Another suspension because of drugs...

Denis Galimzyanov returns positive test for EPO

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/denis-galimzyanov-returns-positive-test-for-epo)

Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha) has been provisionally suspended after returning an adverse analytical finding for EPO in an out-of-competition test taken on March 22.

The UCI announced the news in a communiqué on Monday afternoon. Galimzyanov has the right to request the analysis of his B sample, but remains suspended until a panel convened by the Russian Cycling Federation sits to hear his case.

Galimzyanov, who was aiming to be part of the Russian selection at the London 2012 Olympics, had a mixed start to the campaign. After going close to stage victory at the Tours of Qatar and Oman, he raced sparingly in March, citing illness. He was omitted from the Katusha team for Paris-Nice and also withdrew from the Three Days of West Flanders in March after the prologue.

The 25-year-old Galimzyanov then went on to take his first victory of the season on stage one of the Circuit de la Sarthe in April, less than two weeks after returning the positive test for EPO. He crashed out of the race the following day.

Hailing from Yekaterinburg in the Ural region of Russia, Galimzyanov raced for the Premier (later Katusha) continental team before stepping up to the ProTour ranks in 2009. He made his first major impact at the highest level last season, winning Paris-Brussels and the final stage of the Tour of Beijing.

Just when you thought the season was over...

...a new race has been added. This will be the 2nd race that China will host:

Season-ending Tour of Hangzhou added to WorldTour calendar

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/season-ending-tour-of-hangzhou-added-to-worldtour-calendar)

The UCI has opened the door for an additional Chinese stage race to the WorldTour calendar at a meeting of the Professional Cycling Council (PCC) in Geneva on Friday, after the Tour of Hanghzou was pencilled in to take place on October 17-21 of this year.

The new race would take place immediately after the Tour of Beijing, which is already fixed for October 10-14. It would thus become the final event on the WorldTour calendar, as the Tour of Lombardy has already been shifted from its traditional October date to September 29.

The Tour of Hanghzhou will be confirmed on the calendar once the Licence Commission approves its application for a UCI WorldTour licence. While that process should prove a formality, it remains to be seen how the 18 WorldTour teams and their riders will respond to the addition of another five days of racing in China at the tail end of the season.

“It is a natural step for cycling which is currently enjoying a period of huge growth worldwide,” UCI president Pat McQuaid said in a statement issued by the governing body late on Friday afternoon. “This will generate great visibility for teams and riders and can be expected to give a big boost to cycling. The injection of funding directly benefits the sport with financial returns from the new races re-invested into cycling and also profiting teams and other stakeholders down the line.

“It is no secret that success breeds success and the current boom in cycling is good news for cyclists and cycling lovers across the board. We are very pleased with today’s decision which comes as part of UCI’s ongoing sustainable development of the sport.”

The UCI did not name the race organiser in the press release, but its own organising entity GCP (Global Cycling Promotion) is already responsible for the Tour of Beijing.

The addition of the Tour of Hanghzou brings to 28 the number of events on the WorldTour calendar, and is the fifth to be held outside of Europe, alongside the Tour Down Under, GP de Montréal, GP de Québec and Tour of Beijing.

Saxo Bank to lose WorldTour slot?

During its two-day gathering in Geneva, the UCI also confirmed that it will ask the Licence Commission to rule on whether Saxo Bank should retain its place in the WorldTour following the suspension of Alberto Contador. “If the points obtained by Alberto Contador, representing approximately 68 percent of the Saxo Bank-Sungard team's total points, are disregarded, his team would no longer be considered to fulfil the sporting criterion required for the UCI WorldTour,” read the UCI statement.

Pollution

Riders fight against pollution at the Tour of Beijing

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/riders-fight-against-pollution-at-the-tour-of-beijing)

Pollution in the Chinese capital is a recurring topic on the social networks when Tour of Beijing is mentioned. Garmin-Cervélo's Andrew Talansky was one of the first to complain about the air quality on Twitter even before the start of the race, but other teams say the pollution isn't a big concern.

After a few hours on his bike, the American talent confirmed he has been affected by the bad air. "Pollution is clearly strong here", he told Cyclingnews. "I guess someone like David Millar who is born in Hong Kong doesn't have the same problems here. For my part I come from California but not from a big city. At home I struggled when I rode around Los Angeles but it is really worse in Beijing."

Amaël Moinard also said at the start of stage 2 that "it was pretty hard to breathe during the time trial". However BMC's Frenchman doesn't want to take part to the controversy and says he "is really enjoying" his first experience in China.

Beijing's pollution is hard to miss. Even on clear days, there is a haze that lingers, and it led the government to close dozen of factories around the city three weeks before the Olympic Games in 2008.

On Wednesday, weather.com.cn recorded a "pretty bad" quality of air in Beijing and Men-To Go district where stage 2 has finished. In its last forecast, published at 6pm (11am in London), the Chinese website recommends "to reduce the outdoor sport activities".

"With 18 million people and a huge amount of car traffic that the local authorities are trying to decrease, it's obvious Beijing doesn't have the same quality of air as the Swiss Alps," said Global Cycling Promotions Director Alain Rumpf, organiser of the Tour of Beijing, adding that spring and autumn are the best seasons for air quality.

"Air quality changes every day accordingly the wind, because Beijing is based in a basin," Rumpf said. "The weather was nice when the riders arrived and they managed to give their best in the first two stages."

HTC-Highroad's team doctor is aware of pollution's potential impact on his athletes. "It's both a physiological and... a psychological problem," Helge Riepenhof told Cyclingnews. An expert in recovery methods, the German team doctor said any issues riders might have are not serious.

The situation is similarly normal at Saxo Bank-Sungard, said team doctor Joost Maeseneer. "We were a bit worried about the quality of food and air and finally everything is OK."

In case one of his riders would be badly affected, he brought in his suitcase some conventional medicines like anti-histamines, normally used for allergies, and some others to relax an irritated throat.

HTC has another weapon against pollution, an herbal remedy. "I tried it in 2008 during the Olympics and it was successful", doctor Riepenhof says. "Every night, the riders who request it can inhale natural substance which doesn't clear their lungs, but which helps the riders to feel better."

And the UCI is blamed again...

Any governing body will always have issues, but I think the UCI really needs to take a step back and assess itself and the group is runs:

UCI deny threatening teams in lead up to Tour of Beijing

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-deny-threatening-teams-in-lead-up-to-tour-of-beijing)

The UCI has denied any wrong doing over suspicions that the sport's governing body threatened a number of WorldTour teams in the build up the Tour of Beijing.

Cyclingnews understands that a number of teams' sponsors were sent letters by the UCI threatening their applications and status among the WorldTour if they carried through with their plan to boycott the race in China.

The boycott stemmed from the argument over race radios. The boycott was eventually scrapped after the UCI and teams found a compromise to uphold the current status on race radios for 2012 while a independent commission was set up to determine the future over the heated issue.

The Tour of Beijing is a race that the UCI has developed and initiated through GCP – its own subsidiary body charged with globalising the sport through new events. The event is a source of income for the UCI and the possibility of high profile teams deciding to shun the event could have seriously jeopardised its future. The event itself got off to a successful start this week, with world time trial champion Tony Martin winning the opening time trial. It is understood that the UCI saw the boycott as a direct threat to its governance and the expansion of cycling.

Cyclingnews has obtained letters that show that the UCI attempted to pressurise team sponsors.

In a letter to one team the UCI said: "The UCI World Tour is a very important part of the UCI calendar, your team is a member of that World Tour, and in recent years the UCI have been working on a strategy to globalise the UCI World Tour. This is for obvious reasons, to further develop our sport, bring it to a truly global audience and indeed to give a valuable return on investment for our sponsors."

The letter goes on: "I can also assure you that any team who does not take the start line in Beijing will be brought before the UCI Licence Commission at the end of the year and risks losing its licence and all the associated benefits. UCI doesn't like involving sponsors in the internal affairs of our sport but in this case we felt that as a sponsor of this team, it was felt important that you should be informed."

Finally the UCI also allude to how a sponsor's business may in fact suffer:

"they [the Chinese organisers] will take this as an offence and it could have repercussions of a commercial nature. This event is being promoted by the City of Beijing under the direction of the Mayor of Beijing, Gou Jinlong and the word boycott has a very high resonance in the Chinese culture for different reasons and they will feel that as an insult to the Chinese people."

Cyclingnews contacted the UCI for comment.

In an email a UCI press officer said he had talked to the President Pat McQuaid, who said, "This subject is closed as far as UCI is concerned the UCI does not wish to comment."

The attempt to pressure sponsors appears to a clear and direct attack on a number of team managers who have voiced several concerns with the UCI this year. Earlier this spring a number of team bosses including Johan Bruyneel and Jonathan Vaughters openly discussed the option of a breakaway league competing against the UCI. At one point 11 major teams were said to be considering the project. Although the discussions remained little more than just blue sky ideas, the UCI saw fit to openly condemn the idea.

"It's all very well for the managers of certain teams at the top level to think they can create a different league or a series amongst themselves for their own personal gain and ambitions and think they can go in a different direction but it's not as simple as that," McQuaid said at the time.

Bruyneel fired back: "You know, we don't care anymore about the threats of McQuaid. If he goes on the way he has been going, maybe we will stop with everything or maybe something else will happen."

If this is a known problem...

So if you know these meats are treated with banned substances...maybe you should bring your own?!?! It might not be the most ecomonical, but I'd rather spend the extra money than risk testing positive for a banned substance.

Tour of Beijing teams wary of clenbuterol in food

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tour-of-beijing-teams-wary-of-clenbuterol-in-food)

Cyclingnews has learned that teams have advised their riders not eat beef or pork during the Tour of Beijing in order to avoid accidentally testing positive for clenbuterol. The drug is used in the farming of certain meats in countries including China and has lead to a number of positive tests.

Last year Alberto Contador tested positive for the drug during the Tour de France. The amount of clenbuterol was 40 times less than the amount World Anti-Doping Agency accredited labs must be able to detect, however his sample was transported to a clinic in Cologne which is able to detect minuscule amounts of the substance. If his sample had been tested in Paris or most other European labs he would have likely escaped a positive test.

Garmin-Cervelo told Cyclingnews that its riders were under orders to avoid all beef and pork products during their stay in China, as a precaution.

"I advised my riders not to eat beef and pork. You can't use clenbuterol on chicken or fish," said Garmin-Cervelo manager Jonathan Vaughters.

Vaughters raised the issue of clenbuterol fears at a recent meeting with the UCI at the world championships and was advised that his riders should keep away from beef and pork and stick to eating fish and chicken, which are not treated with Clenbuterol.

According to Vaughters the fear wouldn't be over testing positive in China but once the athletes leave the countries. For example, an out of competition test taken in Europe or the US in a two to three day window after the race could lead to a positive. Testing will be carried out during the race, contrary to rumours that circulated on the web in the build up to the race. However the Beijing lab used for testing is not as precise in detecting clenbuterol as some other labs.

"Imagine if they get off the plane and they're tested the day after or two days after in an out of competition test and it goes to UCLA, or Europe and it goes to Cologne or Sydney in Australia, because those labs could detect the traces of it. I imagine other teams are advising the same thing but I don't know."