SB Nation User Blog: Gemma

Admiring a shiny Swiss TT bike...

Gemma — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:30:59 -0000

Admiring a shiny Swiss TT bike...

Short video of Dutch BTVSportChannel where they have Cancellara's TT bike in the studio and are discussing it. I don't speak Dutch sadly so don't know what they're saying (if someone could translate that would be wonderful!).
For a start it would be interesting to know if, when they are looking at the info on the little computer from the bike, they really do mean Fabian got up to a top speed of 73.21 kmh (!!!) during the TT race last week.
Oh and there's some Lars Boom in the studio too at the end (at least I think it's him, sorry if it's not!)

Swiss Worlds Team

Gemma — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:17:29 -0000

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

Womens Elite - Time Trial
Pascale Schnider, 1984, Flühli, VC Pfaffnau – Roggliswil
Karin Thürig, 1972, Retschwil, VC Hirslanden ZH

Substitutes:
None

Womens Elite - Road Race
Emilie Aubry, 1989, Chevenez, RRC Nordwest Reigoldswil
Nicole Brändli, 1979, Au ZH, VC Horgen
Jennifer Hohl, 1986, Marbach SG, RV Schaan
Patricia Schwager, 1983, Balterswil, VC Fischingen
Jessica Schneeberger, 1989, Wichtrach, RSC Aaretal Münsingen
Andrea Wolfer, 1987, Elgg, RMV Elgg

Substitutes:
None

Mens U23 - Time Trial
Nino Oeschger, 1989, Neuheim, VC Pfaffnau - Roggliswil
Nicolas Schnyder, 1987, Le Grand-Saconnex, VC Lancy

Substitutes :
Sepp Freiburghaus, 1987, Neuenegg, CC Bern
Marco Lippuner, 1988, Grabs, RV Schaan

Mens U23 - Road Race
Romain Beney, 1987, Aigle, VC Mendrisio
Jonathan Fumeaux, 1988, Conthey, Cyclophile Sédunois
Mirco Saggiorato, 1988, Ehrendingen, RV Ehrendingen
Christian Schneeberger, 1989, Wichtrach, VC Mendrisio
Nicolas Schnyder, 1987, Le Grand-Saconnex, VC Lancy

Substitutes:
Michael Baer, 1988, Cham, RMV Cham Hagendorn
Daniel Henggeler, 1988, Oberägeri, VC Aegeri
Sébastien Reichenbach, 1989, Martigny, VC Excelsior Martigny

From here: http://www.swiss-cycling.ch/de/strasse/news/661.html

And here's some more details on the riders

And I'm sorry but for some reason I can't get the jump bit to work properly (I could do it fine in the old version but not with this one for some reason) so if someone knows who to do that please do enlighten me!

Saxo Bank for the Vuelta

Gemma — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:47:05 -0000

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!!)

Swiss long list for Worlds

Gemma — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:39:14 -0000

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

Road race:

Michael Albasini (Team Columnia HTC)

Rubens Bertogliati (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni)

Patrick Calcagni (Barloworld)

Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank)

Andreas Dietziker (Voralberg-Corratec)

Thomas Frei (BMC Racing Team)

Mathias Frank (BMC Racing Team)

David Loosli (Lampre-NGC)

Steve Morabito (Astana)

Gregory Rast (Astana)

Florian Stalder (BMC Racing Team)

Oliver Zaugg (Liquigas)

Time Trial:

Fabian Cancellara

Rubens Bertogliati

Reserves for TT:

Mathias Frank

Thomas Frei

Joel Frei (Team Hormann)

Observations:

Surprised not to see Martin Elmiger's name in the list, but then I've not really heard whether he's injured or out of form etc at the moment...

Also, Cancellara has yet to make his mind up about whether he's wanting to do the road race or the ITT, though at the moment he's apparently leaning towards doing the road race.

Final lists have to be decided in a couple of weeks and published on September 14th apparently.

Details from Feltet.dk

A message from Jens from the SaxoBank TdF site

Gemma — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:20:23 -0000

A message from Jens from the SaxoBank TdF site

Little video message from his hospital bed from Jens!

You can tell the poor guy landed on his face and slid... He won't be in Paris, which is a shame and he'll certainly be missed there.

Jens! update

Gemma — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:04:40 -0000

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

Air gun shooting at Tour

Gemma — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:20:55 -0000

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

Beijing b-tests

Gemma — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:13:13 -0000

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 :

New sponsor for Sexy Bank

Gemma — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:51:31 -0000

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 :)

It's that time of year - awards time!

Gemma — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 21:36:09 -0000

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)