Lance Armstrong just missed his chance to cap off his 2009 comeback Tour with a Maillot Jaune presented by Ben Stiller. Instead, Fabian Cancellara had to accept Greg Focker’s kisses on the podium. Maybe it was a calculated move to not have the guy who cost him an $85 fine for lingering at a French coffee shop put a yellow jersey on his back. Plus, you don’t want to tire out your Astana team too soon with the job of defending the Jersey for more time than necessary. One cyclist “in the know” noted that Lance was the fifth person across the line and let up every so slightly to maybe cause the close micro-second difference.
But who has that much presence of mind after rocketing through 39km on a twisty TTT course that caused some top riders and half the Bbox Bouyges Team to crash?
The prospect of donning the Yellow and stamping his authority on the team as they head into the tougher stages would be tempting. But the true GC leaders don’t worry about wearing the Yellow in the fourth stage of the Tour, they would rather wait until the last day.
For Bjarne Riis, keeping the Yellow after another battle in the TTT with Johan Bruyneel and Lance Armstrong must be sweet. In 2005 Team CSC was defending the Yellow Jersey vs. the Discovery Channel team when David Zabriske mysteriously crashed in the last kilometer. Zabriske lost the jersey to Lance Armstrong and probably left the CSC squad stinging from the bad luck. Today Saxo Bank pulled back one second in the last section to keep Cancellara in Yellow. Cancellara could be seen at the front for most of the final sector pulling his team along to a respectable finish. This is no small task since the Andy and Franck Schleck are not very good Time Trialers, while Astana is stacked with TT experts.
Originally I was going to title this post Riiis is “bringing Saxo Bank” into cycling. Apologies to Justin Timberlake for the bad reference to his song. But I decided to keep it basic.
Bjarne Riis successfully found a new sponsor to replace the outgoing CSC in Saxo Bank. Effective immediately Saxo Bank will cosponsor the team with the highlight being big exposure at the Tour. In 2009 Team CSC will become Team Saxo Bank marking a smooth transition over to the new sponsor. With the advent of sponsorless teams such as High Road and Slipstream and the loss of Gerolsteiner as a main sponsor it looked like cycling would have a tough time getting new sponsors into the sport. With Riis’ success at attracting Saxo Bank hopefully more sponsors will take another look at cycling.
So to compare, David Millar’s throw seems to have gotten more air, but it is probably a much lighter bike. The Pinarello that Riis had probably weighed 19 pounds while Millar’s bike should weigh in at the UCI standard 16 pounds. Riis seems like such a douche when he throws the bike as opposed to Millar who may have injured the family jewels seems more sympathetic. One other factor is that Riis was probably using EPO and other performance enhancing means when he threw it, while Millar is pretty much clean.
The Tour de France’s English jaunt has come to an end after a very successful prologue and stage one. The prologue through London brought out great weather and huge crowds who lined up along some of London’s biggest monuments to take in a bike race. Fabian Cancellara took the win by burning up the course in under 9 minutes for a five mile time trial. The course was not super fast with “chip and seal” type pavement, lots of “traffic furniture” remnants which required racers to bunny hop their bikes at certain points.
He is known as Mr. 60 Percent in some circles and was a member of the notriously doped up Gewiss-Bianchi teamof the 90s. It was the high flying 90s and who wasn’t on something? But the past is the past and Bjarne just wants to move on. This is just one more reason why cyclist from the 90s and any other time should get some type of amnesty.
“I have never had a particularly close relation with Jef d’Hont and he has no validation for the allegations he is making. There will always be some one out there trying to make money by talking about the past and in my opinion that is probably, what he is trying to do here,” Riis said. “This is probably not the first nor the last time these kinds of stories surface. To me, it’s all in the past and I do not wish to be held accountable every time some one finds it interesting to bring up some ten-year-old story. I truly believe the future is much more important than the past. I want to be judged on the work I’m doing with my team today, and the results we achieve – that is what’s important to me.”
“We are not looking for another leader, we are already strong” explains Bjarne Riis manager of Team CSC. After the departure of Ivan Basso due to the fallout of Operation Puerto Team CSC was left without a main man for the Grand Tours. Bjarne is not really looking for Ivan’s replacement.
Carlos Sastre had a very good year and I am convinced that Frank Schleck is the man of the future.
Bjarne Riis will be counting on a four pronged approach next year with Sastre, Schleck, Cancellara and Voight being leaders for various races throughout the year.
Frank Schleck had a very good 2006 winning the Amstel Gold Race and the L’Alpe D’Huez stage in the Tour de France. Fabian Cancellara won Paris Roubaix and the World Time Trial Championship. Carlos Sastre found himself in the unexpected role of leader for the Toru de France and finished fourth. He followed that up with another fourth in the Vuelta while riding all three Grand Tours. Jens Voight looked unstoppable for a stretch winning just about every race in site. So this core of riders are probably balanced enough to keep CSC near the front of the peloton.
Ivan Basso and crew have been very quiet about Operation Puerto and issues related to doping. Today Riis hit out at Ivan Basso stating that “Ivan needs to prove innocence before everyone”. This makes it unlikely that the Italian will return to CSC if he is found innocent of the charges stemming from Operation Puerto.
“At the moment, I do not see a future for Basso if he does not deomonstrate that he is completely extraneous to the Operation Puerto situation and show that he never had contact with Fuentes. This is very critical. He needs to provide us with the details to prove his innocence. Otherwise we are put into a situation where we cannot defend or trust him, therefore he would be finished with CSC.
Ivan Basso is taking a page out of the Lance Armstrong’s playbook of media relations. Just a few days before the Giro starts, Ivan “the Terrible” is saying he is not the man to beat for the Giro. True, there is defending champ Paolo Salvodelli who looked good at Romandie before he got sick. Damiano Cunego is on form too as he placed well at Liege and won the Giro del Trentino. But the focus will be on Basso as he tries to win the first part of the Giro -Tour double that is his season’s main goal. Having already won the Criterium International, a “mini” Tour de France Basso can’t hide from the spotlight. Basically Basso is ready for the Giro with four months of steady racing in his legs and a strong team to back him up.
The strong team got a surprise reinforcement as Carlos Sastre will be on the Giro squad to help in Basso’s quest for the Maglia Rosa.
Carlos himself came up to me and suggested that he should do the Giro, and I have great respect for the thoughts, which lie behind his decision. He’s willing to sacrifice himself in the mountains to be there for Ivan, and his help could actually be crucial at that point. The plan is for him to get through the first part of the race as easy as possible in order to be with Ivan in the final week, which will be an extremely tough one. It’s a true gift and a privilege to have a rider like Carlos in the Giro, and of course I’ve only made this decision, because we both agree on the fact that it also makes sense in relation to the rest of his season. – says Riis
Bjarne Riis sounds very optimistic about his team’s prospect for the Giro:
We’ve selected an exceptionally strong team. And there’s no doubt it’s a team, which is able to provide Ivan with the best possible help in his attempt to win this race. He’s in perfect shape for the job and he has the strength and the experience to win his first big stage race. I think everyone will agree that it is nine top motivated riders, who will be starting for Team CSC on the 6th of May. As often before we’ve had the luxury of several strong riders as potentials for the race, but in the end the decision was a given, and I’m very proud of the team we’ve chosen for this year’s Giro.
The CSC Giro Team includes:
Ivan Basso, Carlos Sastre, Bobby Julich, Jens Voigt, Volodymir Gustov, Giovanni Lombardi, Iñigo Cuesta, Michael Blaudzun and Nicki Sørensen.
Bjarne Riis feels very confident in Ivan Basso and is riding a wave of success in the Classics. With all this good fortune despite a beat up team, the former Tour de France winner decided to throw some smack Ullrich way after seeing his poor form up close an personal in Tuscany.
“It’s clear that he doesn’t like riding his bike, and for that reason I don’t understand why he wants to be a cyclist, it’s a waste of his talent,” Riis stated. “He needs to wise up right away. My belief in him is dwindling.”
Some very harsh words from the former mentor of Der Kaiser. Could this be frank talk from a former mentor? or a psychological mind game? Probably a little of both. With Ullrich’s constantly delayed season start and recent knee troubles, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Ullrich is very bad form so far this year.
Tom Boonen took the Oscar Gazzetta, the top prize offered up from the Gazzetta dello Sport for a Pro Cyclist for his performance during the 2005 season. The prize was awarded from a vote by some of cyclings top names such as Bernard Hinault, Felice Gimondi, Christian Prudomme(Tour Boss) and many others. The voters were asked to pick their top three riders of the year when filling out the ballot.
Boonen beat out Danilo DiLuca, Lance Armstrong and Ivan Basso to take the top prize. His performance during the spring classics, his domination of the field sprints in the Tour de France and his win in the World Championships showed that Boonen was the top rider of the year.
Should I subscribe to RAI International to watch Milan San Remo? Or take a chance with online feeds and Universal sports online? 3 hrs ago
@Maxpowercc I heard about the flat racing down on Greenville, a straight block on a 10 speed cassette sounds like my kind of racing:) in reply to Maxpowercc3 hrs ago
For Bjarne Riis, keeping the Yellow after another battle in the TTT with Johan Bruyneel and Lance Armstrong must be sweet. In 2005 Team CSC was defending the Yellow Jersey vs. the Discovery Channel team when David Zabriske mysteriously crashed in the last kilometer. Zabriske lost the jersey to Lance Armstrong and probably left the CSC squad stinging from the bad luck. Today Saxo Bank pulled back one second in the last section to keep Cancellara in Yellow. Cancellara could be seen at the front for most of the final sector pulling his team along to a respectable finish. This is no small task since the Andy and Franck Schleck are not very good Time Trialers, while Astana is stacked with TT experts. 
