Anti-doping prosecutor recommendation in Italy

Ettore Torri the CONI anti-doping prosecutor recommended Thursday that cyclist Lorenzo Bernucci; his wife, Valentina Borgioli; brother, Alessio Bernucci: mother, Antonella Rossi; and father-in-law, Fabrizio Borgioli, be banned after being linked to blood doping by a prosecutor in Padua.

Bernucci's former teammate with Lampre, Alessandro Petacchi, also is being investigated after police raided both riders' houses in April.

A six-year ban has been requested for Bernucci, who is facing his second offense after testing positive for a non-amphetamine appetite suppressant and getting fired by the T-Mobile team in 2007.

Four-year bans have been recommended for each of the other family members, which would prevent them from involvement in any sporting events in Italy.

The case will be decided by CONI's internal anti-doping court.

"I wasn't expecting the prosecutor Torri to request such a severe penalty," Bernucci told the ANSA news agency. "When I'm called before the anti-doping court, I will clear up my position, and then the judges will decide. I don't think the family has anything to do with this. My relatives didn't do anything."

The announcement came just a few hours after a gathering of cyclists at CONI attended by Italy's health minister Ferruccio Fazio, who announced new measures to combat doping at the amateur level.

"Out of 500 tests in the first semester of 2010, 15.9 percent came back positive among males," Fazio said. "I am about to sign off on a new anti-doping commission that will work very closely with CONI that will produce informative campaigns and collaborate with other anti-doping institutions, starting with the NAS [an elite police force]."

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Scott Davis retirement from professional cycling

Announced his retirement from professional cycling Australia’s Scott Davis had ended his career competing against his brother Allan on the Kevin Brogden Memorial Velodrome in his home town of Bundaberg in Queensland.

Now 31, Davis has been racing for 22 years and rode for Ceramiche Panaria, Tenax, T-Mobile, Fly V Australia and Astana. He recalled his success in the team pursuit at the 1997 world championships as the highlight of his career.

“Just representing Australia as a pro in ’03, ’04 and ’07 was also very special – to be a professional is an achievement as a whole,” Scott told the News Mail newspaper in Australia.

He hopes to retire with a win on the track.

“It would be nice to win the last event on the program on Saturday night, the Kevin Brogden Memorial 40-lap Scratch Race again. It was formerly known as the Fred Heidke Memorial, and I won it twice the last two times this carnival was held, in 2001 and 2002, so a hat-trick would be sweet. Allan and I have teamed up and it would be nice if one of us can win it, but as long as it is good racing, we will be happy,” he said.
Allan finished third in the road race world championships in Australia and won gold in the Commonwealth Games on the road.

Scott will live in Bundaberg his wife Jodie and two young children, Sienna, two, and Rhys, five months, but he will remain in cycling.

“It will be great to watch them growing up, but it’s going to be hard to not be riding, especially when Allan goes back overseas,” he said.

“But I’ll probably ride for fun at a few local events when I can and I will also be director sportive for Swift Carbon, a Queensland team of eight riders, including my cousin Brad Davis, and I’ll try and keep in the loop and try to get kids involved in cycling.”

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New Season acquisitions for Team Pegasus

Austrian Thomas Rohregger and the German riders Christian Knees and Markus Eichler have signed for Team Pegaus.

In 28-year-old Markus Eichler, Team Pegasus gains an experienced classics rider. The German, who signed his first professional contract in 2006, rode for Team Milram during the past three seasons. In 2010 he claimed the victory in the Profronde van Fryslan in the Netherlands.

Christian Knees, another former Team Milram rider, proved his excellent cycling skills early in his youth by capturing bronze in the time trial at the 1999 Junior World Championships. Over the past 11 years, Knees has progressively transitioned from being a classics rider to a grand tour rider and finished 21st in the Tour de France in 2009.

Knees' greatest successes include the German national championship title in 2010 in the road race, overall victory in the Tour of Bavaria in 2008 and victory in the traditional German race Rund um Köln back in 2006.

Thomas Rohregger completes the German-speaking trio coming from Milram. The talented 27-year-old rider is a climbing specialist and has already won several climber's jerseys - in races such as the 2010 Tour Down Under, the 2006 Tour of Austria, and the Tour of Luxembourg. Rohregger celebrated his greatest victory on home soil when he won the 2008 Tour of Austria.

"I am pleased that our team is growing and becoming more international," Pegasus Sports CEO Chris White commented when asked about the latest rider signings. White added "With these three German-speaking riders we have gained experienced professionals who have not yet fully realized their potential. All of them, whether climbers or all-rounders, bring skills that will help us achieve our goals for the upcoming season."

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Mehdi Sohrabi claiming a podium position at the 2010 Asian Games

The only rider in the field on the 3T SPHINX bar, Mehdi Sohrabi rode all comers off his wheel…even a puncture in the final laps didn’t stop him claiming a podium position Mehdi Sohrabi (IRI) rode the entire field off his wheel in the Points race at the 2010 Asian Games
held recently in Guangzhou, China.

Sohrabi, alone among the contenders, was riding the radical 3T SPHINX bar, created for exactly
this type of endurance event. He had already lapped the main group as the race reached its
closing stages and, barring mishaps, was assured of Gold.

But a mishap did befall him – unusually for a track event, he suffered a puncture. Despite this
setback, usually terminal to medal hopes in such a high-speed, closely-contested event, he was
able to recover to claim Bronze behind eventual winner Vladimir Tuychiev (UZB) and runner-up
Kam Po Wong (HKG).

It’s another convincing win for the 3T SPHINX and a demonstration that this unusual bar meets all
applicable regulations. Rumors had been circulating that the UCI technical commission had
disqualified SPHINX from competitions held under UCI rules.

“The rumors are wrong,” states 3T Technical Director Richard McAinsh. “They started on
Australian online forums and that caused several riders who had planned to use them at the next
big UCI track event, the Commonwealth Games, to switch back to conventional equipment.

“We heard about this when we were in Hawaii for the Ironman World Championships and
contacted the UCI right away. They promptly asked their people on the ground in Delhi to go and
look for themselves. Technological coordinator Julien Carron scrutinized the SPHINX very
thoroughly and concluded that it is, in his words, ‘totally regulatory’.

“The issue was that some riders had set the SPHINX up on too long of a stem. A long-established
rule1 stipulates that the rider’s handhold on the bars should be no more than 50 mm ahead of the
front wheel’s axle. This is to stop riders adopting a radically forward, ‘Superman’-style position,
which is clearly unstable.

“SPHINX has a forward extension of 162 mm – about 70 mm more than a modern drop bar like our
ERGOSUM. So if you mount it on your usual stem of, say, 120 mm, you risk putting the bar ahead
of the 50-mm line. That’s why some of the riders at the Commonwealth Games were sanctioned,
not because the bar doesn’t comply with the rules.

“Correctly set up, SPHINX is entirely within the rules and offers a significant edge to top-class track
riders in endurance events combining level high-speed racing with bursts of sprinting. Sohrabi’s
performance at the Asian Games was not a fluke. At this level, the differences between
competitors are small, and a technical edge can really make the difference between winning a
medal and ending up among the also-rans. It was a pity for him that the puncture deprived him of
the Gold he would likely have won.

“SPHINX is a technically advanced product and requires careful setting up. It does bump up
against the rules, but if there is one thing I learned from my career with the Ferrari F1 team, it is
that you have to be willing and able to push the technical boundaries if you are committed to
winning.

“It’s really up to the riders and their team managers to know where to push the envelope. And in
this case it’s not so hard. The UCI publishes guidelines, and its advice could not be clearer. All the
equipment you need to set the bike up within the rules is a plumbline and a ruler.

“It also helps to put aside any preconceptions about how long your stem should be. So what if it
comes out at 70 mm? Other things being equal, the shorter the stem, the stiffer it is.”

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Vande Velde's road to recovery following a season plagued with injury

Garmin-Cervelo leads as the first gathering of Garmin-Cervélo's 2011 squad wrapped up this weekend in the Caymans, it proved to be the ideal culmination of Christian Vande Velde's road to recovery following a season plagued with injury. Vande Velde suffered early exits from both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France due to broken bones, yet managed to put the dark days behind him with a rejuvenating performance at the Vuelta a Espana, a race he started low on form and with four cracked ribs.

Vande Velde concluded his season at the road world championships in Australia and the 34-year-old Chicago native found the perfect tonic for recovery was complete rest at home.

"I didn't do anything for almost five weeks and that's the longest break I've ever had in my entire life. I really needed to let myself completely relax, heal psychologically and physically," Vande Velde told Cyclingnews. "I have a new house and enjoyed being back in Chicago. I had an amazing fall.

"Since then I've been getting myself back together on the gym, on the bike, mountain biking quite a bit, getting to know some of the new teammates and sponsors for next year. It's too fast as usual, you look at your watch and it's December already and it's pretty daunting to see that. You always want that extra two weeks, but it's not there."

As was the consensus among all the Garmin-Cervélo riders and staff of the week-long camp at The Reef resort on Grand Cayman, it was a perfect way to bring together a team returning 18 riders and adding 11 new ones.

"It's always important to come together and be away from the bike and talk about things that don't relate to cycling. It's not about your programme, it's girlfriend, wife, kids, family - everything that you enjoy doing apart from cycling, whether it's shooting guns at kangaroos, or stuff like that," said Vande Velde with a laugh.

"I never thought that volleyball would be fun, but it was hysterical. I was astounded at how bad we were, first of all, and then also how decent it was at times. We had amazing volleys with maybe 12 on one side and nine on the other, a ridiculous amount of people. That was fun and just being able to completely stop and sit in the sand and talk with the guys."

Vande Velde has been coming to grips with his likely retirement after the 2012 season, and he's been inspired first by his Vuelta performance and then by the initial team camp in the Caymans.

"After the [Tour de France] crash I was thinking I still have two more years, I don't even know if I really want to do this anymore," said Vande Velde. "Now I'm thinking of it the other way around. It took me until the first dinner [in the Caymans] where I looked around the room. We had some speeches where Jonathan [Vaughters] said some words, Doug [Ellis] said some words. It wasn't really about what they said, it was being amongst the guys again and seeing where I am and what my responsibilities to myself and to my team are.

"I don't want to look back and say I didn't reach my potential or do everything I could in those last two years. I'm looking at it more as I only have two more years in my timeline, I don't care to race forever and just ride to ride. I think a lot of times when you do see the end it's much easier to say I've got these two years, and I'm going to do everything I possibly can.

"My palmares are nothing crazy at all. I realized that during the Vuelta that I'm a natural stage racer and that's the best thing for me. I think if I'm healthy and fit that I could do some great things whether it be going for stages, or overall, or helping my teammates succeed, whatever that is, I just want to do the best I can."

Vande Velde's 2011 race programme through the Tour de France nearly mirrors his past season's schedule. He'll open his season with a few stages on Mallorca, followed by the Volta ao Algarve, Paris-Nice, Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, Pais Vasco, the Ardennes Classics, Amgen Tour of California, Tour de Suisse and the Tour de France.

"It's a pretty classic programme and I think I'll be seeing a lot of people over and over and over again," said Vande Velde.

A return to California was important to Vande Velde. "I really realized this last year that I appreciate riding back in the States. That's obviously where I'm from and I feel that much more relaxed. You don't have to fight anything. It was really hard for me to watch the guys back in California and miss out on that."

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Matt Brammeier training and preparations for the 2011 season

I’ve come to Alicante for 10 days to start my preparations for my first season as a professional with HTC – Highroad. I’m here with a few friends of mine – Mark Mcnally, a former team mate from the Anpost Sean Kelly team, Jonny Mcavoy and Ian Bibby. We are staying with a friend of a friend of mine from Belgium in what I can only describe as a bit of a playboy mansion! Swimming pools, saunas, and more rooms than you could imagine. It’s a beautiful house and so far the owners have been awesome hosts and are looking after us well!

So I started training about 10 days ago now after a well-earned four-week rest off the bike. That’s the longest break (excuse the pun ) I’ve had since I bust my legs three years ago and it felt sooooooo good. I didn’t really get up to anything special, just enjoyed some time at home for once, drank some wine and did “normal people” stuff for a change.

After a brief chat with the team trainer Sebastian Webber, I started my training with a few steady rides of two to three hours with a few little exercises and efforts to get my body feeling like a bike rider's again. After a week or so of this I left for Spain for my first training camp of the year. I’m sat here now looking at the weather forecast in Belgium and it looks like I timed things well with a load of snow and rain at home.
The weather here is pretty good for training, dry and about 15 degrees which makes it easier to pick up my training and get some longer rides of around five hours in the bag.

I’m hoping to come out of this camp feeling fit and ready to go for my first meeting with my new team on the 5th December. I fly out of here on the 3rd, have a quick day in Belgium on the 4th to unpack and re pack then I’m off to sunny California for about three weeks on the 5th . According to Cav [Mark Cavendish], it's “the best place ever in the world”, so I’m feeling pretty excited and keen to get out there, get started with the new team and enjoy some riding in the sun!

First stop is Morgan Hill at the Specialized base in California, where we’ll be fitted up with our new bikes and kit for a couple of days. Then we head south to Westlake Village in the Agoura Hills where we will start the serious training and preparations for the 2011 season. I can’t quite decide whether I’m really nervous or just really excited to meet the team and get things going for next year! I’ll soon find out!
Fingers crossed this next block of training will go to plan with no serious drama and I’m sure ill have some stories to tell over the coming days.

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Dealing with the media in Cycling

It seems that crafting a race strategy and timing that perfect attack doesn’t seem so different from devising a policy for dealing with the media and scheduling your tidbits to the press for maximum impact. And yet, cyclists and those involved in cycling seem to have a near-bottomless penchant for screwing it up.

Take Floyd Landis and his latest set of Postal doping allegations. Sure, they were European television interviews and mostly just expansions on previous statements, but come on, dude—Thanksgiving break? When the few people paying any attention to the news will have to make it past irresistible Black Friday newsoids to read your stuff? Why even bother?

The only explanation I can see is that ARD and France2 were booked solid two weeks ago when the US Press was bubbling with news of Novitzky’s Euro Trip, complete with all sorts of juicy, idiomatic quotes. At least Floyd can take some satisfaction that by timing his announcement at the start of the holiday shopping season, he’s forced Team RadioShack to put their single least popular t-shirt on sale. That’s hitting ‘em in the wallet, all right.

Still, I suppose even Landis could give UCI president Pat McQuaid a primmer on media relations. Here we have one of the most epic whistleblowers in the history of the sport, and of course, McQuaid is threatening to sue him. Nothing says “I’m not protecting certain riders” like suing people who make accusations against them.

Even in citing the “big names that have been found positive over the years”, McQuaid points an implicit finger at himself: Contador, Rasmussen, and even Landis weren’t deposed until well after the end of a certain Texan’s dominance.

In fact, the first Grand Tour title decided by a drug positive disqualification*—the ‘05 Vuelta—was also the first held after Armstrong Retirement 1.0. Some might call that suspiciously close timing, especially considering how effectively Grand Tour winners have been busted since.

No, the proper way to respond this time around is to employ a little close reading. Landis’ allegations against the UCI could very easily be taken as a “well, everybody knew there were protected riders” sort of statement, worthy of a Pope Apology along the lines of “we’re sorry Floyd feels that way”.

After all, current intel seems to suggest that the UCI will take little damage, if any, from the Armstrong investigation, and given the time frame of Landis’ allegations, any blame will be easy enough to shovel onto McQuaid’s predecessor, Hein Verbruggen.

Then again, it might be a little much to expect decent media performance from a man who violated a sporting boycott cited as one of the most effective measures against apartheid (and still claims not to regret it), declared that every nation West of the Rhine and south of the Channel is culturally part of the “mafia”, and straight-up denied to the German press (yesterday’s comments notwithstanding) that Michael Rasmussen had committed a doping offense.

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