Regulating team soigneurs

Soigneur

BMC Racing’s troubles with a rogue soigneur are bad news for the team. The casual way which Sven Schoutteten was hired from time to time reflects the way many teams operate, a pro image up front but behind the scenes people are hiring their pals. But the role of a soigneur is crucial to the team and not something to get careless about. Indeed France has moved to regulate their role with a law in 2004.

Definition
A soigneur is a team helper, whose job ranges from general dogsbody and factotum to masseur and nutritionist. “Soigner” means “to care for” or “to treat (an illness)” in French and a soigneur is carer, although someone who works helping the sick or the elderly is usually called an aide soignante, the term soigneur is reserved for the cycling world… although it’s used to label someone who looks after zoo animals.

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BMC Racing hired Sven Schoutteten for many races

“A part-time soigneur for us? His name means nothing to me. I also don’t know anything about an arrest. This is the first I’ve heard of it.“

So says BMC Racing’s President and “General Manager” Jim Ochowitz when asked about the case of Sven Schoutteten *, who has been arrested for allegedly ordering 195 doses of recombinant EPO, an infamous doping product. It’s possible Ochowitz didn’t hear about the arrests, indeed Schoutteten might have hushed this up. Plus he is not a full-time team employee.

But I can reveal Sven Schoutteten has been working for the team as a soigneur at numerous races and as recently as two weeks ago. He didn’t just pop for an race or two as emergency cover, he has been an integral part of the team’s spring classics squad. Don’t take my word for it, here’s the BMC website. And here again. And again. And again. Oh and again. Again, again, again and again. Note the Sven “Shouteken” spelling in some instances.

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Where’s Alberto?

Contador

Today sees Alberto Contador’s pre race press conference and he has some explaining to do. Now maybe you know what’s been happening during the last year, you are aware of the series of events beginning with his positive tests, the delays, the rulings, the appeals and more. But millions of French citizens aren’t aware of these intricacies

So like or not, the positive tests from last summer have left many scratching their heads. This isn’t about doping, it’s more giving the French public an explanation and the chance to put his side of the story. Only nobody’s seen him in France.

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As seen on cyclingnews.com

In case you hadn’t noticed, the Tour de France starts on Saturday. During July I’ll be doing a few blog pieces for cyclingnews.com that touch on the Tour de France, the usual “Inner Ring” take on things.

Each time I’ll link to them in case you want to read and the first piece is now available to read online.

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UCI could relax minimum bicycle weight

Weight weenies t-shirt

The UCI could amend its rule on the minimum weight for bikes. Rule 1.3.019 has stated “the weight of the bicycle cannot be less than 6.8 kilograms“. Now this might be changed.

The news comes from trade website BikeBiz.com after editor Carlton Reid had been invited to Switzerland to discuss changes to the technical rules set by the governing body.

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Reporting the facts, a recent idea

“A lot of of the journalism is quite bloggy, opinions rather than facts, and riders try to get in the results to impress those journalists. It’s like when you were an amateur and you had to prove yourself all the time to become professional. Nowadays, it’s like that in the professionals, too.“

So said Mark Cavendish in a pre-Tour press conference in London last week. I’d listened to the Real Peloton podcast and heard the quote – amongst the audio interference – and thought his observations on the media were some of the more interesting things from a session that, via the recording at least, sounded a bit dull.

Although interesting to see Cavendish is aware enough to review the media, I didn’t think the point was worth commenting on. But against this there is a small point to make: cycling has a long tradition of lyrical and colourful race reporting. Indeed many reports have been works of fiction.

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Can Andy Schleck win the Tour?

Andy Schleck

Everyone has Alberto Contador as the big favourite to win the Tour de France. Rightly so, if you had to pick a rider then the Spaniard would be most people’s choice. But it’s one thing to dominate the Giro d’Italia and another to walk away with the Tour de France. But in case we forget Andy Schleck has come close to winning the Tour de France. Twice.

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Is Eddy Merckx wrong?

“The UCI is going too far by banning the use of syringes for recovery products… it’s foolish and dangerous. The riders, as a consequence, are taking pills and risk unsettling their intestines. What they are doing in a Grand Tour is extraordinary, so why lay such strict rules on them? If a doctor says that they need recovery products, then they do. It’s not by drinking sugar water that they will recover from their efforts produced in the rain of that terrible stage with the Gardecchia…”

So says Eddy Merckx in an interview with L’Equipe, the words have been translated by cyclingnews.com. It feels like I’m doubting a god but I can’t help feel he wrong on the subject of recovery methods.

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The smell of fresh tarmac

La Patrouille

They say the Queen must think the world smells of fresh paint because everywhere the British monarch goes it is likely that the buildings have been smartened up with a fresh coat of paint for the occasion. It’s not that dissimilar to France at the moment, where with the Tour de France just days away, final preparations to the roads, towns and even fields along the route are underway.

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