Alberto Contador Expunged from UCI Record Books

The UCI has expunged Alberto Contador's name from the UCI record books for the races involved in his doping case. Michele Scarponi is now listed as the 2011 Giro d'Italia winner and Andy Schleck as the 2010 Tour de France winner.

Now, both the Giro and Tour organizations can move on to declaring the new winners and updating their own race records.

Related stories:
Giro d'Italia "Albo d'Oro"
Giro d'Italia "Albo d'Oro", Part II


The UCI entries:

07 May-29 May 2011

UCI WorldTour Ranking #10 - Giro d'Italia

ITA

UWT

SCARPONI (ITA)

03 Jul-25 Jul 2010

World Ranking #13 - Tour de France

FRA

HIS

SCHLECK (LUX)

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2011 Tour de France, Stage 16

World champion Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo) made it into a small escape group with 60 km to go and won in a sprint over two of the escapees, Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky Procycling) and Ryder Hesjedal (Team Garmin-Cervelo). "It's unreal," said Hushovd. "It started well with the team time trial and seven days in the yellow jersey, then I won the stage alone (stage 13) and now I've won the stage today against my countryman (Hagen) and with my teammate Hesjedal behind me. I was thinking that it was a bit like a national championships, which is incredible. We're the only two Norwegians in the race and we're fighting it out for the win."

Alberto Contador surprised the GC leaders with several attacks on the slopes of the category 2 Col de Manse. Basso and Cunego fell off leaving Contador, Voeckler, Cadel Evans, Frank Schleck, and Samuel Sanchez fighting for GC time. At the summit it was Contador, Evans, and Sanchez. On the descent into Gap, Cadel Evans (who is a former mtb world champion) attacked and was the fastest on a narrow, and wet and slippery, road but managed to add only 3 seconds to his lead over Contador; Contador gained time on the Schlecks.

How the GC contenders figured in the stage:

1 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Team Garmin-Cervelo at 3:31:38

11 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:04:23
12 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard 0:04:26
13 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
18 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar 0:04:44
22 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek
23 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - ISD
28 Thomas Danielson (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo 0:05:02
30 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:05:17

Damiano Cunego was satisfied with his performance saying, "I knew that the climb not so far from the finish and the downhill could have been suitable for attacks, so I was willing to pedal in the head position of the group and my team mates performed a fantastic job in supporting me in obtaining this position. In the downhill the crash of Roy slowed me, it's a pity because my target was to join Evans".

Top 10 GC:
1 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar 69:00:56
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:01:45
3 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek 0:01:49
4 Andy Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek 0:03:03
5 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:03:26
6 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard 0:03:42
7 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:03:49
8 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - ISD 0:04:01
9 Thomas Danielson (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo 0:06:04
10 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Sky Procycling 0:07:55

Top 10 GC after stage 15, Sunday:
1 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar 65:24:34
2 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek 0:01:49
3 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:02:06
4 Andy Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek 0:02:15
5 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:03:16
6 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:03:44
7 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard 0:04:00
8 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - ISD 0:04:01
9 Thomas Danielson (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo 0:05:46
10 Kevin De Weert (Bel) Quickstep Cycling Team 0:06:18

Stage 17, Wednesday:

The TdF official analysis of this stage (which enters Italy): "There are still four intense race days left. Heading to Briançon, the road rises gently. Then the riders must cross climb the Col de Montgenèvre, descend, then climb again up to Sestrières this time, then descend again into Pinerolo. Ahead of them is still the Pra Martino, a small climb that’s 7km long and of modest gradient. A rider who is good in the mountains such as Cadel Evans may well be able to make an impression there, because the final run-in, which enables tribute to be made to the 150th anniversary of Italian unification, doesn’t feature any notable difficulties. This stage will bring huge satisfaction to the people of Pinerolo, who for many years have been keen to host a stage finish. The town is near to the border and offers the opportunity for this year’s only incursion into foreign territory.”

Andy Schleck has criticized the 8 km Pramartino descent saying, "That's ridiculous. It looks like a bike path across a wood. I trained three times in the descent and I already felt it too risky, mortally dangerous." Here is a youtube video of the descent:




Photo: Bettini

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Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, touring, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are always welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 2,000 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog. There is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.

2010 Tour De France: Contador Wins, Petacchi Takes Green Jersey

Alberto Contador has won his 3rd Tour de France after a memorable duel with Andy Schleck who finished 2nd, 39 seconds behind. Schleck won the young riders classification.

Thirty-six year old Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) won two stages and the green jersey. It was a very close points competition ending with Petacchi scoring 243 points, beating Cavendish by 11 points and Hushovd by 21 points.

"It's an outstanding result that, considering also the two stage victories, makes this Tour de France unforgettable," Petacchi said. "The green jersey is the best prize for the regularity of performances and of results: I always gave my best and the team was always perfect. At the beginning of the Tour the points classification was not my target but, stage by stage, I understood that I could be competitive and now I'm very happy that I decided to battle for this result. A special thanks to the team and to the sponsors: they were always with me, especially in the tough moments".

Anthony Charteau (Bbox) won the mountains classification.

Adriano Malori (Lampre-Farnese Vini), a TT specialist who did so well in the prologue (12th best time), was last in the GC at -4:27:03. "I'm happy I completed my first Tour de France at my debut," Malori explained. "I suffered in the early stages because of a crash which I was a victim of, but I did my best to recover and to be at the support of my team mates. The last place in the overall standing is not a problem for me, it's particular." Bravo.

Final top 10 GC:
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 91:58:48
2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:39
3 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 0:02:01
4 Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:03:40
5 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 0:06:54
6 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank 0:09:31
7 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin - Transitions 0:10:15
8 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:11:37
9 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo 0:11:54
10 Christopher Horner (USA) Team Radioshack 0:12:02

Photo: Sirotti

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,400 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.

2010 Tour de France, Stage 4 to Petacchi

The hiring of Danilo Hondo in December has paid more dividends as Hondo led out Alessandro Petacchi to his 2nd stage victory in a clean sprint finish in Reims ahead of Dean, Boasson Hagen, McEwen and Hunter.

"This was a perfect sprint, as perfect as my legs were perfect today. Probably yesterday's efforts on the cobblestones helped me to be very brilliant today," commented Petacchi. "I didn't want to wait for Cavendish or Hushovd to start their sprints, so thanks to an outstanding action by Hondo I began my sprint at 300 meters go."

It was Petacchi's 6th stage victory in the Tour de France.

Petacchi uses a specially modified Wilier Cento1 Superleggera; see story here.

Photo: Bettini

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,400 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.

The Doped Bicycle, Part III

The effects of RAI's Davide Cassani's report of the existence of a doped (motorized) bike(s) continues to reverberate. The Tour de France first instituted a daily process to x-ray approximately 15 bikes. Today, for the Stage 3 pavé finish, the normal team activities for providing a spare bike to riders has been affected. The report by www.cyclingnews.com:

"......recent suspicion concerning hidden motors in bicycles made the International Cycling Union (UCI) add another difficulty in the already torturous stage. In the race finale, teams would normally have posted their assistants with spare bikes at the roadside to provide for quick bike changes if their leaders suffer a mechanical. This is what is usually done in Paris-Roubaix, but to exclude any possibility of electrical treachery, complete bike changes are now possible only from team cars.

"I don't like that decision," Vaughters said. "If someone breaks a bike, and the cars are two kilometres behind... Normally, we would have a person with a bike at every cobblestone sector, just waiting there. But now, the bike has to come off the roof of a team car."

In order to maintain everybody's chances, the race organiser has decided to determine specific zones of technical assistance after the last four cobbled sections, where teams will be allowed to provide spare wheels and other mechanical help.

Still, Vaughters thought that other alternatives existed. "You put a box on the side of the cobbles [for frame scanning - ed.], put a tag on them and then they're ready. I know that logistically, that's very difficult to do. But it would be better than just banning bike changes.

"It's just going to be a crazy day anyway,” he added. “For sure, there'll be a couple of GC contenders that are going to be eliminated from the race. And it is also very likely that riders will be eliminated because of a bike difficulty and being unable to change. And I don't think that is in the interest of fair play, either."

This all comes on the day after Stage 2 in which the finish was neutralized as riders rode slowly to the finish after numerous crashes on the wet decent of the Côte de Stockeu. The GC contenders will not be too eager to ride on the cobbles today after yesterday's crashes.

Sylvain Chavanel was the winner of yesterday's stage, putting in a brave performance and deserving of the yellow jersey.

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,400 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.

2010 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Petacchi

After a nervous run into the final sprint, characterized by a series of crashes, it was Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) that was able to exploit the situation and win the stage in Brussels. Sprinters Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) and Oscar Freire (Rabobank) were among those that crashed.

It is Petacchi's 5th stage win in the Tour, having won four stages in 2003. Petacchi also won the green points jersey.

“I’m back at the Tour de France and I immediately win a stage: a perfect life!," Petacchi commented. "It was a special finale. In the last turn, everybody came in fast and nobody wanted to brake, so there was a crash and a lot of confusion. I did a very risky sprint. I attacked from far out, despite the head wind and the false-flat road. I think I've done a great sprint. I'm not sure that Cavendish would have beat me if he'd been there at the end because I've really done a great sprint."

Cancellara remains in yellow.

Stage 1 results:
1 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini 5:09:38
2 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team HTC - Columbia
3 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team
4 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha
5 Matthieu Ladagnous (Fra) Française des Jeux

Photo: Sirotti

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,400 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.

2010 Tour de France, Prologue

During the Tour de France I'll only be writing about some of the interesting aspects of the race as they relate to Italians and Italy....

Adriano Malori of Lampre-Farnese Vini, neo-professional born in 1988, in his first Tour de France rode a great prologue. He recorded the 12th time best time, at 35" to the winner Cancellara. He was also the best Italian cyclist in the standings. Malori was the Under 23 time trial World Champion in 2008, and this year was 3rd in the Italian national TT championships.

"I'm very happy and I almost don't believe my performance", Malori commented. "I was immediately able to pedal in a powerful way, the legs were great. When I was on the road, the streets were very wet because of the rain, so I had to take risks in covering the turns. When my performance ended, I watched the race on tv and every time a time trial specialist classified behind me, my awareness of having performed an outstanding time trial increased".

Cancellara proved that he doesn't need any motors, winning the prologue by 10 seconds. "The engine, that's me," said Fabian Cancellara at the Tour de France prologue finish in Rotterdam today, when officials proceeded to scan his bike for a hidden motor.

The war between Armstrong and Contador has begun.

1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank 0:10:00
2 Tony Martin (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia 0:00:10
3 David Millar (GBr) Garmin - Transitions 0:00:20
4 Lance Armstrong (USA) Team Radioshack 0:00:22
5 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team 0:00:23
6 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 0:00:27
7 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Transitions 0:00:28
8 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack
9 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Professional Cycling Team 0:00:32
10 Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Team Milram 0:00:35
11 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team
12 Adriano Malori (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini

Photo: Adriano Malori during prologue

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,400 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.

97th Tour de France Starts Today

The 97th Tour de France starts today in Rotterdam with a prologue. Seventeen Italian riders across seven teams will be competing.

Christian Prudhomme, Director of Tour de France, writes, "Rotterdam will host the Grand Départ of the Tour for the fifth time. A journalist recently asked me why the Netherlands has been favoured compared to the other countries (“only” three starts each for Belgium and Germany, two for Luxembourg, one for Spain and none in Italy, for instance). Besides the geographical location, which gives the organisers every freedom to organise the route in its entirety, a large part of the answer lies in these few lines, written in L’Équipe in 1954, when the Grande Boucle decided to start outside French borders for the very first time: “All of the Netherlands seemed to have gathered on the roads of Wassenaar, Delft, Rotterdam… Tens of thousands of spectators in closed ranks, uninterrupted, for kilometres and kilometres, clapping, cheering for everything that had to do with the Tour, the cyclists, the motorcyclists, the cars that followed or that led… [In this way] they made a triumph of the first stage!”

Enjoy the race.

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,400 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.

Ivan Basso Recons The Cobbles of Stage 3 of the TdF

Ivan Basso, Liquigas-Doimo, has been riding the cobbles of the Arenberg in preparation for Stage 3 of Tour de France on Tuesday, July 6th. There are seven sections of cobbles in the last 65km of the 213km stage to Arenberg. What did Basso think? "It was a shock”, he said. "I thought to myself ‘if this is the easy section, that’s a good start! I became more confident between the first and last parts. But it’s one thing to ride it as a pair, quite another when you’re in the middle of the peloton."

Several teams have been training on the cobbles before heading to the start in Rotterdam on Saturday including Radio Shack, Astana, Team Sky, Saxo Bank and the Cervelo TestTeam.

Could it be an epic stage? Lance Armstrong tweeted, "Going. To. Be. Carnage."

Photo: Bettini

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,400 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.

Italian Riders in the 97th Tour de France

Barring any last minute changes there will be only 17 Italian riders in the 97th Tour de France:

AG2R: Rinaldo Nocentini.

Astana: Paolo Tiralongo.

BMC: Alessandro Ballan, Mauro Santambrogio.

Footon-Servetto-Fuji: Fabio Felline, Eros Capecchi.

Lampre-Farnese Vini: Damiano Cunego, Mauro Da Dalto, Francesco Gavazzi, Mirco Lorenzetto, Adriano Malori, Alessandro Petacchi.

Liquigas-Doimo: Ivan Basso, Francesco Bellotti, Daniel Oss, Manuel Quinziato.

Quick Step: Francesco Reda

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,400 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.

Lampre–Farnese Vini, Liquigas-Doimo for Tour de France

ASO, the organizers of the Tour de France, that will take place from the 3 to 25 July, 2010, have just announced the 22 teams selected that will start the race in Rotterdam on Saturday, July 3rd.

Sixteen teams were selected in compliance with the agreement passed with the International Cycling Union (UCI) in September 2008:
Germany
Team Milram
Belgium
Quick Step
Omega Pharma – Lotto
Denmark
Team Saxo Bank
Spain
Caisse d’Epargne
Euskaltel – Euskadi
Footon – Servetto
USA
Team HTC-Columbia
France
AG2R La Mondiale
BBox Bouygues Telecom
Cofidis, le Crédit en ligne
Française des Jeux
Italy
Lampre – Farnese
Liquigas - Doimo
Kazakhstan
Astana
The Netherlands
Rabobank

The six teams that have been invited by the organizers in order to compete in the 97th Tour de France are:
USA
Garmin - Transitions
Team RadioShack
BMC Racing Team
Great Britain
Team Sky
Russia
Katusha Team
Switzerland
Cervélo Test Team

Beginning in 2011, in compliance with the agreement passed between the organizers of the three main Tours and the International Cycling Union (UCI), the first 17 teams of the world ranking established at the end of 2010, according to the sporting results of the teams, will be automatically selected. The other teams will receive wild cards from the organizers.

Photo: jerseys of the teams competing

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondo, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,300 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page.

Liquigas Chooses Basso as Leader for Giro and Tour

From the team meeting in Passo San Pellegrino comes news that Liquigas has chosen Ivan Basso and Franco Pellizotti as co-leaders of the team for the 2010 Giro d'Italia.

For the Tour de France, Basso will be the sole leader. Basso podiumed at the Tour in 2004 and 2005 but will be appearing for the first time since 2005 after leaving on the eve of the 2006 race start due to Operación Puerto.

Vincenzo Nibali has been chosen as team leader for the Tour of California and as co-leader along with Roman Kreuziger for the Vuelta a Espana.

The President of Liquigas Sport, Paolo Dal Lago, commented during the meetings, "This next season will determine whether we will remain in cycling. How we win is more important than winning."

Photo: Basso makes good use of his Cannondale mountain bike during snowy conditions at San Pelligrino, team meeting

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