Posts for 'Players' Category

Tyler Farrar Win Tour Of Spain: American Tyler Farrar won the fifth stage of the Tour of Spain on Wednesday in a sprint finish, while Belgium's Philippe Gilbert retained the overall leader's red jersey. The Garmin-Transitions rider beat Spain's Koldo Fernandez to the line at the end of the 198.8-kilometre course from Guadix to Lorca in southeastern Spain.

Third was Britain's Mark Cavendish. It was the American's fourth stage win in one of the three major Tours, after two stage victories in the Giro d'Italia this year and one in the Tour of Spain in 2009. He was forced to drop out of the Tour de France in July as pain from a fractured wrist early in the event eventually took its toll in the 12th stage.

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French Great Fignon, 50, Dies Of Cancer: Laurent Fignon died of cancer on Tuesday at the age of 50 with two Tour de France wins to his name -- but the eight seconds that cost him a third triumph will live just as long in the memory. On July 23 1989, after 21 stages and 3,285-km of grueling cycling, Greg LeMond pipped the Frenchman by the Tour's narrowest margin in one of the great finishes of all time.

Fignon had started the time trial with a 50-second lead only to see his American rival go 58 seconds faster in the 24.5-km final stage.

"Even on the podium I was feeling uncomfortable and sorry because Fignon had also won the Tour," LeMond told France 24 television from his Minnesota home on Tuesday.

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Mark Cavendish Win Tour Of Spain: Britain's Mark Cavendish retained the leader's red jersey after the second stage of the Tour of Spain despite being pipped in a sprint finish by Yauheni Hutarovich of Belarus  here on Sunday. Hutarovich, of the Francaise des Jeux team, pulled off a surprise victory over the British sprint king at the end of the 173.7-kilometre course from Alcala de Guadaira to Marbella in southern Spain. Third was American Tyler Farrar, ahead of Italy's Alessandro Petacchi.
 
It was the first stage win in any of the three Grands Tours for the 26-year-old Hutarovich. "It might seem like a surprise but it wasn't, it's my fifth victory this season," said the Belarusian, who turned professional in 2007. "I came with the intention of winning a stage, I've therefore achieved that."But he admitted that "when I saw that I had won, I couldn't believe it. But I saw Cavendish, the leader, had some problems and I knew I had a chance.

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Contador Absence Leaves Tour Of Spain Wide Open: The third and final Grand Tour of the season is set to begin in Spain, with several leading riders eyeing their chances amid the absence of the world's top road racer Alberto Contador.

Three-time Tour de France winner Contador is skipping his home Tour, which he won in 2008, after a hard-fought victory in France in July.

He joins two of his Spanish countrymen -- last year's winner Alejandro Valverde, who is serving a suspension for doping, and Samuel Sanchez, who was injured in a crash in the final mountain stage of the Tour de France -- on the absentee list.

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Seven World Champs In Aussie Team For Delhi Games: Australia on Thursday named seven reigning world champions in their 27-strong cycling team for the New Delhi Commonwealth Games in October. The Australian team will be headlined by 2004 Olympic and reigning Commonwealth Games champion Anna Meares and defending Commonwealth men's road race champion Mathew Hayman.

The Australians are aiming to repeat their dominant performance on both road and track at the Melbourne Games in 2006 and this year's UCI World Track Cycling Championships.

Australia topped the table with 10 of the 57 medals, including six gold, at the world track championships in Copenhagen in March.

Track world champions Meares (500m time trial and team sprint), Ashlee Ankudinoff (teams pursuit), Kaarle McCulloch (team sprint), Josephine Tomic (teams pursuit), Jack Bobridge (teams pursuit), Michael Hepburn (teams pursuit), and three-time champion at this year's world titles Cameron Meyer (teams pursuit, points race and madison) were all named in the team.

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Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong helped reveal a new US cycling stage race to debut in 2011 and the American star said he might even ride in it. Armstrong and state officials announced on Wednesday the creation of the Quiznos Pro Challenge, a seven-stage race likely to begin and end in Denver that will take place next August and be sanctioned by the International Cycling Union (UCI).

"This race is about future generations of cycling in the US," 38-year-old Armstrong said. "What started out as a wacky idea is a reality."Armstrong said he has not ruled out racing in the event even though he made it clear his days of riding at the Tour de France and other elite European races are definitely over.

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Doping Scandal May Hurt Lance Armstrong Foundation: Lance Armstrong has overcome cancer, rival cyclists and nagging allegations of doping to become one of the world's best-paid athletes and a sought-after pitchmen. He's also turned the Lance Armstrong Foundation, better known as Livestrong, into one of the top 10 groups funding cancer research in the United States. Since its inception in 1997 it has raised more than $325 million, and become synonymous with the 72 million yellow bracelets it has sold bearing the Livestrong name.

The Armstrong brand is one of the best in sports. Yet everything the seven-time Tour de France champion has created is now threatened by a new opponent: a federal investigation. Philanthropy experts say the foundation, in particular, is at risk of losing future donations if its namesake and chairman is dragged down in scandal.
Federal prosecutors have been investigating pro cycling since Floyd Landis, a former Armstrong teammate who was stripped of his 2006 Tour title, admitted this spring that he used performance-enchancing drugs. Landis also accused many others in the sport, including Armstrong, of doping too.

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Disgraced cyclist Floyd Landis says he witnessed first hand former American teammate Lance Armstrong using performance-enhancing drugs, including receiving transfusions for blood doping. Speaking on an episode of the American news magazine show, ABC's 'Nightline' on Friday, Landis reiterated his sweeping allegations against Armstrong.

Landis, who at first denied then admitted using performance enhancing drugs, said it would take up too much time to go into specifics about every time he saw Armstrong using drugs. "Rather than go into the entire detail of every single time I have seen it yes, I saw Lance Armstrong using drugs," Landis told Nightline.

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France – Alberto Contador never wavered. Under a blistering attack from Andy Schleck, the Spaniard tightened his grip on a third Tour de France title in four years by matching every acceleration his rival threw at him during the ride up a fabled Pyrenean climb in Thursday's 17th stage. Schleck delivered on his promise to ride well on the last mountain of this year's race.

It just wasn't enough to shake Contador. Schleck set a punishing pace up the last 6 miles on the ascent of the Col du Tourmalet, but the Spaniard shadowed him wheel-to-wheel the whole way. In the end, Schleck won the 108.1-mile trek from Pau by a half bike-length, but failed in his bid to take the yellow jersey from Contador and gain time on his rival ahead of Saturday's time trial.

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American Lance Armstrong has hired a criminal defence lawyer to represent him against a federal probe looking into allegations of possible doping violations in his cycling career.

The New York Daily News reported late Wednesday that the seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong has hired Los Angeles-based lawyer Bryan D. Daly, a former federal prosecutor and partner at the firm Sheppard Mullin Richter and Hampton. Daly's hiring was first reported in a legal trade publication.

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