Why Am I Not Surprised???

Although I can not take credit for the phrase, but I do believe that Andy Schleck had once again "deployed his Schleckchute"...

"Schleckchute" was a term coined last year on Twitter, with all the races that the Schleck Brothers pulled out of. There was even a shirt created for just the occasion: Pulling the SchleckChute T-shirt!

I now use this image as the background of my phone...

Anyway, the Schleckchute was pulled again today. I'm starting to wonder how many times it can be deployed before it needs to be replaced??

Andy Schleck quits the Tour Méditerranéen

Andy Schleck failed to finish stage one of the Tour Méditerranéen after being dropped after 104km of the stage won by Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol).

The troubled Luxembourger is suffering with a respiratory problem according to his RadioShack Leopard team but hopes to recover and race again in time for the Tour du Haut-Var (February 16-17).

"This morning I already had breathing problems. Instead of getting better, it just got worse during the race because of the cold and the wind," Schleck said in a press release.

"I didn't want to abandon out of respect for the fans and the organization, but also because I need this competition. After the Tour Down Under I felt I was in a good way and I was really looking forward to this race. I am now sicker than I was before. I need to let my body recover and I hope I can resume training as soon as possible. In theory my race program will not change."

Schleck fractured his pelvis during the time trial stage of the Criterium du Dauphine in early June. He missed the Tour de France and hardly raced for the rest of the 2012 season, completing only 28 days of racing in the whole season. He is determined to bounce back and be a contender at the Tour de France in July but has not finished a race since last year's Liege-Bastogne-Liege after also quitting the Tour of Beijing last October and the Tour Down Under in January.

RSLT is full of young talent, as well as some veteran riders. Fabian Cancellara, Chris Horner, Yaroslav Popovych, and Jens Voigt are in the position to teach the younger riders like George Bennett, Matthew Busche, Ben Hermans, Hayden Roulston, and Jesse Sergent, just to name a few. Roulston and Bennett took 1st and 2nd place respectively in the 2013 New Zealand Road Race Championships. Today, Giacomo Nizzolo had an amazing sprint finish in Stage 4 of the Tour of Qatar. With these recent results, among many otherts, it is easy to see that the young riders are quite talented on RSLT.

Andy Out, Giacomo Strong in Tour Méditerranéen

 

Due to an infection of the respiratory tract, Andy Schleck will not take the start of Stage 2 of the Tour Méditerraneen. Schleck, already suffering before the start, abandoned in the finale of Stage 1, unable to finish the race in good health.

 

“This morning I already had breathing problems," explained Andy Schleck. “Instead of getting better, it just got worse during the race because of the cold and the wind. I didn’t want to abandon out of respect for the fans and the organization, but also because I need this competition. After the Tour Down Under I felt I was in a good way and I was really looking forward to this race. I am now sicker than I was before. I need to let my body recover and I hope I can resume training as soon as possible. In theory my race program will not change.” Andy Schleck is expected to resume competition in the Tour du Haut-Var (February 16-17).

On the other hand, it was a nice performance from the rest of the team with Giacomo Nizzolo taking 4-th in a group sprint behind stage winner Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol).

Team director Jose Azevedo explained the racing action after three riders who formed a day-long break (Will Routley of Accent Jobs – Wanty, Théo Vimpère of BigMat - Auber93, and Thomas Vaubourzeix of La Pomme Marseille) were finally caught: “It was a nervous race with lots of wind. They were caught at 10K finish and Lotto-Belisol did everything for Greipel. But our team did too. We believed in Nizzolo and all worked to bring him to the front. Danilo Hondo did the last finishing touch."

Nizzolo: "When Greipel started his sprint, I did exactly the same on the other side of the road. In the end Greipel was better than me, I can live with that, but two other guys just came over me in the last meters as they were protected from the wind behind me." Second and third places went to Matteo Pelucchi and Maxime Daniel.

Azevedo: “Just a beginner's mistake but it’s nice to see that Giacomo dares to sprint against Greipel. This is his first race of the season and promises a lot... 4th is a good sign."

 

(above article and picture from RadioshackLeopardTrek.com)

 

Crashes: A Hazard of Professional Cycling

Do you remember this?

In the 2011 Tour de France, a media car ran into Juan Flecha, who ran into Johnny Hoogerland. Hoogerland had the unfortunate experience of flipping over a barbed wire fence. Despite the pain and blood, Hoogerland finished the stage and took the KOM jersey. If you don't remember this incident, feel free to read my blog post about it here: The Stage 9 Crash.

I feel like Hoogerland has to be one of the most unlucky riders in the peloton, as he is now in the intensive care unit after another accident on Sunday:

Hoogerland hospitalized after training accident

Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM) is in the hospital this evening after a collision with a car while out training. The Dutch rider sustained fractured ribs and will spend the night in hospital before he undergoes further tests.

Hoogerland had been training in Spain ahead of the Tour Méditerranée.

In a press statement the team said, "The rider of Vacansoleil-DCM was going slightly downhill in front of the scooter which was going to motopace him for another hour or so. A turning car didn't see the rider coming and hit the unfortunate Hoogerland."

The team added that they will release more information on Monday.

Although I haven't seen any more details released about Hoogerland's condition on cyclingnews.com, I did learn on Twitter that he has "five broken ribs, cracks off vertebrae 8 through 12, and a bruised liver" (Source: Twitter via Jose Been / TourdeJose.)

Get well soon Johnny!!!

There was another crash yesterday that I wanted to mention: Sacha Modolo. This was the rider that crossed the finish line second to Mark Cavendish on the first stage of this year's Tour de San Luis. Modolo then came back and out-sprinted Cavendish the next day. I had never heard of Modolo until the Tour de San Luis, but I put him on my Fantasy Cycling team for the first stage of the Tour of Qatar.

Other than checking how well I scored in the stage, I hadn't really looked over the results or report on the Tour of Qatar, and while I was trying to figure out my Team Time Trial roster, I couldn't decide if I wanted to keep Modolo for future sprints or bring in an extra BMC rider for the TTT. My instant gratification won out, and I traded Modolo. When I woke up and checked up on stage two, I was surprised that he had been in a crash on Sunday, and didn't start. I'm glad I listened to my gut and took him off my team, but it is always sad to see a rider in a crash.

Modolo quits the Tour of Qatar

Italian sprinter Sacha Modolo (Bardiani Valvole – CSF Inox) has been forced to quit the Tour of Qatar after x-rays confirmed he fractured his scaphoid in his wrist. Initial reports said Modolo had fractured his left scaphoid. The team has today reported it his right wrist.

Modolo went to hospital in Doha before the start of the stage two team time trial. On his return, his teammates headed out for the 14km test against the lock while Modolo prepared to return to Italy.

“Due to a distraction, I fell down trying to rider over a step," Modolo said in a statement from the team.

"I’m sorry for the team, I arrived here with a good shape and the aim to achieve some good results in Qatar and then in Oman. Now I have to recover as quickly as possible and reschedule the first part of season from scratch."

Sacha Modolo travel Italy today and hopes to quickly begin training on an indoor-trainer. He had shown his early-season form by beating Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma - Quick-Step) to win stage two of the Tour de San Luis.

Get well soon Sacha!! We can't wait to have you back!

"Swiss Newspaper Claims..."

Do you notice anything about the title? If a newspaper is 'claiming' something, they better have evidence to back it up. In this case, not so much.

I read the headline "Swiss newspaper claims Cancellara will miss 2013 Tour de France" on the Radioshack Leopard Trek Fansite, and had a gut feeling that this was an inaccurate article. There are no direct quotes from Cancellara or RSLT, just quotes that the newspaper Blick "reports him saying".

In one part of the article, Cancellara allegedly says he "doesn’t believe that [Andy Schleck] can win this year’s [Tour de France]." In my opinion, why would a well-respected rider come out and be so pessimistic about his teammate? Cancellara wouldn't do that, and RSLT would never allow for that either.

At the bottom of the webpage that this story is on, there are links for related articles. One of the links if for a follow-up article: "Cancellara denies any decision is made concerning Tour de France participation". Thankfully, this article uses direct quotes from Cancellara, including what he posted on this Twitter account: “Dont belive what you read global regarding my raceprogramm. #Full fokus for the #classics after that i will rest, and decide with the team.”
Here are the complete articles for you to read:

Swiss newspaper claims Cancellara will miss 2013 Tour de France

He’s shone in the race in the past, winning five prologues, eight stages in all and holding the record of yellow jerseys [28] amongst the riders who never won the race, but Swiss publication Blick has claimed that Fabian Cancellara won’t line out in this year’s Tour de France.

If accurate, the surprising news denies his RadioShack Leopard team of one of its star riders for the race.

However Cancellara has said that he believes his chances of shining in the race have been limited by the parcours.

“The start in Corsica features neither a prologue nor a time trial,” Blick reports him as saying while explaining his decision.

The 2013 edition will instead feature the first sprinter-friendly stage one finish in over four decades, with the early race against the clock being the team time trial on stage four rather than an individual effort.

The race does also feature two solo TT tests, namely stage eleven’s 33 kilometre race to Mont St. Michel and stage 17’s Chorges TT, but these are not enough to entice him to take part.

Apart from his passing up on the chance to chase a stage win, Cancellara’s absence would also be a blow to the team as he could have done vital work for his team-mate Andy Schleck. However according to Blick, the Swiss rider doesn’t believe that the Luxembourg rider can win this year’s race.

While the route is undoubtedly better than the 2012 course would have been for Schleck, he is still trying to regain his form after a bad crash in last year’s Criterium du Dauphiné.

While Blick doesn't elaborate on Cancellara’s pessimism about Schleck’s chances, the 2010 race winner has himself said that it is conceivable that it could take him until 2014 before he is as strong as he was before.

Cancellara will begin his season in the Tour of Qatar and then continue in the Tour of Oman prior to tackling his big goals, the Classic trio of Milan-Sanremo, the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix. The world championship is likely to be a target in the second half of the year.

Cancellara denies any decision is made concerning Tour de France participation
Contradicting an earlier report in the Swiss publication Blick stating that Fabian Cancellara has decided to miss this year’s Tour de France, both the rider and his RadioShack Leopard team have moved to deny that this is the case.

“Dont belive what you read global regarding my raceprogramm. #Full fokus for the #classics after that i will rest, and decide with the team,” Cancellara stated via Twitter, writing in his distinctive manner.

Team spokesman Tim Vanderjeugd also underlined that the story was inaccurate. “Blick didn't have an interview with Fabian. His program until Paris-Roubaix is fixed; from there on, it's all open,”

The earlier article said that Cancellara noted that there is neither a prologue nor a time trial at next year’s start in Corsica, saying that a decision not to ride the Tour had been taken based on that.

It also said that Cancellara didn’t believe that he needed to go for team support, because he didn’t believe Andy Schleck could win the 2013 race.

Vanderjeugd said that this too is inaccurate.

Cancellara has excelled in previous editions of the race, winning eight stages in all and holding the record of the most yellow jerseys [28] by a rider who hasn’t won the race.

The 2013 Tour will feature three stages in Corsica at the start, with stage one being the first sprinter-specific race in over four decades.

It complicates things if Cancellara wants to try to take yellow again, but he is nevertheless strong enough to be successful in the race.

Before then, and before any decision as to his summer race programme, he will focus on shining in Milan-Sanremo, the Ronde Van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix.

He will begin his season tomorrow in the Tour of Qatar and then continue with the Tour of Oman.

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.

This just isn't a good week for Team Sky

Flecha breaks hand in training accident

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/flecha-breaks-hand-in-training-accident)

Juan Antonio Flecha (Team Sky) has revealed that he had minor surgery on his hand last week after breaking it in a training accident near his home. The 34-year-old Spaniard, who has enjoyed a consistent start to 2012 after securing third place finishes at the Tour of Qatar and at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, is already looking ahead to getting back in the saddle and to making it to the start line of his favourite race – Paris-Roubaix on April 8.

“I broke a metacarpal in my hand while out training last week,” he told Team Sky’s official website. “The fracture was smooth and I was even able to ride home after I’d done it. I went into surgery on Thursday and they re-aligned the bone before fixing it with a couple of screws.

“In the time between picking up the injury and surgery I was able to keep working on the turbo and do core work in the gym, but since then I’ve not been able to do that as we didn’t want to risk stretching the wound, or getting it infected with sweat under the bandage. My bandage is coming off on Tuesday and I’ll be able to start my rehabilitation again straight after that.”

Flecha stated that his immediate race plans are up in the air and much will rest on his rehabilitation over the coming days. But in his own mind everything is still pointing towards Paris-Roubaix, where he has enjoyed consistent success over the years despite never actually winning the race. Flecha was a runner-up there in 2007, and has two third places to his name along with several other top ten finishes. Back in January he told Cyclingnews that it is the classic that he most wants to win before he hangs up his wheels.

"If everything goes well I should be able to make my return at Waregem [March 21], but obviously that’s dependent on what the doctor says," he said.

“I want to return there but it’s obviously dependent on my recovery. If things are not going well, riding the cobbles might not be the best idea right away, so we could even look at doing a race like the Criterium International [March 24-25] instead. I don’t think I will be at my peak condition at Flanders [April 1], but I will still give it my all, and then by the time Roubaix comes around I’ll be back to my best and able to give it a really good go.”

Froome hits pedestrian in Italian training accident

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/froome-hits-pedestrian-in-italian-training-accident)

Chris Froome of Team Sky has hit and seriously injured a 72-year-old pedestrian in a training accident in Italy, according to the Italian media. Both were taken to hospital, with Froome found only to have scrapes and bruises.

The elderly man is said to have suffered head injuries as well as facial contusions and abrasions.  While his life is not endangered, he is expected to be helicopered to another hospital for further treatment.

Police are looking into the accident to determine what happened and whether either party is at fault. Froome was training alone on Sunday morning when he hit the man, accoridng to sanremonews.it. He immediately called emergency services, and both were taken to hospital.

Froome, 26, opened his season at the Volta ao Algarve but had to abandon with a chest infection after the third stage.  He had been scheduled to start Paris-Nice, but had to miss it due to continued illness. He is not scheduled to ride in Saturday's Milan-San Remo.



Hushovd: Racing in Giro and Tour!!!

YES!!!! Even though his child is due at the end of July, Thor Hushovd has been confirmed for both Giro and Tour! So happy!!!! Just hope he can prove the sprinter/all-rounder he is instead of working for Gilbert and Evans.

Hushovd confirmed for both Giro d'Italia and Tour de France

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/hushovd-confirmed-for-both-giro-ditalia-and-tour-de-france)

Thor Hushovd's participation in the Giro d'Italia this year does not mean he will skip the Tour de France. BMC Racing Team sporting director John Lelangue has confirmed that the Norwegian is part of the team's plans for both races.

“Of course. He is one of our main pieces for the Tour,” Lelangue told tv2.no.

It will be a busy year for the former world champion, with many highlights. “He wants to rest after Paris-Roubaix before the Giro. After the Giro he will prepare for the Tour,” Lelangue said. The Tour is followed almost immediately by the 2012 London Olympic Games and after that Lelangue says that BMC “must ensure that Thor is in shape for the world championships.”

Hushovd last rode the Giro in 2007. “He does not go to the Giro to win overall. For Thor, it is the perfect start in Denmark and a prologue that he is good at, and the opening stages suit him. So we'll see, but we will make sure he gets a few days of rest to recover,” Lelangue said.

The Norwegian made his BMC debut this month in Qatar, where “he was unlucky with crashes, punctures and bike trouble,” but Lelangue is satisfied and thinks he will be well prepared for the spring classics.

“We know that Thor is most focused on Flanders, Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix. These are three of his main goals for the season. Gilbert, for example, is more focused on the Liege-Baston-Liege and Amstel Gold Race. There will be opportunities for everyone,” said Lelangue.

Tour of Qatar, Stage 6 and Overall

February 10, Stage 6: Sealine Beach Resort - Doha Corniche 120km

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-of-qatar-2012/stage-6/results)

On another day of high drama at the 2012 Tour of Qatar, promising French rider Arnaud Demare raced to the first professional victory of his career in the colours of FDJ-BigMat at the sixth and final stage. 20-year-old Demare came home ahead of Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha) and Rabobank’s 2011 winner Mark Renshaw, who put a frustrating week behind him with a podium finish on the final day.

Belgium’s Tom Boonen’s 15th place finish on the day was enough for him to win the overall GC and points classification and meant that he ended the day celebrating a fourth victory in this race, fully justifying his tag as the “King of the Desert”. Garmin-Barracuda’s Tyler Farrar finished as runner-up, 28 seconds behind Boonen, with Team Sky’s Juan Antonio Flecha five seconds further back in third.

This year’s race, as always, has been marred by a number of crashes and punctures and today was no different. With the riders finding their feet in new teams and with the flat nature of the course making for tight, fast and bunch finishes, bumps have become unavoidable.

The biggest casualty of the race was stage three and stage five winner Mark Cavendish (Team Sky), who came together with two other riders close to the finish and suffered a nasty fall that brought gashes to his legs and to his left shoulder. Cavendish was helped to his feet by his teammate and friend Bernie Eisel and bravely got on a spare bike and finished the stage.

Cavendish’s crash hindered a large proportion of the field in the finale, meaning that Demare’s decision to go for home early paid off. Earlier on the field had been helped by a considerable tail wind as they made their way from the Sealine Beach Resort to the Doha Corniche. Before the peloton’s arrival there a pack of seven riders broke away, building a lead that reached a peak gap of 2:20.

At the Doha Corniche the riders encountered 11 6km laps around the harbour side with the pack making relatively heavy weather of catching the group in front. They finally bridged the gap with just 15km to go, which provided the platform for yet another frantic bunch sprint to the line. Demare’s tactics proved shrewd as he crossed the line for what in the end was a cosy victory for the 2011 U23 road world champion.

"I was placed in ideal conditions in the last couple of kilometres with the help of my teammates," Demare said. "It's an amazing feeling. Tom Boonen and Tyler Farrar came to congratulate me. I have admired them in front of my TV for so long."

Elsewhere, a serious verbal altercation took place after the finish between Rabobank’s main leadout rider Graeme Brown and RadioShack-Nissan’s Robert Wagner. Brown accused Wagner of bumping him repeatedly and the two men had to be dragged apart as tempers flared on what was the hottest day of the race so far.

But the week has undoubtedly belonged to Boonen, who claimed both the golden and silver jerseys by using a combination of his considerable experience here and a fitness edge that he honed at the Tour de San Luis. His fourth victory in the race tasted especially sweet, as he told Cyclingnews.

“All four wins here have been hard,” he said. “If you win four times it’s 24 days of hard labour. But this was nice because there were a lot of good riders here. Two days ago the hard stage we had was really like a classic. Normally after a hard stage you can break it up a bit in the following ones but this year it has been a man to man fight. We controlled the last two stages as a team so I am happy. I think that this year has definitely been a very important one.”

Boonen’s performances and those of his principal accomplice Gert Steegmans meant that Omega Pharma-Quick Step were able to add the team GC to the two jerseys he won. The battle for the young riders white jersey was won by Garmin-Barracuda’s Ramunas Navardauskas. It was a fitting reward, alongside Farrar’s second place, for his team, whose consistency throughout the week shone through.

Stage 6 Results

#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ-BigMat	2:20:44
2	Denis Galimzyanov (Rus) Katusha
3	Mark Renshaw (Aus) Rabobank
4	Roger Kluge (Ger) Project 1t4i
5	Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha
6	Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Barracuda
7	Daniel Oss (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale
8	Allan Davis (Aus) GreenEdge Cycling Team
9	Aaron Kemps (Aus) Champion System
10	Jens Debusschere (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team

 

Final general classification

#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Tom Boonen (Bel) Omega Pharma-QuickStep	15:42:14
2	Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Barracuda	0:00:28
3	Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Sky Procycling	0:00:33
4	Gert Steegmans (Bel) Omega Pharma-Quick Step	0:00:34
5	Tom Veelers (Ned) Project 1t4i	0:01:00
6	Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky Procycling	0:01:05
7	Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan	0:01:06
8	Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Garmin-Barracuda	0:01:09
9	Aidis Kruopis (Ltu) GreenEdge Cycling Team	0:01:10
10	Adam Blythe (GBr) BMC Racing Team	0:01:14

Oh right, there is a race going on...

The negative doping investigations have taken up much of the news in te past week. However, the Tour of Qatar is going on, not that we've had time to hear much about it...

Boonen bored of doping "soap operas" as he closes on Qatar win

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/boonen-bored-of-doping-soap-operas-as-he-closes-on-qatar-win)

The 2012 Tour of Qatar reaches its conclusion in Doha this afternoon at the end of a headline-grabbing week for cycling, mainly for the wrong reasons. With the vast majority of recent column inches devoted to the doping investigations surrounding Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador and Jan Ullrich, Tom Boonen's exploits here in the Gulf have taken a back seat.

The 31-year-old Belgian's form has given him a big lead in the GC heading into today's sixth and final stage, and it would appear that only injury or a catastrophic crash can prevent him from winning a fourth Tour of Qatar title. He enters this afternoon with a healthy advantage of more than 30 seconds in the GC over Garmin-Barracuda's Tyler Farrar and Team Sky's Juan Antonio Flecha. Despite the feats of Mark Cavendish, who like Boonen has won two stages, it is the Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider who has bestrode the event more than anyone else due to his consistency throughout.

Having completely refused to make any comment to the press about the cases of Armstrong and Contador earlier in the week, Boonen told Cyclingnews that he has largely ignored the furore surrounding the developments and was just focussed on winning here in Qatar.

"I haven’t really paid too much attention to the soap operas surrounding Contador and Armstrong," he said. "It’s been going on for a while and nobody actually really cares about it anymore. Every time you open your mouth about these cases you get a great pile of shit over your head. I like Alberto and I hope that everything turns out ok for him, but that’s all I have to say about it."

Boonen went on to say that he is happy if his performances have brought some distraction for cycling fans and that his is confident ahead of today's decisive final stage.

"We all love cycling and that’s why we do it. So it’s nice to give something back and make some headlines for the right reasons," he said. "But we also have to do things for ourselves first and everything else follows naturally. There has been no problem at all for me to focus this week. We did a lot of good work today and throughout the last few days. The most important thing now is to keep the jersey and right now I am very happy and very confident about my chances."

Well, now things are moving along...

Not even a week after Contador's suspension, Ullrich has been sentenced:

Jan Ullrich given two-year ban from CAS

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/jan-ullrich-given-two-year-ban-from-cas)

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has issued a two-year ban for Jan Ullrich, to run from August 22, 2011. In addition, all his results from May 2005 until his retirement in February 2007 are annulled.

The CAS partially upheld the UCI's appeal to the Swiss Cycling Federation's decision to dismiss its doping investigation into Ullrich after his retirement, and ruled that he was guilty of a doping offence.

“Given the volume, consistency and probative value of the evidence presented by the UCI, and the failure of Jan Ullrich to raise any doubt about the veracity of reliability of such evidence, this Panel came to the conclusion that Jan Ullrich engaged at least in blood doping in violation of Article 15.2 of the UCI Anti-Doping rules,” the court said.

But there is still some questions on how CAS has handled the Contador case, so much so that some riders have begun to fear eating:

Cancellara: Big question marks hang over Contador case

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cancellara-big-question-marks-hang-over-contador-case)

Having had a couple of days to digest the two-year ban handed by CAS to Alberto Contador following his long drawn out, 18-month clenbuterol case, Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara has branded the process involved in ascertaining Contador’s culpability as “crazy”. 30-year-old Cancellara, who is at the 2012 Tour of Qatar in the colours of RadioShack-Nissan, told Cyclingnews that his faith in the decision makers, and that of some of his fellow riders, has been shaken. Contador, who may appeal against the decision, was sanctioned on Monday, stripped of the 2010 Tour de France title and could face a fine of 2.4m Euros.

“I am here racing and all I’ve had time to do is read some papers, look at the internet and try to digest the facts and the rumours,” Cancellara told Cyclingnews. “They said there is 4000 pages about Alberto’s case. The Fuentes case was 8000 pages. 4000 pages for one person and 8000 for maybe 20 guys? Already, that is something crazy.

“There are so many questions. The UCI and WADA agree together, then they disagree together then they think different things. Then you have the clenbuterol – it’s such a small amount. Is it from food? Now they are saying it’s from some sort of nutrition supplement contamination. All I can see is a big question mark.

“To improve, CAS just has to work harder and faster – they should not be on holidays, and not be distracted by other things. In sport across the board so far, from the CAS point of view, this is one of the biggest delays there has been. 556 days? Plus or minus? We were told August, then November, then January and we have to wait until February. This waiting has damaged our sport.”

Cancellara went on to state that trust in both the governing bodies and the prosecution and appeal processes has been compromised as a result of the case, and he accused CAS of victimising cycling.

“Of course, normally, we have to go with the decision of the court,” he said. “The court should be the highest jurisdiction in the world. But the big question now is whether we are able to believe in the court. Yes or no? Are we going to believe them in the cases of killers, drug dealers and paedophiles? This is the problem that Alberto’s case has thrown up for all of the riders. It makes you lose faith. I wouldn’t want to be in the skins of the three judges at CAS.

“When we look at how much cycling is filing cases for doping, then cycling should not get treated in this way. There are cases of people in other sports who have done much worse and they haven’t got banned as severely. Sometimes they do not get banned at all. It is always cyclists who are punished most.”

He then cited Contador’s attention to detail and the amount that he has stood to lose as an argument against the possibility that he risked everything on a contaminated supplement.

“Now they are saying that it wasn’t even the food, it was a supplement. It is hard to believe that Alberto would take a supplement without having it tested. You get offered them everywhere but you say ‘ok’ and send them to the lab. For a cyclist, this is your insurance.

“Alberto has so many people behind him: teammates, coaches, friends, family, sponsors and the money that comes with it all. To throw away all that in a split second on one pill seems crazy. I always think this way myself - about what I have to lose.

“Your whole life can fall apart after one test. This is the fear we have as an athlete and it’s real. I believe there is always a possibility that you can test positive for things that you don’t know about. You can go to China and eat some meat and then you come back and ‘boom’. It scares me, for sure. And it affects you. I remember back in 2008 when I was implicated in the case that had nothing to do with me. The press all around were talking about me. I lost my energy, I gained 10kg in fat and I couldn’t sleep. But a cyclist has to live with that. If you live with that you can go forward. If you don’t then you give up and go home. But it’s wrong.”

Cavendish sick before Tour of Qatar

With Greipel already out, this worries me...what other riders will make such good sprint competitions?!?!

Cavendish sick on eve of Tour of Qatar

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cavendish-sick-on-eve-of-tour-of-qatar)

Mark Cavendish's preparations for his Team Sky debut suffered a setback on Saturday after he missed his final training ride ahead of Sunday's Tour of Qatar with illness. The British sprinter complained of feeling unwell after flying into the Qatari capital of Doha.

As a precautionary measure the 26-year-old did not join his teammates as they left the team hotel for their morning ride. A spokesman from Team Sky stated that no final decision has been made on his participation in tomorrow's race but that he was likely to start. He will spend the remainder of the day resting.

"13hrs of sweat-drenched sleep hasn't shifted a fever that started on the plane over here. Really not feeling well today. Can't leave my bed," Cavendish said via Twitter on Saturday.

The six-stage race starts on Sunday at the iconic Barzan Towers and will run until Friday. The race organisers will be hopeful that Cavendish, one of world cycling's biggest draws, will recover to take his place at the start line, especially after German star Andre Greipel pulled out of the race earlier in the week.

Will 2012 be Boonen's Year?

Boonen's desire to make sprint impact

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/boonens-desire-to-make-sprint-impact)

Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) may have appeared to rein in his sprinting ambitions in the last number of years, but the Belgian believes that he can make an impact in bunch finishes again now that his recovery from injury is complete.

Speaking at the launch of his revamped team in Vilvoorde on Friday, Boonen insisted that his injury woes are now behind him, and revealed that he had hoped to attract Bernhard Eisel to the revamped Omega Pharma-Quick Step squad following the collapse of HTC-Highroad. The Austrian ultimately followed his leader Mark Cavendish to Sky.

“For the sprints, I still believe it,” Boonen told reporters after the lights had gone up on the presentation. “Now we’re is back on the track, we have a good train and a good quality of riders in the team.”

Boonen’s two victories in 2011 both came in bunch sprints, at the Tour of Qatar and Gent-Wevelgem. With his wounded knee now back to full strength, the man from Mol is looking forward to testing himself in the sprints, even if he admitted that his lead-out train was still short of a conductor.

“We’re only missing one guy. We should have a guy like Tosatto or De Jongh who we had before, a guy with experience who can really show these young guys how to do it,” Boonen said. “I was trying to get Bernie Eisel in the team but he didn’t go. That would have been perfect.”

The former world champion also hinted at problems with his equipment in recent years, and 2012 sees Patrick Lefevere’s team returned to riding Specialized bikes after two years on Eddy Merckx. “The material is back on track, we have really good bikes now, so it will be a lot easier than it was last year,” Boonen said.

Boonen has not won a stage at the Tour de France since 2007, of course, and while injury and suspension have limited his appearances and performance since then, the sprinting landscape has altered radically in the meantime with the emergence of Mark Cavendish. He acknowledged that beating the world champion when he is on form is nigh on impossible, but he warned that it might take time for Cavendish and Sky to repeat the kind of lead-out he enjoyed at Highroad.

“I can’t beat him when he’s at his best, but when Cavendish is doing a perfect sprint with a perfect lead-out, it’s almost impossible to beat him,” Boonen said. “But that’s the same for every sprinter – if everything goes perfect, it’s not that hard, it’s just getting there is what’s hard.

“And getting the team to make it as easy for you as possible, that’s what’s hard, and that’s where all the work goes. I think Mark will experience that it’s not a thing you just buy or go into. He’s at Sky and he has the quality, but it’s still going to take time to get everything the way it was like at Highroad. It’s the same for everyone.”

Flecha vs. Paris-Roubaix

Flecha dreaming of elusive Paris-Roubaix win

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/flecha-dreaming-of-elusive-paris-roubaix-win)

Could 2012 be the year when Juan Antonio Flecha breaks his duck at Paris-Roubaix? The popular Spaniard, who turns 35 this year, has had a series of near misses in the 'Queen of Classics', with three podium finishes and three other top ten placings. It's a race that he desperately wants to win, and he also told Cyclingnews of another burning ambition when we caught up with him at the Team Sky training camp in Mallorca.

"If I had to choose one race to win now, it would be Paris-Roubaix," he said. "I have been close there many times and to win it would be amazing. I know many Belgian fans would say ‘come on Flecha, the Belgian races are the best’, but for me right now I would have to say Paris-Roubaix would be my dream.

"I’d also really love to do the Tour de France again this year. It would be my tenth Tour in a row. That would make me very proud and I would really think ‘wow, look at that, that’s fantastic'. I know that I would be going there to work for Mark [Cavendish] and Bradley [Wiggins] and that will keep me occupied. But I’d be lying to you if I told you that I wouldn’t like to win another stage at the Tour. I won’t shirk any of my responsibilities to my team, but I can’t hide my desire to win a stage. I won a stage in my first Tour and it felt unbelievably good. I would love to feel that again."

Flecha has an enormous amount of faith in his coaches at Team Sky, and the feedback that he has received from them over the winter has given him confidence that he can still improve, even at this relatively late stage of his career.

"Can I still improve? It's an interesting question," he says. "I really believe that I can. As long as you show desire and want to improve, you will. If you think, even at my stage of my career, that you have done everything and that you can’t get better then you might as well retire. I am still a pro cyclist and I love it. It’s not my business to analyse how I can get better. It’s up to my coaches. If they think I can improve in certain areas they tell me what to do. And they believe that I can. I have total faith in them.

"I feel good at this stage of the winter but the most important thing is that my coaches are pleased with me. They plan exactly how they want me to be in January. The detail that they go into is very thorough. On my last day of training last season my coaches had already planned my first day of this season. Right now my numbers are exactly where they want them to be."

As a Spaniard who lives in Barcelona, Flecha is well-placed to discuss the relative merits of Mallorca as a training base. And despite some initial reservations he has been really impressed with both the location of the Team Sky camp and the meticulous fashion with which the riders' schedules have been planned.

"At first I was a bit sceptical about Mallorca because in the south of the island the geography is all very similar," he said. "But up here in the north you have flat roads, rolling hilly roads and sharp climbs, so there is a bit of everything. It can be windy but that’s ok as you ride with a group and at this time of year the roads are really quiet. At first I was thinking that there may be some better places in southern Spain for the camp but I have been really pleasantly surprised. It’s also just a 20-minute flight from my home in Barcelona so that makes things easy for me.

"The coaches and the sporting directors have prepared everything perfectly. We are doing everything – motor pacing, climbs and flat rides. I loved being here in December and I have loved this section of the camp too. Here we are solely focussed on riding our bikes. There are no distractions and you don’t have to decide anything for yourself. There is no deliberation as to which group you are going to join as you are told what to do. The five or six-hour rides only seem like a couple of hours, and that’s a really encouraging sign."

Fans can expect to see Flecha in action for the first time in 2012 at the Tour of Qatar next month, which has become a traditional curtain raiser for him.

"Qatar is a race that I like a lot," he said. "It’s a really nice race to enter to start off your season because you always stay in the same hotel, the transfers from the airport are small and the weather is usually good. So in some respects it’s a familiar, calm and gentle introduction to the season. I’m also suited to the cross winds that you have there."

Europcar's Early Season Problems

Voeckler and Europcar struggling for early season invitations

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/voeckler-and-europcar-struggling-for-early-season-invitations)

Thomas Voeckler is likely to begin his 2012 season in France as his Europcar squad in struggling to gain invitations to the many early season races in warmer climes. In spite of Europcar’s stellar performance at the Tour de France, the team faces being sidelined by many organisers in February.

Europcar recently failed in its bid to secure WorldTour status for next season. While Voeckler and his teammates are all but guaranteed a wildcard invitation to the Tour, planning the approach to July might not be as straightforward.

“In the team, we have a small worry for the month of February, we don’t have many invitations,” Voeckler told L’Équipe. “We won’t be in Qatar or Oman. For Mallorca, we haven’t had a response. It’s complicated but that’s the way it is for second division teams.”

A complicating factor for Voeckler is that the dates of two other one-time potential debut races have been shifted later into the season. “I’ve already done the Tour de Langkawi three times, but the race has been moved to the end of February and Gabon is in April now,” he said.

“The start of my season risks being in France, at the Étoile de Bessèges, Grand Prix La Marseillaise or the Tour of the Mediterranean, if it takes place.”

Voeckler got his stunning 2011 campaign off the mark with a stage victory at the Tour of the Mediterranean, and he would go on to win six more races during a fine opening half to the season. He carried that form into the Tour de France, where he finished fourth overall after ten days in the yellow jersey.

The Frenchman is back in training for next year, although with a cap placed on the intensity until after Christmas. “I ride six days out of seven, but it’s not very hard,” he said. “With my teammates who live in the area, we can push to about 100km.”