Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Sunday, December 6, 2015

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Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm schizophrenic, and so am I. - Oscar Levant

Astana rider Vanotti breaks leg

Key Astana domestique Alessandro Vanotti crashed Thursday while training with teammates in Calpe, Spain. They went through a patch of road that was being repaired. Fabio Aru hit a rubber cone which got caught in Vanotti's wheel, bringing Vanotti down.

Vanotti broke his tibial plateau (the top of the shin bone) and returned to Bergamo, Italy, where the diagnosis was made.

On Monday Vanotti will undergo and MRI to see if he needs surgery.

"Put it this way, the important thing is that Fabio [Aru] is not injured," Vanotti generously noted.

Aru is the winner of the 2015 Vuelta a España and also won the young rider classification in the 2015 Giro d'Italia.

Alessandro Vanotti leads Astana in this year's Liège-Bastogne-Liège

Roger de Vlaeminck remembers brother Eric

The de Vlaeminck brothers Eric and Roger belong in a list of cycling's greats. Yesterday I noted Eric's recent passing. Eric earned seven world cyclo-cross championships before going on to being an extraordinarily successful coach of the Belgian cross team. Late in life he suffered from both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Younger brother Roger won Paris-Roubaix four times among his many other victories.

Roger remembered his brother, saying that he took his good-by a few months ago. "I had the feeling that he recognized me. This memory I cherish. We were in each other's arms, weeping. That moment made everything well.

"His passing is hard for me. I knew from the specialists that he fought an unfair battle with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, but still."

Roger de Vlaeminck in his prime

USA Cycling names 2016 Olympic Mountain bike and Women's Road long teams

Here's the news from USA Cycling:

(Dec. 4, 2015) – USA Cycling announced the men’s and women’s mountain bike and women’s road Olympic long teams on Friday, naming the lists of athletes from which final 2016 Olympic rosters will be selected next summer.
It was a dramatic sprint at the finish. World Championships bronze medalist Megan Guarnier earned an automatic Olympic nomination in Richmond.

Track long team selections will be made Dec. 15, while BMX and men’s road team selections will be made on June 24, 2016, with the final Olympic Team selection.

The men’s mountain bike long team includes three automatic and four discretionary nominations; up to three members will be named to the final Olympic Team. The women’s mountain bike long team includes two automatic and six discretionary nominations; up to two members will be named to the final Olympic Team.

The women’s road long team includes four automatic and six discretionary nominations. Four road team members, including two time trialists, will be named to the final Olympic Team in June.

Men’s mountain bike long team
Stephen Ettinger (Bozeman, Mont./Team Sho-Air-Cannondale)*
Russell Finsterwald (Colorado Springs, Colo./SRAM-Troy Lee Designs Race Team)
Alex Grant (Salt Lake City, Utah/Ridebiker-Cannondale)
Howard Grotts (Durango, Colo./Specialized Factory Racing)*
Spencer Paxson (Bellingham, Wash./Kona Bicycles Factory Team)
Keegan Swenson (Park City, Utah/Team Sho-Air-Cannondale)
Todd Wells (Durango, Colo./Specialized Factory Racing)*

Women’s mountain bike long team
Larissa Connors (Silverado, Calif.)
Kate Courtney (Kentfield, Calif./Specialized Factory Racing)
Lea Davison (Jericho, Vt./Specialized Factory Racing)*
Georgia Gould (Fort Collins, Colo./LUNA Pro Team)
Rose Grant (Kalispell, Mont.)
Erin Huck (Boulder, Colo./SCOTT-3Rox Racing)
Mary McConneloug (Chilmark, Mass./Team KENDA-M&M Racing)
Chloe Woodruff (Prescott, Ariz./Team Stan’s NoTubes-Niner)*

Women’s road long team
Mara Abbott (Boulder, Colo./Wiggle-Honda)
Kristin Armstrong (Boise, Idaho/TWENTY16 p/b SHO-AIR)*
Megan Guarnier (Queensbury, N.Y./Boels Dolmans Cycling Team)*
Amber Neben (Lake Forest, Calif./FCS Cycling-Visit Dallas Cycling p/b Noise4Good)
Shelley Olds (Gilroy, Calif./Ale Cipollini)*
Coryn Rivera (Tustin, Calif./UnitedHealthcare)
Carmen Small (Durango, Colo./Bigla Pro Cycling Team)
Lauren Stephens (Dallas, Texas/Team TIBCO-SVB)*
Evelyn Stevens (San Francisco, Calif./Boels Dolmans Cycling Team)
Tayler Wiles (Fairfax, Calif./Velocio-SRAM)

* automatic nomination

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