EuroTrash Monday!

Well we are still here, those Mayans must be fans of cyclo-cross as there have been three cross races since Thursday, we have the results and the videos. Bad news for Alessandro Ballan as he needed multiple operations after a training crash, up-dated news. Lots of other news in the last EuroTrash before Christmas, I hope you all have a great festive season and don’t eat too much!

“Top Story”

Who Won the 2005 Vuelta a Espaсa?
Roberto Heras won the 2005 Vuelta a Espaсa, I remember it well, I went to some of the stages and watched much of the race on TV. On stage 20, the 38.9 kilometre time trial from Guadalajara to Alcalб de Henares, was second on the stage to consolidate his overall lead. After the final stage 21 to Madrid, he was crowned Vuelta winner by 4 minutes and 36 seconds over the Russian Denis Menchov of Rabobank, but then he was found to have taken EPO on that time trial stage and Menchov became the winner and the Spanish Cycling Federation banned him for two years. Heras was not going to take the decision lying down, but didn’t go down the usual path of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, he took his case to the Spanish civil court and in June 2011 his conviction was overturned due to his samples being incorrectly stored and that the anonymity of the samples had not been observed.

The Spanish Cycling Federation had to appeal the case to the Supreme Court, but the higher authority said there were no grounds to overturn the decision of the lower court. So Heras is again the winner of the 2005 Vuelta a Espaсa.

Makes you think that if a certain Lance Armstrong was to go the same route and received the same decision, where would we be then?

The stage 20 time trial in the 2005 Vuelta a Espaсa:

UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, Namur 2012
Sunday’s World Cup cyclo-cross on the Citadel of Namur was a muddy and technical course that suited a strongman with lots of climbing and running, with a big drop-off, more suited to an MTB course. Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Revor) went from the gun, he was joined by Francis Mourey (FDJ-BigMat), but a puncture put an end to his victory plans, although he finished 4th. Pauwels just rode harder as the race progressed and no one could get near him. World champion; Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) and Belgian champion; Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet-Euphony) chased hard, but could not make any impression on the flying Pauwels. At the finish Pauwels was a comfortable winner from Nys by 48 seconds as bad luck hit Albert who had to change bikes at the pit area just before the finish with a puncture. With the bad luck for Albert, Nys has moved to 10 points behind the World champion in the UCI World cup.

UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, Namur Result:
1. Kevin Pauwels (Bel) Sunweb-Revor in 1:02:47
2. Sven Nys (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Euphony at 0:48
3. Niels Albert (Bel) BKCP-Powerplus at 1:00
4. Francis Mourey (Fra) FDJ-BigMat at 1:21
5. Klaas Vantornout (Bel) Sunweb-Revor at 1:45
6. Bart Aernouts (Bel) AA Drink at 2:20
7. Thijs Van Amerongen (Ned) AA Drink at 2:37
8. Lars Van Der Haar (Ned) Rabobank Giant Offroad at 2:50
9. Tom Meeusen (Bel) Telenet-Fidea at 3:16
10. Niels Wubben (Ned) Rabobank Giant Offroad at 3:23.

Here is the link to the last lap on Sporza.

Bpost Bank Trofee, GP Rouwmoer 2012
Making one of his few Cyclo-cross appearances, Zdenek Stybar showed he had not lost any of his skills in the mud and at the final he won. Trouble was he put Jan Denuwalaere (Style & Concept) in to the crowd barriers and was disqualified; Denuwalaere hit the ground but did slide across the line for the win. After the early battle for points at the intermediate sprint between Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) and Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet-Euphony), Stybar and Denuwalaere were the men in control, with the young Belgian showing the others how to ride in the mud. Nys suffered as the race progressed with the group of Stybar, Denuwalaere, Albert and Rob Peeters (Telenet-Fidea) riding away in the freezing rain. In the end the race came down to the sprint between the Czech and the Belgian, Stybar led out and Denuwalaere and when the Belgian tried to come through on Stybars left, he closed the door putting him into the barrier and the ground. Denuwalaere 1st, Stybar 4th.

“It was a great pity what happened in the sprint and that the cross had to finish that way,” Stybar said to Sporza. “I would like to express my apologies to Jan; I’m pleased that he has nothing broken.”

Boost Bank Toffee, GP Roomier Result :
1. Jan Denuwelaere (Bel) Style & Concept in 1:00:05
2. Rob Peeters (Bel) Telenet-Fidea
3. Niels Albert (Bel) BKCP-Powerplus at 0:01
4. Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Omega Pharma – Quick-Step
5. Sven Nys (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Euphony at 0:32
6. Klaas Vantornout (Bel) Sunweb-Revor at 0:55
7. Thijs Van Amerongen (Ned) AA Drink at 1:04
8. Kevin Pauwels (Bel) Sunweb-Revor
9. Bart Wellens (Bel) Telenet-Fidea at 1:42
10. Tom Meeusen (Bel) Telenet-Fidea at 1:46.

Here is the link to the last lap on Sporza.

GP De Ster Cyclo-cross, Sint Niklaas 2012
Much the same result as many other cyclo-cross races this year as Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet-Euphony) beat World champion Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus). Ex-World cross champion; Lars Boom made a rare outing, but finished only in 13th place.

GP De Ster Cyclo-cross, Sint Niklaas Result:
1. Sven Nys (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Euphony in 1:00:16
2. Niels Albert (Bel) BKCP – Powerplus at 0:02
3. Tom Meeusen (Bel) Telenet – Fidea at 0:04
4. Francis Mourey (Fra) FDJ-BigMat at 0:05
5. Philipp Walsleben (Ger) BKCP-Powerplus
6. Rob Peeters (Bel) Telenet-Fidea at 0:06
7. Dieter Vanthourenhout (Bel) BKCP-Powerplus at 0:10
8. Wietse Bosmans (Bel) BKCP-Powerplus
9. Radomir Simunek (Cze) BKCP-Powerplus at 0:39
10. Michael Vanthourenhout (Bel) BKCP-Powerplus at 0:55.

Here is the link to the last lap on Sporza.

Men & Women Will Receive Equal Prize Money at Worlds
The UCI have announced that the prize winners at the World championships will receive the same amount of money be they men or women. The only differences being the team time trial as the women have less riders. The new rule will come in time for the World Cyclo-cross championships in the US in February 2013.

Women’s Gent-Wevelgem ’12:

Garzelli for Vini Fantini-Selle Italia
The 39 year old Italian; Stefano Garzelli will be with the Vini Fantini-Selle Italia team for the 2013 season with an aim of riding the Giro d’Italia. The 2000 Giro winner is looking to take the KOM jersey for the third time after 2009 and 2011, but first the team has to receive a “Wild Card” entry which might be difficult if one of those places goes to Katusha. As to the changes he’s seen over his 15 year professional career, he said to Gazetta dello Sport “I preferred cycling before, more European.”

Stefano Garzelli wins the Cima Coppi:

Degenkolb: German Rider of the Year
Argos-Shimano sprinter John Degenkolb has been voted German Rider of the Year by the readers of the German magazine RadSport. Degenkolb won the UCI EuropeTour and twelve race wins this year, including five Vuelta a Espaсa stage wins. He beat Tony Martin (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step) by 21 votes and Andrй Greipel (Lotto Belisol) by 49 votes.

John Degenkolb:

Ban for Galimzyanov
Ex-Katusha rider Denis Galimzyanov has been given a two year ban for his out of competition positive test for EPO on March the 22nd. After Galimzyanov was found positive he admitted he had used EPO and that the team knew nothing about his doping, his ban dates from April the 13th 2012 when he was provisionally suspended by the UCI.

Denis Galimzyanov wins the Tour of Beijing’s final stage 2011:

Frдnk Schleck Verdict Due End of January
After a two hour hearing with the Luxembourg Anti-Doping Agency, it has been announced that the Agency will give their verdict on the 30th of January. Schleck was found positive for Xipamide, a diuretic, during the Tour de France, but claims to have ingested it with-out his knowledge.

Frank Schleck out of Tour de France after failing doping test:

Bassons: 1 Year Ban Down to 1 Month
Ex-Pro and strong anti-doping advocate; Christophe Bassons missed the doping control after the French MTB Marathon championships, he claims due to suffering from lack of food, due to missing the last feed point on the race. He returned to his car and started to drive home when he had a phone call telling him had been called for the control and had half an hour to get back, this was impossible as he had driven too far. Phone calls were made but in the end he missed the doping control. The French Cycling Federation gave him a one year ban from competition. The ban has been dropped to 1 month, but Bassons will fight on to completely clear his name.

Simeoni was in the same position as Bassons when it came to omerta:

Nissan Pull Out
The Luxembourg Newspaper Le Quotidien is reporting that the Nissan car company will end its sponsorship of the RadioShack-Nissan-Trek team at the end of this year, but that the team does have a contract with Nissan until the end of 2013. In this case, similar to Rabobank and previously with T-Mobile, the team would receive the promised money for the year, but the sponsors’ name would not appear on the jerseys, bikes or vehicles. There is the possibility that Trek would become the second named sponsor.

A lot of things change in a year:

Jimmy Casper Retires
After a 15 year professional career, Frenchman Jimmy Casper has decided to hang up his wheels, he says due to not receiving any offers from teams for 2013. Casper was never a top line sprinter, probably due to his teams not giving him as much support as some of the other fast-men, but he still took some impressive wins in his career, 61 to be precise. He has a Tour de France stage win and the Paris-Camembert Classic in his palmarйs. His future is said to be in coaching.

Jimmy Casper’s bad, bad crash in Gent-Wevelgem:

Rodriguez Unhappy with WorldTour Situation
World No.1; Joaquim Rodriguez was not in the best of moods at the Katusha team presentation in Brescia and suggested that it is possible he could change team, but he will wait to hear what the Court of Arbitration for Sport have come to a decision on the UCI License Commission’s decision on Katusha’s WorldTour place. There could be an interim verdict on January the 10th, that could allow Katusha to ride as a WorldTour team until a final decision is made.

Joaquim Rodriguez wins Fleche Wallonne 2012:

RCS Delay Giro “Wild Card” Selection
Giro d’Italia organisers; RCS Sport are delaying the announcement of the “Wild Card” teams for their events: Strade Bianche, Giro del Lazio, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milano-Sanremo, Il Lombardia and of course the Giro d’Italia. Originally the announcement was to be on the 8th of January, but due to the Katusha team not receiving a WorldTour license the organisation is waiting to see how events unfold. RCS had hoped to give teams more time to prepare for the big events; the eighteen WorldTour teams automatically receive entry, with four Wild Card teams making up the field.

2013 Giro d’Italia Presentation:

Hinault to Visit the Tour Down Under
Five times Tour de France winner; Bernard Hinault will be at the 2013 Tour Down Under as a special guest. He will attend the Legends’ Night Dinner in Adelaide on the 26th of January as well as the final stages of the Australian stage race.

Let’s hope there isn’t a fight:

All Tour Finishers Invited to 2013 Final
For the 100th Tour de France this year, ASO, the Tour organisers, have invited all the surviving Tour finishers to the final stage in Paris on July the 21st. according to L’Equipe there are 2,060 riders still alive that finished the French race, and the “Giants of the Tour” will attend a special event the evening before the final stage in the Tuileries Gardens and will sit in a special enclosure during the stage which finishes late at night on the Champs-Elysйes.

Dont think these guy’s will get an invite:

Ballan Undergoes Surgery After Training Camp Crash
Alessandro Ballan suffered a broken leg, a broken rib and an injured spleen Thursday when he crashed on the penultimate day of the BMC Racing Team’s training camp in Spain. The injuries require at least two separate surgeries – the first of which was taking place Thursday night, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Max Testa said.

Spleen Will Be Removed
Ballan was descending the Coll de Rates climb near Parcent toward the end of a four-hour training ride when the high-speed accident occurred. After being taken to a local hospital by BMC Racing Team Dr. Dario Spinelli, Ballan was diagnosed with a mid-shaft, displaced fracture of his left femur, a fracture of his ninth rib and some abdominal trauma. “The broken rib actually made a small puncture in his lung,” Dr. Testa said. “The first priority is the spleen injury – that is considered a medical emergency.” Ballan was undergoing surgery to remove his spleen Thursday night and a decision on when and where his broken leg can be operated on will come at a later time, Dr. Testa said.

Lelangue: ‘His Loss Means A Lot’
BMC Racing Team Directeur Sportif John Lelangue visited Ballan at the hospital and said the team’s first priority is making sure the 2008 world road champion can rest and recover properly. Ballan had been scheduled to compete in the season-opening race, the Santos Tour Down Under, in Australia next month. “Of course his loss means a lot since Alessandro is one of our key riders for the classics,” Lelangue said. “But most important right now is that he can recover and just get back to his normal process. We’ll wait for all the medical information before even beginning to think about what could be his plan for coming back.”

Ballan won two races in 2012: the final stage of the Eneco Tour of Benelux and the one-day Giro della Toscana. He was the team’s best finisher at Paris-Roubaix (third), the Tour of Flanders (third), Strade Bianche (fourth) and Milan-San Remo (eighth). He also helped the BMC Racing Team earn a silver medal in the team time trial at the UCI road world championships.

The Up To Date News:
BMC Racing Team’s Ballan Recovering Well, Appreciative Of Support

BMC Racing Team’s Alessandro Ballan was resting comfortably Saturday after undergoing successful surgeries to remove his spleen and repair a double fracture of his left femur. The injuries were the result of a high-speed crash Thursday during a team training ride near Parcent, Spain.

Receiving Good Care
BMC Racing Team Chief Medical Officer Dr. Max Testa said the surgery to fix Ballan’s displaced fracture went very well late Thursday night and into Friday morning. In addition to breaking his leg, the 2008 world road champion fractured a rib and suffered abdominal trauma, including a ruptured spleen. “When the doctors realized he would have to stay in the hospital longer because of his abdominal injuries, they decided to take care of his femur at the same time since he was already sedated,” Testa said. “The orthopedic surgeon said he was very pleased with how the bones lined up and the doctors are cautiously optimistic that he will make a full recovery with no complications.” Testa thanked the staff of Hospital Dйnia Marina Salud, where Ballan is expected to remain for at least a few more days. “They have been doing a great job of monitoring him closely and going to great lengths to make sure he is receiving good care,” he said.

Thankful For Messages
Ballan has been in the company of his wife, Daniela, since early Friday morning and attended to by BMC Racing Team Doctor Dario Spinelli since the accident occurred. From his hospital bed Saturday, Ballan said he has been appreciative of all the emails, Tweets and posts to the BMC Racing Team Facebook page he has received. “I have been moved by all the messages of support I have received,” he said. “It lifts my spirits to know there are so many people all over the world who are wishing me well for a fast recovery. Thank you to everyone.”

No Timetable For Return
BMC Racing Team President/General Manager Jim Ochowicz said riders, management and staff have been deeply affected by Ballan’s crash, which occurred on the penultimate day of training camp. “We don’t know how long Alessandro will be out of competition, but I’m confident our other riders will dig a little deeper to make up for his absence,” Ochowicz said. “What’s been nice to see is how everyone has stepped up from the moment this happened, especially Dr. Spinelli, who is giving up his holidays.” Ballan had been scheduled to begin his season at the Santos Tour Down Under in Australia but no decision has been made on who will replace him for that race.
Thanks to BMC’s Sean Weide for the up-date.

Ballan wins World road race championships in 2008, let’s hope we see him win again:

Team Lampre sign agreement with Named
Press Release: The company based in Lesmo, Lombardy, will become official supplier of the team managed by Giuseppe Saronni for what concerns sport nutritional supplements and natural medicine products.

In addition, Named will give blue-fuchsia team’s cyclists and staff members personalized backpacks and bags.

Named, acronym of Natural Medicine, was established in 1988 and its huge attention to the quality of the products of the natural medicine line and the constant scientific research made it become an important benchmark in this branch.

The sport mission is all in the motto “Your performance at the top. 25 years of innovation and reliability”. Named is willing to spread to doctors, trainers, physiotherapists, technics, athletes and the sport fans a healthy and correct culture linked to nutritional supplements.

The miscellaneous experiences in sport field, in which the effects of a bad nutrition and supplement have huge rebounds on the performances, and the cooperation with the doctors in sport medicine and top level trainers helped Named to create the “sport line”, that was born in the the early 2011 and it is looked after in deep way. Named Sport is really satisfied to continue his presence in the professional cycling, becoming “Official Supplier” of Team Lampre.

Named is well known in the nutritional supplements field thanks to its top quality and to a range of products realized on the basis of clinical researches and tested by famous sportsmen. Named Sport is a complete line both for professional athletes and for who simply wants to perform healthy sport activity for fun.

Mister Fabio Canova, CEO of Named, commented the agreement with Team Lampre, pointing out that: “I’m really happy that Named could become part of such important team, giving an interesting contribution with the supplying of top quality nutritional supplements. For many years these supplements have been used by professional cycling teams and we’re satisfied to have the chance to provide them to Team Lampre’s champions, in order to assure their health by using only natural certified ingredients”.

Doctor Carlo Guardascione too (Team Lampre medical responsible) is satisfied: “The exclusive supplying agreement we signed with Named will grant to the team and to the athletes in important support in the nutritional field and for what concerns the problems due to an intense activity. The sanitary staff of the team thanks Named for the care that was shown to accept the suggestions of the doctors and athletes of the team in order to optimize the production of the nutritional supplements and their use during and after the races”.

For more info about the products by Named Sport, please visit the new website www.namedsport.it.

Lampre team promo:

Strava adds Advanced Power Training Tools to its Growing Feature Set
Premium Members Also Gain Access to Custom Heart Rate Zones, Goals, and GPX Download

Press Release: Strava has announced a suite of new power meter features for Strava Premium that will help members gain more useful data to guide their training and their overall experience of social fitness. In the same way that they compare segments and ride times, Premium Members will now be able to share and analyze the technical training data that only a power meter can provide.

Strava’s new Advanced Power Training Analysis, available now, dissects and displays power meter data to provide new ways to analyze rides and organize training programs. After uploading their rides, Strava Premium members can dive into their ride data through customizable charts and graphs.

“Advance Power Training Analysis is part of a growing set of Premium features designed to further motivate our athletes, help them train more intelligently, and have fun while doing it,” said Michael Horvath, Co-Founder and CEO. “Smarter, more motivated athletes will perform better and we have a lot lined up to help our Premium members in 2013.”

This initial set of power meter features includes:
Power Curve: This graph shows a rider’s average power for time periods from 1 second up to the length of the given ride. It pinpoints best efforts during a ride and lets the user compare them to best efforts over the previous six weeks, current year, previous years, or all time. And the data can be displayed in total watts or watts per kilogram.
Power Zones: This seven-zone feature helps users train smarter and more efficiently by dialing in their training zones to see how much time they spend at various effort levels.
Power Comparison: Shows users how they attack a ride and compares their performance against their friends, locals and pros.
Weighted Power Average: Looks at all of the power variation and provides an average for the ride, which is a better indicator of overall effort than simply taking average power.
Training Load: Strava calculates this by comparing power during a ride with the user’s
Functional Threshold Power (FTP) and analyzing the load put on the body during the ride. This is helpful for determining how much rest to get after a workout.

Additionally, Premium members can now set custom heart rate zones to quantify the intensity levels of their workouts, download GPX files from Strava.com and load them onto their Garmin, plus set time and distance goals and track their progress week over week. Learn more at: www.strava.com/premium.

About Strava:

Music and Bikes
Given the season, Schlang Larry thought that you might be interested in a new holiday/biking song/video by Nora and One Left called Big Red Bicycle. The band’s recently released CD “bicycle”, has songs about biking, music and life – for adults *and* kids. Here’s the link to the video:

Any comments drop me a line, email address: [email protected] or Twitter. And there is the PezCyclingNews Twitter and Facebook Fan Page.