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All of your cycling news – January 26, 2010

January 26th, 2010 by Al Fresco One Comment

In today’s cycling news, Lance Armstrong says 8th Tour will be the “hardest one to win”, Quick Step and Garmin training in Calpe Spain, no prologue for 2011 Tour de France and more…

After his doping ban appeal was dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Stefan Schumacher is now considering bringing his case before the Swiss Federal Supreme Court. [With 7 months remaining in his ban, I think that Schumacher should just man up and take his lumps. What do you think? - Ed.]
Schumacher has expressed interest in riding for Germany in the World Championships shortly after his ban expires, but a representative from the German Cycling Federation (BDR) calls that “absurd”, and it seems that the only interaction that the federation will have with the troubled rider is filing a suit to recover damages from the doping trials.
Patrick Sinkewitz has been offered a slightly reduced fine of 80000 euros for damages to a prior sponsor because of doping offenses. The former T-Mobile rider has until early March to decide to take the reduced fine or contest a 100000 Euro fine.
Lance Armstrong is realistic about his chances for an 8th Tour de France victory. He told Bicycling Magazine that “It’s something I think would be possible. It’s going to be the hardest one to win. The competition is better than it ever has been before. I think I can win the Tour again. I might be a fool to think that but I’m going to go down my foolish way and find out.”
Armstrong was planning to ride the Tour of Catalonia on March 22nd, but passed on a potential early battle with rival Alberto Contador in favor of the Criterium International, March 27th.
The Quick Step and Garmin-Transitions teams are holding their winter training camps in Calpe, Spain. Much like the conditions experienced by the BMC team in California, they have been beset by cooler than expected temperatures and today, driving rain that has kept them off of their bikes.
The Tour Down Under marked Robbie McEwen’s (Katusha) return to racing after months of downtime for injuries. He was quite happy with his fourth place finish and looks to be back on the podium soon. His next major objective is Milan-San Remo.
With the departure of Cadel Evans to BMC Racing, Jurgen Van Den Broeck finds himself unexpectedly catapulted to the leadership of the Omega Pharma-Lotto team for the Tour de France. He had wished for another year riding at Evans’ side before leading a team on his own.
Johan Bruyneel says that the Radio Shack team is organized around stage racing and that they are not prepared to build a sprint team for Gert Steegmans similar to those used by HTC Columbia for Greipel and Cavendish. Nonetheless, he feels that Steegmans has what it takes to win sprints.
The 2011 Tour de France will dispense with an opening prologue stage in favor of a 180 km stage that will start on the Passage du Gois causeway connecting the peninsula to the mainland and continue on to Mont Des Alouettes. The second day of the race will be a 23 km team time trial around Les Essarts on July 3. Race director Christian Prudhomme said that passing on the traditional opening time trial, which favors sprinters and often creates early time gaps, will give all types of riders a chance to win.
Vacansoleil is hoping for an opportunity to get new acquisitions Brice and Romain Feilleu back into the Tour de France, where they made strong showings last year.
The Liquigas-Doimo team will start their European season at the Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria, planned from 30th January to 2nd February. Stefano Zanatta and Biagio Conte will serve as DS’s and the squad will consist of Manuel Quinziato, Aliaksandr Kuchynski, Daniel Oss, Tiziano Dall’Antonia, Mauro Finetto, Jacopo Guarnieri, Fabio Sabatini and Brian Bach Vandborg.
Bradley Wiggins will make his on-road debut in Team Sky colors at the Tour of Qatar which gets underway on February 7th.
Italian Continental racing team Amore & Vita will start a amateur team of the same name in Spain. The Elite and U23 team will be located in Granada, Andalusia and will be run by Ignacio Rodriguez (of formerly Saeco) and José Manuel Carballo.
Olympic gold medalist Sabine Spitz has had to delay the start of her season due to surgery for a groin injury. She hopes to resume light training in mid-February. She has set the Marathon World Championships in St. Wendel in August and the Cross-Country Championships in Canada in September as her goals for 2010 and hopes to stay in form long enough for the 2012 Olympics.