Road News and Results – February 27, 2009

February 27th, 2009 by Ron Callahan View Comments

Welcome to your slightly delayed cycling news for today. We were traveling to the NAHBS and then spent the afternoon taking pictures. Here’s the latest:

Simeoni holds out hope for the Giro, Boonen is citius altius fortius, Volta a Catalunya appeals for dough, Matteo Priamo acquitted, Fuji Servetto appeals to the CAS and more…

Italian national champion Fillipo Simeoni is still hoping to race in the Giro d’Italia and is training in preparation for the race with the hope that his Ceramica Flaminia team will get a wild card invite.
More than a thousand people have signed a petition persuading cyclocross rider Lars Boom to do a full cyclocross season next year. Earlier in the week, he had said that he wanted to focus on the road and would not likely shoot for the ‘cross world championships.
Quick Step’s Tom Boonen says that he is harder, faster and ready to win one of this weekend’s opening classic races.
The Volta a Catalunya, a weeklong Pro Tour held each may in Spain has appealed to the Spanish government for financial assistance to keep the race going. They are asking for half of the 1.2 million euro budget. A key sponsor pulled out of a 200,000 euro commitment earlier in the week.
Agritubel is the latest team to experience a theft of equipment. One of their trailers was broken into yesterday and 15 bikes and 30 sets of wheels were burgled. The equipment was to be used for the upcoming Paris-Nice race.
William Bonnet, one of Bouyges Telecom BBOX’s sprinters has a cartilage inflammation and will miss Paris-Nice and Milan-San Remo.
Law and Order: UCI -
- Italy’s National Anti-Doping Tribunal has acquitted Matteo Primao of any doping related charges. Priamo was accused of doping by Emanuelle Sella and has been suspended from racing since the charge was levied. He is now able to immediately resume racing. It seems that he’ll be pursuing a civil case against Sella for the false accusations.
- In other legal matters, the Fuji Servetto team is going to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after being left out of the Paris-Nice and Giro d’Italia. They feel that, as a Pro Tour team, they deserve admission to the race, but the organizers maintain that they are allowed to exclude teams that they feel have damaged the race’s image.
- Stefan Schumacher just won’t give up. After learning that he has received a two year suspension this week, he is now purusing legal action against his former team (Gerlosteiner) for wages that he feels he should have recieved between July 3 and October 15, 2008. The sum is said to be in the six digit range.
Joao Cabreira, Portugal national champion and 2006 winner of the Tour of the Algarve, has received a two year suspension for doping.
Daniele Bennati of Liquigas, who has been close to a win in the Tour of Sardinia, won the fourth stage of the race today. He beat out yesterday’s winner and race leader Oscar Gatto at the line to take over the race lead.
Patrick Sinkewitz will make his professional comeback on Saturday at the Gran Premio of Insubria. He received a one year suspension after a positive doping control during training in June of 2007. He did not come back sooner as hehad difficulty finding a new team. He now rides with the Continental level PSK Whirlpool team.