Road News and Results – February 20, 2009

February 20th, 2009 by Al Fresco View Comments

Schumacher “shocked” by suspension, Valverde maintains innocence, Van Bon/Lampater hold the high ground in Hasselt, Armstrong heading to Mexico and more…

You can’t tell me he didn’t see this coming… Stefan Schumacher is shocked by his suspension for doping in the 2008 Tour de France. He says that he did not doped and will be appealing the sentence. The UCI is still reviewing the decision and does not expect to comment on it until late next week.
On a similar note, the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) has said that Alejandro Valverde is “definitely involved” in the Operation Puerto affair, but Valverde says “I have no committed any offense” and vows to fight to prove his innocence while continuing to train for the 2009 season. CONI has not really added any meat to the case; their entire position, as best as we can tell, is that Valverde’s blood was found in Dr. Fuente’s possession.
Valverde’s Caisse de Epargne team added him to the roster for this weekend’s Tour du Haut Var race in France, so they apparently still have faith in him.
Leon Van Bon and Leif Lampater are still in control at the Hasselt Six Day race. Kenny de Ketel and Bruno Risi sit 16 points back and there are a total of fours teams are on the same round.
The organizers of the Vuelta a Mexico have announced that Lance Armstrong will participate in their race, March 1 to 8. Astana will definitely be the bid dogs in this race with Diquigiovanni Androni being the only Continental level team participating.
The French Cycling Federation has reduced their prize payments to former members of the Gerolsteiner squad after the doping positives of Bernhard Kohl and Stefan Schumacher. The payout was to be 192,000 euros, but is now 24,000.
Tour Down Under organizers are saying that the 2009 edition was very successful and is, in fact, the largest, most profitable sporting event ever held in South Australia. [Okay, potential sponsors - are you reading this? - Ed.]
The Katusha team picked up another victory at the Tour of the Algarve in Portugal. This time, it was Antonio Colom edging out Alberto Contador (Astana) in the finish line sprint.
According to the New York Times, the police officer who was caught on video knocking down a bicyclist during a Critical Mass event in Manhattan last summer has been fired.