Video: Daryl Impey Interview – “I’ll be back where I should be next year”
South African gets married today, is happy to return at the top level with GreenEdgeWalking up the aisle today with his bride-to-be, South African rider Daryl Impey is ready to work hard for what he hopes is his return to the WorldTour next season. His GreenEdge team is still waiting to learn if it will get a ProTeam licence, but he’s planning things on the basis that it will be in the top division. Those preparations mean that he will pass up the chance to get away with his new wife, instead spending time in the company of his new team-mates. “I am getting married on Saturday, then Monday I am off to Oz for training camp,” he told VeloNation in a recent video interview. “So they just miss each other. I’ll go to Oz for a honeymoon…by myself!” Impey rode for Team RadioShack in 2010, then was caught out [...]
Video Interview: Chris Froome targeting a start in Team Sky’s Tour de France squad
Briton explains why Mark Cavendish is a good addition to the teamVuelta a España runner up Chris Froome is currently in South Africa building up to the 2012 season. Speaking in a video interview, the Kenyan born rider said he hopes to reinforce his achievements from this year and hopes to make a return to the Tour de France which he previously contested with Barloworld. “It’s something I’d like to do,” he told VeloNation on Saturday. “I did the Tour in 2008 and it’s something I’d like to go back and do now. Especially after this year and how things turned out for me at the Vuelta. I think it would be a really good event to try and target and solidify how things went this year.” Froome went into this year’s Vuelta as a support rider for Bradley Wiggins, but stunned both the team and the world of cycling [...]
Russell Downing Video interview: another ProTeam contract was deserved
Speaks about disappointment of leaving Sky, but good opportunities with Endura RacingRussell Downing told VeloNation today that he feels he did enough to get a contract from a ProTeam, despite not picking up any wins this season. The 33 year old failed to have his contract renewed by Team Sky and after an uncertain future, has now signed with Endura Racing. Downing spoke about his disappointment with how things worked out and having to move back down to a Continental level, two levels below he’s been riding the past couple of years. “I’ve had a great two seasons at Sky and didn’t get my contract renewed, which is very disappointing,” he told VeloNation at today’s Twitter ride in South Africa, held in advance of tomorrow’s Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge. “But that’s sport at the end of the day. It’s been a really tough year with transfers, a few teams folding [...]
Video: Oscar Freire talks about his time with Rabobank and 2012 targets
Spaniard determined to improve in his farewell pro seasonReiterating that 2012 will be the final year of his pro career, Oscar Freire is aiming to go out in style with the Katusha team and notch up some significant wins. The affable Spaniard will target the world road race championships once again, where he has a chance to take what would be a record fourth Elite title, and also the Olympic Games in London next August. “I think this is also a really nice goal,” he told RaboSport, speaking in a video interview about the latter competition. “To be in the Olympics is nice. It will be my fourth time…it is not easy to be four times in the Olympic Games, maybe I am the only one as a rider to have a chance to race the Olympics [that much]. It means something about a long career and a good level. [...]
Robbie Hunter Video Interview: Teaming up with Tyler Farrar again at Garmin-Cervélo
34 year old sprinter also in the hunt for his own resultsSouth African Robbie Hunter will return to Garmin-Cervélo next year, a team he previously rode for in 2010. Together with Robbie McEwen he was due to ride for Pegasus this season, but both men were picked up by RadioShack late in the year when the Australian project failed to take off. Hunter quickly repaid the team with its second victory of the season in the Tour de Mumbai. He also rode through the pain of an injured kneecap in the Tour of Austria to win the first stage. Now the Tour de France stage winner will reunite with Tyler Farrar in a bid to be competitive in the sprints for next season. “I’m happy to be going back firstly, myself and Jonathan [Vaughters] has spoken regularly since about July this year, we spoke about me going back to the [...]
Freire angry about end of relationship with Rabobank, feels unappreciated
Dutch team defends its position in not renewing Spaniard’s contractReflecting on the end of a nine-year working relationship with the Rabobank team, triple world champion Oscar Freire has made it clear that he feels that the team did not act correctly in its dealings with him. The Spaniard negotiated with the Dutch team about extending with it but, having at one point indicated that he was likely to retire, was later told that there was no place for him going forward and that a new contract would not be drawn up. “Everything played out with a coldness that I did not expect, not in my worst moments,” he told El Pais. “They could have told me earlier this year that did not want me, because I refused big offers from GreenEdge and others as it was assured that I would continue in Rabobank. To finish like this is very sad, [...]