The grueling high-mountain race is a semi-formal, competitive event - Photo OC Third Pole
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The first Haute Route road bicycle race connecting Geneva to Nice through the Alps is ready to kick off at 07:00, 21 August in Geneva.
Over 300 participants from 27 countries will embark on a 730-kilometer journey over the Alps in what organizers hope will be a fun seven-stage race.
Those wanting to reach Nice will have first to cross 15 mountain passes during what can only be called a grueling seven-day race.
What sets this ride apart, according to Jean-François Alcan, director of the Haute Route, is that “there is no star of the peloton and no prize-money,” although this doesn’t mean there are no stars riding. French motor-racing F-1 legend Alain Prost announced he will be taking part in some of the stages of the competition.
The Haute Route competition features 15 grueling mountain passes before reaching Nice - Click to enlarge
According to race officials, a total of 58 competitors from the UK, 92 from France, 19 from the US/Canada and 7 Australians will be at the starting line.
The youngest competitor is 20 years old while the oldest is 70-year-old Philippe Vidal from France.
Competitors participate in women’s and men’s solo, duo and team categories.
Follow the race live on
- YouTube
- Or directly on the Haute Route website.
International sports, cycling
Andy SCHLECK - Cadel EVANS - Frank SCHLECK ©Presse Sports/B.Papon
PARIS, FRANCE – Australian Cadel Evans won the Tour de France, edging out the Schleck brothers in the time trial on the penultimate day.
British rider Mark Cavendish won the final sprint along the Avenue des Champs-Élysées for the third time in a row and also became the first Briton to win the green jersey for the top sprinter.
Evans is the first Australian to win the Tour, and at 34 is the oldest winner since the second world war.
The Luxemburg Schleck brothers took the next two places, with Andy 1 minute 34 seconds back and Frank another minute behind.
French rider Thomas Voeckler, who wore the yellow jersey for much of the race, was fourth and last year’s winner Alberto Contador fifth.
Links to other sites: Le Tour de France, Telegraph, Guardian
Skating trails crisscross Switzerland, along with hiking, cycling, VTT and canoeing trails
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss Topo, the government mapping service, has just released the latest version of its set of online Swiss maps, which are faster and more complete, with the entire range of scales now available, from 1 :25,000 to 1 : million, in English, French, Italian and German.
The maps are regularly updated, so the online maps, for an annual subscription of CHF49 the first year and CHF29 in subsequent years, don’t become outdated.
They include not only roads and geographic details but aerial images, historical maps, the official Swiss hiking trails and the Switzerland Mobility 20,000km interactive maps that allow you to plan and trace your route on the wealth of official bicycle, walking, VTT, skating and canoeing trails (normal price, CHF30/year). They also include POI, points of interest, such as youth hostels, Schweizer Familie lodging and Friends of Nature houses.
Juan Mauricio Soler at Aminona, Tour de Suisse 2011, far right, part of the pack, but he later zoomed ahead to win the day, his first victory in four years
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The Tour de Suisse cycling race is being run fromVaduz in Liechtenstein to Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis in Austria Friday 17 June, at 225km the longest segment of the weeklong race. The winner of last Sunday’s Crans-Montana leg, Colombian rider Juan Mauricio Soler, is not with the group today, however, after suffering serious injuries in a bad fall Thursday. He is in an induced coma following bleeding on the brain and he is suffering from a number of fractures, after hitting a curb, falling on a spectator and landing on a fence.
Several spectators were also injured.
His fall was one of several Thursday, but it comes just five weeks after the death of Belgian rider Wouter Weylandt in the Giro d’Italia, whom Soler mentioned after his Sunday win.
Soler was in second place, close behind Thursday’s overall leader, Damiano Cunego of Italy, when the accident occurred.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Martial Saugy, director of the international Anti-doping lab in Lausanne, has spoken out publicly for the first time to respond to last week’s accusations by Tyler Hamilton on US television that American Lance Armstrong was using EPO, a doping substance. The cycling doping accusations, in addition to new world football corruption charges, have international sports media focusing on the bodies in Switzerland that govern and regulate the two sports, while the UN and the Olympic movement look to strengthen preventive measures.
IOC and UN agency sign agreement to step up fight against drugs, cheating in sport
Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and Yury Fedotov, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), recently met in Lausanne to formalize the relationship between their two organizations, the IOC reported 27 May. The two bodies have been cooperating on a case-by-case basis since the mid-1990s.
They have, through a number of projects, been working to train young athletes to be on the alert for cheating, whether through betting and scams or drugs.
Saugy says Hamilton had details wrong
Saugy has told Zurich newspaper NZZ that there was no cover-up by his lab and the international cycling union, ICU, in 2001, as Hamilton has claimed. Saugy was the scientific director at the time. It was the first year that tests were being run for EPO and the cycling world was hotly debating their validity. A year later a Paris lab, one of the 33 labs worldwide authorized to test athletes for doping set the criteria for testing positive at 85 percent or higher of the typical EPO parameters, according to Cycling News, which is following the case closely.
Saugy told NZZ that in 2001 he dealt with four “suspicious” test results, which meant that they showed 70-80 percent of the parameters. He did not know whose tests they were, or even if they were from the same rider.
Tour de Suisse 2010
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND -Former US gold medalist in cycling, Tyler Hamilton, continues to cause a stir a week after he said on US television news that he, but also others including teammate Lance Armstrong, used performance-enhancing drugs. He implied that Armstrong’s use of drugs was covered up by the international cycling body and the Swiss-based organization, Wada (World Anti-Doping Agency) that oversees the world’s 35 accredited labs since 2004.
Wada was created in 1999 and has been responsible for labs since 2004.
The accusations concern the 2001 Tour de Suisse.
Cycling News, which has followed the doping saga in the sport closely, published an article Wednesday 25 May that pits the word of Hein Verbruggen, an IOC official who was formerly head of the ICU (International Cycling Union), against that of Michael Ashenden, an independent member of the UCI’s panel of experts that reviews the blood passport data of professional cyclists an independent expert.
Verbruggen insists Armstrong never used doping and that there was no cover-up; Ashenden disagrees and insists on a more thorough international investigation.
Hamilton’s gold medal now in hands of US Anti-Doping Agency
The IOC (International Olympic Committee) in Lausanne said after the 19 May programme aired that it would consider stripping Hamilton of his 2004 gold medal but the US Anti-Doping Agency, USADA, confirmed that Hamilton had in fact given the agency his medal Friday, the day after the show.
Armstrong tweeted that he’d never failed even one of the 500-plus doping tests in his career, a fact with which Ashenden doesn’t disagree, saying that it doesn’t prove he didn’t use them.
Sports site ESPN notes that “Hamilton said that he saw Armstrong use performance-enhancing drugs, including the banned blood-booster erythropoietin, in 1999 and two subsequent seasons to help prepare for the Tour de France. ‘I saw (EPO) in his refrigerator. .. I saw him inject it more than one time like we all did, like I did many, many times.’”
Swiss-based ICU (International Cycling Union), the sports international body, lashed out at Hamilton after the show, stating Monday that “the International Cycling Union categorically rejects the allegations made by Mr Tyler Hamilton, who claims that Lance Armstrong tested positive for EPO during the 2001 Tour of Switzerland and had the results covered up after one of his representatives approached the Lausanne laboratory responsible for analysing test results from the event.”
Meanwhile, Alberto Contador’s doping appeal will be heard in by the CAS, the sports world international high court, 6-8 June in Lausanne. And Wada has thrown its support behind the ICU in another scandal, which erupted in France last week, when L’Equipe, a French sports newspaper, published a leaked internal ICU document that appears to have incorrectly implied that some riders were possibly guilty of doping in the 2010 Tour de France.
International sports, Tour de France cycling
Paris, France (GenevaLunch.com) – French rider Christophe Riblon won the 14th stage of the 2010 Tour de France after a long break away. Andy Schleck kept the yellow jersey of the overall leader as he kept pace with challenger Alberto Cantador.
Kim Kirchen, photo Katusha team
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Luxembourg racer Kim Kirchen, 31, complained of dizziness and feeling very unwell Friday night during dinner with his Tour de Suisse Katusha team, and he was taken immediately to hospital, where he has been in an induced coma since. The coma was induced to better evaluate his medical condition. He reportedly suffered a mild heart attack, similar to a problem he had in 2009, but according to a Katusha news release Saturday 19 June “it is possible to exclude both an infarctus or a thrombosis.” He was 48th in the rankings in the race before Friday.
“We were all together when it happened yesterday evening at the hotel,” Katusha sports director Serge Parsani said. “He felt really bad and we immediately sent him to the hospital.”
The Tour de Suisse has its final, ninth race today, a 26.9km loop from Liestal back to the town in northern Switzerland, not far from Basel. The leader going into the race was Robert Gesink, Luxembourg, with six other riders, including Lance Armstrong, within a minute of his overall time. Defender Fabien Cancellara has not made it into the top 10, nor has German Tony Martin, two of the favoured contenders at the start of the race.
International sports, cycling
Wettigen, Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The fourth leg of the Tour de Suisse ended Tuesday 15 June with a crash that brought down 20 riders just 50 metres from the finish line. It saw Briton Tony Cavendish go from the lead to the ground, with a fine and several penalties for causing the pile-up. Yesterday’s 196km race was won by Italy’s Alessandro Petacchi.
Cavendish’s bike touched Heinrich Haussler’s, winner of the previous day’s race, bringing them both down. Cavendish suffered minor injuries, mainly road burns, but Haussler has a deep puncture wound to his right elbow and is now out of the race.
Tony Martin remains in the lead as they race the fifth leg, from Wettigen to Frutigen Wednesday.
Links to other sites: Bike Radar, Tour de Suisse (Fre) and video on SF
Tour de Suisse Sunday 14 June, coming into Salgesch, 5km from the finish
Schwarzenburg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Tony Martin takes the overall lead in the Tour de Suisse, one second ahead of defender Fabien Cancellara, at the end of the third stage 14 June.
Franc Schleck won the race Monday, from Sierre in Valais to Schwarzenburg, with Martin close behind him and Cancellara coming in third, six seconds behind the winner.
Schleck, who was not in the top 10 rankings after Sunday’s race, made an impressive finish. The Tour de Suisse is playing out tightly, with suspense Sunday and Monday, 13-14 June, up to the end. The Simplon Pass doused the racers Sunday afternoon but the sun came out long enough along the banks of the Rhone as they raced into Sierre.
Monday’s 196.6km took the Tour over the Col des Mosses.
International sports, cycling, Tour de Suisse
Lugano, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Fabien Cancellara, Swiss cyclist, took the first leg of the Tour de Suisse race Saturday 12 June in Lugano, winning the against-the-clock race. The title-holder won the 7.6 km race through the streets of Lugano with a time of 10′ 21″ 06, just one second ahead of Roman Kreuziger. American Lance Armstrong came in 44nd, not taking any chances in the streets that were damp from rain towards the end of the race.
Cancellara has been plagued by rumours that he used hidden batteries for uphill runs, with some three million people viewing the YouTube video that purportedly shows this.
Bol d'Or 2009, waiting in Montreux, for boats to arrive
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – There is no shortage of events for sports fans this weekend, on TV but also live and in the region. The World Cup is on, of course: be sure to read our Geneva Living blog for big screen locations throughout the Lake Geneva region.
Bol d’Or: sails go up for 10:00 race start!
The big local event is the beautiful Bol d’Or sailing competition, with hundreds of boats in different classes doing the Geneva-Lausanne-Geneva loop. The races start at 10:00 Saturday morning, so check the wind or better, yet, check the race’s virtual tracking page to see where the boats are at a given moment, if you want to find a good spot for watching them. The Bol d’Or has a new video (12 minutes) with the history of the race, which began in 1939.
The weather forecast for Geneva: cloudy changing to partly cloud, high of 25C Saturday, slightly warmer Sunday, when the race normally finishes. Reminder: GenevaLunch now has a weather page with five day forecasts.
Tour de Suisse underway in Lugano
The Tour de Suisse cyclists warm up for the mountains by doing a 7.6km loop around the Lugano area Saturday, before starting the first big run Sunday, 167.5km from Ascona in canton Ticino, over the Simplon pass to Sierre, canton Valais. The race is normally covered by TSR but this year it is on at the same time as the World Cup, so if you aren’t on the route, watching it live, you’ll have to content yourself with roundups on TV and TSR coverage online. You can pick up the live ticker on the Tour de Suisse web site.
Armstrong will meet Cancellara in Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Lance Armstrong will be back in the Tour de Suisse cycling race for the first time since he won it in 2001.
The race promises to be a colourful one, with Armstrong, who won the Tour de France seven times, gearing up for the big French race after crashing out of the Tour of California in May. His crash there came just hours after former teammate Floyd Landis, who recently admitted to doping, said that Armstrong knew about and participated in the doping – charges Armstrong and several others in the cycling world strongly deny. Landis has said that Armstrong’s doping took place in 2001, when he won the Tour de Suisse race.
But the Tour de Suisse focus will more likely be on Swiss racer Fabian Cancellara, Olympic champion who promises to give a fight in the big French race. The Tour de Suisse serves as a warmup to the Tour de France for many racers.
A disappointment for the organizers of the race is that for the first time in years it will not be carried live by Swiss television stations TSR and RSI. The race dates conflict with the football World Cup, which gets television precedence. The Tour de Suisse will have to be content with an hour of daily highlights from the race, which starts 12 June in Lugano and ends 20 June in Liestal, near the German border.
Links to other sites: Tour de Suisse (Fre) preview, circuit and dates in Switzerland, Telegraph, Le Nouvelliste
Three riders out of the race after a fall during the runup Tuesday
Tour de Romandie 2010
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Area roads around Lake Geneva will be blocked starting Thursday 29 April thanks to the Tour de Romandie bicycle race. Oncoming traffic will be stopped as the race approaches and Vaud police are asking drivers to use extra caution Thursday to Saturday, and to be prepared for road blocks. The race covers nearly 655 km, with 8,000 metres of difference in altitude.
The “prologue” to the race Tuesday resulted in three riders dropping out of the race after taking a fall: Joaquin Novoa, Chris Froome and Arkaliz Duran.
The race, which pulls a sizable crowd of fans, will pass through these areas:
Fribourg - Fribourg loop, Thursday 29 April 2010
Canton de Fribourg – Faoug (13:55) – Avenches (14:00) – Canton de Fribourg – Vers-chez-Perrin (14:30) – Canton de Fribourg – Villarzel (14:35) – Canton de Fribourg.
Individual against the watch: Moudon – Moudon, Friday 30 April 2010
Tour de Romandie 2010
Moudon, avenue de Lucens (leaves 12:45) (roads completely closed as of 11:45), route d’Yverdon – Les Rutannes – Thierrens – St-Cierges – Chapelle/Moudon – Villars-Mendraz – Hermenches – Rossenges – Moudon (open around 19:00).
Vevey, Grande Place (leaves 13:15) – La Tour-de-Peilz – Montreux – Veytaux – Villeneuve – Roche – Bex – Canton du Valais.
Links to other sites: Tour de Romandie site with detailed SwissTopo map of the route and stages of the race, WeLoveVelo
Title: Cycling: Tour de romandie
Location: Lake Geneva region
Link out: Click here
Description: The race runs through the French-speaking region of Switzerland.
Start Date: 2010-04-27
End Date: 2010-05-02
Roubaix, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France (GenevaLunch) - Fabian Cancellara, the Swiss Olympic road race champion won the famed Paris-Roubaix race, 259 kilometres with more than 50 over cobblestones Sunday 11 April. Cancellaro opened up a lead of more than two minutes when there were still 40km to go and easily maintained his lead as the pack fell away. The win followed his victory in the Tour of Flanders the previous weekend and makes him the tenth, and only the second non-Belgian to win the two spring classics. Fellow Swiss Henri Suter was the first.
His big rival Tom Boonen could not keep up with the pace and ended fifth. Norwegian Thor Hushovd was second and the Spanish rider Juan Antonio Flecha came in third.
Links to other sites: Eurosport, Fabian Cancellara, MSNBC, TSR
Ninove, Belgium (GenevaLunch) - Fabian Cancellara, the Swiss Olympic road race champion, won the Tour of Flanders to become only the 11th rider to win the three spring classics. He won Milan-San Remo in 2008 and Paris-Roubaix in 2006. Belgian riders Tom Boonen and Philippe Gilbert were next in this year’s race. Lance Armstrong was back in 27th place.
Link to other site: eurosport
Mendrisio, Ticino, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Olympic and world champion Fabian Cancellara took gold in stunning fashion in the time trial of the world cycling championships in Ticino. He dominated the field to win the 49.8 km race by almost one and a half minutes. The Bern-based rider also won the race in the 2006 and 2007 championships, as well as taking Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008. He took bronze in the Olympic road race and is hoping to do even better in the 262.2 km race on Sunday.
Details: Swissinfo
[golf stars video] Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Women boxers will be able to compete in the 2012 Olympics in London and their participation in several other sports, including wrestling, cycling and swimming, as well as tennis doubles, is likely to increase following a decision by the IOC executive board on new sports for the Games. Boxing was the only Olympic sport without women competitors in the last Olympic games in Beijing in August 2008. There will be three weight categories, while the men will lose one of their 11 classes. The decision has been welcomed as a step forward for gender equality but also criticized by Headway, the brain injury association because of potential dangers.
Seven-a-side rugby and golf have been recommended for entry to the 2016 Games in South Africa and will now need the approval of the full IOC, which meets in Copenhagen in October. Golf and rugby federations are being invited to present their sports.
Paris, France (GenevaLunch) – Mark Cavendish, from the Isle of Man, won his sixth sprint finish in the 2009 Tour de France. It was the most prestigious but in some ways also the easiest as his Columbia teammates, especially Australian Mark Renshaw, gave him a big lead into the final 100 metres.
The final day was a traditional affair, at a leisurely pace for much of the stage before a break by seven riders in search of glory.
Mont Ventoux, France (GenevaLunch) – Alberto Cantador is now almost certain to win the 2009 Tour de France: he need only stay with the pack for the lagely ceremonial ride into Paris. The penultimate stage includes a steep 20-kilometre climb to the finish at the summit of Mont Ventoux, where British cyclist Tom Simpson died of exhaustion in the 1967 Tour.
Annecy, France (GenevaLunch) - Alberto Cantador, who was already in the Yellow Jersey, underlined his dominance by winning the individual time trial around Lake Annecy, not far from Geneva. His Astana teammate Lance Armstrong could only manage 16th position, losing one minute 30 seconds. Cantador now heads the Tour by four minutes 11 seconds from Andy Schleck followed by Armstrong with Bradley Wiggins another 11 seconds back in fourth.
Le Grand Bornand, France (GenevaLunch) – Younger men are getting ahead of 37-year-old Lance Armstrong, seven-time winner of the Tour de France, who slipped into fourth place overall Wednesday 22 July as riders took on the challenge of five mountain passes. The two Schleck brothers from Luxembourg, Andy and Frank, who ride for the Saxo bank team are now behind leader Alberto Contador in the overall rankings. Armstrong could not maintain the pace but came back strongly later as he stormed up the final mountain.
Bradley Wiggins, British three time Olympic champion, started the day in third place but slipped back to sixth, although this was not clear to television spectators who were forced to watch an interview with President Sarkozy on the Tour while the riders came in.
Armstrong’s fight to win can be viewed another way, reports Minnpost:
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Bicyclists in Lausanne and beyond have collected 100,000 signatures since February in a petition to create more bike lanes on city streets in French-speaking Switzerland.
ProVelo’s Lausanne chapter, the organizer of the petition, notes that the situation in the German-speaking part of Switzerland is much better for cyclists. The organizers are appealing (Fre, pdf) not only for more bike lanes but also for better safety measures for cyclists. In 2007, they note, 3,300 cyclists were injured in Switzerland.
Besancon, France (GenevaLunch) - The 14th stage of the Tour de France was overshadowed by the death of a 61-year-old woman who was struck by a police motorcyclist as she crossed the road during the passage of the race. It is the first death of a race spectator since 2000. The accident took place near Wittelsheim. Two other spectators, injured when the bike slid into them, were taken by helicopter to a hospital in Mulhouse.
Central France (GenevaLunch) – German rider Heinrich Haussler broke from the pack in only the third kilometre of Friday’s stage in the Tour de France, and he gradually left the other members of the breakaway group to take the stage by more than five minutes, with the pack another two minutes back.
Central France (GenevaLunch) – Isle of Man sprinter Mark Cavendish took his fourth stage win for the Columbia team and regained the sprinters’ Green Jersey. The overall lead was unchanged with Italian Rinaldo Nocentini reaining the Yellow Jersey, six seconds ahead of Astana leader Alberto Contador with teammate and rival Lance Armstrong two seconds further back. The Yellow Jersey is likely to change owner in the next few days.
Details, Le Tour de France
Central France (GenevaLunch) – Mark Cavendish won his third sprint of the 2009 Tour, ably assisted by his Columbia teammates. A group of four riders, including three French, led a break-away group but they were overhauled in the last few kilometres, setting the stage for the final sprint. When it comes to sprinting there is not much doubt about who is fastest, at least according to Cavendish:
Southern France (GenevaLunch) – The end of the first week leaves the tour very open, with two main dramas being played, one between the Astana team and the other teams and a more personal conflict between seven-time winner Lance Armstrongand his teammate, the theoretical leader of the Astana team Alberto Contador.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss Olympic Champion Fabian Cancellara won the Tour de Suisse, coming in first in the final day time trial in Bern. Cancellara won gold in the time trial and bronze in the road race in the Beijing Olympics. He is not considered likely to win the Tour de France, which starts 4 July but could well take the yellow jersey in the first stage time trial in Monte Carlo. Details, swissinfo
