Okay, Lance is back. You already know that. But in October, there was lots of speculation that he might not ride in the Tour de France. Last week, at Team Astana's training camp, he ended a little bit of speculation by announcing last week that he WILL be doing the 2009 Tour de France. Remember, he has already committed to the Giro d'Italia in May. And the Tour's organizer seems to have a problem with him doing the race. But, Lance is coming back to France, so the big question is now who Team Astana will have try to win the race. Lance did say that he would ride for Alberto Contador, but Lance doesn't seem like the "let someone else win in Paris: type. So we will see.
Speaking of Lance and Team Astana, this team should go down as one of the strongest teams in recent history. They still have Levi Leipheimer, Andreas Kloden, and Yaroslav Popovych , plus Alexander Vinokourov coming on board in 2009 as well. So they should be really strong in all 3 Grand Tours. I'm already looking forward to the Giro. Actually, the team is keeping Lance and Alberto separate until July, with Lance starting with the Tour Down Under in Australia in January. Contador is going to use the same schedule he used in 2007, when he won the Tour. The two guys appeared friendly and cordial at last week's press conference, but it remains to be seen how nice they'll play when the time comes.
A few media reports are saying that Lance was way stronger than Contador on a big hill climb during the training camp. But since Contador has been off since a September crash and had septum surgery last week, I don't think that really means anything. Plus Lance is not coming off a taxing season, he is coming off three years off and a big fall getting into shape. Interesting, Lance has already spent time in the wind tunnel AND in the velodrome. And hasn't had any celebrity girlfriends.
So that's the latest on Lance. Hopefully he can stay out of the headlines until he starts racing in January...
Okay, moving on to some big news in the ITU World. Last week they finally announced their World Championship Series for 2009. A quick recap, instead of just having a typical World Cup schedule with a World Championship somewhere along the way, the ITU has decided to create a new format where 7 World Championship Series Events and one Grand Finale. Starting in May next year, the ITU is holding these marquee events in Singapore, Washington, Madrid, Kitzbuhel, Hamburg, Yokohama, and London. They will then hold a grand finale in Australia in September. I'm still not sure if the winner in Australia will become the World Champion or if there is some point system to determine an overall Champion. But the bottom line is the ITU and their sponsors have $2 million in prize money for these 7 events, guaranteeing them top-flight fields for these 8 events.
The ITU also named it's 2008 World Cup Champions, which merits just a brief mention. WIth Beijing being the focus, hardly anyone raced a lot in 2008. Regardless, Sam Warriner (New Zealand) and Javier Gomez (Spain) were the World Cup winners. Warriner won by default, since Emma Snowsill and Vanessa Fernandes only raced three times each (Warriner raced six times). She did win two races, but Snowsill won all three of her World Cup starts. Hmmm. Regardless, $40,000 bonus for Warriner.
The men's ratings were less controversial, since Gomez didn't lose one of his 5 World Cup races. (Unfortunately, his one loss came in the Olympics.) Again, the ratings are skewed since Simon Whitfield only raced 3 times and placed 10th, while Daniel Unger only raced twice (and won them both) and finished 18th. I sure hope the 2009 World Championship Series can address these problems and hopefully the top guys and girls race against each other a bit more often.
For the record, Simon Whitfield finished 10th overall and Paul Tichelaar was 16th. Canada's top woman in 2008 was Kathy Tremblay in 29th (where are you Ms. Sweetland?).
Cheers...see you soon!
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