Bike World News

Cycling news, race results, new products, fitness, maintenance and more

Vinokourov is back and Armstrong is gone: Road racing news for August 24, 2009

August 24th, 2009 by Al Fresco No Comment

Astana team owners officially welcome Alexander Vinokourov back to the team while Lance Armstrong drops out of the final race of his season. Also, neo-nazis stop the Rund um Berlin, signings and transfers, Wiggins to Tour of Britain and more bicycle racing news:

As we noted this morning, Lance Armstrong dropped out of the Tour of Ireland with a sore back. What we didn’t say is that he was headed to the three day Livestrong Global Cancer Summit in Dublin.
The Rund um Berlin race has been forced to cancel this year because police forces will be stretched too thin due to marches in Brandenburg on the same day that are expected to draw neo nazi protesters. The race, which was scheduled for September 6th, has a history going back to 1896 and was revived this year after a several year pause.
After winning Friday’s third stage, Tom Boonen quietly dropped out of the Eneco Tour today to prepare for the Vuelta, which starts Saturday with a prologue in Assen, The Netherlands.
Milram’s Fabian Wegmann waived on participation on the Vuelta to focus on the World Championships.
Bradley Wiggins will compete in next month’s Tour of Britain. It will be his first race on home soil after placing fourth in the Tour de France. He plans to use the race, which starts in Scunthorpe on 12 September and finishes on Whitehall in London seven days later, as preparation for the Worlds.
World Champion Alessandro Ballan is set to testify as a witness in an investigation into allegations that Emanuelle Sella offered CERA to Ballan and Filippo Pozzato. Sella fingered former teammate Matteo Priamo as his supplier for the doping drug and mentioned that he used an amateur rider, Paolo Bonin, to offer them to Ballan and Pozatto. Ballan says that he refused the performance enhancing drugs.
Maarten de Jonge and Job Vissers are set to make their pro debut this month after joining Skil-Shimano as stagiaires. De Jonge was a member of the Belgian youth development squad and is a strong climber. Vissers was the Dutch amateur champion last year.
Former professional rider Karina Sørensen, 37, will join the up and coming team Saur-Sojasun as athletic director.
French national champion Dmitri Champion is reportedly being courted by Frank and Andy Schleck for the Saxo Bank team. He is currently riding for the Bretagne-Schüller squad. Saxo Bank also announced the signing of 23 year old Danish rider Jonas Aaen Jorgensen, currently with the Capinordic team.
Team Type 1′s Matt Wilson survived strong winds, chilly temperatures and blinding sheets of rainto hold onto the King of the Mountains title at the Tour of Ireland. He credits his success to his team members for chasing down a late attack by Jay Thomson (MTN-Energade).
Caisse d’Epargne’s squad for the Vuelta will be focused exclusively on propelling team leader Alejandro Valverde to an overall win. He’ll be supported by Imanol Erviti, Vasil Kiriyenka, David López, Dani Moreno, Fran Pérez, Xabier Zandio, Vicente Garcia Acota and Joaquim Rodriguez.
Columbia-HTC announed their team for the Vuelta: Michael Albasini, Andre Greipel, Bert Grabsch, Adam Hansen, Greg Henderson, Kim Kirchen, Frantisek Rabon, Vicente Reynes and Marcel Sieberg.
Alexander Vinokourov was officially signed back to the Astana team today and his first race will be the Vuelta. He has a contract to race through 2010. It’s safe to say that he will be the team leader at the Vuelta, where he’ll be backed by Assan Bazayev, Maxim Iglinskiy (Kaz), Jesús Hernández, Chris Horner, Dani Navarro, José Luis Rubiera, Michael Schar and Haimar Zubeldia. Sean Yates and Alexandr Shefer will be acting as sport directors during the three-week grand tour.

Results:

Danilo Hondo (PSK-Whirlpool) rode to a repeat performance in Germany’s Bad Homburg criterium. He came across well ahead of Sebastien Siedler and Dirk Muller.
Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia HTC) expanded his lead in the overall standings of the Eneco Tour before Tuesday’s closing time trial. The 22-year-old Norwegian won the 163.3 km 6th stage of the race over American Tyler Farrar (Garmin Slipstream) and Australian Matthew Goss. Farrar announced after the stage that he, like Tom Boonen (see above) is dropping out of the race to prepare for the Vuelta.