Cavendish Takes Sprint at Milan-San Remo
Young British sprinting sensation Mark Cavendish took the victory at Milan-San Remo today, barely edging out Germany’s Heinrich Hausler. Thor Hushovd, Hausler’s compatriot on the Cervelo Test Team, took third. Cavendish, who races for the Team Columbia-High Road professional cycling team is only the second Briton to win the race, following in the footsteps of Tom Simpson, who won the race back in 1964.
Lance Armstrong, in the first European race of his comeback, finished at the back of the pack, in 125th place and just over 8 minutes behind the day’s winner.
“I really didn’t expect to win. It’s unbelievable,” Cavendish, the winner of four stages at last year’s Tour de France, told the Associated Press. “(Teammate George) Hincapie and the entire team helped me on the climbs. I was a bit worried when I saw Haussler take off, but I was able to pass him.”
“Each race is special,” Cavendish told Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times. “Each time you cross the line is important. The different types of races when you win stages, you prove you’re a great sprinter. When you win a one-day classic, you prove you’re a great rider. I wanted to prove I am more than a great sprinter, that I am a great rider, and that’s what I did today.”
Although Armstrong did not stop to talk with reporters after the race, he [See Jeff’s second comment to this post.] Lance Armstrong posted his thoughts on Twitter a short time later after the race ended.
“What a race! Fast, crazy, but great. My legs felt good. bad position at start of the Cipressa so my day was done,” the seven-time Tour winner wrote. “Good to get in close to 190 miles on the bike too. Damn that’s far. Congrats to Cavendish on a spectacular victory. Cool kid.”
Congrats to Mark Cavendish, he did on the first try what it took Super Mario (Mario Cipollini) 13 tries to accomplish. CyclingNews.com has a brief post-race interview with the up-and-coming sprint star, where he talks a bit about how things worked out today. Give it a read when you get a chance.
“Special” K?
A 32-year-old Austrian professional cyclist was arrested yesterday by police in Vienna for allegedly supplying performance-enhancing drugs to other riders. Public prosecutors said that the cyclist, identified only as “K,” was arrested on charges of systematically supplying other cyclists with EPO and testosterone that he acquired from a pharmacist in the city.
Prosecutor Gerhard Jarosch told the Associated Press that the cyclist is currently being held in custody. He did not say how long the cyclist had been selling the drugs or how police discovered the cyclist’s alleged criminal activities.
“I am very pleased, this is very positive,” Andreas Schwab, head of the country’s national anti-doping agency NADA, told the AP. “The anti-doping laws are not as toothless as some might think.”
The un-named cyclist is the first athlete to be arrested under Austria’s new, tougher anti-doping laws. Athletes convicted under the law can face prison terms of up to five years. It is now a criminal offense not only to possess banned substances, but also to manipulate blood or DNA (known as gene doping). Those who help athletes dope also face some potentially harsh penalties, too.
Austrian cycling was rocked by allegations that Berhard Kohl, who finished third at the 2008 Tour de France, tested positive for CERA, the latest generation of EPO drugs designed to help boost the oxygen-carrying capacity of a person’s blood. For endurance athletes, an ability to deliver more oxygen to the muscles means they can perform at a higher level over a longer period of time, giving them an advantage over those who do not use the drug.
“Obviously there still are hopeless and dumb athletes among us who throw us back in our fight against doping over and over again,” Otto Flum, the president of the Austrian cycling federation, told the Associated Press. “This case shows that the new anti-doping laws are working well. I hope this will scare everyone off who is still involved in doping.”
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Just a brief commentary on the developments in Austria. I find it hard to believe that the country needed to enact a new set of laws to cover the kind of activity that K, the un-named cyclist, is said to have been involved in. Surely there are laws that make it a crime to distribute medications without a proper prescription, or without treating a real medical need. Doping in sports is certainly a problem, but I wonder if there really is a need for new laws, or whether the need is for better enforcement of existing laws.
I’m not sure how much of a deterrent these new laws might be. The temptation to dope, and the payoff, is fairly huge. And the risks, up to now, have been pretty minimal. Sure, you can lose it all if you’re caught, but if you’re not a top-notch cyclist, the odds of being tested (or tested much) are relatively slim. Making doping a criminal offense might deter some. But perhaps better enforcement of the existing laws would be just as effective, or perhaps even more effective.
I do find it interesting, however, that this is yet another example of a case that was uncovered not by the anti-doping authorities and their testing regimes, but by the law enforcement community. As far as results goes, the police certainly do seem to be better at catching cheats than the anti-doping authorities. There’s a lesson somewhere in that, I suspect.
Good for Cavendish. Not necessarily a fan, but good for him nonetheless. His team rode well for him. He stayed in contention on the climbs and finished in style. Must have been exciting for those spectators on the finishing straight.
Hausler was apparently supposed to lead out Hushovd, but Hushovd didn’t make it onto his wheel. Was Hausler or Hushovd the Cervelo leader in San Remo?
Armstrong didn’t exactly finish in the back. He was in the group of the second major split, ~8 minutes back, along with riders who had done their work for a team mate. At ~125th, he wasn’t anywhere close to the front at the finish either.
Rant, agreed. In the states, ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking the law. The catch 22 is that no one is capable understanding all the laws and experts debate the finer points of the law all the time. Our constitution gives us the right to keep and bear arms, yet the government has made many provisions violating that right. (I say if you want to ban guns, fight for a constitutional amendment, but that’s getting way off topic) More laws are not the answer. Fewer clear and simple laws that are easy to understand and are consistently enforced are a better answer. It is interesting the police are seeming to make better progress than our friends in IOC arse covering WADA World. But that’s kind of what you can expect when your stated mission isn’t your actual mission.
From Velonews.com today regarding Milan-SanRemo:
“Armstrong told several journalists at the line that the race was “fast” and then rode to the Astana team bus, parked nearly one kilometer down the road. He spoke briefly with a waiting reporter from La Gazzetta dello Sport, then drove away in a team car to Nice, France, where he was planning to shower, have a massage and eat dinner before traveling to Spain on Sunday for the Monday start of the five-day Castilla y León.”
So here is a tip for Pierre Bordry and AFLD, and anyone who can contact Bordry/AFLD. Armstrong is showering in Nice, France before he travels to Spain. Hurry, go test him and take some more hair samples while he’s still in France and news reports help you find him. Allez, allez….
Have you seen this?
“Fifa and Uefa have formally rejected the World Anti-Doping Agency’s ‘whereabouts’ code and asked it to reconsider its position on the rule.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/7961907.stm
Interesting story there, BannaOj. Seems that some folks don’t like the “whereabouts” idea too terribly much.
“It is not a question of not fighting doping but one should not really go for a witch-hunting because witch-hunting has never led to a positive result.”
Yes, Sepp. I agree. Your response seems to indicate you’ve followed the witch hunt in cycling and elsewhere. I know it’s human nature to keep quiet until something/someone important to you is threatened, but I would have been more impresed had you spoken up earlier. Still, welcome to the good fight.
FWIW, I think that OoC testing is necessary. A whereabouts system where an athlete needs to have a set location on either odd or even days of the month should be more than sufficient. An hour every day is kind of Big Brotherish and more than needed for testing purposes.
I think Sepp is fighting the wrong issue(s). There are much bigger problems with the WADA World system. Some labs are seeming to get it mostly right. Others seem to have another agenda. WRT the ajudication system making any sense or being a fair one for the athletes, now that’s a bad joke. I can’t see FIFA subjecting its star players to such an arbitrary system. But then, Sepp need not worry much. FIFA Football (soccer) is a much more valuable worldwide brand than the quaint little carnival the IOC puts on at four year intervals. Football doesn’t need the IOC.
Lemme see: a steel plate and 12 screws surgically put in a bike racer…so he can recover quicker…get back to training…so he can get back into an important race…
Jeff,
I agree that Sepp Blatter may be fighting the wrong fight with WADA on this, at least to some extent. The current system does seem overly intrusive, but at the same time, out-of-competition testing is a necessary evil. The real Dr. Evil of doping fame, Victor Conte, has said that out-of-competition is where most of the real doping is done. Given that he’s been pretty successful at guiding people in how to beat the tests (up to 2003, anyway), he might know a thing or two about the subject.
There are bigger fish to fry, as you point out. And football (soccer) doesn’t need the IOC all that much. If the sport got tossed from the Olympics, it wouldn’t be that big a deal to the fortunes of FIFA. Smaller sports are more beholden to the IOC, though.
eightzero,
Hmm. Race, huh? Let’s see. Something in France in July, maybe? I think this is all part of Lance’s master plan. Lull people into thinking he’s not ready, and then come out raging. Guess we’ll have to wait a few months to see.
What, no carbon fiber plates and titanium screws? What is the world coming too!
I agree, FIFA could very well do without the Olympics. To what extent it could tell WADA to take a hike I am not sure, strictly from a PR point of view. Such an act could be seen as a cover up of doping in the sport.
I am going to toss out a related idea here, which you may or may not agree with: cycling could also do without the Olympics. There are plenty of big races every year, from the World Championships, to the big tours, to the one day classics. At one time, here in the US, cycling used the idea of an “Olympic sport” to sell itself, but I think we are well beyond that now, thank in part to a couple of people with the initials of GL and LA, who between them both have as many Olympic medals as your truly.
Agreed. I’m not proposing to do away with OoC testing. I’m just saying they (the OoC testers) could get the same results with an odd/even day system, with the benefit being the overly intrusive system would then become only half as intrusive.
I’d say that would be a good step. Virtually the same risk for athletes involved in things they shouldn’t be involved in, and all the same ‘science”. Reproting whereabouts would be half the pita. Sometimes I think the one hour per day/every day requirement is just a jab at the athletes and a reminder of relative serfdom. The everyday thing is condescending and un-necessary. If WADA were truely intersted in the health and well being of the athletes, then it would bring up the question of, “how often do we need to be able to know where an athlete is, so that we can take samples to be sure he/she is not using unauthorized methods?”
Sample taking is a disruption to the private lives and professional training routines of athletes. Some athletes roll with it better than others. Some are tested much more than others. It un-evens the playing field that WADA purports to want to even up. That’s an impact on athletes seldom considered. FWIW.
William,
You’ve won olympic medal(s)? LA has (none gold, bronze-TT?). Not sure about GL and don’t much care.
I think road cycling could do well without the olympics (I refuse to use an upper case o). Few top riders target the olympics. It’s a one in four year thing and there is the issue of horses for courses. MTB and the un-motorized supercross wannabes, I don’t know? Track would suffer for sure as it is a key element of the calendar, generally attracts the best, and it’s a big part of what track riders get remembered/paid for.
Pro road cycling is crazy to put up with the WADA BS. I’d be most concerned for Track events.
Jeff,
GL has no medals. He was on the 1980 Olympic team that never made it to Moscow, if I recall correctly. By 1984, he was a pro. And “pros” (if by “pro” you mean non-Eastern European athletes paid to compete) weren’t allowed to race at the Olympics back then. 😉
I don’t think I’ve ever heard this discussed anywhere regarding the attempts to eradicate doping in cycling, particularly via law enforcement agencies, but I never realized until I read this blog post that Portugal is the only EU country which has decriminalized drugs, and has done so since 2001.
Portugal has had a reputation as being perhaps “the Wild West” when it comes to doping, with several cyclists who’ve been banned elsewhere having resurrected their careers in Portugal. I don’t have any idea if this is merely coincidental or not.
I’ve done a bit of reading into Portugal’s decriminalization and it seems you can still get into legal trouble if you’re a dealer, which I believe is defined as having more than a 10-day supply of drugs.
Peter,
Interesting that drugs were decriminalized in Portugal. I’ll have to take a look at that post.
AI stand corrected – LA did get a bronze in 2000. Shows how much attention I pay to the Os.
But this rather supports my point: the Olympics are not that big of a deal in the overall scheme of things for cycling. Many top riders with otherwise impressive lists of palmaires have little or nothing to show from the Os.
Agreed William.
I just wanted to be sure that you were not a medal winner. Googled and didn’t come up with anything, but your latest post seems to confirm. LA’s bonze was easy to forget. He doesn’t seem to value it, or the experience much either.
Thanks, Jeff