Cyclopunk's News Digest 28.03.12

Castilla y Leon revealed
Details of the teams, stages and parcours for this year's Vuelta a Castilla y Leon have been made public. The race, due to take place between the 13th and 15th of April, is now in its 27th edition and since 2005 has formed part of the UCI World Tour series. The race manual can be downloaded here.


Kolobnev resigns to Katusha
The cycling world probably won't be especially surprised to hear that Katusha has resigned Alexandr Kolobnev after sacking him in the wake of a positive dope test at the Tour de France. The 30-year-old Russian tested positive for hydrochlorothiazide, a diuretic masking agent, sometimes used to cover up the presence or flush out traces of a performance-enhancing drug, but was later cleared of intentional doping after the UCI appealed the Russian Federation's decision to fine him. He will begin racing with the team as soon as he has recovered from a training accident.


Kroon: Contador case "almost criminal"

The entire case stinks, but the UCI had
to appeal
(image credit: Félix Arellano CC BY-SA 3.0)

Karsten Kroon has attacked the UCI over their handling of the Contador doping case, terming it "almost criminal." Speaking to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, the 36-year-old SaxoBank rider says: "A month after his positive control in the 2010 Tour, Alberto was personally called by UCI President Pat McQuaid who told him he wanted to keep the case secret. It was then leaked to a German TV channel, so it came out anyway. Alberto was then cleared by the Spanish Federation, at which point the UCI - having said they wanted to keep it quiet - appealed the judgement." (Is Kroon right?)

Other News
Spidertech C10 have received an invite to the Tour de Suisse. "We made very public our vision to crack the WorldTour, and this is another step in the right direction," says manager Steve Bauer, who took second place in the Tour 24 years ago. (More from Velonation)


Tweets

David Millar ‏ @millarmind
I want to do Flanders so much and it's making me very sad that I can't. Even sadder when I turn up to doctors appointments a day too early.

Rochelle Gilmore ‏ @RochelleGilmore
In my opinion it's the hardest women's Tour of Flanders course yet, perfect race for @marianne_vos I rode the last 10km with @Mattibreschel