Tour de France *Spoilers*

[Flick of the Elbow]

"Tinko Saxoff" have withdrawn Kreuziger from their Tour team due to passport abnormalities from when he rode with Team Evil Astana. Kreuziger, of course, denies any wrong-doing and has his own experts at hand to say it's nothing to worry about and that he's a good boy:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/kre...bnormalities-pulled-from-tour-de-france-squad

You have to wonder why they've only decided to take action on this now, a week before the Tour

 

[RobNewcastle]

Yes, massive disruption to team planning.

 

[Rasmus]

Kreuziger has been replaced with Rafal Majka.

Apparently he posted something on facebook saying he was not at all about having to ride around France after working hard at the Giro. The statement has now been removed, presumably the Tinkoff media team got in touch...

 

[Crackle]

You have to wonder why they've only decided to take action on this now, a week before the Tour

I don't think you have to wonder. The nature of the passport means that it builds a picture. Perhaps the picture of the last few years is very different to the picture under Bruyneel at Astana. As we know, Bruyneel is a pillar of cycling morality. The report doesn't say what led CAFD to examine his passport in detail, that's the only bit I'm wondering about. I hope there's nothing to it, I liked Kreuziger.

 

[Crackle]

http://velonews.competitor.com/2014...roman-kreuziger-pending-doping-inquiry_333747

Bit more detail in that report. UCI informed him in 2013 of passport irregularities and have not accepted his experts explanation. So this is not sudden.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

Thank you for the link Crackle. So the timeline is
blood passport profile showed abnormalities from March to August 2011 and from April 2012 until the end of that year’s Giro.
UCI first notified Kreuziger in June 2013, ie a full year after the end of the Giro in question and over two years since the start of the suspected offences
October 2013, Kreuziger provided UCI with two exculpatory medical opinions he had requested. UCI took 8 months (!) to reject his explanation.

So why did the UCI take so long to voice their concerns and then why did they take so long to reject the explanations. Shades of the Contador Tour/Giro fiasco, did they learn nothing from that ?

 

[rich p]

Bertie had better have another ribeye to compensate for the loss of Kreuziger.

 

[Crackle]

Nibbles won the Italian national road race, so looks to be peaking at the right time.

 

[Hont]

Nibbles won the Italian national road race, so looks to be peaking at the right time.

And won't be wearing the Astana jersey for the Tour. Which seems kind of apt.

 

[dragon72]

This just in from David Millar:
David Millar ‏@millarmind 7m
I was selected for TdF last week, then they pulled me last night. Wiggo, Dowsett, Pete, Swifty, fancy a city break? I hear York's nice.

 

[tug benson]

Gutted for Millar, seems he has had a bit of a breakdown on twitter over the last 12 hours

 

[dragon72]

To miss the TdF in his final year as a pro racer must be hard

 

[neilb1906]

Chris Horner riding for Lampre..managed to get a contract just in time.

 

[kedab]

i was going to find somewhere to plot up and watch the TdF go past somewhere south of Cambridge. Then I was going to stay at the father-in-laws, in Cambridge and walk into town to see the off...then i realised i've agreed to begin my shiny new job on July 7...dagnammit!!!

 

[kedab]

So why did the UCI take so long to voice their concerns and then why did they take so long to reject the explanations. Shades of the Contador Tour/Giro fiasco, did they learn nothing from that ?

i think this shows that Cookson is still finding his feet...they need to iron out these old wrinkles.