Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

(pic from floydlandis.com)

Floyd Landis underwent hip surgery this week to finally rid himself of the excruciating pain he had to endure the past few years. The doctors said that they used a new procedure that will give Landis the maxim ability to comeback to become a top class cyclist. Landis’ recovery program will allow him to ride a bike with a week or two and then a full six weeks for total recovery. This is a very ambition schedule, especally for a cyclist whose future is very much up in the air at this point due to his positive drug test for Testosterone in the Tour de France. The Yellow Jersey winner is fully intent on returning to the peloton despite having no team for next year.

The past few weeks Floyd Landis has re-emerged to the spotlight. He made appearances in races in Lancaster, PA his original home town after making himself available to the press in San Diego and other places. Floyd then travelled to Spain to say farewell to the Phonak staff during the Tour of Spain. That was the last chance to see a large contingent of Phonak staff in one place since the fall season is very loose in terms of organization. Floyd looks to be a confident man since his lawyers have seemed to find a good angle in which to attack the positive drug test case. The French lab it seems is frought with very lax procedures. The fact that news leaked of a positive A sample before the B sample could be confirmed back in late July made speculation run rampant that the positive result was Landis’. Phonak had no choice but to announce that the positive result was Landis’ and the rest of the time Landis was out in public trying to figure out just why he tested positive long before the B sample could be tested.

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Ivan Basso’s Operation Puerto case took another slow step forward. Today Basso met with CONI for the followup meeting that was originally scheduled for September 12th. The meeting lasted for one hour and no descision was made official as of yet.
The documents are now going to the Judge in Cosenza who will need two or three more days to decide on the case that many are predicting will be dropped. The lack of evidence against Basso in the Operation Puerto case gives CONI not much choice.

After the eventual resolution of the case the only hurdle for Basso’s return to racing is his contract situation with CSC. Bjanrne Riis wants definative proof that Ivan Basso was not involved with Fuentes. Word of Basso and Riis’ relationship has varied, some say they are still friends, while others say the relationship has deteriorated to the point where Basso may have to look for another team. Milram and Discovery Channel are two teams that have been rumored to pick up Basso if he is not a CSC man next year. The likelyhood of Basso riding in a blue jersey is prety much up to where you get your news.

From what Tuttobiciweb reports, the outcome of this situation could see Basso return to racing very soon. Basso has been training on his bike despite no racing and was recently spotted riding with the Italian national team just before the World Championships last weekend. Perhaps with a quick return to action we may see Basso line up for the Giro di Lombardia.

http://ivanbasso.net/

http://www.tuttobiciweb.com/home.htm

Check out the finish of the World Championships. The field was never really split up until the final kilometers when Sammy Sanchez setup a great leadout for Valverde. Zabel probably went too soon as he was the first to attack from the group of three. The outburst of emotion by Bettini is worth wathcing. Do you think he has been frustrated by all of the near misses?

Call it luck or maybe he simply wasn’t involved, but pez and bicirace have recently reported that Basso may be cleared of his involvment in the Operation Puerto case. As reported on velochimp.com before: Is Basso Guilty, the evidence against Birillo is very thin and the Italian Cyling Federation may not have enough evidence to prosecute Basso. Basso’s case will then likely move to the Court of Arbitration of Sport run by the UCI which will also look at the evidence and see if they can find an angle to prosecute.

In new developments it looks like there maybe some more evidence coming up to prosecute Basso. ivanbasso.netreports that on September 20th Basso’s home was searched along with several other cyclist. The searches originally did not start with Basso but lead to him.

“We have phone tappings from [Basso’s phone] which are very compromising for the cyclist and his relatives”, explained a police officer, who added that these new facts would be transmitted to the Guardia Civil working on Operation Puerto and CONI. This thus calls into question initial reports that CONI would archive the case.

Whether Basso is prosecuted with the old evidence or the newest evidence it is pretty clear that Basso will not be clear of legal proceeding very soon. If CONI does archive the case he will have to face CAS and any new evidence that was recently gathered. Perhaps it is time to look for another career for Basso?

http://ivanbasso.net/

Paolo Bettini finally grabbed a long sought after victory in the World Championships in Salzburg, Austria. The Cricket used his sprinting ability to beat a surprising Erik Zabel in a race that turned out to be a sprinter’s duel. Former World Champ Tom Boonen just missed out on contesting the final sprint to get a back to back victory and had to settle for ninth place. Boonen can now loan out his World Champ kit and other goodies to teammate Bettini. “Il Grillo” will have quite the colorful combo when the “Maglia arcobaleno” is paired up with his gold shoes and helmet which commemorate his Olympic Gold Medal win in Athens.

The shiny gold shoes were one thing, but now combine that with wearing the rainbow jersey and you might as well have Paolo riding with a trophy on his handle bars. yeah, we get it Paolo you won the Olympic gold medal, now tone down the flashy shoes and wear some white SiDi Genius HT 5.5s with the carbon sole like all of CSC (and velochimp) wears.

Franco Ballerini can now look back and a farily good track record as National team director for the Italians. Thanks to Cippolini’s victory in 2002, Bettini’s Olympic Gold in 2004 and now the World Championship in 2006. It seems that Ballerini will succeed somehow every even numbered year. This victory is also sweet for Italy as it goes along with a World Cup crown earlier this year.

For a race that promised to be a climber’s delight, the top finishers would say a different story.
The top 20 is littered with guys who would not call long climbs their friends. This is probably a case of the Italian team putting in some chasing and keeping things together for Paolo. Rebellin provided a good teammate as he worked with Bettini to lauch counter attacks that helped to split up the field a bit.

1 Paolo Bettini (Italy) in 6.15.36
2 Erik Zabel (Germany)
3 Alessandro Valverde (Spain)
4 Samuel Sanchez (Spain) a 2″
5 Robbie McEwen (Australia)
6 Stuart O’Grady (Australia)
7 Uros Murn (Slovenia)
8 Botcharov Alexandre (Russian Federation)
9 Tom Boonen (Belgium)
10 Vladimir Gusev (Russian Federation)
11 Bernhard Eisel (Austria)
12 Nicki Sorensen (Denmark)
13 Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Norway)
14 Martin Elmiger (Switzerland)
15 Freddie Rodriguez (United States Of America)
16 Karsten Kroon (Netherlands)
17 Marcus Ljungqvist (Sweden)
18 Rene Haselbacher (Austria)
19 Laszlo Bodrogi (Hungary)
20 Gerben Löwik (Netherlands)

Congratulations Paolo and Forza Italia!

“Swandrome Cyclocross” in Ithaca to kick-off the 2006 Central New York Cyclocross Series.

Syracuse, NY (September 24, 2006) – The Central New York Cyclocross Series kicks-off on Sunday, October 1st at the Swandrome Cyclocross race in Ithaca, NY. The course, with a mix of fields, woods, and a gravel road is expected to produce some heated competition for riders vying to take an early lead in the CNY Cyclocross Series. Short run-ups and multiple barriers make the Swandrome Cyclocross Race a fast, yet challenging event.

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Alexandre Vinokourov is showing some great time trialling abilities as he captured the bronze medal in the World Time Trial Championships. Vino’s third place spoiled the Team CSC domination as he displaced Brian Vandborg to forth. Fabian Cancellara and David Zabriske two of CSCs time trialing specialist took first and second.

David Millar had a bad day as he came in 11th place and three time former World TT Champ Michael Rogers finished 8th.

Cancellara’s win is sweet revenge for the time trial loss to David Millar in the Vuelta. Plus, this win justifies Cancellara leaving the Vuelta just as Sastre needed all the team support he could get going into the last week.

Point series to include 6 races in the Syracuse, Ithaca and Binghamton regions.

Syracuse, NY (August 27, 2006) – A coalition of Central New York cycling clubs including SpokePost.com Cycling, Finger Lakes Cycling Club, Tioga Velo Club, Onondaga Cycling Club and Team SCARR have announced the 2006 Central NY Cyclocross Series. With two races in each of the primary locales near Ithaca, Syracuse and Binghamton, the series is expected to produce some solid competition among regional cyclocross aficionados bidding to become CNY ‘Cross Champions.

The following races will be scored for cumulative points in the series:

October 1st – Swandrome Cyclocross, Ithaca, NY

October 15th – Syracuse Grand Prix, Syracuse, NY

October 22nd – SpokePost.com Wildcat ‘Crossing, Camillus, NY

October 29th – Main St. Bike Shop ‘Cross, Burdett, NY

November 5th – Green ‘Cross, Greene, NY

November 12th – Dave Panella Memorial ‘Cross, Endicott, NY

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Alexandre Vinokourov won his first Grand Tour in his own way. The man who is always on the attack was finally able to put it all together and upend the Vuelta just as it looked like an Alejandro Valverde coronation. The Spaniards must be crying in their tapas and wine while the fighting Kazak is going home with the Amarillo Fleece. Kazakstan can be happy that they get some positive news in the press and can show the face of Vino and Kashekin instead of Borat to the world. Borat is hilarious, but the wave of Kazakstan news must have more folks that normal checking out background info on the tiny and cold country.

With several stage wins including a sprint stage, a mountain stage and time trial Vino is looking at next year’s Tour de France with renewed enthusiam. After the unnecessary expulsion of his revamped Astana team from competing in the Tour de France, Vino showed the world what could have been in July. This year’s Tour would have been rip for Vino to pounce on with the ameoba like way in which it evolved. Hopefully if Vino’s team does not suffer through any more Operation Puerto issues and gets a full time spot on the Pro Tour then Alexandre Vinkourov can try and plan his year around the one race that eluded him this year.

Now that Vino is celebrating I can’t help but feel that I should be waiting for the other shoe to drop. After Roberto Heras’s EPO positive result and Ivan Basso’s name showed up in Operation Puerto and Floyd Landis’ testosterone positive, you can’t help but feel like you want to wait for the dust to settle before officially acknowledging that Vino won. This has been a tough year for cycling. If all is clear, then this will be the first Grand Tour in about a year with a “legit” winner. Let’s just hope that Vino enjoys his win and his name is not associated with doping any time soon or ever. I just don’t think I could take another scandal.

Damiano Cunego will make a state-side visit in October to work on his aerodynamics. Cunego will be working with aero guru John Cobb in one of the most advanced wind tunnels in the world located in Houston, Texas. The tunnel has tools that will allow testing that is closer to real world scenarios. Harley Davidson uses the same wind tunnel to test their bikes. During the test Cunego will try out different bike components and positions. They will even test the best position for his water bottle.

Cunego surpirsed many by winning the best young rider jersey at the Tour de France. His final time-trial performance was the big surprise since most observers expected Cunego to be overhauled by Markus Fothen. Instead Cunego put in very impressive performance and gained time on Fothen. Time trialing is seen as Cunego weakness so the time put in with John Cobb will pay dividends during the Giro.