The ToU ended on Sunday with a grueling criterium in Salt Lake. Luckily for the peloton the temps were cooler than the record highs they experienced earlier in the race. Here’s the official OUCH press release on the team’s accomplishments in Utah:
Murphy takes 2nd in final stage of Utah.
Salt Lake City, UT – U.S. National Criterium Champion John Murphy of the OUCH Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis took 2nd place in the final stage of the 2009 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah. Murphy finished just behind Australian criterium champion Bernard Sulzberger (Fly V) in the sprint finish.
“We took over the front of the race with eight laps to go,” said team directeur sportif Mike Tamayo. “We wanted to control the race at the end and do the full lead-out for Murph. The team did a great job of riding for John.”
Tim Johnson took Murphy to the last corner, but Sulzberger got the jump on him and narrowly held on for the win.
Strong race overall for OUCH Presented by Maxxis
Throughout the six-day race, OUCH Presented by Maxxis was one of the main protagonists. The team rode a very strong race, with Pat McCarty and Chris Baldwin figuring in the race’s key stages.
“Unfortunately we had a bit of bad luck with Chris in Stage 4 crashing on one of the descents,” Tamayo said. “He was definitely riding himself into a high position overall. He got back in the race but just couldn’t chase back to the front group when Rock Racing went to the front on the next climb. It’s frustrating for Chris and for all of us, but that happens sometimes.”
Baldwin had been sitting 4th overall going into Saturday’s stage to Snowbird after a strong time trial in Stage 3.
McCarty completed a solid race Sunday by finishing 8th overall after a good ride on the queen stage to Snowbird Saturday. “I was okay on the climbs Saturday, but not great,” McCarty said. “I had Brad (White) with me, and when I started to flag a little bit he got me going again. He was great. But the break had gotten so much time that day that they were too far up to bring back. But we had a lot of guys up toward the front in that stage. Brad was there. Floyd was there. It was a good day for the team.”
Those efforts helped OUCH Presented by Maxxis move up to 2nd overall in the team competition behind the Rock Racing team of overall winner Francisco Mancebo.
“It was a very good race for the team,” Tamayo added. “We raced hard, we raced well and we definitely had an impact. The race itself was great. The stages were hard. Having the 38 kilometer climb up to Nebo was epic. The crowds were great on Snowbird.
“I think this was good preparation ahead of the USPro Championships next weekend and then the Tour of Missouri.” Tamayo added.
For complete race results, and Floyd Landis finished 24th overall some 15 minutes back, you can check out the excellent Tour of Utah web site.
Next up for OUCH: the USPRO Road Championships this weekend in Greenville, SC. You can follow the action on twitter and results/news will be posted here.
Rumors getting started about the possibility of Floyd joining LA’s Team RadioShack:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bruyneel-confirmed-for-team-radioshack
Interesting, although it is hard to tell what a “we can’t rule it out” actually means. Would LA and/or JB actually recruit FL, would they hire him if he was interested, or merely just “we’ll think about it if the occasion arises”?
My guess is that it is still early in the process of forming a team and that the last option above is more likely at this time.
BTW, what would Landis’ situation be as far as eligibility to race in France?
WS: There is a snowball’s change in hell FL can race in France, but just. But *never* in the tour. Ever. Never ever. ASO hates his guts. I would be very surprised if Floyd winds up on The Shack for just this reason – TS is all about Lance Armstrong’s bike in the TdF, and FL probably has no contribution to make to that.
OTOH, LA himself is fond of pissing off the French. He might just hire FL to spite them. I can very easily see ASO telling The Shack “if you put FL on the team, we will withdraw the invite, ProTour be damned” and they would go to the wall on that. I doubt LA would.
FL on TS would be about the only wy I’d buy a RadioShack jersey though. RS products suck.
Oh I agree, it will be a C O L D day in hell before the ASO allows Floyd Landis to compete @ the TdF.
str
But that is different from FL’s “legal” stance to race in France per UCI/the French federation. ASO has taken the stand they can uninvite anyone they please and so far, no one has called them to task. Or does ASO own all of French racing?
Well…yeah. They pretty much do. And ASO also owns a large stake in the AToC as well. Interesting they didn’t object to Floyd’s participation there.
Probably because it’s so far away. I mean, how many people in France follow racing in the Golden State?
In the better late than never department:
Interesting rumors. I liked the way Cyclingnews.com put it. “Armstrong failed to deny …” or something like that. As if refusing to comment on something like who he might or might not sign to his team is a failure. Of course, perhaps that was just a bad translation of what the author wrote in his/her native language.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/09/01/too-fast-to-be-clean/
Wonder what his VO2 max is? “Next question.”
Quiet here.
http://www.playthegame.org/news/detailed/doping-and-legal-rights-4513.html
Danish Dr. believes Lance doped in 2009 Tour here:
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=da&js=y&u=http://ekstrabladet.dk/sport/cykling/article1215712.ece&sl=da&tl=en&history_state0
Personally (if you get the same page I did) the story about the cat that survived a gunshot to its head is more compelling.
Me too, Bill. You just can’t keep a good cat down 🙂
I read the Danish translation last night after seeing it posted on twitter. I thought the sh** would have hit the fan this AM but so far not much.
str
Hello,
I just read the danish article. I think the values are more damaging for Lance that said the Dane.
I explain it. In the past, Lance often said that he had just to sleep in an altitude tent or to train or live at high altitude to increase his hematocrit to 49 !
Why didn’t he do it that year? All studies show it’s just possible to gain 3 points! So how Lance got his magic 49 coming from a 41-43 hct? How could he have 49 in the last week of TDF?
What has said that blood doping expert is similar to what we commonly hear on the subject about the variation of hct, reticulocytes, OFF-SCORE, and so. So I tend to agree with him, Lance received 2 blood injection or he got diarhea or dehydration but for the 2 last cases how could he be performant in that situation?
I had a look on Wiggins’ values, there is something not clear too.
Darn, the cat article is apparently no longer on the page linked above.
Jean C,
HCT is a very rough measurement in this (and most other) case(s). The variables were not controlled, therefore using the measurements, as a link toward indicating doping is not fit for purpose. The variables include hydration levels of the subject, instrument calibration, ……
LA might have doped or he might not have. I could be drunk typing or not, too. The point is the article and so called analysis is/was garbage in and garbage out. The same goes for your other assumptions on the general subject, but interesting speculation. You are too intelligent not to realize that.