Though Spanish cycling star Alberto Contardo managed to achieve podium spot at the 176 km, one day Clasika Primavera event, he is weary and is not sure whether he will be starting at the Ardennes Classics later this month or not.
Movistar’s Rui Costa emerged as the winner at the Clasika Primavera event and though Contardo launched a full attack in the final climb, he managed to get only the third place in the end.
Talking about his performance at the Clasika Primavera, Contardo said “I attacked in the last climb and at a point of time there was only Beñat Intxausti (Movistar) and me, but they caught up only with 25 meters remaining and I could only get a third place. It was a pity”
About being weary, the rider said, “My legs are aching and my body feels fatigued. However, though we did not win, we really had a lot of fun”
He added, “Following Basque Country, I am feeling really tired. I’m racing from January, when the season. Since as a rider I am always putting myself out there for a fight, I did so though there was no adequate ground for a fight. However, I did well though I had to pay for it later on”.
The challenging and rough week at Basque Country was made tougher by the cold temperatures and the rains which were punishing, to say the least. Contardo has said that he is unsure whether he will participate in Ardennes Classics at the end of the month or not.
Contador had his eyes on the Liège-Bastogne-Liège (April 21) and the Flèche Wallonne (April 17) and his ultimate objective is to win this year’s Tour de France, so he said that he will be taking a few days off to consider and weigh his options.
Laura Trott, the rising British sprinter feels that she is yet to achieve her best. Trott finished London Olympics last year as one among the most promising sport stars with 2 gold medals.
The 20-year old British sprinter would be competing in the latest World Track Championships, scheduled to be hosted at Minsk from 20th-24th of February 2013. She is hopeful to add more to her title achievements that include 2 Team Pursuits & 1 Ominum title accomplished in the last couple of years.
As per the veterans, the rising Brit rider should first focus on the World Championships prior to the upcoming Olympic Championship at Rio in 2016. Trott would be teaming up with Dani king & Elinor Barker in the Britain squad for Minsk Track World Championships 2013.
“This year does not really mean much in regards to a bigger picture, yet to me it means a lot as I am eyeing on one more world title”, Trott stated. When asked to speak further, Trott added that she has not yet reached the right age to achieve the peak. In her own words, “You do not really get to reach up to the peak till you’re 25-26 years of age, in case of a woman; and might be a little older in comparison to what is on track”.
She mentioned about veteran lady riders in support of her statement. “Houvenaghel was in our team in 2012 when she was 36 years of age. Romero stayed with us until a couple of years back. Thus we should get stronger & better with years”.
Victoria Pendleton, the former British Olympian rider has taken to retirement lately and Sir Hoy is on sabbatical as he has decided to resume in 2014. The absence of the senior riders has endowed the very mantle of the team figurehead for Minsk on Laura & Jason Kenny, her boyfriend.
Lance Armstrong has decided to file a case against the announcement of the federal government which said that he is a fraud from the beginning. His point of defense would be based on the fact that the case against him was too old and that he had never submitted any sort of false claim to the government. Moreover, he also declared that his lawyers would blame the government for doing nothing in spite of knowing about the doping on the U.S. Postal service cycling team.
There is going to a tussle with a lot of technicalities on which Lance Armstrong is relying and risking a lot of things and it says one thing clearly, that is, the case has gone really complicated. It was not until recently at a popular talk show where Armstrong confessed the usage of dopes. For more than a decade he had kept denying about doping throughout his career. But the government would not sue him because of that, they are thinking something else. The points that they have set are the false claims and the six-year statute of limitations.
It all began in 2010 when another cyclist who confessed doping, Floyd Landis filed a case against Lance Armstrong claiming that he was one of the dopers as well. It then gave way to USPS claiming that they were cheated in terms of sponsorship contracts because Armstrong and his team used illegal drugs and blood transfusions. If won by the USPS, Armstrong would have to pay the entire money back. The amount is a staggering $31 million that USPS had given to sponsor Armstrong’s team. But under the False Claim act, the amount would double to $90 million, with Landis getting at least 25 percent because he brought the government to know this issue.
A three-man panel has been set up to investigate the International Cycling Union’s (UCI) approach towards the doping scandal of Lance Armstrong. They have immediately summoned all the witnesses. The panel constitutes of three high profile men in the likes of Philip Otton, Tanni Grey-Thompson and Malcolm Holmes.
The panel will be led by Philip Otton who is a former England and Wales appeals court judge. He will probe into the allegations that USADA had charged Armstrong with. The UCI Independent Commission said recently that they want each and everybody, who has some evidences against the Armstrong doping scandal, should submit their documents to the committee. But they made one thing clear about the submission – the documents must be relevant.
The USADA report charged Lance Armstrong with the intake of performance enhancing drugs and stripped him off of his seven Tour de France titles. They also deduced that Armstrong had committed the most “sophisticated” crime in the history of this sports industry. A number of teammates of Armstrong gave their testimonies against him and it led to show that Armstrong forced some of his teammates to take the banned drugs along with him. It has been reported that some of the most dangerous facts came in the testimonies of Levi Leipheimer, Floyd Landis, George Hincapie and Tyler Hamilton. They brought Lance Armstrong’s instances of doping into light and also asserted how they were influenced by Armstrong himself to take those performance-enhancing drugs.
The witnesses are asked to submit their evidence before the year ends and the UCI employees, both former and present, will give theirs by the end of January 2013. A hearing is expected to take place from April 9-26, 2013 in London and the commission believes that they can place their report in front of UCI by 1st June.
The 2013 mountain biking summit is going to be held at Woodstock, the most southern city of the Cherokee. The second biannual event, which is scheduled on March 22-24, 2013, will take place in Woodstock and the summit will take place in the time of annual Streefest of Greenprints Alliances. The sole ambition is to raise money to enlarge Woodstock’s trail network.
Woodstock Southern Off Road Bicycling Association’s President Mr. Jay Wilkes is really excited to have the opportunity to conduct the mountain biking summit. He told that it’s a great honor for him to host the show and it would contribute a lot to the trailing networking system of Woodstock. He thanked the Cherokee County Government for being inspirational to host the summit. He also thanked the local people of Woodstock who supported a lot throughout the procedure. Read more »
George Hincapie has admitted to being part of a huge doping scheme that was rampant in cycling at one time, but has also admitted that he stopped long before he helped Australian Cadel Evans take the Yellow Jersey at the 2011 Tour de France. The confession from the American cyclist comes in the wake of the US Anti Doping Agency’s investigation into the allegations of doping against Lance Armstrong and the publication of the reports where 11 of his former team mates, including Hincapie have testified against him.
Hincapie was a team mate for the disgraced former champion in the US Postal Service team when he embarked on his record breaking run of seven consecutive titles at the famous Grand Tour starting from 1999. The hugely experienced American cyclists joined the American Team BMC in 2010, the same year as the Australian Evans joined the team and he was an extremely valued lieutenant for the Australian as he won a historic Tour de France title in 2011.
Evans valued the inputs of the experienced American so much that he said when accepting that he would not be defending the title in 2012 that the biggest regret of his life was not being able to send out his team mate as a winner. After the 2012 ‘Queen Stage’ the Australian even raised the bandaged hand of the American in the air as a sign of gratitude for all that he has done for him.
Hincapie has admitted to being a part of the doping that the US Postal Services team indulged in during his tenure with the team but went on to add that he had not doped since the 2005 season, after Lance Armstrong won his record seventh Tour de France title and retired from the sport for the first time.
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May 13, 2013 1:49 pm | 
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