“Law and Order: UCI” returns for late August
August 26th, 2009 by Ron Callahan No Comment
Seems that the court cases, arrests and suspensions all seem to come at the same time. Boonen will go free if he pays a fine, Vandenbrouke may be in trouble again, Di Luca claims conspiracy and more bicycle racing news…
Law and Order: UCI
- Tom Boonen got off easy for his last cocaine infraction. He has been fined 1000 euros and if he pays the fine, the matter will be considered closed by authorities. They said that they had no intent to make an example of him because of his position.
- Frank Vandenbrouke was taken in for questioning after crashing his Mercedes in an early morning accident on Monday. He ran into a concrete divider and tried to leave the scene of the accident, but the car was damaged too badly to get away.
- Australian cyclist Chris Jongewaard was convicted Wednesday over a hit-and-run driving accident which left his training partner fighting for his life. The four-time national mountain bike champion was found guilty in the South Australian District Court of aggravated driving without due care and leaving the scene of an accident.
- Danilo Di Luca had his day with the Italian National Olympic Committee today. He had previously said that if the b-samples came positive he would retire, but now he maintains his innocence and says that he is the victim of a conspiracy. He has been given a one month extension to gather all of the data he needs to mount a proper defense. Since he has previously served suspensions for doping, he could face a minimum of an 8 year ban.
Signings:
- Australian Simon Gerrans, fresh off of a win at the GP Ouest-France-Plouay, has signed a contract with the Sky Team for the next two years.
- Jens Voigt is still recovering from his crash at this year’s Tour de France, but he has decided to continue racing and signed a one year contract extension with Saxo Bank.
- Sebastien Rosseler will go to the Shack (see the full story here)
The Disabled List:
- American Craig Lewis (Team Columbia-HTC) will be forced to abandon the U.S. national championships on Sunday. On returning to the states from the Tour of Ireland, he was diagnosed with the swine flu.
- Levi Leipheimer is still recovering from the fractured wrist that he suffered during stage 12 of the Tour de France. He hopes to return to racing at the Tour of Missouri in September.
- BMC’s Marcus Zberg has announced his retirement. The injuries that he sustained during the Tour de l’Ain drove him to the decision. He started as a pro in 1996.
Vuelta news:
- Milram will send a young team to the Vuelta. At 28 years of age, Christian Knees and Björn Schröder are the old men of the complete squad of Linus Gerdemann, Gerald Ciolek (photo), Christian Knees, Thomas Rohregger, Dominik Roels, Paul Voß, Björn Schröder, Martin Velits and Matthias Ruß. They will be focusing on sprint successes with Ciolek.
- Cervelo will go without Carlos Sastre for the Vuelta. The team will be Inigo Cuesta, Philip Deignan, Xavier Florencio, Simon Gerrans. Roger Hammond, Ignatas Konovalovas, Jose Angel Gomez Marchante, Gabriel Rasch and Dominique Rollin.
- Garmin Slipstream hasn’t made a formal announcement yet, but some are saying that the lineup will be Dan Martin, Tom Danielson, Tyler Farrar, Julian Dean, David Millar, Ryder Hesjedal, Christian Meier, Svein Tuft and Martijn Maaskant.
Results:
- The 25-year-old Frenchman Anthony Ravard (Agritubel) is the first leader in the 23rd edition of the Tour of Poitou-Charentes. Jimmy Casper (Besson-Sojasun) took the second stage, outsprinting Thor Hushovd.
- Aleksejs Saramotins (Design Køkken) won the 49th edition of Druivenkoers Overijse. He outsprinted Bert De Waele and Bert Scheirlinckx, both of Landbouwkrediet Colnago.
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