MPCC - Unfair to consider Astana WorldTour and Continental teams as same entity

by Shane Stokes

Roger Legeay, the president of the MPCC anti-doping organisation, has said that he believes it is unfair to consider as one block the five positive tests this year relating to Astana-backed riders.

Speaking to CyclingTips, Legeay said that it was important to treat the positive tests by Astana WorldTour riders Maxim and Valentin Iglinskiy as separate to the three relating to the Astana Continental team, namely those of Ilya Davidenok, Victor Okishev and Artur Fedosseyev.

If this stance is echoed by the UCI’s Licence Commission, which is currently deciding if Astana should retain its WorldTour licence, then it might be enough to ensure the team holds its place in the top echelon of cycling.

“The UCI recognises four Astana teams,” Legeay said. “There is the WorldTour team, there is the Astana Continental team, there is the Vino4Ever team and there is also the Astana women’s team.

“For the UCI it is four teams. It’s the same for the MPCC also, because when teams want to ask to come to the MPCC, they are regarded as separate for us too.”

Asked what it would take to removed from the list of members, Legeay confirmed that a fourth positive test by any team could put such a course of action into motion.

“As I said, we have the rule that two riders positive in the past year will trigger an auto-suspension, as will three in the last 24 months. If there are four, you have a one month suspension but there is also the possibility for us to say, ‘okay, out of the MPCC.’ That would be the decision of the general assembly.

Click here to read the full story at CyclingTips.

Roman Kreuziger releases biological passport data

In a bid to clear his name, and while waiting for the Court of Arbitration for Sport to decide his fate, Czech rider Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo) has published his biological passport data and a host of other documents related to the case.

“I have never doped and never tested positive for doping”, Kreuziger wrote at ‘The Curious Case of Roman Kreuziger’. “Despite this for a year and a half now I have been living in uncertainly as to whether I will be able to continue to devote myself to my life’s passion and continue with my career.”

“I consider the biological passport to be an excellent tool. However, clear rules for its use must be set out otherwise it is useless and can be used to eliminate anyone. Rules cannot be changed during a game. And that is what is happening now. What purpose do the basal values serve if mere suppositions are used to determine guilt?”

All documents released by Kreuziger and his team — including correspondence with the UCI and expert opinions on the case — can be found here and a timeline of the case can be found here.

Stay posted to CyclingTips in the coming days for more about the Kreuziger case.

Andy Schleck receives 2010 Tour de France trophy

He might have had to wait four years for the trophy but now a recently retired Andy Schleck has been presented with a Sèvres porcelain vase as winner of the 2010 Tour de France.


Schleck originally finished second in the Tour but was elevated to the top step of the podium when it emerged that race winner Alberto Contador has tested positive to clenbuterol.

“After he was disqualified, Contador never handed back the trophy,” Luxembourg’s minister for foreign affairs, Jean Asselborn told Le Quotidien. “In October, when Andy took the decision to end his career, I said to myself that that was the moment, especially as I knew that [French president] François Hollande was a fan of Andy.”

Schleck and his family were invited to a private reception at the Élysées Palace where Hollande presented Schleck with the trophy.

Click here to read more at Le Quotidien.

Roads to ride: the Col du Béal

The latest instalment in The Inner Ring’s Roads to Ride series is the Col du Béal. It’s not as famous a climb as others on the list — e.g. Alpe d’Huez and Mont Ventoux — but the Col du Béal did provide the backdrop for a terrific battle between Chris Froome and Alberto Contador in this year’s Criterium du Dauphine.

Here’s an excerpt:

“
On the right a large TV aerial and military communications base are visible. You might think it’s the summit, a bit like Mont Ventoux but this comes well before. A wide bend, too gentle to be called a hairpin and a sign saying Grange Neuve or “New Barn” marks the place where Froome started his series of attacks on Contador. Here the road is flatter and more linear. TV often fails to convey the gradient and from here it’s not so steep and soon the finish comes into a view with a lone building sat at the top.

Click here to read more at The Inner Ring.

Mayor Boris Johnson to consider car-free Sundays for London

A recent visit to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta has prompted London mayor Boris Johnson to consider the possibililty of car-free Sundays in the English capital.

“Wasn’t that sensational? I was blown away by the popularity of the car-free Sunday here”, Johnson said after riding alongside Indonesian President Joko Widodo. “I will certainly be asking Transport for London to dust down those old ideas and let’s have a look.”

Johnson is more than aware that such a policy would take considerable time to implement.

“I think it would probably take time to bed in and it would take a few years before people got into the swing of coming out into the streets and making use of the space that a car-free Sunday provided,” Johnaon said.

“We have been thinking about it for ages. I don’t think you are going to get the British people out of bed at six in the morning to do it quite like that but it is certainly food for thought.”

Click here to read more at the BBC website.

GoPro to launch video drone next year

Drones are all the rage at the moment when it comes to filming cycling videos and with GoPro reportedly coming to the party next year, the trend is only set to continue.

According to the Wall Street Journal — which cites “people familar with [GoPro’s] plans” — GoPro is hoping to start selling multirotor drones with HD cameras in late 2015, with a pricetag somewhere between $500 and $1000.

Despite the rise of drones in recent years (no pun intended), there are still a number of issues surrounding their use, not least the legality of flying them around people, and privacy considerations.

Click here to read more at the Wall Street Journal.

Cyclists use Facebook to track down a mate’s stolen bike

Here’s a great yarn over at the Tampa Bay Times about a triathlete, Mike Braylark, whose bike was stolen on Thanksgiving and whose mates helped to find and return the bike using Facebook, while the owner didn’t even realise the bike was gone.

A fellow triathlete, Tommy Davison, spotted the man’s distinctive, customised bike being ridden by a man in street clothes, took a photo and posted it to the St. Pete Cycling Facebook group page. With some help from fellow members of the Facebook group, Davison confirmed it was Braylark’s bike and set about getting it back.

If you’ve got a couple minutes we recommend reading the full story, which you can find here.

Melbourne’s west to get a mostly continuous 15km bike path

The Brimbank City Council in Melbourne’s west has been commissioned to build a 15km off-road bike path, at a cost of $4.8 million, to join Melbourne’s western suburbs to the CBD.

The path will be built in two sections — the first from Ardeer to Sunshine, the second from Sunshine to West Footscray — with a 600m gap in between. Bicycle Network’s general manager of government and external relations, Chris Carpenter, said finding funding to cover the 600m gap, and for a section from West Footscray into the city, was an “urgent priority”.

Click here to read more at The Age.

Climbing Mont Ventoux on a Raleigh Chopper

Climbing Mont Ventoux is hard enough already without making it even harder for yourself … by riding a Raleigh Chopper, say. In spite of the fact this was filmed vertically on a smartphone (always shoot in landscape, people), it’s a cool little video. We love the way he’s mashing the pedals in time with the music as he passes a bunch of fellow riders.

You can read about the ride here.

D-Fix: a new design for a rear wheel?

This video was published back in March but it’s the first time we’ve seen it. It shows an interesting alternative to regular rear wheel design. We recommend scrubbing through the first minute or so.

On-board camera and microphone for track racing?

This is a great video from the recent Revolution track meet in Manchester in which Team Sky’s Luke Rowe was mic-ed up and his bike fitted with an on-board camera for the scratch race. It provides great insight into what it’s like to be in the thick of the action.

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 was shot in Iceland by Jered Gruber.