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Road Racing News and Results – September 15, 2009

September 15th, 2009 by Ron Callahan 619 views No Comment

Welcome back! Here’s all of the latest road racing news, World Championships rosters as well as some updates from the Tours of Missouri, Britain and Spain.

Team Type 1 made a strong impression at the Tour of Missouri, making it into key breakaways and culminated by team member Moises Aldape taking the overall King of the Mountains jersey. They demonstrated their diversity when team member Mark Suprenant scored a cyclocross win at Sunday’s Quad ‘Cross race at Middlesex Community College in Bedford, Mass.
Aussie Baden Cooke will move from the Dutch Vacansoleil squad to Bjarne Riis’ Saxo Bank team. He has signed a one year contract.
Jan Bakelants will move from the Topsport Vlaanderen team to Silence-Lotto for 2010. He is said to be one of the most promising young Belgian cyclists.
The UCI advised Italian rider Maurizio Biondo (Ceramica Flaminia) yesterday that he is provisionally suspended. The decision to provisionally suspend Mr Biondo was made in response to a report from the WADA accredited laboratory in Lausanne indicating an Adverse Analytical Finding of EPO (NESP) in a blood sample collected from him in an out-of-competition test on 12 August 2009. Biondo won the time trial at last month’s Tour of Denmark and finished second overall. Team manager Roberto Marrone has temporarily suspended Biondo from the Ceramica Flaminia team pending the outcome of testing of the B sample.
Rabobank team manager Adri van Houwelingen has said that it is likely that Denis Menchov and Oscar Freire will be left out of the team selection for the 2010 Tour de France race in favor of Dutchmen. He feels that his Dutch riders, such as Lars Boom and Robert Gesink have performed strongly this year while the expensive foreign leaders have failed to impress.
It was an excellent week for USA Cycling’s Development Programs.
- The highlight came from USA Cycling National Development Team rider Tejay Van Garderen who rode to second-place overall in the Tour de L’Avenir after grabbing three top-ten stage finishes.
- Amber Neben represented the U.S. National Team with a fifth-place overall result in the Tour Cycliste Feminin International Ardeche in France while National Development Program graduate Kristin Armstrong won the event.
- National Development Team alumn Dave Zabriskie also scored a big win with his overall victory in the Tour of Missouri.
Basque climber Iban Mayo says he won’t mount a professional comeback despite having served out his two-year racing ban for an EPO positive in 2007. “I had already decided I wasn’t going to return after the two years’ sanction. I could do it, because I served out the punishment, but I don’t like the circumstances around cycling and I decided not to continue,” he told El Correo. “I have no intention of returning to race.”
Jake Keough (Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Laura Van Gilder (Mellow Mushroom) lead the 2009 USA CRITS Series after four events. The season-long series holds its penultimate event this Thursday night in Dallas, the TX TOUGH criterium. The finals are a week later during the Interbike show in Las Vegas.
The new general manager of the Astana team, Rini Wagtmans, has reportedly asked for the immediate resignation of Johan Bruyneel. [Oh, okay, Bruyneel said - Ed.]

Worlds News:

Stijn Devolder is a notable absentee from the Belgian team selection for the World Championships. The team will have Phillipe Gilbert and Tom Boonen as co-leaders and will also include Francis De Greef, Kevin De Weert, Maxime Montfort, Nick Nuyens, Greg Van Avermaet and Maarten Wynants. Devolder calls the snub “the biggest humiliation in his career.” He hopes that a strong performance in the Vuelta may change the mind of national coach Carlo Bomans.
Italian national coach Franco Ballerini has announced his selections for the Worlds. Of course, Alessandro Ballan will return to defend his rainbow jersey, but the team will also include Ivan Basso (Liquigas), Marzio Bruseghin (Lampre), Damiano Cunego (Lampre), Stefano Garzelli (Acqua e Sapone), Luca Paolini (Acqua e Sapone), Marco Pinotti (Team Columbia), Filippo Pozzato ( Katusha), Mauro Santambrogio (Lampre), Michele Scarponi (Diquigiovanni-Androni), Matteo Tosatto (Quick Step) and Giovanni Visconti (Isd-Neri).
Fabian Cancellara will be the captain of the Swiss national team in Mendrisio. At his side will be Michael Albasini, Rubens Bertogliati, Mathias Frank, Gregory Rast and Oliver Zaugg. David Loosli, Florian Stalder and Steve Morabito are all on the reserve list.
Spain announced their squad as well: Alejandro Valverde, Joaquim Rodríguez and Dani Moreno (Caisse d’Epargne), Oscar Freire and Juanma Garate (Rabobank) Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Rubén Plaza (Liberty) will compete in the road race. [Do you think that any of these guys are going to drop out of the Vuelta early to save their legs for the Worlds? - Ed.]
Dutch coach Leo van Vliet has selected Lars Boom and Johnny Hoogerland for the World Cup. He previously opted for Robert Gesink, Koos Moerenhout and Karsten Kroon. The remarkable performance of Boom and Hoogerland in the Tour of Spain were decisive for Van Vliet.

Tour of Britain:

Edvald Boasson-Hagen has won the last two stages of the Tour of Britain. He has ridden Columbia-HTC’s leadout train to success in Gretna Green and Blackpool. This makes 79 victories in 2009 for the powerhouse team.
Kai Reus retains the overall lead of the race, but has to feel Columbia breathing down his neck, just 1 second behind.

The Tour of Spain:

Glasses were raised in the Rabobank team hotel yesterday, as former World Cyclocross champion Lars Boom had a commanding victory in stage 15 and team leader Robert Gesink held onto second place.
Is Columbia a team of sprinters? First, Mark Cavendish was racking up sprint wins at the Tour of Missouri, then Edvald Boasson Hagen had successes in Britain, then today it was Andre Greipel sprinting to success for the 16th stage of the Vuelta. By the way, that made it win number 80 for Columbia.
Wouter Weylandt was one of the riders who went down in a crash in the final kilometers of Tuesday’s stage. He had a micro-fracture in a bone in his right hand and will decide on Wednesday morning whether to continue.