Related News
Leipheimer joins Lance's team
Source: Agencies |
September 3, 2009, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AMERICAN cyclist Levi Leipheimer on Tuesday signed a two-year contract to join Lance Armstrong on his new Team RadioShack.
The 35-year-old Leipheimer said he plans to ride in the Tour of California, Dauphine Libere and Tour de France next year, calling them his three favorite races.
After breaking his right wrist in a crash during stage 12 of this year's Tour de France, Leipheimer will return to competition on Monday in the seven-day Tour of Missouri, which begins in St Louis.
Leipheimer's compatriot George Hincapie also signed a two-year contract on Tuesday but with the BMC Racing Team.
The American-Swiss BMC team also announced it had signed world champion Alessandro Ballan of Italy and five other European cyclists.
The 36-year-old Hincapie is a three-time US professional road champion who rode for the past two seasons with the Columbia-HTC team. He was part of Armstrong's team during his seven Tour victories from 1999-2005.
In Liege, Belgium, Germany's Andre Greipel sprinted to victory in a crash-marred stage four of the Spanish Vuelta on Tuesday.
Greipel was the fastest of only four riders who disputed the victory after a major crash blocked in the bunch 2.5 kilometers from the line in the 225.5km stage from Venlo in the Netherlands to Liege.
Second behind the Columbia-HTC rider was Belgium's Wouter Weylandt with fellow German Bert Grabsch third.
"I was far enough ahead to avoid the crash, but I hope everybody's okay," Grabsch told reporters.
"I don't think the route was especially dangerous, but it was wet and when we went round a roundabout nearly everybody went down."
All the riders affected by the crash were awarded the same time as the stage winner.
Caught out by the mass pile-up, overall leader Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland said: "I hit my head, but I'm okay."
Astana team sports director Sean Yates added: "It was like a scene from 'Apocalypse Now' when our team car got to the crash.
"There were riders lying everywhere, it was chaos."
Overall contender Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan required stitches for an injury and Ezequiel Mosquera, fourth in last year's Vuelta, suffered a major cut in his left knee.
"We'll have to get him an X-ray but it's looking pretty serious," Mosquera's sports director Alvaro Pino said.
Astana's American rider Chris Horner was one of the worst affected with a possible multiple wrist fracture.
Earlier in the stage, Dane Jakob Fuglsang skidded into a parked lorry, breakaway riders Sergey Lagutin of Uzbekistan and Dominik Roels of Germany also crashed, and Xavier Tondo of Spain took a tumble.
The Vuelta or the Tour of Spain finishes on September 20 in Madrid.
The 35-year-old Leipheimer said he plans to ride in the Tour of California, Dauphine Libere and Tour de France next year, calling them his three favorite races.
After breaking his right wrist in a crash during stage 12 of this year's Tour de France, Leipheimer will return to competition on Monday in the seven-day Tour of Missouri, which begins in St Louis.
Leipheimer's compatriot George Hincapie also signed a two-year contract on Tuesday but with the BMC Racing Team.
The American-Swiss BMC team also announced it had signed world champion Alessandro Ballan of Italy and five other European cyclists.
The 36-year-old Hincapie is a three-time US professional road champion who rode for the past two seasons with the Columbia-HTC team. He was part of Armstrong's team during his seven Tour victories from 1999-2005.
In Liege, Belgium, Germany's Andre Greipel sprinted to victory in a crash-marred stage four of the Spanish Vuelta on Tuesday.
Greipel was the fastest of only four riders who disputed the victory after a major crash blocked in the bunch 2.5 kilometers from the line in the 225.5km stage from Venlo in the Netherlands to Liege.
Second behind the Columbia-HTC rider was Belgium's Wouter Weylandt with fellow German Bert Grabsch third.
"I was far enough ahead to avoid the crash, but I hope everybody's okay," Grabsch told reporters.
"I don't think the route was especially dangerous, but it was wet and when we went round a roundabout nearly everybody went down."
All the riders affected by the crash were awarded the same time as the stage winner.
Caught out by the mass pile-up, overall leader Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland said: "I hit my head, but I'm okay."
Astana team sports director Sean Yates added: "It was like a scene from 'Apocalypse Now' when our team car got to the crash.
"There were riders lying everywhere, it was chaos."
Overall contender Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan required stitches for an injury and Ezequiel Mosquera, fourth in last year's Vuelta, suffered a major cut in his left knee.
"We'll have to get him an X-ray but it's looking pretty serious," Mosquera's sports director Alvaro Pino said.
Astana's American rider Chris Horner was one of the worst affected with a possible multiple wrist fracture.
Earlier in the stage, Dane Jakob Fuglsang skidded into a parked lorry, breakaway riders Sergey Lagutin of Uzbekistan and Dominik Roels of Germany also crashed, and Xavier Tondo of Spain took a tumble.
The Vuelta or the Tour of Spain finishes on September 20 in Madrid.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
