Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Take it Froome me, Chris is beatable – Valverde
EXPERIENCED Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde said yesterday that outstanding Tour de France favourite Chris Froome was not unbeatable, as he eyes a place on the podium when the race ends in Paris.
Valverde, 33, has never previously had a top-three finish on the Tour and is not widely expected to trouble the leading contenders.
But he was in confident mood at a Movistar team news conference in Porto-Vecchio, where the first stage of the 100th edition of the race gets under way today.
“We can aspire to do something more than just win a couple of stages,” said Valverde, a talented allrounder who won a mountain stage in the Pyrenees in last year’s Tour.
“We have a very strong team and our aim is to be in a position to fight for a place on the podium in Paris.”
The former Tour of Spain champion acknowledged that Britain’s Froome was the favourite for overall victory but believed he has improved with age and feels that a way can be found to get the better of Team Sky.
“I am 33 now and have had moments of happiness and disappointment in my career but we are convinced that we can do well,” he said.
“The Tour is very long and for all he has done this season Froome is the big favourite.
“He has a great team around him and they will be difficult to beat – but they are not invincible.
“I think with a bit of luck I can go head to head with him and get on to the podium. I respect Froome but I am not afraid of anyone.”
Valverde, whose career was marred by a two-year doping ban handed down as part of the Operation Puerto investigation, also refused to rule out the prospect of teaming up with compatriot Alberto Contador in a coalition against Team Sky.
“For the moment everyone is working for their own team but why not later on? There are various Spanish riders out there who can fight for a place on the podium,” he said. – SapaAFP
Meanwhile, shamed US cyclist Lance Armstrong believes it is impossible to win cycling’s greatest race without using banned substances, he said in an interview with Le Monde yesterday, on the eve of the 100th edition of the Tour de France.
“It’s impossible to win the Tour de France without doping because the Tour is an endurance event where oxygen is decisive,” he was quoted as saying by the French daily.
He added: “To take one example, EPO (erythropoetin) will not help a sprinter to win a 100m but it will be decisive for a 10 000m runner. It’s obvious.”
Armstrong, who won the Tour a record seven times between 1999 and 2005, was last year exposed as a serial drug cheat in a devastating US AntiDoping Agency report that plunged cycling into crisis about the extent of drug-taking in the peloton.
The Texan rider, who insisted for years that he did not take performance-enhancing drugs, was stripped of his Tour titles and banned from the sport for life.
He then admitted in a television
On TV Tour de France
Stage 1 Porto-Vecchio-Bastia
212km 11.50am on SS6 interview that he used a cocktail of banned substances, including the blood booster EPO, testosterone and blood transfusions, to win the Tour.
Armstrong told Le Monde that he was not the first athlete to dope and there would always be a doping culture.
“I simply took part in this system. I’m a human being,” he said, admitting that he could never erase the past but would strive to make up for it for the rest of his life.
Five-time Tour winner Bernard Hinault reacted angrily to Armstrong’s comments and his claims that there was a doping culture in cycling.
“We've got to stop thinking that all cycle racers are thugs and druggies,” he told BFM TV.
“It depresses me to hear all this. I think that when people do exactly what they have to do, in other words, proper testing in all sports, we’re going to be rolling around laughing for five minutes.
“Stop saying it’s cultural for God’s sake. It’s impossible. There are plenty of young riders who’ve had dope tests and not tested positive...
“It’s constant suspicion,” he told the channel from Corsica, where the Tour gets under way today.
Hinault on Thursday lashed out at claims that his fellow French cyclist Laurent Jalabert took EPO on the scandal-hit 1998 Tour, claiming that people wanted to “kill” the race. – Sapa-AFP