Contador's New Gig...

I'm glad that SaxoBank is still supporting Contador. My favorite line in this is: “We support clients in their moments of success and also of difficulty, and this is equally valid for our riders.”

Saxo Bank show support for Contador

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/saxo-bank-show-support-for-contador)

Saxo Bank have shown their support for Alberto Contador by using the Spaniard to promote their online banking services in an advert that appeared in Sunday’s edition of L’Equipe. The full-page ad featured Contador on the verge of taking a stage win with a huge smile on his face and framing the Saxo Bank name on his jersey. The slogan across the image reads: “Opportunities often present themselves in times of crisis.”

Further down the page, the Danish bank’s ad reads: “We support clients in their moments of success and also of difficulty, and this is equally valid for our riders.”

There was also support for Contador closer to home. More than 2,000 people joined a demonstration in his hometown of Pinto, south of Madrid. Many wore masks and took up the chant, “We’re all Alberto Contador!” Early in the afternoon, the man himself made an appearance after returning from his training ride. He thanked the demonstrators for their support.

There was also a much smaller demonstration in Valladolid. Around a 100 cyclists carried banners showing their support for Contador, including Vuelta a Castilla y León organiser José Luis López Cerrón, who bought the much-debated steak that Contador ate the night before his positive test.

Many others have also expressed their support for Contador in a variety of ways. Pinto’s football team has changed its team strip to pink and yellow colours to honour the Spaniard’s 2011 Giro and 2010 Tour victories, which have been stripped as a result of his ban. Pinto’s council has passed a resolution declaring the town’s support for its most famous son.

Always sad to hear this...

We all need to learn to share the road!!!

Two Christina Watches riders hit by cars in training

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/two-christina-watches-riders-hit-by-cars-in-training)

The season has taken a bad turn for Christina Watches-Onfone, as two riders have been hit by cars in training in the last few days.  Martin Pedersen has already had surgery following his crash in Italy, but Frederick Wilmann's injuries appear to be less serious.

Pedersen was training in Italy with fellow Danes Brian Vandborg (also with Christina Watches)  and Nicki Sorensen (Saxo Bank) when he was hit by a car at a roundabout.  At first it was feared that he had broken his hip, but it turned out to be a lesser fracture.

“The status is that it is a broken bone up around the hip and femur. Basically we can say that it is a pretty clean break, so it's definitely not something that keeps him out the rest of the season in any way," sport director Michael Blaudzun told sporten.tv2.dk.

Pedersen has already undergone surgery and is expected to be returned to Denmark soon for further recuperation.

Wilmann was training near Trondheim, Norway, when he was hit by the trailer being towed by a car going too fast.  “A car came up at between 60 and 70 km  per hour. We realized that it had too high speed, and one to two seconds later we saw that it had a trailer. The trailer swerved out from behind the car and took all of our lane. It hit me right in the thigh,” he told procycling.no.

Miraculously, he was not seriously injured.  “Thankfully nothing is broken. But I am really bruised and stitched in several places.” He is still in hospital for observation. 

“I am truly appalled that today I have to announce that another one of my riders has been run down,” said team owner Christina Hembo in a statement. “Frederick Wilmann is one of the team's absolute profiles and recently in Argentina rode a fantastic race.”

“It is still a big loss for the team and without Wilmann and Pedersen on the bike again soon, it looks serious. The main concern is Frederiks health and I am very sorry on Frederick's behalf and sincerely hope that he recovers from road traffic accident as soon as possible.”

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.

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.”