Daily Cycling Facts 23.08.2014

Johan Bruyneel

Bruyneel in 2007

Born in Izegem, Belgium on this day in 1964, Johan Bruyneel has been one of the highest-profile figures in professional cycling for almost a quarter of a century - as a rider and as a manager, and for good reasons and bad.

Bruyneel got his first taste of racing glory when he took third place at the Juniors' Trofee van Vlaanderen Reningelst in 1983. Three years after that he won the Amateur Ronde van België, then turned professional with SEFB in 1987 and remained with them until 1989, the year that he won Stages 2 and 9 at the Tour de Suisse. In 1990, riding for Lotto Superclub, he won the Tour de l'Avenir and marked himself out as a man to watch in future Grand Tours; he also rode his first Tour de France that year and - remarkably, for a debutant, finished Stage 17 in second place and was 17th overall. He was not as fortunate at the Tour in 1991 with 35th overall, but he won Stage 12 at the Vuelta a Espana in 1992 and triumphed at the GP des Nations. 1993 was his real break-through year: he not only won Stage 6 at the Tour, but did it at an average speed of 49.417kph - then a record, and since bettered only twice - and was seventh overall. Two years later he won Stage 7, though he would later express disappointment at how he'd won: having launched an attack early on in the stage, he'd found himself desperately hanging to Miguel Indurain's back wheel for much of the parcours before getting the better of him in a sprint. Most riders and fans would claim that simply keeping up with Indurain - especially when the five-time Tour winner was going all-out to win time on his rivals - was sufficiently worthy to make the victory morally his, but Bruyneel apparently felt that since he'd been in Indurain's slipstream for so much of the day he had an unfair advantage in the final sprint to the finish line. At the following Tour he came within centimetres of a career-ending injury when he lost control during a descent on Stage 7, coming off the road and plunging into a ravine. As ever when such things happen, spectators fell silent and for a moment or two, then a few people peered over the edge - just as the rider clambered back up to the road and onto his bike to complete the stage (he abandoned a few days later). He stayed away from the Tour in 1997, then abandoned after Stage 9 in 1998, which would be his last year as a professional rider.

With UCI president Pat McQuaid

Whilst Bruyneel's riding career would be the envy of any cyclist, it was as a manager that he found his greatest success. Immediately after retiring, he was invited to manage US Postal - the team that counted among its number a young American rider who, after showing promise for some years, had finished that year's Vuelta a Espana in fourth place. His name was Lance Armstrong, and he welcomed the new manager's plans to knock the team into shape: US Postal was, according to Armstrong, "the Bad News Bears, a mismatch of bikes, cars, clothing, equipment" and the team was run on an annual budget of "only" $3 million (directeurs sportif and managers of women's professional teams will doubtless be wondering how the team ever made ends meet). At the time of writing, we have reason to doubt the methods Bruyneel used to get his riders race-ready - he is at the centre of a doping investigation that, if he and others are found guilty, could prove to be a greater scandal than the Festina Affair or Operacion Puerto - but there is no doubt at all that when it comes to the logistics and practicalities of running a professional cycling team, he is extraordinarily talented: within a year, US Postal had been transformed from a rag-tag bunch of gifted mavericks into one of the most polished, well-drilled teams ever seen in cycling. Armstrong, of course, went on to win an unprecedented seven consecutive Tours; Alberto Contador won another - his first - in 2007 and the other riders on the team were victorious at a huge number of races during the decade that Bruyneel controlled the outfit.

In 2007, Bruyneel announced that he was going to leave cycling. However, he was then approached by representatives of the Kazakhstan government and offered a position managing the Astana team which, earlier that year, had been accused of running a doping ring and was thrown out of the Tour. Apparently not a man to back down from a challenge (nor, one assumes, a fat cheque), he accepted. Levi Leipheimer and Contador went with him; the team was again blocked from the Tour in 2008, but Contador won the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana while Leipheimer was second at the Vuelta and won the Tour of California. Astana was allowed back into the Tour in 2009 and Contador won in superb style with Armstrong, who had decided to return from retirement, taking third; they also won the team classifications at the Tour and the Giro, another Tour of California (Leipheimer), Paris-Nice (Contador) and numerous other races.

With the ONCE team

Bruyneel left Astana at the end of 2009, but he still wasn't ready to retire and became manager of RadioShack, a team part-owned by Armstrong. With eight members of the 2008 Tour-winning Astana squad also making the move (Contador, who had gone to SaxoBank, was the only one that did not) and several very talented riders from elsewhere signed up to the team, RadioShack looked a force to be reckoned with in 2010 and did indeed win an impressive 23 times, but the season was not without setbacks - in May, it was revealed that Bruyneel was being investigated by the Belgian Federation due to an accusation made by Floyd Landis that he ran a doping ring whilst manager of US Postal and, though RadioShack won the teams classification at the Tour (the second time an American team did so; the other being, of course, US Postal in 2009). At the end of the year rumours that RadioShack and LeopardTrek would merge for 2012 were confirmed, though Leopard owner Flavio Becca claimed that his team was taking over RadioShack's sponsors and some of its riders, thus making it sound more like a corporate take-over than a merger. The resulting team was to be called RadioShack-Nissan, its aim was to propel Andy Schleck to a Tour win - and the differences in how Bruyneel and Becca described its birth were the first indication of friction.

Andy Schleck, along with older brother Frank and several other members of the team, performed considerably less well than expected in the first few months of 2012 - only Fabian Cancellara seemed to have good form, but he ended up out of action after suffering a quadruple collarbone fracture at the Ronde van Vlaanderen. Hints began to emerge that the riders were not happy: Andy dropped heavy hints he wasn't happy about Bruyneel's decision to keep the Schleck's preferred directeur sportif Kim Andersen away from the Tour (and even indicated that he would remain in touch within him during the race), while Frank was understandably not impressed to be accused of "letting the team down" when he abandoned the Giro with an injured shoulder. Jakob Fuglsang openly criticised team management and was not selected for the Tour squad as a result; it was later reported that his salary had been with-held as a punishment, and few fans will have been surprised when he announced that he would be leaving for Astana at the end of the year. Before long, there were rumours that the Schlecks would be going too, either to an existing team or to a newly-formed one: a dangerous situation for Bruyneel, because the brothers had done the same before when they left SaxoBank - and had asset-stripped it of good riders in doing so.

The biggest controversy of the year came in May at the Tour of California - as Bruyneel stepped off the plane onto US soil, he was met by USADA officials who served him with a subpoena as part of their own investigation into doping at US Postal. Further details soon became public, revealing that the scale and scope of the investigation was enormous: in addition to Bruyneel, US Postal's official doctor Pedro Celaya, the notorious Dr. Michele Ferrari and a number of other figures were being investigated, including Lance Armstrong. The case has not yet reached its conclusion as important questions, such as how did Armstrong - who was stripped of his seven Tour de France victories, did not bother contesting the decision to do so and eventually confessed to using EPO - manage to avoid being caught out when he had been submitted to so many anti-doping tests still need to be answered.

For the time being at least, though, Bruyneel's career in professional cycling is over: in April 2014, he was banned from having any involvement whatsoever in professional cycling for ten years, and extraordinarily long sanction that reflects the serious nature of the fraud.


Manfred Donike
Born in Köttingen, Germany on this day in 1933, Manfred Donike was a highly successful cyclist during the 1950s and 1960s when he rode for a number of professional teams including Bismarck, Express, Altenburger, Feru-Underberg and Torpedo; with the exception of Feru, which was based in Switzerland, he spent his career with German teams. In 1954 he won the National Amateur Madison Championship with Paul Vadder, he would also win the Elite Professional madison at the Nationals three years later with Edi Gieseler and reached the podium in numerous other races, though not at the Tours de France he rode in 1960 and 1961.

Donike's influence on professional cycling has been far greater than his race results suggest, however: after retiring from competition at the end of 1962, he was offered a place at the University of Cologne where he studied chemistry and graduated in 1965 - and then dedicated his life to the fight against doping. In 1972, he perfected the gas chromatography and mass spectrometry method of detecting traces of performance-enhancing drugs and masking agents in samples of riders' urine; it remains the most accurate method available today. Five years later, he became the director of the German Sports University's Institute of Biochemistry.

Donike died of a heart attack aboard an aeroplane traveling between Frankfurt and Johannesburg in 1995, whilst on his way to act as chief of the anti-doping program at a race in Zimbabwe, and the Manfred Donike Institute of Doping Analysis at the German Sports University was named in his honour a short while later. His oldest son, also named Manfred and a successful cyclist in his own right had died of a heart attack two years earlier; his younger son Alexander also enjoyed race success and subsequently worked for the UCI.


Eddie Smart, born in Cardiff on this day in 1946, rode for Wales at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in the kilo, pursuit, scratch, sprint and road races - his best result was 15th, in the kilo. Later, he became co-ordinator for the Welsh federation's track team and assisted annually in the organisation of the Junior Tour of Wales. Smart was killed on the 6th of February in an accident on the M4 motorway; a memorial fund was set up to raise money for the restoration of the Maindy track in Cardiff and a shield commissioned in his honour and named after him is awarded to the most successful Welsh rider each year.

Hennie Top, born in Wekerom on this day in 1956, was Dutch Road Race Champion in 1980, 1981 and 1982 and, in 1985, won Stages 1 and 16 at the Tour de France Féminin. She later became coach to the US National Women's team.

Russell Downing

Russell Downing, born in Rotherham, Great Britain on this day in 1978, won numerous races between 2002 and 2009, then found fame by winning the Tour of Ireland. In 2010, he joined the new Team Sky and became their first victorious British rider when he won Stage 2 at the Critérium International that same year. He went on to win the General Classification at the Tour de la Région Wallonne later that summer and had his contract extended to cover 2011, when he rode his only Grand Tour - the Giro d'Italia, where he finished Stage 18 in eighth place before coming 140th overall. In 2012 he joined Continental team Endura Racing and, so far, has achieved six victories over the season including the prestigious Lincoln International. He also won a silver medal at the National Criterium Championships. Downing is the younger brother of Dean, who is also a successful cyclist; the both rode for NFTO in 2014 - the year that Russell came fourth in the road race at the Commonwealth Games.

Other cyclists born on this day: Kemal Küçükbay (Turkey, 1982); Enrico Poitschke (Germany, 1969); Mike Gambrill (GB, 1935); Janildes Fernandes (Brazil, 1980); Hubert Seiz (Switzerland, 1960); Tulus Widodo Kalimanto (Indonesia, 1965); George Van Meter (USA, 1932, died 2007); Majid Naseri (Iran, 1968); Anatoly Stepanenko (USSR, 1949); Edwin Mena (Ecuador, 1958); Andrea Faccini (Italy, 1966); Cristóbal Pérez (Colombia, 1952); Manu Snellinx (Belgium, 1948); Werner Weckert (Switzerland, 1938); Mouhcine Lahsaini (Morocco, 1985).

Daily Cycling Facts 05.08.2014

Gilles Delion

Gilles Delion

Born in Saint-Étienne on this day in 1966, Gilles Delion was seen a one of the greatest hopes of French cycling when he won the Giro di Lombardia, a stage at the Critérium International and the Youth category at the Tour de France in 1990, followed by Stage 7 at the Tour one year later; he tended also to perform well at the Giro di Lombardia and won it in 1990. Mononucleosis had a severe impact on his performance in 1991 and it took him a very long time to recover.

Or so it seemed, in cycling as it was at that time: in fact, Delion recovered at what the majority of doctors would consider to be a normal, natural rate and began racing again in good time, albeit far slower than many other cyclists. What made Delion different was that he loathed cheats, especially dopers, and refused to have anything to do with doping whatsoever. It took him a while to build up his strength after illness for that reason; his opponents could simply increase the dose of EPO and become competitive almost immediately.

In 1996 - right in the midst of what would probably have been his best years had he not have faced rivals he refused to match, he turned his back on cycling forever as an expression of disgust at doping. It was, he said, widespread throughout cycling and all the French teams were involved with it; and as is the case with all the riders who did well in his era without turning to drugs, we must ask ourselves how well he might have done had the playing field been level.

Delion was one of the signatories of "100 pour 2000," a manifesto that called for greater transparency and "humanistic" ethics in sport so that "the human would become the central concern." Among others, from a wide range of sports, to sign the manifesto were Willy Voet, the soigneur at the centre of the Festina Affair, Antoine Vayer who had been the Festina team coach, Christophe Bassons who, like Delion, was an outspoken opponent of doping, and five-time World Champion track cyclist Félicia Ballanger.


May Britt Hartwell, born in Sola, Norway in this day in 1968, won four Junior and thirteen Elite National Track Championship titles between 1984 and 1995.

Santiago Perez

Santiago Pérez, born in Vega de Peridiello, Spain on this day in 1977, won Stages 14, 15 and 21 and came second overall at the 2004 Vuelta a Espana while racing for Phonak. In March the following year, by which time he had switched to Relax-Fuenlabrada, it was announced that he had failed an out of competition anti-doping test in October after the race, testing positive for a homologous blood transfusion (ie, one using somebody else's blood). He was suspended from competition for two years, then returned to the same team (by then renamed Relax-GAM). Pérez  began his professional career with Barbot-Torrie in 2001, in 2011 - when the team was known as Barbot-Efapel - he returned to them, retiring later in the year.

Tim Johnson, born in Middleton, Massachusetts on this day in 1977, is arguably the USA's most successful male cyclo cross rider of all time with six National titles to his name: Junior in 1995, Under-23 in 1999 and 2000, Elite in 2001, 2007 and 2009. He has also won 43 cyclo cross races and numerous road events. In 1999, he came third in the Under-23 Cyclo Cross World Championships and remains the only American male to have stood on the podium at the official UCI Championships (Katie Compton, born in Delaware, has done so three times). Johnson is the husband of Canadian professional cyclist Lyne Bessette.

Other cyclists born on this day: Alejandro González (Argentina, 1972); Giovanni Cazzulani (Italy, 1909, died 1983); Jean Van Den Bosch (Belgium, 1898, died 1985); Saleem Farooqi (India, later Pakistan, 1940); Jean-Pierre Paranteau (France, 1944); Peter Vogel (Switzerland, 1939); Lucien Didier (Luxembourg, 1950).

Daily Cycling Facts 26.07.2014

Uwe Raab at Paris-Roubaix

Uwe Raab, born in Wittenberg, East Germany in this day in 1962, won the Points competition at the Vuelta a Espana in 1990 and 1991. He also became World Amateur Road Race Champion in 1983.

Very few riders enjoy a career in competitive cycling as long as that of Geoff Cooke, who was born in Manchester on this day in 1944: his first major victory was the Sprint at the British Track Championships in 1963; almost half a century later he also won the Sprint for the 65-69 class at the World Championships in 2009. He has been a National Champion no fewer than 31 times, a World Masters Champion 18 times and held the World Masters Sprint Champion title for seven consecutive years between 1996 and 2002. In addition to racing, Cooke was a British Cycling coach for ten years and still works a youth coach to this day.

Julien Vermote, born in Kortrijk on this day in 1989, enjoyed an extremely successful amateur career and became Junior Champion of Belgium in 2004, came second in the Juniors Ronde van Vlaanderen in 2007 and was National Under-23 Time Trial Champion in 2009. He signed to  QuickStep in 2011 and, as tends to be the case when a rider first moves up to the top level of the sport, had a quiet year whilst adjusting to the increased competition; overall victory at the Dreidaagse van West-Vlaanderen and tenth place for Stage 21 at the Giro d'Italia in 2012 suggests he's finding his feet.

Spain has produced many great climbers, but few as good as Aurelio González Puente who was born in Valle de Villaverde on this day in 1940 and spent his entire career with KAS-Kaskol. In 1966, only his second year as a professional, he came third in the King of the Mountains at the Tour de France; the year after that he was third overall at the Vuelta a Espana, then won the King of the Mountains at the Giro d'Italia; in 1968, he won his first Tour stage (Stage 6) and the King of the Mountains. It seems likely that Puente could have been another Bahamontes, winning a Tour in a year when the mountains were given especial importance (and had Eddy Merckx not dominated it so entirely in the coming years); however, from 1969 he began to experience bad luck and failed to finish that year or the next. In 1970, he retired after a relatively short career of seven years.

Brice Feillu, born in Châteaudun on this day in 1985, won Stage 7 and came 25th overall at the 2009 Tour de France when he rode for Agritubel, the team with which he started his professional career one year earlier. In 2010 he moved to Vacansoleil, then in 2011 to LeopardTrek, but won no races with either. In 2012 he moved again, this time to Saur-Sojasun, and picked up a series of good top ten finishes including fifth place on Stage 16 at the Tour, and remained with the team until its demise at the end of 2013. For 2014, Brice has been with Bretagne-Séché Environnement where he rides alongside his brother Romain (a sprinter, whereas Brice specialises in climbing) following a few years in which they rode on different teams.

Christophe Laurent won the King of the Mountains at the Tour de l'Avenir in 2002 and at the Tour of California in 2007. He was born in Mende, France, on this day in 1977.

Jef Demuysere

Born in Wervik, Belgium on this day in 1907, Jef Demuysere won Stage 10 and finished third overall at the 1929 Tour de France, then fourth overall in 1930. In 1931 he won Stages 15 and 18 and finished in second place behind Antonin Magne, a placing he repeated at the Giro d'Italia in 1932 and 1933. In 1934 he won Milan-San Remo, the third Belgian to have ever done so.

Other cyclists born on this day: Romain Lemarchand (France, 1987); Ivan Kovalev (Russia, 1986); Tiziano Dall'Antonia (Italy, 1983); René Jørgensen (Denmark, 1975); Honorio Machado (Venezuela, 1982); Rudi Valenčič (Yugoslavia, 1941); Stanisław Zieliński (Poland, 1912, died 1939); Gottlieb Weber (Switzerland, 1910, died 1996); Jeon Dae-Heung (South Korea, 1976); Glenn Clarke (Australia, 1963); Errol Walters (Jamaica, 1956); Richard Ball (USA, 1944); Paul McCormack (Ireland, 1963); Étienne Chéret (France, 1886); Arne Klavenes (Norway, 1952); Anders Adamson (Sweden, 1957); Emil Schöpflin (Germany, 1910); Chris Wheeler (Australia, 1914, died 1984).

Daily Cycling Facts 25.07.2014

Ruslan Pidgornyy, born in Ukraine on this day in 1977, began his professional career with De Nardi-Pasta Montegrappa in 2002 and won the Giro del Friuli Venezia Giulia in 2003. He became National Road Race Champion in 2008. In 2004, Pidgornyy and team mate Yuriy Ivanov were sacked by the LPR-Piacenzi Management SRL team after they were accused of assaulting and robbing a woman working as a prostitute near Emilia in Italy. According to news reports at the time, the pair attempted to drag the woman into a car but were unsuccessful, then stole €150 from her - both men admitted their guilt. Two other members of the team, Dimitri Konyshev and Andrey Karpachev, were also arrested but were not sacked as they had apparently taken no active part in the attack. Pidgornyy was offered a contract with the Irish Tenax team the following year and remained with them for four years, later joining ISD-Neri for two seasons and ending his career with Vacansoleil-DCM in 2011.

Stage 4, Tour de France 1904

François Beaugendre, born in France on this day in 1880, rode in the 1903 Tour de France - the first ever held - and came ninth overall, 10h52'14" behind winner Maurice Garin. He entered again the following year and finished Stages 3 and 4 in third place, but then failed to start Stage 5; after numerous riders were disqualified some months after the race had ended, he became official winner of Stage 4 and leader of the race with an advantage of 25'15" over eventual General Classification winner Henri Cornet. Beaugendre rode the Tour again in 1907 and 1908, coming first fifth and then thirteenth, and retired in 1911. His brothers Joseph and Omer were also cyclists - Joseph rode the Tour in 1909, Omer - who won Paris-Tours in 1908 - in 1910.

Wilfried Trott, born in West Germany on this day in 1948, won the Rund um Köln a record three times (1972, 1976 and 1979).

Other cyclists born on this day: Matt Illingworth (Great Britain, 1968); Nacer Bouhanni (France, 1990); Alfred Letourneur (France, 1907); Jean Eudes Demaret (France, 1984); François Beaugendre (France, 1880); Guillaume Levarlet (France, 1985); Wladimir Belli (Italy, 1970); Gerardo Moncada (Colombia, 1962); Peter Riis Andersen (Denmark, 1980); Kosaku Takahashi (Japan, 1944); Robert Farrell (Trinidad and Tobago, 1949); Declan Lonergan (Ireland, 1969); Maurice Gillen (Luxembourg, 1895, died 1974); Per Digerud (Norway, 1933, died 1988); Masaki Inoue (Japan, 1979); Alfred Gaida (West Germany, 1951); Kouflu Alazar (Ethiopia, 1931).

Daily Cycling Facts 23.07.2014

Judith Arndt
Born in Königs Wusterhausen, Germany on this day in 1976, Judith Arndt became one of the greatest and most popular all-rounders in cycling with numerous excellent results in road racing, time trials and on the track.

Arndt turned professional with the Red Bull team in 1999, at a time when she already had five National titles and one World Championship to her name. As a result she did not experience a year or two in which her results dipped while she adjusted to the increased competition as most riders do when they move up to the top level of the sport - having been competing at Elite level since 1995, there was no nasty "big step up" surprise waiting for her and in that first year she won Stage 1 and second place in the overall General Classification at the Holland Ladies' Tour, the Tour de Bretagne and numerous other events. She was a popular favourite for the 2000 Olympics but picked up a virus shortly before the Games; however, the National Pursuit and Points race prevented the year from becoming a total wash-out, as did silver medals for the same two events at the World Championships.

2001 was the year in which Arndt transformed herself from a track rider who could also ride well on the road into a world-beating road racer, winning another Tour de Bretagne and the Gracia Orlova in addition to second place at the Tour de l'Aude, the Thüringen-Rundfahrt and the Women's Challenge. She also won the National Individual Time Trial Championship for a third time and came third in the Road Race at the Nationals. One year later she won the National Road Race, the Women's Challenge, the Tour de l'Aude, the Tour de Snowy and the Redlands Classic. Since then, she has added more three more victories at the Gracia Orlova (2005, 2006, 2007), another Tour de l'Aude (2003), two editions of the Emakumeen Bira (2009, 2012), the National Individual Time Trial title another six times (2003, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2012), the Tour of Qatar (2012), two editions of the Ronde van Vlaanderen (2008, 2012), numerous other races and a vast number of other podium places. She called an end to her long career at the end of 2012, having won a number of very prestigious races, the National Road Race Championship, the National ITT Championship and the World ITT Championship and earned a silver medal in the time trial at the Olympics that year.

Sometimes outspoken, Arndt has clashed with the German cycling federation in the past. The most notable example of this came in 2004 when she raised her finger at the judges as she crossed the line (the gesture means "fuck off" in many nations) to show what she thought of the Federation's decision not to select her then-partner Petra Rossner in the Olympic team (Rossner won the World Cup in 2002 and had become National Road Race Champion two months before the Games; it does, therefore, seem strange that she wasn't selected). The Federation, as tends to be the way with national cycling federations, didn't take kindly to being criticised by a rider and forced Arndt to apologise; nevertheless, she earned an army of new fans.

Arndt was never the sort of rider who'd allow her career to go on too long and gradually fade into obscurity. After 21 years of racing, she decided that her final professional season would be 2012 - and it proved to be a spectacular year with a silver medal at the Olympics and victory at the Ronde van Vlaanderen, the Emakumeen Bira, the Thüringen-Rundfahrt and the World Time Trial Championships at Limburg.


Roger Hassenforder
Since the earliest days of the sport, cycling has been populated by eccentrics and characters - one of the most amusing of them all was Roger Hassenforder, who was born in Sausheim, France on this day in 1930 and became known as le boute-en-train ("the merry-maker") to the French and de Clown van de Elzas ("the Clown of Alsace") the the Dutch and Flemish. One of his most popular stunts was giving interviews during races, including the Tour de France.

Most cyclists rarely win anything, some win many races and a few will enjoy success at the Tour. Hassenforder was an unusual case in that almost all of his successes came in the Tour and he won very few smaller events - he won a total of eight Tour stages, including four in 1956 alone, and wore the maillot jaune for four days in 1953. Yet, he never won a Tour and in fact finished just one of the sixth he entered: 1956 when, despite those four stage wins, he was 50th overall.

When Hassenforder retired, he opened a cafe at Kaysersberg, one of the most beautiful and historic towns in the Alsace. It rapidly became a favourite haunt of local cyclists and those who visited from around the world, growing into a restaurant and hotel - it can still be found at 129 Rue General de Gaulle and, while no longer owned by the Hassenforder family, the new owners have been wise enough to keep it as the rider intended and have kept both the Hassenforder name and the restaurant's cycling links.


The Basque cyclist David Etxebarria, born in Abadiño on this day in 1973, won the Tour de l'Avenir in 1996 and Stages 9 and 12 at the Tour de France in 1999.

Jean Fontenay, who was born in Hirel on this day in 1911, came second overall at Paris-Nice in 1936 and wore the maillot jaune for two stages in the 1939 Tour de France.

Jörg Jaksche, born in Fürth, Germany on this day in 1976, won Paris-Nice and the Tour Méditerranéen in 2004, then came 16th overall at the Tour de France the following year. In 2006 he was one of the nine riders blocked from taking part in the Tour as part of the Operación Puerto investigation; in 2007 he admitted that he was "Bella," one of the code names used in documents seized from Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, and that he had received blood transfusions administered by the doctor.

Cyclists born on this day: Daniela Gassmann (Switzerland, 1964); Oleksandr Kvachuk (USSR/Ukraine, 1983); Rik Verbrugghe (Belgium, 1974); José Pittaro (Argentina, 1946); Hans-Peter Jakst (West Germany, 1954); Ali Ben Ali (Tunisia, 1933); Olaf Meyland-Smith (Denmark, 1882, died 1924); Benny Deschrooder (Belgium, 1980); Zoltán Halász (Hungary, 1960); Roberto Lezaun (Spain, 1967).

Daily Cycling Facts 12.07.2014

Dave Bruylandts, born in Lier, Belgium on this day in 1976, turned professional with Palmans-Ideal in 1999 and remained with them for a year and five months. He then went to Farm Frites and stayed with them for two years before swapping to Marlux-Wincor-Nixdorf, the team he was riding for in 2004 when he tested positive for EPO and was given an 18-month ban. When he returned he rode for Unibet for six months, but the team let him go during a period when it had problems getting invited to races due to laws banning teams sponsored by betting companies. He moved then to Klaipeda-Splendid and retired in 2008. He is married to Femke Melis, who was herself a professional cyclist for a short while.

Rudolf Lewis

Rudolf Ludewyk Lewis, born in Pretoria, South Africa on this day in 1887, won a gold medal in the Individual Time Trial at the 1912 Olympics. A year later, he came second at the Rund um Köln.


Other cyclists born on this day: Glen Thomson (New Zealand, 1973); Peter Mitchell (Great Britain, 1990); Ralph Mecredy (Great Britain, 1888, died 1968); Dominique Damiani (France, 1953); Alla Yakovleva (USSR, 1963); Muhammad Naqi Mallick (India, later Pakistan, 1928); Zbyněk Fiala (Czechoslovakia, 1964); Norm Alvis (USA, 1963); Clyde Wilson (Bermuda, 1959); Fiona Ramage (New Zealand, 1978); David Muntaner (Spain, 1983); Plamen Timchev (Bulgaria, 1951); Rafael Montero (Chile, 1913); Michael Horgan (Ireland, 1934); Edy Baumann (Switzerland, 1914, died 1993); Diederik Foubert (Belgium, 1961).

Daily Cycling Facts 02.11.2013

Cees Stam

Born in Koog aan de Zaan, Netherlands on this day in 1945, Cees Stam was Amateur National Stayers Champion from 1968 to 1970, then turned professional with the Ketting team and remained with them for most of his career. His Stayers success continued - he was Elite National Champion from 1971 to 1974 and again in 1978, European Champion in 1974 and 1975, World Champion in 1973, 1974 and 1977 and usually took second or third place whenever he didn't win, including at the German National Championships in 1975 where he won silver.

Stam set a new derny-paced Hour Record in 1974 when he covered 82.998km at Utrecht's Galgenwaard stadium, since demolished and replaced with a newer stadium; he was also a remarkably persistent six-day racer, entering almost fifty as a professional yet winning none of them. When he retired from competition, Stam became coach of the national stayers' team and ran a sports clothing business, then retired from it in 2008. He still works as a derny rider at track events to this day.

Miguel María Lasa Urquía
Born in Oiartzun, Euskadi on either this day, the 1st of November or the 4th of November (depending on the source) in 1947, Miguel Lasa turned professional with Fagor in 1967 and won the National Hill Climb and Individual Time Trial Championships; then two years later won the Hill Climb title again and finished two stages at the Tour de l'Avenir in third place. In 1970 he won the Sprints classification at the Vuelta a Espana and Stage 12 at the Giro d'Italia, where he finished in eighth place overall.

Lasa would win the Hill Climb Championship again in 1971 and 1972; however, excellent results in those two years - including four second place stage finishes at the Vuelta a Espana, victory at the Vuelta a Mallorca and three stage wins plus third place overall at the Tour of the Basque Country in 1971 and two stage wins at the Vuelta a Espana, one at the Giro d'Italia and overall victory at the Vuelta a Menorca in 1972 encouraged him to concentrate on stage racing. In 1973 he won the Vuelta a Mallorca for a second time, then in 1974 he won the Tour of the Basque Country and finished six stages at the Tour de France in the top ten before coming 17th overall. In 1975 he won Stages 2 and 7 at the Vuelta a Espana and was first in the Points competition, later coming ninth overall at the Giro d'Italia, and in 1976 he won Stage 5b - a 144km parcours in Belgium - at the Tour de France. The following year he was second overall at the Giro d'Italia and in 1978 he won Stage 9 at the Tour de France, then Stage 18a at the Vuelta a Espana in 1979 and Stage 17 at the Vuelta and Stage 18 at the Giro d'Italia in 1981, his final professional year.


Jana Belomoina, born in Ukraine on this day in 1992, took third place in the Elite National Hill Climb in March 2010 when she was only 17 years old.

Eberado Pavesi, who was born in Colturano, Italy on this day in 1883, became a professional cyclist in 1904. In 1907 he finished the Tour de France in sixth place, becoming the second Italian rider to have completed the race (Rudolfo Muller was fourth in 1903); in 1910 he won Stages 5 and 9 and was second overall at the Giro d'Italia, then in 1912 he formed a part of the Atala team that won (the General Classification was contested by teams for that one edition - had it have been contested by individuals, decided on points or time, Pavesi's team mate Carlo Galetti would have won) and in 1913 he won Stages 2 and 9 and was once again second overall. Following his retirement in 1919, Pavesi became a directeur sportif and worked with a young Gino Bartali who would go on to win the Tour and the Giro several times. Pavesi died on the 11th of November in 1974, aged 91.

Bruce Biddle, born in Warkworth, New Zealand on this day in 1949, was National Road Race Champion in 1969 and won the Road Race at the 1970 Commonwealth Games. At the 1972 Olympics he was fourth in the Road Race behind third place Jaime Huelado of Spain, who subsequently failed an anti-doping test and was disqualified; however, as Biddle had not also been subjected to a test he could not be upgraded to a medal-winning position. In 1976 he finished two stages at the Tour de Suisse in second place and one at Tirreno-Adriatico in third and in 1978 he was 34th overall at the Giro d'Italia.

Raymond Bilney, born in Australia on this day in 1945, took fourth place in the Road Race at the 1964 Olympics - his time of 4h39'51.74" was equal to that recorded by Walter Godefroot, Gösta Pettersson, Eddy Merckx and several other big-name riders of the era. In 1970 he was second in the Road Race at the Commonwealth Games, finishing one second behind Bruce Biddle of New Zealand (see above).

Christos Winter, born in Mount Gambier, Australia on this day in 1989, enjoyed a very short cycling career during which he became Junior National Duo Time Trial Champion (with Jack Bobridge) and rode with the winning Junior National Championships Team Pursuit squad, both in 2007. Aged 20, he took an internship at Channel 9 News and later became presenter of nationwide music show Hit List TV.

Other cyclists born on this day: John Devine (USA, 1985); Ricardo Guedes (Uruguay, 1972); Olga Gayeva (Belarus, 1982); Shue Ming-Fa (Taipei, 1950); Feng Chun-Kai (Taipei, 1988).

Daily Cycling Facts 24.10.2013

Octave Lapize
Born in Montrouge, Paris on this day in 1887, Octave Lapize had already been Elite National Cyclo Cross Champion, Amateur National Road Race Champion, won a stage at the Tour of Belgium (1907), won Paris-Auxerre and been third in a 100km race on the track at the Olympics in London (1908) by the time he turned professional with Biguet-Dunlop in 1909. When he did so, his manager Paul Ruinart warned the cycling world that they should prepare themselves for some crushing defeats because Lapize was, he said, "the best rider of his generation. He can and must win everything, because he has all the gifts of a perfect cyclists."

He was indeed a phenomenal all-rounder, able to sprint, climb, endure the inhumanly long stages of the era and - perhaps most importantly - had the intelligence to outwit his rivals at a time when most stage racers relied on the simple method of riding as fast as possible for as long as possible. During the first few months of his professional career it looked like Ruinart had been right when the rider won a bronze medal at the National Cyclo Cross Championships and enjoyed victory on the road at Milan-Varese, Paris-Dreux and Paris-Roubaix; his opponents must, therefore, have felt some relief when he dropped out of his first Tour de France that summer after suffering badly in the freezing, snowy conditions that hit the race that year. However, Lapize went away and began immediately preparing for the next edition and when he rolled up to the start line in 1910 he had become an altogether different rider - leaner, fitter, meaner. These were factors that would stand him in good stead because, after seven years in which Tour director Henri Desgrange had kept his race away from the high mountains (which, he worried, would prove impossible to ride and where bears might eat the riders), the parcours was taking the peloton over the highest roads in the Pyrenees.

Lapize on Tourmalet, 1910

The man who had persuaded Desgrange that high mountain stages should be added was Adolphe Steinès, who had designed the route every year since the first Tour in 1903. In 1905 he had convinced Desgrange that a smaller mountain, Ballon d'Alsace, would add spectacle and it had proved popular with fans; this year, following a January fact-finding mission in which he was warned by locals that the col was barely passable in July (and would probably have died if a search party hadn't found him after he tried to make it over the pass in heavy snow and fell into a ravine), he'd talked the director into letting him add the 2,115m Col du Tourmalet, almost 1,000m higher than Ballon d'Alsace. Rivals of L'Auto, the newspaper Desgrange edited, said that the parcours was "dangerous" and "bizarre," and when it was first published no fewer that 26 riders asked for their names to be taken off the start list. Nevertheless, the mountains stayed and the Tour entered a new era - though Desgrange was still sufficiently worried that the experiment would prove a disaster that, when the race reached the Pyrenees in Stage 9 and he saw how much the riders struggled, he temporarily made Victor Breyer director just in case the whole affair descended into embarrassing farce on the harder climbs in the next stage.

The tall, powerfully-built Luxembourgian François Faber, who had won the Tour the previous year after such an impressive performance in the first half of the race (including five consecutive stage wins, still a record 103 years later) that organisers asked him to ease off a bit to make the race appear more interesting, now found himself at a serious disadvantage - no matter how much of a lead he could gain on the flat stages, he lost it all on the big climbs where the smaller, lighter riders left him far behind. Nevertheless, he did extraordinarily well despite a dog causing him to crash in tage 7 and led the race for ten stages from Stage 2, even winning on the small mountains of Stage 4 - but when the peloton reached the Pyrenees in Stage 9 Lapize beat him, then did so again the following day when they climbed Tourmalet. Lapize was the first man to the top, but could only get there by dismounting and pushing his bike; Gustave Garrigou, who ended the race in third place, was the only man to ride to the top and earned a bonus of 100 francs for doing so. According to legend, when Lapize passed the race officials waiting at the top, he hissed one single word at them: "Assassins!" In fact, those who were there to hear it remembered that it was "Vous êtes des assassins! Oui, des assassins!" - and that he shouted it, rather than hissed.

Lapize on Tourmalet, 1910

Faber had done sufficiently well in the earlier stages to maintain his lead and hoped to add to it in the flat stages to come, but then when he had a puncture in Stage 12 Garrigou helped Lapize to attack; Lapize thus became race leader with three stages to go. Lapize also won Stage 14; by the final stage, Stage 15, he was six points ahead of the Luxembourgian - the outcome of the race in those days being decided according to a points system (still used, in modified fashion, to decide the Points competition run alongside the General Classification and King of the Mountains to this day). When Lapize punctured shortly after the start of the final stage, Faber tried to seize his chance and sprinted away, hoping to gain an insurmountable lead and win back the race. However, he too punctured; he finished the stage in fourth place, beating sixth place Lapize by 6'01", but this only won him back two points - Lapize had won the Tour.

Lapize also won Paris-Roubaix in 1910, then he won it again the next year and became the first man to have won three times and three times consecutively - Gaston Rebry would match him with a third victory a quarter of a century later, but it would be 70 years until Francesco Moser managed to match the three consecutive victories (to date, nobody else has done so). He also won Paris-Tours, Paris-Brussels and became National Road Race Champion in 1911, a title he successfully defended in 1912; that year, he won Paris-Brussels again and also Stage 6 at the Tour. In 1913 he won Paris-Brussels for a third time, a record both for total wins and consecutive wins that has been matched once (Félix Sellier, 1924) and beaten once (Robbie McEwen, 2008), then in 1914 he won Stage 8 at the Tour.

On the same day that the 1914 Tour de France began, the Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo and the First World War began. A week after the Tour ended, Germany invaded Belgium and declared war on France. Lapize joined up to fight, becoming a fighter pilot. He survived until the 14th of July in 1917 - that day, he was shot down over Flirey in Meurthe-et-Moselle near the German border and died shortly afterwards in hospital, aged 29 years.

Emilia Fahlin
Born in Örebro on this day in 1988, Emilia Fahlin entered her first bike race when she was 12 years old. Only four other riders took part, and she was the fourth to finish - however, she caught the racing bug and, four years later in 2005, she became Junior Road Race Champion of Sweden, also taking second place in the Junior National Individual Time Trial Championship. The following year she lost her title (but won a bronze medal); however, good results in stage races brought her to the attention of the T-Mobile team. She signed her first professional contract with them for 2007 and stayed as the team gradually transformed into HTC-Highroad before dissolving at the end of 2011.

Right from the start of her professional career, Fahlin was successful. In her first year she won the Under-23 Skandisloppet in Sweden, finished Stage 3 at the Tour of Poland in third place and was second at the Sparkassen Giro. In 2008 she won Stage 3 at the Redlands Classic, took the Elite National Road Race Championship title and then dominated the U-23 Svanesunds 3-dagars by winning three of the total four stages (and coming second on the one she didn't win). The year after that she won the Tour of California Women's Criterium and the National Individual Time Trial Championship, then in 2010 she won the National ITT and Road Race Championships. She kept the ITT title in 2011 and was third in the Road Race; then won the Prologue and Stages 2, 5 and 6 at the Tour de l'Ardèche but was unable to make it into the Emma Pooley-led top 5 overall finishers.

Following the demise of Highroad, Fahlin joined Specialized-Lululemon and helped towards the team's victory in the team time trial at the Energiwacht Tour. She took second place in the Road Race and third in the ITT at the Nationals, then came 19th in the Road Race at the Olympics before finishing the season with good top ten results at the Route de France and Lotto-Decca Tour. In 2013 she moved on to Hitec Products-UCK and, in June, became National Road Race Champion.

Levi Leipheimer

Leipheimer in 2005

Born in Butte, Montana on this day in 1973, Levi Leipheimer was for many years one of the most popular riders in the ProTour peloton: partly for his longevity (he remained competitive in the Grand Tours right up until 2012, when he was 37 years old) and excellent results (he was third at the Tour de France in 2007) but also for his caring nature - he supports animal welfare organisations and, with his wife Odessa Gunn (also a professional cyclist), runs a sanctuary for mistreated animals at home in California.

As a youth, Leipheimer was more interested in skiing than other sports and didn't start cycling until an accident kept him away from the slopes. As has been the case with a surprisingly large number of riders who came to cycling by accident, he showed promise right from the start and, in 1995, was signed up as a trainee with the British MS Maestro-Frigas team. He won the Tour de la Province de Namur with them but although the team continued in 1996, under the new name Sit&Sit-FS Maestro, his contract was not extended; instead he split his time between racing as an  Independent and for the Einstein team. He enjoyed one victory that year - a criterium at Burlingame in the US, but also failed a doping test when a sample he provided at the National Criterium Championships turned out to be positive for ephedrine. He was, therefore, stripped of the title and had to give back the prize money he'd won at the event, but claimed that the drug had got into his system via an antihistamine medicine he'd used to combat hayfever; race rules have since been altered to allow riders to use the drug with a doctor's note. In 1997 he was picked up by the Comptel Data Systems team and enjoyed seven victories in American races, then in 1998 and 1999 he went to Saturn Cycling and won another seven times, including two General Classifications  at the Tour of Beuce in Canada. Now very much on the international professional cycling radar, Johan Bruyneel's US Postal came calling; Leipheimer rode alongside Lance Armstrong with the team in 2000 and 2001.

In 2001 Leipheimer rode the Vuelta a Espana, his first Grand Tour, as a domestique for Roberto Heras - but then performed so well in the final stage, a time trial, that he overtook Heras and took third place in the General Classification and the Points competition. He was the first American rider to have ever finished the Vuelta in the top three. Heras, who had won in 2000, was fourth and not at all impressed with what had happened, but Leipheimer had done enough to earn himself a more lucrative contract with Rabobank for 2002: the year that he made his debut at the Tour de France and finished in eighth place. In 2003 he was eighth at the Critérium du Dauphiné but otherwise performed poorly all year, managing only 58th place at the Vuelta; he experienced a return to form in 2004 and was ninth at the Tour, then departed the team for Gerolsteiner with whom he was sixth at the Tour de France and won the General Classification and the King of the Mountains at the Tour of Germany. In 2006 he won the Critérium du Dauphiné and was 13th at the Tour de France; in 2007 he returned to Johan Bruyneel, riding for the team now known as Discovery Channel Pro Cycling, and won the Tour of California and Stage 19 at the Tour de France before his third place finish. Bruyneel became manager of Astana for 2008 and 2009 and Leipheimer moved with him; in 2008 he won the Tour of California again and took two stages at the Vuelta, where he was second overall, then in 2009 he won the Tour of California (for a record third time), the Vuelta Castilla y Leon and the Tour of the Gila, also taking sixth place at the Giro d'Italia. He didn't finish the Tour de France that year, breaking his wrist in a crash in Stage 12 while he was in fourth place in the General Classification.

Leipheimer in 2011

Leipheimer moved with Bruyneel in 2010 to RadioShack. He won the Tour of the Gila again, then came 13th at the Tour de France before winning the Tour of Utah; in 2011 he won the Tour de Suisse, the Tour of Utah and the USA ProCycling Challenge. In 2012 he joined Omega Pharma-QuickStep and won the Tour de San Luis before finishing his tenth Tour de France in 31st place. At the Tour of California that year, Bruyneel had been served with a subpoena as part of USADA's investigation into doping at US Postal. The full extent of the investigation at that time was not known; however, within a few months it had exploded into perhaps the biggest doping scandal to have ever hit cycling and led to Bruyneel's dismissal as manager of RadioShack-Nissan. Leipheimer  was one of the riders who gave evidence against Lance Armstrong, who was subsequently stripped of his seven Tour de France victories, and in doing so admitted the truth about his own doping before accepting a six month ban to expire in March 2013 - he was also stripped of all his race results gained between June 1999 and July 2006, as well as for July in 2007.

Other cyclists born on this day: Caroline Buchanan (Australia, 1990); Chris Carmichael (USA, 1961); Jill Kintner (USA, 1981); Peter Rogers (Australia, 1974); Emil Richli (Switzerland, 1904, died 1934); Joseph Farrugia (Malta, 1955); Marie-Hélène Prémont (Canada, 1977); Mario van Baarle (Netherlands, 1965); Koichi Azuma (Japan, 1966); Roland Königshofer (Austria, 1962); Rudolf Juřícký (Czechoslovakia, 1971); Rodolfo Caccavo (Argentina, 1927, died 1958); Johann Summer (Austria, 1951); Ezio Cardi (Italy, 1948).

Daily Cycling Facts 21.10.2013

Fred de Bruyne

Alfred de Bruyne, born in Berlare, Belgium on this day in 1930, became the dominant Classics and Monuments rider of the late 1950s. Like many Classics specialists, his powerful sprint made him a formidable stage winner too, though he never stood a chance of challenging the General Classification of the long stage races: winning the Independents Ronde van Vlaanderen in 1953 earned him a place at his first Tour de France - he finished Stage 5 in 3rd place. The next year, he won Stages 8, 13 and 22.

In 1955, de Bruyne finished two stages at the Tour in the top three and was second at the Giro di Lombardia. In 1956 he won Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Paris-Nice and Milan-San Remo, then came second behind Louison Bobet at Paris-Roubaix before winning Stages 2, 6 and 10 at the Tour. He also won the Desgrange-Colombo, a season-long competition run by L'Équipe, Het Nieuwsblad/Sportwereld, La Gazzetta dello Sport and the now-defunct Les Sports newspapers that formed an early version of today's UCI ranking system; he would win it again in 1957 and 1959 - the Swiss Tour de France winner Ferdinand Kübler had won it three times too, but de Bruyne is the only rider to have won it three times consecutively.

De Bruyne could ride well on the track too, winning the Six Days of Gent with Rik van Steenbergen in 1957 prior to achieving one of the rarest and most prestigious doubles in cycling: winning the notoriously difficult Ronde van Vlaanderen and then, a week later, Paris-Roubaix - a feat that in almost a century (Paris-Roubaix began in 1896, the Ronde in 1913), only ten other riders have managed. He finished the season with victory at Paris-Tours, then got 1958 off to a good start when he won Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Paris-Nice for a second time. In 1959 he won Liège-Bastogne-Liège again and was second at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. From that year, de Bruyne's performance began to tail off and in 1960 he won only one event, a derny race at Zedelgem. The following year was to be his last as a professional rider, but he went out on a high with victory at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.

De Bruyne retained his links to cycling after retiring, writing books on the careers of van Steenbergen, Rik van Looy, Patrick Sercu, Peter Post and himself - they were well-received and remain worth seeking out today. He also served as a manager, later an official spokesperson, for the Ti-Raleigh team when it was at the the height of its legendary success, then became a TV sports commentator before his death aged 63 in 1994.

Schorn at the 2012 Giro

At the 2012 Giro d'Italia where his NetApp team made their Grand Tour debut, Daniel Schorn (born in Zell am See, Austria on this day in 1988), managed to avoid a crash 400m from the Stage 5 finish line and then out-sprinted several older and more-experienced sprinters to take fifth place. In 2013 he managed three top 20 finishes at the Vuelta a Espana; now aged 25, he seems a rider to watch in the coming years.

Luke Parker, born in Melbourne, Australia on this day in 1993, rode with the winning Sprint team at the Junior National Championships in 2010 and 2011. In 2012 he won the Austral Wheel Race, the oldest track competition still held anywhere in the world; in 2013, riding with the OCBC Singapore Continental team, he won Stage 2 at the Tour of the Philippines.

Kari Myyryläinen, born in Hyvinkää, Finland on this day in 1963, became National Champion in Cyclo Cross, Road Racing and Individual Time Trial in 1983, then successfully defended the ITT title and added the Points Race Championship in 1984. In 1985 he was Road Race and ITT champion again and won the GP de France; then he won the Road Race Championship in 1986, the Cyclo Cross Championship in 1991 and 1992, the ITT Championship in 1993 and the Cyclo Cross Championship in 1994 and 1995.


Other cyclists born on this day: Albert Kruschel (USA, 1889, died 1959); Orlando Rodrigues (Portugal 1969); Neil Ritchie (New Zealand, 1933); Ivan Valant (Yugoslavia, 1909); Bent Hansen (Denmark, 1932); Kathlyn Ragg (Fiji, 1962).

Daily Cycling Facts 02.10.2013

Kim Andersen
Born in Malling, Denmark on this day in 1952, Kim Andersen became the first Dane to wear the maillot jaune of the Tour de France when he led the race for five days early in the 1983 edition]. He also won Stage 12, but by that time trailed too far behind the leaders in the General Classification. In 1984 he won La Flèche Wallonne, and in 1985 he once again wore the maillot jaune at the Tour, this time for three days.

He tested positive in 1987, the year he became National Champion, and was banned from competition for life; this was later reduced to one year but in 1992 he tested positive again and was sacked by his team, Z. After continuing as an independent to the end of the season, he retired. Andersen worked as a directeur sportif with various teams after 1998, including CSC from 2003. There, he first met the Schleck brothers and went with them to LeopardTrek for the 2011.

Andersen became known as the Schleck's directeur sportif of choice - which, in view of his doping history, would inevitably raise questions, especially when Frank tested positive for the diuretic (used to increase production of urine, thus reducing the concentration of performance-enhancing drugs in it and making them harder to detect) xipamide at the 2012 Tour de France (during 2013, RadioShack-Nissan announced that it would not be renewing Frank's contract when his ban expired. This was not the first time Frank had been named in connection to doping; in 2008, it was alleged - and subsequently confirmed - that €7000 had been paid from his bank account into one owned by none other than Eufemiano Fuentes, the doctor at the centre of the Operacion Puerto scandal ; Andy has never failed a test nor been linked to doping, and it has been widely noted that the brothers have not been as close as they once were). He was at the centre of a row following the team's merger with RadioShack in 2012 when general manager Johan Bruyneel refused to let him work with the brothers at the Tour de France; however, Bruyneel was sacked by the team in October of that year following USADA's investigations into doping at US Postal which subsequently led to the disqualification of Lance Armstrong's seven Tour de France victories. Two months later, Nissan announced that they no longer wished to be associated with the team and ended sponsorship, then in 2013 Trek bought full ownership of the team from Leopard SA, a company owned by Flavio Becca; it is not known if Andersen will be a part of the new outfit.

2008 Fleche Wallonne winner Kim Kirchen, who rode for a number of professional teams between 1999 and 2010 including Highroad and Katusha, is named after Andersen - Kirchen's father Erny, who won the Fleche du Sud in 1973, is a friend of the Dane.



Born in Copenhagen on this day in 1962, Brian Holm was a super-domestique who won the National Individual Time Trial Championship in 1990 and later became manager of the national team. He admitted in his autobiography in 2002 that he had doped during the 1990s, then in 2007 that he twice used EPO during his time at Team Telekom; but was not sacked from his management position. Holm, who recovered from colon cancer in the mid-2000s and created a company that raises funds for cancer charities, has worked closely with British sprinter Mark Cavendish and is said to be a great motivational influence upon him.

Hilde Quintens, born in Zolder, Belgium on this day in 1964, was National Cyclo Cross Champion in 2003 and 2006.

André Foucher, born in Cuillé, France on this day in 1933, was National Military Road Race Champion in 1955 and National Independent Road Race Champion in 1958; he also came sixth overall in the 1964 Tour de France.

Nico Verhoeven, who was born in Berkel-Enschot, Netherlands on this day in 1961, was Amateur National Champion in 1984 and won Stage 1 at the Tour de France in 1987.

Other cyclists born on this day: Julien Vermote (Belgium, 1949 - the uncle of Omega Pharma-QuickStep's Julien Vermote, who was born in 1989): Luis Pasamontes (Spain, 1979); Daniela Larreal (Venezuela, 1973); Mitchell Docker (Australia, 1986); Sharon Vandromme (Belgium, 1983); Wilco Zuijderwijk (Netherlands, 1969); Liu Cheng-Tao (Taipei, 1937); Robert Pulfer (Canada, 1967); Alberto Downey (Chile, 1890); John Sinibaldi (USA, 1913, died 2006); Chester Nelsen, Sr. (USA, 1902, died 1987); Pavel Khamidulin (USSR, 1971); Shazada Muhammad Shah-Rukh (Pakistan, 1926); Pietro Algeri (Italy, 1950); Ronny Vanmarcke (Belgium, 1947); Dellys Starr (Australia, 1976); Hernán Masanés (Chile, 1931).

Daily Cycling Facts 29.09.2013

Felice Gimondi

Felice Gimondi

Italy has produced very many great cyclists, among them some of the best to have ever lived - but only Coppi and Bartali (others might add Moser and Pantani) come close to Felice Gimondi, who was born in Sedrino on this day in 1942.

Like many riders who later became great, Gimondi owed the strength in his legs to the heavy delivery bike he rode in childhood - in his case, helping his mother, who worked as a mail carrier, to make her rounds. In 1964 he won the Tour de l'Avenir and came 33rd in the Road Race at the Olympics, which earned him his first professional contract the following year with Salvarani. He was still there when the team became Bianchi-Campagnolo in 1973 and stayed with them until his retirement in 1979. In the months immediately after signing the contract, Gimondi won four important races and came second at La Flèche Wallonne; however, as the Tour de France is generally considered too difficult for a ride in his first professional year, he was selected to take part only at the last moment when a team mate became unable to ride. He won Stages 3, 18 and 22 and took first place in the General Classification and third in the Points competition; one of only 11 riders to have won the race after a first attempt in the history of the Tour, immediately becoming a national hero as a result.

Gimondi would never win another Tour, but victory at Paris-Roubaix, Paris-Brussels and the Giro di Lombardia, a stage win at the Tour de Romandie plus a stage win and fifth place overall at the Giro d'Italia proved that his earlier unexpected success was not a fluke and that he was a rider of prodigious talent. He confirmed it the next year by winning seven races early in the season, then won the General Classification at the Giro d'Italia, which would become the scene of his greatest moments: he won it again in 1969 and 1976, came second twice and third four times - a record nine podium finishes. In 1968 he won the National Road Race Championships (as he would again in 1972) and the Vuelta a Espana and thus became te second man in history to have won all three Grand Tours; to this day only three other riders have been added to the list. He was also third at the Giro that year despite failing an anti-doping test (he would fail another at the Tour de France in 1975 but was again allowed to continue and came fifth overall).

Gimondi later in his career

Gimondi's 1966 wins at Paris-Roubaix - the frequently nightmarish race that many riders call the most difficult and dangerous of them all -  and the Giro di Lombardia suggested that he also had the potential to be a successful Classics rider, including in the very tough Northern Cobbled Classics that, according to tradition, Italians could not win (despite the fact that by Gimondi's era several had). He began entering more of them in 1968 and that year he was third at Gent-Wevelgem; then in 1969 he was second at the Ronde van Vlaanderen - like Paris-Roubaix, a Monument race on account of being one of the hardest and most prestigious Classics. In 1970 he was second at the Giro di Lombardia, then second at Milan-San Remo in 1971 and at Gent-Wevelgem and third in the Giro di Lombardia in 1972. In 1973 he was third at Milan-San Remo, but his talent at one-day races came to the fore at the World Championships where he won the Road Race and he finished the season with another triumph at the Giro di Lombardia. In 1976 he won Milan-San Remo and Paris-Brussels, a semi-Classic.

Estimates vary as to how many races Gimondi won, but approximately 160 seems likely. Numerous riders have won more, but few have been as successful in so many of the most important races. Now aged 70, he is still involved with competitive cycling as the president of the TX Active-Bianchi Mountain Bike team.

Óscar Sevilla
Born in Ossa de Montiel, Spain on this day in 1976, Óscar Sevilla turned professional with Kelme-Costa Blanca in 1998 and won Stage 4 at the Tour de Romandie the following year. In 1999 he went to the Giro d'Italia and came 16th overall, but his big break came in 2001 when he was seventh overall at the Tour de France - and second overall at the Vuelta a Espana. In 2002 he was fourth overall and third in the Points competition at the Vuelta.

Sevilla in 2004

Despite such remarkable early promise, Sevilla never did win a Grand Tour - he was 12th at the Vuelta in 2003 (and missed several races following a crash at the World Championships, which left him with an injured back); 24th at the Tour and 22nd at the Vuelta in 2004 and 18th at the Tour and sixth at the Vuelta in 2005. Having been blocked from entering the Tour in 2006 when he was linked to Operacion Puerto (he was also fired by T-Mobile, but found a new contract with Relax-GAM), he began looking to the shorter stage races and one-day events and was immediately successful, winning the Vuelta Ciclista Asturias in 2006, the Route du Sud in 2007, second place in the National Road Race Championship and first in the Colombian Clásico RCN in 2008, the Cascade Classic, the Vuelta a Cundinamarca and the Vuelta Chihuahua Internacional in 2009 when he signed for two years with Rock Racing.

Rock spent much of 2010 racing in Central and South America with Sevilla winning one race in Mexico and seven in Colombia, including the Vuelta a Colombuia where he failed an anti-doping test that detected Hydroxyethyl starch, a blood plasma expander that has been used as a masking agent in an attempt to hide the presence of EPO. He was given a provisional ban but returned with Gobernación de Antioquia-Indeportes Antioquia in 2011, then won several further Colombian races and was fourth overall at the Tour of Utah. In 2012 he won the Vuelta y Ruta de Mexico and the Colombian Vuelta a Boyacà.

Leonardo Piepoli

Piepoli at the Tour de Romandie, 2007

Born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland on this day in 1971, Leonardo Piepoli holds the record for winning the Subida a Urkiola with four victories (1995, 1999, 2003 and 2004). In 1994 he won the Baby Giro, which led to his first professional contract the following year when he signed to Refin; in addition to the Urkiola he won twice at the Trofeo dello Scalatore climbers' competition that year, then in 1996 he was 17th overall at the Tour de France.

Piepoli developed into one of the most respected climbers of the late 1990s and early 21st Century, enabling him to take good results in the Grand Tours. He was 14th at the Tour in 1998, eighth in the Vuelta a Espana in 1999 and tenth in the Giro d'Italia in 2000; then had a few years in which he tended to finish out of the top 20. At the 2006 Giro he won Stages 13 and 17, then came 11th overall and was 13th at the Vuelta; in 2007 he won Stage 10 and the King of the Mountains at the Giro. However, after his Saunier Duval-Scott pulled out of the 2008 Tour following Riccardo Riccò's positive test for EPO, he was sacked amid accusations that he had violated the team's ethical code; El Pais, the Spanish newspaper, claimed that he had confessed to using EPO, but he denied that such a confession had ever been made while testifying at a court hearing into doping allegations made against Riccò. In October, news emerged that two of the samples he provided at the Tour had tested positive for CERA, a form of EPO that has a more long-lasting effect and can thus be used in lower doses in an attempt to escape detection. Three months later, he admitted to using the drug during "a moment of weakness." A short while after that, he was banned from competition for two years.



Ben Berden, who was born in Hasselt, Belgium on this day in 1975, came third at the World Under-19 Cyclo Cross Championship in 1994 and was National U-23 Champion two years later. He won numerous cross and road races over the subsequent years and was second at the Elite Cyclo Cross Nationals in 2003 and, in 2009, he won the Nationals for Elite riders without contracts. Early in 2005, Berden failed a doping test: as he immediately made a full confession, he was given a ban of 15 months rather than two years.

British rider Chris Newton, born in Middlesborough on this day in 1973, has been steadily winning races since 1994 when he rode with the silver medal-winning Pursuit team at the Commonwealth Games. He has won numerous events on the road and on the track - his road successes including the National Individual Time Trial Championship in 1999 and 2000, the National Criterium Championship in 2001, the Tour de la Manche in 2002, the Rás Tailteann in 2003 and 2005 and the Tour Doon Hame and Lincoln International in 2010; on the track he has won eight National Championships (Points, Scratch and Team Pursuit), two World Championships (Points 2002, Team Pursuit 2005) and a total of seven events at the World Cup. In 2008, he won the bronze for the Points race at the Olympics.

Vasco Bergamaschi

Vasco Bergamaschi, born in San Giacomo delle Segnate, Italy on this day in 1909, won Stage 1 at the Tour de France in 1934, Stages 1, 11 and the General Classification at the Giro d'Italia and Stage 13a at the Tour de France in 1935 and Stage 1 at the Giro in 1939. He might well have won more had his career not coincided with the end of Alfredo Binda's and the start of Gino Bartali's.

Antonio Bailetti, born in Bosco di Nanto, Italy on this day in 1937, won Stage 4 at the Giro d'Italia and Stage 9 at the Tour de France in 1962 and Stage 21 at the Giro and Stage 5 at the Tour in 1963.

Michael Schär, born in Geuensee, Switzerland on this day in 1986, was National Under-19 Time Trial Champion in 2004 and National Under-23 Time Trial Champion in 2005

Jules Merviel, born in Saint-Beauzély, France on this day in 1909, won Stage 7 at the Tour de France in 1930 and Stage 1 at Paris-Nice in 1934, when he was also second overall at the Critérium International. In 1935 he won bronze at the National Road Race Championships but later rode into the back of a truck at the Tour de France and was unable to compete again until the Tour de Picardie the following year. He continued racing until 1944, but won no further victories.

Laurens de Vreese, born in Ghent on this day in 1988, won the Under-23 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in 2008 and was second in 2010, when he also became National U-23 Road Race Champion. In 2012 he won the overall Combativity award at the Eneco Tour and in 2013 he won the Sprint Classification at the Benelux Tour.

Luca Barla, born in Bordighera, Italy on this day in 1987 (not to be confused with the other cycling Luca Barla, born in the same part of Italy in 1976), became National Under-19 Road Race Champion in 2005.

Other cyclists born on this day: Lucien Dirksz (Aruba, 1968); Igor Sumnikov (USSR, 1966); Gilbert Bischoff (Switzerland, 1951); David Grylls (USA, 1957); Frank Orban (Belgium, 1964); Jürg Luchs (Switzerland, 1956); Lex van Kreuningen (Netherlands, 1937); Wang Qingzhi (China, 1968); Aage Myhrvold (Norway, 1918, died 1987).