Bike World News

In today’s cycling news, Cavendish up for BBC Sports award, Basso hopes to return to France after 4 year absence, COPE may side with Footon-Servetto, Katie Compton leads UCI ‘Cross rankings and more….

• Columbia-HTC’s Mark Cavendish has been named one of the Top Ten nominees for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.  The BBC revealed Monday the shortlist featuring six-time Tour de France stage winner and star sprinter Mark Cavendish.
• After winning the Tour de France in 2008, Carlos Sastre was not satisifed with his 2009 season. He hopes to come back strong in 2010 and expects most of his focus to be on a strong performance at the Tour de France.
• Ivan Basso (Liquigas) hopes to return to the Tour de France in 2010 as well. He missed the race in 2006 because of alleged involvement with Operation Puerto, and missed the 2007 and 2008 events while he was serving out his suspension. Will the ASO have a Liquigas squad with Basso back?
• Robert Gesink and Marianne Vos have been named the Dutch riders of the year. This is the second year that Gesink has received the honor.
• COPE may come on as a sponsor to the Footon-Servetto team, effectively ending hopes for the Contentopolis team.
• After the doping positives of Iñigo Landaluze (at the Dauphine-Libere) and Mikel Astarloza (the Tour de France), Euskaltel-Euskadi has announced a renewed pledge to fight doping and to provide greater transparency to their practices. The measures are designed to help protect the future of the team, as the Basque government has said that one more doping case will mark the end of their involvement with (and sponsorship of) the team.
• Euskaltel will come into 2010 with 24 riders, 4 of whom are new professionals. Most notable among the new recruits is Roman Sicard, the French rider who won the Tour de l’Avenir.
• The full course announcement is yet to come, but we know now that the 2010 Vuelta (scheduled for August 29th to September 19th)  will open with an 18km time trial on the streets of Seville.
• Maureen Bruno-Roy and Jeremy Powers are still atop the standings in the USA Cycling National Cyclocross Calendar.
• In the UCI rankings, Niels Albert and America’s Katie Compton lead the World Cup rankings. Sven Nys sits just two points ahead of Albert in the Superprestige series.
• The mother of the deceased six day rider Dimitri De Fauw told a Belgian weekly that her son was one of the sources in a smear campaign against Quick Step manager Patrick Lefevre by Jean-Marie Dedecker, but maintains that his words were twisted. She says that he was gullible and thought that everyone was his friend.

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