Yet another doping positive for an Astana-linked rider

by Shane Stokes

The steady erosion of credibility has continued in relation to the Astana team, with a fifth rider connected to the setup confirmed as returning a positive test.

The UCI’s list of provisional doping suspensions was updated Wednesday with the name of Kazakhstani rider Artur Fedosseyev, who returned a positive A sample for anabolic androgenic steroids on August 16. The test was conducted on the final day of the Tour de l’Ain in France.

He is 20 years of age and has been racing with the Astana Continental team, which is the development wing of the similarly-titled WorldTour team.

The latest news is a further blow to the team’s chances of retaining its WorldTour licence in 2015. After the third positive test — by Ilya Davidenok — the UCI requested that its Licence Commission examine the WorldTour team’s situation and determine if it should be excluded.

That commission heard the team on November 6th, and a final decision is expected in approximately one week.

Click here to read the full story at CyclingTips.

Wheel designer Steve Hed dead at 59

By Paul Ellis, Hed Cycling Products USA

Triathlon lost an icon today. Steve Hed has died at the age of 59.

Mr. Hed collapsed outside of one of his facilities on Thursday and was discovered by an employee minutes later. CPR was administered on the scene and by first responders, who rushed him to the hospital. He was taken off life support Tuesday night and passed Wednesday morning.

Steve Hed was the manufacturing entrepreneur with the longest pedigree in the sport. During the early 1980s he scraped by owning a small bike shop in the Twin Cities area called Grand Performance. His curious and generous nature was naturally attractive, and he made the acquaintance of a composites tinkerer and the two started making aero bicycle wheels that riders could afford. That was in 1985 and his company, famous for the big block “HED” emblazoned on his wheels have set a standard since. HED was the first triathlon manufacturer.

While many of his competitors ebbed and flowed in the ardency of their attachment to aerodynamic wheels, or changed ownership or focus or were absorbed by larger companies, Mr. Hed was not compelled by an exit strategy. He enjoyed doing what he did for a living. HED’s arch rival during most of HED’s existence was Zipp, but a measure of the esteem in which his contemporaries held him was the number of Zipp current and former owners and employees who were regularly seen at the HED booth during the Interbike trade show. His relationship with Zipp’s owner for most of its tenure, Andy Ording, grew into a warm friendship after Mr. Ording sold his company to SRAM in 2007.

Mr. Hed’s patent on toroidal wheel shapes set the standard for aero wheels for years. Zipp began making wheels of this shape only after bought a license from Hed’s one-time partner and co-patent holder. Mr. Hed was an innovator in wider rims at the bead site for both road and tri. He’s been generally proven right in his ardency for wider rims, which caused his wheels to be coveted by road riders. His carbon wheels for MTB riders made him a whole new set of fans, and fat bike enthusiasts were blown away by his very lightweight wheels for their bikes at the most recent Interbike show.

Mr. Hed was an inveterate tinkerer, insatiably curious and creative, which led him to move into aerodynamic handlebars once he knew he would not be competing with longtime friend and Scott handlebar creator Boone Lennon. The HED one-piece aerobar, debuted in the early 2000s, was revolutionary. Most recently his interest has been gravel racing, and he stepped in to help produce the now iconic Almanzo gravel race held in the Twin Cities area.

More than just a manufacturer, Mr. Hed became and has remained a technical and equipment mentor to many triathlon and cycling legends. Lance Armstrong was fiercely loyal to Mr. Hed during the 1990s and for years thereafter, riding HED wheels when he could have earned much more. Mr. Hed became the aero bike fitter for Lance, Levi Leipheimer and others on that team. No doubt the loyalty shown Steve Hed flows from the loyalty he exhibited first. Stories have been told for decades of Mr. Hed quietly continuing to send stipend checks to athletes for years after those athletes retired, well after they could provide any benefit back to the company.

Mr. Hed’s trajectory was bent toward triathlon during the early 1980s by an attractive and smart professional in that sport named Anne McDonnell. She was part of the enclave of pro triathletes in the Twin Cities area that included Tony Schiller and Julie Olson. Annie McDonnell became Annie Hed in 1990, but the two have been in, for 30 years, the perfect communion of Steve’s out-of-the-box creativity and Annie’s feet-on-the-ground attachment to the realities of business.

Steve Hed was born on July 11, 1955 and died the morning of November 26, 2014. He is survived by his wife of 24 years Anne Hed, a son Andrew and a daughter Rebecca.

German broadcasters to reconsider showing the Tour de France

German state broadcaster ARD is currently considering whether to start showing the Tour de France again, after broadcasts of the world’s biggest bike race ceased in Germany in 2012 due to a number of high-profile doping scandals.

With German riders very much at the forefront of world cycling — Marcel Kittel, John Degenkolb and Tony Martin to name a few — there have been calls for the sport to once again be screened in Germany.

ARD Chairman Lutz Marmor told a press conference yesterday that a decision about the 2015 Tour would be made by the end of this year.

Click here to read more at Der Tagesspiegel.

Orica renews sponsorship of Orica-GreenEdge

Mining services and chemical company Orica has extended its contract with the Australian WorldTour team bearing its name and will remain as naming sponsor for another two years. The sponsorship will include continued support for the Orica-AIS women’s team as well.


Team owner, Gerry Ryan said in a press release: “We’re delighted to be extending our naming sponsor agreement with Orica. The company has been the ideal partner, helping put the team on the map in professional cycling. We have come a long way thanks to the support of Orica. ”

Orica’s Executive Global Head of Corporate Affairs and Social Responsibility Gavin Jackman said: “Orica-GreenEdge has never been higher in the rankings of world cycling and Orica is delighted to have helped them get there.”

Meanwhile, Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has joined Orica-GreenEdge for a ride in Canberra to celebrate a successful season (see tweet above).

Click here to read more at the Orica-GreenEdge website.

Victor Hugo Peña: Quintana has what it takes to win the Tour

by Shane Stokes

Former Tour de France yellow jersey Victor Hugo Peña has said that he is confident that his fellow Colombian Nairo Quintana has what it takes to win the Tour de France.

The ex-professional has competed alongside the 2014 Giro d’Italia winner in the past and believes that his abilities are clear.

“I don’t know if he is definitely going to win the Tour, but I know he is a rider who could do it, for sure”, Peña told CyclingTips. “There are always five, six guys who can win the Tour, but just one who actually can do it. He is one of those guys who can win the Tour.”

Peña also reflected on Quintana is like as a person, away from the bike.

“He is a real guy, human, calm. He is not crazy. He talks easy. He is not stand-offish. He is very normal,” Peña said. “Nairo is a guy you can meet and enjoy a coffee and talk about cycling or his parents or whatever. He is not like someone from another world. He has his feet firmly on the earth.”

Click here to read more at CyclingTips.

Interview with Lance Armstrong

Edition #51 of Rouleur magazine comes out tomorrow and featured inside is an interview with Lance Armstrong by Danish journalist Morten Okbo. Okbo and his photographer spent three days with Armstrong at his place in Aspen, Colorado, covering a range of topics in the process.

The pair visited Armstrong at his home in Aspen, Colorado, and spent three days hanging out with him, motor pacing Tejay Van Garderen among other things, and hearing Armstrong’s side of a story that has dominated the cycling media in the wake of the USADA report.

Here’s an excerpt from the article, in which Armstrong is asked whether, in the end, the doping was worth it:

“
“Once we realised – this was when we arrived in Europe and got our asses kicked – that we had brought knives to a gun-fight, we all went out and got guns. So virtually everybody in the business made that decision.

“My set of options was to go back to the US and work in a bike shop. Well, I didn’t take that option. So this was the times of the sport. But don’t f***ing over-apologise about it. Everyone is now going; ‘oh, I’m so sorry…’ I can’t take that narrative and run with it.

“We all jumped in. And with that, the sport, the whole industry, the media, all went like this. Up! My foundation raised half a billion dollars, serving three million people. And then, as we all know, a handful of people got rolled. By me. Because I was so aggressive. Not good. I’m admitting that.

“But let’s talk about the three million who got our help. The billions of dollars that the industry saw coming into their accounts. Increased participation around the world. So you are asking me, if we all want to go back and make a different decision?”

“That’s my question.”

“Well. If you say yes, you’re a liar. Nobody wants to walk away from that. And part two, which is the most significant part. That I was so aggressive. And all the denials. For that I have tremendous regrets.

“First time it came up, I should just have said, well… I don’t know what. I couldn’t have said ‘no comment’, because that would have answered their questions. But that fight, that contest, it became bigger than the races.”

You can read the full article in Rouleur #51. Head to the Rouleur website for information.

Baidu to launch a smart bike

Chinese search giant Baidu is about to launch its Dubike, a bike that’s equipped with a range of tech to measure heartrate, cadence, pedal pressure (could power be calculated through this) and more

The bike, which has been designed by Baidu and Tsinghua University, also has a “self-generation hub that converts kinetic into electrical energy” which, reportedly, will charge the bike’s sensors and even your phone or other device you plug in.

Check it out here:

Click here to read more at Engadget.

3T launches glow-in-the-dark components

Component manufacturer 3T has launched a series of glow-in-the-dark components under the name “Illumina”, with the aim of “enhancing riders’ safety in low-light conditions”.

The glow-in-the-dark finish has been added to the 3T Ltd set and comprises the Ergonova drop bar ($425), the Arx stem ($335) and the Ionic 25 seatpost ($295). See photos below:

Project42: a cross between a Segway and a unicycle?

Strange vehicle. Would you ride one?

Gracie Elvin’s Nationals Training Diary #2

Two-time national champion Gracie Elvin is recording short video diaries for Cycling Australia in the lead up to the 2015 Road Nationals. This video features Gracie talking about the need for long, slow, easy rides when starting to build form, rather than jumping right in and doing efforts.

Constructing and deconstructing a velodrome

Here’s a great timelapse of a velodrome being built then torn down inside an existing stadium. Very cool.

The Rocacorba Recap

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

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Today’s feature image comes from Jered Gruber and was shot in the Dolomites.