Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Mass exodus
The entire Astana team is out of the Tour, due to a positive blood doping test for Alexandre Vinokourov.Antonio Colom Mas (Spain)
Maxim Iglinskiy (Kazakhstan)
Serguei Ivanov (Russia)
Andrey Kashechkin (Kazakhstan)
Andreas Klöden (Germany)
Daniel Navarro (Spain)
Grégory Rast (Switzerland)
Paolo Savoldelli (Italy)
Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakhstan)
That is the FIRST PLACE TEAM in the Tour standings. Leaving the Tour.
Their website at http://www.team-astana.eu/f/home.php is apparently overloaded and not responding.
The 5th place rider Klöden.
The 8th place rider Kashechkin.
The double stage winner Vinokourov.
The lowest-placed Astana rider was Gregory Rast, a Swiss cyclist formerly on the Phonak team, who held 108th place overall out of 160.
Yes, this is Huge.
None of the team riders had yet withdrawn from the Tour, all 9 were still competing. This brings the number of riders down to 151, suddenly. And puts Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) and Yaroslav Popovych (Discovery) into the top ten riders.
Update: The Astana website is now responding, and a news item there says (in French, badly translated here): "As opposed to what certain media could claim, Astana Cycling TEAM continues its activities and will be thus present at the time of Sachsen Tour (July 25 - 29) and of Brixia Tour (26 - July 29). The direction of the team, still present in Pau (FRA), received the unconditional support of the President of the Kazakhe Federation of Cycling, Mr. Danial Akhmetov."
Labels: Colom, Iglinsky, Ivanov, Kashechkin, Klöden, Navarro, Rast, Salvoldelli, Vinokourov
Sunday, July 15, 2007
A T-Mobile rider and spectator down
There are reports out now that rider Patrik Sinkewitz of T-Mobile went down after the stage while riding to his hotel from hitting a 78-year-old spectator who is now in a coma. Sinkewitz incurred facial injuries.I fervently hope the rider's injuries are not another idiotic situation like Paolo Salvoldelli's last year that might have been prevented quite simply by keeping a helmet on after the stage was over. And that Sinkewitz and the spectator both recover quickly (along with the other riders injured today).
This is a severe blow to a team that just lost Cavendish and Rogers in today's stage, although Cavendish's departure was pre-planned.
Update: There is a short article on this now at the T-Mobile team website which says Sinkewitz "will definitely not be able to continue at the Tour de France" due to "a facial fracture (broken nose), head trauma, and a shoulder injury". It does sound like some of those rider injuries may have been prevented or reduced with a helmet, but there is no mention of whether he was wearing one or not at the time. On TV I see many of the riders removing their helmets immediately after the finish line of each stage, but as described here, they often ride their bikes through the extremely crowded streets a fair distance back to their team bus or lodgings. His withdrawal was confirmed by Reuters, which brings the peleton down to no more than 171 riders on Tuesday (from 189 Prologue finishers) and 6 of 9 riders remaining on T-Mobile.
Update: It seems that I was wrong about Sinkewitz not wearing a helmet. There is an AP photo of the crash posted at Spare Cycles where a magenta helmet can be seen. My apologies for making an incorrect assumption and my best wishes to everyone concerned.
Labels: Cavendish, Rogers, Salvoldelli, Sinkewitz
Friday, July 14, 2006
Shoulda worn a helmet
Is two-time Giro d’Italia champion Paolo Savoldelli now out of the Tour de France because he made the dumbass mistake of not wearing his bike helmet after the stage yesterday? I'm not certain, but it sure sounds that way:"Discovery team director Dirk Demol gave us some more info on Paolo Savoldelli, who abandoned earlier today. "We [were] driving up the Pla-de-Beret and suddenly we saw a rider standing next to the road with a rag to his head. I hoped it wasn't Paolo, but of course it was him. Paolo said that a fan suddenly, unintentionally, jumped on the road. He couldn’t brake anymore and crashed into the person. He hit the ground with his head. We rode back down immediately to investigate the wound. He needed ten stitches and has got quite a headache now."
From all accounts, this injury could have been prevented with a proper bike helmet.
A dispatch from a spectator who was present on the site at Val d’Aran - Pla-de-Beret that day (who also happens to be a triathlete and medical doctor):
"Ok, this is really dumb, but this is what they were doing - they got to the top. A few teams put vans there, all had to leave their buses about 5km from the top. So they could wait for the van, or ride their bikes down. The police won't let any cars on the road for an hour or so. So they come down with the 150,000 people lining the crowd. And this is the retarded part - they were riding no helmets (one of the Disco boys gave his hat to a fan at the bus, asked for another guys hat to give to that fan's friend - they both had them on, no helmets) and it gets mo stoopid. They were riding the descent NO HANDS!!!!! It was steeper than the yellow lake descent. I'd buy that they can handle a bike way way way better than me with no hands on the bars, and can do it. But with 150,000 morons going down at the same time? There were the usual yahoos, kids on mountain bikes, bikes deeking left around a stopped car, some right, some both ways.... Not surprising what happened."
Savoldelli is pictured at left after a crash cycling in the mountains in 2003, following which he needed reconstructive facial surgery. I don't see any helmets in the photo, either. Yes, he should have known better.Labels: helmets, Salvoldelli
