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Amber Neben crashed hard into the embankment on the outside of a corner during the Amgen Tour women's time trial. Photo: Casey B. Gibson | www.cbgphoto.com Former time trial world champion Amber Neben (Pasta Zara) said on Friday that she did not have a timeline for her return to racing following a hard crash in the women’s TT at the Amgen Tour of California last week.
Neben appeared to be riding toward a podium place in San Jose when she overcooked a corner and crashed into a road embankment on the course’s technical descent. She suffered a broken hip and two broken ribs in the crash and will miss her title defense at the Volkswagen USA Cycling Professional Road and Time Trial National Championships in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Saturday.
“Considering how bad the crash was, I am doing very well,” said Neben in a team press release. “I was going very well. I think that I would have won the race. I know I was already very fast to the point where I crashed, and I felt very good. Bike racing is hard sometimes! I don’t have yet a timetable for a return but I am doing little things to fire muscles in my legs isometrically. Thanks everyone for the support and prayers.”
Neben, 38, won her first TT national title in 2012 in Augusta, Georgia. She was part of the world champion Specialized-lululemon squad for the team time trial in Limburg, Netherlands, in September and was fourth in the road race days later.
Editor’s Note: This video is courtesy of Global Cycling Network. The opinions expressed in this video do not necessarily represent the opinions of VeloNews.com, Velo magazine or the editors and staff of Competitor Group, Inc.
Ted King is looking lean and it's not by accident. Photo: Casey B. Gibson | www.cbgphoto.com It was hard not to notice, and everyone did: Ted King is lean. At the Amgen Tour of California last week, it was apparent, his lime green Cannondale jersey flapping in the breeze.
He said it was something he heard 10 times a day during the race, no joke.
“So yes, I don’t think it’s just appearance,” he said. “Yes, I am leaner for sure. I came here after a really good spring. I came here after really good, focused training in Colorado. And it’s all about discipline. I like food too much to make this just a mistake, if that makes any sense.”
It does make sense. King was one of Peter Sagan’s reliable domestiques during the classics, where he was lean, but a bit bigger than he is now. Now he hopes to make the Tour de France team, and also for a strong performance at the Volkswagen USA Cycling Professional Road and Time Trial National Championships this weekend in Chattanooga, Tennessee. King was third in 2011 in the road race.
“I got to be big and strong at the classics. And I was pretty lean there. Then coming [to California], you’re going uphill considerably more. And basically, it’s all progression, going toward the Tour. And you’ve got to be lean for the Tour,” he said.
King, who’s never ridden the Tour de France, thinks he’s got a good shot to make the Sagan-supporting roster, but knows that nothing is guaranteed.
“Until you’re on the start line, you really don’t know. The captains know, and until you’re there, at the start line, you’re really just — fingers crossed, hope for the best,” King said.
As far as nationals goes, King will be riding for himself of course, but by himself also.
“And I’m optimistic about that. It’s still, well, I don’t know if it’s underdog, but you’re one against a lot. And there’s a handful of us doing it like that. And then the following week, I’m headed to the Tour of Swiss,” he said.
As far as quantifying the difference in his weight, King had no specific idea. He doesn’t really get on scales.
“I don’t get on a scale enough,” he said. “I know I’m lean. I just truly don’t get on a scale often … You can see it. You look at yourself in the mirror and you say I’m either leaner or I’m not. And so, like I said, I like food too much to make this a mistake.”
Robert Gesink withdrew from the Giro d'Italia on Friday, citying illness. Photo: Neal Rogers | VeloNews.com SILANDRO, Italy (AFP) — Dutchman Robert Gesink, who began the Giro d’Italia hoping for a podium finish, dropped out of the race on Friday after consulting doctors, his Blanco team announced.
Blanco said Gesink, a climbing specialist, had felt unwell since completing a tough, 20.6-kilometer uphill time trial on Thursday, which had left him in 12th place overall at more than 10 minutes behind leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana).
“Robert Gesink didn’t feel well during and after the time trial on Thursday. After consulting with the team’s medical staff he has pulled out,” said the Dutch team.
The news will come as a blow to the team, which had been counting on stage wins and a top finish for Gesink to help boost its bid to attract a major sponsor. Currently, Blanco has no title sponsor.
Gesink’s early retirement follows those of Britain’s Bradley Wiggins (Sky), considered the pre-race favorite, and Canada’s defending champion Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp). Both pulled out due to illness last week.
The race ends Sunday in Brescia, but is set for a chaotic finish. Friday’s 19th stage was canceled due to freezing temperatures in the Dolomites and major changes also had to be made to Saturday’s 20th stage for the same reason.
Gesink’s best finish in a grand tour was fifth at the Tour de France in 2010.
Pole a key ally for Scarponi's podium bid
Danilo Di Luca's EPO positive shines light on the sport's anti-doping efforts and the difficulty of some older riders to move on from the past. Photo: Damien Meyer | AFP BOLZANO, Italy (VN) — Danilo Di Luca’s EPO case at the Giro d’Italia was like a kick to a dormant wasps’ nest on Friday. What once was an idyllic, if freezing cold, surprise rest day in the Dolomites turned into chaos.
Reactions on Friday to the announcement that “The Killer” had failed an out-of-competition test in late April ranged from anger to indifference to calamity. There were plenty of hair-pulling “Chicken Littles” claiming the Di Luca case is yet one more affirmation that cycling is simply a lost cause. But is Di Luca the norm or the exception? That is the million-dollar question as cycling lurches awkwardly toward a cleaner, more credible future.
In the not-so-distant past, Di Luca’s legacy was the norm. As Lance Armstrong put it so mildly to Oprah Winfrey in his made-for-TV confession in January, doping was as casual as putting air in the tires. Yet there is real evidence that cycling has turned the corner on doping, and that Di Luca is a relic, not the baseline.
There is no sport with as many skeletons in its closet as cycling. Many of the sport’s darkest tombs have already been exhumed, but Di Luca’s case reveals there are still a few ghosts of doping’s past pedaling through the peloton.
The sport remains divided and dangerously indifferent on how to deal with that past.
The Armstrong scandal last year revealed just how depraved things had become. Some pragmatists say the only practical thing to do is paint a line on the tarmac, and start over with zero tolerance. Others argue that the sport needs a truth and reconciliation movement, insisting that cycling cannot turn the page on its past until it fully confronts it. Some wonder how far back the sport needs to go. One pro asked if the doping police needed to dig up the cadaver of Charly Gaul to see if he was doping 50 years ago.
With that debate stuck, the sport is left with yet another mess like the Di Luca case on its hands.
It’s easy to write off Di Luca as an aging doper who couldn’t break the habit. His already lurid track record, which includes a three-month suspension in 2007 over the Oil for Drugs case, suspicion during the 2007 Giro over low hormone levels, and a two-year ban stemming from an EPO CERA positive in 2009, raised eyebrows when he was the surprise late-arrival to Vini Fantini-Selle Italia just days before the Giro start. Even before Friday’s salacious headlines, Di Luca seemed like a junkie who couldn’t stay off the gear.
Yet Di Luca and riders of his generation are caught in the middle, straddling their doping pasts while trying to find a place in cycling’s supposedly cleaner present. Some have been able to make that transition easier than others. The ones who cannot give up on the past are inevitably getting caught; at least that’s what everyone is hoping.
That Di Luca could even find a ride reveals that cycling has a long way to go before it reaches ethical hegemony on the anti-doping front. Some teams are quick to sign dubious riders while others are committed to changing the rules of the game.
Changing the doping culture from the inside
Roger Legeay’s pet project, the Movement for Credible Cycling, has gained traction among the peloton. Whether it’s just window dressing or represents real change remains to be seen. The fact that Ag2r La Mondiale voluntarily pulled itself out of its home race, the Critérium du Dauphiné, after Sylvain Georges registered the team’s second doping case in under a year, indicates that some teams are serious about ethics.
Real change in cycling has come from a surprising place: the peloton itself. Disgusted with doping, teams and riders quietly began to force change from within. By 2008, the first signs that there was credible evolution began to take hold.
The UCI’s biological passport, target testing, where-abouts requirements, out-of-competition testing, and improved anti-doping detection methods have all gone a long way toward rooting out the most notorious cheats. Di Luca has now twice been a victim of the new system that wasn’t in place a decade ago.
Over the last half-decade, the style of racing has changed dramatically. Today’s climbs see battles of attrition, and when the attacks come, they’re later and lack the knockout punch of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Overall leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) has gained more time against his Giro rivals on time bonuses and in the time trials than he has with attacks in the mountains.
“Clean teams” that were once the novelty are now the standard across the peloton. Even dubious teams of the past seem to have changed colors, adopting new training techniques and ditching the doping schemes of the past.
The shaky position of the UCI doesn’t help. Too many questions about its own complicity and/or negligence during the EPO era leave its wings clipped when it comes time to carry the baton as a force of change.
Despite quiet optimism, another thing is certain; no matter how many controls or how much finger pointing takes place, cycling will never entirely eradicate itself of doping. That’s a human impossibility. Just like people cheating on their taxes or speeding down the highway, the temptation of victory, fame, and riches is simply too great and there will always be a rider who thinks he is more clever than the rest. Di Luca is proof of that.
Human behavior changes only when the deterrent is strong enough (long bans, hefty fines), and the incentive is equally as alluring. Teams like those signed onto the MPCC’s ethical charge assuring clean riders jobs and encouraging them not to dope represents a huge paradigm shift from the days of Gewiss-Ballan, Festina, and U.S. Postal. The World Anti-Doping Agency will vote later this year on a proposal to increase first-time bans to four years — a sanction from which it would be much harder to return than the current two-year penalty.
Cycling is heading in the right direction. It’s made a U-turn from the dark days of the EPO era. There are still cheats, but the sensation is that they’re in the minority and are not the rule.
The news that Di Luca got popped should be cheered. Professional cynics will always decry the end is nigh, but cycling has come a long way since the days when EPO poured through an open faucet.
No one ever said cleaning out the rusty pipes wasn’t going to be a dirty job.
Blanco leader leaves race due to illness
Taylor Phinney fought his way through the Giro d'Italia for two weeks, but won't be at the start in Chattanooga on Saturday. Photo: Graham Watson | www.grahamwatson.com Former national champion Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing) will not enter the USA Cycling Professional Road National Championships after abandoning the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday due to illness. Phinney, the 2010 time trial champion, left the Giro after the second rest day and underwent evaluation at an Italian hospital on Wednesday. BMC Racing confirmed on Friday that Brent Bookwalter would be the team’s only rider in Chattanooga.
“I have been to hospital [Wednesday] morning and my condition is more severe than we initially thought, and I just need some time to recover,” Phinney said in a statement forwarded to VeloNews.
The team has not provided additional information on Phinney’s condition. When contacted via email on Wednesday, Phinney told VeloNews that the team would provide more details on his condition in the coming days.
With the absence of David Zabriskie (Garmin-Sharp), who fractured a clavicle in a crash at the Amgen Tour of California on Friday, Phinney, 22, would have been a rider of intrigue, if not the outright favorite, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Saturday. Phinney was second in the TT world championships in 2012 and fourth in the discipline at the London Olympics.
One year after wearing the maglia rosa at the Giro, Phinney fought through knee pain, illness, and allergies during the race’s opening two weeks. He finally withdrew on Tuesday.
The sport’s world governing body, the UCI, restricts athletes from entering a sanctioned event before an event from which they have withdrawn ends. The Giro closes on Sunday in Brescia, though Phinney may have been able to receive an exemption from the UCI to compete in Saturday’s time trial, via Article 2.6.026:
A rider dropping out of the race may not compete in any other cycling events for the duration of the stage race that he abandoned, on pain of a 15 day suspension and a fine of CHF 200 to 1,000.
After consulting the event directors and the president of the commissaires panel, the UCI may, however, grant exceptions at the request of a rider and with the agreement of his sports director.
Bookwalter will start the time trial as a favorite in his own right. He is the top returning rider from 2012, when was third in the TT behind Zabriskie and Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing).
“We did a great week in California and it breeds confidence going into nationals,” Bookwalter said in a team statement. “I feel really good and strong, not too fatigued or weathered. I wish I had a couple teammates there, but I’m excited and motivated to race in my home region of the country.”
The Volkswagen USA Cycling Professional Road and Time Trial National Championships run May 25-27 in Chattanooga.
Giro d'Italia director angry after EPO positive overshadows the Giro d'Italia
Giro director Michele Acquarone says Danilo Di Luca's EPO positive is a sign of addiction. Photo: David Hecker | AFP VAL MARTELLO, Italy (AFP) — Giro d’Italia director Michele Acquarone on Friday described the case of Italian rider Danilo Di Luca (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia), whose positive EPO test was revealed earlier in the day, as “a case of dependency.”
“A rider who looks me in the eyes and told me, ‘I made a mistake,’ I believe,” said Acquarone. “But when he [uses] again, it feels to me a case of addiction. It’s a man who needs help.”
Di Luca tested positive for EPO in an out-of-competition control before the Giro. The Italian was previously banned when he tested positive for EPO CERA in 2009. Di Luca only signed a 2013 contract in late April and joined Vini Fantini in the Giro, where he attacked but failed to win a stage.
“This is stupid on his part not to have realized that the music has changed,” said Acquarone. “We are dealing with an old rider who has not understood that the cycling world is not the same.”
Di Luca, winner of the 2007 Giro, is 37 years old. He faced doping suspicion during his 2007 victory, when test results showed abnormally low hormone levels, and was suspended for three months later in the year over his involvement in the Oil for Drugs doping inquiry. His failed test for EPO CERA during the 2009 Giro resulted in a two-year ban.
Acquarone said that he did not regret the invitation of the Vini Fantini team, which he justified by the presence riders such as Italian Stefano Garzelli, Matteo Rabottini, and Oscar Gatto.
Acquarone did not rule out the possibility of requesting damages from Di Luca.
“All in good time. We will see later, after arrival Sunday at Brescia. On May 27, we will study the consequences,” he said.