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29.11.2006/ Team CSC Extends
with Lars Michaelsen, Matthe Pronk shaken by Isaac Galvez’s death, Ballan and Gavazzi won Tuttobici award, Puerto: blood
bags missing, Michael Rogers about his season, Vuelta and Giro shortened ?, Ullrich not to Tinkoff - list of signatories of
Ullrich fan petition is growing rapidly
Toyota-United set a fast pace to become a dominant force in U.S. Cycling in its first season
Saul Raisin: "My ultimate goal is to race by the end of next year"
Isaac Galvez dies after crash at Sixdays in Gent
Ullrich: training in Austria and Italy
Official Pressrelease Caisse d'Epargne about the fatal crash of Isaac Galvez
Team CSC Extends with Lars Michaelsen
The experienced Danish classics specialist will be staying on with Team
CSC while taking on the coble stones for one last time next year.
"Lars is a key person on our team and we're happy
he's chosen to do the classics one more time with us. The coble stone races are definitely his strong suit and we would be
a lot worse off without him on board. Of course we're hoping he'll chose to stay on the team after having finished his career
as a rider, because he has a lot more to offer. But the first priority right now is to give him the space to focus on doing
the classics for the very last time," says Bjarne Riis.
"I'm looking forward to doing the cobble stones for the last
time, because they've always been my main focus as a rider. They fascinate me the most and I've achieved my best results in
them. Of course the fact that it's the very last time adds an extra dimension for me," explains Lars Michaelsen.
Matthe Pronk shaken by Isaac Galvez’s death
Matthe Pronk (Unibet.com) is shaken by the death
of the track racer Isaac Galvez (Caisse d’Epargne) during the past Ghent Six Days. Pronk participated in that Six Days
with Aart Vierhouten. “It’s really hard to loose a colleague in that way. I was just replaced by Vierhouten at
the moment of his crash, so I didn’t actually see it happen”, said Pronk.
Isaac Galvez was buried yesterday
in his birthplace Vilanova I Geltru close to Barcelona.
Ballan and Gavazzi won Tuttobici award
Alessandro Ballan is the winner of Oscar “tuttoBici” 2006. Lampre-Fondital’s
cyclist, thanks to an outstanding season begun with the victory in Trofeo Laigueglia and continued until October with very
good performances (protagonist in Sanremo, 3rd place in Roubaix and 2nd Tour stage of Carcassonne), could win this important
award. Ballan will receive the prize on Friday evening in Bergamo.
Lampre-Fondital also won the Oscar for Under 23, with
Francesco Gavazzi (new Lampre-Fondital’s rider) winner of the prize thanks to 6 seasonal victories (with Italian Championship)
and the 4th place in World Championships. In 2006 Gavazzi ran with team Unidelta. World champion Diego Ulissi, Team Vangi
Di Nardo Lampre, won the Oscar for Juniors.
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| Left Alexander Vinokourov, right Alessandro Ballan (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Puerto: blood bags missing
Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo reported yesterday that of the 116 seized
blood bags that were confiscated by Spanish police during the raid at May 23, 10 are missing. With the confiscated blood bags,
Madrid's court number 31 wants to determine if there were crimes against public health. An anti-doping laboratory detected
EPO in eight of the 99 bags they examined. But some of the bags could not be examined, they are missing.
According to El Mundo the Guardia Civil reported on June 27 to the judge in
Madrid that they found 116 blood bags during the raids of the apartments of Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and Doctor
Merino Batres.
The Guardia Civil accounted for 20 bags of plasma and 96 of blood with concentrated
blood cells in an apartment on the calle de Caídos División Azul (Madrid) which belonged to Fuentes. But El Mundo reported
yesterday that the count was corrected by 10 on October 17, reducing the total numbers of bags down from 116 to 106.
According to the Puerto report of June 27 (page two), additional 89 bags presumably
filled with blood and 19 bags with plasma were found in an apartment on the calle de Alonso Cano (Madrid).
About the correction, chief lieutenant Enrique Gomez of the department of
consumption and enviroment for the Guardia Civil central operation unit (UCO) , issued a statement that read: "...
errors have been observed relating to the quantities of samples seized."
But the confusing gets even bigger, according to El Mundo the Guardia Civil
now claimes that they have 99 bags, 96 that were found in the apartment of Dr. Fuentes and 3 which were found with
Batres.
Lieutenant of the Guardia Civil and writer of the Puerto report of June
27, Enrique Gomez will have to attend at a court hearing in Madrid today. Gomez is accused of falsifying and unauthorized
circulation of the Puerto documents.
Michael Rogers about his season
Michael Rogers had a few setbacks because of severe toothaches but his
2006 season was pretty goodMichael Rogers spoke with t-mobile.com about his season: "Looking back on the year, I was certainly
happy with my 10th place at the Tour de France. A few races didn't really go the way I had wished, such as the Giro d' Italia
and the World Champs. But that’s life! Even so, I can still say it was a positive season and I took many steps
forward in my development as a cyclist. I think the investment that the team made in me is starting to pay off! "
About the 2006 Giro d'Italia Rogers said: "My road to my season highlight,
the Tour de France, was a bit of a bumpy ride. The Giro, though providing some great moments for the team, it turned out to
something of a suffer-fest for me. I had to abandon with toothaches just ten days in. That pretty much messed up my build-up
to the Tour, of course. So I used the Tour de Suisse to fine-tune my form instead – and fortunately that worked out
fine."
Talking about the dark days before this years Tour de France, Rogers said:
"My craziest moments of the season had to be those days prior to the Tour, when the pre-race bombshell exploded and nobody
really knew what was going on, or what would happen next. After all, we all started out on the 2006 only thinking about the
Tour de France and Jan as our captain. So, for that all to change so dramatically so soon before the Tour got underway was
a hard thing to digest. It was a really hard time for the whole team. But we decided that the best thing we could do in that
situation was to ride as hard as we could and win stages."
Although Ullrich was not allowed to start, T-Mobile had a man for the general
classification: "I vividly recall stage 16 in particular - the suffer-fest that took us over the Col du Galibier, the Col
de la Croix de Fer and then the final haul up to the top of La Toussuire. I don't think I ever saw so many riders suffer so
much on one stage – myself included. But I was also extremely motivated, willing to give it everything. So were my team
mates. We all dug deep for Klödi. Of all the overall contenders in the favourites’ group, Klödi had the best support
that day."
Rogers would have liked another ITT world title:"Winning a fourth consecutive
title at the TT World's in Salzburg would have been the icing of the cake, of course. Unfortunately, that wasn’t meant
to be. To be honest, I had a little insight about my form going into the Worlds. And it wasn't that of previous years."
About the 2007 season and the 'new' T-Mobile team
Rogers said: "I’m now looking forward to the 2007 season. With all the new riders, sports directors and management on
board, I really think it's going to be a fresh start."
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| Michael Rogers is having a chat with Robbie McEwen (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Vuelta and Giro shortened ?
According to Spanish daily newspaper El Pais UCI Pro-Tour manager Alain Rumpf wrote a letter to Vuelta Espana
director Victor Cordero in which Rumpf wrote that the three-week format was under thread. Rumpf added that the UCI is considering
to running both the Tour of Germany and the Vuelta in September and shortening the latter.
El Pais published extracts of the letter, Rumpf wrote: "The three weeks of the Vuelta are under debate."
Rumpf continued with: "The commission is considering modifications to the calendar for
the 2009 season and you must be aware that these changes could be put forward by 2008. "
The Tour of Poland also plays a role: "You know the interest the Tour
of Germany has in running in September, like the Tour of Spain, which would in some way satisfy many teams who take part in
the Tour of Poland afterwards."
According to Rumpf some of the Pro-Tour teams want to be freed of the obligation to start at the Vuelta Espana.
When the Pro-Tour was introduced the Pro-Tour teams agreed to the obligation that the teams have to start at all Pro-Tour
races. According to El Pais Giro d'Italia organizer RCS received a similar letter from Alain Rumpf.
Vuelta director Victor Corder told French newsagency AFP: "It is not
in the interests of the UCI to endanger the Vuelta. It's part of the heritage of cycling. The entire country follows it. We
will follow the same line of conduct at the Tour and the Giro."
The grand tour organizers, Unipublic, ASO and RCS and the UCI have a deep conflict since the Pro-Tour started
(2005). A few months ago the grand tour organizers said they will no longer be part of the Pro-Tour in 2007. The UCI
ignored the announcement by putting the grand tours on the Pro-Tour race calender as if the UCI was not aware of the public
statements of the grand tours.
After Giro d'Italia and Giro Di Lombardia organizer, RCS refused to honour overall pro-Tour winner
Alejandro Valverde last month, the Pro-Tour teams decided not to attend at the winners ceremony of this years Giro Di Lombardia,
fans were stunned as winner Paolo Bettini did not come to the podium after the race and the number two and three also stayed
away from the ceremony.
After the Tour de France presentation, on October 27, Tour director Christian Prudhomme told reporters
that his organisation, ASO, will meet with the teams soon to speak about new selection criteria as the teams don't have right
to start anymore as the Tour is no longer part of the Pro-Tour anymore. On Saturday, after the presentaion of the 2007 Giro
d'Italia, the grand tour organizers will meet again with the UCI in order to try to find a solution.
Ullrich not to Tinkoff - list of signatories of Ullrich fan petition is growing rapidly
As reported Jan Ullrich is negotiating with several teams at the moment. Ullrich was earlier linked with Tinkoff, but Tinkoff team manager Omar Piscina told
reporters: "I don't think he [Ullrich] is interested. It is more than a month ago that we spoke with each other."
http://www.freie-fahrt-fuer-ulle.de/ . The list of signatories of the petition which supports Jan Ullrich, is
growing rapidly. Yesterday Italian based website tuttobiciweb.com called the action of the Ullrich fans "amazing".
In a press release the Ullrich fans stated: "Our
goal is to set a sign, a sign for the free democratic basic order, which was - in the case of Jan Ullrich - trampled under
foot during the past months. The signatories of this petition demand equal justice for all! We demand that Jan Ullrich
will be allowed to race again."
The statement continues with:"The
majority of the riders, who are allegedly involved in the so-called „Operation Puerto“ are - for the time being
– cleared by their federations. Jan Ullrich is still stucked in a legal limbo and there is no ending nor a solution
in sight. The signatories of our petition demand to the decisive institutions and federations to end this unsustainable situation
and to let Jan Ullrich race again. We adress this petition in particular to the UCI and Swiss Cycling, but also tho raceorganizers
like ASO, Unipublic and RCS."
The Jan ullrich fans are aware of
the importance of the fight against doping. The petition on http://www.freie-fahrt-fuer-ulle.de/ ends with:"The signatories are completely aware of the importance of the
fight against doping. For this reason we ask the recipients of this petition that they revise existing doping regulations
and establish transparent and effective procedures to be able to handle doping cases more efficiently and prevent future cases
like Operation Puerto from turning into a desaster for all parties involved."
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| Jan Ullrich trained in Austria and Italy to prepare for the 2007 season (picture: Citypress) |
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