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Doug Report Daily Cycling News Archive

Padova police follow the money to dig up Dr. Ferrari links.

The Padova police used the historically effective investigative technique of following the money to uncover details of Dr. Michele Ferrari's links to riders, team managers and agents, and their use of image rights contracts to create secret funds to avoid paying tax and secretly pay their doctors.

According to further revelations and extracts published by Gazzetta dello Sport on Thursday, Ferrari was often paid for his coaching and suspected doping advice via a network of bank accounts and experts in Switzerland and Monaco, which helped riders avoid paying tax in their home countries. The 550 Padova document suggests the group's activities generated a turnover of close to €30 million in 2010 and 2011.

Michele Ferrari issues new denial of involvement with riders in Padova investigation.

Doctor Michele Ferrari has hit back following leaks from an inquiry in Padua, northern Italy, that alleges that he helped 38 cyclists dope in 2010 and 2011.

“Up until now, I was convinced that the most appropriate location to answer charges was a courtroom, and for this I have never commented on the various media reports,” wrote Ferrari on his website 53×12.com.

“The latest press campaign … forced me to change my behavior, and express some simple considerations.”

Ferrari said of the many cyclists listed, “I simply do not know them: Marco Marcato, Dimitri Kozontchuk, Ivan Rovny, Egor Silin…”

Hincapie Racing Team announces 2015 roster.

The Hincapie Racing Team — known in 2014 as Hincapie Sportswear Development — announced its 2015 roster on Thursday.

Returning riders include, two-time U23 national criterium champion Ty Magner, Robin Carpenter, Oscar Clark, Joe Lewis, Joe Schmaltz, Dion Smith, Tom Skujins, Miguel Bryon, and Charlie Hough.

Hincapie will welcome new riders Jon Hornbeck, Rob Squire, Andzs Flaksis, and Mac Brennan. Darren Fuller and Chris Wherry are coming aboard as assistant directors in 2015.

Eleven new signings bolster new WorldTour team IAM Cycling, squad launched in Switzerland.

Recently promoted to the WorldTour by the UCI and set for its biggest season yet in 2015, the IAM Cycling team unveiled its complete roster and tweaked kit in Saanen, Switzerland, on Thursday.

The Swiss squad competed in its first Grand Tour in 2014, riding the Tour de France, and then went on to compete in the Vuelta a España. Holding a WorldTour licence will mean that it will compete in all three Grand Tours in 2015 and will also compete in all the other races of that level.

Gerrans welcomes leadership role in Orica-GreenEdge’s youth movement.

Orica-GreenEdge rider Simon Gerrans has been on fire the past three seasons dating back to his Milano-Sanremo win in 2012. In 2013, the 34-year-old Victorian went on to become just the sixth Australian to wear the maillot jaune at the Tour de France before the reigning two-time national champion blistered the field in 2014.

Gerrans started the year by winning his third Tour Down Under before taking third at the Amstel Gold Race and then recording the “biggest win of his career” at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Gerrans also became the first rider in history to do the double at the Canadian WorldTour races, winning both the GP Cycliste de Québec and GP Cycliste de Montréal, before capping the year with a silver medal in the men’s road race at the UCI world championships in Spain.

News shorts: Landslide changes Tour de France course, Vuelta TT in Burgos.

New kits for Cofidis and Wanty. Tamouridis signing completes 2015 Synergy Baku roster.

Tiago Machado.

Tiago Machado was one of the heroes of the 2014 Tour de France, fighting his way to the finish of stage 10 after a horrific crash. We caught up with the brave Portuguese rider with his new Katusha team at their training camp in Spain.

Machado turned Pro in 2008 in Portugal riding for the Boavista team before moving up to RadioShack for four seasons. In 2014, riding for NetApp-Endura, he had a successful start to the season, winning the overall classification of Tour of Slovenia and a string of podium places.

2014-15 Races & Results.

Santos Tour Down Under 2015 - Jan 18-25 (Stages),

Dubai Tour 2015 - Feb 4-7 (Stages),

Giro d'Italia 2015 - May 9-31 (Stages),

Tour de France 2015 - July 4-26 (Stages),

UCI Road World Championship 2014 - Sept 20-27 (Results),

Vuelta a España 2014 - Aug 23-Sept 14 (Results),

Tour de France 2014  - July 5-27 (Results),

Giro d'Italia 2014 - May 9 - June 1 (Results),

More ...

Specialized Crux E5.

BikeRadar verdict: 4 out of 5 stars. "Impressive, fast yet forgiving speed whether you're on road or off – but performance trumps everyday practicality features." (bikeradar.com)

Cookson: Calendar reform ‘still a work in progress’.

Sutherland: Movistar is different from Tinkoff-Saxo.

Cookson, Astana, and the Death of Hope.

The decision to award Astana a World Tour license for 2015 has elicited widespread anger from the cycling world and is a decision that even the most hardened doping apologists will have trouble defending.

Surely, went the thinking, there’s no way that a UCI run by Brian Cookson – the man who knocked Pat MacQuaid off his perch as president of the world governing body, the man who had promised to get tough on cheats – surely there’d be no way he’d allow Astana to keep its license?

Well… yes, actually. There was a way. He just said yes.

Other teams have same problems as Astana, says Nibali.

Vincenzo Nibali described it as a day like any other but the Tour de France winner must have felt a palpable sense of relief on Thursday morning following the confirmation that his Astana team will remain in the WorldTour for 2015.

Speaking ahead of a ride at the team training camp in Calpe, Nibali welcomed the news that the UCI License Commission had rubber-stamped Astana’s registration for next season despite the recent spate of positive cases and the serious allegations regarding the team which have emanated from the Padova-based doping inquiry in recent days.

2015 WADA code adds four-year bans for first offense.

Changes to the World Anti-Doping Code coming into effect on January 1 will add a four-year ban to the sanctions possible for a first-time offense, according to a summary of the changes on the US Anti-Doping Agency website. Riders will also be prohibited from associating with sanctioned or convicted coaches, trainers, physicians or other athlete support personnel. The changes were approved last year.

“The 2015 code is designed to even better protect the rights of clean athletes and the integrity of competition,” according to the USADA summary. “With a focus on targeting current issues in the fight against doping, the 2015 code is simultaneously tougher for those who intentionally cheat and easier for those who follow the rules and compete clean.”

North Americans react to Luca Benedetti's lifetime ban.

When news broke this fall that Amore & Vita-Selle SMP rider Luca Benedetti had tested positive for performance enhancing drugs, some of his competitors were surprised, but at least one teammate had harbored suspicions about Benedetti since the Italian's first week on the team.

The UCI recently issued a lifetime ban to Benedetti, who tested positive for a form of EPO called Darbepoetin on June 6 at this year's Grand Prix Saguenay in Canada. He was provisionally suspended in September and then banned for life last week.

Paris-Roubaix voted best one-day race.

Cyclingnews Reader Poll: For the second year running, Paris-Roubaix has been voted the best one-day race of the year having received over half of the votes. The cobbled classic was a cle ar  favorite in 2014 as it attracted almost four times as many votes as Tour of Flanders in second place with 15.63%. The 100th edition of Liege-Bastogne-Liege was voted as the third best race of the year by just over 7% of readers.

Michał Kwiatkowski's World Championships win in Ponferrada was next on the list with Milan San-Remo rounding out the top five one-day races.

Goss hopeful shared sprint role will reap rewards at MTN-Qhubeka.

After three seasons at Orica-GreenEdge, Matt Goss will go back to sharing the role of sprinter in 2015 with his new teammates at MTN-Qhubeka. Goss may have fewer chances at success next season but he believes that the reduced responsibility can actually help him win more.

"Being in that shared role is a good environment in the races, because if someone isn't having a good day then you have someone else who can finish it off," he said. "In 2010 and 2011 I wasn't the main sprinter there [at HTC-Colombia], I was probably third in line because I was racing with Cavendish and Greipel in the team. I took my opportunities when they arose and I managed to make the most of them."

Silca offers low-pressure version of its SuperPista Ultimate pump, for cyclocross and gravel bikes.

Silca is now offering a version of its SuperPista Ultimate floor pump, tailored for low pressure applications, including cyclocross, mountain bike and gravel bike use.

The pump's gauge reads from 0-60 psi with a claimed accuracy to within 1 percent. The company said the pump is capable of 0.5 psi repeatability at pressures down to 4psi.

Steele Von Hoff: “I was just a victim of the game.”

PEZ: EuroTrash Astana Thursday!

UCI statement on Astana.

The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announced that the License Commission (1) has released its decisions with regards to the teams Astana Pro Team, Team Europcar and Yellow Fluo.

Concerning Astana Pro Team, last October, the UCI asked the License Commission to undertake a full review of the management and anti-doping policies of the Astana Pro Team. This request followed positive tests on two of its riders, Maxim and Valentin Iglinskiy (EPO), and on Ilya Davidenok (anabolic steroids), a trainee with the UCI ProTeam Astana since August 1st this year.

In accordance with the UCI Regulations, the team appeared before the License Commission in Geneva on November 6th. After an in-depth examination of the situation, the License Commission reached several findings...

Riders refute, downplay Ferrari links in wake of doping reports.

The shockwaves continued to bounce across the peloton Thursday following the leaking of Italian court documents that revealed more than three dozen riders were linked to controversial Michele Ferrari.

Some were quick to deny any involvement at all with the banned Italian prepatore, including Italian coach Paolo Slongo and Italian rider Marco Marcato. On Wednesday, Marcato said via his new team, Wanty Groupe, he never knew or met Ferrari.

“I never had any sort of connection with Dr. Ferrari. I never knew this man,” Marcato said via a team release.

Brajkovic putting bad luck with Astana behind him at UnitedHealthcare.

The biggest victory of Janez Brajkovic's career came at the 2010 Critérium du Dauphiné, where he won the overall ahead of Alberto Contador, but since then he has run up against bad luck and injuries and has not been able to capitalize on that promise. After spending three unsatisfying seasons on a fractured Astana squad, the Slovenian signed for 2015 with UnitedHealthcare. After only a few days with the American team in Asheville, North Carolina he already feels at home and more optimistic about the future.

"I've had three tough years," Brajkovic said at his first camp with UnitedHealthcare, contrasting the new team against his soon-to-be former Astana squad.

Van den Broeck will skip Tour de France, focus on one-week races.

After six consecutive years of racing the Tour de France with mixed results, Jurgen Van den Broeck has elected to skip the French grand tour in 2015.

“I have a love-hate relationship with the Tour,” Van den Broeck said in a team press release. “I got into [the] top five two times, but there are the several crashes I had as well. I was criticized by the media and others. I can put that in perspective, but it’s no fun.”

No Pressure, No Problem.

"It’s my favorite course, so I look forward to it. I love it so much that I constantly tell my friends about it, and even though it’s in December, I try to talk them into going. Many courses are created with stakes and tape than anything else. NBX feels natural. We’re racing on existing trails and through the woods. It just feels right.

Despite all this, I haven’t had a top-10 there since 2010. I’ve been close, with an 11th and a 13th. But last year’s total failure on Sunday was fresh in mind. Both Dan Timmerman, my teammate, and I got pulled with a lap or two to go. It was a pathetic showing."

Spotted, Two Bikes: Cannondale’s Suspension Cyclocross Bike and Prototype of a Future Model.

"I was able to get a closer look at the Cannondale SuperX with a Lefty fork that Tim Johnson was riding around in Providence during the KMC Cyclo-cross Festival. The bigger news, however, was the brief spotting of a prototype bike Johnson was riding for only a few laps during the Men’s Elite Race on Sunday.

Although no details were confirmed, the bike was clearly not the current production model. It appears as if Cannondale has decided to move in the direction of thru-axles, and what better course to text the rigidity of the design than the root-filled paths of the NBX Gran Prix. I was not able to get a closer look at the model, although I did notice that the seatstays looked more akin to those on the current CAADX, with a horizontal, tubular bridge connecting the stays."

The Beginner’s Guide to Riding With Power.

Power meters spit out a lot of numbers: current power, average power, max power, and all manner of derivatives. But what matters more, says Joe Friel, longtime coach and author of The Power Meter Handbook, are the metrics that are based on these data points. Here are five of the most important ways to use your power meter.

ikeRadar Editor's Picks - Ben Delaney.

"Some great products solve problems, like ice-cold, please-don't-be-frostbitten genitalia on sub-freezing rides. Others create new options we never thought about, but now lust after. Hydro-Di2? Yes, please."