Bike World News

Ahh. Even when it’s over, it’s never truly over. Transfer season continues, doping hearings and allegations go on, and before you know it, the 2010 season will be here.

Here’s your bicycling news for today:

• Frenchman Clement Lhotellerie’s doping ban has been reduced from 2 years to 5 months. Lhotterie received his ban after a positive test for the banned substance Methylhexanamin on April 26 while racing Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Lhotterie had taken geranium oil as a natural cure for the cold without knowing that it was one of the 29 synonyms for Methylhexanamin. He’ll now be eligible to race in November and he picked up a contract with the Lille-Roubaix team.
• German newspaper Der Spiegel published a report today showing that Jan Ullrich had visited notorious Spanish doping doctor Eufemiano Fuentes 24 times between 2003 and 2006. The report also states that Ullrich paid Fuentes 80000 euros during that period. German police obtained the information from a computer seized from former T-Mobile DS Rudy Penvenage. German prosecutors are still deciding whether to file charges against Ullrich.
• Iljo Keisse‘s hearing with Belgian anti-doping authorities took place today. Both sides in the case offered testimony and a final decision is said to come by November 2nd. Federal attorneys think that it is doubtful that Keisse’s postive for HCT came from a tainted dietary supplement, but acknowledge that the original doping laboratory did not quantify the amount of HCT that was found in his system. Keisse traveled from the hearing to Holland, where he will start tonight in The Six Days of Ghent.
• There was going to be an auction of Frank Vandenbrouke’s bicycle to raise funds to expatriate his body from Senegal back to Belgium, but the family asked that the bike stay with them.
• Seynabou Diop, the Senegalese prostitute who was with Vandenbrouke in his final hours, says that she had nothing to do with his death. She says that she thought that he was an important photographer and added that he told her he wanted to take her back to Belgium and marry her. Counter to the information in the autopsy, she says that he was very drunk when she left him.
• Spaniard Davide de la Fuente is close to signing a contract to join Astana and to be a key lieutenant for Alberto Contador. He rode the 2009 season for Fuji-Servetto.
• Vacansoleil’s Gerben Löwik will join Cadel Evans and Phillipe Gilbert at Omega Pharma-Lotto for 2010.
• Alberto Contador is the final overall winner of the 2009 UCI individual World Ranking and his success during the season helped the Astana team top the team ranking and Spain to dominate the nations ranking.

Results:

• Garmin-Chipotle wrapped up a team effort at the Herald Sun Tour, delivering leader Bradley Wiggins to the finish for an overall win. Chris Sutton, who led the race for a couple of days during the week finished second overall.
• 51 year old Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli won the 28th edition of the Chrono des Nations (1.1). The veteran Frenchwoman was the fastest against the clock voer a 21 km course.
• Alberto Contador (Astana) won the criterium of Cancun ahead of his compatriots Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) and Oscar Freire (Rabobank).
• Niels Albert won the second round of the UCI World Cup cyclocross series over Sven Nys on a snow covered course in Plzen, Czech.

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