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Wednesday, December
21, 2005
Christophe Moreau, Levi Leipheimer, George Hincapie
(in yellow), Oscar Pereiro and Alberto Contador lead the peloton out
of Aix-les-Bains at the start of stage 1 of the 2005 Dauphiné Libéré
Despite appearances, we have not gone into hibernation. The "special report" we mentioned last month was put on the backburner for a couple of weeks and then the scope of the report grew. It's coming, and things will heat up. Sunday, November 13, 2005 Note: If you have been unable to access Daniel Baal's inflammatory Le Figaro article, it indeed appears that it was rather quickly removed from Le Figaro's web site. On the subject of Roberto Heras's "non-negative" EPO "A" sample from the Vuelta, we will wait until the results of the November 21 counter-analysis before commenting. In the meantime, within a few days we expect to wrap up work on a "special report" you may find of interest. Thanks for checking in. Sunday, October 30, 2005
Thursday, October 27, 2005 Breaking: L'Equipe TV is reporting, before this morning's 2006 Tour route presentation in Paris, that there will be no Team Time Trial in the 2006 Tour de France. If confirmed, this would be good news for the little climbers in the peloton. More after the official presentation... Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Saturday, October 22, 2005 Deal brings UCI cycling broadcasts
to the U.S.
Good news for cycling fans in the U.S. The UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) yesterday announced an agreement with the World Championship Sports Network (WCSN) for the U.S. broadcast of UCI cycling events. The 3-year deal involves offering these broadcasts on demand, pay-per-view, on American cable networks and the internet with live streaming audio and video coverage. It should be pointed out, however, that the deal only includes events that the UCI itself controls, such as the cycling road and track world championships and mountain bike and cyclo-cross UCI World Cups. It has nothing to do with races organized by ASO (Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix, etc.), RCS (Giro d'Italia, Tour of Lombardy) or Unipublic (Vuelta). Tuesday, October 18, 2005 
At Paris-Tours, Discovery Channel's Stijn Devolder signs autographs for two Livestrong band-sporting French girls; the girls came prepared with Discovery Channel caps and rider cards. Team mechanic Chris Van Roosbroeck (right) looks on while directeur sportif Dirk Demol (rear) does an interview. While French girls seek autographs from their favorite pro cyclists, L'Equipe and its advertisers seek to sell to the feminine market; L'Equipe Féminine magazine was launched on Saturday as a supplement to L'Equipe. The price of the day's newspaper was increased by $1. (which coincidentally is what the yellow Livestrong bands sell for to raise money for cancer research.) So it wasn't a free supplement. If you wanted L'Equipe's pre-Tour of Lombardy (or rugby or soccer) coverage, you had to also pay for L'Equipe Féminine. L'Equipe probably hauled in an extra few hundred thousand dollars on Saturday from newspaper sales alone. Monopolies (L'Equipe is the only sports daily in France) can get away with this. As for how serious L'Equipe is about the feminine sports market, the next issue of L'Equipe Féminine won't be out until Spring, 2006.... Enjoy that big end-of-year party, L'Equipe. It's on us, the readers. 
Meanwhile, because there was no mention at all in L'Equipe of French cyclist Dimitri Champion's record-setting ride in Sunday's Chrono des Herbiers, "Espoirs" category, we'll repeat it here (we mentioned it in our live ticker Sunday). Great ride, Dimitri, don't take the L'Equipe snub personally. 
Dimitri Champion Hour Record holder Ondrej Sosenka won the elite men's event, France's Edwige Pitel won the elite women's event and France's Sébastien Ivars won the junior's event. Sunday, October 16, 2005 Note: No one else seems to have a live ticker for today's race, so we are going to try and do our own. (Key word being "try"!) We pick up the action mid-course of the men's elite race. See below.
Saturday, October 15, 2005 Live coverage breaking news: Looks like there will be live web radio (in French only) for tomorrow's Chrono des Herbiers time trial in France. There are juniors, espoirs, women's and elite men's categories. Among the men competing: Three-time World Time Trial Champion Michael Rogers , Fabian Cancellara, Hour Record holder Ondrej Sosenka , future Discovery Channel rider Vladimir Gusev , and Ben Day. With the loss of the Grand Prix des Nations this year, the Chrono des Herbiers is one of the few big time trial-only events left. In 2006 the race will become the Chrono des Nations with ASO (organizer of the Tour de France and the defunct GP des Nations) partnering in the organization of the event. We'll post more information and links for the Chrono des Herbiers tomorrow. Below is a guide to live internet/web coverage of Tour of Lombardy 2005. Note: The pro cycling season may be ending but we'll be putting up a lot of new content here soon.
Briefly: In an editorial yesterday, L'Equipe editors Claude Droussent and Michel Dalloni confirmed that the L'Equipe journalists placed under investigation are Dominique Issartel and Damien Ressiot (see Thursday's entry below for more info). The Le Point journalists are Jean-Michel Decugis, Christophe Labbe, and Olivia Recassens. Thursday, October 13, 2005 
L'Equipe headquarters photo © 2005 www.cyclingfans.com Two journalists from French sports daily L'Equipe were formally placed under investigation yesterday by a judge looking for a source of leaks related to the case of alleged dope trafficking by members of the Cofidis team and staff. (Ed.: Some Cofidis personnel were dismissed from the team not long after the scandal came to light in 2004.) Three journalists from French news weekly Le Point were also placed under investigation today. (source: FFC (French). See Links at left.) The names of the journalists were not communicated. However, we know that a magistrate accompanied by police on the same case seized documents belonging to L'Equipe's Dominique Issartel and Damien Ressiot in early 2005. (Ressiot is also L'Equipe's investigative reporter behind the newspaper's August 23 allegations of doping against Lance Armstrong. Armstrong has denied the allegations and cycling's governing body, the UCI, has appointed a former anti-doping official in the Netherlands to investigate the matter, including who leaked confidential information.) Being placed under investigation does not necessarily suggest wrongdoing on the part of the journalists. More likely in this case, the judge wants to pressure them to reveal who was behind the leaks. As yet, there has been no reaction from L'Equipe, though L'Equipe TV today has acknowledged that two of its journalists were placed under investigation. 
Scotland's David Millar on Mont Ventoux, 2004 Dauphine Libere Millar would soon be sacked by Cofidis after admitting to doping. He was suspended from the sport for two years. photo © 2004 Pete Geyer |
Jean-Marie Leblanc and Christian Prudhomme appeared on L'Equipe
TV Thursday evening.
Leblanc: "We're just organizers, not doping experts."
Prudhomme, on L'Equipe TV: "For me, again the fundamental
problem is one of image. We must get rid of suspicion, that's
the most important thing."
Daniel Baal, former Director of Cycling at ASO and former
president of the FFC
Leblanc said on L'Equipe TV that he looks to young riders
such as Alejandro Valverde (pictured) and Damiano Cunego to show what
they can do in the next Tour.
UCI president Pat McQuaid on L'Equipe TV, interviewed at Thursday's
Tour presentation. On Friday, McQuaid suspended ProTour talks
with ASO, deeming such talks pointless at this time given ASO's attitude
the day before.
