Bike World News

Courtesy Garmin Slipstream

Just a little bit of news from the Vuelta today. Ryder Hesjedal takes the first win for Canada at the Vuelta. It’s also Garmin’s second Grand Tour win in as many years. David Zabriskie doubles it up for Garmin in Missouri today. More transfers, more doping and other news…

Vuelta News:

• “I knew when I hit the final kilometer I could win,” Hesjedal told VeloNews. “It’s the biggest win of my career. It’s a lifetime’s worth of work to win that stage. It means so much.” Alejandro is looking at today and the next two days of the race as critical, saying that they will “separate the wheat from the chaff”. He feels that the person wearing the golden jersey after Sunday will likely wear it all the way into Madrid.
• David Garcia’s late in the race attack and the time bonus he earned for third place cut his gap to Valverde in half.
• Linus Gerdemann dropped out of the race overnight. Bruises on his back, buttocks and legs forced him to give up. His crash was attributed to using carbon brake pads on an aluminum wheel that he received from neutral support.
• Italian Marca Marcato (Vacansoleil) also abandoned. He crashed during the fourth stage in Liege and had been dealing with persistent pain in his sacrum since.
• Phillipe Gilbert, who made a strong run at the race leaders Wednesday, has his sights set on the rainbow jersey as well. Belgium’s coach will be making the team determination on Monday.
• Pierrick Fedrigo put an end to his Vuelta during the stage. The Bbox Bouygues Telecom rider is expected to be one of the strong contenders for the rainbow jersey.

Tour of Missouri News:

• Jens Voigt is doing well in his comeback at the Tour of Missouri, having moved up into 22nd place after the 4th stage stage.
• David Zabriskie made it a twofer for Garmin today, winning the Tour of Missouri’s time trial and moving into the overall lead.

Other News:

• The Dortmund Six Day Race will not run this year as the organizers have not been able to secure the necessary sponsorship.
• Alberto Contador’s season is not completely over. He will do the Amstel Curacao Race on November 7th. Frank and Andy Schleck, Mark Cavendish, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Jakob Fuglsang, Karsten Kroon and Lars Boom are all expected to appear as well.
• The Sky Team is not looking to be as strong in British riders as the team owners would have envisioned, but it does look to be strong. The team announced the signings of Edvald Boasson Hagen, Thomas Lövkvist, Kurt Asle Arvesen, Simon Gerrans, Juan Antonio, Flecha, Kjell Calström, John Lee Augustyn, Greg Henderson, Las Petter Nordhaug and Morris Possoni.
• Robert Forster extended with Milram through the end of 2010.
• Markel Irizar (Euskaltel-Euskadi) will race for Lance Armstrong’s Radio Shack team for the next two seasons.
• Belgians Kevin Seeldraeyers and Dries Devenyns have extended their contract with Quick-Step through 2011.
• Italian Alberto Ongarato has signed a contract with the Vacansoleil that commits him through 2011. Daniele Colli will move from the Carmiooro team to Ceramica Flaminia-Bossini Showers for 2010.
• Theo Bos (Rabobank) will be allowed to return to competition on September 15th after serving a two month ban for the crash involving Barloworld’s Daryl Impey at the Tour of Turkey.
• The Court of Arbitration for Sport has postponed any decision on Alejandro Valverde until later in the year, clearing him to make a bid for the World Championship. They expect to convene before mid-October’s Tour of Lombardy.
• Andrey Kashechkin has completed his two year ban for homologous blood transfusions and could be eligible to compete for Kazakhstan in the World’s. No team has picked him up yet, but I’m sure that he’s been talking to Astana.
• Spain’s Manuel Beltran has been suspended for two years by the UCI fourteen months after testing positive for a doping products at the 2008 Tour de France.
• Italian cyclist Annalisa Cucinotta received a two year suspension from the Italian National Olympic Committee’s anti-doping tribunal. The 23-year Cucinotta, a track cyclist, tested positive in December 2009 for boldenone, an anabolic steroid, during a World Cup match in Colombia.
• Oh, why didn’t I think of that before?!? Mikel Astarloza is now blaming his doping positive to training in an oxygen tent. He says that he was using the tent just two minutes before the doping controllers showed up and that was a cause of the errors in his test. Training in an oxygen tent is said to have a positive effect on the number of red blood cells as well as increasing hematocrit.
• Rabobank’s Pedro Horillo is back in training after his fall in the 8th stage of the Giro d’Italia. He suffered a lung injury, fractures to the leg, knee, and in some vertebrae and was initially placed in an artificial coma after the 80m fall.

Other Results:

• The Italian Amore & Vita Detweiler Hershey & Associates team put Philip Mamos into the leader’s jersey of the Univest Grand Prix on Friday with a victory in the stage-1 team time trial. The TTT in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a first for the Univest GP, was two laps of a 3.8-mile course that featured several turns and a technical section near the end that included a short, steep climb. (Velo News)

Related Posts:

• 2009 Vuelta a Espana – Day 11 News and Notes (0)
• Tour de France riders and teams – Version 0.1 (0)
• Max Armstrong prepares for first trip to the Tour de France (0)
• Lance Armstrong-free racing news! (0)
• All of your cycling news – January 20, 2010 (1)