Contador travels back to Madrid for medical assessment - Vuelta not likely

On Tuesday afternoon Alberto Contador a plane to Madrid where he went directly to Cemtro Hospital for a medical examination on his tibia which was broken in a crash on stage 10.

Dr. Manuel Leyes Vence confirmed a fracture of the tibia in his right leg that would not be operated on.

Alberto Contador said in a press statement after leaving the hospital, “The doctor told me that surgery would increase the trauma the knee has suffered and will increase the delay recovery even more. The good news is that I have no tendon or ligament injured and the fissure is in the best possible place. At least I’ll have to stop two weeks and, until the wounds heal, the leg had to be immobilised”.

“Doctors have told me it will be almost impossible to be in the Tour of Spain, but we’ll see how the leg evolves. I am calm because they have looked me up and down and I’m sure what I have. Doctors have put things very black, but I will work hard in the coming weeks and we’ll see how far I can get”.

Fabian Cancellara abandons Tour de France to prepare for World Championships

Fabian Cancellara will not take to the startline for stage 11 of the Tour de France on Wednesday. Cancellara said in a press statement, “I will travel home now and take a little break. The season has been long for me, starting back in Dubai. I have done 59 days of competition this season so far and I have another big goal at the end of this season: the World Championships. It’s not a secret that I’d like to be in my best shape there, so it’s important that I take some rest.”

Cancellara came to the Tour to be competitive and was close to the victory and his 29th yellow jersey with a late attack in stage 1, finishing fifth in stage 5 in Arenberg, defended his fifth place in the overall until an untimely puncture in the final of stage 7, and sprinted to second place in stage 9 to Mulhouse.

Cancellara said, “It was not only about the cobblestones stage for me. The course for this year’s Tour is very attractive for a rider of my profile, I liked it. There were many opportunities and with a little more luck, I could have gone home with a result in the pocket. It’s been good to be back in the Tour. We lost Andy (Schleck) and Danny (Van Poppel) early on, but the team is strong and will keep on looking for opportunities.”

Trek Factory Racing GM Luca Guercilena said, “We brought Fabian to the Tour to be a factor where his skills allowed it and he didn’t disappoint. He’s a rider that always comes to a race to give everything - if you just look at how he was working for Fränk (Schleck) yesterday at 20 km from the finish in a mountain stage. Now he gets a short break and then we will build up his condition again to be at his best in Ponferrada.

Richie Porte the next Steven Bradbury?

News.com.au writer Cameron Tomarchio is bound to get people fired up over the parallels he drew between Richie Porte and Steven Bradbury in his latest article.

Tomarchio writes:

“This might be Richie Porte’s Steven Bradbury moment. Initially a long shot to win the Tour de France, the Tasmanian is suddenly second favourite.

“Remember how excited we all got when Cadel Evans won in 2011? Well, now — out of nowhere — Australia has another contender to cheer for in cycling’s most prestigious race.”

You can read the full article here.

Marianne Vos at Tour de France to promote women’s cycling

Marianne Vos was at the rest day in Besançon to promote La Course and women’s cycling in general. We caught up with her to talk about what her ambitions are for women’s cycling and how she’s going about it:

We haven’t had time to transcribe the interview yet, but we’ll be doing that shortly. For those of you who don’t want to wait, you can listen to the audio above.

Elizabeth Armitstead wins stage 1 of the women’s Thuringen Rundfahrt

Lizzie Armitstead, 25 from Great Britain, has won the first road stage of the Thüringen Rundfahrt.

Lizzie Armitstead (Boels/Dolmans Cycling team), Evelyn Stevens (Specialized-lululemon) and Lisa Brennaur (Specialized-lululemon) broke away from the peloton on the final climb about 17 kilometers from the finish on the 105km stage.

The trio stayed away and Armitstead came out on top from a three-up sprint between Stevens and Brennaur (who won the prologue the day before).


The second stage will be held tomorrow around the town of Schleiz, Germany with a distance of 103.7 kilometers.

Stage 1: Erfurt > Erfurt - Stage Result

Tuesday 15th July 2014

1. gb
ARMITSTEAD Elizabeth
Boels - Dolmans Cycling Team
 02:47:25
2. de
BRENNAUER Lisa
Specialized-lululemon
 -
3. us
STEVENS Evelyn
Specialized-lululemon
 0:01
Course Profile
View full results

See results from stage 1 prologue here.

Ahment Orken wins stage 9 of the Tour of Qinghai Lake, Ilya Davidenok maintains overall lead

After a rest day in the city of Tianshui, the field was primed for a fast day of racing on stage 9 of the Tour of Qinghai Lake. The 118km circuit race was marked by multiple breakaway attempts which were quickly reeled in by the field as Astana Continental kept a close eye on the front in defence of their yellow jersey leader Ilya Davidenok.

Image: 7Cycling

Image: 7Cycling

Following the mid race points sprint, a break of five slipped off the front including Chris Jones (UnitedHealthcare), Floris Goesinnen (Drapac), Taylor Sheldon (5 Hour Energy), Grega Bole (Vini Fantini - Nippo), and Oleksandr Polivoda (Kolss). At just 57 seconds down on GC, Polivoda was the biggest threat to Astana in the GC, and at one point was the virtual leader as the gap went over a minute in the final two laps.

With the yellow jersey in danger, Astana put their power riders on the front, making the catch on the final lap. This set up a field sprint, where Torku Sekerspor’s Ahment Orken flexed his sprint legs to take the stage win.

“I am very happy today. My team did very good work.” said Orken. “The first stage, I was not fast. Every day felt better, and today, we win.”

German Robert Forster (UnitedHealthcare) took second on the stage followed by Mykhaylo Kononenko (Kolss), who finished on his teammate’s bike after a mechanical during the race.

Davidenok stayed in yellow thanks in part to a strong ride by his team, also maintaining the blue jersey as the top Asian rider. With Kononenko’s third place finish, he moved into the green jersey, overtaking Davidenok by six points in the sprint competition.

Stage 9: Tianshui > Tianshui - Stage Result

Tuesday 15th July 2014

1. tr
ÖRKEN Ahmet
Torku Şekerspor
 02:12:54
2. de
FöRSTER Robert
UnitedHealthcare
-
3. ua
KONONENKO Mykhaylo
Kolss Cycling Team
 -
Course Profile Startlist
View full results

Text via Tour of Qinghai Lake press release.

Simon Gerrans signs with Orica-GreenEdge for three more years

Simon Gerrans has signed a new three-year deal with Orica-GreenEdge that will see Australian national road race champion ride for the team until the end of 2017.

Gerrans, who has ridden for Orica-GreenEdge since its inception, has been the team’s most successful rider posting major victories at the world’s biggest races, including Milan-San Remo in 2012 and Liege-Bastogne-Liege this year.

“I’m really happy to stay at Orica-GreenEdge and I want to continue winning with this team,” Gerrans said. “I’ve been able to produce some of the biggest results of my career on this team and I’m thankful and proud of the leadership role they have given me.

“Simon has been our most important rider in a lot of ways and we’re thrilled that he’ll be with us for another long part of his fantastic career,” general manager Shayne Bannan said.

“He has won some of the biggest races in the world and at the same time been an invaluable ambassador for the team and the sport in general. Simon has been a key rider for us in terms of results and in reaching the highest level of professionalism and he will continue to be so going forward.”

Text adapted from an Orica-GreenEdge press release.

Nizzolo extends with Trek Factory Racing

25-year-old Giacomo Nizzolo has extended his contract with the team through the end of 2016. The Italian rider, who sprinted no less than four times to second place in this year’s Giro d’Italia, has been a professional since 2011 and has shown solid progression every year.

Giacomo Nizzolo: “I’m really happy with this contract extension. There’s a lot of trust between the team and myself and it’s logical that I stay with this group of people. When I broke my collarbone in February, the team has been very supportive. The Giro was a great ride for both parties, although I would probably trade my four second places for one victory, but that’s life.”

“Now we look ahead. I’m taking steps every season and I feel there’s still a lot of margin for me,” says Nizzolo. “I’d like to grow more and rival the big sprinters more. With some dedicated riders on my side it should be possible.”

Text adapted from a Trek Factory Racing press release.

NetApp-Endura to become Team Bora after signing deal through 2019

German ProConti team NetApp-Endura has used the first rest day at this year’s Tour de France to announce a new sponsors: Bora. The company is a manufacturer of cooking surfaces and cooking extractor systems and has signed on with the setup from 2015 through to 2019.

“I am delighted to announce that [with] BORA we again have a German company back in professional cycling as a title sponsor,” said team manager Ralph Denk. “In BORA we have acquired a title sponsor that is entrepreneur-led, growing rapidly, commercially well established and not afraid to compete with its innovations against the big companies.”

Bora and the team are both based in Raubling, Germany and have been working together since 2012 when Bora came on as minor sponsor for the team.

According to Ralph Denk the team is “happy to have secured the future of the team so early and for such a long period. With BORA, we intend to become further established as one of the best ProContinental teams, so that we can get into the new WorldTour in 2017. Only this will enable us to offer BORA the world’s biggest races as a platform for its brand,” Denk said.

Click here to read more at the NetApp-Endura website.

UCI president Cookson rejects suggestion of Makarov shielding Menchov

Earlier this week it was revealed that Denis Menchov had been handed a two-year ban for biological passport violations and that the sport’s governing body, the UCI, had decided not to make a public statement about the development. The UCI received significant criticism for the omission, but president Brian Cookson has now spoken out, defending the organisation’s handling of the incident.

“The first thing I want to say is that this was entirely in line with normal procedure. In the case of Menchov, he accepted the sanction and when there is acceptance, there is a process that follows and that is what was carried out,” Cookson said at the Tour de France for the presentation of the La Course, the women’s race on the last day of the race in Paris.

“There’s no new policy, change in tactic or strategy. That’s what we do. I think we have to keep in mind that a guy who was doping has been caught through the Biological Passport. It’s a success story but we have to handle these cases correctly and that’s what we did.”

“It might have been better if we’d made a more positive announcement about it but that’s not what we’ve done at any time in the past. The only tine we’ve commented on doping cases that have been completed or in progress, is when a rider or his team, national Federation or others have commented. We’ve confirmed or not as the case maybe. That’s what we do, that’s why we do it. I think it’s important that cases have to follow our rules, WADA rules and that’s happened here.”

Click here to read more on CyclingTips including audio with Cookson.

New photo of Contador’s snapped bike

Much confusion surrounding the events that led up to Alberto Contador abandoning the Tour de France yesterday left a trail of rumours, speculation, and conspiracy theories of a cover up.

The basics of the story behind how Contador’s bike snapped is simple: it was tangled up on the roof with Belkin’s team car. This photo from Joxean Fdez Matxin, Team Lampre’s manager, should put all doubts to rest:


La Course by Le Tour de France - what you need to know

As you’d probably know by now, there will be a one-day women’s circuit race held on the Champs Elysees in the hours before the final stage of this year’s Tour de France. La Course by Le Tour de France will feature 20 teams and will see the riders complete 13 laps of the Parisian circuit for a total of 90km.

With the race coming up, the team at Total Women’s Cycling has taken a look at the race, what it will look like, how you can watch it and who’s going to be there. Click here to check out the full article.

How are climbs categorised?

While watching the mountainous stages of the Tour de France you might find yourself wondering why climbs are given the classifications they are and why some ascents that would be classified climbs on one day, are overlooked on others.

The Inner Ring has taken a look at the issue in an article published yesterday, and as always it’s worth a read. Here’s an excerpt:

“
A climb’s category can sometimes vary. A first category climb one year could be a second category in another. Of course the road has not changed, just its importance to the race. ASO might want to adjust the points on offer to tweak the incentives. Or it could help to change the story of the stage, a climb scaled early in the stage could be demoted down for the day so that we don’t think the hardest climb appears early in the stage.

Specialized-Lululemon - For the love of the Bicycle

Here’s a cool little video from the folks at Specialized-Lululemon showing some of the personalities behind the team and what they’re all about.

Deux North’s Hunt 4

The guys from Deux North have produced another nice video about their latest adventure riding up the coast of California from Santa Cruz. After 2 days and 200 miles, the group meets the story’s narrator, El Chapulin (The Grasshopper) to listen to his story, tell their own, and compete in an event that he created over 15 years ago. On the final day. the 100-mile Grasshopper Adventure Series race serves as the finish line for Deux North’s Hunt 4.

The Rocacorba Recap

And finally this morning, here are a few things you might have missed at CyclingTips:


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