Breakaway leagues, an ongoing story

logo-edmond-rothschild

A breakaway is a common term in cycle racing, used when riders escape from the bunch. Only now “breakaway” is taking on another meaning: an attempt by some to take the sport away from the UCI.

Cyclingnews.com reports of a breakaway league involving financial group Rothschild. I gather this was earlier reported in the excellent Rouleur Magazine but perhaps the distribution was a touch too exclusive and nobody picked up on it.

In addition to the report by Daniel Benson I can reveal the plans involved a full calendar of races including the Tour de France, several classics and stage races and that Garmin/Slipstream boss Jonathan Vaughters was involved. I understand that the Tour of California and the Tour Down Under were amongst the races willing to join. I gather the Amaury family had words with the Rothschild group to pour come cold water on the deals but that others are continuing to work on a potential deal to include ASO.

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Contador’s Rashomon appeal


I keep wanting to do an update on the Contador case ahead of the appeal hearing but the date keeps changing. Now the verdict is expected in January says the Court of Arbitration for Sport:

The hearing will take place in Lausanne from 21 November 2011 at 12:00 to 24 November 2011… …The CAS will issue its decision with reasons as soon as possible but probably not sooner than several weeks following the completion of the hearing. The hearing in this matter was supposed to take place in June 2011 but, at the request of all parties, was postponed to August 2011 and finally to November 2011.

We’re now at the stage where every party in the case has played for time. The UCI sat on the positive test and filed its appeal at the last possible moment. WADA also waited. The Spanish federation, the RFEC, went further and took longer than the rules stipulate to process the case. Contador’s defence team has asked for a postponement of the appeal hearing. And now the CAS will sit soon but it is said there will be no verdict until January 2012.

I welcome a thorough process but the longer things go on the more we see how complex this case is. I wonder if we’ll ever get to the truth of if the appeal will weigh up likely stories and side with the most probable outcome?

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Valverde’s comeback postponed to January

Valverde Movistar

Movistar had announced Alejandro Valverde as the star attraction of a press conference in their flagship Madrid store. The banned rider was to unveil the team’s jersey for 2012. From a marketing perspective having a banned athlete as The Face of your team is perhaps a brave move. But the UCI has intervened to say he cannot take part and the event has been cancelled.

There’s a UCI rule about banned riders staying away from the sport in all forms and I quoted it last August after the rider was spotted taking part in gran fondo rides. He was breaking the UCI’s rules then and – as pictured – even wearing Movistar kit and riding the prototype Campagnolo electric gears. But nobody seemed to mind, presumably because he was being discreet instead of fronting a press conference. Now the UCI has swung into action. Good.

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Shorts, duel edition

Cyclist versus horse is a traditional event, I even covered the subject back in March. This time Johnny Hoogerland takes on a horse called Unforgettable. It’s in Dutch but the video is self-explanatory. The result goes down to the wire.

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Eurofoods: grated carrots

Carottes rapees

As part of a series of items about food in Europe that has a connection to cycling I missed out grated carrots. I covered Nutella, pasta, stroopwafels and even water but not the dish known in French as carottes râpées.

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The war memorials of France

Monument aux morts

Today is a national holiday in France and Belgium. Le jour de l’Armistice is a chance to remember those who fell in the war from 1914 to 1918 and subsequent conflicts.

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Race radios: what’s changing, what’s not changing

Race radio

If you were reading the cycling news back in March and April, one ongoing saga was the story of race radios. I’ve had a couple of readers email for the latest. To recap race radios are the portable devices carried by riders that allow two-way comms with the team car. The UCI had banned them for 2011 except in World Tour races and in time trials too.

The idea is that radios allow teams to organise and shut down breakaways, thus making the sport more boring to watch and therefore banning radios could make racing more unpredictable for TV viewers. Like any change, some liked it and some didn’t and those against the ban started to protest and a couple of races almost didn’t go ahead. At times it was about more than the radios, it was an issue on which some team managers decided to push back at the UCI in order try and ensure they have a say in how the sport is run.

After a partial ban in 2011, the plan was to ban radios in every race for 2012. But this won’t be so.

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Race fixing

Contador and Tiralongo

The sport of cricket has two international players jailed after a trial in Britain. The case is about match fixing, in particular the players conspired to bowl the ball wide in return for money and that these actions would allow a gambling syndicate to bet on the outcome of these mid-game incidents. Rightly so this is a scandal.

But I can’t help contrast match fixing in many sports with professional cycling, where attitudes are very different. Put simply riders sometimes conspire to fix the results of a race. But this is different.

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Ecological protests against Tour de France

Planche des Belles Filles

First up don’t get visions of thousands of Frenchmen waving banners and going on strike. Protests are small but nevertheless the arrival of the Tour de France at the Planche des Belle Filles ski station is filling some pages of the French press.

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