Archive for the 'Cycling' Category
Tour de France runner-up Oscar Pereiro is one of 11 riders who have been cleared of doping charges by the French Anti-Doping Authority.
The case against the Spaniard was dismissed after he showed he had official medical clearance to use certain banned substances.
Pereiro twice tested positive for salbutamol during last year’s race.
But the agency said he had provided sufficient justification for use of an asthma medication.
The International Cycling Union said he had authorization to use the drug and Pereiro insisted he had forgotten to send the relevant documents to the French Anti-Doping Authority (ALFD).
AFLD president Pierre Bordry revealed that Periero had only provided the necessary clearance last week, after the case was highlighted in French newspaper Le Monde, despite being asked to send them to the authority last year.
“It’s a pity it took such a long time to receive the clearance asked for,” Bordry said.
Le Monde reported that since August, the AFLD had contacted the Spaniard three times in order to gain the relevant proof.
Meanwhile, race winner Floyd Landis, who tested positive for high levels of testosterone, is appealing against his positive test result.
He has claimed that mistakes by the French laboratory which analysed his samples led to his positive result.
If he is found guilty of cheating, Landis would be the first rider in the modern era to be stripped of victory.
The American has been called to appear before the French anti-doping agency on 8 February.
Source: BBC
Tour de France winner Floyd Landis wants a second title to make up for the mixed memories of last year’s victory.
Landis has launched a speaking tour to counter the charges
Landis, fighting to keep his crown after a positive drugs test, says he has been unable to celebrate properly.
He said: “I’d like to ride down the Champs Elysees in the yellow jersey again because I need the proper party.”
But the American, 31, may have to wait until 2008 to return to the event because his appeal against the doping charges may not take place before July.
Landis was charged by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after tests showed abnormal amounts of testosterone in his body after he won stage 17 of last year’s event.
“I really have never been treated this poorly by anybody in my life
Floyd Landis”
He has vehemently denied the allegations, claiming there were a host of inconsistencies in the paperwork and results provided by the French laboratory.
Landis could be the first Tour winner to be stripped of his title for drug offences and faces a two-year ban from cycling.
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Floyd Landis is set to lose his Tour de France title and faces a two-year ban after returning a positive B sample for excessive levels of testosterone.
The American’s Phonak team dismissed Landis on Saturday when it was confirmed he produced levels more than twice the legal limit after stage 17.
Landis, 30, has said the high levels detected were a “natural occurrence”.
Spaniard Oscar Pereiro will be declared the winner of the Tour de France if Landis is stripped of the title.
Pereiro was second overall behind Landis in the race, which finished in Paris on 23 July, and would become the first Spaniard to win the Tour since Miguel Indurain in 1995.
The official decision to strip Landis of the victory rests with the International Cycling Union (UCI), but Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said: “It goes without saying that for us Floyd Landis is no longer the winner of the 2006 Tour de France.”
Landis said in a statement: “I have never taken any banned substance, including testosterone.
“I was the strongest man at the Tour de France, and that is why I am the champion.
“I will fight these charges with the same determination and intensity that I bring to my training and racing.
“It is now my goal to clear my name and restore what I worked so hard to achieve.”
His lawyer Howard Jacobs added: “In consultation with some of the leading medical and scientific experts, we will prove that Floyd Landis’s victory in the 2006 Tour de France was not aided in any respect by the use of any banned substances.”
A Phonak statement said: “Landis will be dismissed without notice for violating the teams internal Code of Ethics.
“Landis will continue to have legal options to contest the findings. However, this will be his personal affair and the Phonak team will no longer be involved in that.”
We will explain to the world why this is not a doping case
Floyd Landis speaking last week
The analysis of Landis’ B sample took place at France’s national laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry in the presence of the American’s Spanish lawyer, Jose Maria Buxeda, and experts from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and the UCI.
“In accordance to the anti-doping rules, the Anti-Doping Commission of the UCI will request that the USA Cycling Federation open a disciplinary procedure against the rider,” the UCI said in a statement.
According to the good behaviour charter of professional cycling, Landis would not be allowed into a Pro Tour team for a further two years.
He now has 10 days to respond to the documents that are provided, according to USADA rules.
Landis’ lawyers could then take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Those documents, Landis’s response and any documents USADA would provide will go to a review panel some time after the 10 days.
The review panel will make a recommendation whether or not there is a case. USADA, based on that recommendation, will then decide whether to charge Landis.
If USADA does charge him, he will have an opportunity to contest that decision and the recommended sanction before a US panel of judges.
The American’s future was already uncertain given he is due to have a hip replacement operation shortly.
Speaking in Madrid last week, he said the testosterone was “absolutely natural and produced by my own organism”.
Landis produced one of the most memorable displays in Tour history when he stormed to victory on the 17th stage of the Tour into Morzine by almost six minutes.
The win put him back into contention for the yellow jersey a day after his chances looked to have evaporated when he cracked on the final climb of stage 16.
But a two-year ban could spell the end of his career.
[BBC]
[COLBERT ON LANDIS (youtube)]
This past Friday, Floyd Landis and his doctor were interviewed by Larry King on CNN. Landis said he would clear his name from allegations that he cheated on his way to winning ths years Tour de France. Was Landis subjected to the second of a one-two combination punch when the New York Times reported last night that some of the hormone came from an external (synthentic) source.
The finding undermines the defense that Landis has stood behind since he tested positive for an elevated ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone following the 17th stage of the Tour de France, where he staged a stirring comeback in the Alps to make up for a poor performance the day before.
But after determining that Landis’s ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone was more than twice the limit of 4:1, the lab performed a carbon isotope ratio test on the first of Landis’s two urine samples to determine whether it’s natural or synthetic, the person told the Times.
Landis officially requested the testing of his backup urine sample Monday for an elevated testosterone ratio, and results were expected sometime this week. If the “B” test is negative, Landis would be cleared. If it’s positive, which Landis’ lawyers say they expect, he could be stripped of his Tour victory and banned for two years.
But the result showing synthetic testosterone does not need to be confirmed with a second test, said Dr. Gary Wadler, a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency and a spokesman for the American College of Sports Medicine.
“The rules say that it is a violation, but if you can show that the athlete had no fault or no significant fault, there could be a mitigation of the sanction,” Wadler told the Times. “No matter how it got there, the athlete has to show how it got into his or her body. It could have been sabotage or contaminated dietary supplements, or something else, but they have to prove how the testosterone got there.”
Oscar Pereiro of Spain, who finished second overall in the Tour de France, would be declared the winner if Landis loses the Tour de France title. It would be the first time in the history of the Tour of France that the winner has been disqualified for doping.
We should know more this week.
Team to dismiss Landis if excessive level of testosterone confirmed
The statement came a day after the UCI, cycling’s world governing body, said an unidentified rider had failed a drug test during the Tour.
The Swiss-based Phonak team said it was notified by the UCI on Wednesday that Landis’ sample showed “an unusual level of testosterone/epitestosterone” when he was tested after stage 17 of the race last Thursday.
Landis made a remarkable comeback in that Alpine stage, racing far ahead of the field for a solo win that moved him from 11th to third in the overall standings. He regained the leader’s yellow jersey two days later.
“The team management and the rider were both totally surprised of this physiological result,” the Phonak statement said.
Phonak said Landis would ask for an analysis of his backup “B” sample “to prove either that this result is coming from a natural process or that this is resulting from a mistake.”
Landis has been suspended by his team pending the results. If the second sample confirms the initial finding, he will be fired from the team, Phonak said.
[The Associated Press]
The 30-year-old Landis cruised to victory on the Champs-Elysees, a day after regaining the leader’s yellow jersey and building an insurmountable lead in the final time trial.
Landis picked up where another American left off just last year, when Lance Armstrong completed his seventh and final Tour triumph. Including three wins by Greg Lemond (1986, 1989, 1990), Americans have won the race 11 of the last 21 times.
Norway’s Thor Hushovd, who also won the Tour prologue on July 1, won the final stage in a sprint ahead of the main pack, which included Landis and his closest rivals.
Rounding out the podium was Spain’s Oscar Pereiro in second and Germany’s Andreas Kloeden in third.
Assured of victory, Landis hoisted a champagne glass handed to him from the Phonak team car early along the 154.5-kilometre route from Sceaux-Antony to the capital.
Saturday, Landis placed third in the Tour’s last time trial, wresting the yellow jersey from former teammate Pereiro and securing a 59-second lead over the Spaniard, who finished fourth in the stage.
That time deficit was a virtually impossible margin to overcome in the flat, short final stage because Landis and his team watched the Spaniard closely to make sure he didn’t try to break away.
Landis, a former mountain biker who toiled for three years as a U.S. Postal Service team support rider for Armstrong, had sought to apply the Texan’s conservative meticulous strategy for winning.
But “disaster” struck Wednesday in Stage 16 in the Alps.
Landis allowed Pereiro to take the yellow jersey as the race left the Pyrenees at the end of the second week to conserve energy for the three crucial stages in the Alps. That strategy seemed to backfire after Landis lost the jersey in a second Alpine stage at La Toussuire, dropping from first to 11th - eight minutes eight seconds behind Pereiro.
Only with a stunning stage win Thursday in the final Alpine stage did Landis erase all but 30 seconds of that time deficit - putting him in a prime position to win by outpacing the Spanish rider in the final time trial Saturday.
For Sunday’ finish, Russia’s Viatceslav Ekimov, 40, led the peloton, the main rider pack, as it arrived for the first of eight laps on the famed Paris avenue to honour him as the Tour’s oldest rider. It was the Discovery Channel rider’s 15th Tour - one shy of Dutch cyclist Joop Zoetemelk’s record.
Australia’s Robbie McEwen won the green jersey given to the best sprinter for a third time, and Denmark’s Mickael Rasmussen earned the polka-dot jersey awarded to the best climber for a second year. Italy’s Damiano Cunego, 25, won the white jersey as the best young rider.
[AP]
“I have come here to win the Tour and I am not done fighting yet” - Floyd Landis
Results of stage 17:
1. Floyd Landis (US / Phonak ) 5 hours 23 minutes 36 seconds
2. Carlos Sastre (Spain / Team CSC ) +5:42
3. Christophe Moreau (France / AG2R ) +5:58
4. Damiano Cunego (Italy / Lampre ) +6:40
5. Michael Boogerd (Netherlands / Rabobank ) +7:08
6. Fraenk Schleck (Luxembourg / Team CSC )
7. Oscar Pereiro (Spain / Caisse d’Epargne )
8. Andreas Kloeden (Germany / T-Mobile )
9. Haimar Zubeldia (Spain / Euskaltel )
10. Cadel Evans (Australia / Davitamon - Lotto ) +7:20
General classification:
1. Oscar Pereiro (Spain / Caisse d’Epargne ) 80 hours 8 minutes 49 seconds
2. Carlos Sastre (Spain / Team CSC ) +0.12 minutes
3. Floyd Landis (US / Phonak ) +0.30
4. Andreas Kloeden (Germany / T-Mobile ) +2:29
5. Cadel Evans (Australia / Davitamon - Lotto ) +3:08
6. Denis Menchov (Russia / Rabobank ) +4:14
7. Cyril Dessel (France / AG2R ) +4:24
8. Christophe Moreau (France / AG2R ) +5:45
9. Haimar Zubeldia (Spain / Euskaltel ) +8:16
10. Michael Rogers (Australia / T-Mobile ) +12:13
In stage 12 today, Yaroslav Popovych of Team Discovery scored a beautiful stage win the day after two of Discovery’s riders (Savoldelli and Noval) retired. It was a great morale boost for the team where the only thing they seem to have to look forward to now is a stage win or two. Floyd Landis keeps the yellow but allowed Popo to gain about 4.5 minutes today and he sits in 10th place now. Popo might not have a full team to help him defend, but Landis might not want to give up the yellow to a guy like Popo. Nonetheless Landis looks to be in great shape and riding well with the Alps ahead.
Admittedly for many (particularly many Americans) a tour without Lance is no tour. The drug scandal on the eve of the tour also took the wind out. However, it also created an atmosphere where so many riders previously thought not to be contenders have ridden well and made this an exciting race at the halfway mark.
Here’s the top 20 after 12
Pos. No. Name Nat. Team Time Gap
1 071 LANDIS, Floyd USA PHO 53:57:30.000 00:00:00.000
2 035 DESSEL, Cyril FRA A2R 53:57:38.000 00:00:08.000
3 051 MENCHOV, Denis RUS RAB 53:58:31.000 00:01:01.000
4 061 EVANS, Cadel AUS DVL 53:58:47.000 00:01:17.000
5 014 SASTRE, Carlos ESP CSC 53:59:22.000 00:01:52.000
6 021 KLÖDEN, Andréas GER TMO 53:59:59.000 00:02:29.000
7 026 ROGERS, Michael AUS TMO 54:00:52.000 00:03:22.000
8 191 MERCADO, Juan Miguel ESP AGR 54:01:03.000 00:03:33.000
9 031 MOREAU, Christophe FRA A2R 54:01:14.000 00:03:44.000
10 007 POPOVYCH, Yaroslav UKR DSC 54:01:45.000 00:04:15.000
11 042 FOTHEN, Marcus GER GST 54:01:47.000 00:04:17.000
12 129 ZUBELDIA, Haimar ESP EUS 54:01:56.000 00:04:26.000
13 027 SINKEWITZ, Patrik GER TMO 54:03:08.000 00:05:38.000
14 041 LEIPHEIMER, Levi USA GST 54:03:09.000 00:05:39.000
15 052 BOOGERD, Michael NED RAB 54:03:24.000 00:05:54.000
16 046 TOTSCHNIG, Georg AUT GST 54:04:17.000 00:06:47.000
17 126 LANDALUZE, Inigo ESP EUS 54:04:22.000 00:06:52.000
18 096 KARPETS, Vladimir RUS CEI 54:04:37.000 00:07:07.000
19 001 AZEVEDO, José POR DSC 54:05:12.000 00:07:42.000
20 137 PARRA, Ivan Ramiro COL COF 54:06:00.000 00:08:30.000
They’ll need it.
Looming ahead are brutal ascents in the Pyrenees, which American Floyd Landis will need to climb strongly to confirm his status as favorite to succeed his former teammate, seven-time winner Lance Armstrong.
Landis is exactly 1 minute behind overall race leader Serhiy Honchar after nine days of racing in the three-week race. But the Ukrainian may have trouble holding onto the leader’s yellow jersey when the roads start heading sharply uphill.
As a teammate to Armstrong, who retired last year, Landis showed that he can climb, particularly when he came close to winning the hardest Alpine stage of the 2004 Tour.
But whether the Pennsylvania native, now leader of the Swiss squad Phonak, can truly impose himself on the steep gradients of the Pyrenees and Alps will be one of the big questions of weeks two and three.
“The mountains will tell us more, but so far, it’s fine. I have a good team, and so far we’ve been fortunate - we haven’t had any bad incidents. Till now, everything’s good,” Landis said Sunday at the start of stage eight, which he finished safely in the middle of the trailing pack in 37th place.
Honchar finished 100th on Sunday, but also was in that pack - which was 2 minutes, 15 seconds behind stage winner Sylvain Calzati.
French rider Calzati won the stage with a solo effort, giving France reason to celebrate a few hours before its World Cup soccer final against Italy. (Though Calzati, whose father is Italian, confessed he was rooting for Italy.)
After the rest day, when sleep, massages and a light ride are in order, the Tour gets going again with a flat and likely fast stage from Bordeaux to Dax in the southwest.
Then, on Wednesday, comes the first of two hard climbing days in the Pyrenees.
For riders who fared poorly - and there were many - in the first long time trial of the Tour on Saturday, the mountains could offer a chance to make amends.
American George Hincapie and other riders from Discovery Channel, which was Armstrong’s squad, as well as American Levi Leipheimer of Gerolsteiner, are among those who need to make up time they lost in the against-the-clock race.
Hincapie is 2:30 - a sizeable margin in the Tour - behind Honchar, a time-trial expert who dominated the field in Saturday’s stage.
Discovery’s best-placed rider is Paolo Savoldelli, a two-time winner of the Tour of Italy, who is 2:10 behind Honchar.
Stage Eight Results
1. Sylvain Calzati (F), Ag2r Prevoyance
2. Kjell Carlström (FIN), Liquigas-Bianchi, at 2:05
3. Patrice Halgand (F), Crédit Agricole, same time
4. Robbie McEwen (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, s.t.
5. Daniele Bennati (I), Lampre, s.t.
6. Erik Zabel (G), Milram, s.t.
7. Bernhard Eisel (A), Française des Jeux, s.t.
8. Luca Paolini (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, s.t.
9. Tom Boonen (B), Quick Step-Innergetic, s.t.
10. David Kopp (G), Gerolsteiner, s.t.
GC Going Into Rest Day #1
1. Sergei Gontchar (Ukr), T-Mobile
2. Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak, at 1:00
3. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile, at 1:08
4. Patrik Sinkewitz (G), T-Mobile, at 1:45
5. Markus Fothen (G), Gerolsteiner, at 1:50
6. Andréas Klöden (G), T-Mobile, at 1:50
7. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Caisse d’Epargne, at 1:52
8. Cadel Evans (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, s.t.
9. David Zabriskie (USA), CSC, at 1:53
10. Denis Menchov (Rus), Rabobank, at 2:00
[CINCYPOST]
[PEZCYCLINGNEWS]
The fourth stage of the 2006 Tour de France got under way this morning in the Belgium city of Huy.
The course covers 207 kilometres of mostly flat ground and will likely finish with a mass sprint in the northern French city of Saint Quentin.
On Tuesday, German Matthias Kessler surprised the sprint specialists by taking off on his own with less than 2 kilometres left in the race and hung on to take a victory for his T-Mobile team, which has been depleted because of the suspensions of Jan Ullrich and Oscar Sevilla due to alleged links to a Spanish doping scandal.
Wednesday’s stage started with sprint star Tom Boonen wearing the Tour leader’s yellow jersey. The 25-year-old Belgian has a lead of 1 second over Australian Michael Rogers in the overall standings, with American George Hincapie 5 seconds adrift.
Tuesday’s race saw the abandonment of 26-year-old Spaniard Alejandro Valverde, one of the pre-race favourites for the Tour title. Valverde broke his collarbone after colliding with a teammate and falling heavily to the pavement just 22 kilometres from the finish.
With several other favourites excluded from the Tour in connection with the Spanish doping affair, the number of apparent title contenders in this year’s Tour has been reduced to a small handful.
These include Hincapie, fellow Americans Floyd Landis and Levi Leipheimer, Australian Cadel Evans, Denis Menchov of Russia and Spaniard Iban Mayo.
Tuesday’s results
1. Matthias Kessler, Germany, T-Mobile, 4 hours, 57 minutes, 54 seconds; 2. Michael Rogers, Australia, T-Mobile, 5 seconds behind; 3. Daniele Bennati, Italy, Lampre-Fondital, same time; 4. Tom Boonen, Belgium, Quick Step-Innergetic, same time; 5. Erik Zabel, Germany, Team Milram, same time.
6. Luca Paolini, Italy, Liquigas, same time; 7. Oscar Freire, Spain, Rabobank, same time; 8. Eddy Mazzoleni, Italy, T-Mobile, same time; 9. Georg Totschnig, Austria, Gerolsteiner, same time; 10. Fabian Wegmann, Germany, Gerolsteiner, same time.
American finishers
15. George Hincapie, Discovery Channel, same time; 18. Bobby Julich, Team CSC, same time; 24. Levi Leipheimer, Gerolsteiner, same time; 29. Christian Vandevelde, Team CSC, same time; 44. Floyd Landis, Phonak, same time; 71. David Zabriskie, Team CSC, :17; 159. Christopher Horner, Davitamon-Lotto, 8:05.
Overall Standings
(After three stages)
1. Tom Boonen, Belgium, Quick Step-Innergetic, 14:52:23; 2. Michael Rogers, Australia, T-Mobile, 1 second behind; 3. George Hincapie, United States, Discovery Channel, :05; 4. Thor Hushovd, Norway, Credit Agricole, :07; 5. Paolo Savoldelli, Italy, Discovery Channel, :15.
6. Daniele Bennati, Italy, Lampre-Fondital, same time; 7. Floyd Landis, United States, Phonak, :16; 8. Vladimir Karpets, Russia, Caisse D’Epargne-Illes Balears, :17; 9. Serhiy Honchar, Ukraine, T-Mobile, same time; 10. Matthias Kessler, Germany, T-Mobile, same time.
Other Americans
15. David Zabriskie, Team CSC, same time; 19. Bobby Julich, Team CSC, same time; 23. Christian Vandevelde, Team CSC, same time; 25. Levi Leipheimer, Gerolsteiner, same time; 143. Christopher Horner, Davitamon-Lotto, 8:22.
[SUN-SENTINEL]
[MONSTERS AND CRITICS]