[ire]

http://www.velonews.com/article/84273/armstrong-confirms-for-giro

Armstrong confirms for Giro
By Andrew Hood
Posted Oct. 13, 2008

Lance Armstrong never rode la corsa rosa during his professional career, but he confirmed Monday he will race the 2009 Giro d’Italia as part of his comeback season.

Armstrong, 37, announced in a video posted on the webpage of the Italian sports daily, La Gazzetta dello Sport, he will be at the start of the centenary celebration of the Italian grand tour beginning May 9.

“I am so excited to be coming to the 2009 Giro d’Italia. I raced a long time professionally and I never did the Giro, it’s one of the biggest regret that I ever had,” Armstrong said. “Fortunately, I get to erase that regret and be at the 100th year anniversary, and who knows, maybe even get a good result.”

Since his stunning announcement in September that he would return to racing in 2009, Armstrong has hinted that he would like to race the Giro to get as many racing miles in his legs before a run at the Tour in 2009.

In a story posted on La Gazzetta’s web page Monday, Armstrong seemed to suggest that the Giro – and not the 2009 Tour – would be his main focus for his return to elite cycling after more than three years in retirement.

“Everybody says that the Giro will be the kick-off to the Tour while I know I could come to Italy to be a winner and that the Giro will be my true three-week stage race of the year,” Armstrong said.

If the Giro does indeed become Armstrong’s main focus, it will take tremendous pressure off his shoulders if he races the Tour as well as diffuse a potentially divisive split with Astana captain and 2007 Tour winner, Alberto Contador.

Contador has been supportive of Armstrong’s comeback efforts, but has suggested he would try to leave Astana if he’s not given guarantees he will ride as the team captain during the 2009 Tour.

The Giro never fit into Armstrong’s schedule, until now.

Before he was diagnosed with cancer in 1996, Armstrong would typically return to the United States to race in the Tour du Pont in May, which conflicted with an appearance in the Giro.

By 1999, once Armstrong began his seven-year Tour dominance, he would rarely tamper with his successful winning template to steer toward the Giro or the Vuelta a España (which he last rode in 1998, finishing fourth).

Early in his career, Armstrong lived in Como in Italy’s northern Lake District before moving to Nice, France and then Girona, Spain.

Last week, Giro boss Angelo Zomegnan officially invited Armstrong to the Giro.

“First of all, once he decided to come back to professional cycling, Armstrong had to face the need to fill a gap. No cycling campionissimo’ ever allowed himself not to take part to the Giro d’Italia,” Zomegnan said. “Moreover, Lance is clearly the only one who could be able, after his victory in the Tour de France of the centennial, to hit the legendary double with the Giro d’Italia centennial edition.”

Details of the 2009 Giro route will be revealed at an official presentation in December.

http://www.velonews.com/article/84274/kohl-positive-for-cera

Kohl positive for CERA
By Charles Pelkey
Posted Oct. 13, 2008

Kohl may be facing bigger challenges than the Alps in coming months.
Photo: Graham Watson
Blood samples submitted by Austrian Bernhard Kohl, the third-place finisher and mountains competition winner at the Tour de France, have tested positive for the latest generation of EPO.

According to the sports daily, L'Equipe Tour samples tested by the French National Anti-Doping Agency tested positive for Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator, a third-generation version of synthetic erythropoietin (rEPO).

The prevalence of the drug in professional cycling first came to the attention of anti-doping authorities after former Saunier Duval rider Ricardo Riccò tested positive for the substance during this summer's Tour de France.

Riccò was caught using a urine test, but authorities said several other riders' urine samples produced "inconclusive" results and Tour organizers and the AFLD promised to examine blood samples from suspected riders as a follow-up.

Last week, Stefan Schumacher, the surprise winner of both time trials at this year's Tour, also tested positive. Blood samples from Riccò's teammate, Leonardo Piepoli, were also found to contain traces of CERA. Piepoli had already been fired from the team in July.

Like EPO, CERA was developed to as a treatment for the anemia that results from chronic kidney disease. Unlike single injections of rEPO, CERA interacts with erythropoietin receptors and has a longer-lasting effect. Patients who were normally required to inject rEPO three times a week were able to achieve the same results with only one or two injections per month.

The drug was thought to be undetectable, but recent developments indicate that is not the case.

 

[Jeremy R]

But if Armstrong unretires, he will bring all the drugs back with him.
And right now cycling is totally clean since he retired.
For proof, just look at the 2007 and 2008 Tours of France.

 

[OGRipper]

I am so jaded at this point that Kohl's positive is completely unsurprising.

As for Lance racing in Italy, it's interesting and should help Levi and Contador get more comfortable with the idea of staying on the team for next year. Still, I given his ego I have a hard time believing that he won't be focused on the Tour.

 

[James]

Let's see, a couple of Saunier-Duval riders, and now we're up to two from Gerolsteiner. Hmm...

I think this whole new "clean cycling" movement means that everyone went to the new stuff all at once.

Who's next? Any guesses?

 

[ire]

Who's next? Any guesses?

Evans, Sastre...might as well wipe out the top 3

 

[James]

Evans, Sastre...might as well wipe out the top 3

I like him, but honestly, the only way Cadel is ever going to win the Tour is if Sastre gets busted.
He was the strongest rider this year I think (barring any blood sugar sex magick), but his team sucked.

 

[ire]

... but his team sucked.

and he extended with them. It makes me question his intelligence, or maybe they are cutting him a huge as check (I would still change teams)

 

[Westy]

Cadel couldn't handle the pressure of the Yellow Jersey off the bike. I think that wore him down as much as 3 weeks on the bike. Unless he can grow up a little I don't see him winning on any team.

 

[Heidi]

I wonder what the 4th generation of EPO will be? CERA came and isn't going so well.

 

[maddog17]

so how bout LA racing both the Giro and the Vuelta and skipping TdF!!! let's see the TdF scramble to get him to do it. maybe a little payback for the Astana boys and Johan. not that it will happen..... but one can dream!

 

[ire]

so how bout LA racing both the Giro and the Vuelta and skipping TdF!!! let's see the TdF scramble to get him to do it. maybe a little payback for the Astana boys and Johan. not that it will happen..... but one can dream!

The impression that I get is that the TdF would prefer that he skip their race. The organizers would rather have the "next" generation competing.

 

[jaydee]

The impression that I get is that the TdF would prefer that he skip their race. The organizers would rather have the "next" generation competing.

From the results of the doping tests this time around, they should be waiting for the "next next next" generation.

 

[maddog17]

The impression that I get is that the TdF would prefer that he skip their race. The organizers would rather have the "next" generation competing.

competing for who uses the best doping methods you mean. if that is the TdF's position, then they really do suck. if LA runs clean like he says he is/will, then the TdF should invite him to try and put a positive spin for the race and how it's run so "clean". doesn't seem to have worked for this years race.

 

[JRogers]

competing for who uses the best doping methods you mean. if that is the TdF's position, then they really do suck. if LA runs clean like he says he is/will, then the TdF should invite him to try and put a positive spin for the race and how it's run so "clean". doesn't seem to have worked for this years race.

Certainly not. The friction he's had with the ASO recently doesn't surprise me, though. They'll get their race and money no matter what. I think their attitude is stupid, but, still, not surprising.

 

[ire]

At least he grew some balls unlike Schumacher
http://www.velonews.com/article/84319/kohl-admits-doping

Tour de France king of the mountain Bernhard Kohl admitted on Wednesday that he had doped in preparation for this year’s race.

In a Wednesday evening press conference in Vienna, Austria, Kohl took full responsibility for a “bad decision,” driven at least in part by the fear that he wouldn't land a new contract when his Gerolsteiner team announced plans to fold at the end of 2008.

Kohl denied that there was a systematic doping program at Gerolsteiner, despite the fact that his teammate, Stefan Schumacher, was also found to be positive for the new variant of EPO, known as CERA.

Kohl said he made the decision to use CERA following a crash in this year’s Dauphiné Libéré. Covered with road rash and unable to train, Kohl said he was doubtful that a mediocre Tour performance would help him secure a new contract.

“The pressure was overwhelming,” he said. “I was looking ahead to the Tour and realized I was not in the kind of condition I had hoped to be. I am just a man and a man who made a decision at a moment of weakness. I made a bad decision and I have to pay for that.”

Kohl's third-place performance at the Tour netted him the hoped-for contract. He accepted a three-year deal to ride as a top lieutenant for Cadel Evans' Silence-Lotto team. That agreement, of course, has been scrapped in light of the CERA positive and he is again without a job and facing the prospect of a two-year suspension from the sport.

Kohl, however, denied that his decision was the result of pressure from his team or that it represented an organized doping program on the Gerolsteiner team. Kohl said he was especially sorry that his actions reflected poorly on the team and on team director Hans Michael Holzer.

"No, there was no systematic doping,” Kohl said. “Holzer knew of nothing. Holzer has always stood against doping. I think the worst part is that I disappointed him."

The team, which was expected to fold at the end of the season, ceased operations following news of Kohl’s positive on Monday.

Kohl said he will not contest the results of the blood test that showed signs of CERA use and is ready to accept whatever penalty Austrian cycling authorities deem appropriate.

“"I will not ask for further analysis of the B sample,” he said. “With this press conference today, I would like to begin to make a clean sweep of things."

With hands shaking nervously at times, Kohl said he simply hopes to rebuild his life and give his friends and fans a chance to again know “the Bernie Kohl they knew – or thought they knew – when they supported me.”

Kohl was the fourth rider to test for the newest generation of the blood-boosting drug EPO. The new variant, known as a Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator (CERA), was thought to be undetectable, a belief proven to be wrong when former Saunier Duval rider Ricardo Riccò was found positive after a urine test during the Tour.

Kohl, Schumacher and Riccò’s teammate Leonardo Piepoli were among 15 riders whose urine tests produced inconclusive results. Those riders’ blood samples were tested as a follow-up and the three were found to be positive. On Tuesday, the daily sports paper L’Equipe reported that French anti-doping authorities had completed their tests and that there will be no further positives from the other 12 samples tested.

 

[Heidi]

Good for him, man up and move on.

 

[maddog17]

glad to see someone step up and admit it without all the denial bs. but he really did make a huge mistake. worst case senario was he wouldn't have a contract, but i think he could have landed one. there are much worse riders than him. now he has no contract and probably a 2 yr ban, so no work for him to 2 yrs maybe more. these guys really need a reality check.

 

[sanjuro]

I think the next step is getting the doctors who help in doping. Loss of their license and jail time will stop them.