Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

AFP PHOTO / FRANCK FIFE

Erik Zabel must be high on spilling the beans. After his painful admission to using EPO in the 90s, Zabel now admits to causing the crash in stage 2 that took out all but 25 racers going into the finish. The dicey crash through a narrow road cut off most of [...]

(photo from ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images)
No Ale-Jet putting on the afterburners in the sprint stages this year. The high levels of Salbutamol
during the Giro caused a non-negative test result. Milram suspended Petacchi pending the outcome of the case. Today Ettore Torri a CONI anti-doping prosecutor recommended to a one year ban for Petacchi to the Italian [...]

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 [...]

Yesterday’s Giro di Lucca produced another Ale-Jet victory. This is no surprise as Petacchi has shown great form this year and is on an early hot streak. The difference yesterday was that Erik Zabel was racing with Petacchi and acted as leadout man for the Italian. This is a newer development for the German-Italian team [...]

Alessandro Petacchi is pumped from is 2-1 edge over World Champion Tom Boonen in the recent Rute del Sol. AleJet’s eary season form is showing that the team is gelling to his liking. Erik Zabel’s string of second place victories is showing that the once formidable sprinter just doesn’t have the extra snap needed to [...]

Elia Rigotto is the Milram leadout man who got a chance for his own win at the Tour of Med. Rigotto won the last stage of the Tour of Med on a day where he was hoping to deliver team captain Erik Zabel to another second place. Instead the properly tattooed Italian took the stage [...]

Tom Boonen is showing that the World Champion’s curse does not apply to him. Maybe it is the magic of the mullet? Boonen has been dominating the competition in the Middle East winning the Doha GP and two stages of the Tour de Qatar. Boonen has been undefeated in races where he has worn the [...]