Alejandro Valverde, finally a champion at Vuelta a España

Vuelta a España 2009 finished Sunday with a Spanish rider taking the top podium spot.

Alejandro Valverde had earlier won the Volta a Catalunya, Spain’s second most popular bike race, in May. His victory in this year’s Vuelta caps a campaign in this premiere Spanish bike race which saw him finish at third place in his second Vuelta in 2003, fourth in 2004, second in 2006 and fifth last year.

Valverde becomes the third Spanish rider to win a Grand Tour in the past two years. Alberto Contador, who did not join this year’s Vuelta, took the top podium spot in the 2009 Tour de France in July. Contador also won the 2008 Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana. Their countryman Carlos Sastre won the 2008 Tour de France.

Valverde rode this year’s Vuelta under the shadow of suspicions of drug use. He has been linked by some sources to the Operación Puerto, a blood-doping affair which erupted in 2006. While he has not tested positive, he is still suffering the fallout from those allegations.

Early this year, the Italian National Olympic Committee reportedly linked DNA samples taken from Valverde during a rest day in Italy of the 2008 Tour de France to blood seized in the Operación Puerto investigation.Valverde maintained his innocence and questioned the Italians’ jurisdiction over this case, but was still suspened in May 2009 by the Italian Olympic Committee from competition in Italy for 2 years. This prevented him from joining the 2009 Tour de France which passed briefly through Italy.

Valverde will compete for the world champion’s rainbow jersey at the world road race championships next Sunday. He has finished second in this event twice, in 2003 and 2005, and was third overall in 2006. Whether or not he does like he did in the “Vuelta” is something worth watching for us cycling fans.

Bicycling.com has video highlights from the 2009 Vuelta for us who missed the race.

Another win for fast Coryn

photo from corynrivera.com

Coryn Rivera continues to show American cycling fans just what she can do on two wheels.

Her latest victory, considered the biggest win in her young cycling career, is topping stage five of the Cascade Cycling Classic in Bend, Oregon. How big is her win? She just outsprinted five-time US national criterium champion Tina Pic and Australian Kristy Broun.

In her article on First Edition Cycling News at cyclingnews.com, Kirsten Robbins writes:

Coryn, from California, is a 23-time US junior national champion in a multitude of disciplines; road, time trial, track and cyclo-cross. She began racing when she was six years old, encouraged by her father, Wally, and mother, Lina, both Filipinos, who started her riding tandem with them, together, until she was big enough to rider her own bike.

Robbins also quotes Coryn thus:

“Cycling, to me, isn’t a sport, it isn’t a hobby, it isn’t an interest. Cycling, to me, is a passion… And where passion comes from, there is no pain, there is no suffering, but only the love of pain and suffering. And a passion is something you never quit, you never forget, and something you will always love. A passion is forever, cycling is forever.”

Coryn will be part of the US national team that will compete in the junior world championships time trial and road race on August 7-9 in Moscow, Russia.

Will she ever don the colors of her parents’ native land in an international cycling competition? Perhaps that is a question for local cycling authorities to think seriously about.

Lance in 3rd: human but not a lesser athlete

Lance Armstrong on the podium at the end of the Tour de France is not anything new. He has been up there seven times.

Not at third place, though, and without the yellow jersey on his back.

This year’s Tour saw a different Lance Armstrong. It was a Lance Armstrong who suffered in the mountains, a Lance Armstrong who was left behind by GC contenders a dozen or so years his junior when they stepped on the gas in the crucial climbs.

The Lance Armstrong at this year’s Tour was not as sharp as he was before, but definitely far from being  just a shadow of the man who dominated cycling’s biggest event for seven straight years.

At 37, tired and hurting, he was still able to hold on to a podium spot at the end of the day at Champs-Elysees in Paris, yielding only to Alberto Contador, 27, and Andy Schleck, 24, undoubtedly a testament to the character of the man who took cancer by the horns and beat it.

John Leicester, a sports columnist for the Associated Press, summarizes the Tour for Lance in his article Armstrong more human in third place in these words:

He couldn’t win the race, but he won hearts and new ears in France and elsewhere for his other big passion outside of cycling—the fight against cancer.

He and the Tour are both better off for it.

Is it over for Lance?

On the final climb to the finish of Stage 15 of the 96th Tour de France yesterday, Lance Armstrong was left on the slopes of Verbier along with other key GC contenders when his Astana teammate Alberto Contador stepped on the gas.

Contador went on to win the stage, grab the maillot jaune and establish his position on top of the GC with a 1′37″ lead on the second-placed Lance, who finished the stage in ninth.

What does Lance have to say about that?

Daily Peloton quotes him:

“It was as hard as I thought it was going to be and a lot harder than Andorra. It’s been four years since I’ve done something like that and I was unsure. I felt good leading up to it but that high end stuff is what I’m missing.”

“I’d give myself a B-minus I guess. A day like this really shows who is the best and I wasn’t on par with what’s
required to win the Tour.

So is it over for the seven-time TdF champion?

Not quite, it seems, if you ask Chris Carmichael, Lance’s coach for 20 years.

“Some people may be quick to write off Armstrong because he didn’t display the same dominant climbing power he had a few years ago. I think it’s a little premature for that kind of talk. There’s no doubt today could have gone better, but it was far from a disaster,” he writes in his column on Bicycling.com’s TdF section.

“Tomorrow is the Tour de France’s second rest day, and that is followed by more stages in the Alps. I expect Lance to be a factor in those stages, especially in an effort to take time out of riders like Carlos Sastre, Bradley Wiggins, and Andy Schleck before the penultimate stage to Mont Ventoux. It may have looked today like Contador is unstoppable in the mountains, but Lance knows from experience that for the rider in the yellow jersey, opening up a bigger lead is always worth the effort,” he adds.

Lance is a sentimental favorite, for me and perhaps others who have followed the man’s career, found inspiration in his successful fight against cancer and in his seven-time dominance of the Tour de France. He wasn’t the same Lance at Verbier, yes, but in the end he still managed to regain his second place position in the GC with a 1′46″ advantage on third-placed Bradley Wiggins of Garmin-Slipstream. That somehow shows the man’s character and ability.

Would he prove Carmichael’s words true? I guess we’ll have to wait, and see.

Honestly, though, I hope he does.

Riding with the boys of Biking Coy

I have been off the saddle for a month or so, and a text message to the information officer of the City Government of Kidapawan about my new temporary contact number was answered with an invitation to join a mountain bike ride with a group made mostly of city government workers.

The route was up to Barangay Ilomavis, a seemingly endless climbing of almost 15 kilometers, then down to Balabag, Meohao, Palera Perez and Manongol passing through challenging dirt roads lined by banana, rubber and fruit farms which is a common sight hereabouts.

The message said we had to assemble before 6:00 am in front of the City Hall. I was still busy sending some e-mails at 6:00, and was considering just catching up with the group somewhere on the way up to ilomavis. But a text message came asking where we are. That means they haven’t jumped off yet and are still waiting for whoever has been invited who wasn’t at the assembly area yet, like me.

I left the house at 6:30, pumped some air into my tires at a vulcanizing shop, and headed for the city plaza hoping to still find them at the assembly area. They were still there, waiting not only for me. It was already 7:00 when we rolled off.

I took my position at the back of the group, a usual practice when I join group rides. I felt good with the pace and just kept a steady cadence as we started the ascent. After about 8 kilometers on pavement we hit the rocky dirt road going to Ilomavis. The boys of Biking Coy, mostly 10 to 15 years younger than me, were riding well. I was riding good myself, though not as good as I wanted to. Perhaps it was the lack of saddle time. Still I was having a fine time riding with the boys of Biking Coy.

I didn’t finish the route, though. Duty called and I had to head home ahead of the group. But the boys of Biking Coy will have other rides, and I hope to be with them again.

Coryn’s winning ways

She is still at it.

16-year old Filipina Coryn Rivera just continues to shine in women’s cycling in Southern California.

Daily Peloton reports Coryn dominating the women’s elite race in the Storm the Beach Cyclocross at Oceanside,  the Spooky Cross Night Race in Irvine, and at Hansen Dam in the Dam Cross Weekend.

Coryn had to settle for a fourth place finish on the second day at Dam Cross, but not after battling it out with other elite women riders in the lead pack.

(photo from Daily Peloton/SoCalCross)

Coryn however jumped right back into her winning ways in the West Coast & Southern California Nevada Cycling Association Cross Championships – SoCal Eco-Sportsfest  ‘08.  She then left the rest of the field vying for 2nd and 3rd  in the  Gene Galindo Memorial Turkey Trot Cross Race, hosted by the Pasadena Athletic Association.

Thus the young rider of Team Redline with license number 100 207432 continues to make her team, her Filipino parents and their kababayan in Southern California proud.

And if Philippine cycling and Olympic Committee officials take her up on her dream of representing the country in the Olympics, she can surely carry Filipino pride high in the quadrennial games.

Filipino cycling pride

Cyclists race through Surakarta during the sixth stage from Yogyakarta to Madiun in the 2008 Speedy Tour d’Indonesia on Saturday. (Photo by JP/Blontank Poer )

It’s always inspiring to hear of Filipinos doing great against foreign competition in the world of sports. That’s what makes Manny Pacquiao a revered icon of Philippine sports, his ability to inspire and make every Juan and Juana, Pedro and Maria, Toto, Dodong, Utoy and even Abdul proud to be Pinoy.

The riders of Filipino cycling team Jazy Sports Beacon Philippines are doing that in Indonesia right now, making us proud to be Pinoys.

I saw this news just today at the Jakarta Post website on Jazy Sports Beacon rider Sherwin Carrera winning a neck-to-neck sprint in the 159.2 kilometer 7th stage of the Speedy Tour d’Indonesia on Sunday.  Sherwin had the same time as Suhardi Hassan and Wan Mohd Najmee Wan Mohammad, both from Malaysia, and home cyclists Projo Waseso and Tonton Susanto, undoubtedbly one of Southeast Asia’s best riders. Sherwin was eventually declared winner because of a time bonus.

Jazy Sports sits at 3rd overall in the team standings after seven stages, 27.30 behind Tabriz Petrochemical Team of Iran which leads the 14-team tour with a cumulative time 81.22.26, 22.54 ahead of Indonesia’s Customs Cycling Club in the second spot.

Sherwin and the other Jazy riders still have a long way to go. Five more stages are left in the 1,726 km. tour which ends December 5 in Bali.

We can’t be in Indonesia to cheer our boys on, but our prayers are surely with them as they carry our flag and Filipino cycling pride high.

Mexico?

One of the cycling’s big stories in 2007 was of Dannish rider Michael Rasmussen being thrown out by his Dutch team Rabobank while leading the Tour de France.

Rasmussen was said to have lied to Rabobank regarding his whereabouts in June last year, when UCI and Danish Cycling Federation officials had been unable to locate the rider for out-of-competition doping tests. Team officials learned that when Rasmussen had said he was in Mexico – where his wife lives – he had actually been in Italy.

Rasmussen, already 10 days in the yellow jersey when he was ejected from cycling’s premiere road race and poised for an eventual victory in Paris, has earlier been kicked out of the Danish national team by the Danish Cycling Federation.

It seems that story is still the subject of some laughs in Holland, as this Dutch commercial uploaded on YouTube shows.

Translation dutch-english:
- Dutch team manager sees ‘Tour de France Controle’ on his mobile phone screen
- He gets out of his car ans shouts ‘controle , eruit jullie’( A check, get out you all!)
- The Mexicans get out and the manager shouts ’spelen!’ (‘Play!”)
- The Mexicans start to play and the Team Rabo cyclist says : “Hello, yes I am still in Mexico’
Followng text: ‘We know all about it, do you?
You read all about it in the tour guide”.
Uploaded by www.pellenaars.eu

Dreaming of Olympic cycling gold

I imagine British cycling fans ecstatically cheering Nicole Cooke’s gold medal finish yesterday at the women’s cycling road race in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The Welsh rider beat Sweden’s Emma Johansson and Tatiana Guderzo of Italy in a sprint to the finish, clocking a time of three hours, 32 minutes and 24 seconds for the grueling 23.8 km race.

Cooke’s gold medal is the first for Great Britain in this event.

Reading the story of Cooke’s victory on the BBC’s Olympic website, I was wondering if women’s cycling could very well be where the Philippines could finally get that much-coveted Olympic gold.

Why the thought?

This story came out over the weekend at the USA Cycling website.

Rivera notches 18th career junior national title

By Kathie Reid

Anaheim, Calif. August 8, 2008 – When 15-year-old Coryn Rivera (Tustin, Calif./Kahala LaGrange) soloed across the line 45 seconds before breakaway companion and second-placed Kaitlin Antonneau (Racine, Wis./Nova-IsCorp) and over 3 minutes ahead of third-placed Kendall Ryan (Ventura, Calif./Major Motion Development) in Friday’s junior women’s 15-16 road race, she not only secured her second 2008 national champion jersey [she won Wednesday’s time trial], but her 18th career Stars-and-Stripes jersey. Rivera competes in road, track and cyclo-cross, and has accrued more national titles than years of life. After missing the winning break in Thursday’s criterium and then flatting just before the last turn, Rivera came into Friday’s seven-lap, 56-kilometer race looking for redemption.

“I had some unlucky stuff go on yesterday and I wanted to come back and make up for it,” she said.

Coryn’s parents are both Filipino. And, according to an Inquirer article by Recah Trinidad on this young girl two years ago, she wants to represent the Philippines in the Olympics.

Four years is a lot of time for Coryn to further sharpen her already remarkable skills as a rider. It’s also a lot of time for Philippine cycling and Olympic Committee officials to get Coryn to try to fulfill the Filipino dream for an Olympic gold in London in 2012.

2008 Manhattan Beach Grand Prix: Coryn Rivera (Kahala Lagrange) keeps an eye on the action up front. | Photo: Action Images

Once again, it’s Viva España!

The Spaniards stamped their class in cycling once again, this time in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

After Carlos Sastre celebrated with a glass of champagne on his way to a victory ride on the Champs-Élysées in the maillot jaune as this year’s Tour de France champion, Samuel Sanchez grabs the gold in the Men’s Road Race yesterday beating Italy’s Davide Rebellin in a sprint finish.

The Olympic event included big names in professional cycling, among them Tour runner-up Cadel Evans of Australia, defending champion Paolo Bettini of Italy, Andy Schleck of Luxembourg and Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland who grabbed the bronze medal.

Sastre was content at riding as worker for the Spanish team, finishing 49th. National champion Alejandro Valverde, the pre-race favorite, crossed the line at 13th.

Sanchez, who hails from Oviedo, turned pro in 2000, and has since been riding for Euskaltel. His career record shows 16 victories and 35 podium finishes.

In this year’s Tour de France, he was 2nd to Sastre when the eventual champion stormed up L’Alpe-d’Huez to take the yellow jersey from CSC teammate Frank Schleck. Sanchez was 7th overall in the GC when the race culminated in Paris.

But perhaps no victory would be more special for Sanchez than this one, except maybe winning the Tour de France.

Sanchez’ win is historic. This is Spain’s first gold medal in any Olympic Cycling Road Race.