Rui Costa and his brother test positive

Portuguese claims banned product was ingested in dietary supplement

The Portuguese federation has revealed that Caisse d’Epargne’s Rui Costa and his brother Mario, who rides for the Barbot team, have tested positive for Methylhexanamine. The tests were conducted during the Portuguese national championships at the end of June. Rui Costa took the national time trial title during the championships, while his brother finished third.

Costa, 24, had been unable to secure a new deal with what will become the Movistar team in 2011. Reportedly in dispute with team boss Eusebio Unzue, he has not ridden for the team since he finished the Tour de France on July 25.

Writing on his Facebook page, Costa has said that he believes that he ingested the product concerned in a dietary supplement. He denies doping.

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Charteau unimpressed by new 2011 polka-dot jersey points system

Europcar team to start Tour de France on home soil in Vendée

Frenchman Anthony Charteau was a surprised winner of the polka-dot jersey in the 2010 Tour de France but has said he'll target a second win in 2011, despite a reform of the points scale that favours uphill finish winners.

In the past few years, the number of points awarded at the top of the last climb before the finish had been doubled but this will no longer be the case in the 2011. Only the points allocated at the top of the four mountaintop finishes will be worth double: on stage 12 (Luz Ardiden), stage 14 (Plateau de Beille), stage 18 (Galibier) and stage 19 (Alpe d'Huez). Only the first six riders at the top of the category 1, 2 and 3 climbs will score points, like at the Vuelta, and at the top of the category 4 climbs, only the first rider will score points.

"That's good for me," Charteau insisted. "I'm not fast enough when it comes to sprinting, that's why Jérôme Pineau beat me on the 3rd and 4th category climbs. I'll need to be strong in the high mountains. It's a mountainous Tour de France and a very nice one in my opinion."

"I don't see any reason why I can't compete for the polka dot jersey again," Charteau added. "After the Tour, I read some critical articles about my climbing skills but they probably came from people who don't know much about cycling and nothing about my climbing ability. My goal next year will again be the polka-dot jersey. I'll follow the same preparation, although it remains to be seen with our team whether or not we'll ride the Giro. That was a very good thing to do before the Tour. It gave me the pedalling rhythm needed for the mountains."

Chartreau's Bbox Bouygues Telecom will be renamed Europcar next year, after the team from the Vendée region of France was rescued at the very last moment by the rental car company at the beginning of October. "There has been a lot of tension recently but when we'll start the Tour in Vendée, it'll be massive and highly emotional," Charteau predicted.

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Van den Broeck, Gilbert and Greipel to ride 2011 Tour de France for Lotto

Marc Sergeant pleased with route suited to climbers

Marc Sergeant was full of anticipation and excitement as the 2011 Tour France was unveiled in Paris on Tuesday. The Omega-Pharma Lotto manager saw a race route suited to his young climber Jurgen Van den Broeck, while he also told Cyclingnews that he will send Philippe Gilbert and Andre Greipel to the French grand tour.

Van den Broeck finished fifth in the 2010 race, surpassing many expectations with a display full of aggression and skill. With Greipel joining the team from HTC-Columbia and Sergeant believing that Gilbert is ideally suited to certain stages in the first week of racing, Lotto have the makings of one of the most potent teams in next year’s race.

“It’s a tour perfect for the climbers with not that many time trial kilometres. The third week, as ever, will be decisive,” Sergeant told Cyclingnews.

While he refused to nominate Van den Broeck as a potential winner for 2011, Sergeant does believe that the Belgian can improve on his 2010 ride.

“If he wants to finish higher he needs to plan on attacking and taking some time. Otherwise if you just follow wheels you’ll finish between fifth and tenth. With the confidence he has now and the work he’s put in, he can aim for higher. Saying he can win the Tour is very ambitious though. I saw Andy Schleck this year and he was clearly better, Contador too and Menchov did a great time trial. It’s about being strong for three weeks and attacking.”

Part of Lotto’s strength, according to Sergeant, could also lie in the fact that they will retain their GC contender while the likes of the Schlecks, Contador, Menchov and Sastre all have to build up with new team around them.

“You’ve got to factor in that all the teams are splitting. Before you had teams like CSC but now the Schlecks have their own team, Sastre has another team, Menchov has moved too and there have been a lot of transfers. That’s good for the race but also good for us as we have continuity.”

With a sprinter and a GC contender, Lotto has turned back the clock to the days when they split their ambitions between Cadel Evans and Robbie McEwen. According to Sergeant, they’re well equipped to take on a Tour de France with multiple aims.

“One or two guys stayed with Jurgen last year, but we were aggressive and in the breaks and that takes guys too. If we work for Greipel, we do that, and if it’s for Jurgen, it’s for Jurgen.”

Griepel will take centre stage on the flat stages, where he will compete against his former teammate Mark Cavendish. The HTC sprinter has won 15 stages in the last three year but Sergeant believes that his new hire can match him.

“The guys left in the cold are the sprinters because there are not that many opportunities for them. We promised Greipel that he will be in the Tour, so he will go there. He can beat Cavendish. Look, Petacchi did it, it’s not easy but it can be done.”

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2011 Tour de France route announced

A centenary celebration of the Alps

After a 2010 edition dedicated to the centenary of the Pyrenees, the 2011 Tour de France will celebrate the centenary of the first time the race climbed the Alps.

At the launch of next year's event in Paris, race director Christian Prudhomme unveiled a parcours ideal f climbers, with only 64 time trial kilometres of which 23 are a team time trial. Again, there will be no time bonuses on the road from the Vendée region to Paris, while a testing third week in the Alps sees the Tour return to the Galibier and L’Alpe d’Huez: two of its most legendary climbs.

A diverse start

The 2011 Tour's Grand Départ is in the windy Vendée region in Western France, on the Atlantic coastline. The first stage will see the peloton cross the famous Passage du Gois before the first uphill finish on the Mont des Alouettes in Les Herbiers, famous for organising the Chrono des Nations time trial.

The team time trial is back after a one-year absence, around the town Les Essarts, the home of Jean-Rene Bernadeau's team. The collective test against the clock has a totally flat profile and will certainly re-shuffle the general classification, even if the distance of 23 kilometres might not open up significant time gaps.

Stage three (Olonne-sur-Mer to Redon) will see the riders gear up for a probable bunch sprint as the Tour heads northwest from Vendée towards Brittany. On the next day, an uphill finish on the steep Mûr-de-Bretagne in central Brittany will suit the Classics riders and strong finishers, with the yellow jersey probably again up for grabs.

The Tour will then move northwards on stage five from Carhaix to Cap Fréhel, finishing on a windy and especially treacherous section of coast line. On the next day, the bunch will move over into Normandy for stage six from Dinan to Lisieux, the Tour’s longest stage with 226 kilometres.

Moving south: the medium mountains

After the first week in north-western France, the Tour route heads south into France's central mountain range via Châteauroux. The stage starts in Le Mans and is another sure bet for a bunch sprint. The first "real" uphill finish is scheduled for Saturday, July 8 in Super-Besse Sancy, followed by a perfect day for audacious escapists on the hilly stage nine from Issoire to Saint-Flour on Sunday July 10. Three Category 3 climbs await the riders, with the Puy Mary located more than 1500 metres above sea level.

The riders will be able to enjoy the first rest day on July 11 in Le Lioran in the Cantal cheese region. Two transitional stages will then pave the way south to the Pyrenees on July 12, with stage 10 from Aurillac to Carmaux and then stage 11 from Blaye-les-Mines to Lavaur. Many expected a first individual time trial at this point in the race but the 2011 Tour is set to feature even less time trialling than in 2010, with Prudhomme sticking to one race against the clock only as opposed to two in the past.

The Pyrenees: more than an appetizer

Three days in the Pyrenees with two mountain top finishes will provide plenty of climbing action in the second week and will reveal who has a real chance of victory before the Grande Finale in the Alps in the third week.

Stages 12 and 14 will end on top of Luz-Ardiden and the Plateau de Beille respectively, with the hard day from Pau to Lourdes surely to tempt the climbers to chase mountain points for the polka-dot jersey.

Stage 12 to Luz-Ardiden also has the famous Tourmalet on its profile, and stage 14 includes a total of four passes before the final ramps of the Plateau de Beille: Portet d’Aspet, Col de la Core, Latrape and Agnes.

After another transitional stage 15 from Limous to Montpellier, a day that should be marked green on the sprinter’s calendars, the race will head east across the south of France for the second rest day in the Drôme region on July 18 before the 2011 Tour reaches its climax in the Alps in the third week of racing.

A centenary in the Alps: the big showdown

The Tour De France climbed the Alps for the first time in 1911, with a 366km-long stage from Chamonix to Grenoble taking the riders over four testing passes: the Aravis, Télégraphe, Lautaret and Galibier.

100 years later, stage 16 from Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Gap serves as a taste of the pain to come and three days in the high mountains begin on July 20 as the peloton departs on a 179km-journey from Gap to Pinerolo in Italy. Three categorized climbs are on the menu: Col de Montgenèvre, Sestrières and the Côte de Pramartino.

Italy will be the only foreign country visited by the 2011 Tour. Riders will return to France on the next day for back to back mountain-top finishes. Stage 18 – the queen stage, no doubt - will finish on the prestigious Galibier (2645m), after crossing some of the most challenging climbs of the Alps: the Col d’Agnel (2774m) and the Izoard (2360m).

The Galibier will be re-visited on the next day via its northern side as the 109km-long 19th stage finishes with the climb to L’Alpe d’Huez. Although a short stage, it seems this one could be just as decisive as the 41km-long individual time trial that will follow on the race’s penultimate day in Grenoble.

No time bonuses, but secondary classifications changed

Again, Prudhomme has prefered a “real-time” general classification without any time bonuses. But the Tour organisers have altered the points systems in the hope of intensifying the fight for the green and polka-dot jerseys.

Prudhomme announced there one single intermediate sprint per stage, awarding half the points on offer at the stage finish. This way, the sprinters will have to sprint twice a day if they want to be a contender for the green jersey. The changes will surely change the pattern of the racing on most days and affect the chances of breakaways making it to the finish.

The mountains classification will also be changed, with double points up for grabs at the four mountain-top finishes of the race. This may be an additional lure for the strong climbers to show off their talent in the high mountains.

The 2011 Tour de France stages:

July 2, stage 1: Passage du Gois-Mont des Alouettes, 191km
July 3, stage 2: Les Essarts-Les Essarts, TTT, 23km
July 4, stage 3: Olonne-sur-Mer-Redon, 198km
July 5, stage 4: Lorient-Mûr-de-Bretagne, 172km
July 6, stage 5: Carhaix-Cap Fréhel, 158km
July 7, stage 6: Dinan-Lisieux, 226km
July 8, stage 7: Le Mans-Châteauroux, 215km
July 9, stage 8: Aigurande-Super Besse Sancy, 190km
July 10, stage 9: Issoire-St-Flour, 208km
July 11, rest day at Le Lioran/Cantal
July 12, stage 10: Aurillac-Carmaux, 161km
July 13, stage 11: Blaye-les-Mines-Lavaur, 168km
July 14, stage 12: Cugnaux-Luz Ardiden, 209km
July 15, stage 13: Pau-Lourdes, 156km
July 16, stage 14: Saint-Gaudens-Plateau de Beille, 168km
July 17, stage 15: Limous-Montpellier, 187km
July 18, rest day at province of Drôme
July 19, stage 16: Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux-Gap, 163km
July 20, stage 17: Gap-Pinerolo, 179km
July 21, stage 18: Pinerolo-Galibier/Serre-Chevalier, 189km
July 22, stage 19: Modane-Alpe d’Huez, 109km
July 23, stage 20: Grenoble-Grenoble, ITT, 41km
July 24, stage 21: Créteil-Paris/Champs-Elysées, 160km

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Sauser, Bundi team up for Cape Pioneer Trek

Former Cape Epic winners take on another South African stage race

Officially, Switzerland's former world champion, Christoph Sauser, is on holiday in South Africa, but that's not stopping him from taking part in the six-day Cape Pioneer Trek that started today and runs through October 23.

Sauser, who rides for Specialized, said he is participating in the South African mountain bike stage race for the joy of it, but even a less than 100-percent effort could put him in contention for the podium.

During last year's race, Sauser seemed to get stronger and more motivated as the tour progressed. This led to a final stage victory for him and teammate Bobby Behan. They were also second in the third stage. Overall, they finished fourth.

"South Africa hosts many mountain bike stage races, and the Cape Pioneer was such a relaxed event over six days in the Klein Karoo," said Sauser. "The comradeship was awesome, and we had so much to laugh and joke about. The fact that some of the stages were long, windy and rocky, made the rest of the time even better."

This year, Sauser has partnered with fellow Swiss racer Silvio Bundi. The pair won the 2006 Cape Epic together.

Stay tuned to Cyclingnews for full coverage of the Cape Pioneer Trek.

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Maybe We Should Test For Accountability

What is it about this sport that cultivates such an aversion to accountability? It must be drafting or something.

Let’s start with the UCI, who flatly denied a Contador positive to ARD after they were aware of it, and before the story broke. Ignore the fact that most third-graders know to spit back “neither-confirm-nor-deny” boilerplate to questions like that—it’s the frickin’ German media.

While they do seem to have a painfully self-conscious obsession with doping, they’re not exactly known for fishing expeditions. Contador’s positive tests occurred months ago, the UCI had already notified WADA, bringing dozens, if not hundreds of potential leaks into the loop. Did the UCI consider it conincedence that a doping specialist reporter called them to ask about Contador’s positive test?

Then there was the advice to Contador to keep quiet over the positive tests. Nothing says “we’re attempting to cover this up” like sequestering news from reporters, sponsors, team managers, etc. Now you’ve got Contador on record as saying he expects a “quick resolution“, rumors flying over slashed suspension terms, heaps of reporting on a double standard so obvious it would embarrass George Wallace, and—oh yeah—all this kicked up days before the UCI’s biggest week of racing.

In fact, the only thing transparent out of the UCI in recent weeks was their limp-wristed attempt to deflect attention and criticism onto the Spanish cycling federation. Words cannot convey how much better the sport and its governing body would look if the UCI had simply told Contador to come forward back in August, and confirmed—or at least not denied—the positive tests.

And then there’s Contador. Apparently, the B-sample clearance I’d been hoping for hasn’t come through. That makes a positive test. Contador should feel welcome to appeal to his heart’s content—it’s his right after all—but I don’t think there’s any reasonable expectation he won’t get sanctioned.

If Contador really did test positive from tainted meat, he should lose the TdF title for it. Yes, it’s not really fair—but then again, neither was Andy’s chain, Beloki’s crash, Hinault’s knees, Merckx’s liver or any other of a myriad of other hard-luck stories that potentially cost racers victory at the Tour de France.

At an absolute level, athletes have complete control over the food that goes into their bodies, and consuming anything other than the most rigorously vetted food at the biggest bike race in the world is as fool-hardy as taking risks on melted pavement, punching big gears through growing joint pain, or riding too close to a hostile crowd.

And frankly, if Contador’s case is handled like previous contamination positives, I think he should accept it and be satisfied. More than a few additional questions have been raised by this case, and with some labs apparently keeping an eye peeled for as-of-yet-circumstantial signs of doping, there’s no need for the Spaniard to start playing the retroactive testing card; at any rate, we know from experience that retro-positives are fairly easy to deny.

At the end of the day, what’s important is that people respect the rules cycling has established to deal with drug testing. They aren’t perfect—you’d be hard-pressed to find codified regulations that are—but they’ve come a tremendously long way in the past decade.

Tap-dancing around the media and normal procedure to try and control the impact of positive tests, or expecting special treatment because you happend to win a few Tours de France both undermines the effectiveness of the systems, and obscures the areas where it’s in need of further refinement.

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Why Cycling Really Is Making Progress

David Walsh, author of the infamous LA Confidentiel and one of the most notable contemporary voices against doping, was quoted in Cyclingnews a few days ago, commenting on the high-profile positives of the past month. “You’ve now got Contador and Mosquera both in trouble” sighed the Irishman, “and you have to think that this sport is going nowhere.”

While I respect the man’s opinion, I think his statement couldn’t be further from the truth. Even as I type this, the allegations made in his book are flushing out the foundation of a federal case against Lance Armstrong and the former US Postal Service Team. A deposition prompted by Walsh’s investigation has already caught the seven-time Tour winner in an obvious contradiction, and for those eager to see the Texan’s head on a platter, the best may be yet to come.

But cycling’s steps toward a cleaner sport over the past few years go well beyond exposing les secrets de Lance Armstrong. Though the progress has been slow, and it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture with each new positive test, the long-term trend has been turning solidly and inexorably against the dopers.

Consider 2004, the year in which LA Confidentiel made its debut. That fall, Tyler Hamilton recorded the first positive sample under new testing for homologous blood transfusions (the re-injection of someone else’s blood). Aside from proving the efficacy of the new test, the Hamilton case also revealed to exactly what extent the anti-doping authorities were able to monitor the blood samples they took; thanks to Hamilton’s rigorous legal battle, the scientific validity of this testing was thoroughly established.

This detailed monitoring—which would eventually become the UCI biological passport program—sent the message that successfully-executed doping would now be a full-time job, requiring careful dosing, refrigeration, planning, and support from medical professionals: none of which come cheaply or easily. Even the deep-pocketed Hamilton, whose doping program was extensive and well-planned, still hadn’t been able to dodge the vampires or beat the rap.

2004 was also the year of Jesus Manzano’s revelations about the pervasiveness of doping within the cycling world. Manzano, a middling Spanish rider, opened up to the Spanish press with a flood of allegations, which were categorically denied and dismissed by cycling’s establishment. But the maligned Spaniard’s work with authorities bore fruit in a 2006 raid on the offices of Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes.

Despite massive interference from the Spanish government, the Opercion Puerto case lead directly to the accusation and punishment of countless riders, including three serious TdF contenders: Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich and Alejandro Valverde. While the case was never as far reaching as it should have been, and progressed with interminable slowness, the actual sanction of top-tier TdF finishers was a first since the cycling “owned up” to the extent of oxygen vector drug abuse in 1998.

Between 1998 and 2005, there were no major changes in the UCI rules—EPO and blood doping were just as illegal as they are today. But before the Hamilton positive and Puerto raid, efficacy of testing and enforcement had been decidedly lacking. Both homologous doping and EPO lacked a good tests for years, and early positives were met with skepticism and short suspensions. At some points, authorities may even have turned a blind eye to higher-profile positives.

Consider the Tours since the Puerto raid, and I think you’ll see a definite change. In ‘06, Landis was caught after a miraculous, ride-away-from-everyone Tour win, just days after the Tour ended. In ‘07, Vinokourov was caught re-injecting someone else’s blood and booted mid-race. Later that same year, Michael Rasmussen was voluntarily pulled by his team while wearing the Yellow Jersey, after his violations of the UCI’s whereabouts policy were revealed.

In 2008, a few riders, riding high on the general classification and throwing back stage wins like energy gels thinking they’d discovered an undetectable new drug, were caught and very visibly ejected, along with a handful of other names sanctioned after the fact. And now, in 2010, we have Alberto Contador caught shortly after the Tour with nearly-undetectable levels of a drug, and chemical substances that, while not sanctionable yet, strongly suggest re-injected blood.

If those previous two paragraphs don’t represent a remarkable increase in testing effectiveness, I don’t know what does. And it’s really just the continuation of a longer-term trend. Consider the Tour podiums from 1999-2005. While it is glaring that the most successful rider of that era remains at least technically innocent, it’s difficult to find another Head of State from the period with whom justice has not caught up. When compared with the soft or non-existant sanctions placed on riders in the Festina era, even those slow-moving cases mark a dramatic improvement.

The initial reaction when inundated by news of positive tests—as Walsh and Ettore Torri have recently voiced—is to throw up your hands and say that everyone’s on drugs and that nothing is improving. But natural though that instinct may be, it’s also highly irrational.

Positive tests mean riders are getting caught. While the confessions of some riders make test evasion seem trivially easy, their own positives contradict that suggestion. There’s no argument to be made that an effective doping program isn’t a massive undertaking today, especially compared with the casual EPO needlesticks of a decade ago.

While the UCI may at times seem to be doing everything in its power to erode public faith in the sport, the fact remains that cycling’s progress in rooting out dopers has been commendable, and the improvements are continuing. Bernhard Kohl’s well-worn quip that you cannot win the Tour without doping may indeed still be true, but the cost, complexity, and risks involved in dosing up are exponentially higher than just a few years ago—as his own downfall reflects. If testing continues to improve, in the very near future, it may no longer be worth the reward.

The dream of a sport—any sport—with no doping is an attractive fantasy, but a fantasy nonetheless. As long as there is competition, people will cheat to gain an extra edge, and those hunting the cheats will always be playing catch-up. The best a rational fan can hope is that those running the sport make cheating as unattractive a proposition as possible, through consistent, effective testing, and firm, swift sanctions.

And in that regard, I think you’d be hard pressed to find a sport going in a better direction than professional cycling.

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