The Vuelta is back in Spain today leaving behind more than a bit of skin on the windswept roads of Belgium. The transfer announcements are flowing fast out too and it’s nearly time to roll in the next big US stage race. It’s all here in The Trash, so let’s get to it.
Columbia Vuelta Double
The final days of the Vuelta in The Netherlands and Belgium have passed but unfortunately we cannot say “passed without incident”.
After Ciolek broke his 2009 “Big Race”hoo doo on Sunday, it was the turn of Greg Henderson to add “Grand Tour Stage Winner” to his palmares on Monday.
Henderson picked up the sprint win on stage three in Venlo, arriving in front of Borut Bozic of Slovenia and Spain’s Oscar Freire. A mix-up between Henderson (the lead-out man) and Greipel (the designated sprinter) saw the New Zealander cross the line first to give the Team win number 73 for the year.
“My primary aim here in the Vuelta is to get Andre Greipel across the line first, but today was my day just because it got mixed up with 500 or 600 metres to go” explained Henderson after the win. “I opened up my sprint with about 150 metres to go and ended up winning the stage quite easily. In any case, it’s a long Tour yet and there’ll be plenty more sprint stages.” Indeed. Like the very next stage, for example.
With the race crossing into Belgium and the small roads, hills and rain giving the spring classics specialists “fond” memories of early April (spare a thought for the Spanish climbers here in their “home” Grand Tour), a rather large crash in the closing kilometres had a dramatic impact on the stage result and also saw Team Astana lose one of their top men.
After being at the front of the race when the crash occurred, Team Columbia rode out the front with their train intact and very few other passengers that those wearing the yellow and white. Step up Andre Greipel for personal win number 16 for the season (eclipsing his tally of 15 for 2008) and the team’s 74th.
“Fortunately I was in the right position. My team-mates got me up there and I could go for the win.”
Greipel is now leading the race’s sprint competition and while it wasn’t an objective before the race, he says there are a few other stages that they may look at to try and secure the prize in Madrid.
Crash!
While it was easier to list the number of riders left on two wheels than those who crashed on stage four, the most seriously injured rider was the desperately unlucky Chris Horner of Astana. The American broke his left hand in the crash and went directly to hospital and while no one would have been surprised if he was out for the rest of the season, The American announced today that he plans on being back in Europe (“for round five”) to race the Tour of Lombardy.
The broken bone in Horner’s hand goes with his previous collection for 2009 of a fractured collar bone and a rib in the Tour of the Basque Country (April 9th) and a fractured left leg in the Tour of Italy (May 19th).
Also hitting the deck was new/old Astana signing Alexandr Vinokourov, who required stitches in his left elbow and bruising to his hip, however he will be able to continue the race in today’s fifth stage.
MILRAM's Björn Schröder was also injured in the crash, with the normal cuts and scrapes as well as picking up a concussion when he managed to hit is head and smash his helmet. The team speculated at the time that following the rest day, he would likely start in today’s stage in Tarragona.
Current GC After Stage 4
1. Fabian Cancellara SUI SAX 15:12:38
2. Tom Boonen BEL QST at 09sec
3. Bert Grabsch GER THR at 11s
4. André Greipel GER THR
5.Tyler Farrar USA GRM at 12s
6.Daniele Bennati ITA LIQ at 16s
7.Roman Kreuziger CZE LIQ at 17s
8.David García ESP XAC at 18
9.Ivan Basso ITA LIQ
10. Alejandro Valverde ESP GCE
2009 Vuelta a España Stages Stage 1: Sat 29 Aug, Assen – Assen , ITT, 4.8km: Fabian Cancellara. Stage 2: Sun 30 Aug, Assen – Emmen , 203.7km: Gerald Ciolek. Stage 3: Mon 31 Aug, Zutphen – Venlo , 189.7km: Greg Henderson Stage 4: Tue 1 Sep, Venlo – Liège , 225.5km: Andre Greipel Rest Day 1: Wed 2 Sep: A transfer day with a flight from Belgium back down to Spain for a change in country, a change in scenery, a change in the amount of road furniture and almost certainly a change in the weather. It’s back on again later today. Stage 5: Thu 3 Sep, Tarragona – Vinaros, 174km Stage 6: Fri 4 Sep, Xativa – Xativa, 176.8km Stage 7: Sat 5 Sep, Valencia – Valencia, ITT, 30km Stage 8: Sun 6 Sep, Alzira - Alto de Aitana, 204.7km Stage 9: Mon 7 Sep, Alcoy - Xorret del Cati, 188.8km Stage 10: Tue 8 Sep, Alicante – Murcia, 171.2km Stage 11: Wed 9 Sep, Murcia - Caravaca de la Cruz, 200km Rest Day 2, Thu 10 Sep. Stage 12: Fri 11 Sep, Almería - Alto de Velefique, 179.3km Stage 13: Sat 12 Sep, Berja - Alto de Sierra Nevada, 172.4km Stage 14: Sun 13 Sep, Granada - La Pandera, 157km Stage 15: Mon 14 Sep, Jaén – Córdoba, 167.7km Stage 16: Tue 15 Sep, Córdoba – Puertollano, 170.3km Stage 17: Wed 16 Sep, Ciudad Real - Talavera de la Reina, 193.6km Stage 18: Thu 17 Sep, Talavera de la Reina – Ávila, 165km Stage 19: Fri 18 Sep, Ávila - La Granja. Real Fábrica de Cristales, 179.8km Stage 20: Sat 19 Sep, Toledo – Toledo, ITT, 27.8km Stage 21: Sun 20 Sep, Rivas-Vaciamadrid – Madrid, 110.2km
Transfer Time
Ok, just because they can, doesn’t mean they are (Talking about transfers, that is). A few of the rumoured signings have turned out to be true, a few teams have announced their (almost) complete line-ups and a few more have kept silent and let the suspense build, just that little bit more.
Let’s have a look at what we know so far.
The Shack: Levi Leipheimer will join Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel (once the Belgian sorts his contract buy-out with Astana) at Team Radio Shack in 2010.
“There were other possibilities, but I've signed with the best team in the world, an American team that's going to sign more American riders," Leipheimer said, according to AFP. Amongst the races that Leipheimer is targeting for 2010 are the Tour of California, the Dauphine and the Tour de France.
Belgian rider, Gert Steegmans told Sporza that he had chosen to go to Radio Shack in 2010. “I will be a new start for my career after the lost season at Katusha, which I will forget as quickly as possible. I want to win races for Radio Shack as soon as possible. I’m not sure yet which races I will ride, but I want to be in good form for the early season Belgian races.”
Astana: Despite some (Ok, Me) thinking that Alberto Contador just needed to find the right amount of cash for the buy-out and he would be gone from his final year of his Astana Contract, it seems the Spaniard will indeed be staying in the light blue of the Kazakh squad next year.
I have a contract for next season and I shall respect that. There is no other solution possible. If I had been free (to leave) I had another team to go to, however my contract is firm and I am staying”.
By hanging onto Contador for 2010, the team will have no problems gaining entry to the year’s three Grand Tours.
BMC are the new kids on the Big Block thanks to their signing of George Hinapie, Alessandro Ballan, Marcus Burghardt and Karsten Kroon. While not a ProTour squad, the team will rely heavily on the new signings to gain wild card entries to the spring classics and hopefully gain selection for either the Giro or Vuelta. "When we started with the idea of the BMC Racing Team, we had a plan which would one day elevate us to the highest level of professional racing. That day is today," explained the two partners and co-owners of the BMC Racing Team, Jim Ochowicz and Andy Rihs.
"I am very happy to be coming to BMC because it has always seemed like a very good team," current World Champion Alessandro Ballan said. "I will have new motivation working with them to accomplish my goals for the races like Milan Sanremo, Paris-Roubaix and the Belgian Classics."
As well as being one of the big names for the Classics himself, Hincapie, the newly crowned USPRO Champion, will be helping to develop talent on the squad to ensure its future. “I know a lot of the American racers on the team already and have seen how talented the young Swiss riders are, so I am very excited to help mentor the riders while also focusing on my major goals at the same time,” the American said.
Lampre The Italian squad, who were seemingly unable to offer Ballan enough incentive to stay, have signed another guaranteed winner in Italian sprint specialist Alessandro Petacchi. The sprinter inked a deal for the 2010 and 2011 seasons, leaving behind the LPR team which may be in search of new sponsors next year after the PR disaster of DiLuca’s Giro positives.
SKY While there have been no official announcement as to the new Team Sky line-up, Simon Gerrans has confirmed that he will be moving from Cervélo to the new squad in 2010. Also joining the Australian will be fellow Cervélo team mate Serge Pauwels. While the list of rumoured signings is growing longer, until the list is confirmed by the team, speculation really pointless. One piece of speculation (and it is the main point of discussion concerning Team Sky) is the future of Bradley Wiggins.
This week, there have been two very contrasting pieces of information published concerning Wiggins. The first, came from Wiggins’ current director, Jonathan Vaughters in a very informative interview with Bicycling.com’s Joe Lindsey. When asked about the possibility of Wiggins leaving and the potential size of a contract buy-out (the Brit is under contract to Garmin for one more season), Vaughters indicated that it was a figure you really could not put a value on. Saying that the title sponsorship of the team was worth $15million and that the squad (and therefore the sponsor’s) Tour de France ambitions centred on Wiggins for next year.
“It’s understandable that there were rumors he’d go to Sky.” Vaughters told Lindsey, “It’s a British team, they have more money than any other team in the world, but that’s all under the assumption I’d accept a buyout. At the end of the day, I really like Wiggo. How much would you sell your mom for?”
Completely contrary to this was the report from Sporza yesterday announcing Wiggins would be the new team leader at Team Sky. I guess we will have to keep waiting to see which way it all goes, but one thing we can be guaranteed is that whichever team Wiggins rides for in 2010 and beyond, about half the people that are saying they have the inside knowledge will come out and say “I told you so!”
Katusha With McEwen out injured for a large chunk of the season and Steegmans sidelined and then released from his contract, Katusha have brought in some new blood for 2010 in the form of Kim Kirchen. Following his broken collarbone at the Tour of California, Kirchen has had a quieter season in 2009 than he did in 2008, where his wins included the Fleche Walloon, Tour of the Basque Country, Tour of Switzerland, National TT champs and four days in yellow at the Tour de France. Despite the setback earlier in this season, the Luxembourger won a stage of the Tour of Switzerland and his national TT championships again. Katusha will be hoping he brings some GC fire power to their stag race campaign in 2010.
Liquigas: Hat’s off to the Italian squad for pumping out a press release as soon as the deadline passed with their ‘squad so far’ for 2010. The confirmed riders from the current squad are: Valerio Agnoli, Ivan Basso, Daniele Bennati, Maciej Bodnar, Jacopo Guarnieri, Roman Kreuziger, Aliaksandr Kuchynski, Vincenzo Nibali, Daniel Oss, Franco Pellizotti, Manuel Quinziato, Fabio Sabatini, Ivan Santaromita, Sylwester Szmyd, Brian Bach Vandborg, Alessandro Vanotti, Frederik Willems, Oliver Zaugg. While the new arrivals at the team are: Francesco Bellotti, Davide Cimolai (neo-pro), Tiziano Dall'Antonia, Kristjan Koren (SLO), Maciej Paterski (POL), Peter Sagan (neo-pro, SLK).
Contador Skips Worlds
As mentioned above, Contador has decided not to ride the World Championships in Mendrisio later this month, preferring to leave the place pen to another Spaniard who might be ‘fresher’ and have a better chance of serving the team in the road race.
“I talked with (National coach) José Luis Santos and, after analysing my season and, especially, the fact that I have not competed since the Tour de France, we felt it best is to leave my place to another rider who really will be better, thanks to their riding the Tour of Spain.”
Contador said, “I've been winning races since the beginning of the season and getting ready for the Worlds would require a major effort, not to mention that probably those who are riding the Vuelta come in better condition.”
The remainder of the season for the Tour de France champion will consist of racing a few criteriums before making his preparations for the 2010 season with Astana.
Tour of Missouri
The 2009 Tour of Missouri starts on Monday and when the riders roll out on the 120km circuit race in St Louis, the organisers will look back on what was a near disaster mid year and be thankful that the current economic crisis didn’t cost them their race.
In July of this year, Lt. Gov., Peter Kinder (Chairman of the Missouri Tourism Commission) put out the call for fans and interested parties to lobby the State Governor to ‘un-freeze’ funds that had previously been set aside for the race. The campaign helped to convince State officials that spending the $1.5million allocated for the race was actually a good investment for an event that had previously attracted over $60million in income for the region.
The seven stage Tour finishes on Sunday September 13th.
2009 Tour of Missouri Teams
Team Astana, Team Columbia-HTC, Team Garmin-Slipstream, Team Liquigas, Team Saxo Bank, Team Quickstep, BMC Racing, Cervelo Test Team, Colavita/ Sutter Home, Kelly Benefit Strategies, Jelly Belly, Bissell Pro Cycling, Team Type 1, OUCH presented by Maxxis, Planet Energy.
2009 Tour of Missouri Stages Stage 1: St. Louis circuit race (75 miles/120.7km) Stage 2: Ste. Genevieve to Cape Girardeau (112.4mi./180.9km) Stage 3: Farmington to Rolla (114.3mi./183.9km) Stage 4: St. James to Jefferson City ( 109.2mi./175.7Km) Stage 5: Sedalia, Time Trial (19mi./30.5km) Stage 6: Chillicothe to St. Joseph (110.3mi./177.4km) Stage7: Kansas City, circuit race (72.3 mi./116.4km)
Show Time
It’s “showing off” time in the bike industry as the big trade shows get underway to showcase what’s new and exciting in the world of cycling.
Yesterday in Friedrichshafen, Germany, Eurobike opened for trade visitors and press and as part of the push to give the edge on the promotion of their products, the winners of the past two Tours de France will be in attendance.
2008 Tour winner Carlos Sastre will be at the show with Cervélo as well as spending time with the Cervélo test Team’s other product and equipment suppliers.
“My visit to Eurobike forms part of Cervélo’s philosophy, in that riders are in continuous contact with companies from the sector which sponsor or collaborate with the team,” Sastre said.
2009 Tour winner, Alberto Contador is also heading to Eurobike. The Astana rider’s end of season schedule has been freed up considerably after he announced that he would not be racing the World Championships later this month in Mendrisio.
Later this month, the Show crowd head Stateside with Interbike running in Las Vegas from September 23 to 25. PEZ will be on scene at Interbike to bring our readers the latest product developments and new releases that you can expect to see in the peloton and your local bike shops in the coming months.
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