There will be a press conference today announcing that Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) is going to buy 49% of Unipublic's shares. Don't worry because there will be no ban for Contador in this year's Vuelta.

Source: AS.com

This increases ASO's control of the European calendar after another company related to ASO bought the Deutschland Tour and the Vattenfall Cyclassics last year. And just to give you and idea, Unipublic was sold in 2005 for 42 M€ (65 M$?). Could RCS Sports and ASO create their own ProTour?

I just found a CyclingWeekly link

According to ETB the basque rider 'Patxi Vila' tested positive for testosterone. Waiting for a confirmation and a counter analysis...

Don't miss friday's stage of Vuelta al Pais Vasco, which portrays a climb similar to that of Montelupone in Tirreno-Adriatico:



Spanish national champion Joaquim Rodriguez, aka 'Purito', climbing the final slopes of Aia during a training ride [thanks to JoaquimRodriguez.com for the photo]. He was the winner of Montelupone's stage.

Alto de Aia
Average gradient of 11% for more than two kilometers. Maximum gradient of 26%. Just 13 kilometers from the finishing line.

This would be a 'Hurts more' in chris scale for Ronde hills, right? :)

Look at the gradients:

Some more pictures here:
link here

Title says it all. According to several spanish media.

marca.com link
AS.com link

Update [2008-2-13 9:1:6 by King of Doping]: L'equipe confirms it.. here

Update [2008-2-13 10:17:36 by King of Doping]: HighRoad is invited to Paris-Nice. Astana is the only team banned from ASO RACES (so far...)