Podium Cafe (Free subscription) | 04/11/2009
Interesting assortment of nominations as you'll see below. No dopers. But injured riders still count. Poll Who was THE most disappointing rider of 2009? Nick Nuyens Linus Gerdemann Svein Tuft Simon Spilak Marzio Bruseghin Greg Van Avermaet Gert Steegmans Igor Anton Levi Leipheimer Bauke Mollema Alessandro Ballan Rigoberto Uran Enrico Gasparotto Other? 14 votes | Results
Podium Cafe (Free subscription) | 02/11/2009
Teams, riders, results, oh my! Here is the second part of the monster Chris created last week, an overview of the teams after the transfer season is all-but closed. The list follows no particular order, because that would be far, far too organized. Okay, let’s go. Lampre-Vini Farnese v. 2009. It was a forgettable season for Lampre this year. World Champion Alessandro Ballan lost most of his season...
Euro Peloton - Pro Cycling News (Free subscription) | 31/10/2009
Since the mass exodus of Lance Armstrong, Johan Bruyneel and a host of other talented cyclists from the Astana cycling team, the Kazakh-based squad has become a sort of refuge for riders who have had difficulty in past seasons. It seems as though many established, popular riders are staying far away from last season's most successful stage racing team, leaving management with no other choice but to...
cyclingnews.com (Free subscription) | 31/10/2009
Italian doctor under investigation for administering ozone therapy Astana, Vinokourov put faith in Gasparotto Bookwalter appearing at Cycle with Champions fundraiser Rasmussen's future still to be determined Columbia-HTC pleased with women's season Planet Energy maintains core roster for 2010 Valverde would welcome Contador at Caisse Cervélo extend Deignan's contract
Podium Cafe (Free subscription) | 31/10/2009
Let's see if there's some juice for this category. IMO there should be just one rule for this poll: no dopers. Everyone else is fair game. Why no dopers? First, they are too obvious. Second, I'd rather not give them any more attention. I don't want a poll where I choose among Killer, Tin Tin and Dekker. So if we are to leave the dopers aside, there could be any number of riders nominated. You got your...
cyclingnews.com (Free subscription) | 30/10/2009
Italian Enrico Gasparotto will join team Astana after a forgettable year with the Lampre team. He received assurance from Alexander Vinokourov and new team director Giuseppe Martinelli that he will have chances to race for himself throughout 2010. "I talked to Vinokourov. He will ride for Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Flèche Wallonne, but confirmed I will have chances in the other...
Podium Cafe (Free subscription) | 20/10/2009
Over the last week, it seems like Astana has gotten serious about trying to keep Contador. It seems that Vino has kept his promise about being willing to do anything to keep the Spaniard but he and his Kazakh brethren are making deals left and right... In about the last 2 weeks they have: -Brought on a new co-sponsor-Samruk, which is the state holding and investment firm for Kazakhstan. -Signed David...
Podium Cafe (Free subscription) | 02/10/2009
Following up on my rest-of-the-season post, here's a bit more detailed info for this weekend's races. Mind you, the Circuit Franco-Belge will be ongoing, but a look at the roadbook doesn't show much in the way of cotes or bergs, so I will assume that the Tyler Farrar Show will simply keep playing. Which leaves the following menu items for your enjoyment... Memorial Cimurri , Saturday, Reggio Emiliana,...
cyclingnews.com (Free subscription) | 02/09/2009
Martin rues time lost in Grand Tour debut Hoste calls an end to 2009 season Kiserlovski out of Vuelta, Viganò still in Sánchez keeps focus on Vuelta gold Valverde's Vuelta off to solid start Gasparotto hunts for Vuelta stage win Vuelta a España Rider Galleries Haussler extends with Cervélo through 2012
cyclingnews.com (Free subscription) | 02/09/2009
Italy's Enrico Gasparotto (Lampre-NGC) is on the hunt for victory in the next two Vuelta a España stages. He missed the win after a solo escape in the finale of yesterday's wet stage to Liège, Belgium. "It was not necessarily my type of day, no one likes to race in the rain," Gasparotto told Cyclingnews . "The Classics-style stage became harder due to the rain. I thought,...
Podium Cafe (Free subscription) | 02/09/2009
It's early, and most of the individual movements have long since been reported here, but the real stories of the transfer season are just taking shape -- the team evolutions. Let's do a little baseline assessment to kick off the official transfer season, which will give us something to update/assess/make fun of in a couple months. Columbia-HTC Key Departures: Edvald Boasson Hagen, Marcus Burghardt,...
cyclingnews.com (Free subscription) | 21/08/2009
Italian Luca Paolini (Acqua & Sapone) won the Coppa Bernocchi yesterday in Legnano, Italy. The win came in front of national director Franco Ballerini, 25 days before he selects the nine-man World Championships team. Paolini formed part of an escape group that went free on the fourth of five times up the Morazzone climb. He sprinted ahead of Danilo Hondo (PSK Whirlpool), Enrico Gasparotto (Lampre-NGC)...
cyclingnews.com (Free subscription) | 21/08/2009
BBox Bouygues Telecom 1 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) 2 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) 3 William Bonnet (Fra) 4 Cyrille Gautier (Fra) 5 Vincent Jerome (Fra) 6 Laurent Lefevre (Fra) 7 Yury Trofimov (Rus) 8 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Lampre - N.G.C 11 Alessandro Ballan (Ita) 12 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) 13 Andréa Grendene (Ita) ...
Podium Cafe (Free subscription) | 04/08/2009
Yep, the World Champion, Lampre's Alessandro Ballan, is on the move. This came up during the Poland live thread, but deserves its own space, particularly as CN has done some further reporting. Rabobank ain't buying -- they were among several teams Ballan mentioned to La Gazzetta, but not surprisingly Rabo are not in the market for his services, presumably due to their existing glut of one-day vertically-challenged...
Podium Cafe (Free subscription) | 14/04/2009
I'm not saying I've had enough of the cobbles. I'm just saying take a look at who's on the Amstel Gold Race startlist . We'll go into much detail starting tomorrow, but let's just say among the people I will no longer find myself missing by Sunday will include: Damiano Cunego, Enrico Gasparotto, Nick Roche, Chris Horner (right'), Alejandro Valverde, Joaquin Rodriguez, Amael Moinard (just curious),...
Videos