2013 Cycling Thread

[Smallville22]

Froome v Contador could make 100th Tour a classic

Chris Froome is overwhelming favourite for the Tour de France but the return of former winner Alberto Contador after a one-year hiatus could trigger a classic duel to mark the 100th edition of the great cycling race.
It will also be the first Tour since American Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven titles after admitting he cheated his way to glory from 1999-2005, leaving a huge gap in the event's records.
It is a period Briton Froome will be happy to put in the past for good.
"The fact that I'm able to finish at the front in the mountains and in the general classification means that the sport has changed since 10 years ago," said Froome, who was promoted to Team Sky leader before team-mate and defending champion Bradley Wiggins withdrew from the race for health reasons.
"You learn from the past. The sport is going in the right direction and my results are proof of that."
Froome has won four of the five stage races he has entered this season.
"It definitely gives me confidence that I've had the right build-up to the Tour, that I've had the right preparation for the Tour," he explained.
"It also gives my team-mates a lot of confidence, that they're riding for a worthy cause, that they know I can deliver the result.
"But having said that, once we line up on the start line in Corsica, every other race we've done early on this season folds away," added Kenya-born Froome, with a note of caution.
Froome is expected to have the upper hand in the individual time trials and will rely on a super strong Team Sky with a stunning capacity to set a high tempo in the mountains to prevent attacks - a tactic Wiggins heavily relied on in 2012.
Contador's presence, after missing last year's Tour because of a doping suspension, will definitely be felt even if the Spaniard has made little impression so far this season.
Contador, who won the Tour in 2007 and 2009, goes into the race with only one low-key victory under his belt - a stage of the Tour de San Luis in January.
Since then, the 30-year-old has been comprehensively beaten by Froome and others, despite repeated attacks in the uphill stages of the Tour of Oman or the Criterium du Dauphine.
Froome is likely to gain time in the two individual and one team time trial of this year's race, which starts on June 29, so Contador will have to make up for it in the mountains, where his rival also shines.
The race should not be decided before the last week with the 14th stage finishing up the Mont Ventoux and the 18th sending the peloton twice round the 21 hair-pins of L'Alpe d'Huez.
However, Contador is one of only five men with titles in all three Grand Tours (Spain, Italy, France) while Froome has only two podium finishes - seconds in the Vuelta in 2011 and the Tour in 2012.
Contador will also be assisted by a solid team featuring Australian Michael Rogers, who was instrumental for Team Sky during last year's Tour, as well as Irishman Nicolas Roche and Czech Roman Kreuziger.
Both have relinquished their personal ambitions to help the Spaniard clinch a third title.
"There are quite a few guys whom I believe to be threats to the yellow jersey and until any of those guys lose time on the general classification they should be treated as potential yellow jersey wearers," said Froome.
"Contador is definitely not someone to write off from the group of contenders. I did come out on top in the time trial and in the mountain stages (in the Dauphine) against Contador but he cannot be ruled out."
Contador proved in winning last year's Vuelta that he never gives up, taking the overall lead in the 17th stage after launching a devastating surprise ******.
Should he and Froome falter, the indefatigable Cadel Evans, winner of the Tour in 2011, will be ready to step up, as well as fellow Australian Richie Porte, the Team Sky number two.
"Richie's results this year have been fantastic," Team Sky coach Tim Kerrison said. "He's a very very good stage racer and a strong GC contender."
The battle for the points classification green jersey is likely to be between Slovakia's Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish, although the Briton would be happy with a brief spell in yellow.
"I would like to wear the yellow jersey after the first stage in Corsica," said Cavendish, who is 11 stages shy of Eddy Merckx's all-time Tour record of 34.
"It's the only one of the three Grand Tours where I haven't worn the leader's jersey, so I'd like to do that."

 

[Smallville22]

Where the Tour de France could be won or lost

Where the Tour de France, which starts from Porto Vecchio, Corsica, on Saturday, could be won or lost.

Corsica, a tricky start (stages one-three)

The first three stages are held on the island of Corsica, 'between sea and mountain'. Riders are often extremely nervous in the early stages of the Tour and there is a lot of jockeying for position in the front of the peloton - the safest place - which can cause crashes. On the tiny, winding roads of Corsica, the risks will increase.
"This parcours (course - on the second stage) is going to cause some real damage," said Jean-Francois Pescheux, who designed the route.
Team leaders will need to make sure they "avoid trouble" - a maxim they will repeat time and again as the grand depart looms.

Tackling the Pyrenees (stage eight, from Castres to Ax-3 Domaines)

This is the first uphill finish of the Tour. It could expose those who are not in top shape and eliminate a few contenders.
Team Sky will be looking to hammer down their rivals while former champion Alberto Contador, should be on the ****** after having possibly lost time in the team time trial.

The clock as rival (stage 11, from Avranches to Mont St Michel)

If everything goes well, Chris Froome could lead his close rivals by over a minute at the halfway point, even if organisers have designed a short 33-km course to maintain a bit of suspense.

The race hots up (stage 15, from Givors to Mont Ventoux)

The 20.8-km climb of the Mont Ventoux at an average of 7.5 per cent is one of the most feared in cycling, especially in hot conditions. It also comes at the end of the longest stage of the Tour (242.5 km). It could be Contador's chance to gain time on Froome ahead of a decisive individual time trial.

The big showdown (stage 18, from Gap to l'Alpe d'Huez)

This will be the stage where all should be decided as big gaps can be made. The peloton will tackle the 21 hair-pins of l'Alpe d'Huez (13.8 km at 8.1 per cent), with the tricky, dangerous descent from the Col de Sarenne in between.

 

[Smallville22]

Tour de France - Factbox: Doping affairs

A look at major doping scandals involving the Tour de France since the Festina affair in 1998.

1998

Festina medical team member Willy Voet was arrested at the French border before the start of the Tour after customs officers seized ****** substances, including the *****-boosting **** erythropoietin (EPO).
Festina were kicked out of the race and their riders later admitted to taking performance-enhancing *****. Top rider Richard Virenque was ****** for nine months, team director Bruno Roussel and Voet were fined and given suspended jail sentences.

2006

American Floyd Landis became the first Tour winner to fail a ***** test during the race after testing positive for the male sex hormone testosterone. Landis was stripped of the title and given a two-year ban.
Germany's 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich and Giro d'Italia champion Ivan Basso were among nine competitors withdrawn on the eve of the prologue after being implicated in a Spanish doping investigation, Operation Puerto.
Ullrich, who retired from competition in 2007, admitted earlier this month to *****-doping under the guidance of the Spanish doctor at the centre of the Operation Puerto scandal.
Basso admitted his involvement in the scandal to the Italian Olympic Committee in May 2007 and was ****** for two years.

2007

Pre-race favourite Alexander Vinokourov tested positive for ***** doping after winning a time trial. The Kazakh's Astana team left the Tour and sacked Vinokourov, who denied any wrongdoing.
The Cofidis team pulled out of the race following Italian Cristian Moreni's positive test for testosterone. Moreni was suspended for two years.
Tour leader Michael Rasmussen was sacked by his Rabobank team during the race for lying about his whereabouts in training. He was ****** for two years by the Monaco Cycling Federation for ********* anti-doping rules.
German Patrik Sinkewitz was suspended after a test taken in June was positive for elevated levels of testosterone. Sinkewitz had already pulled out of the Tour injured following a crash with a spectator.
Spanish rider Iban Mayo, who finished the race in 16th place, was suspended by his team Saunier Duval after cycling's governing body confirmed traces of EPO in a sample taken during the race.

2008

Italian Riccardo Ricco was kicked out of the race after failing a test for the new generation of EPO called CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator). Saunier Duval then announced they were withdrawing their sponsorship of the team.
Austrian Bernhard Kohl, third overall and the race's top climber, as well as Italian Leonardo Piepoli and German Stefan Schumacher were also found guilty of using CERA following retroactive tests.
-Kazakh Dmitriy Fofonov tested positive for the ****** stimulant heptaminol and was fired by his Credit Agricole team.
Spaniards Manuel Beltran and Moises Duenas Nevado tested positive for EPO. Barloworld ended sponsorship of their team after Nevado's test result.

2012

Luxembourg's Frank Schleck tested positive for the ****** diuretic Xipamide during the second rest day and was withdrawn from the race by his RadioShack team. He was suspended for one year.
In June, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) recommended charging seven-times Tour winner Lance Armstrong, who won the race from 1999 to 2005, with using performance-enhancing ***** during his career.
After initially saying he would fight the charges, Armstrong changed his mind and in August USADA stripped him of his Tour titles and ****** him for life.
USADA said in its report that Armstrong and his U.S. Postal team had run "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen".
In January 2013, Armstrong admitted in a television interview he used ****** substances in all of his Tour victories.

 

[Smallville22]

Jalabert gives up TV job following doping allegations

Former Tour of Spain champion Laurent Jalabert has temporarily given up his consultancy job with French television and radio on the Tour de France following a report that he used ****** substance erythropoietin in 1998.
"Laurent Jalabert wants to suspend his commentator activities until light is shed on the accusations he's facing," French public broadcaster France Television and private radio RTL said in statements.
"France Television take note of his decision with regrets, hoping to be able to renew its confidence in him soon."
French sports daily L'Equipe said a 1998 Tour de France sample from Jalabert, which was re-tested in 2004, showed traces of the *****-booster EPO.
Jalabert, who on Monday expressed suprise at the report, said he was trying to protect the reputation of the Tour de France, the 100th editition of which begins in Corsica on Saturday.
"What is at stake is to stay a man of integrity as I've always been and to not taint the Tour de France reputation," he told France 2 channel midday news edition.
"I don't deny the possibility that (the report) is true. I can't say it's wrong, I can't say it's true," added the 1997 time-trial world champion, who has said he never questioned his ONCE team's doctor at that time.
Jalabert, who twice won both the points classification and the mountain classification on the Tour, withdrew with his team from the 1998 Tour after protesting that all riders were being labelled as cheats following the Festina doping scandal.

 

[Smallville22]

McQuaid hits back at Cookson's doping agenda

International Cycling Union (UCI) president Pat McQuaid dismissed on Tuesday an agenda unveiled by his challenger for the post at this year's election, labelling it flawed and financially impractical.
Brian Cookson, who has been British Cycling Federation president since 1996, unveiled his key proposals on Monday including the establishment of a "physically and politically independent unit" to handle anti-doping.
The 62-year-old Briton has based his candidacy on restoring trust and credibility in the UCI that has struggled to cope with the consequences of the Lance Armstrong doping scandal.
The American cyclist has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles after admitting to using performance-enhancing *****.
"Brian Cookson's election manifesto is half-baked, fundamentally flawed and financially impractical," McQuaid, who will seek a third consecutive term at September's election, said in a statement.
"Just telling people what they want to hear is easy. He needs to explain how is he going to make it happen."
McQuaid, who has defended the UCI when criticised for not having caught Armstrong during his rider years, mocked Cookson's proposal of setting up an independent anti-doping unit, saying it was no more than a relocation.
"Brian Cookson's manifesto is proposing nothing new... because the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) Code simply does not permit the UCI, or indeed any other international federation, to create an independent anti-doping body," McQuaid said.
The WADA Code, signed off by the Swiss-based UCI, states that international federations have to set up and manage a thorough anti-doping programme.
"What Brian is proposing, when you examine the detail, is simply to relocate the existing Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation unit, which is as fully independent as the WADA code permits, outside of the UCI building in Aigle", McQuaid said.
"Brian must immediately explain why he is proposing to establish a new anti-doping unit when the CADF already exists," added McQuaid, who had to rely on a Swiss endorsement to seek a new term after his home country Ireland dropped their support.
With Cookson pleading for the development of cycling in the world and women's competition, McQuaid said the agenda was unrealistic because it has not been financially considered.
"He has prepared his manifesto as if money were no object. The money has to be found and he has given no indication from where it will come," said McQuaid.

 

[Smallville22]

Attitudes are changing post Armstrong scandal

The spectre of Lance Armstrong's dirty legacy will haunt the 100th edition of the Tour de France even though cycling has already started its much-needed transformation.
While riders have been distancing himself from the American and what he has come to represent, at the forefront of fans' and pundits' minds will be the fact it is the first Tour since Armstrong admitted to doping his way to his seven titles from 1999-2005.
However, American Andrew Talansky, one of several US pros who have grown up watching Armstrong effortlessly sprint up the French mountains, believes it is now safe to be enthusiastic about cycling.
"The first thing I point out to people who want to say 'why can we believe in cycling now?' is that now you have guys like (Frenchman) Thibaut Pinot who on his first year on the Tour is top 10," Garmin-Sharp rider Talansky told Reuters earlier this season.
Talansky's team-mate David Millar, a repentant ex doper believes the sport's doping culture is the new generation's burden - not something they perpetuate.
"It makes them more angry than anything else to have to deal with the mistakes of another generation," he told Reuters. "I think it's more the case of the shift already happened.
"We educate our young riders that they can talk about this, we never gag them," he explained.
But not every team is as comfortable talking publicly about cycling's doping past as the Garmin-Sharp team.
Earlier in the season, BMC riders were instructed not to answer questions containing the name of Lance Armstrong.
"A question that includes Lance Armstrong's name is not a relevant one for any of the BMC Racing team riders or managers during Paris-Nice. This was mandated by president/general manager Jim Ochowicz," a BMC representative wrote to Reuters in March.
The perception of cheats within the sport is changing too.
While Frenchman Christophe Bassons pulled out of the 1999 Tour saying he had been bullied by Armstrong for speaking up against doping, those who get caught are now being castigated by a large part of the peloton.
When Italian veteran Danilo Di Luca tested positive for EPO on the Giro d'Italia last month, he was openly criticised on social media.
"Di Luca! Doping in cycling disappeared but not in your cycling world! 0 tolerance for cheaters! Hope you never come back to cycling," German sprinter Andre Greipel wrote on his Twitter feed.
In another sign that times are changing, earlier this month, French team AG2R La Mondiale suspended themselves for a week and missed the Criterium du Dauphine when they followed MPCC (Movement for Credible Cycling) rules.
The regulations of the MPCC state that a team must suspend themselves if involved in two doping affairs in a 12-month period.
"There is a new generation of riders who have nothing to do with doping and can win races," International Cycling Union President Pat McQuaid told Reuters last month.

 

[Smallville22]

Tour rides wheels of change as it reaches 100th edition

Maurice Garin, winner of the inaugural Tour de France in 1903, belonged to an era of adventurous pioneers and so-called amateurs in a world without television and little press coverage.
In contrast, the 2012 champion Bradley Wiggins and his Team Sky partners embody modernity and high tech in the multimedia age.
Yet as the race prepares to celebrate its 100th edition, it appears the first and the last Tour winners are not entirely worlds apart.
Garin, a former chimney sweep from the Italian valley of Aosta, was known as a hard-training perfectionist, who took great care of his machine.
The White Bulldog, as the Franco-Italian was known, made the arduous decision to give up **** and even cigarettes to achieve his goal of winning the Tour.
Wiggins, who started his career as a pursuit specialist and won three Olympic golds, went on a strict diet to lose seven kilos in his bid to become a Grand Tour winner.
Both men were brought up across two cultures, prefiguring the globalisation of cycling's showcase event.
Like many boys from his valley, Garin left to become a chimney sweep in France, ending up in the north of the country where he developed his taste for cycling.
Wiggins was born in the Belgian city of Ghent, one of the strongholds of Six-Day Racing, the cycling discipline in which his ****** Gary made his reputation as a solid yet maverick track rider.
Both men hardly knew their fathers, which might explain their motivation and an explanation of their hunger to win.
Cycling has undergone many transformations in the years between the two men's victories and, with all due respect to the 198 riders starting the Tour in Corsica on June 29 - Wiggins will be missing through injury -, the 60 brave men who embarked for the unknown in 1903 probably had more merit.
Stages were twice as long, with a 471-km ride from Nantes to Paris, and often started at night.
Bikes were gearless, three times as heavy - about 20 kilos - and riders were not allowed to receive any assistance so were ****** to carry spare tyres around their neck in case of punctures.
And punctures were common, as roads were covered with gravel and dust, while cobbles were usual in the north.
As a result, riders reached the finish line blackened by soot and dust mixed with their sweat.
Crowd favourite Honore Barthelemy lost an eye in a crash in 1920 and used to remove his glass one while racing to avoid it being covered in dust.
Riders were allowed to give up in one stage and start the next, although they did not compete for the general classification.
The race was also open to strictly amateur riders, who usually spent most of their savings for the chance to compete on the Tour.
One such amateur named Napoleon Paoli took part in the Tour in 1919 and 1920 and was ****** out each time, first when he was stopped by a landslide and then when he rode into a donkey.
While such events are improbable nowadays, modern Tour riders still have to deal with the occasional bizarre incident.
Last year, the race was halted during a stage in the Pyrenees when tacks and nails were spread over the tarmac, causing havoc in the peloton.
The same thing happened in the second edition of the Tour in 1904, which was so marred by incidents that race founder Henri Desgrange considered cancelling the event forever.
Not only were nails an everyday fixture of the race that year, competitors were attacked and beaten up by fans of rival riders and the men who reached Paris in the four top placings were all disqualified for various offences, including taking the train.
Unfortunately, as the case against seven-times winner Lance Armstrong, who was last year stripped of his titles for doping, has shown, cheating has also been a feature of the modern Tour.
Founder Desgrange ended the original formula of teams sponsored by bicycle manufacturers in 1930 when it turned out they were making arrangements to earn victory for the best man for their business at the expense of sporting concerns.
The Tour was then raced by national teams, which revived interest in the event and ****** the organisers to find new means to fund it as sponsors no longer paid to enter their riders.
This is how the publicity caravan that has now become a crowd favourite and a vital feature of the Tour was invented.
Sponsored teams returned in 1969, just as doping controls became systematic after the death of Britain's Tom Simpson on Mont Ventoux in 1967.
As Wiggins's victory showed last year, the Tour is now much more an international event than a piece of French national heritage. In 2012, 31 nations were represented at the start, compared with five in 1903.

 

[Smallville22]

Sponsors rewarded for keeping faith in road racing

Cycling sponsors can enjoy great value for money if they are willing to trust that the sport is finally leaving its dark doping days behind.
Before the start of the 100th edition of the Tour de France on Saturday, cycling has been boosted by news that US consumer electronics company Belkin will sponsor the former Rabobank team until 2015.
The Dutch bank pulled out last year when cycling was reeling from the downfall of American rider Lance Armstrong, stripped of his seven Tour de France titles after admitting to doping.
However, a feared rush for the exits by sponsors has failed to materialise. The deal with California-based Belkin shows that companies still want to buy into a sport offering wide exposure to an affluent audience for a modest price.
"If they look at the fundamentals of the sport, they are really strong. More and more people are taking up cycling," said Lars Seier Christensen, chief executive of Saxo Bank, the Danish company which sponsors the Saxo-Tinkoff team.
"It's a much better deal than other sports - the doping problem instituted a discount in the pricing."
Sponsors are the main source of revenue for most teams taking part in events like the Tour.
Road races do not charge admission fees for the hundreds of thousands of fans who line the route, and event organisers tend to keep the bulk of television revenues for themselves in the absence of a standard formula for sharing them with the teams.
Tour teams could operate on an annual budget of under 15 million euros, Christensen said. The leading teams were spending only around 25 million, he said, noting that sum would buy only one top football player.
Despite the importance of sponsors, cycling does not market itself as slickly as other sports.
"Formula One and football are more glamorous and are sold more professionally," said Ulrich Lacher, a director of sports marketing research company REPUCOM.
Those sports have well-established methods to help sponsors receive maximum exposure for their brands - a process known as activation.
"In cycling this has to be driven by the sponsor and although the activation opportunities exist, they are more difficult to implement," added Lacher.
Cycling can also learn from sports like Formula One by giving TV viewers more of an inside view on races through greater use of features such as audio and data feeds.
"In terms of media distribution, cycling is improving but still faces some challenges like conveying the effort, the pain and the tactics amongst riders," said Ioris Francini, head of global sales and acquisitions for sports marketing firm IMG.
IMG took over as the international distributor for the Giro d'Italia race this year. The number of broadcasters taking the Giro and hours screened had doubled over 2012, Francini said, a sign of the sport's global appeal.
British pay television company BSkyB has enjoyed spectacular returns since it launched its professional team in 2010.
Team Sky rider Bradley Wiggins became the first Briton to win the Tour de France last year and his team-mate Chris Froome is among the favourites for this year's race.
"Having our brand on our shirts is a huge benefit," said Tricia Thompson, director of cycling at BSkyB. The exposure also helps the Sky brand in Italy and Germany where the British company has ****** channels.
Another obvious benefit for the top cycling sponsors is that they can get naming rights for teams as well as having their brands displayed on team kit.
Sky's launch of a professional team complemented its efforts to get more Britons on their bikes. It is part of the company's attempt to show itself as having a positive effect on British sport after buying live TV rights to Premier League soccer, Formula One and English Test cricket.
"We invest in sport. We are and have been involved in transforming a lot of UK sport," said Thompson.
She says other companies are keen to emulate Sky's success.
"There are definitely a lot more brands interested in getting involved in cycling. It's on a lot more people's radars.
A lot of brands can see the potential now."

 

[Smallville22]

Team Sky add another News Corp name to sponsor list

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has agreed a new sponsorship deal with cycling's Team Sky, a further sign that big companies want to be associated with the sport as it recovers from a series of doping scandals.
Team Sky will add the 21st Century Fox brand to the riders' kit and support vehicles when the Tour de France begins this weekend, the team said in a statement on Wednesday.
"It's a great time to increase our commitment to Team Sky and to add the support of an exciting new entertainment brand," said James Murdoch, News Corp's deputy chief operating officer.
21st Century Fox is the media and entertainment company that will be formed on Friday when News Corp is split into two separate businesses.
British pay TV company BSkyB, part-owned by News Corp, launched Team Sky in 2010 was were rewarded last year when Bradley Wiggins became the first Briton to win the Tour.
Marketing experts say that cycling offers excellent value for money for sponsors if they are prepared to trust that it is putting its doping past behind it.

 

[Smallville22]

Hesjedal spearheads strong Garmin assault

Former Giro d’Italia champion Ryder Hesjedal will be part of the Garmin-Sharp team at the Tour de France with Ireland's Dan Martin and Britain's David Millar also in the line-up.
The squad for the centennial edition of the Tour features Canada's 2012 Maglia Rosa Hesjedal, Liege-Bastogne-Liege winner Martin plus emerging American Andrew Talansky and compatriots Christian Vande Velde and Tom Danielson.
Millar, the only British rider to have worn all Tour de France jerseys and one of five to have worn the yellow jersey, will compete in the event for the 12th time.
Recent Giro d’Italia stage winner Ramunas Navardauskas and debutants Jack Bauer and Rohan Dennis complete the squad.
With Hesjedal, Vande Velde and Danielson all having finished in the top 10 in the past, and Talansky coming seventh in last year's Vuelta plus Martin having a breakout year, Garmin-Sharp CEO Jonathan Vaughters said the team would read and react to the subject of team leadership.
“We have a deep team with a lot of options as we head into the Centennial Tour de France. Our goal is to animate the race and with an aggressive strategy, we will aim to place high in the general classification,” said Vaughters.
"We have a few guys capable of achieving that – Ryder’s won a Grand Tour and placed in the top 10 of the Tour de France; Andrew is young and while it's his first Tour de France, he is coming off a great season; and Dan Martin is having a breakout year with his wins in Catalunya and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
"We will protect our best GC options and see how the race shakes out. Our approach is a little unconventional, but we’ve managed to come up with surprises every year at the Tour and we’re hoping for the same as we head into Corsica.”

 

[Smallville22]

UCI candidate Cookson reacts to McQuaid criticism

International Cycling Union (UCI) presidential candidate Brian Cookson hit back at criticism of his election manifesto from incumbent Pat McQuaid, saying on Wednesday he had been encouraged by the support for his pledges.
Cookson, president of British Cycling, is so far the only person to challenge Irishman McQuaid, who is seeking a third term in the post.
The 62-year-old announced his key election points on Monday, which included the establishment of an independent anti-doping unit, only for McQuaid to denounce the manifesto as "half-baked, fundamentally flawed and financially impractical".
In a statement, Cookson said: "On Monday I set out a new agenda for the UCI and cycling which has already received very strong support from around the world.
"I have been truly encouraged by the messages I have received following the launch and the serious and considered way which members of the cycling ****** and the media have responded to the direction I want to set.
"The response from Pat McQuaid to my manifesto has once again demonstrated exactly why restoring credibility to the UCI and cycling in general was the number one recommendation of the recent Deloitte consultation with the sport's stakeholders," he added.
"As we enter the next stage of the presidential election, it is clear that the choice that has to be made is between two different approaches to the work of the UCI and two different visions for our sport."
Cookson has based his candidacy on restoring trust and credibility in the UCI as the organisation struggles to deal with the aftermath of the Lance Armstrong doping scandal and allegations it did not do enough to catch the American, who was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles last year.

 

[Smallville22]

Contador promises different Tour de France

Alberto Contador has promised a more exciting Tour de France this year after Bradley Wiggins's Team Sky dominated all the way to the Champs-Elysees in the 2012 edition.
Double champion Contador of Spain, back in the race after a one-year hiatus because of a doping suspension, is unlikely to settle for second against Team Sky leader Chris Froome, the overwhelming favourite.
"We are not the only two actors in this film," Contador, who won the Tour in 2007 and 2009, told a packed news conference at his team hotel on Thursday. "There will be more action than last year."
Last year, Wiggins's rivals seemed to quickly abandon hope of winning the Tour as the Briton dominated the time trials and relied on Team Sky's conservative tactics in the mountains.
Wiggins is out of the race, which starts on Saturday, for health reasons but Team Sky directors are likely to use the same methods to help Froome to reach Paris with the yellow jersey.
Australian Michael Rogers, who was Team Sky's road captain last year but has switched to Contador's Team Saxo-Tinkoff this season, knows a thing or two about the British outfit's way of operating.
"I think Sky are more advanced in training, in sports science - they know exactly what's required from domestiques to do the job properly in the last week, they know so much more about the internals of the sport, in my opinion, than any other team," he told reporters.
"I think Alberto uses his emotions in the races, whereas I think Chris is very calculated and Brad was very calculated last year. (At Team Sky) you know what you're capable of and you don't go outside of that."
Contador, instead, is a hot-blooded racer who is able to turn around desperate situations.
In last year's Vuelta, he launched a devastating surprise ****** in the 17th stage to snatch the overall lead from fellow Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez.
In the 2011 Tour, although he did not win the race, Contador attacked 92 kilometres from the finish at l'Alpe d'Huez as he tried to make up for lost time against Australian Cadel Evans.
He is ready to use the same approach this time if needed.
"We will think about tactics after the second time trial. It will depend on the overall standings," Contador said.
"Depending on my position, we will be more aggressive or more conservative. However, there will be more movement than the previous year.
"This year's race gives opportunities to ****** far from the finish."
The odds are that Contador, one of five men with titles in all three grand Tours, will be behind Froome after the 11th stage, an individual time trial to Mont St Michel.
Froome has beaten Contador in all their confrontations in stage races this season, but the Spaniard is not concerned.
"At the (Criterium du) Dauphine (this month), I was at 75 percent," he said. "Now I'm around 90 percent, which was my goal a few days before the start of the Tour."
Contador will have a much better team than in 2011, with Rogers, Czech Roman Kreuziger and Irishman Nicolas Roche.
"Michael has a lot of experience, he will be our road captain," he explained. "He knows how Sky work so it will be helpful.
"Having a stronger team gives me tranquillity because I know I have the riders to put me in a good position in the mountains."
The Tour starts from Porto Vecchio in Corsica, an island that could give Contador a few attacking opportunities.
"Anything is possible," he warned.

 

[Smallville22]

Cavendish looking to turn British jersey yellow

Mark Cavendish will start the Tour de France on Saturday wearing the British champion's jersey but would be happy to trade it for the yellow jersey at the end of the first stage.
"I've worn the leader's jersey in the Giro (d'Italia) and Vuelta a Espana, I'm just missing the yellow jersey," the Manxman told a news conference on Thursday.
Cavendish, who won his first British road race title last weekend, is targeting the green jersey for the points classification on the Tour but with the opening stage being designed for sprinters, he is a natural candidate for a brief spell in yellow.
"For sure, I won't be wearing it in Paris but I'd just be wearing it," the OmegaPharma-Quick Step rider said two days before the peloton tackle the 213 kilometres from Porto Vecchio to Bastia on the island of Corsica.
Cavendish will battle it out with Slovakian Peter Sagan for the green jersey but said a spell in yellow would be a ***** come true.
"The yellow jersey is not just one of the most iconic symbols in cycling, it's one of the most iconic symbols in the world of sport," said Cavendish, who has won 23 Tour de France stages.
"I think to be able to wear that for a day in your life, it's a thing to make any rider's career, it's a thing you ***** about as a *****; it would be a beautiful thing."

 

[Smallville22]

Shamed cyclist ordered to repay former team

A shamed cycling superstar has been stung for more than half a million pounds after his attempts to sue his former employers backfired spectacularly.
Denmark’s Michael Rasmussen was sacked by his Rabobank team in incredible circumstances while leading the Tour de France in 2007 with just four stages remaining.
It emerged that Rasmussen had been training in Italy prior to the race, rather than being in Mexico as he had told the UCI and his team. That led to him missing three doping tests, earning him the sack when he was on the verge of the biggest win of his career.
Rasmussen, who at the time claimed he was guilty only of an administrative mistake, successfully sued Rabobank for 715,000 euros for wrongful dismissal a year later, but continued to pursue them for 5,000,000 euros instead on the basis that the decision cost him victory in the Tour de France.
Slightly incredibly, Rasmussen's legal action was still ongoing despite the fact that he admitted earlier this year that he had indeed been doping - an admission that he made in order to get a clean slate and get a new job in the sport.
But Holland's De Telegraaf reports that a court in Arnhem took a dim view of a **** cheat trying to sue his employers for what turned out to be a fully justified firing. Not only did he not get his damages increased, but he was also ordered to repay 663,000 euros of the money he had originally won – some £565,000.

 

[Smallville22]

Brailsford: Froome 'at an absolute ideal place'

Just like Bradley Wiggins last year, Chris Froome has had the perfect build-up to the Tour de France and he is now "at an absolute ideal place", according to Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford.
Froome won four of the five stage races he has entered this year, crushing all the rivals he will face during the three-week Tour which starts on Saturday.
Wiggins won Paris-Nice, the Tour de Romandie and the Criterium du Dauphine last year on his way to becoming the first Briton to wear the yellow jersey on the Champs Elysees.
"Their run-ins to the Tour have been very similar in terms of their performance, in terms of the results they achieved, that's a positive thing," Brailsford told a news conference on Thursday.
A great season does not, however, guarantee a good result in July as riders sometimes peak too soon.
Just like Wiggins last year, Froome is exactly where he should be and Brailsford said the key issues were how fresh he is and how strong he is compared to the demands of the race.
"I think Chris is at an absolute ideal place this year to use his strength to take on this parcours," he said.
Froome said he felt happy with his preparation.
"I'm in super condition," he said.
But Brailsford said there would be no complacency.
"We are respectful of the other competitors as always, we don't take any thing for granted complacency is not a word we contemplate," he said.
Froome, discovering the amount of hype that goes with the status of overwhelming favourite, will first be looking to avoid trouble and to limit the losses on less decisive stages, including the first three on the narrow winding roads of Corsica.
"You need to focus on the process, not the outcome on a race this long," Brailsford said.

 

[Smallville22]

Armstrong: Winning without doping was impossible

The disgraced Lance Armstrong, who cheated his way to seven Tour de France victories from 1999-2005, claims it would have been impossible to win the world's greatest race without doping.
Asked if riders won races *****-free in the era when he competed, a bullish Armstrong told French daily Le Monde on Friday: "It depends on the races. The Tour de France? No. Impossible to win without doping.
"My name was taken out of the palmares (list of achievements) but the Tour was held between 1999 and 2005 wasn't it? There must be a winner then. Who is he? Nobody came forward to claim my jerseys."
Five-times Tour champion Bernard Hinault was quick to react, the Frenchman telling local TV channel BFM: "He must not know what it was like to ride without doping."
Last year, the US Anti-Doping Agency published a report into Armstrong's doping programme, calling it "the most sophisticated in the history of sport", leading to the American being ****** for life and losing his Tour titles.
"I did not invent doping. Sorry, Travis," the 41-year-old Texan said, referring to USADA CEO Travis Tygart. "And it (doping) has not stopped with me. I just took part in the system.
"The USADA 'reasoned decision' perfectly managed to destroy a man's life but it has not benefited cycling at all."
Armstrong also hit out at the International Cycling Union, who have been heavily criticised for allegedly covering up for the American.
"(UCI president) Pat McQuaid can say and think what he wants. Things just cannot change as long as McQuaid stays in power," he said.
"The UCI refuses to establish a 'Truth and Reconciliation commission' because the testimony that everyone would want to hear would bring McQuaid, (his predecessor) Hein Verbruggen and the whole institution down," he added without elaborating.
The 2013 Tour de France starts on Saturday.

 

[Smallville22]

Prepare for a fight, Tour rivals tell Team Sky

Rivals are lining up to target Team Sky's hopes of consecutive Tour de France victories when the 100th edition of the world's most famous cycle race gets under way in Corsica on Saturday.
The 2012 success was built on Bradley Wiggins's domination of the time trials and Team Sky's conservative tactics in the mountains which led to Wiggins becoming the first Briton to win the Tour.
This year, with Wiggins out through illness, Team Sky is led by Chris Froome, last year's runner-up, who is in "the absolute ideal place", said team principal Dave Brailsford.
Froome has won four of the five stage races he entered this season as Team Sky set a blistering pace in the mountains.
But last year's beleaguered rivals are geared up for a fierce challenge in a race that this year will feature an unprecedented double ascent of the 21 hairpins to l'Alpe d'Huez.
The presence of Spanish climbers Joaquim Rodriguez and Alberto Contador will definitely spice up the action, as will as Garmin-Sharp's plan to "cause chaos" in the three-week race.
Garmin-Sharp manager Jonathan Vaughters told reporters: "(Team effort) is our strength and we're going in with the same open strategy. We don't have one superstar but we have a bonded group of guys who together can create chaos in the race and create a situation where (we) can perform way above what anyone's expectations of us are."
With 2012 Giro d'Italia champion Ryder Hesjedal of Canada, Liege-Bastogne-Liege winner Dan Martin of Ireland and American hope Andrew Talansky, the U.S. team are a formidable outfit.
Contador's Team Saxo-Tinkoff have Czech Roman Kreuziger, Irishman Nicolas Roche and Australian Michael Rogers in the team as well as road manager Bjarne Riis, who was lured from Team Sky this season.
Movistar could also be a factor as Spain's Alejandro Valverde, Portugal's Rui Costa and Colombian Nairo Quintana can all do well in the general classification.
"There will be more action this year," double champion Contador, back after a one-year absence due to a doping ban, told reporters.
"There will be more movement than the previous year."
Spaniard Contador, who won the Tour in 2007 and 2009, was beaten by Froome every time they crossed swords this season but both know that counts for nothing when the 198 riders line up at the start.
"Once we line up...every other race this season folds away," said Froome, who is hoping to win the first race since seven-times winner Lance Armstrong admitted to doping his way to victory.
Armstrong, stripped of his Tour titles, told Le Monde newspaper on Friday that winning the Tour in his era without doping was impossible.

 

[Smallville22]

Riders: Do not treat us like sub-citizens

Tour de France riders protested angrily on the eve of this year's race on Friday against the burden of suspicion they have been ****** to carry because of a previous generation's doping.
"It is degrading to be dragged through the mud and be run down by some who look to make money on our backs," the riders said in a statement on Friday after Le Monde newspaper printed a headline quoting Lance Armstrong saying it was impossible to win the Tour de France without doping.
American Armstrong, who was stripped of his seven Tour titles for doping and later admitted taking performance-enhancing *****, had been speaking about the 1999-2005 era during which he crushed the opposition.
Earlier in the week, sports daily L'Equipe said a ***** sample from Frenchman Laurent Jalabert in 1998 showed traces of the ****** *****-booster EPO when it was re-tested in 2004.
"Enough is enough!!!!!!,'" the riders' statement further read.
"Today the limits of the bearable have been reached!!!! We have for many years shown our will to work for a flawless fight against doping.
"If there was a culture of doping in the 1990s, in the past 15 years our sport has been fighting alone against the plague of doping.
"We are professional bike riders and we are proud of that. But do not treat us like sub-citizens as you have been doing for too long," the riders' statement continued.
In 2011, ***** tests accounted for 35 percent of tests in cycling while 17.6 percent in athletics and less than 6 percent in tennis.
Cycling pioneered biological passports in 2008, a programme that according to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) "indirectly reveals the effects of doping".
Garmin-Sharp manager Jonathan Vaughters told Reuters he thought cycling was cleaning up its act.
"The science points to a trend that racing is cleaner, that it is possible to win the Tour de France clean," he said.
"When you look at the climbing speed and look at the numbers. The science firmly points to the fact that doping is on the decline.
"Racing is slower even though the equipment and the training are better. To me there is only one explanation for that - doping has decreased a lot," Vaughters added.
Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme backed the riders' complaints, saying that almost every year a doping-related story breaks days before the Tour.
"I can appreciate that some agendas have nothing to do with cycling but 14 times in the last 15 years, it cannot be a coincidence," he told Reuters.
"For some, the Tour is a unique opportunity to communicate their message."
Referring to the report about Jalabert, Prudhomme added: "Why give on June 24, 2013, the name of a rider whom it is said doped after a control that occurred on July 22, 1998?."
Garmin-Sharp rider David Millar, a former doper turned anti-doping campaigner, thought it was essential cycling learned from previous mistakes.
"What needs to change is that we need complete truth and transparency into what happened in the 15-year era of the 1990s and early 2000s," said the former Armstrong team mate, who served a two-year ban after admitting taking EPO.
"So we can understand what mistakes were made and we can make sure those mistakes do not happen again.
"Because I think racing has cleaned up a lot, I think the Tour de France can be won clean."
For all the effort it has been making to clean up, cycling cannot let its guard down, according to Vaughters.
"What I hope is that we gather information from the past to find a way to correct those mistakes the next time around."

 

[Smallville22]

Chaos in Corsica costs Cavendish dear as Kittel takes yellow

Marcel Kittel won the opening stage of the 2013 Tour de France in Bastia to take the yellow jersey after British favourite Mark Cavendish was held up in a large crash towards the finish.
In chaotic scenes in Corsica, British national champion Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) was ****** onto the side of the road after a pile-up 5km from the finish out took out around a dozen riders, including last year’s green jersey Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and two-time winner Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff).
Argos-Shimano’s Kittel won a streamlined bunch sprint after fellow German Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) suffered a mechanical problem in the closing kilometres of the 213km stage from Porto-Vecchio.
Kittel outsprinted Norwegian Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) and Dutch youngster Danny van Poppel (Vacansoleil-DCM) to become the first pure sprinter to take the yellow jersey on the opening day since the 1960s.
It was the first Tour stage win of the 25-year-old's career - and his 12th victory this year.
On top of the numerous crashes which marred the closing moments of an otherwise uneventful stage, the conclusion was also disrupted by a coach belonging to Orica GreenEdge breaking down on the finish line.
At one point – with the peloton entering the last 10km of the stage at breakneck speed – race organisers were ****** to bring the finish forward by three kilometres.
Just as the coach finally managed to reverse off the finish line after untangling its roof from the overhead barriers, the pile-up involving Sagan and Contador took place after what appeared to be a touching of wheels between two Omega Pharma-Quick Step riders.
One of the riders was Germany's Tony Martin, who was taken to hospital with a suspected broken collarbone. Sky's Geraint Thomas fell and was also taken to hospital for X-rays - but team-mate and pre-race favourite Chris Froome was not affected by the incident.
With the likes of Cavendish, Sagan and Greipel all seeing their chances evaporate in the chain of events, Kittel’s cause were dealt another boost when Australia’s Matt Goss also crashed on the final corner.
Given the extraordinary circumstances, the race organisers have decided to award the whole peloton the same time at the finish.
"It was very hectic and everyone tried to be on the front," said Kittel after picking up the fabled maillot jaune. "I had the perfect lead out and my team took perfect care of me. I saw the crash but I didn't know who was involved."
Kittel also said that he had no idea about the bus being stuck on the finish line. "I didn't know that. I am hearing that for the first time now," he told reporters when quizzed about the crazy scenes on the world's biggest bike race.
The opening stage of the 2013 Tour was animated from the outset with an ****** as soon as Christian Prudhomme, the Tour director, waved his flag to mark the official start of the 100th edition of the race.
Making his Tour debut, French 24-year-old Jerome ****** (Europcar) made the initial acceleration and soon formed a lead group with Spaniards Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Juan Jose Lobato (Euskaltel), Dutchman Lars Boom (Belkin) and fellow Frenchman Cyril Lemoine (Sojasun).
Motivated by the prospect of wearing the race’s first polka dot jersey, the break built up a maximum lead of three minutes ahead of the only climb of the day, the Cat.4 Cote de Sotta, which came 45km into the stage after the stunning coastal cliff town of Bonifacio.
****** opened up the sprint for the solitary point up for grabs over the summit but it was fellow Tour first-timer Lobato, also 24, who came round the outside to cross the summit in pole position and secure the first scalp of the race.
With Omega Pharma-Quick Step leading the chase, the lead came down to as little as 35 seconds for the five escapees before the team-mates of Cavendish took their foot off the gas and allowed the gap to stretch back to above the three-minute mark.
The race organisers’ decision to bring the Tour to the only region of metropolitan France not to have been visited by the Grande Boucle was justified simply by the scenery, which was breathtaking throughout an opening sunny stage in stark contrast to May’s weather-afflicted Giro d’Italia.
After a stunning loop south of Porto-Vecchio, the Saint Tropez of Corsica, the peloton hugged the east coast of the island, passing white sandy beaches and turquoise waters.
The gap came back down to a minute as the leaders ****** though the feed zone, prompting ****** to ride off the front in search of the day’s combativity prize for the most aggressive rider. When the peloton eased up once again, ****** slowed to allow his fellow escapees to return – and the quintet combined to build up a lead of over four minutes ahead of the intermediate sprint.
Boom burst past Flecha to take the sprint around 60km from the finish while back in the peloton the Cannondale and Orica GreenEdge team-mates of Sagan and Goss finally made their presence known on the front of the pack.
But it was the German national champion Greipel who took maximum points ahead of Cavendish and Sagan, giving his rivals an early warning of his form ahead of the expected bunch finish in Bastia.
Lobato was the first of the escapees to be caught soon after the intermediate sprint, the remaining four seeing their lead yo-yo out once more before being caught inside the final 40km.
A fast segment on a wide stretch of motorway saw the Sky team of race favourite Chris Froome come to the front to set the pace, but the peloton entered the final 15km in an orderly fashion, quite out of sync from what was about to follow.
First Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM), the Dutch national champion, hit the deck after colliding with a soft advertising barrier on the side of the road; then a handful of riders – including Canada’s Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) – tasted the tarmac in a nervous spill with 12km remaining.
The focus then shifted to the broken down bus at the finish line – a bizarre incident which looked to jeopardise Bastia’s big day as the first ever finish town in a Tour stage on Corsica.
But the bus would prove to be merely a sideshow to a catalogue of accidents which ensured the start of the 100th edition of the Tour de France will not be forgotten in a long while.
The race continues on Sunday with the mountainous 154km stage two from Bastia to Ajaccio, the birthplace of Napoleon.

 

[Smallville22]

Team Sky duo, Contador recovering after dramatic crash

Alberto Contador took a spectacular tumble as the Tour de France got off to a chaotic start, but both the double champion and the Team Sky riders are okay after a spectacular crash.
Spaniard Contador, one of the pre-race favourites, was among the riders caught up in a crash with four kilometres left and he crossed the line with the left side of his jersey torn up and his face a mask of pain.
"He is all right but it is after the night that we will see how he has recuperated from the crash. There is no fracture," Contador's sports director at Team Saxo-Tinkoff, Philippe Mauduit, told reporters.
Contador told reporters: "It hurts. We put ice on it. The Tour is the Tour, you never know what can happen."
Slovakian prodigy Peter Sagan, who won the green jersey for the points classification last year, also crashed as the peloton got jittery when they heard the finish line had been moved to the three-kilometre line.
Double time-trial world champion Tony Martin of Germany crashed heavily, too, and suffered a suspected collarbone fracture. He was carried on a stretcher into an ambulance from his team bus.
Team Sky will have their full complement of nine riders at the start of Sunday's second stage, a 156-km hilly ride to Ajaccio, after Geraint Thomas and Ian Stannard were cleared to continue. The duo also crashed heavily.
Pre-stage favourite Mark Cavendish of Britain was held up behind the crash that took down dozen of riders and could not contest the final sprint.
"I count myself lucky," the British champion said.
The Orica GreenEdge team bus was eventually moved away before the peloton's arrival.
Organisers said that all riders would be credited with the same time because of the incidents.
"Eight kilometers from the finish I informed the teams that the line was being moved to three kilometers from the finish," race director Jean-Francois Pescheux told reporters.
"Then I was informed that eventually the bus was moved and I told the teams that the original finish line was maintained, which disturbed the peloton."
Fabrizio Guidi, the other sports director at Team Saxo-Tinkoff, said: "It was an insanely chaotic stage and it's really a shame for everyone that the stage was opened in this chaos. We were confused to say the least in the car behind the field.
"First we were told that the finish line was moved because of a bus blocking the road. We ****** the information on to the riders, who then did the sprint.
"The moment later, the finish line was moved back to its original spot and then in all the confusion the big crash happened."
There were also early nerves for overwhelming favourite Chris Froome of Britain, who suffered a ***** crash in the neutral zone before the start. He escaped unhurt.
"I managed to get through the rest of the day unscathed and if that is the only crash I have this Tour I will take that", Froome said.
"I don't think any of us expected it was going to be plain sailing today, but there were some pretty ****** crashes in the final there.
"Again, it is just another reminder that this Tour is about so much more than having the form and being here. It is about staying out of trouble and looking after ourselves in the peloton at the same time."