Archive for the ‘News in English’ Category
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Kazakhstan looks for an image adjustment from cycling
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— Pressdemocrat.com- Views: 10 016.
Kazakhstan looks for an image adjustment from cycling
Published: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 8:30 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 at 8:48 p.m.To understand exactly what Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer and the rest of the Astana team face, consider what Kazakhstan embassy spokesman Roman Vassilenko thought he had to do in the fall of 2006.
Vassilenko issued a press release to inform the world, among other things, that the traditional Kazakh beverage is not fermented horse urine. It’s fermented horse milk.
Vassilenko was responding to the movie comedy, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” Kazakhstan, only 15 years old at the time and in desperate search for a national identity, didn’t have much of a sense of humor. Even though the movie was clearly a satire and poked more fun at America than Kazakhstan, the government feared much of the world might not get the joke. Read the rest of this entry →
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Armstrong parts with Catlin — Cycling News Flash
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http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2009/feb09/feb12news2
Lance Armstrong has decided to part company with Don Catlin, the doctor intended to conduct an individual anti-doping programme with him during 2009. Consequently, the proposed comprehensive, individual programme will proceed under the guidance of Ramsus Damsgaard, the man responsible for Astana's internal anti-doping efforts.
Bill Stapleton, Armstrong's long-time agent and lawyer, announced in a statement that, "After a thorough review of the efficiency of a separate testing programme the decision has been made to transfer the comprehensive programme we had planned to do with Don Catlin to Ramsus Damsgaard, a renowned anti-doping expert who runs the Astana team's internal testing program."
Stapleton reiterated that, "Lance is the most tested athlete in sports history and he is certainly the most tested cyclist in the world since his return to the sport last year evidenced by no fewer than 16 unannounced out-of-competition tests since August all over the world.
"We will continue to do everything we can do to ensure transparency and honesty in his testing results," he added. Read the rest of this entry →
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Lance Armstrong tells VeloNews:
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“The goal is to get Levi the victory”- Views: 11 903.
http://www.velonews.com/article/87589/armstrong-tells-velonews-the-goal-is-to-get-levi-the-victory
Lance Armstrong tells VeloNews: “The goal is to get Levi the victory”
Seven-time Tour winner talks to VeloNews before the Amgen Tour of California.Posted Feb. 11, 2009On Saturday Lance Armstrong returns to pro racing in America. Following the Tour Down Under in January — his first stage race since coming out of retirement — Armstrong returned home to Texas for a week before heading to Astana’s Santa Rosa team camp.
A few days before heading to California for the Amgen Tour, Armstrong spoke with VeloNews about his expectations for the race, his teammate and two-time race winner Levi Leipheimer, and his take on some of the other major teams in the race.
VeloNews: The Tour of California starts Saturday. How are you feeling?
Lance Armstrong: I feel pretty good. We got a nice bump out of (racing in Australia), in terms of conditioning and getting back into racing and getting that intensity. It was a hard trip home. Then I had a week at home, then training camp, which I felt good at. Then back home for a few days, being a dad between training camp and California.But I feel good. The main goal (in California) is to get Levi the victory. And from what I saw at training camp, he’s riding very strong. I’m very impressed by how he doesn’t race, but he can train himself into race condition. Most people have to race themselves into race condition. Read the rest of this entry → -
Preview — Haimar Zubeldia from PodiumCafe.com
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http://www.podiumcafe.com/2009/2/10/755657/de-grootste-pret-is-voorpr
Haimar Zubeldia
The Big Question- Is he fading into the sunset? There are mountain goats and there are mountain goats. Thus far I've explored only one category of goat: the excellent chrono/steady climbing class made up of Leipheimer, Evans, Menchov, and Vandevelde (and I would be negligent not to include Andreas Kloden here). Then there's the strong climber/indifferent chrono class who's leading member these days is Carlos Sastre. Our man of the minute Zubeldia is one of these. When he first started he put in a few good time trial efforts, but clearly he sacrificed his chronoing abilities to improve his goatage and so those days are long gone To expect more such efforts is unrealistic.
Its hard to get excited about Haimar, especially after last year which he might as well have mailed in. But even in the years before that, once the first blush of youth had worn of, it was hard to get excited even though he's had some excellent Grand Tour results:
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Vuelta: 2000 10th, '02 10th
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Tour: '03 5th, '05 15th, '06 8th, '07 5th Read the rest of this entry →
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Zubeldia makes Astana debut at Haut Var — VeloNews.com
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http://www.velonews.com/article/87521/zubeldia-makes-astana-debut-at-haut-var
Haimar Zubeldia will make his Astana debut at the Tour du Haut Var (February 21-22), where he will lead a team of Spanish and Kazakh riders in the two-day French race.
Twice fifth at the Tour de France, Zubeldia joined Astana for 2009 after racing his entire nine-year pro career with Euskaltel-Euskadi.
“I believe I’m good, because I’ve trained all winter without any problem, but it’s the first race of the season, so it’s logical that I won’t have any previous references,” Zubeldia said. “It’s a pretty hard race, covering undulating terrain, with constant climbs and descents. And it’s going to be cold.”
Joining Zubeldia will be compatriots Jesús Hernández and Daniel Navarro as well as Kazakh riders Assan Bazayev, Alexsandr Dyachenko, Maxim Iglinsky, Roman Kireyev and Berik Kupeshov.
After his debut on French roads, Zubeldia will race at the Giro di Sardegna (Feb. 24-28) and the GP Lugano on March 1.
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Five More Riders — from PodiumCafe.com
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http://www.podiumcafe.com/2009/2/9/754452/five-more-riders
For your consideration...
Christian Vandevelde
The Big Question- is he an elite rider? 2008 saw Christian on a new team but his season began like most others, at least superficially: A 3rd at California (good) was followed by a very non-descript 56th Paris-Nice. Castile & Leon was next with a meh 10th place. Circuit de la Sarthe saw him snag 2nd but that was a B race and he followed that by a 7th at another B race, Georgia, where Slippy's main guy was not Christian. May came and saw him crank out a 52nd place at the Giro and it seemed like he was the Christian that we all knew: a decent chronoman and climber but not one of the Big Boys. A junior grade Evans, or Leipheimer or Menchov you might say. Same basic qualities ‘cept not as good.
Then came the Tour and zowie! 4th place! Totally competitive in both the TT’s and the big mountains! True, he never threatened for overall but that just seemed to underscore his similarities to Evans-Leipheimer-Menchov. (except he's not as, you know- odd.) He finished the season by winning Missouri, which may not seem like much but to me showed new confidence. I mean the pre-Tour Christian would have finished oh 3rd or something, not 1st. This is new. This is a Man. Read the rest of this entry →
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Six Riders — from PodiumCafe.com
Comments (1)- Views: 10 638.
http://www.podiumcafe.com/2009/2/8/753102/six-riders
First in a series this week that looks at specific riders for the coming year. You'll get the hang of it. We'll start with some stars.
Alejandro Valverde
The Big Question- Will his Tour obsession mess with the rest of his year? It says here that Al is - arguably- THE best rider of this decade. (Arguably, mind you.I don't think he's the best yet. Let's see what this year brings.) Just look at the Cycling Quotient results for his career: since 2003 he has finished 6th, 5th, 14th, 2nd, 3rd, and 1st in their rankings. He's a freaking metronome in producing results and he's so good because his skill set as a rider, great sub-Alpine climbing ability, good (though erratic) chrono efforts, combined with finishing speed that's barely a tad slower than the sprinter specialists, almost perfectly matches what most race courses demand in a winner. Go back and look at what he doesn't race (cobbles mainly) and you realize that he would/could probably win those races too. Would he be a fave at Flanders? You bet.
Which brings us to the Tour. Every year now he says he wants to at least podium on that race. Every year he falls short. This year though he appears to be changing his race schedule to focus on his goal. For instance he's not racing his home stage race, Murcia, which he not only won last year but beat Contador in the process- something no one else can say. So will he miss other races, and use others for training purposes just to get on the podium in Paris?
Best Case for 2009- Podiums in Paris, obviously. (I won't say win but I do notice that the top step of the podium is reserved for the winner.) Likes that podium so much that he podiums in Madrid too. Meanwhile his training goes so well that he still gets his share of Classics in the Ardennes plus the Worlds plus podiums at Pais Vasco, and maybe Dauphine. In VDS terms he snags close to 3000 points.
Worst Case for 2009- His Tour obsession not only fails but it gets in the way of him getting podium results anywhere. Just a bunch of top 10 finishes await and a VDS score of, oh 900-1000. (He's so good that he'll rack up points in his sleep.)
Likely Outcome- Ursula takes a long deep breath. Geez I can see a top five in Paris, possibly a podium spot but the field this year is stacked. Okay somewhere between 2-5. He also wins LBL he can win that as a training exercise), does well at Worlds, top two at Pais Vasco, 3rd at Vuelta (might win it), and picks up a few wins elsewhere. 2700 VDS points. Like I said- the guy's a freaking metronome. He's too good to overreach.
Alberto Contador
The Big Question- Is he really that much better than the rest? We all know what The Accountant did last year: won almost every stage race in sight. Even the one he lost he lost because his time trial found him in traffic on the road. So the question exists: is this guy one of the all-time greats? Are we just at the beginning of him taking on all comers for years now and beating them almost always in every stage race? Is he that much better than Evans, Menchov, Leipheimer, Basso, Gesink, Dekker, Kreuziger, Andy Schleck, Uran, etc. ad nauseam? Can we just chalk up two Grand Tour victories a year for him? Read the rest of this entry →
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Chechu Rubiera’s races schedule
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Schedule of Chechu seems quite low-intensity, but all races are super-important for the team and really hard:
- Tour of California - (February 14-22)
- Castilla y Leon (March 23-27)
- Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco (April 6-11)
- Tour de Romandie (April 28 - May 3)
- Giro d'Italia (May 9-31)
