What Is Cookin’ In Pro Cycling.
By Kyle Moore
QUITTING THE TOUR COLD TURKEY
It’s not a fun time of the season, is it? On the east coast, after three weeks, the body clock has naturally set itself for a 7 am wakeup-call. But instead of rolling over, grabbing the remote, and coming fully alert to the sounds of Ligget and Sherwen, silence and a dark TV screen is the only greeting. Crawling out of bed, you can feel a void that begins in your chest and makes its way up to your brain as you come to the realization that… the Tour is over. No more Schleck attacks. No more Andreau/Armstrong interviews. This being our first UTS since the Tour de France came to a conclusion, let’s make an attempt to pull you out of those post-Tour blues. Look on the bright side – only a few weeks until the Vuelta!
TOUGH TIMES AT EUSKALTEL
They didn’t have the man-power to support three grand tours, which meant no Giro invite. And what looked like a good ’09 Tour de France has turned into a nightmarish July for Euskaltel-Euskadi. The lovable Basque team full of punchy, attacking climbers like Amets Txurruka and Egoi Martinez has now experienced the doping positives of team leaders Iñigo Landaluze (admitted guilt of a CERA positive), and Mikel Astarloza, a stage winner and 11th best rider overall in the Tour. Not good news for Euskaltel, already struggling to stay relevant as more teams make their bid for Pro-Tour status. While Landaluze has come clean, Astarloza maintains his innocence. “I know that I have not taken anything prohibited, and categorically say: ‘I’ve never taken anything forbidden,’” he told Marca today. The team has continued to support Mikel as they wait for a counter-analysis of his sample.
If you’re wondering what happened to Olympic road race champion Samuel Sanchez, he makes his ’09 grand tour debut this month in the Vuelta a España, and he will look for help from teammate Igor Anton in an effort to take the top step of the podium. This kind of result would be the best remedy in an increasingly difficult season for Euskaltel-Euskadi.
TEAM NEWS – WHO’S WHERE, WHO’S DOING WHAT
We’ve all heard about Team RadioShack and their new captain, and speculation is beginning to swirl around who they will sign to fill the roster. RadioShack, along with British Team Sky and Tour-rookies-no-more Skil-Shimano have applied for Pro-Tour status with the UCI. President Pat McQuaid has maintained that the Pro-Tour should maintain approximately 21 teams, keeping competition high, but with these new applications, the field is getting rather crowded. In Astana news, Alberto Contador turned down a lucrative extension offer from the team. Alexandre Vinokourov makes his return to racing today in the Castillon-la-Bataille criterium in France, but it won’t be in an Astana uniform. Said press officer Phillipe Maertens, “When he [Vinokourov] is racing tomorrow, it will not be for Astana. I know he wants to come to our team but for the moment nothing is decided, nothing is done yet. It can change in a few days, but for now [he is not a member of the team].”
TRANSFER TALK
All of the following should still be considered rumors, with different transfers at different levels of certainty:
Alessandro Ballan – Lampre is unable to offer more than a one year deal, a move to RadioShack looks likely
Juan Antonio Flecha – Rabobank is downsizing, Team Sky wants the Spanish classics ace
Robbie Hunter – another sprinter for Garmin-Slipstream
RACING ROUNDUP
They had an all-around crappy Tour (again), but Quick Step still owns the classics. They produced a great team effort in pushing Carlos Barredo to the win at the Clasica San Sebastian. Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil) and Angelo Furlan (Lampre) won the first two stages of the Tour of Poland, but it was Italian neo-pro Jacopo Guarnieri of Liquigas who got his first career win in stage 3 as Andre Greipel (Columbia-HTC) took the overall lead. Jakob Fuglsang (Saxo Bank) won his home Tour of Denmark for the second year running, and he’ll look to climb alongside teammate Andy Schleck later this month when the Vuelta a España begins.
EARLY VUELTA ODDS
Inspired by his upcoming vacation in fabulous Las Vegas, the author has checked out the early betting lines for the year’s final grand tour. As of August 4, contenders for the overall come off at the following:
Basso: 7/2; Valverde: 5/1; Contador: 6/1; Sammy Sanchez: 8/1; Andy Schleck: 15/2
Danielson: 59/1
Cancellara: 200/1
