Garzelli, who rides for the Acqua e Sapone team, was placed second in the overall standings going into the final day, two seconds behind his compatriot Michele Scarponi.

Hagen Takes The Win On Stage 7 For Team Sky

Defending titleholder Scarponi, who had taken the lead last Saturday, was pipped at the post by the bonus sprint points picked up by 36-year-old Garzelli during the stage.

Garzelli finished third in both sprints, picking up one second each time, placing him level pegging in the standings, but he was awarded victory courtesy of his better placings over the course of the race.

“It’s crazy, you’d never believe it, it’s like a film, but I had nothing to lose, and today I was rewarded for my two runner-up places in the sprints,” said Garzelli.

Scarponi for his part added: “This is the first time this has happened to me, and it doesn’t give me a great deal of pleasure.”

The 2010 Tirreno-Adriatico Podium

Photos by: CorVos Pro

The top race hopes on the schedule for the new Team Raleigh are the Tour of Britain, and the Tour of Ireland.

RIDERS
Dale Appleby
Tom Barras
Mike Cummings
Dan Fleeman
Richard Handley
Liam Holohan
Julian Rammler
Dan Shand
Pete Smith
James Stewart

MANAGER
Chris Truett

LINKS
www.teamraleigh.co.uk

A Successful Race
“We really came here to function well more than look at results,” Evans said after finishing 12 seconds behind race winner Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone) and runner-up Michele Scarponi (Androni Giocattoli). “To scrape through and get on the podium has been a good indication that we’ve been successful.” Evans moved himself into podium position with fourth place on Stage 5 and third on Stage 6.

Team Functioned Well
Director Sportif John Lelangue said the BMC Racing Team supported Evans well in the seven-day race as Evans added to his fifth place at the Santos Tour Down Under in January. “This is a really good result,” Lelangue said. “More than the result, the team has been functioning really well, which is important in the first big stage races of the season. These are some of the guys who will be racing the Giro and the Tour de France, if we are selected.”

Post Race Interview can be found HERE

The double Tour de France winner has pulled out of two stage races in Spain, which were on his original schedule. The races were Tour de Catalunya next week, and the Tour of Basque Country in early April.

The extent of Cavendish injuries is still unknown at this point, but was able to get back onto his bike and continue. After the crash all hope of a stage win was lost.

What caused the crash is still up in the air. But when you view the tape you can see that his front wheel and front fork is severely damaged.

Dortmund, 16. March 2010. The list of injured and sick riders at Team MILRAM continues to grow. On Tuesday, two MILRAM riders called in sick. Björn Schröder and his Austrian teammate Thomas Rohregger are both suffering from a feverish cold. Schröder will have to miss the Belgian one-day race Nokere Koerse on Wednesday, where he will be replaced by Dominik Roels, but Rohregger will have to miss the Vuelta a Catalunya and probably not be able to race again until the beginning of April.

Last week the German ProTour team lost three riders within a short period of time at the Italian race Tirreno-Adriatico. Worst off is former German champion Fabian Wegmann. Wegmann, who was pointedly preparing for the upcoming Classics, crashed and broke his collarbone, which will keep him out of action for up to five weeks. His teammates Johannes Fröhlinger and captain Linus Gerdemann had to leave the race with an intestinal infection. The series of bad luck began early in the season with Gerald Ciolek’s shoulder injury, which is still keeping him out of competition.

„The loss of Björn Schröder and Thomas Rohregger are further highlights of our sick list,“ according to Gerry van Gerwen. „We have never had so many injuries and illnesses. It’s an epidemic!“ However, the Dutch team manager can look back at the most successful spring since the team has existed. „That is certainly bothersome and we are weakened, but our riders are showing impressively this year that we are competitive. Four wins and multiple top ten finishes in first-class races emphasize the obvious upwards trend from the previous years. That makes us optimistic and I am sure that we will be able to compensate for the missing riders.“

Captain Gerald Ciolek is recovering from his shoulder operation in altitude training with physio Christian Neitzert, working on his comeback with cross-country skiing and rehabilitation exercises. Fabian Wegmann is at the beginning of his return to racing. He underwent a collarbone operation over the weekend, and should return to action in no sooner than a month. „Gerdemann, Fröhlinger and Rohregger will be fit again within a few days. Still it is irritating to lose three riders after our great start in Tirreno-Adriatico. We would probably have finished in the top ten.“

MILRAM captain Linus Gerdemann won the opening stage of the traditional stage race Tirreno-Adriactico and wore the leader’s blue jersey for two days. For the 2008 Tour of Germany winner, it was his second season victory after winning a race in the Mallorca challenge.

A further season victory came from Australian newcomer Luke Roberts. The former track Olympic winner, who lives near Cologne, Germany, won a stage at the Vuelta a Murcia and finished ninth overall. Artur Gajek won a difficult training race for pros on Mallorca.

The German ProTour team can point to seven top ten placings so far this season. „In the past few years we simply rode along in races too often. Now we fight for a top placing in every stage race. We enjoy that and hope to do more,“ said Gerry van Gerwen, happy despite the run of injuries. „I don’t even want to think about what it would be like if we didn’t have all these injuries and illnesses. The long-term losses of Gerald Ciolek and Fabian Wegmann hit us particularly hard. But that’s part of sport. We won’t give up and will continue fighting.“

In addition to Luke Roberts, ninth at the Vuelta a Murcia and fifth at the Tour Down Under, MILRAM can also boast of a number of top placings: Linus Gerdemann 9th at the Vuelta a Andalucia; Niki Terpstra 6th in the Tour of Oman: Roger Kluge 4th and best young rider at the Tour of Qatar; and Markus Fothen 10th at the Tour Down Under. Paul Voß did his share last weekend in Belgium by finishing sixth overall in the „Three Days of West Flanders“.

In the world rankings, MILRAM’s Luke Roberts is eighth in the individual rankings, with the German ProTour team currently seventh in the team rankings.

This is the exact press release as it appeared from CAS on March 16th, 2010

Lausanne, 16 March 2010 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeal filed by the Spanish cyclist Alejandro Valverde against the decision of the National Olympic Committee of Italy (CONI) suspending him for two years from all sports events organized on Italian soil. As a consequence, the suspension remains in force until 10 May 2011.

On 11 May 2009, the CONI Anti-Doping Tribunal suspended Alejandro Valverde for a period of two years from all sports events organized in Italy. The CONI ordered the suspension based on evidence found by the Italian judicial authorities. In particular, it was established that a blood sample obtained from the athlete on 21 July 2008 at an anti-doping control organized by the CONI on the occasion of a stage of the Tour de France 2008 (in Chiusa di Pesio) contained the same DNA as the blood contained in a bag seized by the Spanish Guardia civil at the premises of Dr. Fuentes in proceedings known as “Operation Puerto”. The Italian judicial authorities had, indeed, obtained, on 30 January 2009, a sample from this bag which, according to an analysis performed by the Barcelona laboratory in 2006, contained EPO. The CONI Anti-Doping Tribunal then stated that its anti-doping regulations had been breached on the grounds of the use of a banned substance as well as the attempted use of a prohibited method.

On 17 June 2009, Alejandro Valverde filed an appeal with the CAS in order to request the annulment of the CONI decision. The case was submitted to a Panel of CAS arbitrators composed of Mr Romano Subiotto QC, United Kingdom (President), Professor Ulrich Haas, Germany and Mr Ruggero Stincardini, Italy. A hearing took place in Lausanne on 12, 13 and 14 January 2010 during which the parties, their counsels, witnesses and experts were heard.

The CAS Panel considered that the CONI had jurisdiction to render the decision under appeal before the CAS and that the evidence analyzed by the judicial authorities and used in the CONI proceedings was not only admissible but also relevant and could reasonably lead to the outcome determined by the CONI Anti-Doping Tribunal. Finally, the CAS Panel ruled that the sanction was proportionate to the violation of the CONI regulations by Alejandro Valverde.

The CAS “has dismissed the appeal filed by the Spanish cyclist Alejandro Valverde against the decision of the National Olympic Committee of Italy (CONI) suspending him for two years from all sports events organized on Italian soil,” the Lausanne-based court said in a statement on its website.

“As a result, the suspension remains in place until May 10, 2011.”

The International Cycling Union (UCI) welcomed the ruling and said in a statement it was determined to seek a suspension against Valverde at international level after examining the details of the CAS decision.

CONI took action after it said a blood sample taken from the rider at the Tour de France when it passed through Italy in 2008 matched DNA from a blood bag seized during the Spain’s ‘Operation Puerto’ doping scandal that erupted in May 2006.

Valverde filed an appeal with the CAS against the decision last June.

As a result of the ban, he was unable to take part in last year’s Tour de France because it briefly passed through Italy.

Valverde has protested his innocence ever since being linked to Operation Puerto.

His lawyers said in a statement on his website on Tuesday that they planned to appeal the CAS decision in a Swiss federal court.

They accused one of the CAS judges of “bias” due to the fact he had previously worked for the World Anti-Doping Agency.

They also noted a ruling last year by the Madrid High Court, which declared CONI’s procedure legally invalid as it said the committee, which is part of Italy’s culture ministry, had no right to demand the seized blood samples from Spain.

Valverde, who won the Tour of Spain last year, finished second behind compatriot Alberto Contador last weekend in the Paris-Nice race.

The 29-year-old said he planned to continue his career whatever the outcome from the CAS, in an interview with Spain’s El Pais newspaper on Monday.

“I will return to cycling and I will continue to win,” he said.

Armstrong confirmed his intention to the RCS Sport director Angelo Zomegnan on Sunday night, that he would be taking part in the race and accompanying his Team RadioShack. Armstrong rode the race in 2009 and finished 125th place.

Armstrong will be joined by teammates Daryl Impey, Markel Irizar Aranburu, Geoffroy Lequatre, Dmitriy Muravyev, Grégory Rast and Sébastien Rosseler at Milan-San Remo. A replacement will be named for Gert Steegmans, also slated to start, since the 29-year-old Belgian is recovering from a broken collarbone suffered during the Paris-Nice prologue.

This will be the 101st running of the Milan-San Remo race.