SB Nation User Blog: Monty.

Tour de France 2010 - Who gets the Wild Cards?

Monty. — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:36:17 -0000

(Admission: Frinking did all the work for this and posted it in the Cadel Evans leaves *Lotto thread but I'm sticking it up as a seperate thread because I'm sure I'll want to find it again in the future)

The GT organisers are going to have a tough time dishing out Wild Cards next year because there are an awful lot of teams who believe that they should be there by right. So lets start from the top. As part of the deal that concluded the squabble between the UCI and the GT organisers a couple of years back, all the then ProTour teams were guaranteed entry to the GTs in 2009 and 2010. Those teams are:

1 AG2R-La Mondiale,
2 Astana,
3 Bouygues Télécom, (Now Bbox, no longer PT)
4 Caisse d’Epargne,
5 Cofidis, (no longer PT)
6 Euskaltel-Euskadi,
7 Française des Jeux,
8 High Road (later Team Columbia),
9 Lampre,
10 Liquigas,
11 Silence-Lotto, (Now Omega-Pharma-Lotto)
12 Quick·Step,
13 Rabobank,
14 Saunier Duval-Scott, (Now Footon-Servetto)
15 Team CSC (Now Saxo),
16 Team Milram,
~~17 Crédit Agricole,~~
~~18 Team Gerolsteiner,~~

Two of those teams, Credit Agricole and Gerolsteiner are now defunct but the other 16 have guaranteed entry. They might just be persuaded (bribed?) not to ride the Giro and Vuelta, but I'd guess that ASO are stuck with them for the Tour.

Next there are two new, but established ProTour teams:

17 Garmin-Slipstream
18 Team Katyusha

Then two brand new ProTour teams:

19 Radio Shack
20 Sky

Then we move on to the Pro-Conti teams. Two are pushing for contention because they have serious contenders on board, viz. Sastre, Thor and Cadel:

21 Cervelo Test Team
22 BMC

Then we have the Dutch contingent, at least one of which is likely to be on the start line in Rotterdam. I suspect that ASO would have liked to see both. Kenny Van Hummel's fight to beat the time cut was one of the great stories to come from this year's Tour and we'd all like to see him back. But do you put that ahead of the Feillu brothers?

23 Vacansoleil
24 Skil Shimano

And so far there are only three French teams against a possible four US ones. So the final possible team is the Breton squad that includes French stars Jimmy Caspar, Jerome Coppel and Jonathan Hivert:

25 Saur-Sojasun (this year's Besson Chaussures)

So who gets stiffed? I'm guessing that Sky could well lose out, even though they claim to have a place all but guaranteed. Katyusha could also be at risk. And does Cadel in rainbow really guarantee a place? Chances are that there are all sorts of behind the scenes deals going on right now, and that things eventually get decided on who sponsors the most minor jersies in lesser races in the ASO stable. It still looks like a tough call.

Enrico Lazzaro under house arrest

Monty. — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:15:52 -0000

There's an interesting little story coming out from Italy tonight about one of cycling's most famous "doctors", Enrico Lazzaro, previously convicted for doping during the 2001 Giro. It seems that he has been given a "ordinanza di obbligo di dimora" which I read as an order not to leave his house (whoever knew that following cycling would give you such insight into the minutiae of the Italian legal system), and banned from returning to his surgery in Abano Terme.

This is the latest instalment in an Italian investigation entitled "via col doping", "on the road with doping" (which makes me think of Michael Holliday - or Bing Crosby for our American friends) which managed to install a series of bugs and hidden cameras in said surgery and captured, among other things, shots of a 15-year old girl swimmer having her blood "oxygenated" (video available here or, in a smaller version but with more details, here courtesy of Gazzetta). The investigation started with the stopping of Moletta's father in the 2008 Giro and apparently 30 people are to be charged, including seven cyclists and the parents of the swimmer. Others are yet to be identified (code names were provinces and "fantasia" - Tonight, Enrico, I'm going to be ... - or just initials) so more charges may follow.

Apparently Lazzaro was carrying out something called "ozonotherapy" which I've not seen clearly explained in the stories, but involves taking out blood, doing something magical to it then putting it back. Just like Johnny Holliday.

Spanish Court passes judgement on Fuentes - 600,000 Euro

Monty. — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:10:47 -0000

You really can't make this stuff up any more, can you. A court in Valencia has decided that the local government is due to pay compensation to Dr Fuentes for his "services" as "Team Doctor" between 2003 and 2006. That's 150,000 Euro per year. That's what Tuttobici has in a brief summary taken from local Spanish paper Las Provincias. There's no explanation of why he wasn't paid for four years, nor why he continued working for them. Another of those Spanish mysteries, I guess.

Cav's latest flame (full gossip available on all good cycling websites - but do they have video...

Monty. — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:57:33 -0000

Cav's latest flame (full gossip available on all good cycling websites - but do they have video too?)

VDS 2009 - The Ones that Got Away

Monty. — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:39:56 -0000

I'll leave all the rest of the stats for Chris to post, but I've been doing the scoring for the Eds' league draft version this year slightly differently to the way he does the main game, so that makes it easier for me to pick out all the riders that weren't included on our list back in February. So here are our collected little Counts of Monte Cristo. All 74 of them. Those of proud German descent should look the other way now. The top also illustrates the first rule of VDS: picking dopers pays big time.

Tony Martin	0	910
Alexander Vinokourov	0	485
Michele Scarponi	0	456
Kevin Seeldrayers	0	335
Philip Deignan	0	330
Cyril Lemoine	0	255
Tom Zirbel	0	250
Bjorn Leukemans	0	230
Christophe Le Mevel	0	195
Aitor Galdos	0	175
Koos Moerenhout	0	175
Gerben Löwik	0	120
Jose Herrada	0	120
Matteo Carrara	0	120
Manuel Vaquez	0	110
Dmitri Champion	0	100
Alexandre Pichot	0	90
David McCann	0	90
Angelo Furlan	0	80
Antonio Cruz	0	80
Jean-Christophe Peraud	0	80
Marco Bandiera	0	80
Sebastian Minard	0	80
Hayden Roulston	0	75
Piet Rooijakkers	0	70
Dominique Cornu	0	60
Jeremy Roy	0	60
Julian Sanchez	0	60
Marco Marzano	0	60
Miguel Angel Rubiano Chavez	0	60
Dominik Roels	0	55
Arnaud Gerard	0	50
Harald Starzengruber	0	50
Ruben Perez	0	50
Serge Pauwels	0	50
Bartosz Huzarski	0	42
Carlos Nozal	0	40
Christophe Riblon	0	40
Guennadi Mikhailov	0	40
Joaquin Sobrino Martinez	0	40
Lieuwe Westra	0	40
Marcello Pavarin	0	40
Roy Sentjens	0	40
Sebastian Duret	0	40
Andre Fernando Cardoso	0	30
Artem Ovechkin	0	30
Ben Hermans	0	30
Bert Scheirlinckx	0	30
Jan Bakelants	0	30
Jean-Eudes Demaret	0	30
Jose Antonio Carrasco Ramirez	0	30
Mauro Santambrogio	0	30
Jurgen Van De Walle	0	25
Vladimir Duma	0	25
David Vitoria	0	20
Francisco Jose Pacheco	0	20
Francisco Perez	0	20
Inaki Isasi	0	20
Javier Moreno	0	20
Jose Antonio Lopez	0	20
Silvere Ackermann	0	20
Andre Schulze	0	10
Damien Monier	0	10
James Vanlandschoot	0	10
Luca Solari	0	10
Marco Velo	0	10
Mathieu Ladagnous	0	10
Mauro Facci	0	10
Roberto Ferrari	0	10
Sebastien Joly	0	10
Simon Geschke	0	10
Giairo Ermeti	0	4
Riccardo Chiarini	0	4
Dario David Cioni	0	2

DSB Bank goes up the Swanee - No news yet of Vos and co.

Monty. — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:19:11 -0000

DSB Bank goes up the Swanee - No news yet of Vos and co.

Another day, another sponsor, but Dutch Bank DSB went out with style on Monday, shutting their doors after a good old fashioned bank run. Where's Jimmy Stewart when you need him? Dead, I guess. No news yet on what's happening to the team, but a couple of members have already jumped ship.

You don't like the look of front forks? OK, here's someone who's found a way to do without them....

Monty. — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:01:01 -0000

You don't like the look of front forks? OK, here's someone who's found a way to do without them. That's one seriously weird bicycle. What was someone saying about the Finns earlier? Lots more equally odd designs over at his website at http://www.ollierkkila.com/Site/?page_id=4 but you don't get France Gall in the background.

Time for some Giro route speculation

Monty. — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:18:54 -0000

Time for some Giro route speculation

There are a couple of Italian stories from today, at both Tutto Bici and Ciclonews, but CN have thoughtfully translated all the best bits for us (so I don't even have to worry about upstaging Gavia).

Amsterdam has made damn sure that it gets value for its money, with an opening TT in town, the start of stage 2 to Utrecht, then dragging everyone back to start stage 3 there as well. Stage 3 is a short one to Middleburg, finishing at about 1pm near the airport to enable the riders to catch a plane, either to Turin or to the the little airport at Levaldigi. So they will be nicely refreshed and ready to start stage 4 the next day (Rest day? Who said anything about rest day?). But pity the team mechanics and bus drivers who have a 1150km drive to Cuneo instead, and then have to set up the TT bikes for a team TT. I hope that no-one's planning to get some dope free urine from their mechanic. In fact the whole of next year's Giro looks like a real pig as far as transfers go. Afer a couple of stages around Cuneo they are then planning to head all the way south to Puglia then all the way back to a grand finish in Verona. I wouldn't fancy that for a 2 week holiday in a car.

Two doping positives in Colombia

Monty. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:04:29 -0000

Two doping positives in Colombia

if nothing else this should teach you which one has the o and which on the u. No names released yet.

Women's RR - The Contenders

Monty. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:41:55 -0000

Not because I've got any more to say than you'll find in any of the other previews of this race, such as Gav's (which I'm sure will be excellent when it appears - could some kind person post the URL because I get a bit lost over at Steephill) or the nice one over at Cicloweb (or even the other nice one over at Cicloweb), but because it gives us somewhere to discuss the race. So who, as they say, is hot.

[Update, by Chris] Steephill... bah!

Great Britain

The GB team is led by the defending champion, Nicole Cooke who hasn't had too great a year since Varese, possibly due to the stresses of trying to run a team on no money, but still can't be ignored. She looked strong in Plouay and tactically is one of the best in the bunch. But quite astoundingly, as anyone would think who has followed Nicole's progress over the years, this year's British team also has real depth to it. Emma Pooley can't be ruled out as this course gives her the best chance of winning the rainbow jersey that she is ever likely to get. She can't sprint, but the hills of Mendrisio may well let her climb her way to victory. The only problem is that everyone in the bunch knows that and they won't be keen to give her a gap. And Lizzie Armitsead has been developing nicely over the season. She's not up there with the top rank right now, more of a Greipel like rider who cleans up when the stars take a holiday, but if she gets in a good break she may hit it lucky.

Holland

Not a deep team, but a focussed one. Think of Lance versus the rest of USPS, A star and her entourage. Marianne Vos has to be the number one favourite for this race. She's raced the Worlds three times, won one and come second twice. And to go with the pedigree she's got the form, with two stage victories in last week's Tour of Toscana where she would have won the overall too, but for a fluke break.

Sweden

This year's World Cup has been fought out between Vos and Swedish star Emma Johansson. Johansson is another of the peloton's great tacticians, good at getting others to do the work then jumping in at the last to grab the glory. And she's got the dedication too: she spent a year working as an au pair in Holland in order to improve her racing (as opposed to sheer pedal power) and will be somewhere at the end of the race. The big doubt is whether she can psychologically beat Vos to whom she conceded the World Cup long before she needed to. Among her teammates is Emilia Fahlin who has had a quiet season, but could surprise if she discovers some of her form of 2008.

Germany

The Germans have a remarkably similar team to the British, certainly in terms of balance and tactics. If the race comes down to a sprint, or a battle of wits between "le big" then Judith Arndt will probably be there. She's had what gets described in the press as an "unlucky" season, although there are probably other words that most of us would use if we broke our arm three times in one year at work. She's apparently recovered now, but is probably not race fit. Even so watch out for her because smart usually beats strong at the Worlds. Filling the Pooley role is Cervelo's Claudia Hausler, winner of both the Tour del'Aude and the Giro Donne this year. She can climb well, but unlike Pooley she can sprint at the top of the climb too. Expect Trixi Worrack to provide strong support in the later laps.

Italy

The Italians have a strong team, but are probably missing someone to strike the killer blow at the end of the race. Fabiana Luperini might have been expected to do well on a course like this, but seems to have stayed around one season too many. Noemi Cantele and Tatiana Guderzo should be good for top 10 placings but not medals.

USA

The US has a strong looking team on paper, but like the Italians there's no-one there that you can picture finishing off the race. Too many of them seem to come late to riding a bike, and while they can sit churning out the watts for hours at a time, they will probably lose out to someone who spends the rest of the day sucking wheels. Mara Abbott might be there best chance, joining all the other climbers hoping to make a solitary escape on the hills, but I can't see Kristin Armstrong retiring both this year's jersies.

Australia

A team put together with half an eye on next year's Worlds in Melbourne, so I guess from the inclusion of sprinters Rochelle Gilmore and Emma Mackie, but they have a few girls to keep an eye on in Ruth Corset, Tiff Cromwell and Vicki Whitelaw. Whitelaw has been particularly impressive in keeping her form even as her team collapsed and left her half a globe from home, racing wherever she could scrounge a lift to.

Lithuania

It's always a surprise that Lithuania has such strength in women's cycling, but a team that includes Diana Ziliute, rainbow jersey back in 1998 and winner of three sprints plus the overall in the Trophee d'Or last month, Edita Pucinskaite, rainbow jersey 1999, and Modesta Vzesniauskaite is likely to keep the little man with the chalk board busy.

France

Well if you've not heard the name Jeannie Longo then chances are you've never read a word about women's cycling. Thirty years among the top ten riders takes a certain amount of dedication. Watch out too for her training partner Edwige Pitel who would be the one attracting the "Isn't she old" comments were Longo not there, and for current French champion Christel Ferrier Bruneau. I don't expect them to win, but they should go down fighting.

Lots of other riders may make a show on the day, but there aren't many with decent team support. But who are we kidding, there are two things likely to happen on Saturday. Either Emma Pooley rides off into the distance on the hills, or she gets caught and Vos wins the sprint. Everything else is just filling time.