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Wednesday's EuroFile: Landis undergoes surgery; T-Mobile underoges major revamp
Beleaguered Tour de France champion Floyd Landis is scheduled to undergo hip replacement surgery today. According to his personal web page, Landis will focus on his pending surgery and recovery while his legal team prepares his defense against charges that he tested positive for irregular testosterone levels en route to his overall Tour victory in July.“Floyd is going to undergo a state-of-the-art procedure that will maximize his chances of returning to racing at the top level,” said Brent Kay, M.D., Landis’ physician and assistant clinical professor of medicine at Loma Linda University Medical Center. Following surgery, Landis will undergo physical therapy to regain full strength and range of movement in the right hip. As part of his physical rehabilitation program, Landis will begin training in earnest for the 2007 season when he hopes to defend his Tour de France title, the report said.Landis revealed his chronic hip condition during a press conference on the Tour’s first rest day. Landis broke his hip during a training crash near his home in Murrieta, Calif., in January, 2003. Since then, the pain has ratcheted up each year as the bone inside the hip socket deteriorated.Doctors described the condition as “avascular necrosis,” which reduces blood flow to the upper tip of his right femur, leaving behind a rotten knob grinding inside the hip socket. Landis’s pain was the best-kept secret in cycling. Only his doctors, trainer, team manager and close friends like Team CSC’s Dave Zabriskie even knew. He only told his mom the week before a surprise press conference in the Tour’s first rest day for fear the hint that he might be damaged goods would torpedo his burgeoning career. Last week, Landis received notice that the United States Anti-Doping Agency will move forward with the disciplinary process. Landis faces a two-year racing ban as well as having his overall Tour victory stripped if he cannot prove his innocence. Landis’ legal team, headed up by Howard Jacobs, will request an open hearing by the American Arbitration Association to contest potential sanctions against the athlete. Landis has insisted on his innocence and has expressed confidence he will be able to demonstrate he did not cheat to win the 2006 Tour. T-Mobile extends to 2010 in major shakeup; Barry, Olsen join
T-Mobile will remain in the professional peloton through the 2010 season as the team continues to reshape its management and lineup in the wake of the Jan Ullrich doping scandal. T-Mobile CFO Thomas G. Winkler announced the company’s “leadership role and commitment to a clean sport” and confirmed that Canadian Michael Barry and American Aaron Olsen will join the team for the 2007 season. Leading the renovation of the German team is new general manager Bob Stapleton and new sport director Rolf Aldag who are part of a major reshaping of the team that includes the arrival of 11 new riders. “We packed eight months worth of work into just two months,” Stapleton said in a press conference Wednesday in Bonn. “Our first step is to bring in good people that have fresh ideas and are motivated to create positive change. Rolf and I are pleased to work with such a motivated and capable group.” New sport directors include Brian Holm (Denmark), Allan Peiper (Australia), Tristan Hoffman (Netherlands) and Valerio Piva (Italy). Completing the management team are Luuc Eisenga (Netherlands), who will be the technical director and team liaison, and Bruce Carmedelle (USA), business manager. The University Clinic in Freiburg will supervise the team’s medical and training program. The team vows to implement the strictest internal doping controls of any team in cycling, including a groundbreaking blood-volume test that alleges to be able to detect blood transfusions. “The program brings innovative methods and new procedures from training and athletic development, anti-doping testing and monitoring, and sports psychology,” said team doctor Dr. Lothar Heinrich. The team will work with staff from the University of Freiburg in Germany as well as be monitored by external, independent experts. “All riders know our concept and our rules,” Aldag said. “We need riders with a good heart, a good head and good legs who will work well together as a team.” The major shakeup comes in the wake of alleged links between star riders Jan Ullrich and Oscar Sevilla to controversial Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. Ullrich and Sevilla were among nine riders from four teams who were kicked out ahead of the 2006 Tour. The 1997 Tour champion has since been sacked and is the focus of an ongoing investigation. Ullrich denies working with Fuentes. Also fired were sport director Rudy Pevenage and team manager Olaf Ludwig. Stapleton was brought onboard to clean house and restructure the team’s staff and lineup. Despite the major changes, the team promises to be “highly competitive throughout the whole year and to broaden the scope of interest in the team,” Aldag said. Three-time world time trial champion Michael Rogers will be the “lynchpin” of the team’s future GC hopes. Among the 11 new faces will be Barry and Olsen. Barry, 30, rode five seasons with U.S. Postal Service/T-Mobile, but never got the opportunity to race the Tour despite strong rides in the Vuelta a España and Giro d’Italia. Olsen, meanwhile, rode well in his European debut with Saunier Duval-Prodir and finished second in a stage at the Tour of Poland last month. Additions for 2007
Michael Barry (30/Canada)
Mark Cavendish (21/Great Britain)
Gerald Ciolek (20/Germany)
Bernhard Eisel (25/Austria)
Bert Grabsch (30/Germany)
Roger Hammond (31/Great Britain)
Servais Knaven (35/Netherlands)
Axel Merckx (34/Belgium)
Aaron Olsen (28/USA)
Jacob Piil (33/Denmark)
Marco Pinotti (30/Italy) Riders staying for 2007
Michael Rogers (26/Australia)
Eric Baumann (26/Germany)
Lorenzo Bernucci (27/Italy)
Scott Davis (27/Australia)
Linus Gerdemann (24/Germany)
André Greipel (24/Germany)
Giuseppe Guerini (36/Italy)
Serhiy Honchar (36/Ukraine)
Kim Kirchen (28/Luxembourg)
Andreas Klier (30)
André Korff (33/Germany)
Frantisek Rabon
(23/Czech Republic) Stephan Schreck (28/Germany)
Patrik Sinkewitz (25/Germany)
Thomas Ziegler (25/Germany) Valverde to skip Zurich, Paris-Tours
ProTour leader Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne), fresh off finishing second in the Vuelta a España and third in the world road championships, will not race in this weekend’s Zuri Metzgete race. Valverde is the virtual ProTour champion (some 123 points ahead of second-place Cadel Evans) and could skip the remaining three ProTour events (Zurich, Paris-Tours and Giro di Lombardia) to “take some vacations.” “I started the season very early to arrive in form for the spring classics and later I raced in the Tour de France,” he told the Spanish sports daily AS. “Later, I was second in the Vuelta and now I earned a medal at the world’s. I believe that I need to stop.” Valverde left the door open to continue light training and race in the Giro di Lombardia on Oct. 14 to “enjoy the party of the ProTour” More contract news
Christian Vande Velde is expected to sign a contract extension that will keep him at Team CSC through the 2007 season. The 30-year-old American joined Team CSC in 2005 and raced in his fourth Tour de France in July despite cracking his collarbone in a fall at Paris-Nice. Danilo Hondo – the German sprinter who is fighting charges that he took a banned substance during the 2005 Tour of Murcia – has signed a contract to join the new Tinkoff team for the 2007 season. Hondo has been cleared to race by a Swiss civil court and has earned a few victories late this season with Team Lamonta. New Zealand rider Timothy Gudsell signed his first professional contract with elite French team Francaise des Jeux it was announced on Tuesday. The 22-year-old, who competed in September's Tour of the Avenir as a trainee for the team, signed a two-year contract.
