The US POSTAL team that Lance Armstrong took with him in his first win in 1999 was composed of six Americans, a French, a Luxemburger and a Norwegian. In LA's 7th and final tour, the team had more Spaniards (3) than Americans (2). This year, only George Hincapie was waving Old Glory in France.
Having been used with having a dominant leader from 1999 to 2005, DC (nee USPS) rode the tour this year with multiple leaders. And just like any team in pro cycling history who applied this formula, it failed. Therefore next year, DC will start with a new slate, letting 11 riders that included old reliables Spaniard Triki Beltran and Portuguese Jose Acevedo go. Russian Slava Ekimov, with 15 tour finishes under his belt, retired and stayed with DC as a director sportif. 2-time Giro d'Italia winner Paolo Salvodelli was also let go.
As of today, DC has signed Portuguese Olympic silver medalist Sergio Paohlino, 21 yo Belgian Gianni Meersman and Slovenian Uros Murn. They will beef up the squad that contains classics rider Hicapie, American hopeful Tom Danielson (who had a disastrous Vuelta) and Vuelta revelation Janez Brajkovic. Earlier, they had signed Levi Leipheimmer, who podiumed in the 2001 Vuelta a Espana wearing the USPS colors.
But what got me surprised was the signing of Chinese rider Fuyu Li! Currently riding for the continental team MARCO POLO, Fuyu Li is the first Chinese rider to ride in a pro tour team and the second Asian after Japanese Fumiyake Beppu to do so. Beppu is also riding for DC.
While this is an important milestone in Asian cycling, I wish I could say the same of Philippine cycling. Just like in basketball or baseball, cycling is so far in the governments depth chart that I don't know that it can ever come up, even for air. To make matters worse, 6 RP team riders were mugged in Malaysia last week after competing and qualifying for the Doha Asian Games. Warren Davadilla, Arnel Quirimit, Santy Barnachea, Frederick Feliciano, John Ricafort and Ericson Obosa were all held up by unidentified men with guns and knives 200 meters from the Grand Continental were they were billeted. They were ordered to strip and to hand over their cash and valuables to the thieves. That wasn't the only bad luck that hounded the RP team last week as Alfie Catalan's 300K COLNAGO was stolen at the Amoranto Velodrome. Talk of a double whammy!
The only good thing to report about RP cycling was the inclusion of Maritess Bitbit I the Asian Games team.
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