Paolo Bettini won Vélo d'or

This years edition of the Vélo d'or, one of the most important prices in cycling, has been won by Paolo Bettini (Quickstep). The worldchampion succeeds Tom Boonen on the list of honours.

The vélo d'or was presented by the leading French cycling magazine "Vélo Magazine" and rewarded the best cyclist of the past season. The international press may vote for this price. Paolo Bettini finished first with 68 points, 12 points more than Alejandro Valverde and 19 more than Fabian Cancellara. The Italian worldchampion was impressed by the trophee. "Excited, it is an honour to be a part of all these great names on this list," according to Bettini. Last years trophee was for his teammate Tom Boonen.

Election Vélo d'or

1.Paolo Bettini (Ita)    68 points      
2.Alejandro Valverde (Spa)   56 points           
3.Fabian Cancellara (Swi) 49 points 

Crake home for Christmas - send support messages

Australian rider Paul Crake will return home to Australia for Christmas. Crake will be admitted to an Australian spinal care unit to continue his rehabilitation after undergoing surgery for the injuries he sustained in a crash during the Tour of Southland in new Zealand. Crake suffered minor fractures of the C1 and C2 cervical vertebrae, a fracture of the T5 thoracic vertebrae and dislocations through to T7. Both his lungs were also punctured as a result of rib fractures.

Crake told procycling.com: "I'm really looking forward to being back in Australia for Christmas." Crake continued by saying: "I would like to thank all those people for showing their concern and sending me very positive thoughts. It means so much to me to receive the supporting emails and letters and that's a big part of what keeps me positive. I have received cards and emails from people I've never met before from around the world and it's really heartening."

Crake continued by saying: "The continual support is really helping me keep my optimism and keep the battle going. I'm coming to terms with the accident now and trying to work through what's happened. I'm trying to keep my mindset positive and most of the time I have an optimistic outlook because my intention is to get out of the wheelchair."

The Australian rider concluded with: "The doctors can't specifically say yes or no and there have been people in a lot worse condition than me who have recovered fully and that provides inspiration for me."

People who want to send messages of support to Paul Crake can do so via email through the Cycling Australia website at www.cycling.org.au or by mail to:

Paul Crake
Patient Spinal Unit - Burwood Hospital
Cnr Mairehau & Burwood Roads
Burwood
Christchurch 8083 New Zealand

Eric Baumann: “The focus of the training has been on sprinting and climbing until now”

T-Mobile will end their Lanzarote (Canary Islands, Spain) training camp today. 15 riders of the 2007 roster take part at the first serious training camp that started on November 25. Eric Baumann spoke with t-mobile-team.com about the training camp: “We are getting to know each other better by the day, and we’ve developed a good chemistry already. As well as the riders, all the sporting directors and some soigneurs are with us too,” Baumann said.

The setting is informal and quite relaxed. Three riders even brought their partners with them on the camp.  "The three women also team up to do aerobic courses and other things," Baumann added. 

The riders spend 3 to 4 hours on their bike each morning:  “The focus of the training has been on sprinting and climbing until now,” says Baumann. "The terrain is definitely hillier and more difficult here than on Mallorca. However, we’ve all got the legs to follow the training program here."

Lanzarote is famous for its nice climate: "The weather is great - it's always at least 25 degrees. At noon it gets really hot and the wind is extreme. You really have to pedal hard to keep your rhythm," stresses Baumann.

The magentas head off each morning in two groups of seven to eight riders, accompanied by two to three coaches each. "The sporting directors are very motivated: You can tell they’ve been training hard just so they’d be in good enough shape to keep up with us", Baumann says with a smirk. ´

Apart from training the team is also looking at other aspects. Physiotherapist Armin Brucker, for example, is working closely with the riders to optimise their riding positions.

Baumann concluded: "The stability and effectiveness of our riding positions are Brucker's main concern. That's very important for basic stamina training in particular. And even for pros there’s always room for little improvements."

Barloworld traing camp in Tuscany

The 2006 season was a success for Team Barloworld but it is already time to think about the 2007 season that is rapidly approaching.  17 Team Barloworld riders will gather for the first training camp in Tuscany between January 31 and February 9 .

Along with Pedro Arreitunandia (Esp), Giosuè Bonomi (Ita), Felix Cardenas (Col), Diego Caccia (Ita), Gianpaolo Cheula (Ita), Ryan Cox(Rsa), Enrico Degano (Ita), Alexander Efimkin (Rus), James Perry (Rsa) and Hugo Sabido (Por), new riders include the experienced Fabrizio Guidi (Ita), the most talented South African rider in circulation Robert Hunter , promising British track Geraint Thomas (Gbr) who will test himself in the classics, plus Paolo Longo Borghini (Ita), John Lee Augustyn (Rsa), Kanstansin Siutsou (Blr) and Mauricio Soler (Col).

In January a team will leave for Australia where they will make the team's seasonal debut at the Down Under Classic and at the Tour Down Under.

Route for the 2007 Olympia's Tour (Netherlands) announced

The route for the Olympia's Tour (cat. 2.2) was announced yesterday. The 54. edition of the Olympia's tour will end in the hills of Limburg and has an Indicidual Time Trial again. The tour is an important race for the U 23 category.

Prologue: Sa May 12, Varsseveld 
Stage 1: Su May, Gendringen - Gendringen
Stage 2: Mo May 14, Gendringen - Hoofddorp
Stage 3: Tu May 15, Hoofddorp - Heerhugowaard
Stage 4: WE May 16, Heerhugowaard - Heerenveen
Stage 5: Thu May 17, Heerenveen - Hardenberg
Stage 6: Thu May 17, Hardenberg (ITT)
Stage 7:Fri May 18, Hardenberg - Son en Breugel
Stage 8: Sa May 19, Son en Breugel - Buchten
Stage 9: Su May 20, Buchten - Buchten

Puerto: Spanish judge called riders to testify

According to Spanish daily sports AS, the Spanish judge in charge of the Operación Puerto case,  Antonio Serrano, has begun issuing subpoenas to the riders who are allegedly involved with Spanish doping ring. The first two riders who will have to appear for court as witnesses are Alberto Contador and Jesus Hernandez, both riders raced for Manolo Saiz' Liberty Seguros team, although Hernandez moved from Liberty Seguros to the Spanish Relax-GAM squad for the 2006 season.

Contador and Hernandez are scheduled to appear on December 11, and were likely chosen first because they reside near Madrid. Interestingly enough both riders were cleared by the UCI this summer and were allowed to race again. It is unkown if more riders recieved a citation. According to AS Francisco Mancebo and Oscar Sevilla did not receive a citation yet. Other riders will be interrogated in courts near their hometown, it is not known if German 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich and this years winner of the Giro d'Italia, Italian rider Ivan Basso will be interrogated as a witness as well.

A spokesman of judge Antonia Serrano told reuters newsagency today that: "The call-ups will go out this month but the process of collecting the statements could take a long time to complete."

The judge reaffirmed his earlier statement prohibiting the use of Puerto evidence by federations to sanction cyclists. The evidence is central to the criminal investigation, although some of it has found its way to cycling organisations after the Guardia Civil handed over some information to the Consejo Superior de Deportes (CSD). The UCI recently called for help from the Spanish sports miniser, Jaime Lissavetzky, to enable it to move forward with sanctions, but for the time being, this has been ruled out. However the federations are allowed to move forward with disciplinary cases against the allegedly involved riders as long as they don't use the court documents of the operation Puerto.

Meanwhile the author of the Puerto documents, Guardia Civil Enrique Gomez, was interrogated on November 29 before another Madrid court as an accused for falsifying the Puerto documents. Gomez told the judge that "data processing errors" caused an unintended version of the report being delivered to the presiding judge and the Spanish sports council, Consejo Superior de Deportes (CSD). The report that was faxed to the CSD was different than the one which was send to the judge. The version of the report that was send to the CSD led to the suspensions of allegedly involved riders on June 30. Gómez made the statements in Madrid's court 19 in front of judge María Luisa Alvarez. It is not known if lieutenant Gomez was asked to explain what happened to some of the blood bags that were seized during the police raids on May 23. The Guardia Civil recounted the bags and told the court of Madrid they only have 99 blood bags now, were they reported earlier they had seized over 200 blood bags.

Swiss cycling about Ullrich case: "either a lifetime ban or a complete acquittal"

Jan Ullrich will celebrate his 33th birthday today, but the former Olympic and world champion will probebly have had better bithday parties.  Swiss Cycling is still investigating the Ullrich case. Bernhard Welten, who is leading the investigation for Swiss Cycling told German newsagency DPA: "I am working on the Ullrich dossier. In our federation I have a similar position as a state prosecuter. I will forward my recommendation - either a longlife ban or a complete acquittal - to our disciplinary commission, which will speak out a verdict. I hope that will be the case in January. I am still waiting for information from the German state prosecuters and the Spanish authorities who are investigating the Fuentes case."

Asked about what his recommendation would be with the facts he already has at the moment, Welten said: "No comment."

As reported Judge Antonio Serrano reaffirmed yesterday that the court documents of the Puerto case can not be used in disciplinary cases.

Asked why Jan Ullrich will not be allowed to start at the  Tour of Germany, Tour director Kai Rapp told German based website radsport-aktiv.de: "Can I reverse that question? Does he want to start at the Tour of Germany? If yes, than it is necessary that he will be acquitted." The statement looks a bit more milder as a statement that Rapp made earlier this week.

Meanwhile the petition of Jan Ullrich fans who demand that Ullrich will be allowed to race again hit the headlines in Germany today. More than 2000 people from across the world already signed the petition on http://www.freie-fahrt-fuer-ulle.de/ and the list of signatories continues to grow.