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Racing News & Results – July 30, 2008

July 30th, 2008 by Ron Callahan 122 views No Comment

THE Tour is over and as of today, we have a month until the start of the Vuelta. The Olympic road race will take place on the 9th of August and the time trial will be on the 13th. There’s plenty going on out there.

Cadel Evans has pulled out of the Olympic time trial. He now acknowledges that he has knee problems as a result of a fall on Sunday.
Ricardo Ricco grew some balls! He admitted to using CERA and has declined the option to have his B sample tested. He called his actions a “mistake” and apologized to both his fans and his teammates. Props for actually admitting that he doped, but calling it a mistake is a cop-out. Let’s be clear, Ricardo: thinking you were taking aspirin and actually taking EPO is a mistake. Taking EPO and winning stages knowing you would get tested is just dumb.
- In an article on BBC Sport, Ricco criticizes the testing procedures at the Tour, stating that he should have been caught much earlier. I get it now - he wanted to be a martyr for the sport and only got caught to raise awareness of bad testing! We should sanctify him, not prosecute him!
In related news, Marta Nastianelli will be appearing before the Italian Olympic Committee on August 5th. She proclaims her innocence, saying that her pharmacist slipped the banned stimulant into an herbal weight loss mixture.
Robbie McEwen has announced that he is leaving the Silence-Lotto team, but will not yet name his new team. Seems that he, too wasn’t very happy with the team this year. Rumor is that he is heading to Tinkoff Credit Systems.

Results:

Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre won the first post-Tour criterium in Aalst, Belgium. My man Sean Kelly won the race for retired pros.
Christian Knees took the win at the Ratinger criterium in Germany
The Tour of Denmark started today. Argentenian Ruben Bongiorno of the CSF Group Navigare won the opening stage.