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Doug Report Daily Cycling News Archive

Molly Shaffer Van Houweling sets U.S. hour record.

She didn’t start the 2014 season with her eye on the hour record. But that didn’t stop Molly Shaffer Van Houweling from diving into an accelerated track program to take on the U.S. women’s hour record at the end of her summer road season.

Facing a 24-year-old record set in Colorado Springs by Carolyn Donnelly — 44.028 kilometers — Van Houweling rode 44.173km on Sunday at the Velo Sports Center track in Carson, California (formerly the ADT Event Center).

"Donnons des Elle au velo" - Cyclingfans.com (CF LIVE) Sponsors Women's Cycling Team.

Cyclingfans.com announced today a two-year agreement to sponsor Club Omnisport de Courcouronnes Cyclisme Féminin (COCCF), a Paris-area French women's amateur cycling team pushing for equal opportunity.  The team will compete at the regional and national levels, including on the road and track.

"Women's competitive cycling has been neglected for too long, by international and national governing bodies, by race organizers and by the media, among others.  That has to change, not only for the good of women's cycling but for cycling generally.  And it will change, far beyond the changes already in progress," said Pete Geyer, cyclingfans.com publisher and cycling photographer.  "The first thing I saw when I discovered this team project was their slogan, 'Donnons des Elle au vélo'*.  I knew immediately what they are about and decided to help them reach their goals as a team and as a movement.  To me this is not about men's vs. women's cycling.  Giving wings to women's cycling will lift everyone up.  A lot of race organizers and others have not yet figured this out.  But they will."

Roche to form part of Team Sky's Grand Tour squad.

After two seasons at Tinkoff-Saxo, Nicolas Roche has moved to pastures new at Team Sky and the Irish rider is looking to cement his position as one of Chris Froome’s leading lieutenants.

Roche is currently training with his new temmates in Mallorca, Spain, where he has slotted into the team’s Grand Tour squad. Although race programs have yet to be finalized and announced, it’s expected that the 30-year-old Irishman will race two three-week races next season.

Things that make you go hmmmmmmm…

"Can’t kick Astana out cos apparently it’s not in *the rules*.

Well, what great and auspicious rules we have. brilliant. have to kick out Europcar cos they are something like 5% short on the finances required for World Tour status, but a team that has a 500% increase in dopers over 3 months can stay.

Well lah-de-dah."

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 ...

 (cyclingnews.com)

News shorts: Paris-Nice mountain finish revealed, fake Madiot Twitter account.

Health.com.au apply for Continental license, Mexican cyclist arrested at Spanish airport with EPO.

(various sources)

Haga, Craddock to make 2015 debuts alongside Kittel Down Under.

Marianne Vos will return in Namur.

Rising Cyclocross Star Ellen Noble: On Winning and Losing by Inches, Expectations for Nationals.

When It Rains It Pours: Orton and Werner Double Down on Weekend at NCGP.

Trebon aims for US cyclo-cross title despite recent spinal injuries.

U23 champion Tanner Putt at home with UnitedHealthcare.

Finding the One.

Europcar’s Difficult Ride.

Europcar haas a training camp in Spain. Only you’d never know, while other teams broadcast the news, the green team is keeping a low profile. Amid all the fuss about Astana’s license Europcar’s ejection from the World Tour has been a smaller story. It might hope to win wildcard invitations to the top races but that requires a UCI licence and it’s yet to get one of any kind for 2015. This won’t be easy.

The team are in Calpe, Spain but there’s no news.

The last news on the website about new signings Guillaume Thévenot and Julien Morice dates from November. The last tweet was a retweet of the Tour de France account and was exactly a week ago. The last Facebook update is also a week old.

FSA confirms electronic drivetrain development, denies team sponsorship rumor.

FSA has confirmed the development of a complete drivetrain, but insisted that it would not sponsor a team with shifting components in 2015. Nonetheless, rumors that Etixx-Quick-Step has a drivetrain contract with Full Speed Ahead (FSA) continue to swirl. Three separate industry sources, all of whom requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information, relayed these rumors.

According to these sources, the team will buy Shimano groups until FSA’s 11-speed electronic group is ready. Omega Pharma-Quickstep, which turns into Etixx-Quick-Step for 2015, was a SRAM-sponsored team during the 2014 season.

2015 sponsor round-up: Who’s riding what .

Changes to sponsorship are formally announced on January 1, when old contracts expire and new ones take effect. But a bit of digging unearths plenty of 2015 sponsor information.

VeloNews has confirmed that Ag2r-La Mondiale, formerly a Campagnolo-sponsored squad, will move to SRAM drivetrains for 2015. Ag2r will be SRAM’s only UCI ProTeam in 2015, down from a peak of eight teams in 2012. The team will also use wheels from SRAM subsidiary Zipp.

HolyCrit organizer & volunteer facing a year in jail: Zul Awab interview.

"I was not alone in reacting with disbelief when i first read the news from Singapore that the organizer of the Holy Crit race, Eric Khoo, and volunteer Zul Awab were facing hefty fines and up to 6 months in prison after traffic police shut down their event due to a complaint from a local.

Singapore is certainly an intriguing city but it is not one in which bike racing thrives, despite there being a substantial number of road, track, fixie and MTB riders.

Each year the cycling federation struggles to put on a national road race and time trial championships, having to wrangle with the government to get a permit to close roads."

More details emerge on Team Wiggins.

Eight riders have reportedly signed on for Team Wiggins, the track-centric UCI Continental development squad to be captained by Bradley Wiggins following his spring road campaign with Team Sky. The team is being built around developing a squad for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio, where Wiggins is expected to lead the British pursuit team in their quest for gold.

Contador says he could have died in Tour de France crash.

Talking to BBC Sport at a training camp in Gran Canaria, Alberto Contador said he is not bitter about crashing out of this year’s Tour de France because he knows it could have been worse: he might have died.

The Spanish star broke his right tibia, or shinbone, during the Tour’s 10th stage, and after riding on for nearly 20km, he eventually gave up.

“When I think I was going 77kph at the time and I only broke my tibia, well, on balance, that’s good,” he said.

“Maybe I lost the Tour, but I didn’t lose my life.”

(pezcyclingnews.com)

BikeSnobNYC: No time for titles!

Interview: Astana’s Rein Taaramäe.

For the 2015 season Estonian rider Rein Taaramäe has left his first pro team; Cofidis after nearly eight years to join Astana.

Seven full years plus half a season as a stagiere with one team is nearly unheard of in modern cycling, but Rein Taaramäe has moved on to Astana for the 2015 season. He’s joining the team with the Astana WorldTour debacle behind him and is ready to please the team. He was more than happy to tell us all about Cofidis, Estonia and his future plans with Astana.

Vanmarcke: I’m ready to take another step.

Over the years, it’s become something of an informal tradition. On the final Saturday of February, Tom Boonen has almost invariably heralded the end of the long, Belgian winter by lining out the peloton on the climb of the Taaienberg during Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Regardless of the result – and it’s the one big cobbled race he has never won, after all – Boonen’s cameo sends his legions of fans home content, satisfied that their man will be fit for purpose by the Tour of Flanders five weeks later.

This past season, however, there was an alteration to the script. After injury and illness ruined his 2013 campaign, Boonen was expected to lay down a marker on his favorite test site, but instead it was Sep Vanmarcke who commandeered the smooth gutter on the right-hand side of the road and, hands perched on the tops of his handlebars, steadily stretched the bunch to breaking point on the Taaienberg.

Did the curse of the rainbow jersey just strike Kwiatkowski?

In pre-season training for 2015, new road world champion Michał Kwiatkowski took a tumble which left its mark.

The Polish Etixx-QuickStep rider shrugged off the injuries and quickly posted the result of the fall to Instagram.

The curse of the rainbow jersey refers to the phenomenon where a new world champion suffers from poor results, injury or illness the following year.

Mario Cipollini to attend Tour Down Under.

Mario Cipollini, a.k.a. The Lion King is set to roar when he visits Australia for the first time at the Tour Down Under next month.

Glen Matulich, Director of Bespoke Imports, confirmed today that Cipollini will be in Adelaide to showcase his range of Italian made racing bicycles at the Adelaide City Council Tour Village as part of the Santos Tour Down Under 17 – 25 January 2015. Bespoke Imports has organized Cipollini’s visit and will be hosting his stay with various events planned throughout the week.

12 Days of Dig: Day 3.

"Welcome to Day 3 of our 12 Days of Dig. These three gift ideas come from our Italian issue, typically our most popular issue of the year. We cover the gamut from stocking stuffer to family heirloom with some classic Italian flavor in between. Enjoy Day 3!"

Steve Tilford: How to Prove You are NOT Doping.

(mulitple sources)