Caruso and Mori to Lampre

The Italian Lampre-Fondital squad signed Massimiliano Mori and Giampaolo Caruso.  Massimiliano mori is the older brother of Manuele Mori (Saunier Duval)and comes over from Naturino-Sapore di Mare. Massimiliano is 32 years old.

Giampaolo Caruso was allegedly involved with the Puerto affair and did not get a contract extension with Astana and had to look for a new team. The 26 years old Italian rider won the U23 European championships in 2001 and became second in the world championships of that year in the same category. His first win as a pro was a stage win in the 2003 Tour Down Under.

Erik zabel: Heads must roll

In an interview with German website eurosport.de Erik Zabel said that he was indignant about the handling of Operacion Puerto. The zero tolerance that Zabel demanded in an earlier interview with Eurosport at the end of May has not occured. The 37 year old Milram rider  said: "In view of the development of this affair perhaps heads should roll within the UCI or WADA."

About his first season with Milram Zabel said: "We can be quite content, even if everything did not run naturally as desired and we had to bear for instance the long loss of Alessandro Petacchi - nevertheless we achieved much.For me back-to-back successes in the autumn were very important."

Zabel who started his season in january in Qatar and is currently racing at the Munich Sixdays will go on a holiday soon: "There is light at the end of the tunnel. After Munich I have a holiday on my programm."

GP Doha cancelled

The fourth edition of the GD Doha is cancelled by the race organizers. The 2007 edition of the race, which was won by Tom Boonen last year was scheduled for January 26. On january 27 the Tour of Qatar will start with a team time trial as prologue. The annual Tour through the dessert will have one additional stage next year. It is unkown if the GD Doha will return on the 2008 race calender.

Munich Sixdays: Zabel and Risi in lead position again

With only one night to go, Erik Zabel (Milram) and Bruno Risi took over the leading position. Zabel and Risi have 284 points but on the second spot of the overall, the Swiss-Belgian duo Franco Marvulli and Iljo Keisse also have 284 points and are in the same round. So the final night will be a thriller, especially since Dutch duo Danny Stam and Peter Schep came closer. Stam and Schep are only 1 round behind now with 219 points.

Like the night before, yesterday night road world champion Paolo Bettini (Quickstep)won the derny again yesterday. Bettini was a little bit faster than Erik Zabel , who came in second.

Eeckhout the next Armstrong?

Belgian national champion and winner of the overall of the Pro Continental Europe Tour, Nico Eeckhout (Chocolade Jaques) still is an old school  training animal. While a lot of professional riders just started training, Eeckhout started running a few weeks ago. Eeckhout told duthch cycling magazine www.wielermagazine.nl: "Up to 17 kilometers a day. " Eeckhout explained: During the winter it is all about training the motor (the heart, Cyclingheroes) and it's better to do that by runnning as on the bike. To avoid injury risks to a minimum I try to rum on specific running tracks with a bottom covering of tree cortex. Last week I run 10 kilometers  on tarmac and afterwards I had aching muscles." Eeckhout does not have plans to follow the example of Lance Armstrong by running a marathon.

Team CSC Launches Anti Doping Program

This week, Team CSC and Department Z at Bispebjerg Hospital in Denmark launch their joint anti-doping program.

The project will be the most comprehensive test system in professional cycling today with close to 800 tests being collected from Team CSC riders starting December this year throughout the 2007 season. The main part of the tests will be collected Out of Competition and Rasmus Damsgaard, MD, PhD, will be supervising the program.

”This program is a truly unique piece of anti-doping initiative. It is groundbreaking in both its shape and content. For me the most important thing is to guarantee the Team CSC riders a better protection of their health. They should be able to compete in a safe and healthy sport, and this project will definitely enable them to do just that. Hopefully it will also create a stir within the world of sports in general, hereby adding pressure so that more programs like this will see the light of day. This project with Team CSC will help show just how serious and uncompromising anti-doping work should be,” says Rasmus Damsgaard, who will begin his work in South Africa at Team CSC's first training camp ahead of the new season.

”Our ambition is to be pioneers in the work against doping, so we are very proud to initiate this program. We have worked closely with Rasmus Damsgaard to develop the program and we think it gives us a unique possibility to do something for the future of cycling and maybe sport in general. I have no qualms about submitting our riders to the most rigorous tests out there, because we want cycling sport to be a clean sport. I have faith in the fact that our riders have the right attitude and I would like for them to be able to show this to the world. I am hoping this initiative will pave the way for other teams to follow and as a result help rid our sport of doping altogether. We have taken a very big step towards this and it will help demonstrate how serious we are about anti-doping, and at the same time we firmly believe that given the right conditions professional cycling has a great future ahead of it,” announces Bjarne Riis. 

Manuele Mori: fractured right arm

Yesterday we reported that Massimiliano Mori signed with Lampre, but later that day there also was some bad news for the Mori family. Massimiliano's younger brother, Manuele Mori (Saunier Duval) fell when he stepped out of a train and fractured his right arm. The 26 year old needs surgery and won't be able to ride his bike for a couple of weeks. Manuale Mori was third in thiy years GP Quest France Plouay and in the final stage of the Eneco-Tour Mori came in second after Philippe Gilbert (FD Jeux).

Thor Hushovd cyclist of the year in Norway

The readers of the Norwegian Syklingens Verden website have elected Thor Hushovd as Norwegian Cyclist of the Year 2006. The Crédit Agricole rider won the title with 437 votes, The second spot was for Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Maxbo-Bianchi), the 19 year-old talent who won three stages of this years Tour de l'Avenir. Kurt Asle Arvesen (CSC) grabbed the third spot. Arvesen was second in the 2006 edition of Paris-Tours.

The 28-year-old Hushovd achieved seven wins this year, with the most important  at the Tour de France. Hushovd won the prologue in Strasbourg and the final stage in a sprint finish into the Champs Elysees in Paris. Earlier in the season Hushovd won Gent-Wevelgem and at the Vuelta a Espana he grabbed the leaders jersey after winning the sixth stage.