VeloNews | Garmin is the new title sponsor of the Slipstream-Chipotle team

For the third time in 10 days, a major international cycling team has announced a new title sponsor heading into next month’s Tour de France.

GPS maker Garmin International has signed on as the title sponsor of American professional continental team Slipstream-Chipotle through 2010, Garmin and the team announced Wednesday.

The title sponsorship, which sees the team name change to Garmin-Chipotle presented by H30, will commence immediately. A new team jersey, which will incorporate Garmin’s logo with the team’s trademark argyle motif, will be unveiled on July 3 in Brest prior to the start of the Tour.

With Monday’s announcement that Team High Road is picking up title sponsorship from Columbia Sportswear, and last week’s announcement that Saxo Bank is picking up co-sponsorship of Team CSC for the remainder of this year, and title sponsorship for the next three years, it seems that things might be looking up on the cycling front …

Is it a coincidence that all three of these teams have strong, independent, third-party anti-doping programs?

Dave Zabriskie’s bad luck at the Grand Tours continues as he crashes out of the Giro d’Italia during stage 2.

Early reports indicate that the Team Slipstream-Chipotle rider, Alberto Contador (Astana), and a couple of other riders crashed on some railroad tracks. Apparently DZ took the brunt of the fall, as the other riders were able to rejoin the race. Zabriskie was taken to hospital in an ambulance, but was conscious and sitting up at the side of the road holding his back before being placed on the gurney and taken way by paramedics.

Here’s hoping that it’s nothing terribly serious, and that he’ll be back on two wheels soon.

Update: 17:35 GMT

VeloNews | Zabriskie crashes out of Giro

David Zabriskie’s 2008 Giro d’Italia ended Sunday when he was caught at a pileup with about 55km to go in the 207km second stage from Cerfalù to Agrigento.

Zabriskie, 29, went down with several other riders as the peloton approached a railroad crossing.

Zabriskie, who started the day second overall, was knocked off his bike and was unable to rejoin the pack. Doctors immediately attended to the reigning U.S. time trial champion and transported him to a local hospital.

Team officials confirmed to VeloNewsthat Zabriskie suffered a fractured L1 vertabrae, in what was described as a painful, but not a serious injury.

Zabriskie, who wore the yellow jersey in the 2005 Tour de France, played a key role in Slipstream-Chipotle’s victory in Saturday’s team time trial event that delivered the maglia rosa to teammate Christian Vande Velde.

Photo: Graham Watson/VeloNews

By virtue of being the first rider across the line in the opening team time trial, Christian Vandevelde of Team Slipstream-Chipotle becomes the first American to wear the maglia rosa (pink jersey) of the Giro d’Italia since Andy Hampsten in 1988.

David Zabriskie is in second place in the GC with the same time as his compatriot.

An excellent start for the American team!

VeloNews | No Rock Racing for Tour de Georgia

Organizers on Thursday announced the 15, 8-rider teams that will compete in next month’s Tour de Georgia.

A total of 120 professional cyclists will compete in the 600-mile, seven-day event to be held April 21-27.

The final field:

• Astana
• CSC
• Gerolsteiner
• High Road
• Saunier Duval-Scott
• BMC
• Slipstream-Chipotle
• Symmetrics
• Bissell
• GE-Marco Polo
• Health Net-Maxxis
• Jelly Belly
• Jittery Joe’s
• Team Type 1
• Toyota-United

“This is not only the most international field we have had at Georgia, but one of the most elite as well. Usually you only see names like Hincapie, Zabriskie, Leipheimer and Millar at the Grand Tours. Now you will see them at the Tour de Georgia presented by AT&T. We have many teams from across the U.S. and Europe that we just could not accommodate,” said Jim Birrell, managing partner of Medalist Sports and race director for the Tour de Georgia.

So Michael Ball, and his (Crack) Rock Racing Team don’t get a ride in Georgia … getting closer and closer to my predicted implosion every day.

No Tyler Hamilton, no Santiago Botero, and no Oscar Sevilla. Instead, these riders get to line up and race major races like the Los Angeles Circuit Race, against such well-known, top-level pros like Mark-Paul Gosselaar (of TV’s Saved By The Bell fame), as Tyler Hamilton did this past weekend.

Gosselaar finished 7th, by the way, which is not a knock on his ability to race a bicycle, but he’s certainly not on the level of guys coming out of Utah like T-Bird or Jeff Louder, much less Levi Leipheimer, George Hincapie, or any of the Euro-Pros.

Slipstream scores Giro invite

American continental professional team Slipstream-Chipotle has received an invitation to compete at this year’s Giro d’Italia, Slipstream team manager Jonathan Vaughters confirmed with VeloNews Saturday.

Vaughters got the news last week from RCS director Angelo Zomegnan, who is expected to announce the full list of teams invited to the Giro in coming days. In addition to the May 10-June 10 Giro, Vaughters said Slipstream would compete in other RCS events such as Milan-San Remo, held March 7, and Tirreno-Adriatico, held March 12-18.

Though the team has not yet been invited to race at the 2008 Tour de France, Vaughters said he would start many of his team’s Tour hopefuls at the Giro. Riders that have expressed interest in both grand tours include David Millar and Christian Vande Velde.

LEADING MEN

Can an American team that aims to compete clean help put cycling on the right road?

BOULDER, Colo. — Conditions are cramped in the modest bedroom with burgundy carpeting and busy floral wallpaper at the Boulderado Hotel.

A small antique-style desk has been cleared off and covered with a clean towel, syringes, vials, latex gloves, a tourniquet and a waste disposal box. A second station is set up on a small round table. Coolers and carrying cases are stacked against the walls.

Blood and urine roll call starts at 6:30 a.m. sharp. The riders report a few at a time, with sleepy eyes and hair rumpled from pulling T-shirts over their heads in a hurry. It’s been a scant few hours since the same group gathered at a bar a few blocks away, where everyone had a few drinks and a lot of laughs.

They sit down, verify their paperwork and quietly proffer their left arms to have blood drawn. On the floor next to the bed, a centrifuge machine hums steadily, spinning red blood cells away from serum for analysis.

Cycling’s most secretive business has taken place for years in rooms not unlike the one in the Boulderado. Riders, with or without the help of team doctors and all-purpose staff members called soigneurs, have long used the privacy of a hotel room to undergo transfusions or take EPO, steroids, stimulants and other performance enhancers during races and training camps .

But this team does everything differently. This team has pledged to be open about its operations, right down to the open door of this hotel room on a mid-November morning.

This is Team Slipstream/Chipotle, a team with the uncommon vision of restoring faith in a sport savaged by scandal and disillusionment. Its collective commitment to riding clean is a mantra and a business plan rolled into one — an attempt to persuade fans and corporate sponsors that the team practices what it preaches.

Read the rest of the article at ESPN.com