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Thursday's Eurofile: Haedo ready for new CSC gig; Boonen defends Lefevere; saving the ProTour?
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Juan José Haedo is busy packing his bags as he prepares for his big European adventure with Team CSC, but first he has a detour through the United States and some old haunting grounds at the Tour of California.
The Argentine ace, who turns 26 on Friday, will be traveling to California for a two-week training camp with his new Team CSC teammates before making his team debut at the Tour of California, where he won two races last year to attract the attention of several European teams to his aggressive, fearless sprinting style.
“It’s a big step to take, to come from racing in the USA to Europe. But what many people don’t realize is the level of racing in America. It’s like a racing school,” Haedo said. “It looks like it’s not that hard, but when you see the European riders coming here, they don’t have such an easy time winning.”
Haedo will then have a solid racing schedule through the spring that includes a steady diet of Spanish races (Almería, Murcia and Castilla y León) as well as a return to the U.S. for a start at the Tour de Georgia. He’s also on the short list for the Giro d’Italia.
He’ll settle into the Anglo-cycling hotbed in Girona, Spain, and use that as a base as he finds his place against the deeper European field.
“They’re hard races, but they’re not the super-big events, so I think it’s a good calendar for me. I want to be there and try to get some results and gain some confidence,” he said. “I’m very excited. It’s going to be a great adventure. In the United States, there are maybe 10 to 20 guys who have a shot at winning. In Europe, there are 100 guys who can win the race. That’s the big difference.”
Haedo will be Team CSC’s first pure sprinter and he said he excited at the possibilities, but he has the full support of Team CSC boss Bjarne Riis. Haedo said he’ll have a free card to play in most of his early races and hopes he can count on the support of his team once he gains some solid results.
As far as lining up against the top European pros, he said he’s not too worried about that. After all, he’s already taken them down when going head-to-head against them in U.S. races, but he knows that racing on European roads will be much more challenging.
“It’s going to be fun. I cannot expect too much, but when I get on my bike, I am confident and I know what I can do. I don’t get intimidated easily. Sure, when you see guys like [Mario] Cipollini, he can intimidate you, but once you’re in the sprint, I go 100 percent. If he’s faster than me, he wins, but if I have a good day, I am going to get a win.”
Boonen shoots down doping claims, supports Lefevere
More bombshells keep erupting in Belgian cycling following the exposé in newspapers this week linking Quick Step-Innergetic manager Patrick Lefevere to alleged decade’s long doping.
More revelations came out in the Belgian press from an unnamed current rider alleging that the Quick Step team is rife with doping, with riders involved in both performance-enhancing products such as EPO and human growth hormones as well as the infamous “pot belge” cocktail mix.
Belgian star and Quick Step captain Tom Boonen publicly shot down those claims and demonstrated strong support for Lefevere.
“What’s been told is impossible. I am not going to believe anything I am reading because a lot of it is just fabrication,” Boonen said on Belgian radio. “I’ve been involved with Lefevere for many years and he’s always been very straight with me.”
Boonen also reacted to revelations from ex-classics star Johan Museeuw, who earlier this week admitted to “mistakes” in the final year of career in a veiled admission of doping before retiring in 2004.
“What Johan talked about clearly happened only in the final year of his cycling career,” Boonen said. “There’s no organized doping on this team.”
Lefevere, meanwhile, has promised legal action against Belgian media for printing what he claims as “complete rubbish.”
Murcia race pulls plug
It seems another European stage race is facing difficulties as the Vuelta a Murcia (March 7-11) will likely be cancelled this year.
The Spanish daily Marca reported that the race is having difficulties covering costs after Spanish television made the decision to push midweek TV coverage to a minor cable channel rather than broadcast it nationwide on free, through-the-air access.
Several big riders had already committed to the popular Spanish race, including Damiano Cunego (Lampre), Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana), Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) and Ivan Basso (Discovery Channel).
The Ruta del Sol (Feb. 18-22) seems to have endured a similar crisis and will go ahead as scheduled despite only boasting regional TV coverage. Scores of top sprinters, including Oscar Freire (Rabobank), Alessandro Petacchi (Milram), Tom Boonen (Quick Step) and Robbie McEwen (Predictor-Lotto) are expected to line up.
ProTour Council pushes ahead
Members of the UCI ProTour Council met this week in Geneva and continued to push ahead with its plans despite major grumbling from race organizers across Europe.
There seems to be a major conflict brewing between the UCI and major race organizers over which teams will be guaranteed spots in certain events, with the Giro d’Italia making suggestions that only 18 ProTour teams will be in this year’s race. ASO, organizers of Paris-Nice and the Tour de France, have also said that new ProTour team Unibet.com will not be invited to Paris-Nice.
The divisive issue of TV rights will also be a major point of contention as the UCI ProTour Council pushed ahead with a study to package the entire ProTour along with the world championships. With the three major tour organizers refusing to participate, however, a rights package in its current form has only limited appeal. In an effort to break the logjam, the UCI has taken the three tour organizers to the European Commission, charging that them with engaging in anti-competitive business practices.
The council issued the following statement outlining this week’s decisions:
2008 Calendar
To take into account the influence of the Beijing Olympic Games that will take place in August 2008, the UPTC has decided to adapt the draft calendar for UCI ProTour races accordingly. In this respect, Council members have fixed new dates for the races below:GP Ouest France-Plouay: 15 August 2008
Deutschland Tour: 30 August -7 September 2008
Tour de Pologne: 15-21 September 2008Procedure for awarding licenses
The procedure for awarding licenses has on the whole been satisfactory over the last two years. The UPTC however believed that certain measures needed to be reviewed to enable the Licenses’ Commission to take quicker decisions, both for the awarding of licenses as well as their withdrawal in the event of serious problems. Changes in this respect may be made from as early as 2007.Participation in UCI ProTour calendar races
Following the announcement made by ASO, organizer of Paris-Nice, stating that the Swedish UCI ProTour team, Unibet.com would not be invited to this race, the UPTC has reaffirmed that the setting of participation conditions for UCI ProTour calendar races is its exclusive responsibility and cannot be decided by the organizers. The UPTC does not tolerate such an infringement to the rules.TV coverage and audience
UPTC members were informed about the results of a UCI study on TV coverage and audience figures for 2006 UCI ProTour calendar races. On the whole the figures are stable compared to last year. The study nevertheless highlighted a significant difference depending on the races and the years, which needs to be stabilized.These findings reinforce the UPTC’s belief that the pooling and sale of TV rights of organizers with a license, together with those of the UCI World Championships, would help to stop these uncertain developments and have a positive influence both on the visibility of races and on organizers’ revenue. This centralized management project of TV rights is currently being studied.Fight against doping
According to the UPTC, although the UCI ProTour’s development is encouraging, this does not hide the grave danger that doping poses to cycling. To fight against it, the UPTC is currently finalizing a very ambitious program, which will allow:
fraudulent practices to be more easily detected,
cheats to be discouraged,
encourage clean riders.This new measure will lead to an increase in the budget allocated by the UCI for the fight against doping and will require close cooperation between all the parties involved in cycling.The UPTC’s next meeting will be held in Bruges, Belgium, during the Ronde van Vlaanderen on 7 April 2007. This race will also host the official launch of the 2007 UCI ProTour.
