SB Nation User Blog: lucybears

ProTour RIP

lucybears — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:17:54 -0000

All teams decide to leave UCI ProTour series

The UCI's ProTour series appears to be officially dead after all 17 teams at the Tour de France decided to leave the series and not renew their licences next season.

"It has been decided unanimously not to renew the ProTour licences for the 2009 season," read a joint statement from the teams.

The only ProTour team not present at the Tour de France, Astana, is also expected to leave the ProTour. "If everybody decides so, I can't imagine Astana will not follow," Astana chief press officer Philippe Maertens told Reuters.

UCI President Pat McQuaid told Reuters that all the teams could face exclusion from the UCI. "We'll deal with that according to the regulations," said McQuaid. "They face exclusion from the international federation. It is something we are going to discuss."

LeMond: VeloNews interview + more

lucybears — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:54:33 -0000

American legend Greg LeMond believes there have been enough positive changes in cycling that he can believe in the winner of the Tour de France.

LeMond, 47, returned to the Tour this week for the first since the late 1990s, when he become so disillusioned with cycling’s doping problems that he refused to even attend the race that he won three times.

LeMond is optimistic that increased anti-doping controls and changes within the culture of the peloton can deliver a clean winner of the Tour. VeloNews was there when LeMond spoke with journalists Sunday morning in the start village.

http://tour-de-france.velonews.com/article/79414/a-conversation-with-greg-lemond-at-the-tour-on-sunday

LeMond says cycling no longer needs the UCI

http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/news?slug=reu-tourlemonddc&prov=reuters&type=lgns

BOUYGUES TELECOM & other French teams for Le Tour

lucybears — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:41:02 -0000

BOUYGUES TELECOM

	CLEMENT Stef	Netherlands
	FEDRIGO Pierrick	France
	FLORENCIO CABRE Xavier	Spain
	LEFEVRE Laurent	France
	PINEAU Jérôme	France
	SPRICK Matthieu	France
	TROFIMOV Yury	Russia
	TSCHOPP Johann	Switzerland
	VOECKLER Thomas	France

CREDIT AGRICOLE

	BONNET William	France
	BOTCHAROV Alexandre	Russia
	ENGOULVENT Jimmy	France
	FOFONOV Dmitriy	Kazahkstan
	GERRANS Simon	Australia
	HUSHOVD Thor	Norway
	LE MEVEL Christophe	France
	PAURIOL Rémi	France
	RENSHAW Mark	Australia

FRANÇAISE DES JEUX

	CASAR Sandy	France
	CHAVANEL Sébastien	France
	DI GREGORIO Rémy	France
	GERARD Arnaud	France
	GILBERT Philippe	Belgium
	JEGOU Lilian	France
	LE BOULANGER Yoann	France
	ROY Jérémy	France
	VAUGRENARD Benoît	France

AGRITUBEL

	BICHOT Freddy	France
	CASPER Jimmy	France
	FEILLU Romain	France
	GONZALO RAMIREZ Eduardo	Spain
	JALABERT Nicolas	France
	LELAY David	France
	LEQUATRE Geoffroy	France
	MOREAU Christophe	France
	VOGONDY Nicolas	France

Cofidis for the Tour

lucybears — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:05:25 -0000

Hervé Duclos-Lassalle, Sylvain Chavanel, David Moncoutié, Maxime Monfort, Amaël Moinard, Leonardo Duque, Stéphane Augé, Florent Brard en Samuel Dumoulin. From Wielrensite (Dutch):

Zeven Fransen in selectie Cofidis Vrijdag 27 Juni om 10:22 | Gepost door Rafael Stoker Cofidis gaat het deze Tour de France doen met zeven renners uit eigen land. Vorig jaar verliet de Franse ploeg de Tour voortijdig na een affaire rondom de Italiaan Cristian Moreni.

Maxime Monfort uit België en Leonardo Duque uit Colombia staan de zeven Franse renners bij.

Selectie Cofidis voor Tour 2008:
Hervé Duclos-Lassalle, Sylvain Chavanel, David Moncoutié, Maxime Monfort, Amaël Moinard, Leonardo Duque, Stéphane Augé, Florent Brard en Samuel Dumoulin http://www.wielrensite.nl/nieuws/8134

Quick Step for the Tour

lucybears — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:45:43 -0000

Stijn Devolder, Carlos Barredo, Matteo Carrara, Steven De Jongh, Sebastien Rosseler, Gert Steegmans, Matteo Tosatto, Kevin Van Impe & Jurgen Van de Walle.

Assente Tom Boonen, dichiarato non desiderato dalla Aso, la Quick Step per il Tour de France sarà imperniata attorno al vincitore del Giro delle Fiandre Stijn Devolder. Con lui al via da Brest ci saranno Carlos Barredo, Matteo Carrara, Steven De Jongh, Sebastien Rosseler, Gert Steegmans, Matteo Tosatto, Kevin Van Impe e Jurgen Van de Walle, diretti in ammiraglia da Wilfried Peeters e Dirk Demol.

http://www.tuttobiciweb.it/index.php?page=news&cod=17201&tp=n

Liquigas for the Tour: No Bennati!!

lucybears — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:36:14 -0000

No Bennati

Pozzato, Quinziato, Willems, Kuchynski, Beltran, Nibali, Kreuziger, Fischer & Chicchi.

These are the Liquigas men for the Grande Boucle, from 5th to 27th July: a well-honed team hungry for stage wins. Unfortunately without Daniele Bennati

With eleven days to go until the 95th Tour de France begins, Team Liquigas has officially announced the line-up that will be starting in Brest. «We’ve put together a competitive team that should do well on the different routes in the Tour, » said directeur sportif Stefano Zanatta, «We’re aiming to win as many stages as possible, and we’ve got the right men to accomplish this goal. » Following the orders of Zanatta and Dario Mariuzzo is Filippo Pozzato, the jewel in the team’s crown who will try to repeat last year’s success in the Chablis-Autun stage. He’ll be assisted by Manuel Quinziato, the team’s benchmark for the time trials, as well as Frederik Willems from Belgium and Aliaksandr Kuchynski from Belarus.
Battling it out on the race’s 19 hilly stretches will be the Spanish rider Manuel Beltran, a Liquigas veteran who is ready to offer his years of experience to help the two new boys to the Tour, Vincenzo Nibali and Roman Kreuziger, Roman has just won a superb victory at the Tour of Switzerland.
Murilo Fischer and Francesco Chicchi are the sprinters to watch out for: it’s their job to capitalise on the sprint finishes and fill in for Daniele Bennati. Daniele will be sorely missed at this year’s Tour de France, but he’s out of action due to an Achilles peritendinitis to his left ankle that flared up in the last stage of the Giro d´Italia. «I’m really gutted to miss the race, » said the Arrezzo rider. «Unfortunately the strain of the Giro has caused my left leg to suffer, which is the one that had slightly less training because I injured it at the start of the year. I’ve spoken with the team and we all agree that it’s better to rest now and not risk the end of the season. » But Bennati aims to be back in form for his next big outing on 30th August: the start of the Vuelta.

Is anybody writing to Congress ?

lucybears — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:29:04 -0000

or is it all history now...

http://www.investigatelance.org/home

Tour de France: The Teams

lucybears — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:25:10 -0000

Ag2r-La Mondiale (Fra)
Bouygues Telecom (Fra)
Caisse d'Epargne (Spa)
Cofidis (Fra)
Crédit Agricole (Fra)
Euskaltel-Euskadi (Spa)
Francaise des Jeux (Fra)
Gerolsteiner (Dui)
Lampre (Ita)
Liquigas (Ita)
Quick Step (Bel)
Rabobank (Ned)
Saunier Duval-Scott (Spa)
Team CSC (Den)
Team High Road (VSt)
Team Milram (Dui)
Silence-Lotto (Bel)
Agritubel (Fra)
Barloworld (GB)
Team Slipstream-Chipotle (VSt)

Mt. Hamilton

lucybears — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:36:20 -0000

So this is where they're going:

Watch the video

Civil War

lucybears — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:01:25 -0000

The 2008 season opened under the ray of hope that the sport's doping problems are being solved, but simmering underneath the optimism of the teams and riders is a stew pot of political manoeuvring by cycling's higher-ups which threatens to plunge the sport into a civil war. Cyclingnews' Shane Stokes reports. Read the rest at CN

[editor's note, by chris] This is already my least favorite story of the year. It seems like the UCI is picking at scabs by downgrading the top non-Pro Tour races, or maybe the races started it by trying to organize completely outside the UCI. The truly suicidal aspect that nobody seems to acknowledge is the effect on the fans. Can't we be allowed a single moment of peace to enjoy the sport? Is this bickering truly necessary?