News Release from PJ Rabice:

CONTADOR CAPTURES OVERALL WIN IN SPAIN
(Austin, TX) – At 162 kilometers in length, including two categorized climbs, today’s final stage of the Castilla y Leon race in Spain was set to be another hard day in the saddle as Team Discovery Channel looked to defend Alberto Contador’s overall lead. However, with a roster including powerhouses like Leipheimer, Basso, Martinez, Brajkovic and Danielson, the Team was clearly suited to control a mountain stage, and they did just that, leading Contador to the overall victory and third place on the day.

Sports Director Johan Bruyneel did not specify a team leader coming into this weeks’ race, instead looking to see which of his squad had both the fitness and motivation to take control. Bruyneel stated, “Our entire team continues to impress me this year. Although it was Contador winning here in Spain all the guys are looking great, not just those on the podium. The classics riders like Gusev and Devolder are preparing well for the coming weeks. Tom and Levi look good for Georgia and Ivan is showing good fitness as he prepares for the Giro, although he lacks a bit of top-end speed right now. Overall, all the guys are performing better than expected and I could not be happier.”

Contador was pleased with his continued good form this week, saying, “I was a bit unsure of how I would feel yesterday on the climb. I worked very hard to win Paris-Nice and you never know how much you will have left in your legs. In the end, I had just enough to win. Now I think I will take a short break from racing to recover and start to prepare specifically for the Tour. I want to be my best in July.”

Team Discovery Channel will take to the road next in Belgium at the Three Days of De Panne.

Press Release from PJ Rabice:
DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM WINS AGAIN WITH CONTADOR

(Austin, TX) – Alberto Contador, the new acquisition for the Discovery Channel Team, took advantage of his good form following his overall victory at the Paris-Nice stage race just two weeks ago to win once again. The young Spaniard captured his fourth stage win of the 2007 season in today’s 4th stage, a mountain-top finish, at the Spanish Vuelta a Castilla y Leon stage race.

The Discovery Channel Team rode into today’s stage with six riders placed in the top 10 overall (Jason McCartney and Sergio Paulinho have both pulled out of the race due to illness) allowing Sports Director Johan Bruyneel a number of tactical options. “The Team was very impressive in the opening time trial and they made my job much easier. I was able to talk with the guys and come up with tactics based on how they were feeling during the stage. Ivan and Alberto have good form and felt good today so we were hoping that one of them could take the win. Things worked out just as we had hoped,” stated Bruyneel.

Contador’s stage win is the seventh for Team Discovery in 2007 and with only one stage remaining, and a 36 second lead, the team is hoping to add the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon to their overall palmares along with the Tour of California and Paris-Nice.

Press Release from PJ Rabice:DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM CONTINUES TO IMPRESS
Allan Davis Finishes Second at Legendary Milan San Remo One-Day Race

(Austin, TX) – Discovery Channel rider Allan Davis was a late signing to the squad but wasted no time in showing his worth as he scored one of the biggest results of his career in Italy on Saturday. At approximately 182 miles in length, the historic Milan San Remo one-day race has always been one of attrition that awards those who conserve the most energy. Team Discovery’s Davis showed just how good he was at conserving energy, displaying a strong kick to the finish that placed him second on the day behind three-time world champion, Oscar Freire and ahead of 2006 World Champion Tom Boonen.

Assistant Sports Director Sean Yates was impressed with the entire team's performance stating, “When you have six of your eight-man team in the front group as you close in on the finish you know the boys have put in a good effort. Allan was looked after all day by the guys and did a great job of saving himself for the final. Popo was equally as impressive, getting away twice in the final 15 miles of the race and putting a lot of pressure on the other teams. Obviously a win would have been great but we were all very excited with second place.”

Davis, known as a fast finisher, had marked this race as one of his 2007 objectives and was very happy with the outcome at day’s end. “I have never had so many teammates around me at the end of a World Cup race. The team was incredible and having the guys there at the end gave me extra motivation. Popovych was incredibly strong at the end of the race and helped to get me in a great position in the final kilometers of the race. After that it was up to me,” commented Davis. About the final sprint and his second place finish Davis stated, “With 300m to go I started my sprint and as I got up to speed Freire popped out of the line in front of me. I got on his wheel but he was just too strong to get around. I would have loved the win but second at Milan San Remo is still a great result and one of my career highlights. I hope to keep my good form going and am looking forward to the upcoming Ardennes Classics.”

Following the final standings at Milan San Remo, the third Pro Tour race of the 2007 season, Team Discovery’s Alberto Contador still remains atop the overall UCI Pro Tour rankings. Team Discovery is racing in Spain this week at the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon.

Courtesy of Lancaster Online (click the Link to view)

Sunday's Landis reception sold out
Second event added to aid Tour de France champion

By Morning Update
Lancaster New Era

Published: Mar 19, 2007 10:35 AM EST

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - Call it "chill with the champ."

For people interested in just meeting and mingling with Tour de France winner Floyd Landis, those who are already convinced of his innocence and don't need to hear his defense presentation, or for those who could not get tickets to Sunday's sold-out event, a second event has been added.

Floyd Landis' Floyd Fairness Fund will hold a "champion reception" on Saturday at the Ephrata Performing Arts center.

The unstructured event was quickly planned late last week when it appeared that tickets to Landis' town hall-style fund-raising event would sell out. The last of those 300 tickets were gone Friday afternoon, less than 72 hours after the event was announced.

"The hometown crowd is definitely turning out for Floyd," said Mike Farrington, a long-time friend and mentor of Landis, and owner of Green Mountain Cyclery bike shop in Ephrata.

Farrington is selling the tickets for the events.

Tickets to the Saturday reception, at $25 each, officially went on sale this morning. But, Farrington said he and his wife, Jen, have already contacted people who were unable to get tickets for the Sunday event. They sold about 40 tickets already and Farrington expected to sell many more today.

"There are already four people in the parking lot waiting to come in and buy tickets today," Farrington said shortly before the store's 10 a.m. opening.

"The phone has been ringing off the hook. I'm confident that we will have a very good turn out for Saturday's event too," he said.

For more, see the full story in today's Lancaster New Era or this afternoon at www.LancasterOnline.com

Contador!! Awesome, Aggressive, Amazing. Alberto Contador takes the Yellow Jersey for the 2007 Paris-Nice by an incredible win in the last stage. The fantastic work by the entire Discovery Pro Cycling team led Alberto right to the final climb. All the team, especially Tom Danielson and Levi Leipheimer, rode the rest of the peloton ragged. A truly exciting stage finish - it was a thriller...

On cycling.tv, we saw how ecstatically happy Alberto was, but also Levi, too, who hugged Alberto twice in glee. The entire team is totally stoked with a win like this - they did their part and then it was up to Alberto to not let them down in his solo climb, descent and battle against the crosswind to the finish line.

Awesome race, and if you are a Premium cycling.tv subscriber in North America, you can see it again. If you are not, then better make friends real fast with somebody who is.... Better yet, pop the bucks to subscribe - the season has just begun...

I suspect that most of you know about this Floyd Landis petition by now, but in case you do not... here is the online petition:
Floyd Landis hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition service. Click on the Link to check it out. I obviously agree with what this petition says, and I think you might agree, too. If you can spare a moment, please take a look, and consider signing yourself.

I must admit that I just now signed - Yikes - I thought I'd already signed it, but I guess not... I was number 3560, let's see if we can double that number. You'd be surprised at how many officials follow all the Floyd stuff on the Web, so while this oetition my not be "official" it can have an impact.

From PJ Rabice:

DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM SUSTAINS INJURY IN ITALY AND CONSECUTIVE STAGE WIN IN FRANCE

(Austin, TX) – Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team rider Ivan Basso was injured in today’s third stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race in Italy. Basso, a two time Tour de France podium finisher, was involved in a crash along with teammate Vladimir Gusev with approximately 20 miles remaining in the stage. Although both riders finished the stage, Basso complained of wrist pain suffered while bracing himself during his fall and was immediately taken to the hospital. X-rays and examination showed no breaks or fractures; however it is still uncertain if Basso will take the start in tomorrow’s stage. The doctor will examine Basso’s wrist in the morning and make a decision at that time.

The news of Basso’s crash came at roughly the same time as his Discovery Channel teammate Yaroslav Popovych was taking the win in today’s fifth stage of the Paris-Nice stage race. Popovych’s win is the second in two days for the Discovery Channel Team, with Alberto Contador claiming victory yesterday. Contador remains in second place in the overall classification, just six seconds back of race leader David Rebellin.

Sports Director Johan Bruyneel, although happy about the win in France expressed concern about the crash in Italy. Bruyneel stated, “Our Team in Paris-Nice has been very impressive. To have won back to back stages shows that our guys are in good shape and very motivated. It is very unfortunate what happened to Ivan and I can only hope it is not too serious. It would be terrible if he would require a lot of time off the bike like we saw with George’s crash in California.”

Popo takes a flyer and wins Stage 5 of Paris-Nice. He was being followed in one of the team cars by my Iron Man, Eki, so what else could Popo do but ride like a man of steel. He was suffering by the time he got to the Finish, but he did it... Two stages in a row for the Discovery Pro Cycling team. Rebellin remains on top of the GC, with Contador on his heels at second.

Allen Davis made a pretty good showing for Discovery in the first couple of stages of the Tirreno-Adriatic. Ivan Basso is just coming back from his knee injury at Tour of California, where both he and George Hincapie fell. The knee was banged up far worse than first thought, so Ivan hasn’t been doing much training before the Tirreno. He’s using the race to get back into form, so don’t expect fireworks from him....

BTW - I have another blog going on The Inner Tube at the new cycling.tv site. www.theinnertube.tv/velogal. I’m going to write a bit now and then, and post a pic. Mainly just to support the guys at cycling.tv. I put up a pic yesterday of Simon, working the giant cue card for Anthony, who was interviewing the guys from Cervelo at Interbike last Fall... Simon keeps them all on track and on time while the cameras are rolling.

Cycling.tv will have a huge presence at the Sea Otter Classic next month. They’ll be set up in a big area in the Village, and will broadcast from there. I am looking forward to seeing all my CTV friends again. The CTV guys used one of my Interbike images of them working in their studio area for some kind of corporate brochure or promotion, although I haven’t seen it...

Alberto Contador took the stage win at Stage 4 of Paris-Nice in an awesome finish. Two seconds ahead of Rebellin, Alberto’s face was a mixture of agony and determination. Davide Rebellin had a great ride into the Yellow Jersey. Levi Leipheimer came in eighth. What a finish on cycling.tv.

Contador also picked up the Best Young Rider Jersey - he well deserved it, and the whole Discovery Pro Cycling team worked their butts and legs off for him. Great job for all the guys. Pic of Alberto is from the Solvang training camp this year.

I notice now that the Floyd Landis buzz is now that maybe another rider’s piss was used instead of Floyds in the testing process. When the FFF had the question session in the town meeting in San Jose last month, I stood up to the mic and posed that question to Floyd. I asked if he had any comment on the possibility that he was taking the rap for another rider who had juiced. That maybe there is some other rider out there who is sweating this out and staying silent and hoping to Hell that nobody notices that it is his number that was tested. I kinda felt like my question was minimized in the response, but I think it is a vital point. The slides clearly show another number on the testing documents... Yeah, there were tons of Cesspool errors, but Jeeze, maybe it wasn’t even Floyd’s sample, or it got mixed with some other sample.

If The Piss Don’t Fit, You Must Acquit...

Are you watching Paris-Nice on cycling.tv? If so, you saw Stage 3 just ending with Alexandr Kolobnev of CSC staying away for over 200km to take the long downhill finish. Even with the little kick at the end, his legs held out. I guess Kolobnev was away for so long that Tom Boonen forgot all about him, because ten or so seconds later, Boonen sprinted across the line with this arms up in victory. Do riders feel like a fool when they do that? Jeeze, they all have the radios in their ears, so how could he not know about the breakaway and that Kolobnev hadn’t been caught? Kinda funny... Maybe Tom was listening to his MP3 player instead...

So the beat goes on in the cycling world - asinine power squabbles between UCI and the Pro Tour poobahs continue, Unibet getting flicked, Operacion Open Mouth getting milked down to the last drop for innuendos and accusations, and the biggest open mouth, The Dick (Pound) keeping his closed momentarily.

The Freedom Tour of Floyd Landis continues to march across the States, and more power to him and his dedicated associates. Their presentation is so compelling in the slide show that I can’t wait to hear the other sixty pieces of evidence, revealing the gross incompetence and sloppy, schlocky errors by the Chatenay Malabry Cesspool lab technicians, that will be presented at Floyd’s hearing.

Sat in on the Floyd Landis chat room with Michael Hiltzen of the LA Times this morning. If you missed it, I think they are going to have another one next week. Check in with one of my faves, www.trustbut.blogspot.com for updates. There were lot of good questions, mostly re-runs, but informative, none the less.

I asked Michael what he saw happening when The Dick leaves in November. I was dismayed to hear that Dick Pound will be replaced by a “gentlemen who works for the French government”.. Holy Crap, it will be so reassuring to all cycling fans, and to the riders, to hear that WADA will be run by some crony of the French government in the future, won’t it? I’m sure that he will know which side his croissant is buttered on, and who provides the butter. Jeeze, a good old garçon network never dies, it just sheds its skin...

And we were hoping that someone new would clean up the Cesspool and WADA. Dream on....

Mark Shimahara, cycling photographer par excellence, is in full swing on YouTube with his great cycling interviews. This interview of Levi as after Stage 7 of the Amgen Tour of California. Click on the Link to go to his YouTube site, Bikedreams, and see the other interviews of 2007 Amgen Tour of California riders.

This unbelievable, idiotic power struggle between the ASO and the UCI reminds me of an old saying that my dear, departed Grannie used to use. “Cutting off your nose to spite your face,” she would say. Seems to me that is exactly what those two powerful organizations are doing. And all the pro cycling teams are caught right in the middle. Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t...

As if all the media frenzy and distortion about doping isn’t enough to turn off sponsors, the ASO and UCI seem determined to finish the job. What the Hell are the teams supposed to do, whose sponsors are putting up the big bucks to see their names at races like Paris-Nice? Teams whose budgets depend on sponsor bucks, and who are fielding two or more teams just so they can participate in all the races. Which do you choose - what form of team destruction? A strong sanction by UCI or being excluded form the Tour de France? Great choice - do you want your right or left nuggie cut off?

This is all so ludicrous - It’s hard to believe this is happening - The two entities who make the biggest bucks off from the backs of riders and teams seem hell-bent on destroying their reason for existing. And while the furor goes on in Europe, right now in America, the Tour of Georgia is searching frantically for a title sponsor, and the inaugural US Open Cycling Championships is searching for sponsor bucks - both these races are scheduled for next month! And the Discovery Pro Cycling Team is searching for a new sponsor for 2008. Great publicity timing for would-be sponsors to see the Powers That Be in Cycling acting like asses in this self-destructive corporate ego/power struggle among the Cycling Giants.

Photo is one that I took from the Stage 2 Start in Santa Rosa of the Amgen Tour of California. Ivan Basso, Paolo Bettini and Fabian Cancellara are rolling out for the long haul to the Sacramento finish line.