Bicycle Racing News and Opinion:
Wednesday, November 4, 2015

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Tour de San Luis: Quintana, Nibali and Sagan will be there

The first highly ranked race of the 2016 season is Argentina's Tour de San Luis, running from January 17 through the 24th. The organizer of the 2.1 race has confirmed that Nairo Quintana, Vincenzo Nibali, Rafal Majka, Alexis Vuillermoz and world champion Peter Sagan will be on the start line.

Here are the teams scheduled to start the Tour de San Luis:

World Tour:

• Movistar
• Tinkoff
• Astana
• Lampre
• Ag2r
• Etixx-Quick Step
• Garmin-Cannondale

Professional Continental

• Androni Giocattoli
• United Healthcare
• Bretagne-Séché Environnement
• Drapac
• Nippo-Vini Fantini
• Delko Marseille

Continental

• San Luis Somos Todos
• Team Jamis
• Holowesko-Hincapie
• SEP San Juan
• Buenos Aires Provincia
• Vivo

National

• Argentina
• Cuba
• Colombia
• Italy
• Mexico
• Costa Rica
• Chile
• Uruguay

Peter Sagan will be racing in his rainbow kit at the first opportunity

Australia's World-Tour ranked Santos Tour Down Under will start January 19 and run through the 24th. The prelude to the Australian stage race, the 51-km People's Choice Classic will be held on January 17.

Davide Rebellin to re-up with CCC

Veteran racer Davide Rebellin will turn 45 next August, but that isn't keeping him from wanting to spend another season racing. He is going to continue racing with the Polish CCC Sprandi Polkowice outfit.

Though Rebellin has been a pro since 1992, he says, "Motivation and determination are still very high."

Though Rebellin doesn't race with the power he displayed ten years ago when he was on a tear, winning Amstel Gold, La Flèche Wallonne, San Sebastien, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and a lot of other races, he is still a formidable competitor. See the photo below for proof.

Davide Rebellin wins the 2015 Coppa Agostoni

There is a dark spot on his record, however. He was found to have used the banned drug CERA at the 2008 Olympics, where he was the silver medalist in the road race. The medal was revoked and Rebellin was suspended for two years.

Nicki Sörensen to direct Israeli Cycling Academy Team

Nicki Sörensen, who raced as a pro from 1999 through 2014, finished his riding career with Tinkoff-Saxo. For 2015 he worked for the team as director sportif and coach. Now, he has been given the job of preparing riders of the Israeli Cycling Academy Team for one of the major tours in 2018.

Team owner Ron Baron said, "We are very proud such an authority in professorial cycling as Nicki has become our performance manager."

"My interest was immediately piqued when team manager Ran Margaliot, with whom I raced at Saxo Bank first called," said Sörensen.

Nicki Sörensen descending the Poggio in the 2014 Milano-San Remo

Cycling Academy Team is a UCI Continental team based in Israel. The squad's first victory was the fourth stage of the 2015 Tour d'Azerbaidjan, won by Daniel Turek.

Taiwan's bicycle sales soaring

Taiwan exported slightly over three million bikes worldwide during the first three quarters of 2015, compared to 2.65 million for the same period on 2014. This is after Taiwan suffered several years of declining exports. All of Taiwan's markets except China imported more of the island's bikes. China's imports declined 33%.

The value of the exports grew by 15.3% to 1.27 billion Euros.

The U.S. is Taiwan's biggest bike market with 570,000 bikes shipped, an increase of 26.3%. The U.K. brought in 552,000 Taiwan bikes, an increase of 26.8%.

Taiwan also exported 723 million Euros worth of components, representing a 7% increase.

When a salesman tried to sell me a Taiwan bike in the mid-1970s, I wouldn't have it. It was junk. Now, Taiwan's production is superb, truly competitive in the world market. I imported tons of excellent Taiwan goods, proud to put my company's name on them.

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