Cycling Blog – News, Articles, Pictures & Videos

They’re called Taylor Phinney, Cameron Meyer, Eilzabeth Armistead, Josephine Tomic, Morgan Keisky, Leigh Howard, Grégory Baugé. They come from the United States, Australia, Great Britain and France. They are World Champions. But, above all, they are all very young!

The 2009 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, which took place in the magnificent setting of the new velodrome in Pruszkow, Poland, was marked by an extremely important shift of power between the generations. This can be seen as a turning point compared with the principal events of these last years – particularly the Beijing Olympic Games – where the British dominated almost all the specialties.

Apart from the absence of Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins and Rebecca Romero, which certainly contributed to restoring a greater balance in the different disciplines, a “new wave” of track cyclists progressively imposed itself as the days went by, providing an intense sporting spectacle of the highest quality.

For example, we witnessed Taylor Phinney’s winning performance against Jack Bobridge – who is also just 19 years old – in the pursuit, and the success of Cameron Meyer – 21 years old – in the points race. Both the American and the Australian should now be considered among the strongest and most all-round athletes on the circuit. The titles that they won in Pruszkow represent just the beginning of their careers in the Elite category after numerous victories as Juniors.

The new king of the sprint, Grégory Baugé, is also still very young. At 24 years old, he won his fourth consecutive gold medal in the teams’ event before earning, for the first time, the rainbow jersey in the individual competition. His closest rivals – the Malaysian Aziz Awang, who has just turned 21, and his compatriot Kévin Sireau – can also look ahead with confidence to their future in this specialty, where Great Britain does not appear able to guarantee a successor for Hoy.

New Women’s world record

In the Women’s competition, the 2009 UCI Track Cycling World Championships were marked by the exploit of the Lithuanian Simona Krupeckaite, who established a new world record in the 500 metres. As for Victoria Pendleton, she met with some difficulties and left Poland with only one of the four gold medals that she was aiming for. After dominating the sprint events in Manchester and Beijing, she had to make do with the individual sprint title while conceding unexpected defeats: in the 500 metres where she finished third, but also in the keirin, won by the Chinese athlete Guo Shuang, and in the team sprint, which went to Australia.

Track cycling, a universal discipline

In total, 18 of the 38 countries participating in these championships placed at least one athlete on the podium, and 11 of them had the privilege of seeing one of their representatives on the highest step. This new geographical distribution, with riders from four continents sharing the 19 titles, is a very positive aspect of the overall result of these World Championships.

Indeed, the exploits of the following nations confirm the universality of track cycling. Germany celebrated the victories of Maximilian Lévy in the keirin and Stefan Nimke in the kilometer. Denmark has now truly launched the 2010 edition in Copenhagen thanks to its victories in the Madison and the team pursuit. Giorgia Bronzini, having already won the World Cup, gave Italy a gold medal in the points race. Malaysia, Cuba, China, Canada and Belgium also left Poland with extremely positive results, demonstrating that the new Olympic cycle has got under way with encouraging prospects in view.

Lance Armstrong encourages world leaders, cancer organizations and advocates to commit to making cancer a global priority

San Diego, CA – February 22, 2009 – The Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) announced today that the premiere LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit will take place Aug. 24-26, 2009 in Dublin, Ireland immediately following LAF founder and chairman, cancer survivor and champion cyclist Lance Armstrong’s participation in the Tour of Ireland, Aug. 19-23. As the landmark event of the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Campaign, the Summit will make the case for acting urgently to address the global cancer burden and introduce new commitments to cancer control by bringing together world leaders, corporations, non-governmental organizations and advocates in an unprecedented show of solidarity.  The announcement comes on the final day of the Amgen Tour of California, where Armstrong was competing in his second race in his return to professional cycling and against the worldwide threat of cancer. Continue Reading »

Sacramento, Calif.

February 12, 2009
Lance Armstrong (USA)
Astana

“I think we’ve made it very clear from the beginning that there are two parts to my comeback.  One is the race – the reason we’ll be on the start line on Saturday – but more important really is the thought and the idea and the initiative to take Livestrong around the world.”

On the start of the 2009 season:

“We were blessed to have amazing launch in Australia, and I don’t just mean the team, but the foundation as well, and I hope we can carry that momentum through California and Europe for  the rest of the year.”

On his return from retirement:

“I’ve been trying to stay reasonably fit; it’s comforting to know that I’m not the oldest guy in the race.  I’ve been at this a long time and it has been an interesting 17 years.  I think as far as the science of older athletes goes, performance doesn’t drop off, the mind drops off.  I’ve had a couple of breaks and my mind is fresh.  Let’s do it one more time.  I feel strong.  At 37, I feel just as strong as I did at 27.” Continue Reading »

Kuala Lumpur – Le Tour de Langkawi has become famous in the world of cycling for the spectacular sprints that have concluded many stages since the inception of the race back in 1996. The 14^th edition starting in Putrajaya on February 9^th should be no exception in the history as the 120 men field features many top sprinters once again. The course is likely to generate up to five bunch sprint finishes.

There will be new faces at the winners’ protocol since Ruben Bongiorno from Argentina is the only former sprint winner on the start list this year. The CSF rider last imposed himself at Le Tour de Langkawi in 2006 and didn’t show the best of himself since then, therefore he will be back in the role of the underdog while Mattia Gavazzi, Aurélien Clerc and Chris Sutton will be the hot favourites.

Gavazzi is the new fast man brought to Malaysia by legendary team manager Gianni Savio of Diquigiovanni-Androni. Last week the Italian started his season with a win in stage 1 of the Tour of San Luis in Argentina. “He’s got a great capacity of acceleration in the finale”, Savio described. “Normally I would have lined up Alberto Loddo again at LTdL, but he was diagnosed with two kidney stones. He’s fine now but he couldn’t train properly, so Gavazzi is his replacement.” Loddo has been the most successful sprinter at Le Tour de Langkawi in the past two years with 6 stage wins, 5 in 2007 with Diquigiovanni, 1 in 2008 with Tinkoff prior to returning to Savio’s team.

Last year’s Milo green jersey winner Aurélien Clerc will be back in action after switching from Bouygues Telecom to Ag2r-La Mondiale. The Swiss rider stated that this time around he doesn’t want to be just the most regular sprinter for scoring points but he’d actually prefer to grab at least one stage win. Continue Reading »

Kuala Lumpur – The Malaysian continental team LeTua has managed a superb coup on the international cycling scene by signing Jeremy Yates from New Zealand prior to lining up at Le Tour de Langkawi from February 9 to 15.

A junior world champion crowned in Plouay, France, back in 2000, Yates finished 4^th overall last year with his national team and he was determined to take part in the Malaysian race again despite having moved temporarily from professional cycling to a job as a builder. “I found my first LTdL last year to be an amazing experience”, he said. “The people stand out in my mind as being the most memorable part of it. They were always smiling, friendly and polite.”

On Friday he sent an sms to LeTua’s team manager Shukor Yassin: “I am ready. The form is good after the Tour of Wellington.” Continue Reading »

Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia will once again top the field of Le Tour de Langkawi with 15 local riders taking part in the race on the start line at Putrajaya, the home of the Malaysian government, on February 9. But the event appears more international than ever despite the reduction of the number of participating teams from 25 in 2008 to 20 this year. One year ago, it was already a record number of 30 nations lined up but the provisional start list for the 14^th edition of the race boasts an exceptional number of riders hailing from 35 different countries and five continents to compete on Malaysian soil.

“Our team invitation committee has looked closely at all the applications we received for making our colourful event the most international possible”, said the chief operating officer Datuk Naim Mohamad. “We are very pleased to welcome cyclists from all over the world. It shows that our sport becomes more and more worldwide thanks to the efforts of the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale). Malaysia definitely wants to play its part in the globalization of cycling.” Continue Reading »

Kuala Lumpur – On the record books, the Australian national team has never won a stage or the general classification at Le Tour de Langkawi but since the early win of the late Damian McDonald back in 1996 under the colours of trade team Giant-Australia for the inaugural event, Australia has played a major role in the success of the Malaysian event.

“We stopped taking part in Le Tour de Langkawi for several years because the 12-day race was too long for our young riders”, national road coach Brian Stephens explained. “We came back in 2007 with our trade team Southaustralia.com and now the 7-day format suits our program at perfection.”

With the number of Continental teams increasing drastically in Australia and more of them bidding for LTdL than the race organisation could realistically host, the team invitation committee chaired by Datuk Naim Mohamad opted for inviting the Australian national team providing the opportunity to the coaches from down under to select the best Australian riders available in February. Continue Reading »

he An Post Seán Kelly Cycling team has revealed its roster for 2009, with five new high-profile signings confirmed. Among these is Irish rider David O’Loughlin, recent winner of a bronze medal at the World Cup in Beijing.
The 2009 An Post Sean Kelly Team includes five Irish cyclists, with 2008 riders Páidi O’Brien, Stephen Gallagher, Mark Cassidy and Ronan McLaughlin all re-signed and the notable new addition David O’Loughlin.

“I’m really looking forward to racing with the An Post team and the race programme this year,” O’Loughlin said. “I’m particularly excited about working with Sean Kelly, as that is a dream come true to be honest.”

“I learnt a lot last year and I think combining the track and road racing this year will work well, as they can both compliment each other,” he added.

Team manager Kurt Bogaerts has signed former Belgian champion Niko Eeckhout, with the 38-year-old Classics rider providing valuable experience and leadership for the Merchtem based squad. The team has also signed two Belgian riders, Steven Van Vooren from the American Cycling Centre team and Jeff Peters, who was part of the 2008 Profel Prorace team.

The An Post squad will return to Ireland for the nation’s top races, the Rás, Tour of Ireland and national championships.

“We are finalising our racing calendar for the year but it looks like the team will be back in Ireland for the first time on May 17th for the Rás,” said Sean Kelly. “We are already looking forward to it as it’s always great to return home and showcase our success as a continental team. In 2008, Stephen Gallagher was the first Irish winner in four year’s and he will be back to defend his title this year.”

An Post Sean Kelly 2009 roster: Paidi O’Brien, Mark Cassidy, Stephen Gallagher, Ronan McLaughlin, David O’Loughlin, Benny De Schrooder, Kenny Lisabeth, Steven Van Vooren, Jef Peeters, Niko Eeckhout, and Matt Brammeier.