We saved EuroTrash for an afternoon appointment today - no need to cloud the waters when there's such a great piece as Ed's visit to Venice. We've got news though, rest assured, there's still a rumor mill grinding away, and rest very assured that Contador still doesn't have a team. Read up on the latest on the road, off the road, and on the boards!
Contador Signs with Specialized
To ride their bikes of course. You didn't think his transfer saga had come to an end yet, did you?
La Gazzetta reports that the two-time Tour winner and winner of all of the Grand Tours, has signed a contract to ride Specialized bikes to the tune of 700,000 euro.
La Gazzetta addresses the next part of the question though - what bikes will his team be riding? If he stays with Astana, it looks like the team will also be riding Specialized, which seems like it makes the contract redundant, right? I know there's more to it than that, but still...
All is still not peachy in the Astana camp though - Astana representatives are meeting with the UCI this week to engage in talks to hopefully keep Astana at the highest level of the sport. The decision on the matter is expected this Friday.
In other fun news associated with Alberto Contador - Contador isn't happy being caught in a transfer purgatory all by himself, now there are more riders involved, well, one. Ivan Basso is now being linked with Contador. The two are apparently good friends and Contador wants him on his team. It won't be possible for 2010 though, as Basso is under Liquigas wraps for next season. Look for a Basso transfer to whatever team Contador will be riding for come 2011.
Sastre: 100% For Le Tour
Carlos Sastre acknowledges that something went amiss in 2009. He admits that he started the Tour de France feeling 'exhausted' and says that he 'doesn't want to make that mistake again.'
"I want to rediscover the spark that I was lacking this year. Although I still haven't worked out what races I'm going to be riding in 2010, it's already clear in my mind that this coming season is going to be very different to the one that's just finished...The Tour de France has been my race, and I want to perform well in it again. The only thing that I am certain of is that I will do the Tour."
Sastre does want to do two Grand Tours next year - he won't decide about the second Grand Tour until after the Vuelta is presented in December.
Most of us would point to the Giro as the likely culprit for Sastre's exhaustion at the 2009 Tour de France, but Sastre refuses to concede the fact: "The route of the Giro was hard, but during my career I've always done two major Tours and been at a good level. But a lot of circumstances combined, and I wasn't able to recover, and I've learned from that."
Cancellara Wants The World Hour Record
Yeah! That's all I should really say to this, but of course I'll spout out a bit more. The best time triallist on the planet has come forth to say that he wants to take the mantle of world's fastest man over 60 minutes. If Cancellara does take the record, we can be rid of Ondrej Sosenka's tainted mark: Sosenka beat Boardman's record in 2005 with 49.70 kilometers...he later tested positive for EPO. There was no testing for his world hour record mark.
Cancellara is rightly confident in his chances, citing his ride in Mendrisio: "I proved in Mendrisio, that I'm capable of it."
"It's not good enough to be strong," spaketh Cancellara. "You have to be able to take that strength to the track."
The newly opened track in Brescia, Italy has already offered its boards to the 28-year-old's quest for glory.
Oh please please please do it and break the record, Fabian!
Armstrong To Start 2010 In Australia
It was rumored that Lance Armstrong would start his 2010 campaign in Australia, but now it's confirmed: Johan Bruyneel says that Armstrong will start in Australia along with Gert Steegmans and Yaroslav Popovych...well, and four others still to be named.
Bruyneel is looking for early success in Australia: "We start with a pretty strong team. We want to start in the new Radio Shack jersey with a team capable of winning."
Greipel Back In Training
After a short vacation, Columbia's other sprinter, Andre Greipel, is back to practice. Greipel started last Tuesday again and will be focusing on base training and overall fitness in the coming weeks. The 27-year-old uber-successful sprinter has also taken to cyclocross. He raced twice over the weekend in Germany - in Lorsch and Karlsruhe.
Before the season gets started for Germany's current most successful bike racer there's another matter on the docket: "In less than a month, we are expecting the birth of our second daughter. It can happen at any moment, so I am already ready to go."
Best wishes to Greipel and his growing family!
Cross Compote
The Niels Albert Winning Machine chugs ever onward. The third round of the Superprestige series revisited a place of woe for the young World Champion. Whilst warming up for last year's race in Aspere-Gavere, Albert crashed hard and spent the next while in a wheelchair as his internal injuries healed. He obviously came back to great success to finish the year by winning Worlds, but Aspere-Gavere was the only thing between an eyebrow raising season and a gigantic season...well, that and Sven Nys.
Anyhow, so he returned, and we pick back up with the Nys-Albert duel. Albert managed to stay upright on the tough course and managed to right last year's wrong with the win. Nys was doing just fine with the young usurper all the way till the final lap when a flat tire and chain problems derailed his chances of a jaw-dropping sixth consecutive win on the course. Had that air stayed in the tire, Nys could have netted six straight along with his FIFTIETH Superprestige win. Most riders would kill for a single win, let alone fifty.
Nys' mechanical made it a pretty straightforward finale for Albert - stay upright, pedal hard, win bike race...which he did.
Superprestive Overall
1 Niels Albert (Bel) 44 pts
2 Sven Nys (Bel) 42
3 Zdenek Stybar (Cze) 40
4 Klaas Vantornout (Bel) 33
5 Kevin Pauwels (Bel) 30
A Bit Of Aspere-Gavere Humor
Sunweb Projob's Klaas Vantornout is one of the world's best cross racers. He gets pretty much no attention because his name is not Albert or Nys or Stybar, but, well, he's the next guy behind the leading triumvirate.
Anyhow, whilst racing to a solid 5th place yesterday in Aspere-Gavere, Mr. Vantornout lost his rear wheel. Somehow, his rear wheel fell out on the nasty, muddy run-up.
Vantornout: "I had not immediately noticed it myself. I thought, boy, my bike feels much lighter. When I looked back, I saw that I had lost my rear wheel."
Since this is cross, it wasn't too big of a deal - Vantornout kept on going on foot until the next pit, which was just at the top. There, he swapped bikes (one with two wheels!), and rode on to 5th.
Cross Compote, Part II: Katie Compton Edition
It's easy to get distracted by Niels Albert's stunning 2009-2010 campaign. On the women's side, Katie Compton is doing the same. Yesterday in Asper-Gavere, Compton rocketed to her 11th win of the season in yet another lop-sided victory. Compton put nearly a minute into Marianne Vos, almost 2 into Daphne Van Den Brand, and 3 into 4th placed Sanne Cant. She's racing against only herself right now, and the only real question is whether she can keep this torrid pace going into January when she goes for the big one - the World Championships.
1 Katherine Compton (USA) 0:41:13
2 Marianne Vos (Ned) 0:00:56
3 Daphny Van Den Brand (Ned) ZZPR.NL 0:01:43
4 Sanne Cant (Bel) BKCP-Powerplus 0:02:59
BMC Racing Team Strengthens Sports Director Position
From BMC: After the prominent rider additions with the signing of Cadel Evans, George Hincapie, Alessandro Ballan, Marcus Burghardt, Karsten Kroon and company, the UCI Pro Continental squad has beefed up its team of sports directors.
The recently retired Italian professional Fabio Baldato and the experienced Swiss René Savary are joining the team as Assistant Directeur Sportifs. Both Baldato, and Savary have signed a one year contract with the team. "Fabio brings a wealth of experience to the team for both the Historic and the Classic races. Additionally he will be a great asset during our racing campaign in Italy next season," BMC Racing Team President Jim Ochowicz commented regarding the two additions to the crew. Ochowicz sees the inclusion of Savary as particularly important: “Rene has years of experience working with professional cyclist on the professional circuit and at the Olympic level. He will be a valuable asset to our group of directors.” Mike Sayers who joined the team as Assistant Directeur Sportif for the USA earlier this year has also extended his contract with the team.
The Head Directeur Sportif John Lelangue is extremely pleased with the strong new additions to his team. “I am naturally very happy to have three such competent assistants. Mike will be focused on the American riders and our U23 project, Fabio will be our man for the Classics and Italian races, and René will be most involved in the development and recruitment of our young Swiss riders.” While René Savary, who already assisted John Lelangue at 2009 at the Dauphiné Libéré and the Tour de Romandie, and Mike Sayers both have several years of experience within the BMC system, for Fabio Baldato the move to BMC as a director marks the beginning of a new stage in his career. Racing as a professional from 1991 to 2008 Fabio Baldato can boast 40 wins in his career. Among his biggest successes are stage wins in all three Grand tours, and he also came second twice at the Tour of Flanders and once at the Paris-Roubaix. Baldato, who will join his former teammate Alessandro Ballan, has a considerable amount of confidence in his new team: "The BMC team already seems at a high level."
Team Sky Announces Three More
Press Release: Team Sky today announced three more riders for the new professional road cycling team; Sylvain Calzati, Nicolas Portal and Mathew Hayman.
A total of 22 riders have now been announced by the team, which will race for the first time at the Tour Down Under in January 2010.
Announcing the riders Dave Brailsford, Team Principal for Team Sky, said; “We want to be able to compete at the highest level from the beginning of the year and with these new signings we have added significantly to our ability to do that. These new signings underline our international profile and our striving ambition to put together an excellent high-performance group of athletes who will be able to put Team Sky on the map in the new season. “
He continued; “It’s a great pleasure for us to have Sylvain and Nicolas onboard as our first two French riders. They are both experienced pros with a lot of good results on their CVs and they are both really versatile, all-round riders. Mathew has made his mark at the Classics, is a great team player and a solid performer throughout the year.”
The new signings are:
SYLVAIN CALZATI - 30-year old Calzati was racing this season with Agritubel and got his breakthrough three years ago by winning the 8th stage of the 2006 Tour de France. Prior to that he won the prestigious Tour de L’Avenir in 2004.
NICOLAS PORTAL - Portal has been with the Spanish team Caisse d’Epargne for the last four seasons and won his first pro victory at the 2004 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. The 30-year old Frenchman has participated in six editions of the Tour de France in his eight years as a pro.
MATHEW HAYMAN - The Australian rider finished his ninth season as a pro this year where he once again made his mark at the one day classics with a strong 4th place at Gent-Wevelgem. The 31-year old rider from New South Wales has been with Rabobank since he turned pro in 2000. In 2006, he was the Commonwealth Road Race Champion.
Team Sky will compete from the start of 2010, beginning with the Tour Down Under, and hopes to gain an invitation to next year’s Tour de France. The initial squad of around 25 riders will be supported by a team of coaches, technicians and support staff drawn from across the cycling world, many of whom work throughout the year with British elite and developing riders.
The Team Sky riders announced to date are Geraint Thomas, Steve Cummings, Pete Kennaugh, Chris Froome, Ian Stannard, Russell Downing, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Thomas Löfkvist, Kurt Arvesen, Simon Gerrans, Juan Antonio Flecha, Kjell Carlstrom, John Lee Augustyn, Greg Henderson, Lars Petter Nordhaug, Morris Possoni, Michael Barry, Serge Pauwels, Chris Sutton, Sylvain Calzati, Nicolas Portal and Mathew Hayman.
Vasseur Steps Down
After two years as head of the riders union, 39-year-old Cedric Vasseur is stepping down because of personal reasons and to focus more on his professional life.
"I want to thank everyone, and the riders. For two years they have put their trust in me. I found it to be a rich experience, both in human terms and in terms of sport."
Paulo Couto will succeed Vasseur in the position. The CPA was established in 1989 to represent the interests of the professional riders. Vasseur succeeded Francesco Moser in 2007.
Risi And Marvulli On Top In Munich
After four nights of racing in the non-packed Olympiahalle in Munich, Bruno Risi and Franco Marvulli are sitting pretty atop the standings.
1. Risi/Marvulli 223
2. Lampater/Grasmann 201
3. Rasmussen/Morkov 217 (1 lap down)
4. Stam/Schep 142 (1 lap down)
5. De Ketele/Kluge 175 (2 laps down)
6. Siedler/Mueller - TEN laps down!
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