The Cycling drama thread (hopefully dope-free!)

[deltask8er]

Ullrich has announced a press conference for next Monday in Hamburg to announce his plans, but he's indicated that he won't answer any questions at the conference.

scroll down for the news (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/feb07/feb21news)

Do we have any local :sekret: about this? Why Hamburg? :confused:

http://www.24.com/sport/?p=SportArticle&i=427987

[Garden Kitty]

Do we have any local :sekret: about this? Why Hamburg? :confused:

http://www.24.com/sport/?p=SportArticle&i=427987

I've read all sorts of rumors, including he's retiring, he's signed with a Pro Continental team and he'll be working as a DS. Earlier in the week, the retirement rumors were the stongest, now the most persistent rumors seem to relate to Volksbank, an Austrian team:

From cyclingnews:

At the same time, rumours of Ullrich signing with Team Volksbank still persist. Thomas Kofler of Team Volksbank confirmed to Cyclingnews Friday morning that he is contact with Ullrich regarding a possible contract. "So far nothing has been signed," he emphasized. "We're still waiting. We don't want to rush into anything. After Monday's press conference we will know more."

Kofler confirmed that he had spoken to Ullrich in the last few days, and will be in touch with him over the weekend. Kofler was planning to spend much of Friday in meetings with various sponsors, trying to work things out. "Things look good," he said.






Article in the LA Times discussing yet more allegations regarding the testing process at LNDD and Floyd's hearing. Oddly, it doesn't discuss what most people think are his best arguments, the contamination readings of the samples. There are allegations that the same lab techs handled the A and B samples, which is what recently invalidated the Landaluze tests. However the makeup of this panel doesn't seem very Floyd-friendly (two of the three are Canadian lawyers with connections to Dick Pound)


http://www.latimes.com/sports/cycling/la-sp-landis23feb23,0,6092667.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Garden Kitty]

Kudos to George Hincapie for his ride in ToC yesterday. He broke his wrist in a fall (crossed wheels with Tony Cruz) early in the day, but kept riding to the finish of the difficult stage and helped bring the CSC lead break back to retain the lead for for Levi. Hincapie had surgery this morning and is supposed to be out for 6 weeks and will miss the spring classics which he had targeted as his main goal for this year. :(

And Ivan has been going all out as domestique for Levi - building up a lot of goodwill for July. Although I think he may have had some added incentive for wanting to prevent Riis and CSC from spoiling Disco's win. :EVILLE:

[Garden Kitty]

Ullrich retires (http://www.eurosport.com/cycling/pro-tour/2006-2007/sport_sto1098776.shtml) but will work with Volksbank next year as an "advisor, publicity figure and representative.

I really feel bad for him that he seems to have been the only person who didn't make it through OP - even Tyler Hamilton is riding with Tinkoff and they had faxes showing his involvement.:(

ETA: Pic of the press conference (http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/photos/races07/ullrich-conference.jpg)

Jan at the conference (http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/photos/races07/ullrich-retiring.jpg)

Jan at his best (http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/photos/races07/ullrich-tting.jpg)

Eurosport - career in photos slideshow (http://www.eurosport.com/cycling/mcplayerdiapo_dia767.shtml)

[deltask8er]

:( :wuzrobbed

Announcement at the official web site:

http://www.janullrich.de/index.php?id=17&dat_id=13989



http://www.usatoday.com/sports/cycling/2007-02-26-ullrich-retires_x.htm

Ullrich is also under investigation in Germany and Switzerland. He planned to appear on a German talk show later Monday to talk about the allegations.

Off to look for video of that :fan21:

German Yahoo articles:

http://de.sports.yahoo.com/cy/

ETA: Memmmmmmmmorieeezzzzzz, light the corner of my mind... :drama:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2005/tour05/?id=tour0521/42

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2005/tour05/?id=tour0521/35

[Garden Kitty]

A velonews writer had a not very favorable column about Jan's retirement, criticizing his work ethic and his involvement in OP. Apparently the letters to the editor were "near universal" in support of Jan and against the writer.

http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/11796.0.html

One response:

Way cold. I hope you're tutoring blind orphans in your spare time because otherwise your karma bank is gonna be way upside down after that number.


Jan the OGM (http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/sp/getty/e9/fullj.getty-files-cycling-germany-ullrich_7_12_50_am.jpg)

Another letter praising Jan from the Velonews mailbag (http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/11801.0.html):

We lost our two boys at the Dunkirk Prologue in 2001 - they headed off into the vast crowd and were gone. A couple of hours later we found them, near the starting ramp - proudly waving a Telecom jersey signed by the Telecom Team. At 12 and 13 yrs they had slipped apparently unnoticed into the team enclosure, and found their way towards their hero, Jan Ullrich. They had the jersey with them - but no pen to get autographs. Scottish boys they didn't speak German, but through sign language asked Jan to help - he immediately got a marker pen and got the team to sign it - just a few minutes before he was due to mount the starting ramp. In contrast, we watched as a family as Lance Armstrong appeared seconds before he was due to start - protected by his helpers, he slipped off his jacket and was off - no time to chat.

ETA: Pez Cycling's Jan page: http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=4732&status=True

[Garden Kitty]

Jan is riding in a charity race in South Africa, raising money for two children's charities.

And Floyd donated one of his TDF bikes to the Davis Phinney Foundation to help raise money for Parkinson's research.

Nice to see them keeping busy and supporting good causes.

scroll down for the two articles (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/mar07/mar05news2)

[Garden Kitty]

Wheee, Paris-Nice is on and there is a temporary agreement between the UCI and GT organizers. Unfortunately Unibet and Astana seem to be the losers in the settlement, not getting guaranteed starts at races from the three GT organizers. Astana has said they've gotten wildcard invites to all the races they want, so it's really Unibet that seems to have lost the most. But I'm glad there is at least some agreement. since it was the riders who stood to lose the most.

http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/11831.0.html

[deltask8er]

:eek:

MADRID, Spain (AP) — A Spanish judge dropped the Operation Puerto investigation into doping in cycling without issuing indictments.

Investigative magistrate Antonio Serrano said he could not charge anyone because Spain's new doping law was not in force when the case broke in May.



http://www.usatoday.com/sports/cycling/2007-03-12-spain-doping-case_N.htm

So will this make Jan change his mind? :shuffle:

[Garden Kitty]

The Spanish investigation wasn't aimed at the riders. The laws at the time didn't make blood doping illegal (although they've changed the law since then). Saiz and Fuentes were being investigated for charges of endangering the public health, but the judge ruled that there wasn't evidence that the blood doping harmed the riders health.

The judge had also ruled that none of the federations could use the evidence until after the official investigation. So in theory, the closing of the investigation means the info will be released and the federations could open proceedings against the riders if the new info reveals anything. Basso was never cleared, the Italian Olympic committee just "shelved" the investigation.

However, neither the Spanish nor the Italian feds have given any indication they want to revisit the matter. Even if they did, the handling of the evidence was so slipshod, I think it would be hard to make the charges stick. Almost half the bags of blood somehow "disappeared" during the course of the investigation. Only the German and the Swiss feds still seem eager to pursue the investigations. I think the reaction from the press and the feds has really taken a toll on Jan, and I don't think he'll revisit his decision. However, his manager hasn't ruled anything out:

Per cyclingnews:

In the event that the evidence cannot be used in further proceedings against the riders, Ullrich's manager Wolfgang Strohband wouldn't dismiss the possibility that the recently retired German might return to the peloton. "He knows nothing about the developments in Spain," Strohband told BILD magazine. "So I can't say anything about Jan's renouncing his retirement. Anything is possible..."


And Ullrich's lawyer is calling for the head of the German fed to resign:

"With the dismissal of the case against Dr. Fuentes, it becomes obvious what an unspeakable campaign has been brought on in Germany against Jan Ullrich for his athletic successes. It is time that Herr Rudolf Scharping steps down, take his leave from German cycling and pardon himself to Jan Ullrich. All of those who have taken part in a disgusting way in the campaign against Jan Ullrich should, if they have even a bit of decency in them, approach him."

[Garden Kitty]

Lance has found love again with designer Tory Burch (http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20014941,00.html)

another Lance and Tory pic (scroll down) (http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/760)

[4skating]

Good grief, Lance surely does go for a certain physical type, doesn't he? People may think that she looks like Sheryl Crow, but if I hadn't known better, I'd have thought that he was with his ex, Kristen, in the Newday photos.

Not to mention the resemblance of all three to his mother...:rolleyes:

[Garden Kitty]

What do these riders all have in common besides celebrating a big stage win last week? Er, none of them actually won the stage. Seems each of them missed a guy in a breakaway who finished ahead of them. Don't those race radios work anymore? :lol:

Boonen celebrating (http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/photos/races07/pn07/pn07st03-boonen.jpg)

Eisel celebrating (http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/photos/races07/ta07/ta07st02-dumb.jpg)

Milram's Lorenzetto celebrating (http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/photos/races07/pn07/pn07st06-dumb.jpg)

[Garden Kitty]

Cycling is a great sport for skating fans! The second the ladies event at Worlds ended, the cycling season was kicking off in earnest with live coverage of Milan - San Remo, the first monument of the season. Plus the last event of the Pro Tour coincides with the start of the skating season. Now that's planning!

[Garden Kitty]

Good grief, Lance surely does go for a certain physical type, doesn't he? People may think that she looks like Sheryl Crow, but if I hadn't known better, I'd have thought that he was with his ex, Kristen, in the Newday photos.




a side by side comparison of his steadies (http://www.tmz.com/2007/03/18/lances-ladies-look-alike/) :rofl: