Mens Elite - Time Trial
Rubens Bertogliati, 1979, Lugano, VC Lugano
Fabian Cancellara, 1981, Ittigen, CI Ostermundigen

Substitutes:
Mathias Frank, 1986, Roggliswil, VC Pfaffnau-Rogggliswil
Thomas Frei, 1985, Olten, VC Pfaffnau-Roggliswil

Mens Elite - Road Race
Michael Albasini, 1980, Gais, VC Mendrisio
Rubens Bertogliati, 1979, Lugano, VC Lugano
Fabian Cancellara, 1981, Ittigen, CI Ostermundigen
Mathias Frank, 1986, Roggliswil, VC Pfaffnau-Rogggliswil
Gregory Rast, 1980, Cham, RMV Cham Hagendorn
Oliver Zaugg, 1981, Arcegno, RV Wetzikon

Substitutes:
David Loosli, 1980, Bern, RRC Bern
Florian Stalder, 1982, Zweisimmen, CI Ostermundigen
Steve Morabito, 1983, Monthey, VC Mendrisio

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Uncle Bjarne has finally decided that this little bunch will be Sexy Bank's line-up at the Vuelta (Van Goolen misses out):

Jakob Fuglsang

Andy Schleck

Frank Schleck

Fabian Cancellara

Matti Breschel

Kurt-Asle Arvesen

Karsten Kroon

Alexandr Kolobnev

Stuart O'Grady

Thoughts?? A shot at the overall for Fuglsang will probably depend partly on whether he can regain the form he showed at the Dauphine as well as at what point various of his teammates drop out for Worlds, but other than that they're obviously on the hunt for stage wins here and there. Also nice to see Arvesen back in what will probably be his last GT outing for the team (damn you for probably leaving Kurt!!)

Whilst they only qualify to have 3 riders in the road race at the World Championships in Mendrisio based on the rankings, being the hosts means the Swiss can have an extra 3 riders apparently and so their long list of possible entrants has been drawn up. Not that many surprises in terms of the long list, though there was one rider I was surprised not to see on there... They've also named the provisional two for the ITT plus some reserve names

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As this is about Jens! I figured it deserved a post all of it's own :)

Anyway, apparently  the big guy is hoping to be released from hospital tomorrow once they've done one final head scan (he had a minor blood clot it seems, not unexpected considering). He still doesn't remember a thing about the accident. One minute he was thinking about how he could do more work for Andy & Frank, next thing he was on a stretcher in the back of an ambulance (reminds me of skier Dani Albrecht - he has no problem watching video of his horror smash from January this year because he has that same blank about his accident, for him it's like it's someone else he's watching)

But the best news is that the crash has made Jens! determined to come back for one more Tour (he'd spoken on the first rest day about this possibly being his last one)

And in typical Jens! fashion (and something that made me smile) apparently he's already spoken to Riis about when he can get back on the bike - he mentioned the Denmark Tour but seen as this starts in a week or so, Riis' response was that that might be a bit too soon :) Good luck with trying to calm him down there Bjarne!

Riis has also said Jens! would be in his 2010 Tour line-up and that he's also already spoken to him about what he could do with the team once he climbs off the bike (imagines Jens! as very scary (in a nice way) DS in the car) - something of a hands off to Team Sky, amidst rumours that they had approached the german re some kind of contract

News is just breaking at the moment (so not too many details available) that some idiot shot an air or BB gun at the riders at the top of one of the climbs on today's stage. Oscar Freire and Julian Dean got caught by a pellet each it seems. Neither seriously hurt - Dean has a minor finger injury and Freire has had a pellet removed.

Police investigation has been opened but ASO making no further comment till tomorrow.

Story at Reuters here

In case anyone was wondering what happened to this story... Reports coming out of Germany  (specifically in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) say that the results of the B samples of the 5 athletes from Beijing who tested positive after samples were retested (inc Stefan Schumacher and road race silver medallist Davide Rebellin) have also all come back positive. Lawyers for the 5 have apparently met to plan their strategies re appeals to CAS. Schumacher's lawyer seemingly trying the whole 'procedural error' line as apparently that can be the only reason all 5 A & B tests were positive (not because the people involved actually, you know, cheated!)

No official comment from anywhere from what I've been able to find so far, but news article here :

The search for a second sponsor for Team Saxo Bank is at an end, with today's news that Playitas have signed up as co-sponsors.

Playitas - a Spanish holiday resort operated by travel services company Apollo have signed up to the end of 2010. As part of the deal the team will now run training camps and team building courses on Fuerteventura (which will be warmer than Denmark and the like in the winter so that should make the riders happy - though I wonder if this really rules out having the team building at other places too).

The new name will appear on jerseys from this weekend's Danish championships (too late to alter the other jerseys I guess) and so will also appear at the Tour (possibly it'll mean the jersey's look like last years)

More details and comments from Riis and the CEO of Apollo to be found here

They'll still be Sexy Bank to me :)

Following on the heels of last week's Swiss Sportsperson of the Year ceremony, which saw a dazzlingly dressed Fabian Cancellara beat two-time winner Roger Federer to the title, tonight we had the Sports Personality of the Year Award (or SPOTY as it's known) here in the UK and what a night it was for cycling!!

The GB Olympic Cycling team got the Team of the Year award, their main coach David Brailsford won the Coach of the Year award and they also won the big award with the Sports Personality of the Year Award going to Chris Hoy (and 3 other cyclists made the final 10 list which was brilliant)