Bike World News

More teams are starting up their training camps and riders are starting to talk about their 2009 plans. As a result, we have a fair bit of news today. Get the latest after the jump:

• Kim Kirchen was named Luxembourg’s athlete of the year, beating out Andy Schleck for the honor. (L’Equipe.fr)
• Rabobank’s Lars Boom remarked that new teammate Theo Bos will be an amazing sprinter on the road and will be taking lots of mass sprints. Rabobank started their training camp in the Canary Islands this week. (Sportweek.nl)
• Klaas Vantornout wants a repeat win in the Grapes cyclocross race in Overijse. (Sportwereld.be)
• Although just 24 years old, Sebastian Schwager is struggling to find a new team after being dropped from Milram. He has a little bit of hope for finding another team, but is looking for alternatives as well. (Radsport News)
• Hmm. The Giro says that Cadel Evans is coming, Silence-Lotto says he’s coming, Cadel is not so sure himself… Gazzetta dello Sport seems certain that he will appear. (L’Equipe.fr/Gazzetta dello Sport)
• Michael Morkov and Alex Rasmussen lead after the first day of the Six of Zurich. They collected 80 points and lead the team of Franco Marvulli & Juan Llaneras by 13 points. (Sportwereld.be)
• Andy Schleck will pass on the Giro in order to focus his training and fitness on the Tour de France. We can expect to see him first this year at the Ardennes Classics – Amstel Gold, Flèche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege (Radsport News)
• Nationalist parties in the Basque region have rejected a regional parliament for inviting the Tour of Spain to use Basque roads. The nationalists parties are more than happy, however, to have the Tour de France come into the region in 2013. (L’Equipe.fr)
• Niels Albert met with his doctors yesterday and may soon be allowed to train on the road. (Sportwereld.be)
• Marc Madiot of Francaise des Jeux denies allegations that he called for French fans to block Lance Armstrong on the road during the Tour de France. He says “”I’ve never said such a thing. I would never discourage someone from cycling. It would be the worst… He has every right to remain in cycling and to promote his Foundation Against Cancer. I would even be willing to help him.” (Radsport News)
• The International Olympic Committee is meeting this week to decide the fate of 3 of the 9 athletes who tested positive at the summer games. There may be more scandals as approximately 500 samples from the games will be retested for CERA starting in January (Yahoo! Sports/Agence French Press)
• The American/Swiss BMC Racing team is adding to its ranks in the hopes of getting to the Tour de France in the next five years. Markus Zberg, Mattias Frank, Thomas Frei and Florian Stalder are the latest additions to the team. (Radsport News)
• The new Katusha team is in Marina di Bibbona, Italy for their first training camp. The riders are focusing on medical checks, and getting fitted to their new kit and bikes. (CyclingNews.com)
• Looks like Bjarne Riis is really getting screwed in the ongoing IT Factory debacle. Initially, it was said that IT Factory pre-paid 51m Danish crowns to Saxo Bank for co-sponsorship, Saxo Bank passed on 10m of that to Riis Racing and they might be able to get the remaining 41m. Now, Saxo Bank is getting sole sponsorship of the team but is not sharing the IT Factory dollars that they have already been paid. I think there’s a court case brewing on this one. (Podium Cafe/BT)
• Jacob Fuglsang is giving himself 2 years to succeed in the road world, otherwise he’ll switch back to mountain biking. The winner of this year’s Post Denmark Tour will ride with the troubled Saxo Bank team next year. (Sporten.dk)

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• News and Results – November 25, 2008 (0)
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