All of your cycling news: April 28, 2010

AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati

In today’s bicycle racing news, Lance is back at the Tour of the Gila, Andre Greipel looking for a new team, Iljo Keisse will make return at Dunkirk, No Schlecks No Spartacus for Saxo Bank at the Giro and more…

• Lance Armstrong resumed competition today at the Tour of the Gila, riding under the Mellow Johnny’s name with Levi Leipheimer and Jason McCartney. Also on the start list for the race is the DZ’s Nuts squad of Dave Zabriskie, Danny Pate, and Tom Danielson. Coming off of a strong second place finish at the Tour of the Battenkill, Floyd Landis is expected to be on tap for the OUCH-Bahati Foundation team.
• Former BMC rider Thomas Frei has admitted to doping, but he says that he only got caught due to “personal neglect”. He says that he took a dose of EPO the night before the control and had he drank a liter of water after taking the drug, the test would have been “unremarkable”.
• The Swiss Court of Human Rights rejected the appeal of Alejandro Valverde against the decision of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) to ban the rider from riding in Italy until May 11, 2011, because of his alleged involvement in Operation Puerto. With the rejection of Valverde’s appeal, CONI is now pressing the UCI to extend the ban on the Caisse d’Epargne rider worldwide.
• Former LPR rider Gabriele Bosisio, who has been provisionally suspended since October of 2009, received a two year suspension from the Italian National Olympic Committee today. The ban will expire on October 5, 2011, two years after he was provisionally suspended by the UCI, pending the outcome of the CONI hearing. He was also fined 9,625 euros.
• Alexandre Vinokourov still hasn’t admitted to doping, but if you read around his comments from Sunday and Monday, he may as well have:
  • “I want to prove that I can win without doping”
  • “No, I don’t train with Ferrari anymore. Nor with anyone else, come to that.”
• Vinokourov will lead the Astana team for the Giro d’Italia with his countrymen Alexandr Dyachenko, Valentin Iglinksy and Roman Kireyev. The team will be completed by the Slovenian Gorazd Štangelj, Italians Enrico Gasparotto and Paolo Tiralongo, Josep Jufré from Spain and the Ukraine’s Andriy Grivko.
• Andre Greipel has said that he will leave the HTC-Columbia team after 2010 for a squad where he can better fulfill his ambitions. The 27 year old rider has had a very successful season so far, but still feels that he has been relegated to the number 2 spot behind Mark Cavendish. Greipel is riding the Giro for Columbia this year, but says that he wants a go at the Green jersey in the Tour de France, and that will not likely happen with Cavendish having similar goals.
• Alberto Contador studied the cobbled sections that he face in the third stage of the Tour de France with someone who knows cobbles a little: Paris-Roubaix winner Peter van Petegem. Petegem says that Contador’s technique is good, and that he also gave the Astana rider some tips on equipment.
• Despite recent doping headlines, BMC Racing co-owner Andy Rihs wants to move the team to the Pro Tour classification as quickly as possible. “With one of the biggest budgets in cycling we just have to be part of the ProTour. We will waste no time in our application to the UCI for a license for 2011,” he announced.
• Iljo Keisse will likely return to competition at the Four Days of Dunkirk. The Quick Step rider crashed and broke his collarbone while training for the Track World Cup. He is also on the team roster for the Tour of California. He’s been training up to five hours a day on flat road in preparation for his comeback.
• Omega Pharma – Lotto manager Mark Sargeant has been generally happy with Phillipe Gilbert’s performance and the team’s spring campaign, but is looking to acquire a sprinter and a G.C. rider to bolster the team’s chances in 2011.
• Former world junior cycling champion Mark French has been awarded $162,000 in damages after suing an Australian newspaper for describing him as a disgraced drug cheat. The 25-year-old was banned for two years in 2004 for doping offenses, but was cleared on appeal the following year.
• German police have forced a route change for Saturday’s Around the Eschborn-Frankfurt Financial Center race. Frost damage on the Feldberg descent has raised concerns that the road might be dangerous to riders coming off of the previous 12 km climb.
• Pierrick Fedrigo will lead the Bouyges Telecom BBox team of Franck Bouyer, Yohann Gene, Saïd Haddou, Laurent Lefevre, Alexandre Pichot, Matthieu Sprick and  Sébastien Turgot in the Four Days of Dunkirk. Fedrigo won the race in 2005.
• The Saxo Bank team will contest the Giro d’Italia without the Schleck brothers and Fabian Cancellara. Chris Anker Sorenson will lead a team consisting of Australians Baden Cooke and Richie Porte, the Luxemburger Laurent Didier, Lucas Sebastian Haedo of Argentina, the Swede Gustav Larsson and Danes Nicky Sorensen, Anders Lund and Michael Morkov.
• David Moncoutié will make his Giro debut this year. The 34-year-old Frenchman, who won the climber’s jersey in the 2008 and 2009 Vueltas a Espana. The team will look to Leonardo Duque in the mass sprints. The rest of the team will be Frenchmen Guillaume Blot, Mickaël Buffaz, Remi Cusin, Julien Fouchard and Tristan Valentin, Nico Sijmens of Belgium as well as Kalle Kriit.

Other Results:

• Aaron Kemps (Fly V Australia) put his Australian national champion’s skinsuit on display Tuesday night, winning the third stop of USA Crits SpeedWeek in Beaufort, South Carolina. Kemps outkicked Hilton Clarke (OUCH-Bahati Foundation) and Andrew Pinfold (UnitedHealthcare-Maxxis) from a six-man breakaway to take the win in the Beaufort Memorial Cycling Classic.
• In the women’s race, Rushlee Buchanan kept the SpeedWeek top prize in the family, topping her Colavita-Baci teammate, and Athens/Roswell winner, Theresa Cliff-Ryan. Erica Allar (Vera Bradley Foundation) rounded out the podium in third.