EuroTrash Thursday!
Today in EuroTrash Thursday we catch-up with the cyclo-cross Nation Championships we missed on Monday with as much video action as we can find. Throw in La Vuelta a Espaсa route, Giro d’Italia “Wild Cards” and the Tour of the Med, plus the Tour on TV and The Rotterdam 6-Day. Loads to look at; coffee and cake time for a Thursday?
“Top Story”: La Vuelta a Espaсa 2012
I wasn’t sure whether to go with the Alberto Contador case or the Vuelta presentation today, but the drugs thing is getting a bit boring, so here is a taste of the Spanish Tour for 2012.
Starting on Saturday August the 18th to Sunday September the 9th 2012, the 67th Vuelta a Espaсa will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,300 kilometres. These stages have the following profiles:
– 6 flat stages
– 13 mountain stages
– 1 team time-trial stage
– 1 individual time-trial stage
Distinctive aspects of the race
– 6 summit finishes
– 2 rest days
– 16 km team time-trial
– 40 km individual time-trial stage
– 37 mountain passes and hills
More information on: www.lavuelta.com
Those are the bare bones of the race and looking at the course, the race could be made for Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) or Joaquim “Purito” Rodrнguez of Katusha. The first thing that strikes me is that there are no stages near where I live, so either I will be making some big expenses claims or there is going to be a lot of couch and TV time this year in September! As usual I’ll be making my way to my office/bar to check out the Spanish newspapers and put some flesh on the bones of La Vuelta 2012. Stay PEZ for that coming soon.
Cyclo-cross Championships Catch-Up!
USA Cyclo-cross Champs
Jeremy Powers (Rapha-Focus) took his first US National cyclo-cross championship after an attack during the second last lap, leaving his main adversaries and the main favourites; Trebon, Page, McDonald and Johnson. Once Powers had the lead he consolidated on the climb and didn’t take any pit stops.
USA Cyclo-cross Championships 2012 Result:
1. Jeremy Powers (Rapha-Focus) in 1:05:57
2. Ryan Trebon (LTS/Felt) at 0:17
3. Jonathan Page (Planet Bike) at 0:26
4. Zach Mcdonald (Rapha-Focus) at 0:38
5. Timothy Johnson (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com) at 1:06
6. Christopher Jones (Team Rapha-Focus) at 1:52.
Dutch Cyclo-cross Champs
Lars Boom of Rabobank took his sixth Dutch cyclo-cross championship to go along with his other National medals and his World’s wins. Boom will now revert to his road preparation for the coming season. Niels Wubber was holding on to second place until a crash allowed Thijs Van Ameongen to slip past him.
Dutch Cyclo-cross Championships 2012 Result:
1. Lars Boom (Rabobank) in 1:04:05
2. Thijs Van Amerongen (AA Drink) at 0:22
3. Niels Wubben (Rabobank-Giant) at 0:44.
French Cyclo-cross Champs
The two French Pro’s Steve Chainel and Francis Mourey (both FdJ-BigMat) were shown a clean pair of heels from the amateur rider; Aurйlien Duval of UV Aube.
French Cyclo-cross Championships 2012 Result:
1. Aurйlien Duval (UV Aube) in 1:00:31
2. Steve Chainel (FDJ-Big Mat) at 0:03
3. Francis Mourey (FDJ-Big Mat).
Irish Cyclo-cross Champs
I was very happy to see Robin Seymour win his 18th Irish cyclo-cross championships to add to his many other Irish championships, around forty! Robin is one of the nicest guys you could meet, I was his mechanic for a few year when he was mountain biking in Britain for the Helly Hansen team in the 90’s. Robin is very well known throughout the cycling World, he came up in a conversation recently with Philippe Maertens, PR for the RadioShack team and commentator for Belgian TV station vt4, he knew all about Robin and his palmarйs and expected him to take another championships! Anyway, the forty year old Seymour beat Roger Aitken by taking the lead when Aitken had a mechanical and then consolidated his lead. Thanks to Shane Stokes of Velonation for the info.
Irish Cyclo-cross Championships 2012 Result:
1. Robin Seymour (Team WORC) in 1:2:57
2. Roger Aiken (Banbridge) at 1:42
3. Matthew Adair (Banbrigde) at 2:47.
Here is the race video and interview with Robin with thanks to Velonation.
GB Cyclo-cross Championships 2012 Result:
1. Ian Field in 1:02:08
2. Liam Killeen at 0:03
3. Jody Crawforth at 0:17.
German Cyclo-cross Championships 2012 Result:
1. Christoph Pfingsten in 1:03:00
2. Philipp Walsleben at 0:41
3. Marcel Meisen.
Italian Cyclo-cross Championships 2012 Result:
1. Marco Aurelio Fontana (Cannondale) in 1:02:15
2. Marco Bianco (Centro Sportivo Esercito) at 0:41
3. Cristian Cominelli (Team Idea) at 0:47.
That Other “Top Story”!
The Alberto Contador case rumbles on and it looks like WADA are trying to dirty the waters in the case. It has been “discovered” by AP that the WADA lawyers were on the point of walking out of the hearing back in November due to the blocking of Michael Ashenden as a witness in the case. Ashenden is the scientist who was perfecting a test to find plastic residue in the blood of anyone who had received a transfusion at some point. WADA had stopped funding his experiments as they didn’t think they were feasible, but now they want him to give evidence, but he was stopped by the judges. Also aspersions are been cast against the chairman of the judges on the case, first it was the Israeli Ephraim Barak because Contador’s Saxo Bank team had been in Israel recently and had helped build a cycle school there. Then it was that he had Spanish connections due to him being a professor in International Sport Law and has made speeches in Madrid recently, but he was appointed by CAS, not by Contador or WADA/UCI, he should be very impartial, so why is the dirt being raked?
Contador in the 2010 Tour de France:
Giro d’Italia “Wild Card” Teams
RCS, the organisers of the Giro d’Italia, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Lombardy have announced which are the lucky teams to receive invitations to their events. Androni Giocattoli, Colnago-CSF Inox, Farnese Vini-Selle Italia and Team NetApp will be riding this year’s Giro d’Italia. In Tirreno-Adriatico; Acqua & Sapone, Colnago-CSF Inox, Colombia-Coldeportes and Farnese Vini-Selle Italia. Milan-San Remo; Acqua & Sapone, Colnago-CSF Inox, Colombia-Coldeportes, Farnese Vini-Selle Italia, Project 1t4I, Team Type 1 – Sanofi, Utensilnord Named. The Tour of Lombardy will have; Acqua & Sapone, Androni Giocattoli, Colnago-CSF Inox, Colombia-Coldeportes, Farnese Vini-Selle Italia, Project 1t4I, Utensilnord Named.
Here is a bit of Retro Giro time trial from 1984:
No Giro for Garzelli
Stefano Garzelli’s Acqua & Sapone team did not receive a “Wild Card” invitation to the 2012 Giro d’Italia which Garzelli had said would be his last before retiring. Now that the wont be on the start line he is considering ending his 16 year Pro career early. He is suggesting that RCS made the team choices for the Giro due to money and not sporting merit. Garzelli won the 2000 Giro d’Italia and took the KOM classification last year.
Also No Colombia for Giro
The new Colombia-Coldeportes team also missed out on a Giro d’Italia place, but the team manager; Claudio Corti has said the team will chase places in the Tour de France and/or the Vuelta a Espaсa. Looking at the course of La Vuelta it would suit the Colombian team’s climbing abilities more than the Tour with its longer time trials and less summit finishes.
Colombia’s best rider; Luis Herrera, here he is with Bernard Hinault in Avoriaz:
Tour Mйditerranйen Will Go Ahead!
After the original problems the race was having, it has been announced that the 2012 Tour Mйditerranйen will go on, starting in Pertuis on February 9. Eighteen teams are lined up to take part in the now expected UCI EuropeTour 2.1 event. The teams signed up at the moment are: Vacansoleil-DCM, Saxo Bank, GreenEdge, FdJ-BigMat, Movistar, Garmin-Cervйlo, Astana and Ag2r-La Mondiale from the WorldTour. Accent.Jobs-Willems Veranda’s, Acqua & Sapone, Team Type 1-Sanofi, Europcar, Cofidis, Bretagne Schuller, Spidertech and Saur Sojasun from the ProConti ranks and Continental teams VC La Pomme Marseille and Endura Racing.
This is stage 2 from the 2011 Tour Mйditerranйen:
ITV4 get’s Tour on GB TV
British TV station ITV4 will continue showing the Tour de France, free, until 2015 due to its new agreement with Tour organizers; ASO. During the 2011 Tour the highlights show had a peak viewing audience of over 500,000 with the live coverage receiving nearly 900,000. The final stage touched the 1 million which compared well to the 250,000 for the cricket coverage.
Highlights of the 2011 Tour de France from ITV4.
The Rotterdam 6-Day
Peter Schep/Wim Stroetinga won the Rotterdam “6 Day” after taking the lead on the last night (Tuesday) from the previous leaders Jens Mouris/Franco Marvulli. Favourite team; Niki Terpstra/Iljo Keisse had been on the same lap, but lost 1 on the last night to drop to 4th.
Check-out Ed Hood’s reports from “The Trenches” on PEZ.
The Rotterdam 6-Day Final Result:
1. Peter Schep/Wim Stroetinga (Ned) 331 pts
2. Jens Mouris/Franco Marvulli (Ned/Swi) 319pts
3. Danny Stam/Yoeri Havik (Ned) 231pts
4. (-1 lap) Niki Terpstra/Iljo Keisse (Ned/Bel) 278pts
5. Pim Ligthart/Robert Bartko (Ned/Ger) 216pts
6. (-2 laps) Leif Lampater/Leon Van Bon (Ger/Ned) 218pts
7. (-6 laps) Roy Pieters/Alex Rasmussen (Ned/Den) 120pts
8. (-11 laps) Barry Markus/Marc Hester (Ned/Den) 136pts
9. (-14 laps) Raymond Kreder/Michel Kreder (Ned) 169pts
10.(-19 laps) Wesley Kreder/Melvin Boskamp (Ned) 93pts.
Here is some video of the last night of the Rotterdam “6 day” filmed by a member of the Omega Pharma – Quick-Step team.
Team Garmin-Cervйlo Officially Renamed Team Garmin-Barracuda with Addition of Barracuda Networks as New Sponsor
Press Release: Team Garmin-Cervйlo, the elite American professional cycling team dedicated to ethical sporting and developing the next generation of cycling champions, today announced that it will become Team Garmin-Barracuda with the addition of Barracuda Networks (https://www.barracudanetworks.com) as a new sponsor of the team. Barracuda Networks is the worldwide leader in powerful, affordable content security, network performance and data protection solutions for organizations of all sizes.
“The incredible sense of teamwork, passion and determination, and commitment to innovation, align perfectly with our philosophy on delivering the most innovative solutions and support to our customers,” said Michael Perone, executive vice president and CMO of Barracuda Networks. “This partnership provides a fantastic platform to share that message with millions of people around the world in a unique and meaningful way.”
“We are always looking for partners who, like Garmin, share our passion and commitment to the best innovations in technology, and Barracuda Networks is a perfect fit,” said Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of Slipstream Sports and Director Sportif of Team Garmin-Barracuda. “The partnership with Barracuda Networks is long-term and the company will also allow Slipstream Sports to continue to pursue other co-title sponsor opportunities.”
“We’d like to thank Slipstream for giving us the second team name in 2011 when they had no obligation to do so,” said Phil White, CEO of Cervйlo. “We’re excited that Barracuda Networks is joining the team. It bodes well for the future that the team is attracting new sponsors of this caliber, and Cervйlo looks forward to continuing as a key partner and the official bicycle supplier of the team for the next three years.”
Omega Pharma – Quick-Step Has Big Plans For You!
Press Release: Friday, Jan. 13, will be a big day for our fans. First, we’re launching our new site at 9 a.m. CET. You can then explore a site designed with you, the fan, in mind. We’re giving fans the ability to connect with our riders — and each other — unlike any other cycling team site. The excitement doesn’t end there, however. We want you to be included in our media team presentation on the same day, because we believe you are an important part of our success. This is why we’re embedding a livestream of the event — which starts at 11 a.m. CET, on Friday, Jan. 13 — on our new site.
We’re sure you’re curious about the presentation, but we can only give hints for the time being. The presentation will be called “the First Show,” and Mark Uytterhoeven will be the host.
We’re sure you want to attend the team presentation on Friday, Jan. 13 in person, but no worries! We will have a fan specific presentation in March. We will keep you up to date about this event. For now, just know that we have big plans for you as fans of the Omega Pharma – Quick-Step Cycling Team!
We’ll explain just how fan specific our site is once it launches. For now, just know that we have big plans for you as fans of Omega Pharma – Quick-Step Cycling Team. Be ready to click on https://www.omegapharma-quickstep.com when it launches at 9 a.m. CET on Jan. 13, and then follow the media team presentation livestream on the same site at 11 a.m. CET!
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