Bike World News

For today’s cycling news, more wild Tour roster speculation, DHEA positive for Tom Zirbel, Andy Schleck in training crash with car and more….

• In more incredibly early Tour roster speculation, Edvald Boasson-Hagen is expected to make his Tour de France debut with Team Sky in 2010. He will mainly ride for the experience, but still hopes to notch a stage win.
• The 2014 edition of the Tour de France is expected to have its kickoff  in Barcelona, Spain. The Catalan capital will host an opening time trial as well as the departure of the first stage. The last time the Grande Boucle started from Spain was in 1992 in San Sebastian.
• It would seem that the ongoing efforts of Washington, DC to host the prologue of the Giro are giving towns with seemingly little chance of accomodating the race new hope – Qatar and Tokyo have also applied to host the start of the Tour de France.
• Dave Zabriskie made a big commitment to the Garmin-Transitions team, renewing for the next four years. Christian Vande Velde signed up through 2012. One can’t help but think that the long contracts contain buyout clauses that team manager Jonathon Vaughters hopes will prevent riders from jumping ship like Bradley Wiggins.
• Tom Zirbel, who was expected to join the Garmin-Transitions team for 2010, confirmed on Sunday that his “A” sample from the USA Cycling Professional Time Trial Championships tested positive for exogenous dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Zirbel placed second in that race to his potential future Garmin teammate David Zabriskie. He also got 4th in the World Championships time trial race. DHEA is the same substance for which Tyler Hamilton tested positive in February 2009. Zirbel claimed innocence, saying that he would never compromise his integrity for a bike race. If the “B” sample is also found positive, Zirbel faces a two year suspension.
• Spanish climber Xavier Tondo has joined the Cervelo Test Team and is expected to provide support to Carlos Sastre in the 2010 Giro d’Italia. Tondo won the Tour of Portugal in 2007 and last year snagged the leader’s jersey at the Ruta del Sol.
• Andy Schleck had an altercation with a car during a training ride late last week. He got off with only mild abrasions, and should be able to resume training today.
• Columbia-HTC’s Mark Renshaw is hoping to recover from the Epstein-Barr Virus in time to be fit for the Tour of California and Tour de Suisse. Doctors have told him that he needs complete rest until mid-February.
• Danish rider Chris Anker Sørensen (Saxo Bank) will continue to ride under a Luxembourg license. The 26-year-old climbing specialist has moved to Luxembourg, where he had better training conditions, and lived closer to the service center of the racing team.
• World Champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) will make the Grand Prix Insubria (February 27th) his first race of 2010 on European soil.
• Evans’ teammate Marcus Burghardt will start his season at the Tour of Qatar. Later in the spring, he’ll race the Het Nieuwsblaad, Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and Tirreno-Adriatico classics.

Cyclocross:

• World champion Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) took the lead of the Superprestige cyclocross series from Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) after the Belgian champion suffered a mechanical and dropped out of the race.

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