EuroTrash Thursday!

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for the EuroTrash can to be emptied out and sifted through. All the usual suspects are here with the results, the Doping news, the UCI ProTeams, European Track Champs and for sure, how could I forget the transfer news! London to Paris is sold out, but there is always the Alpine Challenge and lastly…happy birthday Brian!

Race Results:
Two-for-two for Chris Horner
Team RadioShack’s Chris Horner won the Storm the Beach Cyclocross on Sunday in Oceanside, California. The 8th race of the Southern California Prestige Series of Cyclocross ended in a two man battle between Horner and Sid Taberlay, the leader in the Series.

“It was a battle between us for the whole hour of racing”, explained Chris Horner. “In the final sand section a mishap from Sid Taberlay opened a gap between us. I managed to hold that gap to the finish line. Not bad at all. After my win in Irvine last week I’m two-for-two for my cyclocross season.”

Next week Chris Horner will start in two UCI cyclocross races. “On Saturday and Sunday I will start in Los Angeles, CA (Hansen Dam Park). Some national talents will start over there. I really look forward to these races.”

Tom Zirbel beats Armstrong’s Record
The suspended rider; Tom Zirbel beat Lance Armstrong’s record in the 25 kilometre time trial in the Tour de Gruene. Zirbel is currently serving a two year doping ban, but the Tour de Gruene is a non-affiliated race, so Zirbel is free to race as the Tour isn’t run under WADA regulations. Armstrong’s record for the 25 kilometres of 33:14 was set in 2008; Zribel covered the same course in 32:15.

Grenoble “6 Days”
The swiss pairing of Alexander Aeschbach and Franco Marvulli came from behind on the last night. They had been sitting in third place with 247 points on the same lap as Ciccone & Viviana on 254 points in 1st place and Madsen & Hestler also on 254 points in 2nd.

In the last Madison of the “& Days” Aeschbach & Marvulli took a lap with 4th placed Stam & Van Bon for full points and the race, Stam & Van Bon also moved up to second.

Stay tuned to Pez for more reports from the track centre from our man Ed.

Grenoble “6 Day” Final Result:
1. Alexander Aeschbach/Franco Marvulli (Swi) 289 pts
2. Danny Stam/Leon Van Bon (Ned) 275 pts
3. Jens-Erik Madsen/Marc Hester (Den) 284 pts at 1 lap
4. Angelo Ciccone/Elia Viviani (Ita) 277 pts
5. Tim Mertens/Kenny de Ketele (Bel) 276 pts
6. Jiri Hochmann/Milan Kadlec (Cze) 178 pts at 3laps.

Transfer News:
Rogers to Sky
Australian Michael Rogers has left HTC-Colombia for a two year contract with Team Sky. Rogers had a successful 2010 season; he won the Vuelta a Andalucнa and the Amgen Tour of California, second in the Criterium International and third in the Strade Bianche and the Tour of Romandie. He should fit in well at Sky as there are many of his old HTC teammates already there.

Ligthart for Vacansoleil
After trying the Pro game as a stagier with Vacansoliel this year, Pim Ligthart has been given a two year contract with the Dutch team. The 22 year old has ridden for his nation in the U23 World championships and rode in the Tours of Britain, Limousin and Denmark for Vacansoliel.

Three too Luxembourg Project
Stefan Denifl, Will Clarke and Brice Feillu will all be riding with the Schleck brothers next year at the Luxembourg Project team. Feillu rode won the Andorra stage of the Tour de France in 2009 and is coming from Vacansoliel. Denifl has been riding with Cervelo and young Australian Will Clarke has been riding in Belgium and comes highly rated by Stuart O’Grady who will be a team mate next year.

Two more for Saxo Bank-SunGard
It is with great joy that Saxo Bank-SunGard can welcome Volodimir Gustov back on the team on a one year contract after two years with Cervelo. With his tempo riding qualities, climbing skills and team spirit, the Ukrainian all-rounder helped Team CSC to the overall Giro d’Italia in 2006 and Team CSC-Saxo Bank to the Tour de France victory in 2008:

“I’m happy to return to the team where I have memories of great performances with Bjarne Riis in the Giro d’ Italia in 2006 and the Tour de France in 2008. More importantly, I’m looking forward to returning to the team philosophy which has helped me – not only in cycling but also in my personal life. Actually, I’m rather emotional about returning to the team and I’m highly motivated to achieve great results with my teammates,” says Volodimir Gustov.

Saxo Bank-SunGard has also signed a one year contract with the 22-year-old Italian talent, Manuele Boaro. For four years, the Italian has ridden for Zalf-Dйsirйe-Fior where he has demonstrated great stability by often finishing near the very top. By winning the Italian time trial junior championship, he has proven his talents in the race against the clock as well.

“I’m honoured to get this huge opportunity on the future Saxo Bank-SunGard. This is a dream about to come true and I’ll do my very best to demonstrate my worth and to pay back the confidence that Bjarne (Riis) is showing me by offering me this contract. Naturally, I’m looking forward to meeting my new teammates and the staff around the team,” comments Manuele Boaro.

Josй Rujano back to Androni Giocattoli
The tiny Venezuelan climber is returning to the team that he had his best performances with; Androni Giocattoli and the smooth manager Gianni Savio. His career flowered in the 2005 with a podium place, the mountains jersey and a stage win in the Giro d’Italia. He moved on to Quick-Step, Unibet, Caisse d’Eparnge and ISD, after that he went back to race in South America, this maybe the new start he needs?

New Communications Manager for Team Saxo Bank-Sungard
Riis Cycling and Team Saxo Bank-Sungard has named journalist Anders Damgaard as our new Communications Manager.

Anders will be in charge of our cooperation with both the Danish and international press and contribute to the further development of all Team Saxo Bank-Sungard’s communication channels, both internally and externally as well as public relations.

“We have been searching for the right profile for the job as Riis Cycling’s Communications Manager for quite some time, and I’m convinced that Anders with his background as an experienced journalist fits perfect to our organization, to the team and to me. We are happy to welcome Anders as a part of our team,” says Bjarne Riis.

“During the latest months, we have been working on restructuring our organization. As a vital part of this strategy, it’s natural for us to strengthen the focus on our communication, externally in relation to our stakeholders and internally at Riis Cycling. I feel confident that Anders can help develop our future media strategy,” says Bjarne Riis.

Anders Damgaard is 35 years old and has been working as a sports journalist at the national Danish news agency Ritzaus Bureau and the daily papers Berlingske Tidende and B.T. In 2008 he was named “Sportswriter of the Year” in Denmark. During the last couple of years he has covered some of the world’s biggest sports events, including the Tour de France.
Anders Damgaard will start his new job at Riis Cycling the 1st of January 2011.

UCI ProTeam and ProConti Teams announced
The first teams who will be in the top tier of Pro cycling have been announced. Omega Pharma-Lotto, Garmin-Cervelo, Rabobank and Sky are confirmed to given ProTeam licenses for 2011. The other teams who are also in the running are: Luxembourg Project, HTC-Highroad, Lampre, Katusha, Liquigas-Cannondale, Saxo Bank-SunGard, RadioShack, Vacansoleil, Astana, Movistar and BMC. This puts Euskaltel, Geox-TMC, Quick-Step, Cofidis and Ag2r in the “possible” section, but Pegasus and FdJ will not be ProTeam. Full list is expected on the 20th of November.

The UCI ProContinental licenses have been given to twelve teams, they are:
Team Type 1, Unitedhealthcare ProCycling, Androni Giocattoli, Bretagne-Schuller, Caja Rural, Colnago-CSF Inox, Europcar, Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli, Landbouwkrediet, Saur-Sojasun, Skil-Shimano, Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator and probably FdJ and Pegasus.

The system of choosing the teams has been based on the team’s results over the last two years. The team rankings are:
1. Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project
2. Rabobank Cycling Team
3. Garmin-Cervйlo
4. HTC-Highroad
5. Omega Pharma-Lotto
6. Lampre-ISD
7. Katusha
8. Sky Pro Cycling
9. Liquigas-Cannondale
10. Saxo Bank SunGard
11. Team RadioShack
12. Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
13. Pro Team Astana
14. Movistar Team
15. BMC Racing Team
16. Euskaltel-Euskadi
17. Geox-TMC
18. Quick-Step Cycling Team
19. Cofidis Le Crйdit en ligne
20. Ag2r
21. FdJ
22. Saur-Sojasun
23. Pegasus Sports
24. Skil-Shimano
25. Acqua e Sapone
26. Colnago-CSF Inox
27. Europcar
28. Androni Giocattoli
29. Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator
30. Veranda’s Willems-Accent
31. Team Type 1
32. CCC Polsat Polkowice
33. Bretagne-Schuller
34. Farnese Vini – Neri Sottoli
35. Landbouwkrediet
36. UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling
37. Team Netapp
38. Team SpiderTech powered by C10
39. Caja Rural
40. Colombia Es Pasion-Cafй de Colombia
41. De Rosa-Ceramica Flamina
42. Andalucia Caja Granada.

Geox- TMC for Grand Tours
Tour winner Carlos Sastre and Giro and Vuelta winner Denis Menchov may give their new team; Geox a two pronged attack at some of the Grand Tours. Team manager; Joxean “Matxin” Fernandez told Spanish ESPN “I talked to both after the presentation of the Tour and we are considering the possibility that Carlos can participate in the three Grand Tours, which is complicated but Sastre has done it before and knows how to deal with it.” On the subject of Menchov he added; “I think the Giro and Tour combination is perfectly adaptable to the characteristics of Denis.” It is a strong team and has a few other options, but “Matxin” has one big objective, as he pointed out; “winning, that’s the clear objective.”

Big Names for Revolution in Manchester
Alex Rasmussen and Michael Mшrkшv will be lining up with Franco Marvulli, Sebastian Donadio, Leif Lampater and Christian Grassmann. Those “6 Day” stars will join the strong British contingent of Rob Hayles, Alex Dowsett and junior World Champions; Dan McLay and Simon Yates. Tickets are available from www.cylingrevolution.com or by phone: 0845 208 1840.

British Motorpoint Team Continues
After a couple of weeks of doubts about the future of the British Motorpoint team it has been revealed that it will continue next year and with the possibility of expansion with a woman’s team. Two of their riders (Andy Tennant and Ed Clancy) had taken places in the Rapha-Condor-Sharp team, but the others held on and will be joined by new members to be announced soon.

Doping News:
Not so much this week, but it never goes away!
Landis on Trial in France
Floyd Landis will stand trial in France on charges of hacking along with his former coach Arnie Baker. They are accused of hacking the computer of French laboratory; Chatenay-Malabry and data on their computers was either changed or disappeared. The hacked files where used in his defence at his U.S. hearings. The hacking was traced to the same IP address as the computer of Arnie Baker. Landis is at present racing in New Zealand’s Tour of Southland.

Popovych Subpoenaed in U.S.
RadioShack rider: Yaroslav Popovych has been subpoenaed to appear before a U.S. Grand Jury in connection to the Lance Armstrong investigation. He rode with Armstrong in the Discovery Channel team between 2005 and 2007 and then again with Armstrong in Astana in 2009 and now at RadioShack.

AFLD and UCI Together for Tour Tests
The French Anti Doping Agency is willing to work with the UCI on the top French races next year. The two bodies fell out after a “lack of co-operation and trust evident between the UCI and AFLD” which was pointed out in a report by WADA.

Elite European Track Championships
Friday in Warsaw Opening Ceremony and the Polish Cycling Federation celebrates it’s 90th anniversary
There are only a few days to go until the opening of the Elite European Championships on track scheduled for November 5th to the 7th in Warsaw, Poland. Yesterday, Tuesday, November 2nd, the official press conference announcing the event took place in the Polish capital. Today the athletes are already at work in the velodrome for their first free training sessions, which will be essential if they are to get to know the hard wood ring of the BGZ Arena in Pruszkow.

On Friday, November 5th, at 7:00 p.m., all the national athletes participating in the continental event will be on parade at the fantastic opening ceremony. The ceremony will also be the ideal occasion to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Polish Cycling Federation (Polski Związek Kolarski), which is headquartered at the BGZ Arena in Pruszkow. It will be an important historic moment featuring polish cycling stars from yesterday and today (including Czeslaw Lang, cycling’s silver medallist at the 1980 Moscow Olympics and actual head of the Tour de Pologne organisation as well as this continental track event). All the strongest Polish professionals from today’s scene as well as many VIPs from the world of politics and sport will also be there. Following the opening ceremony on Friday evening, races that will assign the first medals will be held. There will be many athletes from all over Europe lined up at the start, and great athletes from the British and German national teams will be vying to dominate the 2010 Continental Championship.

You can follow all the action live by buying your tickets directly at the velodrome box office, or you can purchase tickets online at: https://eurotrack2010.eu/. Remember that admission to the morning training and qualifying sessions is free. If you can’t make it to Pruszkow you can still follow the races thanks to excellent media coverage of the event by Polish TV with TVP1, TVP2 and TVP Sport as well as several hours of daily live coverage on Eurosport satellite channel.

The LONDON-PARIS 2011 Sells Out in Record Time
London, UK – The London-Paris 2011 opened for entries at 12 noon (GMT) yesterday, November 1st, and sold out in 15 minutes. Considered the UK’s foremost cyclosportive, The London-Paris is now cemented as one of the premier cycling events on the calendar and HotChillee’s Sven Thiele was pleasantly surprised at the exceptional demand for places.

“This is amazing”, said an excited Thiele. “We thought the demand for places in 2010 was incredible, with the event selling out in just 20 hours, but this uptake has taken even us by surprise. It’s testimony to this unique event and its popularity which increases year on year.

We understand that there must be disappointed riders who have not managed to enter; we hope that they place themselves on the reserve list or consider The Alpine Challenge in September which is our new multi-day cyclosportive taking place in the Alps”.

Held in September 2011 the Alpine Challenge is a spectacular three-stage event based on the same formula as that used in The London-Paris event. The Alpine Challenge features 3 stages over 3 days, and participants can enjoy all the benefits of a professional support crew, technical and mechanical support, rolling road closures and motorcycle outriders – leaving them to focus on conquering the three mountain road stages! Further details will be announced shortly.

All participants can keep up to date with event news, stars, sponsors and features of The London-Paris 2011 event via the event website.

Happy Birthday to a True Champion
British rider Brian Robinson is 80 years old, all the present GB Pro’s have him to thank for laying the path to continental stardom. He has great palmares; two stage wins in the Tour de France, other stage wins in; Midi Libere, Dauphin Libere and Tour de l’Aude, 3rd in Milan-San Remo, 4th in Fleche Wallone and lots of other placings in all the top races in the 1950’s and early 60’s. He still rides his bike and is a very nice bloke too! Happy birthday Brian.

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