Le Monde reports today that the Astana team of Armstrong and Contador may have violated criminal anti-doping laws in France during the 2009 Tour. According to sources close to the investigation, authorities from the Oclaesp, the institution charged with public health investigations in France, found equipment for blood transfusing in the hotel rooms and wastebaskets of the team. Dominique Pérard, the vice-prosecutor in Paris, has deemed the evidence sufficient to open a preliminary inquiry. This move is the first step in France's criminal law procedure.

Under the anti-doping laws passed in France in July 2008, possession of transfusion equipment is a violation of criminal statutes. The WADA code contains a similar prohibition. Investigators also found syringes and needles in the trash bins and currently, the laboratories are working to identify the substances. In particular, they are looking to see if the evidence includes growth hormone. Investigators also seized anti-hypertension drugs. Though these drugs are not prohibited under French law or WADA rules, they are frequently used in connection with blood doping to combat arterial hypertension resulting from transfusions or EPO use.

So far, investigators have identified seven different DNA sequences on the evidence, suggesting that seven individuals, likely riders, used the seized equipment. The French authorities have not identified the individuals as yet, because they need access to blood samples and DNA information held by the UCI. The UCI has not proved willing to release the necessary information, and French authorities and the Cycling Union have battled in recent months over the conduct of doping controls at this year's Tour. The French charged that the UCI showed favoritism toward Astana and in particular, allowed the team extra time to prepare for testing. The UCI has denied the charges and ill-will between the two organizations continues. Le Monde reports that Oclaesp investigators confirmed the delays granted to Astana, and said that they were "sufficient to allow for the dilution of blood."

The investigation originally targetted several teams, but as of now, focuses only on Astana. According to the information uncovered by Le Monde, the prosecutors found the evidence insufficient to open proceedings against any other teams.

—Source, Stéphane Mandard, Le Monde.
Photo, Jasper Juinen, Getty Images Sport.

Friday afternoon, I met Ted King of Cervélo TestTeam for coffee. The New Englander is in town training in the warm California weather for his second season of racing for Cervélo. This year also marks his second year in Europe, after a rookie campaign that included successfully finishing his first grand tour, the Giro d’Italia.

King started racing six years ago at age 20. His first bike had eight speed. What was your first gruppo? This is cycling’s carbon dating. King spent three years racing pro in the United States, where he rode for Priority Health, which became Team Bissell, and made his results in hilly road races. He finished second overall in the U.S. national rankings in 2008.

Below the fold, the story of coffee with Ted King.

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This isn't really a Sesh today, because I'm working on another thingy. I think you'll like it. Well, okay, I hope you like it. No telling yet what it is, because I might jinx myself and have it not come out at all. Writing is a ticklish business that way. While I wait for the espresso machine to heat up, a couple tidbits of news for your Wednesday. A Psuedo-Sesh. Which should not be confused with a pseudopod or a pseudonym.

Of course you know that the Vuelta a España released the official route at a gala in Seville. I haven't seen any photos. If only Team Liquigas were in charge of the Vuelta roll-out. To no one's surprise, the Vuelta is a climber's party with six mountain top finishes, a 16 kilometer team time trial, and a single individual time trial of 46 flat kilometers. For added giggles, the team time trial which opens the race in Seville will take place at night. You can't make this stuff up. The mountains should decide the general classification battle, and returning climbs include Xoret del Catí, a short, steep bit of nastiness, the Peña Carbarga, Andorra, a long, steady drag, which appeared in last year's Tour de France, and Lagos de Covadanga, a lengthy and frequently decisive climb to 1100 meters above sea level. The Vuelta also includes three brand-spanking new climbs, including one rumored to rival the dread Angliru in steepness. The climbers are smiling. Everyone else, not so much. No word yet on who will attend the late season Spanish party, as Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde, and Samuel Sánchez have all declared the Tour de France as their principal objectives for the season. Maybe they just don't like red. The Vuelta will introduce a Red leader's jersey for this year's edition. Snazzy.

In other grand tour news, Joe Lindsey reports that Team the Shack may not attend the 2010 Giro d'Italia. His source is a schedule of the team's races posted on Johann Bruyneel's Facebook page. An accidental omission or intentional decision? I don't pretend to know, though it would not surprise me at all to see the team focus all their efforts on the Tour de France with the Tour of California serving as a May training race. For more info., do head over and give the full Boulder Report a read. Little wonder Zomes is working so hard at this Washington DC absurdity. If the Americans do not come to Giro, Giro will come to America. Or something like that.

The espresso machine is nearly ready for action. I must go undertake the delicate and vital task of pulling the perfect espresso shot. But first, I think we need a dedicated effort to caption this photo (opens in new tab). Do you think if I'm really good, Santa would bring me rights to use Bettini photos? Because you so know I'd be decking the halls with those things right there. Front page, all the way. Hmm, maybe it's for the best that I have not been granted that temptation.

Back soon with some more writings. For now, enjoy your Wednesday. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves about bike racing, centaurs, how to paint a Barbie, Greek tragedy, cranksize, or any other topic that might cross your minds. I do like a wide-ranging discussion, don't you?

So at last the Bradley Wiggins to Team Sky transfer is a done deal. Now, we can all get on with our lives. Plainly, the separation between Garmin-Transitions and Wiggins was not especially amicable, and Vaughters told the press he conceded the day to avoid a lengthy legal battle over whether British labour law made it possible for Wiggins to break his contract at will. Joe Lindsey at the Boulder Report has a good explanation of the whole fandango. My fave quote from Vaughters: "The legal resources Sky has at its disposal are quite large." Understatement much? Lindsey also had a candid chat with David Millar, who called the whole thing "unfortunate." I would rate the polemica possibility somewhere in the neighborhood of Gilberto "he’s an extraterrestrial" Simoni and Ivan Basso at Sesterière, but maybe a few bastardos! short of Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador during the Tour de France.

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Apparently, Lance Armstrong and the Shackers held a press conference this morning in Arizona. Bonnie Ford, among other journalists, attended and learned such things as The Shack is not all about Lance Armstrong, and it will be the best team in the world. A few less routine questions slipped through the usual press conference ritual.

Bonnie Ford reports:

Armstrong press conference was straightforward, no surprises, though those of us who were actually working did not appreciate the amateur ?s

For example?

like, "if you were a bike component, which one would you be?'' which thankfully went unanswered.

Kids, these days.

Black is the new black! Cervélo TestTeam has a new kit for the coming year. It will be black. With black. Gerard Vroomen explained that the black kits make the team easy to spot in the bunch. Unlike the hordes of blue kitted teams which all look the same. Bah! Cervélo has retained the Giant é symbol as the team's logo, and in fact, the é appears to have grown larger. Castelli will supply the kits for the 2010 season. Yay for black shorts!

Source is Carlossastre.com. I snarfed the photo from Sastre, too.

Oscar Pereiro confided to the press this week that his contract dispute with Astana may mean the end of his cycling career. The dispute arose when the team tried to change the terms of his contract, a change which meant lowering the Spanish Tour winner's salary by a third. Pereiro said he had signed a contract, and at the time, he believed he would take Haimar Zubeldia's roster spot and ride in support of Alberto Contador's Tour ambitions. The team's efforts to change the terms of his contract came as a surprise to Pereiro, and he has said that he will not ride for the lower salary. he has set his lawyers to work on the case.

If he can end his contract with Astana, Pereiro said he would try to sign with a new team. But the Astana contract goes into force on 1 January, which does not leave much time for the lawyering required to end it. Pereiro noted in his press statement that he could not sign for another team while he still had a contract with Astana. He said that the situation likely meant his "adiós" from cycling, but that he was not "overly sad." I "must be realistic," he concluded.

Pereiro is best known for his 2006 Tour de France victory in which a lucky escape into a long breakaway set up his general classification campaign. Though he stood on the second step in Paris, Pereiro received credit for the victory after Floyd Landis lost the title to a failed doping control. The following year, Pereiro finished tenth in the Tour after riding in support of Caisse d'Epargne team-mate Alejandro Valverde.

Pereiro never really returned to his best form after he crashed badly during stage 15 of the 2008 Tour de France. Pereiro went over the guardrail on the wet descent off the Col Agnel, falling to the switchbacked road below. The crash required a lenghty recovery period and resulted in a slow return to racing this season. His contract with Caisse d'Epargne ended this season, and rumor connected Pereiro with several teams this Fall, before he signed with Astana. In particular, he had an agreement to sign with Quick Step, if Astana did not receive its Pro Tour license. He may now be wishing he had signed on with Lefevre, rather than dealing with the Kazakhs, who seem to have a knack for complicating the most basic team management tasks. Perhaps the Spanish rider's lawyers will yet find a way to win his freedom. But for now, it looks as though his career may come to an end.

Adiós y buena suerta, Oscar.

Source, AS.

Photo Credit: Ezra Shaw, Getty Images Sport.

According to Rad-net.de, Skyter has withdrawn its sponsorship support from the Equipe Nürnberger, whose roster includes Nicole Cooke, Tixi Worrack, and Amber Neben. The website received an advance copy of a press release, which will become public on Saturday. The withdrawal is effective immediately, and leaves the team, which is the top women's team in Germany, without a title sponsor. The statement from Skyter cites problems with the team's financial situation, specifically a lack of reliable information about its actual financial requirements. (The German is: Grund seien "weiterhin fehlende belastbare Angaben zum tatsächlichen Finanzbedarf der Equipe Nürnberger GmbH". Thanks to Tedvdw for the assist.) In short, the team has not clearly spelled out the financial demands for the coming season to the satisfaction of the sponsor. It's unclear exactly what is missing from the team's statement, but the news clearly has come as a surprise to the team management.

The team had already begun to prepare for the coming season and has contracts with 14 riders. Team manager Jochen Dornbusch called the situation a "catastrophe" in a brief statement to Rad-net.de. Dornbusch said that a few of the riders, stars like Nicole Cooke, Trixi Worrack, and Amber Neben, could find new teams, but the others would be hard-pressed to find positions at this late date. Dornbusch was also not optimistic about the chances of securing a new sponsor, despite the team's talented roster. Asked for comment, Trixi Worrack replied with a question: "What should I say, that we are happy?" Well no, Trixi, we can't imagine that you are. Even the team kits for the coming year are already made. Too bad no one will get to wear them.

Sponsorship for womens teams is always difficult to secure, especially so long as the media coverage remains so sparse. There can be few substitutes for video coverage of the races, which nearly all of the elite mens races take for granted, but few, if any, of the womens races receive. Hopefully, the team will find a sponsor, since they have assembled a very strong roster which looked likely to set up a some serious competition for last year's dominant teams Cervélo TestTeam and Columbia-HTC. For now, though, their future remains uncertain.

Read more about the team in Exploring the Womens Peloton.

— Sources, Rad-net.de and Radsport-news.com.

Photo, Bryn Lennon, Getty Images Sport.

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Wednesday Session. Now, with pictures! We have reached the deep abyss of winter, when the news slows to a trickle. It’s remarkably difficult to be funny when there’s nothing much going on.

But fear not, my friends, for it is now December which makes the early season that much closer. Better still, bike racers all about the world have begun training and teams have begun those all-important pre-season meetings, where everyone is assigned a nickname and they work out secret hand signals for when the UCI bans radios. Could actual bike racing be far behind? Training, meetings, if enough bike racers come out of winter hibernation, we’re bound to have gossip. And gossip is good. In the meantime, there’s pictures.

Like say, this one of Leenoos. Captions, anyone?

Photo by Jasper Juinen, Getty Images Sport.

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The local newspaper in Padova reported last week that the procura in Padova has opened a preliminary investigation into the possibility that Danilo Di Luca committed sporting fraud during the 2009 Giro d'Italia. Di Luca, who finished second overall, tested positive for the banned substance CERA on two occasions during the race. After deciding Di Luca's sanction, the Italian anti-doping authorities passed the information from his case to the district attorney in Roma, who has jurisdiction over sporting fraud cases. The case then passed to Padova, where the prosecutor Benedetto Roberti is in the midst of investigating a widespread doping case that has already involved Davide Rebellin and Riccardo Riccó. Roberti believes that the Rebellin, Riccó, and Di Luca all received their CERA from the same source, the former U23 national team coach of Serbia, Aleksandar Nikacevic. Nikacevic was arrested last July in connection with the investigation.

According to Di Luca's lawyer Flavia Tortorella, who gave an interview to Paolo Smoglica of Il Centro, Di Luca has nothing to do with the investigation in Padova and has never met the alleged dealer Nikacevic. Tortorella asserted that Di Luca's situation was far different from that of Riccó or Sella, because Di Luca continued to claim his innocence. The other two riders confessed to using CERA and provided information to investigators about their suppliers. Di Luca has challenged the allegations and continues to claim that he did not use the banned drug. According to his legal team, the testing process that found CERA in Di Luca's samples was flawed and they maintain that the rider never used the banned substance. Consequently, any investigation of sporting fraud on Di Luca's part is premature, they argue.

The Di Luca case promises to be a lengthy one. Like Landis, Di Luca is arguing that the testing process is fundamentally flawed and the Italian appears committed to exhausting all avenues of appeal. No doubt the opening of a sporting fraud investigation is intended to pressure Di Luca either with the goal of ending the appeal process or acquiring information to help close the wider investigation of the doping ring centered in Padova. Both Riccó and Di Luca have been connected with Dr. Santuccione, but did they use the same dealer? The authorities believe so, though it's far from clear that they have the evidence to prove it. Caught up in the same investigation in Padova, Rebellin meanwhile has returned his Olympic medal and paid back 75,000 euros of his prize money, though he continues to maintain his innocence. Like Di Luca, Rebellin continues his legal battle. At least, the lawyers are smiling.

— Sources, Di Luca indagato and Di Luca non c'entra con l'inchiesta