AIGLE, Switzerland (AP) — The International Cycling Union has suspended Tour de France stage winner Mikel Astarloza for doping.

The 29-year Spaniard tested positive for the endurance-booster EPO in an out-of-competition control on June 26, eight days before the Tour began.

The UCI says Friday it has provisionally banned Astarloza from racing until the Spanish cycling federation can hold a disciplinary hearing. He rides for the Euskaltel-Euskadi team.

The federation can disqualify any of Astarloza’s results after June 26. He won the 16th stage of the Tour on July 21.

This should give Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux the stage win and other fin for a Frenchman.

AP Photo pf Astarloza after the stage 16 win, which he an now kiss goodbye.

Below is a press release from American team Garmin-Slipstream who shared the blood profiles of fourth place Tour de France finisher Bradley Wiggins. This is a statement of how clean their team is and my represent a cleaner sport overall. Please click for more information.

Team Garmin-Slipstream is dedicated to total transparency and ethical sportsmanship. Here is the file for Bradley Wiggins’ “Hemoglobin” and “Off Score” data from 2008 training camp through his fourth place finish in the 2009 Tour de France. These profiles indicate no evidence of blood manipulation.

“Brad is an exceptionally talented athlete and it was great to see him do so well in the Tour de France,” said Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of Slipstream Sports. “He’s always been an outspoken advocate of clean cycling. He requested that we release his results after the Tour and his decision makes me and the entire team proud.”
Click the link below for charts of his blood values.
brad-wiggins-blood-profile-3

Now that Tour withdraw jitters are ending and I’m not twitching while watching summer reruns in the evening instead of one of the best Tours in history. I’ve made a list of winners and losers from the month of July in France.

Winners:

1.    The fans. What a race filled with a wide variety of stories, one of which is no Tour positive drug test to date.
2.    Alberto Contador who wins his second Tour and now has Four Grand Tours wins that he’s entered in a row. The Tour in 2007, The Giro 2008, the Veulta 2008, and now the Tour again. Looks like he’ll be winning many more in the coming years. He also did this as a champion and with as the French say, Panche. He made a tactical error or two, but can over come that with raw talent. He may have been forced to take the risk on Andorra Arcalis in stage 7 to show his own team, whose boss now.
3.    Lance Armstrong and Cancer victims around the world. Lance’s second comeback to cycling is nearly as impressive as his first after cancer. To retire for three years and race at this level at 37 years old. If they ever make a movie about his life this would be the perfect start of the sequel, which might just end with him as Governor of Texas or a member of the Senate.
4.    The Brothers Schleck, what a dynamic duo of talent like we’ve never seen in cycling before riding for the same team, Saxo Bank. Without them challenging Team Astana the race would have anticlimactic. Add Fabian Cancellara to the mix and Saxo Bank was the straw that stirred the drink as the saying goes. This was a team of great talent who know how to spell team without the “I”.
5.    Team Garmin-Slipstreem and Bradley Wiggins. His talent was without question, but his ability to ride three weeks and climb the Pyrenees and Alps with true climbers surprised even him. Christian Vande Velde, who suffered five broken vertebra in a crash in May, rode in support guiding Wiggins through the mountains and still finished eight overall. Tyler Farrar never won a stage, but came close and will in the future.
6.    The Sprinters Mark Cavendish and Green jersey winner Thor Hushvold. These two went head to head in the sprinters competition. Cavendish won six stages with his legs, while Hushvold won the jersey with craftiness and desire.
7.    The Liquigas team with two in the top ten and King of the Mountain winner Franco Pellizotti who came here to win the polka-dot jersey and win a stage. He did one of the two finishing second on stage XX. Maybe to make up for not winning a stage he was named as the most aggressive rider for the Tour. Vincenzo Nibali, 7th and Roman Kreuziger 9th are on the heals of Andy Schleck for future Tour winners.
8.    Journeyman Rinaldo Nocentini joined an early breakaway heading out of Barcelona on the way to the mountain top finish at Andorre Arcalis. Little did he know his fourth place finish on the day would put him in yellow for the next seven stages.
9.    Johan Bruyneel who has now delivered nine Tour winners in ten years. No other team director has those stats. He also had to put his friendship with Armstrong aside and win the race. He held the team together even with the many mixed signals, which speaks well of how professional the origination is. He’ll have a solid resume as he looks for a new job, but if he thought he Kazaks were difficult bosses his new boss might be even tougher.

Losers:
1.    The over zealous doping controllers who targeted a number of riders for as many as 20 test in a 25 day period. Testing is needed and targeted testing makes sense, but so does some respect for the riders and their needs to survive a three-week tour. Riders have difficulties finding time to rest, eat, and sleep due to the demands of the race. There’s team, sponsor, media, and drug testing responsibilities. When testers call so early in the morning not only taking urine but blood samples as well this is an added train to a riders system.
2.    Carlos Saste, last years winner who finished 17th over all this year. He rode with style and at least attempted to attack the other leaders but failed. During the second rest day the pressure of not doing well got o him and he blamed others. He later redeemed himself and showed the world his true character with an apology both through the media and to the individuals he blasted.
3.    Cadel Evans who went down under to finish 30th place after finishing second the past two years. His Silence-Lotto team let him down at the start and he let them down later. They signed two riders to help him with the Tour with questionable reputations, both cut from the squad. Evans too took risks to try and make time, but ultimately paid the costs and lost greater time.
4.    The American media who started nearly every story with Lance Armstrong. Sure he’s important to American cycling fans but he did not always play a role in the race on any given day. It’s time for the media to report on the race as a whole with all the stories, not through a single set of eyes. On top of this he choose which television reporter who would speak with from VS, Frankie Andrue and then controlled most of his information and quotes through Twitter.
5.    Local favorite George Hincapie who could a and should a been in yellow except for the pace making of his former teammates on Astana and rival American team Garmin-Slipstream in stage ??. Then a crash on stage 17 broke his collar bone, but wanting to finish the Tour for the “lucky” 13th time he wouldn’t see a doctor. He did finish in Paris and now will have some time off to heal. Maybe he should really be in the winners list, except for bad luck.
6.    Denis Mencov started as a favorite to add yellow to his Giro pink jersey in one season, but finished 51st instead.
7.    Quick-step and “star” Tom Boonen who needed lawyers to get him in the race a day before the start to never compete in a field sprint. Leaves you wondering how Alan Davis who was replaced by Boonen might have fared. Boonen dropped out before stage 15.
8.    Greg Lemond’s opinion piece in Le Monde during the Tour questioning Contador’s performance on the final climb to Verbier is not what cycling needs. Lemond teamed with former Festina’s team trainer Antoine Vayer who claimed impossible levels of VO2 max and watts needed for Contador and others to climb Verbier  in the time they did it. Other experts have questioned their math and results. While we need champions against doping in cycling, they need to make sure their math is correct. It might have been better to find another expert to partner with as well. Festina was the team thrown out of the 1998 Tour for the biggest doping scandal of Tour history.

NEW YORK (AP)  The City Council has passed a bill requiring bicycle taxis to have licenses and registration.

The taxis, known as pedicabs, have gone unregulated for years in New York City.

The three-wheel vehicles with a carriage in the back are increasingly popular among tourists and New Yorkers.

Officials have wanted to regulate them for years, but a judge struck down regulations after the city tried to cap the number of pedicabs allowed on the street.

The rules passed Wednesday don’t cap the number. Instead, there will be a 60-day period to apply for a license.

Pedicabs also won’t be allowed in the city’s pedestrian plazas.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP)  A suburban Philadelphia prosecutor says it appears that a 17-year-old boy was running a “bicycle chop shop.”

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said Wednesday that police found 15 to 20 bicycles and assorted bicycle parts in the teen’s father’s home.

Ferman wouldn’t say if any of the bikes had been reported stolen, but she’s seeking the public’s help in identifying them. She believes hundreds of bikes may have gone through the home in recent months.

Authorities are investigating whether the bicycles are connected to a recent string of assaults on bicyclists on the Schuylkill River Trail. The teen is charged in juvenile court with simple assault from one such confrontation last week that ended with the bicyclist firing a gun at his attackers.

I’m sad to say Norristown is where I was born and I hope the idea doesn’t move here.

Of the two Tour de France champions, Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong, who would you rather sit down to dinner with?

It’s a cocktail party or maybe in this case a Saturday morning club ride conversation. We’ve all read about both of them over the years. Both great champions and cyclists, but who seems like the guy you’d rather just hangout with and enjoy a conversation with?

This past Tour soap opera brought to you by Team Astana gave us an idea who they are and how they act.  In Lance’s case there’s many other public examples as well.

So the current Cycling Central poll asked you the question, Who would you rather have dinner with? Please us this post to leave comments on why you’d choose one over the other and what questions would you ask?

EDDIE PELLS,AP National Writer, The Food and Drug Administration issued a public health advisory Tuesday, warning consumers to stop using products touted as containing steroids or steroid-like substances, many of which are labeled as dietary supplements.

The advisory came five days after FDA investigators, led by Jeff Novitzky of the BALCO probe, raided the California offices of American Cellular Labs, looking for evidence the company sells steroids under the guise of a supplement.

The FDA sent a warning letter to the company, saying it was selling unapproved and misbranded drugs and telling the company to explain how it was going to “prevent the recurrence of violations.”

Those products include TREN-Xtreme, MASS Xtreme and six others. Melissa Truffa of the FDA said the administration had received five reports of adverse effects over two years, including serious liver injury, from the American Cellular products and 15 from similar products made by other manufacturers.

Though most high-level athletes in testing programs would test positive for taking these products, they are thought to be popular among athletes in high school, especially football players, most of whom aren’t subjected to as thorough a drug-testing program.

“It’s because they work, they’re relatively cheap and you assume they’re safe because you can buy them at your local shopping center,” said Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, in explaining the popularity among high schoolers.

Michael Levy of the FDA said consumers should be cautious when they buy any dietary supplements, not just the ones that claim to build muscle.

“They are not proven safe and effective before they get to market and we find that many are contaminated with potentially dangerous” substances, Levy said.

Many of the key regulations governing supplements are written for enforcement after products reach the shelves.

Andrew Shao, a scientist for the Council for Responsible Nutrition, applauded the FDA warning, saying it’s the kind of enforcement the industry needs to see more.

“This isn’t an issue of supplements, it’s an issue of criminals and criminal activity,” Shao said. “They take chances and take risks and perceive there won’t be consequences. The FDA’s recent actions shows that’s not the case.”

Levy said the company’s failure to respond to the FDA warning letter could lead to seizure of the products, an injunction to prevent the company from selling them and possible criminal sanctions that would stem from last week’s Novitzky search warrant.

But Levy could not immediately say what the exact sanctions might be. He said the FDA had no authority to make a mandatory recall of the product, and any recall would have to be voluntarily made by the company.

Tygart also applauded the FDA’s move, but said there are still too many dangerous products out there and not enough teeth in the federal regulations.

“It’s a tsunami of products out there but the law handcuffs both their arms behind their back when they attempt to regulate and stop the tsunami,” he said.

Shao, however, noted that five reports of adverse effects from the Americell products does not indicate a widespread problem in the supplement business.

“While this case is egregious and we’re supportive of the FDA action, it’s an isolated incident and in no way should be perceived as representative of the industry as a whole,” he said.

MADRID (AP)  Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong are sniping again after a fragile truce during the Tour de France.

Contador, who secured his second Tour win on Sunday in Paris, said he had no admiration for the American as a person and tensions between the two had a negative effect on the Astana team. Armstrong, the seven-time champion who finished third in his first Tour since 2005, responded that Contador should “drop this drivel.”

“My relationship with Lance Armstrong is zero,” Contador said late Monday in his hometown of Pinto outside Madrid. “He’s a great rider and he did a great Tour. Another thing is on a personal level, where I have never admired him and never will.”

Armstrong, who had criticized Contador as being inexperienced earlier this year, responded with his own salvo on Twitter.

“Hey pistolero, there is no ‘I’ in ‘team’. what did I say in March? Lots to learn. Restated,” Armstrong wrote.

The “pistolero” remark stems from Contador’s habit of celebrating victories by shooting an imaginary pistol.

“Seeing these comments from AC (Alberto Contador). If I were him I’d drop this drivel and start thanking his team. w/o them, he doesn’t win,” Armstrong added. “A champion is also measured on how much he respect his teammates and opponents.”

Contador and Armstrong entered this year’s Tour jousting for position as the Astana team leader — an unusual situation in cycling, where team’s normally have a clear No. 1 rider who is supported by the rest of the squad.

While Armstrong briefly held a slight edge over the Spaniard in the first week, Contador proved too strong in the mountains and was able to pull away for a decisive edge in the Alps.

On a couple of occasions, Armstrong questioned Contador’s tactics during the race, saying they went against the good of the team.

“It was a tense situation,” said Contador, who also won the race in 2007. “We didn’t have fluid communication despite the fact that we were the two main riders on the team. And this meant the rest of the cyclists and the technical staff also felt a bit of tension.”

Armstrong is launching his own U.S.-based team for next year, while Contador’s future with Astana remains uncertain.

“Wherever I go I will look for a teammate who is with me 100 percent,” Contador said.

I’ll add to a few items to this Associated Press report.
First, Lance Armstrong did not join the Astana Team’s victory celebration; instead he had dinner with his future team’s sponsors in Paris. Who was not respecting his teammates?

Second, Armstrong was also called to task on his remarks in his book that questioned last year’s Tour riders and their abilities. His quote from his book, Lance Armstrong: The World’s Greatest Champion. “The Tour (2008) was a bit of a joke this year. I’ve got nothing against Sastre… or Christian Vande Velde. Christian’s a nice guy, but finishing fifth in the Tour de France? Come on!” Armstrong later apologies for his remarks on Carlos Sastre and Christian Vande Velde

Third, name the rider who trained in a LiveStrong kit while riding with the team leading up to the Tour and on Rest days. This comes to mind with Lance’s comment about respecting his teammates and that Team is not spelled with an I.

Sad to see these two great champions of cycling taking the low road, but also cannot wait to watch the 2010 Tour de France and the sparks fly between them in the Alps and Pyrenees.

“Got some bad news this am. X ray confirmed my collar bone is broken.” Queen’s native George Hincapie’s post on his twitter feed.

Hincapie would not see a doctor after the crash so he could finish the Tour for his 13th time in 14 efforts, he didn’t finish his first try in 1996.

He played an important roll in leading out Mark Cavendish with 1 kilometer to go on the Champs-Élysées for his sixth stage win. He told Velonews.com  “With seven laps (of the 6.5km circuit) to go, it was really hurting a lot,” he said. “But on the last lap, I was fired up and I didn’t notice it all that much.”

He now plans on letting it heal naturally and will be off the bike for about four weeks.

His contract with Team Columbia-HTC at the end of this year. He’s not saying what his future plans are and that he’s trying to figure that out. Sounds like a man who is waiting for the phone to ring and there’ three US teams that would like to have his talent and experience. Will he be riding for his old boss, Lance Armstrong on Team RadioShack?

NEW YORK (AP) — These officials got the wheels in motion early.

Proponents were celebrating in advance Tuesday over the expected passage of New York City’s bicycle access bill. It comes before the City Council on Wednesday.

Under the proposal, commercial buildings must allow workers to bring their bikes into the office — if their employers approve. It does not require the buildings to create storage.

The measure aims to improve public health, reduce carbon emissions and provide a cheaper commute.

It’s being championed by Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan (SAY’-dihk kahn) and Acting Deputy Health Commissioner Andy Goodman, among others.

Council Member David Yassky introduced the bill.