Pro Tour/ Euro/Whatever road thread

In other news Euskatel is short some money to maintain proTour status and may lose Sammy Sanchez as a result

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/euskaltel-face-loss-of-protour-status

while the tour's been on, ricco got himself into a spot of bother in austria

~G~N~A~R~L~Y~

(he still won)

can i analyse ur power data why because it look inersting

http://www.sportsscientists.com/2010/07/power-from-tourmalet-6wkg-anyone.html
http://cozybeehive.blogspot.com/2010/07/tour-de-france-stage-17-col-du.html

sorensen pulled 400w+ for 11 minutes, i think i would struggle doing that for 11 seconds

http://cyclocosm.com/2010/07/rest-day-nerd-fights/

xp

I feel like puking just reading that, sorensen's face was a picture during that section; he put in a similar effort on the madeleine iirc

just watched contador on the verbier from last year's tdf

gross

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/07/2010_tour_de_france_-_part_ii.html

love the photos of the crazy fans

Contador to leave Astana at end of season. Any guesses where he ends up?

Rumoured to be teaming up with BR at whatever Saxobank becomes once the sponsor and the Schlecks have left.

Saxobank may become Team Specialized

Team SRAM

more factory teams would be good imo, they always have the cool shit

bring back team bianchi!!!!

I know ll cool shast doesn't have facebook so:

By Levi Leipheimer

I’m writing you from the other side of the Tour de France. This year’s Tour had it’s challenges and I’m not just talking about the mountains. I’m talking about the crazy corners before finishes, the crowds, the cobbles and lots of regular old crashes. I’m happy to have survived all that and make it to Paris, especially after crashing and breaking my wrist last year.

It started off deceivingly well with the prologue. Lance rode a great race and everyone else was in a good position. Then the first three stages changed the tone of this years Tour for us. Kloedi and I crashed in stage 1. Ironically, I crashed when a dog ran into the peloton. It’s ironic because my wife’s mission is to rid the planet of irresponsible pet owners. Unfortunately, she never crossed paths with that dog’s owner. (By the way, the dog was okay.) I went to the hospital expecting the worst which would be a repeat of last year’s wrist break but luckily it was just a sprain and a hematoma. Andreas Kloden was also okay.

Stage Two was laden with controversy thanks to the misunderstandings of what really happened in the stage. Here’s how we saw it. There was a crash coming down the Stockeu descent with 30km to go and it was as if a hurricane struck. There were bikes without riders, riders wandering around looking for bikes, riders disoriented in the woods, motorbikes were down everywhere, and no one knew where Kloedi was. He was totally missing. It was chaos. Like one of those video clips you see on the news after a hurricane hits a mobile home park. You see despondent people wandering around shuffling through the wreckage. That’s what
riders and camera people were doing. So all of a sudden no one knows where sixty odd bike riders went and who knows how many motorbikes.

The TV’s weren’t working in the cars, radios weren’t working and no one knew anything other than the fact that something was wrong. The Schlek brothers were among the missing so naturally Cancellara wanted the lead group to wait until they knew what happened. If they didn’t wait, Frank and Andy would have lost 4 or 5 minutes that day. All of the groups on the road ended up waiting but it was just until all the confusion was cleared up and the MIA riders were found. I think some people like to criticize the peloton when things get neutralized for reasons like this, but when so many of the riders are involved then it’s understandable that it was.

Then there was Stage Three on the cobbles. Lance flatted, Kloedi flatted and I flatted, so we all lost time. Everyone was prepared for carnage on this stage but we had more than our share of bad luck. The first day in the mountains was okay but our bad luck returned in full force on the second day. Lance crashed really hard 10 km before the biggest climb of the day. When you crash really hard like that you don’t have the same power as you did before the crash. Your body can’t recover fast enough. Sergio and the guys worked very hard to get him back to the group by the time it hit the climb but Lance was already at his limit at the bottom of the climb. His Tour ended because of this crash. Sometimes you go down too hard to recover, this was one of those days.

It became clear that Andy and Alberto were the strongest guys in the race, no one else was even close. Our strategy had to change after Lance’s crash so we decided to go for the team GC and stage wins. I guess you could say we accomplished our Tour de France plan B, because Sergio won a stage and we won the Team GC. Sergio’s stage win was definitely the highlight of the race for us. He works really hard for the team and to win a stage on top of that is pretty amazing. It was the last day in the Alps and he beat a guy who got a silver medal at the World Championships in the track points race, so he had some serious speed even after all that hard work.

On a side note, one of our mechanics, Glenn Fant, managed to escape his grueling schedule for a ride to the top of the Joux Plane on the first rest day in Morzine. He borrowed Dirk Demol’s bike and rode it in his running shorts and a t-shirt. You know you’re starving for a bike ride when…

Since I have a lot more to say about this year’s tour and all it’s drama, I’ll have to continue this blog tomorrow.
Hope to see you back here.
-Levi

{linked from his tweeter btw}

http://www.steephill.tv/2009/san-sebastian/san-seb-profile.jpg

Quick Step (QST)
(BEL)
1 BARREDO LLAMAZALES Carlos ESP
2 FACCI Mauro ITA
3 PINEAU Jérôme FRA
4 DEVENYNS Dries BEL
5 DE WEERT Kevin BEL
5 REDA Francesco ITA
6 VAN DE WALLE Jurgen BEL
8 WYNANTS Maarten BEL

Astana (AST)
(KAZ)
11 VINOKOUROV Alexandre KAZ
12 IGLINSKIY Maxim KAZ
13 NAVARRO GARCIA Daniel ESP
14 STANGELJ Gorazd SLO
15 RENEV Sergey KAZ
16 DE LA FUENTE RASILLA David ESP
17 JUFRE POU Josep ESP
18 HERNANDEZ BLAZQUEZ Jesus ESP

Katusha (KAT)
(RUS)
21 RODRIGUEZ OLIVER Joaquin ESP
22 POZZATO Filippo ITA
23 KOLOBNEV Alexandr RUS
24 CARUSO Giampaolo ITA
25 HORRACH RIPOLL Joan ESP
26 KLIMOV Serguei RUS
27 MAZZANTI Luca ITA
28 VORGANOV Eduard RUS

Liquigas - Doimo (LIQ)
(ITA)
31 WILLEMS Frederik BEL
32 KREUZIGER Roman CZE
33 NIBALI Vincenzo ITA
34 BELLOTTI Francesco ITA
35 AGNOLI Valerio ITA
36 SANTAROMITA Ivan ITA
37 KISERLOVSKI Robert CRO
38 FINETTO Mauro ITA

Saxo Bank (SAX)
(DEN)
41 SCHLECK Andy LUX
42 JÖRGENSEN Jonas Aaen DEN
43 DIDIER Laurent LUX
44 PORTE Richie AUS
45 SÖRENSEN Nicki DEN
46 SÖRENSEN Chris Anker DEN
47 STEENSEN André DEN
48 FUGLSANG Jakob DEN

HTC - Columbia (THR)
(USA)
51 ROGERS Michael AUS
52 GULDHAMMER Rasmus DEN
53 SIUTSOU Kanstantsin BLR
54 VAN GARDEREN Tejay USA
55 DOCKX Gert BEL
56 GOSS Matthew AUS
57 PINOTTI Marco ITA
58 ROULSTON Hayden NZL

OmegaPharma - Lotto (OLO)
(BEL)
61 GILBERT Philippe BEL
62 ROELANDTS Jürgen BEL
63 BRANDT Christophe BEL
64 MORENO FERNANDEZ Daniel ESP
65 BAKELANTS Jan BEL
66 DELAGE Mickael FRA
67 VANENDERT Jelle BEL
68 VAN AVERMAET Greg BEL

RadioShack (RSH)
(USA)
71 LEIPHEIMER Levi USA
72 ZUBELDIA AGIRRE Haimar ESP
73 MCCARTNEY Jason USA
75 BUSCHE Matthew USA
76 IRIZAR ARANBURU Markel ESP
77 LEQUATRE Geoffroy FRA
78 RUBIERA VIGIL Jose Luis ESP

Caisse d'Epargne (GCE)
(ESP)
81 SANCHEZ GIL Luis Leon ESP
82 ARROYO DURAN David ESP
83 ERVITI OLLO Imanol ESP
84 GUTIERREZ PALACIOS Jose Ivan ESP
85 LOPEZ GARCIA David ESP
86 GARCIA ACOSTA Jose Vicente ESP
87 PASAMONTES RODRIGUEZ Luis ESP
88 PEREZ SANCHEZ Francisco ESP

Cervélo Test Team (CTT)
(SUI)
91 SASTRE CANDIL Carlos ESP
92 GUSTOV Volodymir UKR
93 CUESTA LOPEZ DE CASTRO Iñigo ESP
94 PUJOL MUÑOZ Oscar ESP
96 FLORENCIO CABRE Xavier ESP
97 DEIGNAN Philip IRL
98 DENIFL Stefan AUT

Rabobank (RAB)
(NED)
101 KRUIJSWIJK Steven NED
102 GARATE CEPA Juan Manuel ESP
103 ARDILA CANO Mauricio Alberto COL
104 GESINK Robert NED
105 TEN DAM Laurens NED
106 LANGEVELD Sebastian NED
107 NIERMANN Grischa GER

Lampre - Farnese Vini (LAM)
(ITA)
111 CUNEGO Damiano ITA
112 GAVAZZI Francesco ITA
113 PIETROPOLLI Daniele ITA
114 BALLONI Alfredo ITA
115 MALORI Adriano ITA
116 MARZANO Marco ITA
117 SPEZIALETTI Alessandro ITA
118 KASHECHKIN Andrey KAZ

Euskaltel - Euskadi (EUS)
(ESP)
121 SANCHEZ GONZALEZ Samuel ESP
122 ISASI FLORES Iñaki ESP
123 MARTINEZ DE ESTEBAN Egoi ESP
124 ANTON HERNANDEZ Igor ESP
125 PEREZ MORENO Ruben ESP
126 URTASUN PEREZ Pablo ESP
127 PEREZ LEZAUN Alan ESP
128 VERDUGO MARCOTEGUI Gorka ESP

Garmin - Transitions (GRM)
(USA)
131 COZZA Steven USA
132 DEAN Julian NZL
133 HESJEDAL Ryder CAN
134 KESSIAKOFF Fredrik SWE
135 KREDER Michel NED
136 MAASKANT Martijn NED
137 MEIER Christian CAN
138 VANSUMMEREN Johan BEL

Sky (SKY)
(GBR)
141 FLECHA GIANNONI Juan Antonio ESP
143 PORTAL Nicolas FRA
144 CIONI Dario David ITA
145 AUGUSTYN John-Lee RSA
146 CALZATI Sylvain FRA
147 DOWNING Russell GBR
148 POSSONI Morris ITA

Ag2r - La Mondiale (ALM)
(FRA)
151 NOCENTINI Rinaldo ITA
152 ARRIETA LUJAMBIO Jose Luis ESP
153 ROCHE Nicolas IRL
154 BOUET Maxime FRA
155 ELMIGER Martin SUI
156 GADRET John FRA
157 RIBLON Christophe FRA
158 LOUBET Julien FRA

Milram (MRM)
(GER)
161 GAJEK Artur GER
162 FRÖHLINGER Johannes GER
163 KNEES Christian GER
164 RUSS Matthias GER
165 ROBERTS Luke AUS
166 ROHREGGER Thomas AUT
167 TERPSTRA Niki NED
168 WROLICH Peter AUT

Française des Jeux (FDJ)
(FRA)
171 PINOT Thibaut FRA
172 CAZAUX Pierre FRA
173 DI GREGORIO Rémy FRA
174 LE MEVEL Christophe FRA
175 ROUX Anthony FRA
176 ROY Jérémy FRA
177 SULZBERGER Wesley AUS
178 VICHOT Arthur FRA

Footon - Servetto (FOT)
(ESP)
181 CAPECCHI Eros ITA
182 FELLINE Fabio ITA
183 MERINO CRIADO Pedro ESP
184 PEREZ ARRIETA Aitor ESP
185 DURAN AROCA Arkaitz ESP
186 WALKER Johnnie AUS
187 GUTIERREZ GUTIERREZ David ESP
188 BENITEZ ROMAN Jose Alberto ESP

Xacobeo - Galicia (XAC)
(ESP)
191 MOSQUERA MIGUEZ Ezequiel ESP
192 GARCIA DAPENA David ESP
193 CESAR VELOSO Gustavo ESP
194 RABUÑAL RIOS Gonzalo ESP
195 MARTINEZ ACEVEDO Serafin ESP
196 FERNANDEZ CRUZ Delio ESP
197 GARCIA FERNANDEZ Marcos ESP
198 FERNANDEZ SAINZ Alberto ESP

Andalucia - CajaSur (ACA)
(ESP)
201 GOMEZ MARCHANTE Jose Angel ESP
202 VICIOSO ARCOS Angel ESP
203 PIEDRA PEREZ Antonio ESP
204 ORTEGA OCAÑA Manuel ESP
205 CABELLO BAENA Antonio ESP
206 RAMIREZ ABEJA Javier ESP
207 MORENO BAZAN Javier ESP
208 MONTENEGRO Jorge Martin ARG

118 KASHECHKIN Andrey KAZ

didn't realise this guy had a gig again

thats the wrong race profile-- they're doing the jaizkibel 2x this year

http://www.steephill.tv/2010/san-sebastian/course-map.png

thank you for the right profile!

Doesn't look like either of the normal US channels (VS, Universal) are showing it live?

1 luis leon sanchez
2 vino
3 carlos sastre

Hans-Michael Holczer accuses Leipheimer of blood manipulation

gerolsteiner lolz. what a cesspool that joint was. so why didnt he just hold leipy out? “I was caught between a moral obligation and a legal threat.” he felt morally obliged to help someone cheat, if that's what he truly believed liepy was doing?

what i want to know is if doping was so prevalent how did people get caught?

hypodermics hanging out their asses like darted gazelles

lol, poor levi - all that juice and yet he still faded/fades away in the third week of grand tours like a dude who wasn't on it

hope someone writes a book on all the dirrrrty teams one day

fantasy vuelta
http://road.cc/content/page/18471-fantasy-vuelta-2010

no lloyd, renshaw or mcewen for australia's worlds team. what's your take on that, haitch?

no haussler either but that's not all that surprising given his sporadic season

basically everyone down here reckons it's not going to be a sprinter's course. first 80km is basically down the highway between melbs and geelong, and it's dead flat, but at the course proper they'll have to go up two pretty steep climbs (x11) and the finishing straight is also uphill. think they've tailored the team so the 'sprinters' that are there (goss, cooke, davis) are basically going to be the cannon fodder to get cadel and simon gerrans (who the course probably suits best) to the front.

robbie would be protected if he was in, but if he's not going to be there at the end they'd just be burning matches for no reason. no sprints = no real need for a leadout either, so that's renshaw out of the picture. (they're taking him, davis, porte, hayman and chris sutton to delhi for the commonwealth games road race.)

perception is that lloyd likes the big climbs and the shorter punchier stuff doesn't suit him. maybe they're thinking of the trip down the highway too - it's pretty open, if spring weather in western victoria holds to form it'll be crosswind city.

i think they don't want to risk haussler's knee, he'd be a cert otherwise.

RIP Laurent Fignon

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/laurent-fignon-passes-away-1

Very sad. I knew he'd been battling the cancer for a while, but this was still a surprise, given that we saw and heard him doing punditry on the Tour de France just over a month ago.

Here's an interview with him from a few years ago:
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/497582/laurent-fignon-my-way-or-the-fairway.html

RIP Professor. I am an American and I still begrudged LeMond those 8 seconds.

lol andy schleck booze hound

So cool
http://estaticos03.cache.el-mundo.net/elmundodeporte/imagenes/2010/09/10/

Cav hopping the line? He's a bloody star, his interview post stage yesterday was great.

Yes. Don't know why, but I seemingly can't post pictures at the moment.
http://estaticos03.cache.el-mundo.net/elmundodeporte/imagenes/2010/09/10/

poor igor anton. red jersey to skinless in about two seconds, ugh.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-of-britain-2-1-1/stage-1/photos/140348

Greipel's pins are very triplets of belleville

shit, meant http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-of-britain-2-1-1/stage-1/photos/140348

holy hell, Constitution Hill looked frikkin evil.

Yep. Don't think much of Sky's tactics yesterday: three in the decisive break which had a lead of about ten minutes over the rest, you'd have thought they'd be set up nicely for the GC. Instead they burnt off Thomas then Wiggins in keeping the pace high, so both of them lost a couple of minutes or so. OK, they got the stage win from Henderson, but that seems a strange priority.

Very interesting, i hadnt heard about papp's tweets.

Anti-doping authorities have lodged cases against as many as two-dozen domestic racers, sources tell VeloNews. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency will announce the findings in the coming weeks, the sources said.

However, (doper snitch Joe) Papp has been active on Twitter. On August 19, following stage 2 of the Tour of Utah, Papp wrote, “Jonathan Mccarty, don’t worry, you were really 5th today in Utah. Or at least you will be.”

McCarty had finished sixth on that stage, behind Levi Leipheimer, Francisco Mancebo, Ian Boswell, Darren Lill and Phil Zajicek.

On August 11, Papp wrote on Twitter, in consecutive messages, “Seriously – if you think you were on ‘my list’ I urge you turn yourself in, b/c there’s little chance of leveraging something later. Try to dissuade ADA (anti-doping agencies) from applying an increased sanction by admitting your anti-doping violation as soon as you’re confronted with it…”

Let Levi Ride (Dirty)

seems like it would be weird for a euro pro to be on papp's list tho eh?

loved the endless comments about masters doping tho

masters dopers are fucking cunts,but and the ppl complaining are too hilaire. oh, grievance!

Blooddoper [Moderator] 1 day ago
Papp Smear!!!
Flag
18 people liked this. Like Reply

"some time in 2006"...

http://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?compid=230448

Was great to be at tob stage today, didn't see much o the racing, but hanging out, checking out the bike pron and general wandering made up for it. Also had a go on a go-cycle. Those things are awesome fun, shame they're so expensive.

Great finish to the Vuelta stage today!

Does Anyone fancy an ILTRMB meet around the ToCalifornia next year? Putting a trip in my calendar for next year.

Bike madmanRIP.