Team Sungard-Saxo Bank has grabbed more headlines recently thanks to the exodus of riders and the Contador controversy. Only now Bjarne Riis has made a signing designed to change this: 35-year-old journalist Anders Damgaard. Damgaard (pictured left) will work as the team’s new press officer from January. He’s worked with Berlingske Tidende and sporten.dk, where … Read more
Featuring an interview with Richie Porte, the great Real Peloton podcast touched on a curious story that’s worth a peek. Not so rich now Richie Richie Porte has a standard neo-pro two year contract with Bjarne Riis that ends after the 2011 season. Only with the stellar season he’s had, he got dollar-signs in his … Read more
It’s Monday morning and time to review Michael Rasmussen’s weekend dancing in the Danish TV Show “Wild With Dance”. Only this will be the last update on The Chicken’s dance moves. Things ended in familiar style with Rasmussen being thrown out of the competition, only without Prudhomme, Cassani and De Rooy on the jury this … Read more
The Vicenza component maker is often known as Campy by American fans. French riders call it “Campa” and the British say “Campag”, with a hard G at the end. But how do you actually pronounce Campagnolo? There’s no point asking for that espresso macchiato and wearing Sidis if you can’t even talk about the gear … Read more
WADA is recommending anti-doping controls in the middle of the night. A knock on the hotel room door and the rider will have to present themselves. The idea is that this will be a real surprise, that it’ll prevent a sneaky rider and his entourage from consuming products to thwart the test. Right lads, Astana … Read more
I’ve been waiting to use the above photo for some time. Sent in by a reader some weeks ago, it’s graffiti from last summer’s Tour de France. So when I saw some headlines about Basso aiming to win the Tour de France, I thought the time had come. He had to be joking, right? Only … Read more
Saxo Bank HQ: yours for only €500 million Danish company Saxo Bank isn’t really a bank, it’s an online currency trading platform. And it’s up for sale, according to the Copenhagen Post. It has three principal shareholders, Kim Fournais, Lars Seier Christensen and private equity General Atlantic have appointed investment banks to handle the sale. … Read more
Which van, man? I’ve written before about the inherent conflict of interest between British Cycling, the governing body and Team Sky, the ProTour cycling team. A lot of the Sky staff are actually British Cycling officials, meaning many critical people are part-timers caught between two roles and two paymasters. Here’s Britain’s Guardian on this matter: … Read more
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,Let him depart; his passport shall be madeAnd crowns for convoy put into his purse:We would not die in that man’s company So says Shakespeare’s King Henry V, a declaration that anyone not ready for battle should leave the scene because they are cowards. It’s the first … Read more
More is known about the Loch Ness monster than Team Luxembourg A follow up to the piece about the backers of the Luxembourg team. I got a comment saying I was right about the business biographies of the trio… but wrong about their involvement in the team. If so then it goes without saying I’ll … Read more