Vuelta a Espana

[Artie Fufkin]

Not sure if anyone is following the race but the Americans, especially the Posties are putting on a good show. Tyler busted himself up again the other day, he won the TT today with a messed up wrist...


General classification after stage 8

1 Floyd Landis (USA) US Postal Service p/b Berry Floor 27.16.17
2 Manuel Beltran (Spa) US Postal Service p/b Berry Floor 0.10
3 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems 0.32
4 Victor Hugo Peña (Col) US Postal Service p/b Berry Floor 0.44

Phonak is looking pretty good for next year with Landis and Pena leaving Postal and joining Tyler

Edit: Link to story and photos
CyclingNews/Vuelta a Espana

[glademaster]

Go Floyd!

[Artie Fufkin]

Originally posted by glademaster
Go Floyd!

Floyd and the podium girls...

[phUnk]

The one on his left is a man, man.

[TeleAl]

Originally posted by Artie Fufkin
Phonak is looking pretty good for next year with Landis and Pena leaving Postal and joining Tyler

Sounds like the boys will be passing by my place next Spring for the Tour du Romandie (Swiss French area). Tyler has won it twice in a row. The first time he pulled a TT on the last day that blew away the field, some 1m42s ahead of the next.

Of course, it might be snowing, as it has been the case a couple times.

[Artie Fufkin]

Tyler's Vuelta is done, he lost some serious time today. The Spaniards are coming on, Heras made his move today, but Landis was able to hang on to the Golden jersey.



General classification after stage 9

1 Floyd Landis (USA) US Postal Service p/b Berry Floor 31.46.48
2 Manuel Beltran (Spa) US Postal Service p/b Berry Floor 0.33
3 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) Illes Balears-Banesto 0.38
4 Isidro Nozal (Spa) Liberty Seguros 0.51
5 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Comunidad Valenciana-Kelme 0.57
6 Roberto Heras (Spa) Liberty Seguros 1.35

35 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems 10.29

[Benny Profane]

wow, Tyler out because of a crash. How unusual for him.

[freshies]

[i]Phonak is looking pretty good for next year with Landis and Pena leaving Postal and joining Tyler]

damn! i had no idea Floyd and Pena were already gone?! I was hoping Postal - Discovery now - could keep the band together and even add a US guy or 2 - like Levi or Bobby Julich......oh well....best of luck to Floyd.

[Artie Fufkin]

Originally posted by phUnk
The one on his left is a man, man.

He did better today...

[Oarhead]

Didn't Zabel get picked up by Phonak for next year too? Or is this just idle rumour?

[ulty_guy]

Originally posted by freshies
damn! i had no idea Floyd and Pena were already gone?! I was hoping Postal - Discovery now - could keep the band together and even add a US guy or 2 - like Levi or Bobby Julich......oh well....best of luck to Floyd.

meet Yaroslav Popovych who's going to be the future stallion once Lance relents.

Tailwind Sports, the sports management company that co-owns and manages the United States Postal Service Professional Cycling Team®, which is presented by Berry Floor, has announced the team has signed Ukrainian standout Yaroslav Popovych to a three-year contract beginning in 2005.

Johan Bruyneel, the USPS team's sports manager, was extremely excited to sign the talented Popovych to the USPS team, which will become the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team next season as the USPS will end its title sponsorship after nine seasons.

"I'm really excited to get Yaroslav on the team," said Bruyneel. "He's a young rider who has shown his talent on numerous occasions. He was the World U23 champion (2001) and he has done some great performances at the Giro d'Italia (3rd in 2003, 5th in 2004). I'm sure he still has a great margin of progression (to make) and I see him as a future contender for the Tour de France in a few years. It's great to have a big talent like him joining us. He really believes in our program."

Popovych, 24, was equally as happy upon joining the team.

"Riding for the Discovery team in 2005 has been my ultimate dream," Popovych said. "It's a team in which I believe in and a team where I'm sure to receive the proper education from directors such as Johan Bruyneel and Dirk Demol to become a three-week stage racer." Popovych debuted as an amateur in 1999 and then registered 36 victories from 2000 and 2001, including his world title in Portugal. In his first effort at the Giro, in 2002, Popovych confirmed his talent by finishing 12th.

[Artie Fufkin]

Originally posted by ulty_guy
meet Yaroslav Popovych who's going to be the future stallion once Lance relents.

This could also be a glimpse of the future of Postal as well. Another great day for the Americans at the Vuelta, Landis holds onto to the Gold and a solo stage win by an American. Postal rider Dave Zabriskie broke away with 160K remaining in the 11th stage of the Vuelta and held of the peloton for the solo win, amazing. He is the US TT champion, so he put his TT skills to use today.

[Stu Gotz]

For those of you who have more cycling knowledge than moi -

One Lance retires, does Discovery look to replace him with another up and coming American as the leader of the team, or do they just get the best rider they can find?

[Artie Fufkin]

Originally posted by Stu Gotz
One Lance retires, does Discovery look to replace him with another up and coming American as the leader of the team, or do they just get the best rider they can find?

My uninformed opinion, the Discovery deal is for three years. I think at this point Lance is going to race that long, he is 32 so he's not done. I don't think he will win 3 more Tdfs, I think he will begin to concentrate on some other races. Though I think once Lance is gone, so is Discovery. But I can see Lance staying involved racing as an owner, helping to keep a strong US presence in Europe.

The face of Euro racing is going to change drastically next season, it's possible the Giro and Vuelta will be reduced to 2 weeks. With the introduction of the Pro Tour the teams will have to race all races. Postal/Discovery has been approved for the tour, so they will need more than one Grand tour winner, which could be someone like Popvych.

At this point Discovery will get great riders, regardless of where there from. They have big Tex as the big name Americanrider, but once he is done in a few years, Discovery will probably be done with sponsoring a cycling team.

[Viva]

Originally posted by Stu Gotz

One Lance retires, does Discovery look to replace him with another up and coming American as the leader of the team, or do they just get the best rider they can find?

They'll do what they feel is necessary to gain marketing exposure. An American rider makes sense, but a good-looking and charismatic foreigner would probably work too.

[tywhy]

that's awesome that local Salt Lake boy Dave Zabriskie got the stage today!!!!!

does anyone know if oln is offering any vuelta coverage at all?

[Artie Fufkin]

Originally posted by tywhy
does anyone know if oln is offering any vuelta coverage at all?

Yeah, a 1 hour recap at the end of October, lame. You can catch live internet coverage on Velonews.com or Cyclingnews.com. No audio or video, but better than nothing.

[UTdave]

Originally posted by tywhy
that's awesome that local Salt Lake boy Dave Zabriskie got the stage today!!!!!

does anyone know if oln is offering any vuelta coverage at all?

Good recovery for him after he teed off on an SUV in Mill Creek Canyon last year (I heard it and was there).

[ulty_guy]

Originally posted by tywhy
that's awesome that local Salt Lake boy Dave Zabriskie got the stage today!!!!!

hi, honey, yeah, i'm just going to go for a 100 mile ride on my own today while a pack of the world's best cyclists chase me down the entire time, yeah, that sounds like fun

major props

[tywhy]

Originally posted by Artie Fufkin
Yeah, a 1 hour recap at the end of October, lame. You can catch live internet coverage on Velonews.com or Cyclingnews.com. No audio or video, but better than nothing.

ouch. that sucks.

[verbier61]

Originally posted by Benny Profane
wow, Tyler out because of a crash. How unusual for him.

Looks like there are bad news for him.........

[spanky]

Originally posted by verbier61
Looks like there are bad news for him.........

Are you referring to this... http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=6295922

[verbier61]

Are you referring to this... http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=6295922

looks like he received blood transfusions. Used to be a very smart way to escape from the need for Epo (new epo tests work much better). But it USED to be..... now, in some cases, flow cytometry can detect transfused blood.
Life is gettin complicated...... recombinant GH still very hard to detect, though