Skip to main content

Racing News - September 27, 2007

  • After allegations that current World Champ Paolo Bettini supplied Patrick Sinkewitz, and his refusal to sign the "Commitment for a New Cycling" agreement, Germany is trying to bar him from riding in the World Championships road race on Saturday. Signing the agreement is voluntary; Bettini is said to have signed a version which stated that he was not involved in O.P. and that he would provide DNA if requested. Also, Sinkewitz's lawyer has stated that he did not refer to Bettini during procedures related to Sinkewitz's positive doping control in June.
  • The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled yesterday that it could not bar Alejandro Valverde from competing Saturday, either. The Spanish Secretary for the Sport Jaime Lissavetzky was pleased with the decision, stating that it was important to safeguard the presumption of innocence. Australian Allan Davis and Czech Rene Andrle were cleared to race under the same decision.
  • Veteran racer Inigo Cuesta completed his 14th consecutive Vuelta this year. This ties a record, which he hopes to beat next year, before retiring.
  • CSC has wrapped up the Pro Tour team title for the year. Danilo DiLuca is on top of the individual ratings, but may not last long, given doping allegations.
  • The organizers of the Giro will announce details about the route of the 2008 race in December.
  • Still no definite news about the "Tour of America". I'm getting more and more doubtful.
  • Missing The Point: Andrey Kashechkin is planning to protest his positive out of competition test from August on the grounds that they violated his privacy, as he was on vacation and "didn't want to be disturbed."  

Popular posts from this blog

Vuelta Stage 11 plus other news

Vuelta de Espana - Stage 11: The day started with a two man breakaway at the 8km mark that saw it's biggest gap at the 40km point. The peloton was taking it easy, working only hard enough to let the break not get any bigger.  At 120km, the peloton started to reel in the break and they had made up the 3 minute advantage by km 150.   The Milram and Lampre-Fondital teams, along with Rabobank, did the majority of the work to make up the break. By the final 10 km, the speeds racked up considerably, with T-Mobile & Milram leading a long, single file peloton.  Milram took over the lead in the final 2 kilometers. Zabel did the work to set up Pettachi to take the final sprint at the last corner. Pettachi racks up his 18th career win today at the Vuelta.  coming by teammate Erik Zabel in the final meters of today's stage. Paolo Bettini took second, Zabel third.  The G.C. stays much the same with Menchov, Efimkin, Evans, Sastre and Miquez in the Top 5 spots.  Other News: Ivan Dominque...

Rasmussen Shopping For A New Team

Yahoo Sports reports that Michael Rasmussen is looking for a new team to finsish the season. He has his sights set on the Giro di Lombardia, the final single day race of the season.  He met with the director of the Acqua & Sapone team on Wednesday for about 30 minutes. Director Palmiro Masciarelli states, "He wants to finish the season with us. He showed me all his papers. The problem is with the Danish federation."  You'll recall that Rasmussen was kicked out of the Tour and off of his team for allegedly lying about his whereabouts to evade doping tests. Masciarelli states that Rasmussen should not have been dismissed because he missed two tests, but if I recall correctly, the dismissal was over the lying, not the missed tests.  If I was a team director, I would be very reluctant to add a rider who was under such heavy scrutiny. In today's environment, one bad egg could bring down an entire team.

Even More From Eurobike, courtesy of Velonews

I just received a number of Eurobike Exhibition updates from Velonews.com These are dated throughout the exhibition.  August 31 : Giant rolls out refinements to their Maestro line of suspension bikes Ridley introduces an entry-level carbon fiber cyclocross bike Only cosmetic changes for Scott's road bikes, but new mountain and cyclocross bikes A new mountain/cyclocross pedal from Look New pedals, headsets, cranks and wheels from Crank Brothers A redesign of RockShox's SID fork for it's 10th anniversary September 1 : New clinchers from Lightweight A new line of cycling shorts and bibs from Assos Super light Nano Gram Zero pedals from Speedplay A new range of suspension forks from Maverick A little more about Selle Italia's new saddles with Troy Lee as well as a new Team Edition Flite model New white bars, stems and seatposts from FSA. Also, new compact shapes in the Plasma bar/stem combo and the K-Wing carbon bar, a new crankset, a K-Force tubular wheelset and an integra...