Following his 2nd place overall at Eneco Tour, Raphael Visconti has been suspended until the end of the season from Team Citigroup – Cannondale. This move came as a reaction to Visconti giving the finger and shoving an Italian fan away on the Oude Kwaremont. Visconti then later insulted once again journalists and called them “wankers� and even threated them in the end at the press conference, after they have asked about Raphael’s father’s doping past.

Apparently the sponsors Citigroup and Cannondale fear the bad PR, calling him toxic. Visconti is slowly becoming an Enfant terrible on his own. It is rumored, that they have thus pressured the staff into this decision. Following the words of a spokesperson, it’d be apparently wise for Raphael to take a break again. “We know that Raphael had almost a mental breakdown in his first Cyclo-Cross season and thus escaped to America for a year. Maybe he needs some time to rest again. We see great potential but he needs to control his behavior.�

Visconti has not commented on his suspension, but instead replied to the spokesperson: “Mental breakdown, how dare you…? I’ll give him a smack down if I ever see that guy.� Visconti also claimed: “I’ll be preparing for the Cyclo-Cross season from now on. Do whatever the heck you want…�

It is yet unknown if, despite his supension, Visconti will ride the World Championships this year.

One of the best puncheurs and riders worldwide, Philippe Gilbert has announced that he has signed a two year contract with Citigroup – Cannondale. The American Team, which hosts Tour de France runner up Tejay Van Garderen and an excellent cobbles & puncheur squad, was of course delighted to have been finally able to find a replacement for Peter Sagan, who left the team last year. The other riders on the team wern't quite able to fill the hole that Sagan left behind. Citigroup - Cannondale is confident that Gilbert is the man for this job though.

“It’s great to have Gilbert on board for the next years. He is an excellent rider and has proven by winning Liege – Bastogne – Liege and Eneco Tour this year that he is still one of the best. We hope, Citigroup – Cannondale will be the best home for him to find further success", said Citigroup's team manager.

Citigroup – Cannondale has a traditional strong squad for one-day classics and Philippe Gilbert said that this played a vital role in him signing the contract. With youngsters such as Moser, Visconti and Mohoric eager to prove their worth, he will have an excellent line of domestique for the Ardennes classics and lots of eager students who are hopeful to learn some tricks from such a champion.

Following the fuss around the Eneco Tour, the cycling world spinned madly on. With the Vuelta a Espana, the third Grand Tour of the year was to be contested and it was promised to be a goodie.
Former winner Alejandro Valverde was looking to defend his title against this year’s Tour de France champion Alberto Contador. And then there was of course Joaquim Rodriguez, eagerly wanting to finally get his first Grand Tour win in his career. Michal Kwiatkowski, Daniel Martin, Rui Costa, Ivan Basso and Thomas De Gendt were some of the illustrious foreign names.


Throughout the first days, Purito gained an advantage over his rivals in the punchy hills of Spain. He took the leader’s jersey and the more finishes ended up top, the better he seemed to look. His fiercest rival Contador dropped out injured on stage 11. Coincidentally, this stage was won by Contador’s teammate C.A. Sörensen.

Still, even a Contador in Tour-shape hardly could have beat Purito in those early two weeks. Michal Kwiatkowski and Daniel Martin show that the parcours was set to the advantage of classy climber-puncheurs such as them.


The high mountains waited until the third week for the peloton to be climbed, and by then, Purito and Katusha had a clear lead of roughly 3 minutes. At the end of it, Purito could finally celebrate his long-desired Grand Tour win in his homeland ahead of Kwiatkowski and Irish Daniel Martin.


For Citigroup – Cannondale, the Vuelta was a mixed affair. Thomas De Gendt and Ivan Basso cracked the Top 10 and showed solid performances. Especially Ivan Basso redeemed himself a little after dropping out early in the Giro injured. However, despite breakaway attempts, the lads did not come home with a stage win. Luckily, the Vuelta wasn’t the only race in the past weeks.

Stage	Name	Team	Leader’s Jersey
1, TTT	Movistar	Movistar	J.J. Lobato
2, FL	André Greipel	Lotto Belisol	J.J. Lobato
3, HL	Joaquim Rodriguez	Katusha	Rodriguez
4, HL	Paul Martens	Belkin	Rodriguez
5, FL	Marcel Kittel	Giant – Shimano	Rodriguez
6, HL	Philippe Gilbert	BMC	Rodriguez
7, FL	Matthieu Ladagnous	FDJ.fr	Rodriguez
8, HL (HTF)	Michal Kwiatkowski	Omega Pharma	Rodriguez
9, HL	Joaquim Rodriguez	Katusha	Rodriguez
10, FL	Marcel Kittel	Giant Shimano	Rodriguez
11, HL	Chris Anker Sörensen	Tinkoff – Saxo	Rodriguez
12, FL	Vicente Reynes	IAM Cycling	Rodriguez
13, FL	Maarten Wynants	Belkin	Rodriguez
14, HL	Valerio Agnoli	Astana	Rodriguez
15, MTF	Sergio Pradilla	MTN – Qhubeka	Rodriguez
16, MT	Matteo Montaguti	AG2R La Mondiale	Rodriguez
17, TT	Alex Dowsett	Movistar	Rodriguez
18, FL	Steve Chainel	AG2R La Mondiale	Rodriguez
19, FL	Jeremy Roy	FDJ.fr	Rodriguez
20, MT	David Millar	Garmin-Sharp	Rodriguez
21, FL	Andre Greiepl	Lotto Belisol	Rodriguez

Vuelta a Espana, GC Results

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Joaquím Rodríguez	Team Katusha	78h39'40
2	Michal Kwiatkowski	Lampre - Merida	+ 2'03
3	Daniel Martin	Garmin Sharp	+ 4'03
4	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 7'03
5	Rui Costa	Team Katusha	+ 7'30
6	Sergio Henao	Team Sky	+ 10'06
7	Thomas De Gendt	Citigroup - Cannondale	+ 13'06
8	Igor Antón	Movistar Team	+ 16'13
9	Ivan Basso	Citigroup - Cannondale	+ 20'21
10	Thomas Voeckler	Team Europcar	+ 21'52

There has also been lots of racing besides the Vuelta. The USA Pro Cycling Challenge was for example a great feast for Citigroup – Cannondale, where Elia Viviani claimed two stage wins. Tejay Van Garderen achieved as the team’s leader a solid 6th place and looks to come into great shape for his late season goal, the WC TT.

The Vattenfall Cyclassics were won by Maxim Iglinskiy in solo-fashion, whilst Arnaud Demare won the sprint of GP Ouest France Plouay. A bit of a role reversal there for the two races. The Canadian classics saw Roman Kreuziger take the win for Movistar in Quebec, and Moser continuing his late strike of success in Montreal: He took the win in a duel against his rival Diego Ulissi!

Vattenfall Cyclassics: Maxim Iglinskiy
GP Ouest France – Plouay: Arnaud Demare
GP Quebec: Roman Kreuziger
GP Montreal: Moreno Moser

With this current success and with so many wins, the team is eagerly pushing for the season end, including the Giro di Lombardia.

Ahead of the final selection of Italy’s squad for the World Championships, Raphael Visconti has announced that he will not take part, whether the team coach calls upon him or not. Following his suspension earlier in the year. Visconti has excused this decision by saying that he has trained extensively Cyclo-Cross in the past months and further stated: “I don’t want to ruin my CX form, just so some guys back home have a chance to criticize me for whatever reason – for example, my shorts are too blue, or that I only took 10 bottles with me instead twenty…�, he stated but later elaborated that: "Honestly, for me, the season has been finished by now, and I see no reason in re-opening it. To compete again in it. I want to start fresh and fit into the Cyclo-Cross season. I basically want to make the most of what has been granted to me the past months."
“I wish Moreno Moser and all other guys on the team good luck�, he added, “But I feel they’ll do fine just without me."


The World Championships are also a place for UCI meetings. Brian Cookson has claimed that the UCI will cancel its support of the financial disastrous race Tour of Beijing, which was instigated by his predecessor Pat McQuad.

As a consequence of this, Brian Cookson sees the Giro di Lombardia as the official ending of the UCI cycling season. However, it is likely that the UCI will add one or two more races. Favourites to step up on this highest level of competition are the Bucaramanga Classic in Colombia ( a fan-favourite of the Colombian drug cartel) and one of the three American stage races, likely USA Pro Cycling Challenge.