Bike World News

In today’s cycling news, KBS revs up, The Cobra nearly gets run over by a bus, Six Day racing returns after Cali World Cup and more….

• Columbia-HTC’s Tony Martin and Ina-Yoko Teutenberg were named 2009 Cyclist of the Year by the German cycling journal Radsport Monday.  Twenty-four-year-old Martin was honored after an outstanding season during which he spent twelve days in the white jersey at the Tour de France, and took second overall in the Tour de Suisse.  In second place was Columbia-HTC teammate Andre Greipel. Teutenberg scored an impressive 24 victories in 2009, more than any pro rider, including the Tour of Flanders, three stage wins at Tour de l’Aude and the German National Road Championship.
• Kelly Benefit Strategies will ride with the Energizer Bunny in 2010. The team will primarily promote the company’s Schick and Banana Boat brands.
• We’ll see the start of a new year before Alejandro Valverde has his day in court in connection with Operation Puerto. He will appear before the Court of Arbitration for Sport from January 12-14 to challenge the two year ban imposed by Italy’s Olympic Committee before hopping on a plan to compete in the Tour Down Under. There will be a second hearing on March 18 to 21 in which the UCI and WADA are appealed to CAS because the Spanish cycling federation refused to discipline the 29-year-old Valverde.
• In case you missed the other day, Ricardo Ricco is back, riding for the Ceramica Flaminia squad. He just nearly gave his team a heart attack over the weekend after having a brush with a bus while out on a training ride.
• Britain’s Sky Team announced today that they will receive additional support from Sky Italia and News Corp. [Isn't that a little like Team Radio Shack getting support from Tandy and TRS-80? - Ed.]
• Sky Team’s Bradley Wiggins will captain the squad for the Tour Down Under.
• Britain’s Olympic champion Nicole Cooke has appealed to Team Sky to help the Equipe Nurnberger team suvive. Nurnberger has been struggling to find a title sponsor for 2010 after a proposed deal with Skyter fell through.
• Bruno Risi and Franco Marvulli are the returning champions at the Six Days of Zurich, starting tonight.
• The Six Days of Bremen will take place in 2010, but the sponsor may not renew their support for 2011. Doping scandals in the sport have already scared off the organizers of the Stuttgart and Dortmund races.
• Caisse d’Epargne team manager Eusebio Unzue is confident about the team’s prospects in 2010 despite the high level defections of Oscar Pereiro and Joaquin Rodriguez. The team was hoping to snag Alberto Contador in the wake of Astana’s financial troubles, but they may have to wait another year.
• Hubris? Confidence? Cadel Evans is saying that he will ride the Giro and the Tour in 2010. It’ll be his first attempt at the Giro since 2002, when he finished 14th and wore the maglia rosa for 2 days. His BMC team has already received an invite to the Giro, but are competing for a wildcard spot in the Tour de France against a bevy of teams.
• Details of the Vuelta a Espana will be revealed Wednesday during a ceremony in Sevilla, Spain.
• Polish cyclist Maciej Bodnar (Liquigas) suffered a double fracture of his clavicle in an accident in Valencia Benicasin. He will return to Italy tomorrow to undergo surgery.

Related Posts:

• All of your cycling news – November 2, 2009 (1)
• 2009 Vuelta a Espana – Day 5 News & Notes (0)
• Closing notes from the 2010 Tour Down Under (2)
• All of your cycling news – November 30, 2009 (2)
• All of your cycling news – January 20, 2010 (1)