Riccardo Ricco, the Italian who was busted in the 2008 Tour for using Cera 3rd generation EPO seems to be living in a house which still has a supply of the stuff. His partner, Vania Rossi has just been caught in the Italian cross champs using the same stuff. To make matters worse she's just given birth to their son, not a good image of a new mother sticking needles into herself! Ricco's protestations about being clean are obviously a total nonsense now, hopefully ASO will make sure he doen't get a place on the Tour or any other of their races.
Cav was right about this guy, he does deserve some abuse, as he suggests Ricco nearly got him disqualified in the '08 Tour by his Cera induced antics on the mountain stages with the sprinters struggling in just inside the time limit. So this kind of doping really has a big effect on all riders and brings added benefits to taking drugs to all riders in the peleton, even the one's at the back, they have to counteract the climbers on Cera who set their time limit. So not only does this ruin other riders careers, but Ricco was responsible for the downfall of an entire pro team and the sponsor withdrawing, removing the livelyhood of between 50 and 100 individuals who were out of a job after this. He really has no shame and can't have avoided noticing the vials of Cera in his fridge which were used by Rossi recently, he can't possibly be making a clean comeback.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/riccos-partner-positive-for-cera
Saturday 30 January 2010
Monday 4 January 2010
Games Events and riders
Found it, so we have 6 riders in the RR, 3 in the TT, Dave Millar, Arthur Doyle, Duncan Urquart?
http://www.cwgdelhi2010.org/Template3.aspx?pageid=P:1229
Events
Men
• 4000 m Individual Pursuit
• 1 km Time Trial
• 40 km Point Race
• Keirin
• Sprint
• 4000 m Team Pursuit
• 20 km Scratch Race
• Team Sprint
Women
• 500 m Time Trial
• 25 km Women’s Point Race
• Sprint
• Individual Pursuit
Road Events
• Mass Start event at Vijay Chowk on 10 October.
• Time Trial event at Noida Express Highway on 13 October 2010.
Men
• 40 km Individual Time Trial
• 167 km Road Race
Women
• 29 km Individual Time Trial
• 100 km Road Race
Entry
3 Competitors per event, except for 6 Competitors in the Road Race, and 4 Competitors in Team Pursuit and Road Team Time Trial.
Maximum entry per CGA - 27 athletes
Entry to be received by OC CWG Delhi 2010
• By NUMBER – 3 April 2010
• By NAME – 3 September 2010
http://www.cwgdelhi2010.org/Template3.aspx?pageid=P:1229
Events
Men
• 4000 m Individual Pursuit
• 1 km Time Trial
• 40 km Point Race
• Keirin
• Sprint
• 4000 m Team Pursuit
• 20 km Scratch Race
• Team Sprint
Women
• 500 m Time Trial
• 25 km Women’s Point Race
• Sprint
• Individual Pursuit
Road Events
• Mass Start event at Vijay Chowk on 10 October.
• Time Trial event at Noida Express Highway on 13 October 2010.
Men
• 40 km Individual Time Trial
• 167 km Road Race
Women
• 29 km Individual Time Trial
• 100 km Road Race
Entry
3 Competitors per event, except for 6 Competitors in the Road Race, and 4 Competitors in Team Pursuit and Road Team Time Trial.
Maximum entry per CGA - 27 athletes
Entry to be received by OC CWG Delhi 2010
• By NUMBER – 3 April 2010
• By NAME – 3 September 2010
Sunday 3 January 2010
Scottish Commonweath Games (cont..)
Moving onto track it's a bit clearer, Evan & James priority is probably going to be the track endurance events with McCallum winning a medal last time around. In the sprint events it's obviously going to be Chris Hoy, Ross Edgar and possibly Craig MacLean making a comback before he moves onto piloting a tandem for the GB paralympic team? Otherwise there's are options for the third place on the mens team sprint squad from the City of Edinburgh squad, rapidly improving junior John Paul, masters champ Bruce Croall, Matt Haines, Callum Skinner, Jamie Bremner & Kevin Stewart, I think we can rule out skier Alain Baxter from the running for that place. Will David Millar ride the pursuit, he's a former British champ post-ban? Can't see a team pursuit squad being formed and taken to Delhi for a pummelling by the world champions.
The ladies team looks sewn up too, in the road race Kate Cullen has raced at a high level, Claire Thomas has won the British Ladies RR series, so both are very likely to be selected. On the track Cullen will most likely be riding the endurance races, but who do we have who can challenge the Aussies and GB team riders in the sprint events, most likely send some young talent (which there is lots coming through) for some experience.
The places may already be decided, so it's just about time for the moaners, spoilers and bitter old men to start their campaigns to get their nephews/team-mates/grandsons etc onto the squad by starting to revive their 4 yearly campaigns, let the silly games commence before the friendy games do, as usual.
The ladies team looks sewn up too, in the road race Kate Cullen has raced at a high level, Claire Thomas has won the British Ladies RR series, so both are very likely to be selected. On the track Cullen will most likely be riding the endurance races, but who do we have who can challenge the Aussies and GB team riders in the sprint events, most likely send some young talent (which there is lots coming through) for some experience.
The places may already be decided, so it's just about time for the moaners, spoilers and bitter old men to start their campaigns to get their nephews/team-mates/grandsons etc onto the squad by starting to revive their 4 yearly campaigns, let the silly games commence before the friendy games do, as usual.
Scottish Commonwealth Games selections
We don't know who's on the team for Delhi in 2010 yet, but there are some pretty strong indications of what's going to happen, but I can't find anywhere the listings of the amount of riders that are allocated for each nation in the road race. The news that David Millar is now eligible to ride after his supposed lifelong ban from Olympics & Commonwealth games has been withdrawn, has both plusses and minuses.
Millar is now a reformed character from the performance enhancing drug taker which haunts his past in cycling, it's hard to believe that he's gone back to his old ways with his public stance and obviously lower performances since the comeback, but he's also proved it's possible to take a TT stage win in a grand tour clean, which is a ray of hope for the sport. The previous time he was going to ride the Commonwealth Games in a Scotland jersey, he chose to change his mind at the last minute and ride a 2-Up time trial in Germany instead, scuppering the Scotland teams plans in the process, so there is some bitterness there from the domestic scene, including some vocal former officials who are unsurprisingly not willing to see him back in the fold after cleaning up the mess last time, he now has a chance to redeem himself.
If we're honest, Scotland doesn't really have an obvious medal winner in the road race apart from Millar, so supporting him against the might of the Australian and Sky (England) team is probably the only hope of success in what is a highly competitive event, one which the Ausies don't want to lose to the poms. The Endura pairing of Evan Oliphant and James McCallum have spent some time in Australia during the winter training for the new season, are they the likely candidates to support the assualt on a medal in the road race, only time will tell, but it looks very likely. The other protagonists are also likely to come from the Endura stable, with the likes of Ross Creber & Gary Hand being highly likely inclusions to the squad.
Millar is now a reformed character from the performance enhancing drug taker which haunts his past in cycling, it's hard to believe that he's gone back to his old ways with his public stance and obviously lower performances since the comeback, but he's also proved it's possible to take a TT stage win in a grand tour clean, which is a ray of hope for the sport. The previous time he was going to ride the Commonwealth Games in a Scotland jersey, he chose to change his mind at the last minute and ride a 2-Up time trial in Germany instead, scuppering the Scotland teams plans in the process, so there is some bitterness there from the domestic scene, including some vocal former officials who are unsurprisingly not willing to see him back in the fold after cleaning up the mess last time, he now has a chance to redeem himself.
If we're honest, Scotland doesn't really have an obvious medal winner in the road race apart from Millar, so supporting him against the might of the Australian and Sky (England) team is probably the only hope of success in what is a highly competitive event, one which the Ausies don't want to lose to the poms. The Endura pairing of Evan Oliphant and James McCallum have spent some time in Australia during the winter training for the new season, are they the likely candidates to support the assualt on a medal in the road race, only time will tell, but it looks very likely. The other protagonists are also likely to come from the Endura stable, with the likes of Ross Creber & Gary Hand being highly likely inclusions to the squad.
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