Zach Williams and Brooke Tucker win at the Austral

Nearly 4,000 spectators descended upon Hisense Arena in Melbourne on Saturday night to watch the 117th Austral Wheelrace Carnival and Australian Madison Championships. The Austral, which began in 1887, is widely regarded as the oldest existing track race in the world.

Nineteen-year-old New Zealander Zach Williams took first place in the men’s Austral off 105m, ahead of Cameron Scott (NSW) and Nick Yallouris (NSW).

“It’s amazing, I can’t describe how awesome it feels. This will boost my career by miles,” Zach said. “This is my first time at Hisense and it is the best crowd I’ve ever raced in front of in my life. The noise from the crowd was just deafening.”

The women’s Austral was won by 16 year-old Queenslander Brooke Tucker who was riding off 110m. Annette Edmondson (SA) was a close second and her fellow scratch-marker Ashlee Ankudinoff (NSW) rounded out the podium.

“I’ve actually never raced in front of this many people before and I just loved the sound,” Tucker said. “It was a tough race. I knew it would be tough to hold Annette off so I knew I had to go and I had to go early. I knew she’d be right on my tail.”

Text adapted from a Cycling Victoria press release. Click here for full results from the carnival.

Maximum of three more seasons for Contador?

by Shane Stokes

Alberto Contador may have come off what he believes was his best season yet, but the Spaniard has said that his career is inching towards a close and that he will no longer be racing at 35 years of age.

Now 32, the Tinkoff-Saxo rider told Marca that he had a clear idea about how he wanted to go out of the sport. Asked if he planned to ink a new deal after his current one ends in December 2015, he said that remains to be seen.

“I’ll see how the season goes,” he said, declining to make any promises at this point. “I feel really good. Physically speaking, this year has been the best of my entire career.

“But the years go by, and although I’m not feeling physically or psychologically weary, my intention is to retire at the top, winning my last race. And I don’t mean a small one; I’m talking about a big one. Specifically, the Tour.”

Contador’s fans will be concerned at the thoughts of him hanging up his wheels, but he indicates that he might keep racing for some time yet.

“In principle, I don’t plan on retiring at the end of 2015, but as I said, I have to be at my top level,” he explained. “I don’t see myself being here for many more years. I won’t make it to 35 [as a pro]. I’ll stay for another contract at most. Then let’s see how things look.”

Click here to read more at CyclingTips.

Armstrong associates try to negotiate settlement in Department of Justice legal case

by Shane Stokes

Two of those fighting their corner in the combined Department of Justice/ Floyd Landis case against Lance Armstrong and his former associates have sought to bring their involvement to an end by offering payoffs to the United States government and Landis’ lawyer.

USA Today has reported that Armstrong’s long-time agent Bill Stapleton and the former pro’s business partner Bart Knaggs — both of the Capital Sports and Entertainment agency — have offered a combined payment of half a million dollars to the government plus $100,000 to Landis’ attorney, Paul Scott.

This settlement offer is subject to acceptance by the US Government; if they agree to it, it would mean that Stapleton and Knaggs would be able to walk away from the legal case and not be part of what could potentially be a multi-million dollar payout down the line.

The suit begain in 2010 when Landis filed a Qui Tam whistleblower lawsuit against Armstrong and a number of others, on the grounds that they lied about doping use to the US Postal Service, the team’s sponsor. Under the False Claims Act, those taking the case could be liable to triple damages. With an sponsorship payment of more than $30 million, it means that Armstrong and others could potentially have to pay out $100 million.

Click here to read more at CyclingTips.

Andy Schleck: Yes I miss cycling

It’s been a couple months since Andy Schleck announced his retirement from the sport and now, in an interview with Luxembourg newspaper Le Quotidien, Schleck has said that he already misses cycling.

“The doctors told me that I would need a new knee by the time I was 35,” Schleck told Le Quotidien. “It all scared me. That’s what I said in my press conference to announce the end of my career. But now I miss it.”

“Yes, I miss it. I won’t hide it,” Schleck said. “At the moment, Frank is training with the team, which makes it more difficult. But I am very active. I don’t just sit on my couch. There is plenty to do in life. For a month, I was down, really down, but I woke up. I’m not working yet, really, but I’m busier than before. I am trying to make a schedule for next year. I am happy and I am super motivated for my next job. But don’t ask me what it is, I can’t reveal it yet.”

Schleck has been spending time in the gym, trying to stabilise the knee that eventually brought an end to the 2010 Tour de France winner’s career. Schleck told Le Quotidien that he is considering writing a book.

“My book will not look like the ones we read sometimes where doping resurfaces in each chapter,” he said. “I would just like to share the good times I spent in cycling. I would like to recall the laughs we had with pals Jens (Voigt), Stuart (O’Grady), the whole group. Why mention the bad things in cycling? I think cycling is beautiful. If I do a book, I want it to be that, not doping stories. … It would be different from all the other former cyclists’ books.”

Click here to read more at Le Quotidien.

Sydney’s Lakemba cycling community rides in support of hostage victims

A group of cyclists in Sydney took to the streets over the weekend to pay tribute to the victims of the Martin Place siege and to those that made it through the ordeal.


Many of the riders are from Sydney’s Muslim community and gathered at the Lakemba mosque in the city’s south west, before riding into the CBD.

“It’s a delightful way to show the unity that’s in the community and that we all support each other regardless of our backgrounds and our beliefs,” Sophie Bartho from Bicycle New South Wales said.

Click here to read more at ABC News.

La Course by La Vuelta blocked by the UCI

Plans to host a women’s race on the final day of the 2015 Vuelta a Espana have been scuppered after the UCI denied sanctioning for the one-day race given conflicts with other events on the international calendar.


Spanish newspaper AS suggests La Course by La Vuelta would clash with no fewer than four other women’s events: the Giro de Toscana (September 11-13), the Tour of Belgium (September 10-14), the Grand Prix Montreal (September 13) and the Chrono Champenois (September 13).

Organisers have reportedly started looking for solutions with the hope of persuading the UCI to change its mind and allow the race to continue as planned.

Click here to read more at AS.

Carla Ryan announces her retirement

The 2009 Australian national road race and ITT champion, Carla Ryan, has announced her retirement from professional cycling after “a rather unfortunate period juggling illness and injury the past 2 years”.

Ryan reportedly considered retiring at the end of 2013 but decided to press on, and was given a contract to race with Ale Cipollini for the second half of 2014. The 29-year-old began her career with the Cervelo Lifeforce Pro Cycling Team in 2008 and raced for Cervelo in its various forms through 2011. Ryan won two professional races in her seven-year professional career: two stages of the Tour de l’Ardeche.

Here’s an excerpt from Ryan’s blog post about her retirement:

“
Racing again this year definitely helped make my decision. Now I am ending on my terms because I have decided, not as a lack of opportunity like it may have been. It has been an amazing chapter in my life and one which I can’t even try to describe on paper. I will carry fond memories for the rest of my life of the beautiful moments and special friendships that I’ve formed.

It’s been immensely challenging and I’ve fought many physical and mental battles along the way. But I’m extremely proud of my achievements, both in personal successes and as a domestic to some of the worlds best female cyclists. I’ll especially remember becoming dual national champion in 2009 and carrying the national colors on my back during that season in Europe.

Click here to read the full announcement at Carla’s website and click here to see her profile on ProCyclingStats.

The Week in Bike #49 – The Doping Episode

It’s not really an entire episode about doping, kind of like how lots of doping stories aren’t really about drugs. But the topic does come up quite a bit.

We hope you enjoy Cosmo Catalano’s latest episode of The Week in Bike.

“Don’t overtake turning vehicles”

This Chinese man is incredibly lucky.

Titan Desert - “the Dakar of Bicycles”?

Titan Desert is a MTB stage race held in the desert of Morocco and inspired by the Dakar Rally motor race (formerly the Paris-Dakar Rally). Navigation and orientation play a big part in the Titan Desert experience and the testing conditions make the ride even more challenging than it might otherwise be.

TDbG4

The 10th edition of the race will be held between April 27 and May 2 next year, but in the meantime the organisers have released a video documentary showing what the race is all about and what’s involved.

Retro bikes vs modern bikes

Bikes have changed a huge amount in the past 30 years. Matt Stephens from GCN took Stephen Roche’s Battaglin for a ride and compared it to the road bikes of today.

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 on the slopes of Mount Evans in Colorado, USA.