Iowan named to U.S. cycling team for Olympics
CORALVILLE, Iowa - Jason McCartney of Coralville is headed back to the Olympics.
The 34-year-old McCartney was named Tuesday to the U.S. cycling team set to compete in Beijing in August. He's one of five members of the road racing team.
McCartney joins George Hincapie (HIHN'-kuh-pee), Christian Vande Velde and Olympic rookie David Zabriskie as discretionary picks to the American road squad. The other spot belongs to Levi Leipheimer (LEE'-vy LYP'-hy-mur), who earned an automatic berth by finishing third in last year's Tour de France.
McCartney also was a member of the 2004 Olympic squad in Athens, Greece.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved
UC Davis club cycling team places fourth at Nationals
On May 9, UC Davis club cycling pedaled into Fort Collins, Colo. as underdogs once again, looking for a little respect.
And the Aggies certainly earned it.
At the U.S.A. Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships, UC Davis finished in fourth place overall in Division I after finishing in second and first the previous two years, respectively.
"We're always coming in as the underdogs even though we've been on the podium for three years in a row," said Tyler Dibble, club president and treasurer. "Hopefully now we've earned a little bit more respect."
After winning the first event, the team time trial (TTT), the Aggies were in a position to earn more than respect, they had a shot at the title.
"For me personally," Dibble said, "I've wanted to win the event (TTT) since I joined the team four years ago. I'm a big fan of that event because it's all about working well together."
The men posted a time of 23:18.490 on the final day to take home the D-I crown in the 21-team TTT. The four Aggie riders -Dibble, Paul Mach, Philip Mooney and Shawn Rosenthal - averaged 32 mph, which is just 1 mph slower than the speed professional riders clock in at, Dibble said.
The Aggie women finished in fourth place overall in the TTT after clocking in at 28:48.280, but with both scores combined, the UC Davis cycling team finished way ahead of the competition with 158 team points after the first day.
Finishing in a distant second was Fort Lewis College with 139 points, and Stanford checked in at third with 132.
In the next event, the Road Race, the Aggie men were second to Fort Lewis College while the Aggie women placed seventh.
The finishes put UC Davis in contention for the title heading into the third and final leg of the Omnium, the criterium.
It was then that the Aggies' hopes of earning their second national championship in three years took a fall.
"Half of our men's team crashed on the final day," Dibble said. "Yeah, we were a little upset about that."
The Aggie men only managed nine points in the criterium, giving them a 22nd place finish, while the women struggled through some crashes of their own but finished in eighth place to help salvage the overall team placement.
The rough finish at the criterium dropped UC Davis three spots to fourth place, behind Lees-McRae College (first place), Fort Lewis College (second), and Colorado State University (third).
This was the final race for seniors Rosenthal, Amy Encalada, Marisa McAlder and Dibble, who have been with the club for four straight years and have actively served as officers throughout the cycling team's accomplishments.
Unlike the Aggie cycling team, the top three teams at Nationals are all funded by their respective schools and provide scholarships to their cyclists.
Scholarships or not, the cycling team always finds a way to be competitive at the national level, not to mention ride around in those snazzy blue and yellow bike uniforms.
Copyright (c) 2008 California Aggie. Website by Creative Media
Crashes hit Giro again
Stage 11 saw a series of crashes again hit the Giro d'Italia, following a crash-filled opening week. The biggest crash of the day was that of race leader Giovanni Visconti (Quick Step), who has reportedly been taken to hospital after the stage for x-rays.
As Visconti went down he took Levi Leipheimer (Astana), Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval-Scott) and Emanuele Sella (CSF Group Navigare) down with him. There's been no word on the result of Visconti's "I have a great fear," said Sella of crashing. "There was a tree [which could] have been much worse."
Team CSC also had its fair share of tangles on the 11th stage. The Danish outfit lost both Brad McGee and Stuart O'Grady on the same day last week with both suffering from broken collarbones in a fall.
"It was a really nervous stage and just about all our guys were involved in crashes," said Team CSC's Kim Andersen. "Nicki crashed and lost some time as a result, but like the others, who went down, he got off lightly without any injuries."
In addition a final corner crash by Fortunato Baliani (CSF Group Navigare) left Pablo Lastras Garcia (Caisse d'Epargne) with nowhere to go as Alessandro Bertolini (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli) rolled away to victory.
Copyright Future Publishing (Overseas) Limited, a Future plc group company, 1995-2007. All rights reserved.
Volksbank signs Australian time trialist
Team Volksbank announced that it has signed Cameron Wurf, a 24 year-old Australian time trial specialist. He started the season with the Continental team CT Cinelli, but will now transfer to the Austrian Professional Continental team.
Wurf started his career as a rower, competing in that sport in the 2004 Olympics in Athens. In 2007 he turned to cycling and rode for the US-based team Priority Health. Last year he was ninth overall in the Herald Sun Tour, and won the Oceania time trial championship and the Chrono Champenois.
Copyrigth Future Publishing (Overseas) Limited, a Future plc group company, 1995-2007. All rights reserved.
Cycling team Astana invited to Giro d'Italia - report
1 day ago
ROME (AFP) - Giro d'Italia organisers have performed a dramatic u-turn and invited the Kazakh-backed Astana cycling team to this year's race, Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport on Sunday reported organisers as saying.
"Yes, I have invited Contador," the Gazzetta quoted race organiser Angelo Zomegnan as saying in reference to Spanish Tour de France champion Alberto Contador, 25, the leader of Johan Bruyneel's Astana team.
Contador and his teammates were initially and controversially not invited to either the Giro or the Tour by the respective race organisers earlier this year.
But a report Saturday in Gazzetta's web edition had said that the team run by Bruyneel, who helped steer Lance Armstrong to seven Tour yellow jerseys, would finally join the roster of the May 10-June 1 race.
That initial report claimed their participation would depend on the inclusion of Contador, American Levi Leipheimer and German ace Andreas Kloeden - all three of whom have finished on the Tour de France podium.
Zomegnan, cited Saturday by Gazzetta, had said the decision would be taken after the final stage of the Tour of Romandie, currently being led by Kloeden.
"Astana remains a candidate to participate in the Giro. We have reserved the right to invite all teams right up till the last minute," Zomegnan initially said.
The owners of the Giro d'Italia, RCS - who also own the Gazzetta - did not confirm nor deny the report but the paper then quoted Zomegnan to confirm their initial story
Astana were officially notified of their invitation to the Tour of Spain, held in September, days ago although the team had never officially been rejected from the three-week Vuelta.
Organisers of the Tour de France, run by the Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) said earlier this year that the doping scandals which plagued Astana at last year's race had left them with little choice despite the team undergoing a mass clear-out.
At the time Zomegnan had explained: "Contador always said he was only thinking about the Tour and for Leipheimer the Giro would only have been a preparation for the Tour. If our race is not in their plans we shan't invite them."
The team's former leader, Alexandre Vinokourov, was fired after testing positive for a blood transfusion during last year's Tour.
Weeks after the Vinokourov controversy his fellow Kazakh Andrey Kashechkin also tested positive for blood doping. Other teams riders, including Matthias Kessler and Eddy Mazzoleni, were also involved in doping affairs.
For the Gazzetta, the U-turn comes as Giro organisers feel Astana is guaranteed to send in a strong team in the absence of later Tour opportunities while also recognising their attempts to clean up their act.
Astana are registered in Luxemburg but primarily sponsored by the Kazakh Cycling Federation, the town of Astana and other Kazakh sponsors.
Copyright (c) 2008 AFP. All rights reserved.
French teams still waiting on Tour prize money
Although it has been reported that the majority of the team who took part in the Tour de France have received their prize money, all the French teams are still waiting to see their money.
Due to the complexities of the French tax authorities, the payment to AG2R, Credit Agricole, Bouygues Telecom, Agritubel, Cofidis and Francaise des Jeux has been held up, although Tour organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) have paid out the money.
The ASO held onto the money for nine months due to the ongoing investigations of Alexandre Vinokourov, Cristian Moreni, Iban Mayo, Patrik Sinkewitz and Michael Rasmussen.
The CPA filed a complaint against the ASO six weeks ago, as the money was supposed to be paid out in October as per the rules outlined by the UCI.
Copyright Future Publishing (Overseas) Limited, a Future plc group company, 1995-2007. All rights reserved.
Astana Cycling Team Wins Team Classification in Tour de Georgia
By Thomas Valentinsen
Apr 28, 2008 - 4:23:24 AM
Astana Cycling Team, under the guidance of team directors Viatcheslav Ekimov and Alexandr Shefer, won the team classification in the Tour de Georgia (USA, April 21st to 27th). At the finish of the final stage Team Astana had an advantage of 3:30 to Team CSC.
Levi Leipheimer finished 3rd in the GC, 14 seconds behind former U23 world champion Kanstantin Sivtsov (Team High Road) and 10 seconds behind Trent Lowe (Team Slipstream/Chipotle). With Toni Colom finishing 4th and Chechu Rubiera finishing 11th, the Kazakh sponsored team had another solid performance.
Toni Colom attacked in the last 3K of the last stage on Sunday, but was caught by the peloton with 500 meters to go. He has finished all his four 2008 stage races in the top ten. The last stage in Atlanta, won by Greg Henderson (Team High Road) did not change anything in the GC.
American champion Levi Leipheimer showed again that he is one of the best climbers in the world. He admitted as well that two riders were better than him in the queen stage to Brasstown Bald on Saturday. "Everybody rode a really great bike race, I've got to say. I felt strong but I think Trent and especially Sivtsov felt really strong. That's just bike racing. I gauged my effort and was able to get rid of everybody except those two. I waited until the last kilometer, and that last kilometer is legendary in cycling. I kept telling myself that was where it was going to happen and it did. We all did our best and the strongest man won. I got beat straight up."
The next races for Levi Leipheimer will be the Vuelta a Catalunya (May 19-25) and the Dauphine Libere (June 8-15).
2008 Roadcycling.com. All rights reserved.
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