Welcome back you're watching the Global Cycling Network, with me, Martyn Ashton....
and this week I'm joined by a very special guest, Martyn, good header, That's right
it's Lee Dixon, Arsenal and England soccer legend, and all round cycling nut, I didn't
know that, it's true. Plenty coming up in the show, let's dive straight into the pro
ranks and the organisers of the Vuelta have announced this year's route, featuring a
summit finish in France - the race's first foray over the border in ten years it's
going to be one of eleven summit finishes in the 2013 edition Martyn the race includes
the mega-steep Angliru which is arguebaly where Chris Froome lost the Vuelta in 2011
and certainly Bradley Wiggins fell out of contention. Yer it really is one for the climbers
there's only 1 team time trial at the start and 1 individual time trial, this one's
gonna be a hell of a race. News now from the Aussie road championships, that took place
over the weekend - Matt Keenan joined us on a google hangout, from Melbourne. So Matt
what went down in Balerat this weekend? Well Mart it probably seems like an odd time of
the year to you guys for us to host our national championships but this is the only period
where all the best riders in Australian cycling are at home and Luke Durbridge at 21 years
of age became the first to do the double he won the time trial and the road race, you
better get used to his name. Wow so Luke, Luke Durbridge he's GreenEDGE right, he's,
is he the next great hope for Australian cycling? He's our next, or he's our answer to Fabian
Cancellara he's not our next Cadel Evans, he'll be our first Luke Durbridge, I think
he can win prologues at the Tour de France he proved that at the Critérium du Dauphiné,he
beat Wiggins and took the yellow jersey so he could be doing similar things to Fabian
Cancellara we hope so at least. Well he sounds like an exciting rider and you mentioned there
was some breaking news over there right now. There is, when the Lance Armstrong affair
broke we saw Matt White an Australian confess to doping along with Steven Hodge who was
a former member of cycling Australia, that led to a federal investigation there's been
a finding handed down today with 16 recommendations, most of them pretty generic; don't have people
who were involved in doping involved in the sport but one that really caught my attention
stated that those who were on the board in cycling Australia needed to go on a course
effectively as how to operate on a board, which I saw as a sign of a lack of faith in
those who are actually running the sport here. Well that's interesting and we'll see how
it develops, Matt we're going to be listening to you soon again about the Tour Down Under
is that right are you going to come back and give us some news? I look forward to giving
you updates and maybe Simon Gerrans going back to back, nice one cheers Matt.
One team that definitely won't be going to the Tour Down Under is Katusha. That's
right Lee, the Russian outfit, featuring World number
one Joaquim Rodriguez, failed in its latest attempt at the Court of Arbitration for Sport
to regain its ProTour status. Now they're trying for a Pro Continental licence ,which
is a step down, with a view to riding in the Tour de San Luis in Argentina. Well if they
haven't got a license they can't ride anywhere.
The Italian Federation has backtracked on its ban against ex dopers riding for the national
team meaning that the likes of Ivan Basso, Michele Scarponi and Franco Pelizotti can
all ride for Italy at the word championships in Florence later this year.
Elsewhere, Steve de Jongh has joined Saxo-Tinkoff as Sports Director. If you cast your mind
back the Dutchman was released from his contract at Team Sky last October after admitting to
using banned substances during his racing career -- something that fell foul of the
British team's zero tolerance policy. Team principal Bjarne Riis had been on the lookout
for another director to bolster his line-up. And it's the end of an era as Former World
and Olympic champion Nicole Cooke announces her retirement at the age of 29. The British
rider enjoyed the best season of her career in 2008 when she won Olympic Gold on the roads
of Beijing, followed up with the World title in Varese. At her retirement press conference
Cooke was critical of the UCI for it's lack of support for Womens racing.
And now from skinny tyres to knobbly tyres Martyn, that's right news of a ruckus in the world
of downhill mountain biking. Aaron Gwin has been forced to deny breaking a three year
contract with Trek World Racing after sensationally leaving and joining Specialized. Trek are
claiming a letter of intent signed by Gwin last August is legally binding -- he's
claiming a subsequent contract sent to him was not what he'd initially agreed. Expect
this one to rumble on. Every where you look at the moment, one story
is dominated the cycling headlines, Yes, it's Lance Armstrong That's right this is the
week, it's the Oprah Winfrey show and what can we expect, well I was lucky enough to
speak to Richard Moore, cycling journalist to see exactly what was going to go down.
Are we going to get what we want, are we going to get an admission? I think we're going to
get an admission I think it's going to be a partial admission and it won't be very specific
it will be a general kind of confession I also wonder if because of that mainstream
American audience who might not be that interested in the specifics or aufait with the specifics
of doping and cycling whether Armstrong might be allowed to fudge the issue a little bit
and talk about the health and the medical practices rather than the doping. I also fear
that Oprah Winfrey and again that mainstream American audience won't be all that interested
in the roles of people like Johan Bruyneel or Hein Verbruggen or the UCI that kind of
specific information that cycling fans would be very interested in finding out but I don't
think that mainstream American audience will be all that interested in. Ok so we get the
admission, that's what we want, for cycling what are the implications once we've got it?
I don't think there are many implications for cycling, we know what went on it's more
about Lance Armstrong now and that's why he's doing it, he's doing it to try and manage
some kind of return I think to public life in some way shape or form, I don't think that
can be in sport now, certainly not in cycling but he clearly you know doesn't want to go
quietly, he wants to return otherwise why would he be giving an interview to one of
Americas most watched television programmes. Well it's certainly an intriguing story, one
of the biggest stories in cycling and it happens on Thursday, it's live on the net and GCN
will be following up on that next week.
Quite appropriate really being in a padded cell because I'm joined by Liz Dimmock who's
just about to cycle around the world on an epic journey, Liz tell us about it. In July
i'll be cycling 80,000 miles across 5 continents, averaging around 130 miles a day and hopefully
breaking a world record and I'll be sending regular updates to GCN, don't forget to follow
on GCN. That's about all we've got time for this
week, my thanks to Lee Dixon, it's been awesome, coming up next week we've got the
debut of Cavendish on the Omega Pharma Quickstep team, don't forget the tour down under,
the Tour Down Under, lots of exciting stuff, this has been GCN, don't forget to leave
your comments down below and if you haven't subscribed yet you can do that just up here.