Cycling Beat

It has been a busy week with plenty of developments to get tongues wagging. While I'm watching the ticker and keeping an eye on the eurosport.com streaming of the Vattenfall Cyclassics race, here are some of the notable stories of the last week.

Unibet Disbands
We start with the announcement that Unibet.com will be disbanding at the end of the 2007 season. This was the kind of news that many felt was inevitable and, sure enough, the reason given was due to the exclusions from the season's Grand Tours and other Pro Tour events. The injustice surrounding this case should have caused much greater outrage than it seems to have done, in my opinion.

Team Roamfree Are the Aussies coming
Rumblings from Down Under that a sponsership deal has been brokered to throw $20 million at the formation of a possible Australian Pro Tour team with the aim of having it in place by the 2009 season. Now, there's nothing like positive thoughts to make dreams come true but the statement on the Cycling Australia website probably epitomises optimism with this : It’s official - Australia is going to enter the Tour de France. This would have come as a surprise to ASO officials, I'm sure.

Zabel & Valverde "Unwelcome" in Stuttgart
Although World Championships committee president Susanne Eisenmann announced that Eric Zabel and Alejandro Valverde would not be welcome at Stuttgart due to their connection (Zabel because of admissions of EPO use in the 1990s and Valverde because of allegations of involvement in Operacion Puerto), both men are still targetting the event. It's still very much a case of will they or won't they. I'm pretty sure, though, that being told they are unwelcome will be little deterrent if they are selected by their respective national teams.

Andreas Kloden Looking For a Team
If ever there was a guy who has deeply regretted signing with a team it must be Andreas Kloden. I would be surprised if T-Mobile showed any interest in welcoming him back given their determination to fly the anti-doping flag. Surely any rider coming from the Astana debacle will be tarred with the same brush of suspicion.

Where Will Devolder Go?
Meanwhile, Stijn Devolder is a much sought after man. With Discovery Channel not around next year, the grab for valued cyclists has begun and the word is that 4 teams have raced over to Devolder, grabbed him by the arm and called "Mine!". Apparently QuickStep - Innergetic are favoured to win his hand in cycling for season 2008.

Crash, Bang, Wallop!
The usual litany of woes that make up the risks of being a professional cyclist continue with another week of injuries to report. Matty White copped a fractured skull while out training - it seems the canine breed has nabbed another scalp. Eric Baumann (T-Mobile) broke his shoulder in a training accident. And most graphically, Rigoberto Uran suffered multiple fractured elbows in an accident while on a descent in the Tour of Germany. Cycling Fans Anonymous has a more complete list of the scrapes and bruises.

Winners for the Week

Jen Voigt (Team CSC) - Tour of Germany
Juan Mauricio Soler (Barloworld) - Vuelta a Burgos
Xavier Tondo (LA MSS) - Volta a Portugal
John Gadret (AG2R Prevoyance) - Tour de l'Ain

The Predictor-Lotto team has been announced for the 2007 Vuelta a Espana (1 - 23 September) and the prospect of another 3 weeks of Cadel Watch looms. This time, though, I will be consigned to the computer and viewing the streamed feed on cycling.tv - I'm not sure how I'm going to go with another 3 weeks of getting to bed at 2am, catching 4 hours of sleep and then up at 6 to get ready for my real job.

The named team is : Mario Aerts, Christophe Brandt, Bart Dockx, Cadel Evans, Chris Horner, Josep Jufre, Bert Roesems, Roy Sentjens, Wim Vanhuffel.

A little confusion was thrown in with initial reports that Robbie McEwen was also going to be a starter, which would have once again split the team with having to ride for a sprinter as well as a major GC contender. Instead, Robbie will be concentrating on races such as the Eneco Tour, Paris-Brussels, Circuit Franco-Belge, Paris-Tours.

It will be very interesting to see to what extent the Predictor-Lotto team can work for Cadel Evans when their main focus is on a single goal. Evans is hoping that a strong showing in the Vuelta will boost him further up the Pro Tour rankings and provide him with the ideal lead in to the World Championships at Stuttgart.

Well, as I alluded to yesterday, the announcement has just come through that Unibet.com will disband at the end of the year. I hope those jokers who are supposed to be running professional cycling (ASO/UCI) are pleased with themselves. Thanks to their pig-headed, destructive behaviour yet another team has bitten the dust.

Unibet team General Manager Koen Terryn made the announcement adding : Today we have decided to disband the team at the end of the season. Our racers and staff can now seek new employment.

The question still remains...how can organisers who supposedly love the sport of cycling seem so determined to rip it to shreds?

The thought of an Australian team taking part in the Tour de France has long been merely a mass dreamy-eyed case of wishful thinking as thousands of Australians sat well into the wee small hours of the morning watching the SBS coverage. From the early days of Phil Anderson, Scott Sunderland and Neil Stephens who paved the way for the likes of Stuart O’Grady, Bradley McGee, Henk Vogels, Baden Cooke, Robbie McEwen, Michael Rogers and Cadel Evans. The list has become a long one and is still growing.

The desire to form an Aussie team has lurked back there, occasionally slipping out in post-race musings by Mike Tomalaris – more in desperate hope than any real expectation.

The key missing factor, of course, was the sponsorship dollar (euro?…whatever). But today comes an announcement that has rekindled the hope that maybe there’s a chance. At least, someone’s actually proposing a stake in a chance.

Online tourism company Roamfree.com has announced a commitment of $20 million towards the formation of a Pro Cycling team based in Europe. Roamfree has established a company called Pro Cycling Australia appointing Dr Paul Varcoe its CEO. According to Varcoe the venture is dependent on two things happening before progressing any further with the plan. Firstly the Australian Government would have to commit to kicking in a sizable stake and secondly, a second major sponsor would also have to sign up.

There’s also the small matter of the UCI granting a licence to the newly-formed Down Under outfit. However, with Discovery Channel announcing their withdrawal from Professional Cycling and Astana’s future looking decidedly shaky, not to mention the trouble Unibet.com are having getting a Grand Tour start, the timing couldn’t be better with the door open just a tiny crack.

Speaking of Discovery Channel, too, it’s interesting how starkly this announcement flies in the face of the Tailwind Sports reluctance to sign a new sponsorship deal due to the instability within the sport. It just goes to show, when you’ve got the hunger of one standing on the outside looking in your perspective is markedly different.

We’ve all seen the speculation surrounding the prospects of Team Slipstream as they plan to place a team within the Pro Tour ranks in the next couple of years. They have the advantage of already being a part of the Pro Continental Tour with a base and infrastructure already in place. Given that the stated aim of the Roamfree consortium is to gain entry to the 2009 Tour de France, time is tight.

The good news is that according to Dr Varco top flight Australian cyclists Michael Rogers, Robbie McEwen, Stuart O’Grady and Cadel Evans are on record as supporting the project. One wonders to what extent they have lent that support.

Remember too that the Drapac Porsche Development Squad are already participating in the Continental Tour and the South Australia.com – AIS squad has secured an invite to the Tour of Britain next month.

So it remains to be seem whether the Roamfree.com bid has legs or whether it is simply a rich guy’s idle flight of fancy or is it a cagey attempt to make position in light of the rumoured concept of national teams contesting the Tour de France. Time will tell. One thing is for sure, there is no underestimating the impact of Cadel Evans’ 2nd placing at this year’s Tour de France on Australian Cycling.

The Tailwind Sports announcement on August 10 detailing the failure to secure a satisfactory sponser to replace Discovery Channel has, understandably, generated a wave of outspoken reaction. Citing factors such as the recent doping turmoil throughout the sport of cycling, the lack of a cohesive ownership and leadership groups and constant disputes between the ASO and UCI they decided to discontinue their search and step away from the sport. They emphasised that they would have had no problem securing a sponser, they just felt they couldn't recommend a company spend the money required to sponser the team given the current environment.

As I said, there was considerable reaction to the announcement, so hows about we take a little shufti at how the bloggers saw things.

First we'll stop off at Cyclocosm, one of my favourite blogs where you can rely on opeinions being fired straight down the line. Titled The Tailwind Backstab we can see right from the off that the tone of the article is one of animosity...to say the least. Reading further we can see that Lance Armstrong is referred to as Ole' One-Nut and this post gets us off to an entertaining start.

A more measured post comes to us from the pages of Cycloblog sticks largely to the facts complete with quotes. Titled Discovery to disband at end of season this is an informative post that tells you all you need to know with a minimum of fuss.

Onward to Spinopsys and we are reminded that "that there’s a group of Kazakh corporations who may be in need of a new branding vehicle" in the Disco dead? article. Philip has provided ASO with a few choice suggestions as well as a possible outcome in next year's Tour de France.

At Spare Cycles the Discovery announcement proved to be all a bit mysterious suggesting that they made a mistake poaching from the ranks of Operation Puerto suspects. Plenty of "what if" scenarios raised in this article.

The story is combined with links to the Alberto Contador "I don't dope" interview as well as the Team Slipstream groundswell over at TDFblog.

Cycling Fans Anon. is another source of ultra-entertaining posts about all the latest goss and I knew I would be in for a treat when the post covering the Disco news was titled Jumping Ship. And I wasn't disappointed. This little snippet should have you hot-footing it over to read more: "For the royalty of American cycling to show such a selfish, short-sighted, and narcissistic attitude toward the very sport that made them, it is nothing less than revolting." Yep...I reckon you can see where they're coming from over at CFA.

But if it's a good ole fashioned Rant you're after, the place to head is Rant Your Head Off who started out with the bemused tone of Tailwind Tailspin calling it a "strange turn of events". This is then followed up with a very interesting quote from Lance Armstrong about the sponsership problem (part of the Sunday Short Takes post). (Incidentally, cograts to RYHO which is celebrating the first anniversary of the blog - onya!)

I'll finish the round-up off with an intriguing "back of the envelop" type pondering over at Podium Cafe about which of the Discovery Channel team members would be a good fit to help Cadel Evans win next year's Tour de France. Hmmm, certainly food for thought given the strength of the riders suddenly on the open market at season's end.

How’s this for a kick in the teeth? You’ve been invited to compete at a Pro Tour event – a pretty big deal for a UCI Continental Tour team – you’ve trained exclusively over the course, you’ve knocked back an invitation to another Tour because it clashes. Then, 3 days before the race, your team’s invitation is revoked because the required paperwork hasn’t been filled out.

Such is the situation of the Continental Tour team Elk Haus Simplon who no longer need concern themselves over how they are going to climb Rettenbachferner. The organisers of the Deutschland Tour (Tour of Germany) have rescinded the invitation to compete. Understandably the riders are gutted and the exclamations of outrage from team management have begun, followed closely by threats of a lawsuit.

You sympathise, of course, but then, 22 teams managed to comply with the documentation requirement. What went wrong at Elk Haus Simplon? We’ve all seen what can happen if one neglects one's paperwork…

The mystery Paris-Roubaix winner who was touted as moving into the Slipstream team has been revealed and, as one, we can all release our collectively held breaths. It turns out that Magnus Backstedt is the man. He will be leaving Liquigas for Slipstream for the 2008 and 2009 seasons and the cycling world can turn its attention, once again, to digging out the next drug controversy.

We are fast bearing down on the 2007 Tour of Germany which begins on Saturday, 10 August and running until Sunday, 18th, and all the times have now been finalised for the race with 4 UCI Pro Continental teams chosen as wildcards and issued starting licences to join the 19 Pro Tour teams (Astana are taking a break). The 4 wildcard entrants are Team Elkhaus Simplon, Team Volksbank, Team Wiesenhof Felt and SKIL-Shimano.

In accepting the starting licences, Team managements had to give written agreement of the UCI ethics code which determines that pro cyclists being proved of doping, will be inhibited of joining a UCI ProTeam for four years.

Among the various features of the Tour we see the second stage Team Time Trial in Bretten and the 5th Stage which culminates in the mountain finish atop Rettenbachferner.

Meanwhile, the 22nd team to be invited to this year's Vuelta a España is the UCI Pro Continental team Relax-GAM. It will be interesting to see the team that ends up being named for the Vuelta given the proviso that Unipublic has made that no cyclist linked to a doping affair be allowed to participate...and all of the top Relax riders who have, in one way or another, been linked to doping controversy.

On to team changes and contract extensions and Julian Dean, the champion of New Zealand is leaving Credit Agricole at the end of the season for the bright appeal of Team Slipstream to join the previously announced Zabriskie, Vandevelde and Millar.

T-Mobile are looking forward to their home tour and have announced their spearhead at the Tour of Germany will be Linus Gerdemann freshened up after his successful debut in the Tour De France. Like every other team with GC aspirations they are looking towards the climb up Rettenbachferner glacier as the make or break moment in the race and has named Giuseppe Guerini as Gerdemann's main helper.

Equal time to "home tour" aspirants must be given and Gerolsteiner have named their team, nominating Davide Rebellin and Bernhard Kohl as their two main men. They will also be looking toward sprinter Robert Förster to pick up a stage win. 

In what has been a rich vein of form for Saunier Duval riders just lately, David Millar won the British National Road Race Championships beating out David Lloyd with whom he rode in an escape that lasted for 80km. Millar was thrilled with the victory saying "This win is massive for me. It means a huge amount". Well done, old son. 

Upcoming races to watch out for include the Paris-Correze (2.1) over the 8th and 9th August, the GP Città di Camaiore (1.1) in Italy on Thursday 9th and on the weekend the Giro del Lazio (1.HC) in Italy on Saturday will be followed on Sunday by the Memorial Henryka Lasaka (1.1) in Poland and the Trofeo Matteotti (1.1), again in Italy.

The fallout from the cntroversies surrounding the 2007 Tour de France continue with the general director of the Rabobank team, Theo de Rooij resigning his position. De Rooij said: I did not see another choice. This farewell is hard, really hard. The team is all the world to me." He had been involved with the team since its inception in 1995.

Hardly a surprise as far as I can see, but Alexandre Vinokourov won't be defending his Veulta a España title after Tour organisers issuing a statement that said "He will not be able in any manner to register for the 2007 Vuelta." It's a statement that really is irrelevant considering Vino has already been fired from the Astana team but I suppose the organisers want to be seen to be taking all measures necessary. That being said, the Astana tam will be participating.

Making it a clean sweep of Grand Tour controversies comes the news that Giro D'Italia winner Danilo Di Luca is still facing the prospect of a criminal investigation when the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) issued a statement on Friday that they were still to decide whether to sanction Di Luca.

The Liquigas team have spread themselves around as well with a team competing in the Tour of Denmark plus the Clásica Ciclista San Sebastián, they will then be backing up with a team in the Giro dell’Appennino which starts and finishes in Pontedecimo, Italy. The team is Franco Pellizotti, Eros Capecchi, Dario Cataldo, Francesco Failli, Matej Mugerli, Andrea Noè, Roberto Petito and Charles Wegelius.

Saunier Duval have announced that the squad of 8 riders who will compete in the Clásica Ciclista San Sebastián will back up the next day to ride in the (Cat. 1.1) Subida a Urkiola. The team is Riccardo Riccò, Manuele Mori, José Ángel Gómez Marchante, Juanjo Cobo, David de la Fuente, Iker Camaño, David Cañada, and Rubén Lobato with the addition of two stagliaires Héctor González and Rafa Serrano for the second day. Saunier Duval will also have a team in the (Cat. 2.HC) Volta a Portugal em Bicicleta held over 12 stages from 4 to 15 August. The team is Koldo Gil, Jesús del Nero, Alberto Fernández de la Puebla, Alberto Benítez, Javier Mejías, Arkaitz Durán, Raúl Alarcón, and Luciano Pagliarini.

Quick Step - Innergetic speedster and current Tour de France green jersey holder Tom Boonen has proven to also be an all around nice guy when he donated the cachè he received for the Herentals Criterium on 2 August. He explained : "I was not well last night - the Tour de France 2007 Green Jersey explains - I have been able to effect only two laps of the circuit before being forced to stop because of some intestinal problems. I felt very bad, also for all my supporters.. In accordance with the race organization I've decided to destine my cachè  to “Move to Improve”. I’m sure that they will know how to use these money in a right way."

The Predictor Lotto squad for the Rund um die Hainleite in Germany is : Nick Gates, Olivier Kaisen, Björn Leukemans, Pieter Mertens, Roy Sentjens, Gert Steurs and Greg van Avermaet.
By the way, if you were wondering what was pushing Cadel Evans to his historic podium finish in the Tour de France, you need look no further than the wives of the riders and team personnel...(Cadel's wife is back row 3rd from the left)

The T-Mobile team are spreading themselves to various parts of Germany, competing in both Erfurt and Bochum. On Saturday the roster for Rund um die Hainleite will be Eric Baumann, Bert Grabsch, André Greipel, Andreas Klier, André Korff, Stephan Schreck, Thomas Ziegler and 'Stagiaire' Andrej Klyuev. The 182km Rund um die Hainleite features a 7.5km finishing circuit through the Steiger forest in Erfurt which is covered 5 times, including the 1000m Arnstädter Hohle to get the thighs trembling. Bochum finds a different type of race with twelve laps of a 15-km circuit to ride, the Sparkassen Giro Cup has the makings of a great race: punchy climbs in Wiemelhausen and Stiepel, fast descents and plenty of twists and turns. The team for this one is : Eric Baumann, Gerald Ciolek, Linus Gerdemann, Bert Grabsch, André Greipel, Andreas Klier, André Korff and Stephan Schreck

Anti-Doping Pledge Expands

The UCI (International Cycling Union) has announced plans to step up the fight against drugs in cycling by expanding the scheme under which riders and teams sign anti-doping releases. This expansion now includes the lower-ranked continental teams who will be asked to sign the documents that had previously only been sent to Pro Tour teams and riders. 

Tour of Ireland Teams Finalised

The final 3 teams have been confirmed for the inaugural Tour of Ireland (2.1) that will be held on 22-26 August. Rabobank, DFL-Cyclingnews and Team Maxbo Bianchi complete the 16 team line up.

The provisional team lists are as follows:

DFL-Cyclingnews.com-Litespeed
Sven De Weerdt, Daniel Fleeman, Daniel Lloyd, Nico Mattan, Jens Mouris, Evan Oliphant, Jeremy Vennell.

Team Maxbo Bianchi
Edvald Boasson Hagen, Alexander Kristoff, Lars Petter Nordhaug, Gabriel Rasch, Stian Sommerseth, Joachim Bohler, Frederik Willman.

Rabobank
Martijn Maaskant, Thomas  Berkhout, Martijn Keizer, Sven Nys, Tom Veelers, Dennis Van Winden, Boy Van Poppel.

Tour of Missouri Route Settled

Local newspaper the Missourian has reported that the routes for the inaugural Tour of Missouri have been finalised. Initial concern over the length of stage 4 have been solved by placing the finish in Columbia. The race will cover 600 miles from September 11 - 16 starting in Kansas City and ending in St Louis. At this stage 9 professional teams have signed on including Team Discovery Channel, Team Slipstream, Team Toyota-United, Team Health-Net, Team Navigators, Team Colavita Oil/Sutter Homes and the USA National Team.

Pettachi Waits on August 11

The appeal that CONI (Italian Olympic Committee) have made against the decision to give Pettachi a reprieve from his one year ban when he used too much salbutamol in his asthma inhaler will be heard on August 11. Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where controlling bodies have simply gone over the top in their policing the laws and punished a guy who has a legitimate need for a drug.