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All of your cycling news: February 4, 2010

February 4th, 2010 by Al Fresco View Comments

In today’s cycling news, squad announcements for upcoming races from Quick Step, Ceramica Flaminia and Ag2R ; Gert Steegmans wants to get paid; David Kopp returns; Steve Bauer aiming for Canada-based Pro Tour team and more….

Tom Boonen is looking to repeat his success at the Tour of Qatar, starting on Sunday. Boonen will be joined at the race by teammates Kevin De Weert, Kevin Hulsmans, Andreas Stauff, Matteo Tosatto, Kevin Van Impe, Marco Velo and Maarten Wynants. Nearly the same squad will contest the Tour of Oman, with only Jurgen Van de Walle stepping in for Kevin Van Impe.
Ceramica Flaminia is headed to Saturday’s Gran Premio Costa degli Etruschi and will bring a strong sprinters team consisting of Philip Baggio, Raivis Belovhosciks, Donato Cannone, Edoardo Girardi, Fabrizio Firefly, Alessandro Maserati, Andrea Noe and Enrico Rossi to the race.
AG2R La Mondiale has set its roster for next week’s Tour Mediterranean. The race will be contested by Maxime Bouet, Dmitri Champion. Cyril Dessel. Alexandr Efimkin, Rinaldo Nocentini, Anthony Ravard, Nicholas Roche and Ludovic Turpin.
Milram’s Roy Sentjens, Servais Knaven, Niki Terpstra, Wim De Vocht and Gerald Ciolek reconned the course for the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad yesterday. The race, one of the opening spring classics, runs on February 27th this year.
Twenty-two teams have confirmed for the Volta ao Algarve, thirteen of which are ProTour: Astana, Caisse d’Epargne, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Footon-Servetto-Fuji, Française des Jeux, Garmin-Transitions, Lampre, Quick Step, Omega Pharma-Lotto, Rabobank , Team Columbia-HTC, Team Radioshack and Team Katusha. Also expected are Cervélo, Topsport Vlaanderen, Vacansoleil, Xacobeo Galicia and the five Continental Portuguese teams, namely Barbot-SIPER, CC Loulé, La Paredes, Boavista and Palmeiras.
Oooh. This is bold: Gert Steegmans refused to sign Katusha’s anti-doping charter and eventually left the team for Radio Shack. Now he is demanding that Katusha honors the final year of his contract and pay him the salary from the final year of his contract. If you look up breach on contract in Lexis, it says…..
Robbie McEwen just had his 38th birthday, but he is hoping to stay injury free to be able to ride until he turns 40.
Former Telekom and Gerolsteiner pro David Kopp has signed with the Kuota-Indeland team. Kopp is coming off of a one year suspension for cocaine usage.
The 2010 USA Cycling Collegiate Road season kicked off last weekend in Tucson with the University of Arizona Criterium, the year’s first collegiate cycling race. The season will begin in earnest across the country in the weeks that follow.
Young riders Tony Martin (HTC Columbia) and Jakob Fuglsang (Saxo Bank) are both spending some time off of the bike and starting their season later due to knee problems possibly attributed to overtraining.
Cervelo’s Daniel Lloyd went down in a crash in the final kilometer of the first stage of the Etolie de Besseges. Lloyd spent the night in the hospital for observation.
Steve Bauer, one of North America’s greatest cyclists and Canada’s acknowledged best, now directs and manages Team SpiderTech presented by Planet Energy. The team had its launch this week and Bauer has set lofty goals for the squad: to become Canada’s first ProTour team, to compete in the Tour de France, and to place a Canadian on the final podium at Le Tour. In 1988, Bauer won the opening stage of the Tour de France and wore the race leader’s yellow jersey in 1988 for five days before finishing a step from the podium in 4th place. Two years later, he led the Tour for nine days.

Six Day News:

Tuesday night, Team Saxo Bank’s world champions Alex Rasmussen and Michael Morkov swept all competition aside by winning the six-day race in Berlin after an incredibly exciting finale. One lap behind and down 35 points, the victory seemed unattainable before the final day of the race, but Team Saxo Bank’s track specialists demonstrated a combination of convincing tactical skills and rather superior strength as the peloton took on the final 30 laps of the race.
Rasmussen and Morkov will be back on their bikes on home ground tonight, looking for success at the Six Days of Copenhagen.