Road News and Results – April 20, 2009

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It’s definitely NOT a slow news days today. Controversy surrounds the final sprint at the Tour of Turkey, lots of race results from the weekend, more injuries at Amstel Gold, Mario Cipollini nailed for tax evasion, and much much more….

Results:

• Levi Leipheimer won the road race at Sea Otter ahead of training partner Paul Mach (Bissell). Bissell’s Morgan Schmitt took third.
• Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Columbia-Highroad) won the Ronde Van Gelderland in the Netherlands on Saturday for her 11th win of the season.
• Robert Forster won the seventh stage of the Tour of Turkey. South Africa’s Daryl Impey remained in the lead. Impey went on to win the overall race on Sunday, but not without incident. He was allegedly pulled off of his bike by Rabobank’s Theo Bos in the final meters of Sunday’s race and went down hard. He suffered a broken hip, a neck injury and facial trauma, lost several teeth and had a deep cut in his lip as well. Impey was awarded the victory but obviously could not attend the awards celebration.
• Said Haddou (Bouygues Telecom Bbox) won the 26th edition of the Tro Bro Léon one day race.
• Bissell was at the fore once again for the circuit race, where Andy Jacques-Maynes took first. Luis Amaran of Colavita Sutter took second and Jacques-Maynes teammate Jeremy Vennell got third.
• Sergei Ivanov won the Amstel Gold Race.
• Claudia Häusler of Cervelo Test Team won the opening event of the Bundesliga in Günzach. She finished 2’23″ ahead of Bianca Purath of Equipe Nürnberger and Emma Pooley.
• Scott Nydam of BMC won the Tour of the Battenkill, the closest thing that America has to Paris-Roubaix. He was part of a 112 mile breakaway, about half of which he did solo. OUCH-Maxxis rider Karl Menzies came across second, while Francois Parisien of Team Planet Energy held on for third. The 124-mile, two lap race takes riders over 30 miles of dirt roads in upstate New York’s Battenkill Valley.

Disabled List:

• Frank Schleck (Saxo Bank) was just one of the people involved in  falls at the Amstel Gold Race. He was about 70 km from the finish when he got involved in a crash. He suffered a slight concussion, but never lost consciousness.
• Matt Lloyd (Silence Lotto) also went down hard at Amstel, fracturing 3 vertebrae and severely bruising his sacral area. He spent the night in the hospital and it will be a month before he can resume training.
• Team OUCH’s Floyd Landis was expected to take the start at the Tour of the Batenkill on Sunday, but did not make the trip after suffering a laceration on his shin Wednesday.
• Enrico Rossi had his third fall in ten days at the GP Nobili, and will now take some time off to heal. The most recent fall re-opened wounds from the Circuit de la Sarthe.
• Wim Vanhuffel was in the leading group on the last day of the Tour of Turkey when he struck a dog that had wandered onto the street. He broke his right elbow and tore some ligaments in his shoulder.
• In the same race, Géry Gardeyn of Silence went to the ground in the final sprint, breaking his collarbone.
• Rabobank’s Robert Gesink has a torn tendon in his right knee and will take a pass on Wednesday’s Fleche-Wallone.

News:

• Currently on holiday at the beach before resuming his training schedule, Alberto Contador told Spanish magazine Ciclismoafondo that he would not defend his title at the Vuelta a Espana.
• Theo Bos has received a disqualification for the crash with Daryl Impey in the final stage of the Tour of Turkey, but he has also earned a firm browbeating from Lance Armstrong and others, who are calling for a long suspension from the sport.Watch the video at the bottom of the page and decide for yourself. I’ll weigh in with my opinion in the comments.
  • Armstrong says that he watched the video 10 times and while the barriers were uneven and the sprint was sketchy, Bos should never have taken his hands off of the bars.
  • Impey’s teammate Robert Hunter says that Bos should publicly apologize.
  • Former racer Tom Steels, an expert sprinter in his day, says that Bos should get at least a month suspension.
  • For his part, Bos says that Impey had squeezed him into the barriers and he was just trying to stay up.
• Lance Armstrong may have UCI President Pat McQuaid’s support in his fight with French anti-doping authorities, but in a talk with CyclingNews.com’s Shane Stokes, former WADA chief Dick Pound makes it clear that he is not on the bandwagon. “I think the situation is quite clear. If you are designated to control, you must remain under supervision from the time you are informed until you have provided the samples,” said Pound.
• Mario Cipollini received a suspended 22 month sentence for tax evasion in Italy. He was registered as a resident in the tax haven of Monaco, but actually lived in Tuscany.
• The case around Iljo Keisse threatens to degenerate into a procedural battle. He may resume racing in May as an Elite rider without a contract.
• There is a risk that the Operation Puerto investigation would have to close since it has been three years since it has been open.
• Rabobank’s Sebastian Langeveld will pass on the Tour de France and will rather focus on the fall classics and the World Championships. He made his debut at the Tour last year and finished in 131st place.
• It’s not clear if Tyler Hamilton will be able to avoid legal persecution in the wake of his positive test for DHEA. As we know by now, Hamilton is suffering from clinical depression and has announced his retirement from cycling. that said,he may want to pursue some type of agreement with the USADA so that he may be able to return to cycling in some capacity in the future.
• Danilo Hondo (PSK Whirlpool) wants to start his own cycling team and is considering bringing former T-Mobile teammate and friend Jan Ullrich on in a management capacity.
• We knew that it wasn’t over. Germany’s Focus magazine is claiming that Stefan Matschiner, former manager of Bernhard Kohl, also helped Michael Boogerd and Thomas Dekker obtain blood transfusions several years ago. Boogerd has since retired, but Dekker is still active with the Silence-Lotto team.
• The Tour of the Battenkill hopes to secure a spot on the UCI North American calendar in 2010.
• Everybody’s doing it: The 2010 Giro D’Italia will have its start in the Netherlands as well. The location will be somewhere near Amsterdam.
• Heinrich Haussler remains atop the UCI World Rankings after Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race.
• Fuji Servetto earned one of the wildcard spots in June’s Dauphine-Libere race. The other teams are Silence Lotto, Quick Step, Team Saxo Bank, Caisse d’Epargne, Euskaltel-Euskadi, AG2R La Mondiale, Bouygues Telecom BBox, Team Katusha, Cofidis, Française des Jeux, Garmin-Slipstream, Team Columbia – High Road, Team Milram, Lampre – NGC, Liquigas, Rabobank, Astana and the BMC Racing Team. The fifth stage of the race will take the racers to the summit of Mont Ventoux, giving them a little preview for the Tour de France.

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