"It's a real scandal. This has to stop." - Bernard Hinault

French retired cyclists Bernard Hinault has aired his thoughts on Chris Froome's win at the Giro d’Italia victory on Tuesday, saying that the Team Sky rider does not belong in the pantheon of cyclist such as himself and Eddy Merckx. In Rome on Sunday, Froome joined those two famous names by winning Grand Tours consecutively, having won last year’s Tour de France and Vuelta a España.

Bernard Hinault completed his wins between the 1982 and 1983 seasons, went as far as saying that Froome should not have even been on the start line  "Froome does not belong on that list," Hinault said, according to Belgian publication Het Laatste Nieuws. "He returned a positive test at the Vuelta and afterwards his B-sample proved positive, so he has used doping and he has to be suspended.

"He should never have been allowed to start in the Giro. Why do we have to wait so long for a verdict? Those two Italians who had the same thing [Alessandro Petacchi and Diego Ulissi -ed.] were suspended much faster. With what right does Froome get so much time to find an explanation? Is it because Sky has so much money?"

Froome is currently under investigation after an anti-doping test during the 2017 Vuelta a España, which he went on to win, showed him to have double the permitted levels of the asthma drug salbutamol in his urine. It remains for the British rider and his legal team must now prove that he did not exceed the allowed dosage in order to avoid a suspension. As salbutamol is a 'specified' substance on WADA's banned list, Froome is allowed to compete while the investigation is going on. Both Petacchi and Ulissi received immediate bans for elevated levels of salbutamol even though it took nine months for a verdict to be reached in Ulissi’s case.

Last week, UCI president David Lappartient told the emdia that he could not guarantee that Froome’s case would be resolved by the time the Tour de France begins in July. Also, could also not confirm whether or not the results that Froome earns during the time of the investigation will be removed if he is handed a suspension.

"This is all very sad," added Hinault. "Froome is not part of the legend of the sport, because what image does he give cycling? He may also start the Tour later."

"It’s a real scandal. This has to stop."

Bernard Hinault Bio

OSMedia @optimum_sports

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Cummings Win Stage in Pais Vasco

Steve Cummings

Steve Cummings took a tightly bunched leading pack by surprise with a powerful sprint in the last kilometre to win the third stage of the Vuelta al País Vasco.

The British rider finished in 5hrs 1min 57sec and lies 39th place overall. The 35-year-old, riding for the Dimension Data team, timed his final surge perfectly, outsprinting Simon Gerrans of Australia and Italy’s Fabio Fellinem, who were second and third respectively. 

Both were given the same time as Cummings.

Spain’s Mikel Landa, riding for Team Sky, finished 37th in the same time but retained the leader’s jersey on the mountainous 193km ride from Vitoria to Lesaka that contained three category two climbs. The Dutchman Wilco Kelderman (Team LottoNl-Jumbo) lies second overall, while Landa’s Sky team-mate Sergio Henao is third.

“I’m happy with the way the race is going so far,” said Landa, who acknowledged Cummings had caught him off-guard.

Landa’s compatriot Alberto Contador, riding for Tinkoff, is fifth after a 16th-place finish on stage three, while Movistar’s Nairo Quintana is eighth after placing 26th, one behind Astana’s Fabio Aru, the winner of last year’s Vuelta a España. The Italian is down in 15th going into Thursday’s stage – the fourth of six – which is a 165km ride from Lesaka to Orio.

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Kittel Wins Scheldeprijs in Belgium

Scheldeprijs

Marcel Kittel won the Scheldeprijs race in Belgium for a fourth time after beating Mark Cavendish in a sprint finish.

Cavendish, competing for the Dimension Data team, was also bidding for a fourth victory in the one-day race. The Briton, who won in 2007, 2008 and 2011, was well positioned on the wheel of Kittel entering the finishing straight. Cavendish attempted to round the German but the Etixx-QuickStep rider had enough to hold on and win by little more than a tyre’s-width after a photo finish.

Germany’s André Greipel was third for the Lotto-Soudal team. Kittel’s victory marked his fourth in five attempts at the event, with his run only broken by Alexander Kristoff’s victory in 2015.

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Froome Sticks with Sky

Chris Froome said it was an easy decision to extend his contract with Team Sky to the end of 2018 because “their values are my values”.

The double Tour de France winner tweeted: “Thrilled to announce my extension with @TeamSky until end of 2018. Looking forward to many more successes together!”

The 30-year-old joined Sky in 2010, where he acted as a super-domestique for Bradley Wiggins in the 2012 Tour de France, finishing second overall to his team-mate. He went on to win the event following year and then again in 2015.

Sir Dave Brailsford, the team principal, told the Team Sky website: “Chris is not only one of the most talented and dedicated riders in the world, he is also a fantastic ambassador for the sport.

“Team Sky is proud to have him as our team leader. He is a winner and it is a great boost at the start of the new season that he has committed to stay with the team to the end of 2018. He is hungry for more success and we will help him achieve it.”

Froome said: “Team Sky have been fundamental to my success to date, so it was a very easy decision to commit to the team until the end of 2018. Their values are my values and I am proud to ride for a team that has shown that you can win the biggest bike races in the world clean.

He said that “2015 was a fantastic year for me both professional and personally and this is a great kickstart to 2016. I am more motivated than I have ever been and I have got big targets for this Olympic year. I can’t wait to start racing.”

Froome plans to start his 2016 campaign at the Herald Sun Tour in Australia at the start of next month.

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Kittel Takes Giant Quick Step

Marcel Kittel is joining Etixx-Quick Step for the 2016 and 2017 seasons after being released from his Giant-Alpecin contract.

“I want to thank the team for the faith they’ve put in me and that they will support me in this new chapter of my career,” the German sprinter said. “I am looking forward to the new challenges of Etixx-Quick Step, a team I consider to be one of the best in the world.

“I am also happy I have a few friends on this team already, including Tony Martin. Tony is one of my best friends in cycling. We rode together when we were younger and I can’t wait to do it again at the professional level.”

The 27-year-old Kittel has won eight stages of the Tour de France but missed most of this season because of a virus and was left out of the Tour, as well as the Vuelta a España and Germany’s world championship team.

“We are thrilled about the arrival of Marcel,” the Etixx-Quick Step team manager, Patrick Lefevere, said. “He has shown incredible pure speed which makes him one of the best sprinters in the history of the sport. As a team we will do our best to put him in the right condition, building a group of riders around him.”

Kittel’s move was made possible after another top sprinter, Mark Cavendish, left to join the African team MTN-Qhubeka who will be renamed Dimension Data next season.

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New Dimension for Cavendish

Team MTN-Qhubeka will be known as Team Dimension Data from 2016 in a move that could pave the way for Mark Cavendish to join them.

As MTN-Qhubeka, the African team have made a big impact at this year’s Tour de France, where the Briton Steve Cummings won the 14th stage on Mandela Dayand Eritrean Daniel Teklehaimanot became the first African to wear the race’s King of the Mountains jersey.

Cavendish, a 26-time Tour de France stage winner, has been linked with the squad, with his three-year Etixx-Quick-Step deal expiring imminently.

The 30-year-old raced for the Belgian squad for the final time after sustaining a shoulder injury in crashing out of the Tour of Britain, won by MTN-Qhubeka’s Edvald Boasson Hagen.

The sponsorship of the UCI Professional Continental team by Dimension Data is anticipated to take it to the next level, and the global IT company will continue to support the Qhubeka charity, which has provided more than 4,000 bicycles in its BicyclesChangeLives campaign.

The team principal Douglas Ryder said: “We are incredibly excited to have Dimension Data become our new title partner. It enables us to continue to support the development of African cycling and the Qhubeka charity at the highest levels in world cycling.

“This is the next step in our journey and we look forward to accelerating our collective ambitions through this partnership.”

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Cavendish Admits Sky Fall

Getty Images

Mark Cavendish says it was hard to hide his "frustration" in his final weeks at Team Sky.

In his autobiography At Speed, serialised in The Daily Telegraph, Cavendish says he felt let down during the 2012 Tour de France, won by his then team-mate Bradley Wiggins.

A winner of 25 Tour stages, the 28-year-old criticises Team Sky - who he left after last year's Tour of Britain - for "accepting compromises" and describes head team director Sean Yates as "uninspiring and miserly in praise".

The year Wiggins became the first British rider to win the Tour de France, Cavendish himself claimed a fourth consecutive final-stage victory.

"For all that I loved Brad [Wiggins], Chris Froome, Richie Porte, they were all wrapped up in their own world - with tunnel vision," he said.

The Manxman's tally of 23 stage wins at the time surpassed seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong and Frenchman Andre Darrigade and moved him into fourth in the overall stage-win standings, 11 short of Belgian Eddy Merckx's record of 34.

But in September 2012, he confirmed his desire for an "amicable" split as he looked for a team that would back his aim to win sprint stages and points jerseys - and joined Belgian team Omega Pharma-QuickStep at the start of the 2013 season.

"I understood and would never have disputed that the yellow jersey should be our priority," Cavendish added. "But I had been under the impression that 'believing in better' was about big ambitions and felt sad that we were already accepting compromises."

He originally joined Sky on a three-year deal after the HTC-Highroad team disbanded at the end of the 2011 season.

At HTC, Cavendish was the team leader and had claimed 20 Tour de France stage victories prior to the 2012 season - but while at Sky he was overshadowed by Wiggins.

He said he continued to do his best, but added "it was sometimes hard to reconcile my own frustration with the team's rampant success".

Cavendish also said he was "under the spell of Lance Armstrong" - the American who won seven Tour de France titles before being stripped of them all and banned for life for doping - describing him as "mesmeric" to be around during his career.

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