An emergency press conference was organized at the La Pomme team's hotel in Compiègne after the news regarding Alexander Serebryakov broke through this evening. Apart from Serebryakov himself, the event also included La Pomme's head sport director François Pelli and Pierre Clusel, spokesman for one of the team's main sponsors: Bouygues Telecom
No time was wasted as the conference began, with Serebryakov opening by admitting to usage of a number of performance enhancing products, including HGH and cortisone. He then apologized to his team and his fans, both of whom he feels that he has let down, followed by a confirmation that it was done by him individually without knowledge from anyone else in the team.
Pelli then took over and expressed his disappointment in his rider, and that the management sees no other solution than to terminate Serebryakov's contract immediately. He will pay back the money he has earned so far in the season, but no other charges will be taken by the team.
Finally, he concluded by saying that any additional punishment will be decided by the UCI. The La Pomme team will try to put this incident behind and concentrate on future races, starting with tomorrow's Paris-Roubaix. The team is all in favour of clean cycling and will continue promoting it.
Well, it was an easy decision. The team wants nothing to do with doping, so there was nothing else to do.
Paris - Roubaix
The morning has to say the least been a bit chaotic for us after yesterday's revelation. It wasn't easy to concentrate on the race in the pre-race tactics meeting, but we did our best. The early goal is to send Gatis into the early breakaway, and then see what happens. This'll be a big experience for sure!
The weather gods certainly aren't nice to us today though, as it's awful conditions with heavy rain out on the course. The race goes on nevertheless, with both Feillu brothers being two of those involved in the first attacks.
The escapees are a few too many for Quickstep and Sky's liking, and it's all brought back together. A new attack immediately follows.
This one appears a bit more successful, as Tony Gallopin (Radioshack), Jay McCarthy (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Murilo Fischer (FDJ) establishes an advantage of around a minute together with Gatis - as planned!
Their attempt is indeed a success, as the peloton is happy to let them off the leash. The gap remains steady around 3-4 minutes for quite a few kilometers at first, but it has increased to 6 minutes as they reach the first cobbles.
Back in the main field, the pace inevitably picks up a little due to big names wanting to sit near the front end.
Even this relatively easy pace is too much for some riders, and the peloton splits in two pieces as they leave the first sector.
72 riders remain in the front half, but some big names are missing. Daniel Oss (BMC), Sebastien Turgot (Europcar), Matteo Tosatto (Crelan), Oscar Gatto (Vini Fantini) and Maciej Bodnar (Cannondale) to name a few.
Quickstep and Sky aren't going to wait for them and continues to pile on as Sep Vanmarcke (Blanco) is looking for something special today with an attack 135 km out from the finish.
Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto), Andrey Amador (Movistar) and Garmin duo Nick Nuyens and Tyler Farrar jump across to Vanmarcke soon afterwards, and a second breakaway is thus formed.
After just a few kilometers, they catch the initial group including Gatis. The gap back to the main field is roughly two minutes, with 120 km remaining.
After many kilometers of chasing they do eventually come across as well, just as we reach the forest of Arenberg.
McCarthy and Fischer has meanwhile been unhitched from this group.
The main field also gets there some 4 minutes later, with Nikolas Maes and Guillaume Van Keirsbulck setting the pace for Boonen.
Many riders are dropped through the forest, leaving only 44 left in contact as they go back out on the big road.
Jeanlou and Toms are still there for us, but both Evaldas and Andzs got tailed off, unfortunately.
Up front the pace is increasing due to the shrinking advantage, and Gatis can't keep up anymore. Gallopin and Bagdonas are also forced to let go.
The acceleration in the front group causes the gap to stop dropping, which forces Boonen to send up Gert Steegmans to pace the group instead.
Is he perhaps getting worried about a 2011 Vansummeren scenario?
The increased speed has an effect on the rest of the favourite group at least, as only 27 riders manage to hang on as we enter the final 60 km. Jeanlou and Toms are still there, together with the following:
Thomas, Eisel, Boasson Hagen, Stannard and Knees (Sky)
Boonen, Chavanel and Steegmans (Quickstep)
Cancellara, Devolder and Roulston (Radioshack)
Ladagnous, Demare and Chavanel (FDJ)
Flecha and Leukemans (Vacansoleil)
Breschel and Kump (Saxo-Tinkoff)
Pozzato (Lampre)
Phinney (BMC)
Vansummeren (Garmin)
Gaudin (Europcar)
Bozic (Astana)
Wynants (Blanco)
Bak (Lotto)
Onto the Mons-en-Pevele now, and Boonen makes a huge push!
Several riders are dropped by this, including Toms who decides to find an own rhythm rather than going too far into the red zone.
Meanwhile up front, Van Avermaet is surprisingly dropped.
Back in the favourite group, Cancellara has taken over after Boonen's failed attack. This pushes all the group's members to the limit, and Jeanlou also decides to find his own rhythm.
Cancellara's attack is just too much for many riders, and the group breaks as they leave the Mons-en-Pevele for normal road again.
Boonen, Chavanel, Devolder, Breschel, Thomas, Boasson Hagen, Eisel and Stannard are the ones staying with Cancellara.
Back to the front again, where the pace is too much for Guarnieri and Farrar.
Van Avermaet is meanwhile brought back by Cancellara, while Pozzato manages to shut the gap that opened earlier.
And here comes the first attack, from Thomas!
Cancellara responds immediately, followed by Chavanel and Breschel. But where is Boonen?
Vanmarcke has in the meantime shed everyone of his previous companions and now leads solo with 30 km remaining.
The cameras have finally found Boonen, who seems to be struggling! Pozzato is leading the charge in this group behind Thomas and the other attackers, and Tommeke seems to find this pace hard to follow!
The elastic soon snaps for Boonen and the others in that group as Pozzato makes it across to Thomas' group. The previous escapees are being brought back one by one now, but Vanmarcke is still around 2 minutes ahead.
Behind that group, Phinney is chasing together with Ladagnous. Boonen is even further back, clearly unable to do much more than just follow!
Further up the road, Cancellara hammers on and catches Roelandts and Amador: the last two remaining escapees behind Vanmarcke. The latter is also losing major ground though, and is now within sight!
But are the favourites running out of road?
Vanmarcke reaches the final sector of cobbles inside Roubaix, and the advantage is still almost a full minute over the Cancellara-led chasers.
Roelandts and Amador are unsurprisingly shed out the back as Spartacus makes one last big effort to catch up with Vanmarcke.
He struggles to shut the final meters however, and Vanmarcke enters the velodrome still leading.
Cancellara apparently has one more gear however, and starts to open a gap on the others as he makes a huge push up towards Vanmarcke's wheel.
Vanmarcke just gives up as Cancellara catches up with him, mentally cracked over the fact that he almost had a huge victory in his hands.
Fab meanwhile realises that he has a little gap over the rest, and attacks!
It takes Breschel a second or so to realise, and boom - the gap opens!
None of the others in the group has the advantage to take over when Breschel starts to look for help, and Fabian quickly extends his advantage to more than enough to win the race in a completely superior way!
He even rides up alongside a lapped Boonen and celebrates entering the record books right in front of the Belgian!
Breschel appears to have been the second strongest today, as he beats the others for second place even though he led the pursuit of Cancellara for a full lap around the velodrome.
Chavanel's 3rd rescues Quickstep's race somewhat, while Pozzato and Thomas might be annoyed to have missed the podium. A dead tired Vanmarcke is 6th, in tears over how close he was to winning.
Roelandts easily beats Amador in the sprint for 7th. Both were clever today by anticipating the favourites, and the tactic really payed off.
9th goes to Phinney, in a sprint also including Ladagnous as well as other earlier escapees Guarnieri and Nuyens. Astana will surely be extremely satisfied with this result, considering how unexpected it was.
Sprint battle also for 13th, with Sky taking the first three spots with Boasson Hagen, Stannard and Eisel. Boonen has to settle for fourth in the group and 16th on the day, which is surely very disappointing for him.
The rest of this group fills all spots down to 23rd.
Around two minutes later, Van Avermaet comes in solo for 24th. He didn't really have the legs to follow Vanmarcke and will now focus on the Ardennes instead.
After another 5 minutes comes Jeanlou, 25th today. Perhaps it would've been cleverer trying to stay in the group than pacing alone, but that's easy to say in hindsight.
With the addition of Toms finishing 30th, I'd say it's a decent first appearance.
I actually found it more funny that Vanmarcke was fighting for the victory in the game as well. Albeit he didn't get 2nd.
Rund um Köln
Back to reality again, after the fun Roubaix experience. It's easy to forget that we're actually still "just" a PCT team after the double big race participation. Anyway, today is surely for the sprinters, unless something unexpected happens over the final climb up the cobbled street inside Köln.
We're fielding a fairly strong squad, with Kwiatek leading to prepare for next Sunday and another big classic: Amstel. Same goes for Clement and Pierreluc, although both will keep a low role today. Evaldas will try to spark something if an opportunity opens.
The field is fairly evenly matched, without any standout big names. The experienced Matteo Tosatto (Crelan) might be looking at a chance to showcase his talent as his career has reached it's twilight. Also watch out for Heinrich Haussler (IAM), who will try to take revenge for missing the big races.
The peloton is admittedly whittled down to just 74 riders over the final passage of the cobbled climb after a big push from Jan Bakelants (Radioshack), but there is little the puncheurs can do to prevent a mass sprint finish.
Nevertheless, local rider Christian Knees (Sky) tries to jump clear with a surprise move just outside the 3 km mark.
Up on the bridge over Rhen, the Sky rider is brought back as a chaotic sprint is launched behind. Kwiatek and Evaldas are both in contention, but a few wheels back from the absolute head of the field.
As our duo finds a way through inside the final kilometer, we see the Slovenian champion's jersey of Borut Bozic (Astana) shooting clear of the rest. Maxime Vantomme (Crelan) is the rider trying to close on him.
But it's too late to stop Bozic from slipping away with the victory!
Kwiatek comes through for second in the final meters, closely followed by Evaldas in 4th - just losing the podium to a fast finishing Bobby Traksel (Champion System). A previously aggressive Bakelants is a surprising 5th.
By the way, is anyone else unable to completely load the page (or most others of this story), with some pictures not showing, or all of them remain zoomed in with sliders right and bottom when I manually stop the loading procedure?
Chrome, Opera and IE all the same, and all other stories work fine.
Edited by cio93 on 09-04-2013 19:45
Paris - Roubaix
Rund um Köln
