Shame to see Kamp just miss the podium but nice to see him get a stage win. Not heard anything of Riwal Readynez before but I'm sure I'll hear a lot more about them after this!

Spanish world champion Alejandro Valverde has withdrawn from the Giro d'Italia because of injury.

 

The Movistar team said in a statement on Friday that he would not recover in time from a fall on a training ride.

 

The 39-year-old suffered the accident in April, leaving him with bruising to the base of his spine.

Britain's Tao Geoghegan Hart and Russia's Pavel Sivakov will lead Team Ineos at the Giro d'Italia after Egan Bernal was ruled out with injury.

 

Colombian Bernal, 22, was due to lead the team but broke his collarbone in a training ride on Saturday.

 

It is the British team's first Grand Tour since Ineos took over from Sky as title sponsors earlier this month.

 

Chris Froome, the 2018 champion, will not be competing in the three-week race that starts on 11 May.

German sprinter Marcel Kittel is taking a break from cycling, saying he is "exhausted" and needs to "think about my goals".

 

The 30-year-old's contract with Team Katusha Alpecin has been terminated by mutual agreement.

 

"At this moment, I am not able to train and race at the highest level," said Kittel, who has 19 grand tour stage wins.

 

"From now on I will put my happiness and joy above everything," he added.

 

Kittel joined the team last year but had not shown the form that made him a leading sprinter. The last of his 14 Tour de France stage wins came in 2017.

 

"I would like to ride and race again in the future and I have to work out a plan to be able to reach this goal," Kittel continued.

Spain's Samuel Sanchez has been given a backdated two-year ban for a doping offence after testing positive for a growth hormone in August 2017.

 

The 2008 Olympic road race champion returned an adverse analytical finding of GHRP-2 in an out-of-competition test just before the 2017 Vuelta a Espana.

 

Cycling's governing body, the UCI, said on Monday the ban is backdated to the start of his provisional suspension.

 

Sanchez, 41, will be eligible to return to cycling after 16 August this year.

More doping bans have been handed out of the Austrian investigations which affected Winter Sports a few weeks back

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/48281563

Info on the upcoming Women's Tour of Britain

 

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/t...ens-tour-311559

 

 

Live coverage will be on ITV4.

Chris Froome has been ruled out of the Tour de France after a "very serious" crash.

 

Team Ineos rider Froome, 34, was taken to hospital with a reported broken femur after crashing before stage four of the Criterium du Dauphine on Wednesday.

 

"He crashed in the downhill section of the course at high speed. He hit a wall," team principal Dave Brailsford told France Televisions. "It'll take quite a long time before he races again."

That sounds horrendous. Really hope for a speedy recovery for him.

A nasty crash for him indeed, shame to see miss the Tour de France. I hope that he makes a good recovery and returns in top form in 2020.

 

 

Chris Froome's six-hour operation following a high-speed crash on Wednesday has been described as a "success" by his team.

 

Britain's four-time Tour de France champion, 34, suffered a fractured right femur, a broken hip, a fractured elbow and fractured ribs and lost consciousness following the crash.

 

Froome is awake and doctors are "very happy with his progress".

 

Team Ineos said he will remain in hospital for the next few days.

Ouch. Glad he seems to be recovering well, hope he's out in time for the start of the next season as he really didn't deserve this.

Chris Froome suffered a fracture to his neck in Wednesday's serious crash, scans have shown.

Just caught up on the Dauphine, it did seem like a massive non-event except for Froome's training crash. Shame to see Yates pull out on the final day but hope he's alright in time for the Tour and is was good to see Buchmann get a podium.

Geraint Thomas says he will be fit to take part in the Tour de France despite crashing out of the Tour of Switzerland and being taken to hospital on Tuesday.

 

Team Ineos said the Welshman suffered "abrasions to his shoulder and a cut above his right eye", but the 33-year-old escaped serious injury.

 

"Clearly it's frustrating and a small setback," said Thomas.

 

"But there's plenty of time before we start in Brussels [on 6 July]".

Chris Froome says he has taken the "first step" in his recovery after leaving hospital in Saint-Etienne.

 

He has been moved to a rehabilitation unit in Monaco, eight days after a crash which left him seriously injured.

 

However, the Team Ineos rider, 34, says he is not yet well enough to return home to continue his recovery.

Ineos aren't having the best of luck are they? Good job they have about 5 potential Tour winners in their ranks :P

Chris Froome has officially been named as the winner of the 2011 Vuelta a Espana following a doping case involving Juan Jose Cobo, retrospectively making him Britain's first Grand Tour winner.

 

Sir Bradley Wiggins had held the honour after his 2012 Tour de France win.

 

Froome finished second in 2011 and went on to win the first of his six Grand Tours in 2013 at the Tour de France.

 

He is currently recovering following a crash at the Criterium du Dauphine.

 

Governing body the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) said abnormalities were found in Spanish rider Cobo's biological passport from 2009-2011.

 

They imposed a three-year period of ineligibility on the 38-year-old retired rider and Cobo has not appealed in the 30 days since the decision, meaning Froome has now been awarded the title

Belgian cyclist Bjorg Lambrecht has died at the age of 22 following a crash during stage three of the Tour de Pologne.

 

Lambrecht crashed around 60 miles from the end of the race from Chorzow to Zabrze in Poland.

 

He was taken by helicopter to hospital where he later died on Monday.

Was just about to post this, really tragic :( Only 22 as well.