to make before we get to the Tour,” he said after the stage.
“I’m a racer and I like to race. A lot of things needed to go my way today [for me to win] but sometimes you make things go your way.”
Wiggins, while glad to have the lead, respected Evans' performance and played down any suggestions that the Australian had outplayed him on the day. “It’s hard to look too much into the results today. I knew Cadel would be good as the Tour de France is coming up and he’s always good at the Tour. There’s no surprise there.
“There’s still a long way to the Tour. That’s the race most guys are preparing for. I’m just trying to concentrate on my own race and I stayed safe today in the front and felt good.”
Six-man break group with a big gap
The day's break got away early. Giovanni Bernaudeau (Europcar), Markel Irizar (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Sep Vanmarcke (Garmin-Barracuda), Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank) and Yukihiro Doi (Argos-Shimano) took off inside the first five kilometres of the day and quickly built up a lead of over 13 minutes. That was enough for the field to start the chase.
It was an up-and-down course with six ranked climbs, but none more than a category two. Saur-Sojasun, Sky and Orica-GreenEdge led the chase early, with BMC taking a turn before Omega Pharma-QuickStep moved in to take charges.
Sanchez crashed shortly after 50km were ridden, and struggled to continue, falling further and further behind. Race doctors said he had probably broken several ribs in the crash and would go to hospital after the stage.
Only four riders were left in the break group as they started up the day's final climb at about 12km to go, with the Omega Pharma-QuickStep-led field less than a minute back. Andy Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan) was dropped on the category three climb. Meanwhile his teammate Irizar was alone in the lead.
Irizar was caught soon enough and a high-powered group of Cadel Evans (BMC), Jerome Coppel (Saur-Sojasun) and Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) formed, slowly building up a slight lead over the field.
The trio stayed away to the end, crossing the finish line only seconds before the field. Evans led the charge, holding off Coppel at the finish line.
Full Results
| # | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team | 4:36:21 | |
| 2 | Jérôme Coppel (Fra) Saur - Sojasun | ||
| 3 | Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz) Astana Pro Team | ||
| 4 | Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) FDJ-Big Mat | 0:00:04 | |
| 5 | Tony Gallopin (Fra) Radioshack-Nissan | ||
| 6 | Borut Bozic (Slo) Astana Pro Team | ||
| 7 | Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Omega Pharma-Quickstep | ||
| 8 | Julien Simon (Fra) Saur - Sojasun | ||
| 9 | Daniele Ratto (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale | ||
| 10 | Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling |
