Gcn's Cycling News Show - Episode 4

Welcome back -- you're watching the Global Cycling Network -- with me, Simon Richardson. Coming up, we have the good news and the bad news in the world of cycling, and lets start with the bad. The story that just won't go away -- Lance Armstrong comes clean on American television -- but how much did we learn from his interview with Oprah? And the good news, the 2013 World Tour season is underway, we'll get the latest from the Tour Down Under where Griepel grabbed his first win of the year. And we have details on the Tour de France's return to the British Isles in 2014. Yes, all of that to come but there's only one place we can start -- it's the interview that went beyond the realm of cycling and was beamed around the world Lance Armstrong confessed to Oprah Winfrey, that he cheated to win all 7 of his Tour de France titles. For most people who saw it, it was a surreal experience watching Lance confess and here are some of his choice quotes; "It's too late for probably most people and that's my problem. I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times." And talking about the accusation that he was the mastermind behind the most sophisticated doping ring in the history of sport? It was definitely smart, if you can call it that but it was very conservative, very risk averse, very aware ... that one race mattered for me. But to say that the program was bigger than the East German doping program in the 80s, 70s, that's not true. There's been plenty of reaction to the interview: the likes of Betsy Andreu and David Walsh have both said that he didn't go far enough, while Pat McQuaid the president of the UCI has said that he thinks that it's a real step forward. Well, earlier I talked to Author & Journalist Daniel Friebe and got his reaction; Daniel, what's your analysis of the Lance Armstrong interview do you think that it was just a PR exercise or do you think we can actually glean anything from it? I think it was a clear PR exercise I don't think any of us are under too many illusions about that. What upset me, grieved me slightly in the last few days has been the tone and the level of vilification of Armstrong, simply because I feel that people don't, expectations are unrealistic I feel that he was at one end of the spectrum, we all knew that he had been cheating, lying, bullying people and to expect him to lurch completely to the other side of the spectrum in the space of 2 nights was unrealistic. I think from his point of view it's a start, from our point of view it doesn't matter any more because he's irrelevant and for the people he bullied and intimidated I can understand their, their disgust really, but from our point of view he's irrelevant now I think. It's interesting you say that we all knew he was doping as a cycling journalist do you think that perhaps there was more that the cycling media could've done perhaps you know at the time to, to stop not only Lance's cheating but maybe the whole kind of system that was in place at the time? I'm loathed to defend my industry too much but I think it's become a bit of a misnomer that the cycling media perpetrated a lie and I think a good test of that is if you took a sample of 100 people who regularly read the cycling press say in 2003 I think probably 95% of them would've said yes Lance Armstrong's a cheat. So I think we must have been doing something right and you know you couldn't always say it very very explicitly but I think for an intelligent reader, the majority in fact, it was pretty clear what was going on. Do you think there's any more fall out to come now? I mean we all hope that he goes to USADA now and gives them more information than he gave Oprah Winfrey, the early indications are that he may not do that which would be massively disappointing. On the other hand it might limit the fall out because that is one of the worries that I have is that, that this will create a you know a 6, 7 month maybe a year of further recrimination, scandal, hankering about whether cycling is credible anymore which really it doesn't deserve in the sense that this happened a long time ago. Ok so putting Lance behind us now, hopefully for good, what are you looking forward to in 2013? I think the return of Contador in May, or in the Tour de France particularly is a mouth watering prospect, especially if he goes up against Wiggins you know we're all interested to see whether his style of riding that kind of unpredictable style, you know the explosive attacks, how Wiggins is going to deal with those because he didn't really have anyone doing that in 2012 at the tour and again Wiggins versus Froome at Sky, how that's going to pan out and the Giro I think is going to be a highlight. Cool well thanks for coming in Dan. So moving forwards, 2013 looks like it will be a great season and several of the sports big guns start their campaigns in Argentina this week The Tour de San Luis is where Mark Cavendish, Peter Sagan, Vincenzo Nibali and Alberto Contador all get their seasons underway. Speaking at the press conference in Argentina Contador said he was likely to race in both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France Joaquin Rodriguez is also there, and interestingly is still riding for Katusha after the Russian outfit were granted a last minute Pro Continental license. Rumours are still rife though that Rodriguez is continuing to look for another ride as he has stated that he will ride the 2013 Tour de France. Meanwhile Adelaide is hosting the Santos Tour Down Under - that one, of course, carries World Tour points so it marks the first opening of hostilities in 2013. GCN caught up with GreenEDGE Directeur Sportif Lionel Marie, to get his reaction to the result to the People Choice Criterium and find out their plans for the week. Orica did a good job but we went in front too early and Goss finished 2nd, it's a good start for him because he's in front of the schedule if we compare with last year but I was very impressed with the train of Lotto, they did a perfect timing job and can see the guys are very strong but the race just start now and know we've got other goal in front of us. What other goals for Orica at the Tour Down under, it's your home race? Yer true but we've got already 4 victories with the national on the road and time trial and the girls and also the criterium so we've done already a good job. We do the best that we can for the next week, it's never easy to win twice at home but we will try and go see, we have a goal for stage and Simon I'm pretty sure is ready and Luke can be a surprise of the Down under. There was a surprise in the final round of the cyclocross World cup on Sunday in Hoogergeide in the Netherlands. Relative unknown Martin Bina of the Czech Republic took the win in the men's event but normal service resumed when reigning World Champion Niels Albert clinched the overall series. In the womens event, Marianne Vos stormed to victory once again. Now, let's cast ahead to summer 2014, because the organisers of the Tour de France Grand Depart in Yorkshire, a region in the north of England, have announced the details of the opening three stages. One man with experience of both the Tour de France and of Yorkshire's undulating roads is Malcolm Elliott, who rode the 1987 Tour with ANC Halfords and is a native of Yorkshire. The 2 days that are going to be held in Yorkshire are, the first stage is deemed as pretty flat and possibly a sprinters stage as will be the 3rd stage which will finish down the mall in London. So it leaves it to stage 2 where it finishes in Sheffield that's going to be the big deciding factor for the tours stay in Yorkshire and as I see it that's all going to happen in the last third or so or even the last quarter of the race where the major obstacles start beginning with Holme Moss followed by just a non stop barrage of short sharp climbs going right to the finish in Sheffield and that certainly won't be a sprint finish there on that day and not be a sprinters stage. So very briefly do you think it might shape the general classification even just short term? I think it's going to be more a case of taking riders, certain riders out of contention rather than someone actually going into contention for winning the Tour after all the obstacles we may have in Yorkshire it's not the Alps it's not the Pyrenees where traditionally the race is shaped so, it's certainly it's going to be a very unusually hard start to a, to the Tour de France, not the usual. Great stuff, well thanks very much for talking to us Malcolm and yer we look forward to it. Well that's all we have time for in this weeks news show, you can check in to GCN every day this week for updates from the Tour Down Under as well as some great How To's and some more top 10's. Don't forget to leave your comments down below, and if you haven't already then you can subscribe up here.