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Contador Controversy Rumbles On

As has long been widely anticipated the UCI (International Cycling Union) has confirmed it will be appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after Saxo Bank-SunGard’s rider Alberto Contador was cleared by The Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) of doping offences back in February. Contador tested positive for Clenbuterol at last year’s Tour de France, although the Spanish cyclist has always maintained that he accidentally ingested the illegal performance enhancing drug via contaminated meat. If the UCI are successful in overturning the verdict of the RFEC Contador will face a ban of up to 2 years as well as being stripped of his 2010 Tour de France champion title.

 

Undeterred, Contador has gone from strength to strength this season having already won the Vuelta de Murcia (Tour of Murcia) setting a best overall time of 9hours, 27minutes and 18seconds with wins on both day/stage two and three. He is also being touted as favourite for this year’s Giro d’Italia (May 7 -29) having last won the event in 2008, and is currently riding high in the Tour of Catalonia where, after four days of competition, he has retained the leader’s jersey he claimed during day three’s tough Pyrenees stage.

 

The Tour of Catalonia concludes Sunday 27 – Cyclo will bring you full results.

 

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Topping Out for BMX

A “topping out” ceremony has taken place at the new National Indoor BMX Arena in East Manchester. Designed by Ellis Williams Architects the £19m arena – the first purpose-built, covered BMX track with Olympic-size ramp in the UK – will form, along with the existing velodrome, the National Cycling Centre incorporating the HQ offices of British Cycling. All of which falls within the wider scheme of London 2012 legacy. 3000 cubic metres of earth and clay excavated in the construction of the site are to be reused to form the base mounds of the BMX track, which will have a maximum capacity of 2000 when fully complete. Funding for the venue was split between Sport England, Manchester City Council and the Northwest Regional Development Agency.

 

On hand to add her seal of approval to developments at the arena was Shanaze Reade, triple winner of the UCI BMX World Championships and Olympic Track Champion in to the bargain. Pre-Beijing Games Chris Hoy had commented: “If I was going to put my mortgage on anyone winning the gold, it would be Shanaze.” Cyclo doesn’t know if Hoy took the flutter but he would have mad a mint – and we’re certainly looking forward to seeing what Reade can do once things in Manchester are complete…

 

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Doubling up for Abergavenny


For the first time ever two rival sportives, The Iron Mountain and Tour of the Black Mountains – both stalwarts of the Welsh cycling calendar, well be held across the same weekend (July 9 & 10) as part of the annual Abergavenny Festival of Cycling.

 

For the last 6 years The Iron Mountain sportive has been a central fixture of the festival, serving up three distances of 25miles (family oriented road-route of North Monmouthshire), 50miles (with a glorious ascent to Tintern) and 100miler that includes a tough 3mile climb of the 1,500ft Tumble Mountain. But with the addition of The Tour of the Black Mountains (also three distances: 63, 101 and 120miles and usually held later in the year) the Abergavenny Festival of Cycling is set to become the biggest event of its kind in the country.

 

The entry fees – £5, £15, £25 for Iron Mountain and £15, £21, £25 for the Tour of the Black Mountains – includes full support, medals and certificates, sweep vehicles and chip timing. For entry details on all six distances and details of the full program for the Abergavenny Festival of Cycling see: www.abergavennyfestivalofcycling.co.uk

 

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An F1 Approach to Cycling?

A major revamp and rebranding of international cycling has, somewhat controversially, been proposed to the BBC by Jonathan Vaughters the former pro racing cyclist and current directeur sportif of the Garmin-Cervélo Team. Vaughters, who is president of the Association of Pro Tour and Pro Continental teams believes that, given cycling’s demographic, the sport should enjoy far greater exposure and success than its current form allows, suggesting it should be brought more in line with Premier Football or Formula One.

 

Vaughters’ ten-point plan revealed to the BBC includes the introduction of more high-level events outside of Europe, a more consistent and easily understood format for races and leader-boards, an increased number of team time trials, open radio communications for fans to follow (similar to that introduced in F1), GPS tracking and increased use of other technical innovations such as helmet-mounted cameras.

 

But central to Vaughters’ argument is a call for an all-round cleanup of the sport’s image with regards to the seemingly ever-present doping scandals, which he calls cycling’s “Achilles heel”. Amongst his proposals to finally lay these ghosts to rest is the idea of team donations to set up an anti-drugs fund in exchange for longer-term guarantees of Tour de France entry. Vaughters points out that he first put many of these ideas forward to the UCI back in 2009 but has yet to receive a response. Cyclo waits with bated breath…

 

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Goss Takes Milan–San Remo

Continuing his string of successes this season Tasmanian Matthew Goss (HTC-Highroad) has won this year’s classic Milan–San Remo in a time of 6:51:10, beating World Time Trial champion and  2008 Milan–San Remo winner Fabian Cancellara (Leopard Trek) in to second and Omega Pharma-Lotto’s Philippe Gilbert in to third. Reigning champion Óscar Freire (Rabobank), who also holds wins for the 2004 and 2007 edition, came badly unstuck early with rear wheel problems that lost the kind of valuable time that was never going to see him regain pace for a fourth win.

 

The first Milan- San Remo was held in 1907 organised by Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport at a time when it wasn’t known if the course was physically possible (1905 Tour of Lombardy winner Giovanni Gerbi was sent out to test it.) It became an almost instant favourite and has been held yearly – with the exception of 1916, 1944 and 1945 war years – ever since. Italy holds the record for most victories on the course with 50, whilst legendary rider Eddy Merckx still maintains his record number of wins with 7 (1966 & ‘67,1969,1971 & ‘72,1975 and his last in ‘76).

 

Full results available here: www.uciprotour.com

 

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South Downs Challenge

VOTwo South Downs MTBEntries are now open (indeed selling fast) for the South Downs Way MTB Challenge (May 14-15) an awesome looking two day mountain bike endurance event across some of the most beautiful – and tough – terrain that Southern England has to offer. The route follows old routes and drove-ways along the chalk escarpment and ridges of the South Downs, with around 80% off-road riding, 10,000+ feet of climb and what are promised to be “some exciting descents.”

 

Now in it’s fifth year and organised by Votwo, day one kicks off from Winchester across 54miles of chewy track to base overnight with a spot of camping (supply your own tent!) at Washington – West Sussex, not DC – before day two’s 52miler to Eastbourne. With a clearly marked route, checkpoints ever 15miles complete with fresh sandwiches and snacks, full support staff, Saturday dinner and a cooked Sunday breakfast included in the price, free T-shirt, a pro mechanic on hand throughout and Votwo’s legendary homemade soup at the finish this is one event that Cyclo could not recommend highly enough.

 

The team behind this MTB Challenge have an outstand reputation for staging slick, fun events and for client care, or as they put it: “The only thing we don’t do is push your bike up the hills and put your tent up!”

 

Further information and online entry: http://www.votwo.co.uk

 

 

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Sky’s the Limit

Team SkyAfter a year-long review and report process by consultation firm Deloitte to assess any possible conflicts between the commercially sponsored Team Sky and the Lottery funded Olympic track side the all “clear has” been sounded. With UK Sport, the agency responsible for public fund allocations, having raised the purse for cycling to £27m for London 2012 – an increase of £5m over the Beijing Games – there had been fears that the pro team established and sponsored by BSkyB (under the banner of Team Sky) undermined the credibility of the Olympic programme. The situation was made more complex by the involvement in Team Sky, which includes a number of foreign riders, of several key coaching players from the British Olympic cycling team.

 
But fears now seem to have been dispelled by the release of the Deloitte report which makes only a handful of suggestions, including the recruitment of a finance director by British Cycling, with UK Sports Chief Executive Liz Nicholl voicing the relief of all by concluding, “The fact that the review identified no major risks to the World Class Performance Programme is good news for everyone involved and indeed our aspirations generally as we look towards London 2012.”

 

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Giro Maxes Out

Giro d'ItaliaWhat could be better than watching 22 teams of top-flight cyclists battling it out over three weeks across some of the most demanding terrain Europe has to offer? How about watching 23 teams do it. The UCI (International Cycling Union) has granted special dispensation to the organisers of this year’s Giro d’Italia – May 7 to 29 – to allow a total of 207 cyclists to start, a record number for the event.

 

The usual suspect first division teams will be joined the wild card selections comprising, Acqua & Sapone, Androni Giocattoli, Colnago-CSF Inox, Farnese Vini-Neri Sottoli and Geox-TMC, the latter provisionally including 2009 Giro winner Denis Menchov along with 2008 Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre. Saxo Bank-SunGard’s Alberto Contador is already being touted as a race favourite (he was Giro winner in 2008), although the possibility of either the UCI or the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) overturning the Spanish Cycling Federation’s decision to clear him after he tested positive for the banned drug Clenbuterol still hangs over his head.

 

The Giro begins with Turin Team Time Trials (try saying that three times fast) and will cover a total of 3496km and 17 regions before drawing to a close with Individual Time Trials in Milan over a distance of 32.8km. Amongst the many highlights will be the Mount Etna summit finish after a punishing 159km climb on day 9 and the evil looking uphill Individual Time Trial between Belluno and Nevegal on day 16.