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Pro Log: Miguel Ángel López given four-year ban, Anna Shackley steps in Sports Director role after forced retirement, Unbound Gravel results and Olympics selections
Welcome back to another edition of Pro Log.
We’re at that pivotal point of the pro season between the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France, which means it’s time for the Critérium du Dauphiné. The week-long stage race got underway yesterday, with Denmark’s Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) winning the first stage around Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule.
His time in the yellow jersey would be short-lived, however. On a challenging Stage 2 route that finished on the 1,251m Col de la Loge, Pedersen would be dropped to the tune of four minutes, with countryman Magnus Cort Nielsen (Uno-X) winning in the mist to take over the race lead, four seconds ahead of Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe).
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Miguel Ángel López receives four-year ban for Menotropin
Miguel Ángel López has been banned for four years for the possession and use of prohibited substance Mentropin prior to the 2022 Giro d’Italia. The Colombian abandoned the race on Stage 4 but went on to finish fourth overall at the Vuelta a España later in the year.
Astana severed ties with the Colombian in December that year after his alleged links to Spanish doctor Marcos Maynar – who is under investigation for being part of a doping ring through ‘Operation Ilex’ – were revealed. López was initially suspended on 25th July 2023.
Racing at the time for Continental squad Team Medellin-EPM, López had just won the 2023 Vuelta a Colombia, taking eight out of nine stages in the process and winning the points and mountains classifications too.
He has a month to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Anna Shackley to take up DS role
The very promising career of Anna Shackley was very sadly ended prematurely due to health issues earlier this year, however, Anna is now focussed on remaining in the sport, albeit in a different role as a Director Sportive. She will be undertaking the UCI DS course in Aigle this… pic.twitter.com/0MvS5URNVH
— Alba Road Team (@AlbaRoadTeam) May 29, 2024
Former professional Anna Shackley, who was forced to retire in April due to a cardiac arrhythmia, is set to remain in the sport as a directeur sportif with the Alba Road Team.
With U23 National, European and World medals to her name, Scottish climber Shackley was forced to retire prematurely at the age of just 22 after being diagnosed with a cardiac arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, when riding for SD Worx-Protime.
Shackley will undertake the five-day UCI Sport Director course in Aigle, Switzerland this October with the aim of stepping into a full-time role as of 2025. The Alba Road Team is a women’s Continental cycling squad based in Scotland.
Lachlan Morton and Rosa Klôser win Unbound 200 races
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— EF Pro Cycling (@EFprocycling) June 1, 2024
LACHLAN MORTON YOU FREAKING LEGEND
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LACHLAN WINS THE UNBOUND 200
Ever-popular Australian Lachlan Morton (EF Education-EasyPost) added the Unbound Gravel to his palmarés this weekend despite taking a wrong turn when chasing down the leading group. Morton won a two-man sprint against Chad Haga (PAS Racing) after 200 miles on the bike and over nine hours of racing.
In the women’s race, a larger nine-rider group would contest the victory, with Rosa Klöser of Germany triumphing in her debut Unbound appearance after ten hours on the bike.
Canyon-SRAM’s Tiffany Cromwell finished 12th while her partner, F1 driver Valtteri Bottas, finished second in his 30-39 age group in the shorter Unbound 100 event.
National teams forming ahead of the Olympics
National teams are beginning to take shape ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris, which run from 26th July to 11th August. Road cycling events including the men’s and women’s individual time-trials take place on 27th July, while the road races for the men and women take place on 3rd and 4th August respectively.
Marianne Vos, Demi Vollering, Ellen van Dijk and Lorena Wiebes make up what looks to be an incredibly strong Netherlands road race team, with Vollering and Van Dijk competing in the time-trial too. Juliette Labous, Audrey-Cordon Ragot and Victoire Berteau will represent France, with Évita Muzic not selected despite winning a stage and finishing fifth overall at the Vuelta España Femenina last month.
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (which was postponed to 2021 due to Covid), Anna Kiesenhofer (Austria) soloed to a surprise victory in the women’s road race ahead of Annemiek van Vleuten (Netherlands) while Richard Carapaz (Ecuador) won the men’s road race ahead of Wout van Aert (Belgium) and Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia). Carapaz has not been selected to defend his title, while Van Vleuten has now retired.
Van Vleuten and Primož Roglič (Slovenia), meanwhile, were individual women’s and men’s time-trial gold medallists respectively.
See you next week.
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