back in green!

Thor Hushovd is back in the green jersey after an impressive show in yesterdays mountain stage. He now has 191 points... only 4 points ahead of Petacchi.
Anything can happen though, so it´s going to be exciting to watch the final stages.

cycling - the gentleman`s sport

I am starting to dislike Cavendish more and more. The feeling has been getting stronger with each stage. Cavendish is a bad loser and a dirty player.

Yesterday`s sprint at the finish line was a perfect example of this. The way he squeezed Hushovd in towards the fence had no place in a fair fight.

The TdF jury disqualified Cavendish from the stage even before the Cervelo team entered a complaint.

I have similar feelings for Mc Ewan, who is another of Hushovd`s "rivals", and fortunately not racing in this years TdF.

And it has nothing to do with the fact that both of these guys are in competition of the same coveted green jersey that I would love for Hushovd to be wearing at the ceremony in Champs-Èlysèes. They just dont`t play fair and "gentleman-like".

Maybe this will give Hushovd an extra drive to keep the green. He was quoted saying: "I get hungry (for the jersey) when they play dirty like this".

Hushovd now has 218 points - Cavendish 200 pts. - Rojas 126 pts.

Links to 2 articles in Dagbladet:

Mener at han ikke gjør noe galt

Hushovd mener at Cavendish prøvde å velte han

Cycling is a gentleman`s sport. Let`s keep it that way.

TdF – no more bikes uncle guy!

As I am sitting here, zapping between Eurosport and TV2, watching the repeats from yesterday, then the live feed from today`s stage, and of course the wrap ups/commentaries/interviews... I am laughing at myself as I can hear my nephew Stian`s complaint last year when he was visiting me in July.

"No more bikes Uncle Guy!"

He wanted to watch Ice Age.

Go figure...

TdF – the Astana team vs doping

The Astana cycling team does not exactly have the cleanest records or the best reputation when it comes to doping or allegations of doping.

But there have also been drastic changes in the team riders and its manager.

In my search for more information about this team I have found the following on Wikipedia:

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Astana first became involved in sponsoring cycling during the 2006 season. The Liberty Seguros-Würth team of leading Kazakh rider Alexander Vinokourov was heavily implicated in the Operación Puerto doping case and the sponsors Liberty Mutual, and later Würth, withdrew their sponsorship of the team. Astana stepped in to sponsor the team, and during the second half of the season, Vinokourov won the Vuelta a España while riding for the renamed Team Astana.
On July 26, 2006, five Astana riders were cleared by Spanish courts. The five - Joseba Beloki, Isidro Nozal, Sergio Paulinho, Allan Davis and Alberto Contador - received a document clearing them of links to Operación Puerto

In April, 2007, Matthias Kessler tested positive for testosterone. The former Team T-Mobile-rider who had won a TdF-stage in 2006, was fired in July, and would turn out to be the first of a number of Astana-riders to be tested positive. Later in July, yet another former T-Mobile cyclist, Italian Eddy Mazzoleni, left the team after allegations of doping usage. Mazzoleni, who had finished 3rd in the 2007 Giro d'Italia, was later suspended for two years for his alleged involvement in the Oil for Drugs doping case.

After a positive blood doping (transfusion) test following the winning time-trial by team-leader Alexander Vinokourov, organisers "invited" Team Astana's management to withdraw the entire team from the 2007 Tour de France; this invitation was immediately accepted.

Following confirmation that Vinokourov's B-sample had also tested positive, the Astana Team announced that he had been sacked with immediate effect. On August 1, fellow Kazakh Andrey Kashechkin tested positive for homologous blood doping following an out-of-competition test in Belek, Turkey. He was suspended and subsequently fired as well.

Additionally, the troubled team decided to suspend its activities during the month of August to decide about its future with new regulations.

This was followed by the termination of José Antonio Redondo's contract after "failing to abide by team rules", making him the fifth rider of the team to leave during the 2007 season.

2008
Following the doping problems of 2007, the sponsors of Astana decided to replace Biver with Johan Bruyneel, the former directeur sportif of the defunct Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team. Bruyneel had the mandate to start afresh with the team, so he hired a number of former Discovery riders including 2007 TdF winner Alberto Contador (who had ridden with Vinokourov on the old Liberty Seguros team) and third-place finisher Levi Leipheimer. Additionally, Bruyneel introduced the anti-doping system developed by Dr. Rasmus Damsgaard, Head of Information for Anti Doping Danmark (ADD). The anti-doping system was initially used by Team CSC starting in 2007. The link between the Discovery Channel team and Astana was strengthened when Bruyneel signed a contract with Trek Bicycle Corporation to supply the team with bicycles and components, as they had done with Discovery Channel.

Riding under a Luxembourgian license, the team also included other ex-Discovery Channel riders such as Tomas Vaitkus, Sergio Paulinho,Chechu Rubiera, Vladimir Gusev and Janez Brajkovic, as well as American Chris Horner.

On February 13, 2008, the organisers of the TdF announced that Astana would be barred from the 2008 Tour due to its links to Operación Puerto and involvement in the 2007 Tour doping scandals. This meant that Contador was unable to defend his Tour crown, because his contract does not have an "escape clause" that covered Astana's current situation.

Astana's strict anti-doping policy came to the forefront later in the year. On July 28 Astana fired Vladimir Gusev for showing "abnormal values" in an internal doping check. In a release from team director Johan Bruyneel it was indicated that although the results “do not indicate the use of banned substances, the team has therefore applied the contractual terms based on these physiological and biological abnormalities," dismissing Gusev "with immediate effect.”

On 25 September, 2008, it was confirmed that seven-time TdF winner Lance Armstrong would leave retirement to ride for the team in the 2009 season. Along with Armstrong, another former Discovery Channel top rider, now officially riding under a Kazakh license, joined the ranks of Astana — Yaroslav Popovych — which brought the number of former Discovery Channel riders on Astana to nine (Armstrong, Popovych, Contador, Leipheimer, Rubiera, Noval, Vaitkus, Paulinho and Brajkovič).

It was reported that Armstrong would share team leadership with current leader Contador, that he intended to participate in the Tour Down Under, the Tour of California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia, the Dauphine-Libere and the Tour de France, and that he would receive no salary or bonuses, instead directing his attention to raising awareness for cancer research.

On 2 July, Vinokourov stated that he would return to Astana, which he noted was "created for me and thanks to my efforts", when his suspension ended, and that he would ride for Astana in the 2009 Vuelta a Espana. He stated that he expected to reach agreement with Bruyneel about his return within the week, but that "if Bruyneel does not want me, it will be Bruyneel who is leaving the team." The next day, the French newspaper L'Equipe reported that the Kazakh Cycling Federation planned to fire Bruyneel, Armstrong, Leipheimer and many of the other riders and rebuild the team in the model of the old Liberty Seguros team, which was predominantly Spanish. The paper quoted the vice-president of the Kazakh federation as saying, "[Contador] will be our sole leader for years to come [and] will be able to pick out the riders he wants to ride with him. In our mind, the team will be composed of Spanish and Kazakh riders, including Alexander Vinokourov."

Before returning to the saddle, however, the controversial Vinokourov faces the angry opposition of cycling's world governing body, the UCI. The UCI has renewed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, asking the court to overturn the one-year suspension by the Kazakhi federation and to impose the standard two-year ban on Vinokourov. This appeal was originally filed in 2007, but had been dropped after Vinokourov announced his retirement from cycling: after he announced his intention to resume his career, the case was retabled, and the CAS announced that the ban would expire on 24 July 2009.

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Today`s 2009 Astana team has a different manager and different riders than the 2006-07 team. It is interesting to see that Armstrong, Contador and Leipheimer are all on the same team, and can easily cause conflicts within the team seeing how they are each contenders for the yellow jersey.
None of these guys have been convicted of doping, but there have been lots of rumors and accusations.

I just hope that they stay clean. So far, in this year`s TdF, there have not been any doping scandals reported.

TdF - Stage 8+9: Thor looks good in green!

In stage 8, Thor managed to win 2 of the sprints, earning a total of 12 points.
This would secure him the green jersey with an 11 point lead in front of Cavendish.
After today`s stage 9 they have the following points:
1. Hushovd - 117 pts.
2. Cavendish - 106 pts.
3. Rojas - 75 pts.

Thor has 2 days in green. This is incredibly exciting! :-)

TdF Stage 6 – Thor de France! (sorry, that is kinda cheesy)

But I just couldn`t help it.
Thor won an impressive stage win in yesterday`s long and wet stage from Gèrone to Barcelona. With a total distance of 181.5 km, the final kilometers would prove to be extremely difficult as the riders were falling left and right on the slippery wet tarmac and several turns. It was nerve wracking to watch, but Thor was well planted on the ground.
He not only wins the sprint but has a whole bike length between him and Freire, who came in second.




This is Thor`s 7th win in the TdF (8 if you count the team tempo in 2001).

Cavendish, the current green jersey holder, came in 16th place. This means that Thor took a big chunk out of his lead and is only one point behind Cavendish`s 106 points. In third place is Ciolek with 66 points.


Lance congratulating Thor after the stage win.

TdF Stage 3 - so close, so close!!

This was a stage that should have been Thor`s... and he was so close. But Mark Cavendish is incredibly strong, and Thor`s team was not offensive enough. Not a good combination.
A second place finish for Thor, a whole bike length behind Cavendish.
The Green jersey still belongs to Cavendish, with 70 pts.
Thor is now in second place with 54 pts.

Cancellara has the Yellow jersey, but Armstrong is in third place, only 40 seconds behind.

TdF Stage 2 - Cavendish is the strongest

After 187 km on the road, Cavendish pulls away with an impressive win (his 5th stage win overall). Hushovd is right behind him, but must settle for 4th place today.

But Thor is looking good for the Green jersey and has 24 pts. Cavendish has 35 pts and is currently the Green jersey holder, of course ;)

tour de france, tour de france

Så er den her igjen, endelig! Le Tour!

3 uker hvor jeg kan skru på tv`n og garantert finne noe utenom fotball.

Lance er tilbake, etter 4 års pause. Media is having a field day.

Rykter om doping... kan han vinne nr 8... er han like sterk som før... etc.

Jeg liker Lance. Fikk enorm respekt for han etter å ha lest boka hans. Kreft i både testikler og i hjernen. Skulle egentlig aldri blitt bra nok til å sykle igjen. Men han beviste det motsatte.

Jeg vet ikke om han vinner i år, men det blir utrolig morsomt å se på.

Og så har vi Thor da. Grimstadgutten. Han har båret den gule trøya flere ganger, han har vunnet den grønne trøya èn gang, og kommet så veldig nære å vinne den flere ganger. Han har hatt litt uflaks. Det er stort det han har gjort, og det frustrerer meg at den norske pressen ikke helt har skjønt dette. Han får liksom bare noe presse når han vinner en etappe.

Samme gjelder Kurt Asle. Han har ofta vært litt i skyggen av Thor... når det gjelder norsk presse. Men det har forbedret seg litt.

Jeg må innrømme at jeg ikke følger med på alt som foregår. Klarer ikke helt å huske hvem alle er, før det er gått en ukes tid. Mange har allerede sterke meninger om hvem som skal vinne de forskjellige trøyene. Det har jeg ikke så veldig stor formening om.

Jeg liker å se på sykling. Liker å se på taktikkene. Liker å høre lyden av syklistene.

Ofte har jeg bare tv`n på mens jeg holder på med andre ting... inntil kommentatoren skriker og det har tydeligvis skjedd noe stort.

Det er en behagelig og betryggende 3 ukers periode. Kanskje fordi jeg skulle ønske at det var mer toleranse/aksept for syklister i Norge.? Kanskje fordi jeg elsker selv å ligge i et felt?

Uansett... her blir mye spennende. Både Lance og Thor i nye drakter og i nye roller. Muligheten for flere etappeseiere for våre 2 norske. Det er det jeg syntes er spennende.

Jeg heier på gutta våre.

Og jeg heier på Lance.

Det blir sikkert mere dopingskandaler. Det er det hvert år.

Det blir velt. Skumle velt.

Og det blir spennende etappeseiere, forhåpentligvis fra både Thor og Kurt Asle.

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