Astana Cycling Team

Recent word that the UCI was poised to impose an immediate change to its equipment regulations regarding aerodynamic tubing caused a small panic at this week’s Amgen Tour of California.
Rumor had it that cycling’s international governing body was ready to apply rules that would have kept a significant number of time trial bikes off the starting line in Friday’s stage 6 time trial at Solvang.
But in a news conference on Thursday, UCI president Pat McQuaid said that the issue involves mere “clarification” of existing rules and that none of the bikes that passed muster in last Saturday’s prologue would be barred from starting on Friday.
McQuaid added, however, that the discussion of the rules governing the construction of time trial bikes and components should serve as a warning shot to teams and manufacturers intent upon pushing the envelope in design. Read the rest of this entry →

http://www.podiumcafe.com/2009/2/20/765251/interview-astana-s-levi-le

The current leader of the Amgen Tour of California  American Levi Leipheimer (Astana)  is hoping to make it a three-peat as he goes into the decisive stage, the 15-mile (24-km) time trial in Solvang.  Last year, Leipheimer put in a blazing result beating second placed David Millar by 20 seconds.

I had a chance to talk to Leipheimer during the Astana team training camp held in his backyard, the city of Santa Rosa and the county of Sonoma.

Getting better with age.  At 35 years old, Leipheimer thinks that he's become stronger not only physically but mentally as he's grown older.  With age has also grown  his appreciation of training and of cycling.

"I really enjoy my training, I enjoy going out and riding for 6 hours and  really kind of suffer on the bike because it makes me feel like I'm alive more so that any other place to be, out there spending five hours on the bike, pushing hard in such a beautiful scenery like Sonoma County. I think that over the years I've just been able to appreciate that more and that's been the positive cycle that helps me train harder and harder and as I get older I'm able to handle more of that. " Read the rest of this entry →

Volta ao Algarve begins wednesday in a sunny week unlike last year and ToC these days. The race finish Sunday, and return too a model that the last i remember was when...imagine, Floyd Landis’s won in 2004. I was there to see Armstrong and his "armada" (Azevedo, Hincapie) when Landis won the stage that finish in a 2, or 3km uphill named "Alto do Malhão". Landis took the yellow jersey too from Armstrong, who won the ITT the day before. So looking for this year the race will be complete what pleases the Portuguese DS, unlike 2007 when Petacchi won the general classifications and 3 stages, and last year was Devolder when won the ITT (and GC) and rest in the others flat stages.

In January there were rumors that Eurosport would follow the race on live, but this will not happen, which is a pity because I think the race could be very exciting and would be very good for tourism in the Algarve, the main activity here.

This year the race begins with two flat stages, that in recent years the final has been in a bunch sprint. In friday will be the stage that finish in "Alto do Malhão" and could be decisive because here we have ITT specialists like Grabsch, Millar and who don’t want guys like him could discuss the GC, will have to attack in that climb and take some seconds. Next day is the ITT that likely will determine the GC winner, a flat 33,7 km ITT that Stijn Devolder won last year despite the shortening of that stage due to rain. In last day the riders will pass through the "Serra de Monchique" and like last years will finish in my hometown (Portimão), probably in a bunch sprint. Read the rest of this entry →

Lance adds confusion to doping fight - ESPN.com

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- This edition of the Tour of California, like the nickname of the state it's about to navigate north to south, should have every right to call itself golden.

The 750-mile route features one postcard vista after another, starting from the capital and threading its way along the coast, over modest mountains, into fertile agricultural territory and through vineyards before looping around the Rose Bowl and ending in the San Diego suburbs. The field for the nine-day race includes a critical mass of the world's finest sprinters and climbers.

In keeping with California's tradition as the perpetual repository of American wanderlust, this is the place to be. Practically everyone who is anyone in American cycling is here, headlined by the newly reactivated Lance Armstrong, who has declared he will work for his Astana teammate, two-time defending champion Levi Leipheimer. Both U.S.-based Pro Tour teams, Columbia and Garmin-Slipstream, are coming with stacked rosters and the intent to win. Read the rest of this entry →

Is It Too Early to Get Excited?

Just a random thought or two about the Tour of California... Is there any race whose organization and enthusiasm so outstrips its place on the annual calendar? What I mean by that is, the peloton likes to keep things in perspective in February, but the ATOC is so incredibly well done, so well attended, and so well received that it's a little hard to think of it as a winter race.

Now, I am not as intimately acquainted with the comparable events; perhaps what this means is that the race calendar is full of people and sponsors around the world giving their all to make their race great, and the ATOC folks are just one more shining example.

Regardless of the answer to that question, the ATOC is at least slightly special: they have achieved this level of respect from the cycling world and its fans in an incredibly short time. Is this really only the fourth edition? The race does enjoy some built-in advantages: it's not one of three dozen pro tour races in the US; it's the only one. And California is a magnificent tapestry on which to draw up a Tour, sort of a warmer, busier Washington State.

Whether this translates into a higher level of competition remains to be seen, but from the riders' press conference yesterday (comments on the flip) some top riders are taking this race very, very seriously. We knew about the sprinters' contest -- Boonen, Cavendish, Freire, etc. -- but the GC may very well enjoy some increased intensity too, well in excess of what you'd expect this time of year. If this race were in, say, May, it would be positively HUGE.

Or maybe I need to stop channeling Phil Liggett... Anyway, it will be a breakthrough experience for me, and the Podium Cafe will be all over this race. Literally. Oh, and before we head to the flip, my pick to win is... George Hincapie. Hey, we're all about taking risks here.

Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana

“I think we’ve made it very clear from the beginning that there are two parts to my comeback.  One is the race – the reason we’ll be on the start line on Saturday – but more important really is the thought and the idea and the initiative to take Livestrong around the world.”

On the start of the 2009 season:

“We were blessed to have amazing launch in Australia, and I don’t just mean the team, but the foundation as well, and I hope we can carry that momentum through California and Europe for  the rest of the year.”  Read the rest of this entry →

The Explainer - Whose blood is it anyway?
By Charles Pelkey
Posted Feb. 11, 2009
Dear Explainer,
I just read that Alejandro Valverde is being brought before CONI in relation to Tour blood samples being linked via DNA to Puerto samples collected. I was just wondering how it is that an Italian Olympic Committee can pursue charges on a Spanish rider in relation to a Spanish investigation based on samples collected at a French event. Perhaps I'm confusing the roles of UCI and WADA, but are there not jurisdictional issues here?

Thanks for your consideration.
Gavin Eaton
Victoria, BC, Canada

Hello Gavin,
You are right. It does raise some interesting jurisdictional issues.

First off, the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) has summoned him to appear before a hearing investigating charges that he has violated Article 2.2 of the WADA Code, which is the general provision that bans certain drugs and practices. The prohibited substances list falls under the provisions of 2.2, as do bans on homologous and autologous blood doping. Homologous blood doping – putting someone else’s red blood cells into your system — is what Alexander Vinokourov and Tyler Hamilton were found guilty of. Autologous blood doping — storing and then reinjecting your own blood — is a little harder to prove. The Puerto case, however, opened up a whole Pandora’s Box of autologous doping cases, since suspected athletes had blood stored somewhere other than their own bodies, namely Dr. Fuentes’ refrigerator. Read the rest of this entry →

http://www.velonews.com/article/87658

Anyone wondering how defending Amgen Tour of California champion Levi Leipheimer is approaching this year’s event had those questions put to rest Thursday at a pre-race press conference, where the Astana rider confidently stated that he has returned to win the race for a third time, backed by the strongest team in the race.

“Every time I got on my time trial bike this winter, I thought of the time trial in Solvang,” said Leipheimer of this year’s nine-day race, which starts Saturday with a 2.4-mile prologue in Sacramento. “I did everything possible to know that I am in the best condition to win this race.”

Held in front of a packed house of print and broadcast journalists at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Sacramento, the press conference was a veritable who’s-who of professional cycling. In fact the group of athletes, race officials and event dignitaries was so large it was split into two rounds. Read the rest of this entry →

An interview with Chris Horner, February 12, 2009

Chris Horner: Letting the legs do the talking

American pro cyclist Chris Horner will race side by side with his new teammate Lance Armstrong for the first time, a fact which is surprising since Horner has been openly critical of Armstrong in the past. Horner spoke with BikeRadar.com's Gary Boulanger about how the two senior members of the Astana team are getting on.

Horner is ready to roll out with Armstrong, Leipheimer and his Team Astana
Photo ©: Bruce Hildenbrand

Chris Horner's star began rising after winning a stage during the 1996 Tour Du Pont, where another American, Motorola's Lance Armstrong, was winning his second consecutive race overall. The two racer's paths wouldn't cross again until 2004, when Horner, the defending champion, finished third to Armstrong at the Tour of Georgia.

While Armstrong rose to fame with seven consecutive Tour de France victories, Horner was forging his own sometimes rocky path through professional cycling's ranks. His move to the Astana team in 2008 was somewhat surprising because even after Horner had been critical of Armstrong after the demise of the Discovery Channel team, Johan Bruyneel opened the door for him.

Now that Armstrong has rejoined his long-time director, he and Horner are now the oldest and most experienced riders on the team, and have formed a brotherly bond going into the 2009 season. Armstrong even nicknamed Horner "redneck" at the team's Tenerife camp last December.

"I like Lance"

The 37-year-old Californian appeared jovial and relaxed at the team's Santa Rosa camp just 10 days before the start of the Tour of California, and seemed quite happy to be finally racing with Armstrong. Read the rest of this entry →