KITTEL UPSTAGED BY DEGENKOLB IN DUBAI WINDS

The third stage of the Dubai Tour saw John Degenkolb fend off swirling winds, as he pushed forward to upstage Marcel Kittel, a decorated German sprinter and favorite for the title, to become the winner of the third stage of the tour on Thursday.


Kittel of Quick-Step team who is also the defending Dubai champion won the first two of a total of five stages and remains the lead overall.

Thursday however saw Degenkolb of Trek-Segafredo steal the limelight, going on in just a little over four hours to go through the 200 kilometres. Behind him came South Africa’s Reinhard Janse van Rensburg and Sonny Colbrelli of Italy placing second and third respectively.

In the tricky weather conditions, Degenkolb was able to cope best as strong winds kicked up sand, tossing it in the face of the riders, thereby causing a number of riders to fall off their bikes.

Kitel, the defending champion finished just outside of the top ten in a race in which he alleged that an Astana rider hit him on the head thus causing blood to flow. Read More KITTEL UPSTAGED BY DEGENKOLB IN DUBAI WINDS

Read More KITTEL UPSTAGED BY DEGENKOLB IN DUBAI WINDS

THE END OF TEAM STOLTING

Germany’s only professional continental team, team Stolting has said in announcement that this will be its last month as it plans to stop at the end of the season.


This will mean the end of an era as Stolting is Germany’s only remaining professional continental team.

For several years, Stolting had been ranked as a continental team and as at last year, it had announced its intention to move up he ranks by moving to the professional continentals. The team had planned to do this by sponsoring the cult energy team.

However, in December 2015, the team’s Danish sponsor had decided to pull out from both the team and the deal saying that the blame lies solely on Stolting as they had not fulfilled their end of the obligation. In response to this, the German team firmly denied the claims of their sponsors and went on to take over full sponsorship of the team.

The team this was majorly made up of Danish and German riders. Stolting had gone a long way and had in its harem, top names and highly ranked riders like Fabian Wegmann, Gerald Ciolek, and Linus Gerdman. Read More THE END OF TEAM STOLTING

Read More THE END OF TEAM STOLTING

UCI To Tighten On Corticoids

Speaking on the abuse of cortisone as was highlighted by CIRC report, Brian Cookson stressed that UCI is alarmed by the deployment of this & other such grey products & that they are striving hard to eliminate such abuses.

The recently published CIRC report that took the cycling world by storm, looked into current as well as historic doping practices & albeit it talks about reduced use of the hard substances at present- yet it also highlighted several concerns.

One of them was cortisone & corticoid products that are used in training that help to burn off the body mass whilst preserving power. Another one is Microdosing EPO.

“One of the doctors stated that it’s not possible to shed weight which some cyclists achieve sans assistance & TUE has enabled this practice”, stated the CIRC report.

“He stated riders take to corticoids as it helps to lean out which means lose fat fast, & keep it at bay, sans losing on power.”

“As an example, the doctor explained that when one is trying to lose 4 kilos in four weeks with corticoid, he would come up with 7 percent power or weight improvement. The doctor even revealed that if the substance is used in huge quantity, accompanied by other substances, the rider would achieve performance gains.” Read More UCI To Tighten On Corticoids

Read More UCI To Tighten On Corticoids