|
Astana-Würth
ONCE cycling team, () also known as Liberty Seguros, Liberty Seguros–Würth and in succession in its final year, Astana–Würth and Astana was a Spanish cycling team. It competed in the UCI ProTour circuit. On 25 May 2006, Liberty Mutual ("seguros" means "insurance" in Spanish) pulled out of primary sponsorship due to a doping scandal involving the directeur sportif, Manolo Saiz. On 2 June 2006, the team acquired a primary sponsor named Astana, after the capital of Kazakhstan. Würth was co-sponsor until 3 July 2006, withdrawing at the end of the 2006 Tour de France, in which didn't compet At the end of the season, Astana also withdrew due to the non-participation in the Tour. On 16 December 2006, the UCI withdrew the ProTour licence of Saiz's company, Active Ba [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operación Puerto Doping Case
Operación Puerto (''Operation Mountain Pass'') is the code name of a still unfinished Spanish Police operation against the pro sports doping network of Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. It started in May 2006, which resulted in a scandal that involved several of the world's most famous cyclists and teams at the time. Media attention has focused on the small number of professional road cyclists named; however, sportspeople from other disciplines including football and tennis have also been connected with the scandal, though not officially indicted.Fuentes: "Me indigna la filtración selectiva" '' El País'', 5 July 2006 And among total number of athletes, fifteen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manolo Saiz
Manuel "Manolo" Saiz Balbás (born 16 October 1959 in Torrelavega, Cantabria) is the former team manager of one of the most successful Spanish professional road bicycle racing teams, first called Team ONCE, then Liberty Seguros-Würth, Astana-Würth, and lastly Astana Team. Saiz was a hands-on manager and directeur sportif. He consolidated his riders' training and hired staff to manage their coaching and racing. Despite not having a racing background, he nurtured ONCE to become one of the biggest teams. His riders included Frenchman Laurent Jalabert and Swiss Alex Zülle; both dominated the Vuelta a España, each winning the general and other classifications. In 1995 Jalabert achieved the trifecta by winning the general classification along with the points and King of the Mountains. Saiz's next riders included Spaniard Abraham Olano, Igor González de Galdeano and Joseba Beloki. ONCE dominated team time trials in the Tour de France. At the end of the 2003 ONCE discontinued s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johan BRUYNEEL
Johan Bruyneel (born 23 August 1964) is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer and a former directeur sportif for UCI ProTour team , and (later known as Discovery Channel), a US-based UCI ProTour cycling team. On 25 October 2018, the World Anti Doping Agency imposed a lifetime ban on Bruyneel for his role in a doping scandal that also saw Lance Armstrong stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. History Professional cyclist Born in Izegem, Belgium, Bruyneel was a successful professional cyclist. Early wins included the 1990 Tour de l'Avenir, the 1991 Rund um den Henninger Turm, the 1992 Grand Prix des Nations and Coppa Placci, and stage 6 (Évreux > Amiens) and finishing 7th at the 1993 Tour de France. His stage win set the record for fastest stage at 49.417 km/h, since then only broken by two cyclists. His greatest successes as a pro cyclist came in 1995. At the 1995 Tour de France, he won stage 7, which began in Charleroi and ended in Liège, Belgium, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Flèche Wallonne
La Flèche Wallonne (, French for "The Walloon Arrow") is a men's professional cycle road race held in April each year in Wallonia, Belgium. The first of two Belgian Ardennes classics, La Flèche Wallonne is today normally held mid-week between the Amstel Gold Race and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. At one time, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège were run on successive days as "Le Weekend Ardennais" (both races are organised by Amaury Sport Organisation). Only seven riders have achieved the "Ardennes double" by winning both races in the same year: Alejandro Valverde three times (in 2006, 2015 and 2017), Ferdi Kubler twice (in 1951 and 1952), Stan Ockers (1955), Eddy Merckx (1972), Moreno Argentin (1991) Davide Rebellin (2004) and Philippe Gilbert (2011). History La Flèche Wallonne was created to boost the sales of a newspaper ''Les Sports'' during the 1930s and was first run in 1936. While perhaps not as revered as one of the Classic ' Monuments', the race ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tour Down Under
The Tour Down Under (branded as the Santos Tour Down Under under a partnership arrangement) is a cycling race in and around Adelaide, South Australia, and is traditionally the opening event of the UCI World Tour and features all 19 UCI WorldTeams. It also runs as a UCI Women's ProSeries event and features a one-day circuit race as a 'prelude' to the main race. The race was established in 1999 with the support of then Premier of South Australia John Olsen as part of an effort to fill the gap in the state's sporting calendar left by the move of the Australian Grand Prix from Adelaide to Melbourne, Victoria. Since then, the event has been organised by South Australia's Major Event's arm Events South Australia. It has seen rapid growth in its first two decades, having notably become the first race to be granted UCI UCI ProTour status (now UCI WorldTour) in 2008, and becoming the first event of the UCI World Ranking calendar in 2009. The race is traditionally held in the middle of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tour De France
The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists of 21 stages, each a day long, over the course of 23 days, coinciding with the Bastille Day holiday. It is the oldest of the Grand Tours and generally considered the most prestigious. The race was first organized in 1903 to increase sales for the newspaper '' L'Auto'' and is currently run by the Amaury Sport Organisation. The race has been held annually since its first edition in 1903 except when it was stopped for the two World Wars. As the Tour gained prominence and popularity, the race was lengthened and its reach began to extend around the globe. Participation expanded from a primarily French field as more riders from all over the world began to participate in the race each year. The Tour is a UCI World Tour event, which means that th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Igor González De Galdeano
Igor González de Galdeano Aranzabal (born 1 November 1973 in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country) is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer and most recently, the team manager of UCI ProTeam . Following a promising start to his career at Vitalicio Seguros, where he finished the 1999 Vuelta a España in second place, González de Galdeano became a key rival of Lance Armstrong in the middle of his Tour de France supremacy. In the 2002 Tour de France, González de Galdeano wore the yellow jersey for seven days and in the 2003 Vuelta a España wore the gold jersey for one day. At an average speed of 55.17 km/h, González de Galdeano also holds the record for the fastest stage win in the Vuelta a España, a feat which earned him the nickname ''Speedy González''. Early racing career González de Galdeano turned professional in 1995 with the Basque team , which at the time was only in its second year of racing and suffering from financial hardship. During his three sea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roberto Heras
Roberto Heras Hernández (born 1 February 1974) is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer who won the Vuelta a España a record four times. Between 1997 and 2005 he finished in the top 5 of the Vuelta every year except 1998 when he finished 6th. He won a record-tying three times, and then broke the record with a fourth win in 2005, but he was eventually disqualified after being accused of taking EPO. Heras chose to fight the accusations and this resulted in a lengthy court case and appeal process. In June 2011, Heras successfully appealed against the disqualification in the civil court of Castilla y León, and this decision was upheld in the Spanish supreme court in December 2012. The Spanish cycling federation subsequently reinstated Heras as 2005 Vuelta champion. Early career Heras turned professional in 1995 for the Spanish cycling team Kelme. His first win as a pro came in 1996 in the Subida al Naranco. Later that year he won the 12th stage of the Vuelta a Es ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isidro Nozal
Isidro Nozal Vega (born 18 October 1977) is a Spanish former professional road racing cyclist. Nozal was runner-up in the 2003 Vuelta a España and an instrumental domestique in Roberto Heras' 2004 Vuelta a España win. Doping In 2005, Vega was suspended for two weeks after being tested with a hematocrit level above 50 before the start of Dauphine Libere. In 2006, he was initially implicated in the Operación Puerto doping case, but was cleared of any wrongdoing by Spanish officials. He later admitted his involvement, saying he did three blood transfusions with Fuentes in the season before the 2005 Dauphine Libere, but denying he doped. For the 2008 and 2009 seasons Nozal rode for the Portuguese Pro Continental team of Liberty Seguros. In September 2009 Nozal and two teammates (Nuno Ribeiro and Hector Guerra) were announced to have tested positive for EPO-CERA in samples taken for the previous month's Tour of Portugal. Liberty Seguros immediately announced that it would cease sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseba Beloki
Joseba Beloki Dorronsoro (born 12 August 1973) is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer. Tour successes Beloki turned professional in 1998 with , joined in 2000, and then in 2001. A strong climber in the high mountains and a top performer in individual time trials, he made it to the podium in each of his first three rides in the Tour de France: in 2000 Tour de France, 2000 (3rd place), 2001 Tour de France, 2001 (3rd place) and 2002 Tour de France, 2002 (2nd place). He is the only runner-up during Lance Armstrong's run of seven consecutive Tour wins to have not been found guilty of doping, though he was not retroactively awarded the victory in the General classification in the Tour de France, general classification of 2002 after Armstrong's wins were stripped. In 2001, Beloki also finished first overall in the Volta a Catalunya. Crash and recovery On 14 July 2003, during the 9th stage of the 2003 Tour de France, Beloki was in second place overall (just 40 seconds be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Tour (cycling)
In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour is one of the three major European professional cycling stage races: Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España. Collectively they are termed the ''Grand Tours'', and all three races are similar in format, being three-week races with daily stages. They have a special status in the UCI regulations: more points for the UCI World Tour are distributed in Grand Tours than in other races, and they are the only stage races allowed to last longer than 14 days. All three races have a substantial history, with the Tour de France first held in 1903, Giro d'Italia first held in 1909 and the Vuelta a España first held in 1935. The Giro is generally run in May, the Tour in July, and the Vuelta in late August and September. The Vuelta was originally held in the spring, usually late April, with a few editions held in June in the 1940s. In 1995, however, the race moved to September to avoid direct competition with the Giro d'Italia. The Tour de Fra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abraham Olano
Abraham Olano Manzano (born 22 January 1970 in Anoeta, Gipuzkoa) is a Spanish retired professional road racing cyclist, who raced between 1992 and 2002. He won the UCI Road World Championships – Men's road race, World Road Championship in 1995 UCI Road World Championships, 1995, and the UCI Road World Championships – Men's time trial, World Time Trial Championship in 1998 UCI Road World Championships – Men's time trial, 1998, becoming the first and so far only male cyclist to win both. He also achieved distinction in Grand Tours: he won Vuelta a España in 1998 Vuelta a España, 1998 and was second in 1995 Vuelta a España, 1995, made it twice to the final podium at Giro d'Italia (third in 1996 Giro d'Italia, 1996 and second in 2001 Giro d'Italia, 2001), and placed three times in the top-ten at Tour de France, with the fourth place in 1997 Tour de France, 1997 as his personal best. In total he won six stages in the Vuelta and one in the Tour, all of them Individual time t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
