A reader asked via twitter what was the Spanish equivalent of sunflowers at the Tour de France. Just as the Tour de France has pretty clichés of riders rolling past fields of sunflowers, for me the Vuelta a Espana has hilltop bovine hoardings. There’s a story behind this. It starts with vino de Jerez, the fortified wine from the city of Jerez that’s known as sherry in English…
Back in April 2010 I covered rumours of a bid for the Tour de France, the suitor being Arnaud Lagardère. He’s the owner of Lagardère Group which owns a range of media assets in France. Primarily it does publishing, newsprint and as well as owning a stake in the country’s prime satellite broadcaster Canal+. But it’s got an extra division called Lagardère Unlimited that specialises in sports management and entrainment and it’s the growth of this part that made people wonder if Lagardère could bid for ASO, the sports management business that runs the Tour de France but also the French Open golf tournament and the Paris Marathon amongst other events.
But the bid never came. Yet Lagardère is still interested in the sports business. Only his stock is taking a battering in France thanks to a video of him with a new girlfriend, Jade Foret. She’s a Belgian model, aged 20.
That’s the current team standings. Note Omega Pharma-Lotto are sitting in third place whilst Quick Step languish in 17th place. A lot of this is down to Philippe Gilbert. As of Sunday he held 568 points, meaning that if you subtract his 568 points from Omega-Lotto then the Belgian squad would be in… 17th place.
Floyd Landis is back in the headlines with his claims that cycling coach Pepe Martí sold him doping products, saying “Pepe Martí was my dealer“. A big headline but it’s actually old news.
Many riders have surnames that are also nouns. I apologise if this ruins your TV viewing, those once exotic Euro names can actually prove a bit dull but here are some more of the peloton’s names translated from their home language into English.
He’s discreet about it but Tour de France winner Cadel Evans does plenty of work behind the scenes to help charities. Things got visible when he was wearing pro Tibet t-shirts just before the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing but he’s done plenty more. Recently he auctioned off a bike for a school in Nepal and he’s done this on other occasions before, each time helping out a bit.
Aussie director sportif Allan Peiper will be joining Garmin for the 2012 season. It think this is a wise signing, the team was struggling for managers earlier this year after Matt White got booted out. Indeed the squad too Peter Van Petergem away from his new career as an insurance salesman to get behind the wheel for a few weeks. Whether it was caused or just correlated to Van Petergem’s help, Johan Van Summeren took Paris-Roubaix.
Peiper is from the old school, the tough school. He quit an abusive home for Belgium and the weirdness of the Planckaert household. His book, a Peiper’s Tale recounts a lot of this. When his racing career came to an end he opened a burger bar, operating out of a van and driving to kermesses to supply spectators with hot food. It seemed an abrupt change.
There’s news that Jan Ullrich is riding amateur events under a false name. He’s calling himself Max Kraft in order to ride smaller events, apparently to avoid the limelight… although obviously he’s been rumbled now and the Belgian media are all over it meaning an end to his privacy. Note Kraft is the German for power so his name is Max Power.
The other day cyclingnews.com carried an interview with Anne Gripper, the former Head of Anti Doping Services at the UCI. The interview is worth reading in its own right but one thing stood for me, the fact that Anne Gripper has left the UCI but she is still a proud voice when it comes to the UCI’s bio passport scheme, the anti-doping system being pioneered by cycling’s governing body. Rightly so since she helped launch it.
Missing?
But Anne Gripper left the UCI and was replaced by an Italian, Francesca Rossi in early 2010. Only have you heard of her?
One rider agent has denounced the “dictature of UCI points” when it comes to teams hiring riders. I’ve long suggested these ranking points are important, to the point of twisting incentives within the sport. But teams will recruit for other factors too. Obviously they want to hire riders capable of winning, or if not then good helpers. There are several other factors at play here. But one is nationality. Let’s take a look.