Vande Velde out of the Giro

Team Garmin Transitions’ Christian Vande Velde crashed today during stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia, suffering a broken right clavicle and forcing him to withdraw from the race. He will undergo surgery tomorrow in Antwerp and after that will work with the team’s medical staff on a recovery plan. “The amount of support I’ve received is overwhelming, so I just want to thank everyone. You never want to leave a race like this, and it is frustrating that it has happened for the second year in a row here, especially coming off Tyler’s win yesterday. I really wanted to be here to be a part of everything that comes next – whether it be helping David get into pink or just being part of the team here. I’ll be rooting for them at home, though, and I will do everything I can to be on the start line at the Tour de France,” said Vande Velde. Vande Velde crashed on Stage 3 of last year’s Giro d’Italia, sustaining five broken vertebrae, a broken pelvis and broken ribs. He came back to finish 8th in the Tour de France. “Christian is incredibly strong and motivated. He has proven that over and over again,” said Matt White, director, Team Garmin-Transitions. “We will make sure he gets everything he needs to be able to heal, but he has already showed the world what he can come back from. The team will continue to race hard here at the Giro and we’ll be thinking of Christian.”

*subject to change

Pro Tour Teams

Garmin-Transitions (USA)

Steven Cozza (USA)

Thomas Danielson (USA)

Ryder Hesjedal (CAN)

Robbie Hunter (RSA)

Thomas Peterson (USA)

Peter Stetina (USA)

Matthew Wilson (AUS)

David Zabriskie (USA)

Liquigas-Doimo (ITA)

Francesco Bellotti (ITA)

Francesco Chicchi (ITA)

Davide Cimolai (ITA)

Manuel Quinziato (ITA)

Peter Sagan (SVK)

Ivan Santaromita (ITA)

Brian Vandborg (DEN)

Elia Viviani (ITA)

Quick Step (BEL)

Carlos Barredo Llamazales (ESP)

Tom Boonen (BEL)

Kurt Hovelynck (BEL)

Kevin Hulsmans (BEL)

Nikolas Maes (BEL)

Andreas Stauff (GER)

Jurgen Van De Walle (BEL)

Maarten Wynants (BEL)

Rabobank (NED)

Lars Boom (NED)

Stef Clement (NED)

Steven Kruijswijk (NED)

Sebastian Langeveld (NED)

Thomas Leezer (NED)

Paul Martens (GER)

Grischa Niermann (GER)

Maarten Tjallingii (NED)

Team HTC-Columbia (USA)

Lars Ytting Bak (DEN)

Mark Cavendish (GBR)

Bernhard Eisel (AUT)

Tony Martin (GER)

Mark Renshaw (AUS)

Michael Rogers (AUS)

Hayden Roulston (NZL)

Tejay Van Garderen (USA)

Team RadioShack (USA)

Lance Armstrong (USA)

Janez Brajkovic (SLO)

Christopher Horner (USA)

Levi Leipheimer (USA)

Jason McCartney (USA)

Dmitriy Muravyev (KAZ)

Yaroslav Popovych (UKR)

José Luis Rubiera Vigil (ESP)

Team Saxo Bank (DEN)

Matti Breschel (DEN)

Fabian Cancellara (SUI)

Jakob Fuglsang (DEN)

Juan José Haedo (ARG)

Stuart O’Grady (AUS)

Andy Schleck (LUX)

Andre Steensen (DEN)

Jens Voigt (GER)

Pro Continental Teams

BMC Racing Team (USA)

Chad Beyer (USA)

Marcus Burghart (GER)

Chris Butler (USA)

Mathias Frank (SUI)

George Hincapie (USA)

Alexander Kristoff (NOR)

Jackson Stewart (USA)

Simon Zahner (SUI)

Cervélo TestTeam (SUI)

Theo Bos (NED)

Joao Correia (POR)

Philip Deignan (IRL)

Heinrich Haussler (GER)

Jeremy Hunt (GBR)

Brett Lancaster (AUS)

Oscar Pujol Munoz (ESP)

Dominique Rollin (CAN)

Continental Teams

Bissell (USA)

Rob Britton (CAN)

Daniel Holloway (USA)

Andy Jacques-Maynes (USA)

Ben Jacques-Maynes (USA)

Peer Latham (NZL)

Paul Mach (USA)

Jeremy Vennell (NZL)

Kyle Wamsley (USA)

Fly V Australia (AUS)

Jonathan Cantwell (AUS)

Jai Crawford (AUS)

Benjamin Day (AUS)

Charles Dionne (CAN)

Aaron Kemps (AUS)

Bernard Sulzberger (AUS)

Jay Robert Thomson (RSA)

Phil Zajicek (USA)

Jelly Belly Presented by Kenda (USA)

Jonathan Chordoff (USA)

William Dicknson (AUS)

Michael Friedman (USA)

Charles Bradley Huff (USA)

Jeremy Powers (USA)

Kiel Reijnen (USA)

Will Routley (CAN)

Bernard Van Ulden (USA)

Kelly Benefit Strategies (USA)

Ryan Anderson (CAN)

Jesse Anthony (USA)

Dan Bowman (USA)

Alex Candelario (USA)

Reid Mumford (USA)

Neil Shirley (USA)

David Véilleux (CAN)

Scott Zwizanski (USA)

SpiderTech Powered by Planet Energy (CAN)

David Boily (CAN)

Guillaume Boivin (CAN)

Lucas Euser (USA)

Martin Gilbert (CAN)

Kevin Lacombe (CAN)

Bruno Langlois (CAN)

Francois Parisién (CAN)

Andrew Randell (CAN)

Team Type 1 (USA)

Davide Frattini (ITA)

Ken Hanson (USA)

Aldo Ino Ilesic (SLO)

Christopher Jones (USA)

Valery Kobzarenko (UKR)

Javier Megias Leal (ESP)

Thomas Rabou (NED)

Scott Stewart (USA)

UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis (USA)

Christopher Baldwin (USA)

Matthew Crane (USA)

Marc De Maar (NED)

Max Jenkins (USA)

Karl Menzies (AUS)

Andrew Pinfold (CAN)

Rory Sutherland (AUS)

Bradley White (USA)

• Bissell (USA)
• BMC Racing Team (USA)
• Cervélo TestTeam (SUI)
• Fly V Australia (AUS)
• Garmin-Transitions (USA)
• Jelly Belly Presented by Kenda (USA)
• Kelly Benefit Strategies (USA)
• Liquigas-Doimo (ITA)
• Quick Step (BEL)
• Rabobank (NED)
• Spidertech Powered by Planet Energy (CAN)
• Team HTC-Columbia (USA)
• Team RadioShack (USA)
• Team Saxo Bank (DEN)
• Team Type 1 (USA)
• UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis (USA)

“These teams, with the riders we expect to compete, represent the one of the strongest fields we have had at the Amgen Tour of California.  Our move to May means that we will have Tour de France contenders in prime form racing here in the Golden State,” said Andrew Messick, president of AEG Sports, presenter of the race.  “We also are pleased to have a selection of top North American-based Continental teams, who will have a chance to compete with some of the world’s best riders.”

Gilbert's Canyon gets a special Tour of Flanders motif

After the race the bike will then be auctioned for a good cause.

[View with PicLens]

David Zabriskie

Team Garmin-Transitions started the Volta a Catalunya with a short 3.8km prologue under wet conditions. Director sportif Johnny Weltz has the report:

The prologue today turned out to be a tricky affair, on a really technical circuit and on top of that a wet one. The outcome was an unknown winner, but still a indication on who we should look for toward the GC. We had Ryder do a really good race and finish 12th. Some of our other guys played it safe as we didn’t want to take risks, but still finished very well.

Ryder is in a very good position for the GC as some of the riders up front will make it over the mountains — and with no mountain-top finish means the race can be decided in just a few seconds. Tomorrow we start out very near to our home and have the advantage of knowing all the roads by heart!

Out of Milan-Sanremo

Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong will not be able to participate in Milan-Sanremo, the second ProTour event of the 2010 season. The Team RadioShack leader, suffering from acute gastroenteritis, will be replaced by teammate Fumiyuki Beppu. “It would have been good to have Lance lineup for the start but we prefer not to take any risk,” commented Team Director Johan Bruyneel. “It would not be very intelligent to let him start in a race of almost 300 K, while not being healthy.”
The Team line-ups for the next races:
Milan-Sanremo (Ita), 20/03/2010
Riders: Fumiyuki Beppu, Daryl Impey, Markel Irizar, Geoffroy Lequatre, Dmitriy Muravyev, Gregory Rast, Sébastien Rosseler & Tomas Vaitkus
Director: Johan Bruyneel
Volta a Catalunya (Spa), 20/03/2010
Riders: Jani Brajkovic, Daryl Impey, Andreas Klöden, Levi Leipheimer, Jason McCartney, Bjørn Selander, Tomas Vaitkus & Haimar Zubeldia
Directors: Viatcheslav Ekimov & José Azevedo

Boonen - Classics winner and author

Classics winner, former world champion and now author – what can’t Tom Boonen do? This Paris-Roubaix winner has a book coming out later this month called Tom Boonen – The Ultimate Cycling Handbook. Details of what’s between the covers of his self named tome are as sketchy as his recent drug excuses. However, one piece of available information is the page count – 224 pages, which is less than Greg LeMond’s Complete Book of Bicycling by 100 pages, but coincidentally just a few pages longer than Chris Carmichael’s The Time-Crunched Cyclist. Perhaps this is Tomke’s how-to-guide for training for Classics in less than six hours a week?

When I get my copy in the mail a full review will follow.

Hunter takes stage 1 of Murcia

Johnny Weltz, team director of Garmin-Transitions, recounts Hunter’s stage win.

After a storm the whole night we where lucky to wake to a blue sky. It was perfect conditions for racing and right from the start there was attacks. 10 km into the race we had Danny up the road with another guy and two more bridged up. These four gained up to four minutes, then two teams started the chase. It went up and down the whole day but not more than four minutes maximum.

Over the last climb of the day the field started to split and the speed was really high. The break was caught with 20 km to go, but served us well as the front post during the day. In the cross wind the field split into several groups. Michel Kreder had a flat at a bad moment and never came back to the front again. But we had our key hitters up there: Zabriskie, Robbie and Danny. As we approached the finish more people got dropped in the cross wind and the reduced group was a perfect scenario for us where Robbie rounded up the day with a clear victory!

The fat layer helped

Greats as Tom Boonen and Juan Antonio Flecha in the stretch saw yesterday how nicely heated coach Bobbie Traksel won Kuurne. Na een spurt met drie verkleumde Mohikanen. After a spurt of three numbed Mohicans. De katten gaven niet thuis, dus dansten de muizen. The cats did not home, so the dancing mice. Hugo Coorevits Hugo Coorevits

The baned Shiv at the Specialized launch

First Alberto Contador’ Specialized Shiv was banned, now Fabian Cancellara’s Shiv has also been declared illegal by the UCI. Team Saxo Bank team manager Bjarne Riis was furious.

“It is very annoying,” said Riis to Sporten.dk. “Fortunately we have not really had a major time trial, but it will not be long before we do at Paris-Nice. The rules are so complex and precise.”

Contador was set to race on the Shiv at the Tour of the Algarve. However, the UCI decided at the last minute to ban the bike.

“It is ridiculous, the bike is durable and safe and they suddenly call it illegal. It is always about these little details.”

The piece in question is the nose cone. Specialized considers the nose cone an important design feature which houses the front brake. The UCI considers the nose cone a fairing, which is in violation of the design rules of a bike.

The nose cone in question. Is it a structural element or a fairing?