Unipublic, organisers of the Vuelta a Espana, have confirmed that two-time winner Denis Menchov’s Geox-TMC team, which also includes former Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre in its roster, is one of four outfits to have received a wild card entry to this year’s race. The others are the Spanish team Andalucia Caja Granada, France’s Cofidis, and the Dutch outfit Skil-Shimano.
Those four teams will join the 18 ProTeam squads who automatically qualify for the race as a result of an agreement reached last year between the UCI and the organisers of cycling’s three Grand Tours, the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta itself.
The 2011 Vuelta gets under way on 20th August with a team time trial in Benidorm and includes six summit finishes during its 21 stages, concluding in Madrid on 11 September.
In a statement, Unipublic said that it “reserves the right to modify this list if important circumstances are advising it to do so, always keeping the ethical responsibilities of the cyclist and his sport quality.”
Geox-TMC, which raced last year as Footon Servetto and now has Italian sponsorship on board, had a disappointing Giro, with Menchov, winner of that race in 2009 and of the Vuelta in 2005 and 2007, finishing in eighth position overall. Sastre also competed in the race but struggled with illness and failed to make an impact.
Ack....
Well done you. Why be polite to a fellow commenter when you can be rude to him instead?
Cause the idea of having batteries be in a standard size is _so_ innovative! Ridiculous patent system.
Aldi and Costa(I think?)have form on this one. Something very similar was done to a stretch of the Canal Rd./Stanley Rd. cycle path in Bradford. I...
At least in the Netherlands parking your bike at the train station appears to be plentiful and requires a ticket to gain access. Compare that to...
There's a good Youtube channel of a London-based cyclist who uses one, and I think sells them. It's been over a year since any new videos, though.
Yeah - I was meaning blocked by the green-light flow of traffic.
I've never found a bus system that didn't have a learning curve. I've ridden buses in at least:...
Agreed - I was just going on ones which IIRC were mentioned incidentally as supporters e.g. I think I read RNIB (who certainly were against these...