José Viejo has died at the age of 65 at his home in Azuqueca de Henares, Spain, after a long liver disease. The Spaniard takes to his grave the record for the biggest individual stage win from when he won stage 11 of the 1976 Tour de France by a margin of 22:50 minutes over Gerben Karstens (TI-Raleigh).
Prior to turning professional, Viejo took bronze in the amateur road race at the 1971 World Championships in Mendrisio. He turned profesional in 1973 with the La Casera-Pena Bahamontes team and found his first pro victory with a stage of the the Volta a Pourtugal. The majority of his success came in his native Spain, notching up stage wins at the Ruta del Sol, Vuelta a Asturias and Vuelta al País Vasco. Viejo finally hung up his wheels in 1982.
Fresh from recording an updated "Do They Know It's Christmas?" for the Band Aid charity, with money raised to be directed to stopping Ebola in Africa, Bono headed to New York's Central Park for a ride only to suffer a "cycling spill" and injure his arm requiring "some surgery to repair it," according to U2's website.
The band have been forced to cancel its weeklong residency on 'The Tonight Show' as a result of its frontman crashing. Bono's wife Ali Hewson was hospitalised last year when she crashed while quad biking in Costa Rica, reportedly breaking several ribs.
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"Much thanks to Jimmy Fallon and everyone at the show for their understanding," the other three members of U2, Edge, Adam and Larry added on the website.
Michael Drapac looking for co-sponsor to move to WorldTour in 2017 Michael Drapac, the team owner of the Australian Pro-Continental Drapac team, has announced his intentions to apply for a WorldTour licence which would further benefit his expanding commercial property business. Drapac has made significant excursions into the American property market in the last four years and is reportedly looking to further expand his business in Spain.
"We want to find a partner that will be a fit with us, that will want to take us on that journey for the next 10 years," Drapac told the Australian Financial Review.
"What I have found is owning a sports team gives you a good corporate profile," Drapac said. "People will say to us 'oh, you're Drapac and you've got that cycling team'. And owners of cycling teams in the US get a significant return from the dollars they spend."
The team's presence at several American events this year was a sign of Drapac's increasing influence in the property market and significantly aided the team in ending the season in the black due to media exposure as Drapac explained.
"One owner told me had back his money just from competing in the Tour of California, that's how big these races are," Drapac added.
Explaining that while this season was one of transition as it raced under a Pro-Continental license, Drapac added that he expects to the team to be "50 per cent" better next year.
Valerio Conti wants a maiden Giro d'Italia stage win in 2015
Valerio Conti only just made his grand tour debut a few months ago at the Vuelta a España, but the 21-year-old believes a stage win at the Giro d'Italia is within his reach next season. Conti told La Gazzetta that a stage win would be the next step in his progression as a profession cyclist.
"I do not want to sound too conceited but I dream of a stage win in the Giro and doing good races elsewhere," he told La Gazzetta. "It will help that I have done the Vuelta, I was called up at the last minute and spent four days in the white jersey, which is for the combination classification, not the young riders jersey as that does not exist anymore. I had a few good results, and more importantly, finished the three-week race."
The Lampre-Merida finished the race in 112th place overall.
2014 year was Conti's first full season as a professional, having ridden as a stagiaire with Lampre in 2013, with his early-season halted by tendinitis in his left-knee but recovered to record a debut win at the 1.HC Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli in October before finishing his season at the Japan Cup.
Mullens and O'Donoghue win Melbourne Kermesse Championships
Wiggle-Honda's Peta Mullens decided one win wasn't enough on Sunday as she out-sprinted former Australian criterium champion Kimberly Wells (Roxsolt) in a photo finish having already claimed victory in a mountainbike gravity race that morning. In third place was Rebecca Wiasak who will join the Wiggle-Honda team later this summer.
The 26-year-old explained that she had a little bit of luck in claiming her win.
"Lucky the race start was delayed due to a crash in an earlier grade because I was commuting from a morning MTB race and arrived after the advertised start time," Mullens said after the race.
In the men's race, health.com.au-search2retain's Alistair O'Donohoe sprinted to victory from a breakaway group containing Jason Lowndes (Seight) and Koen de Kort (Giant-Shimano) to claim his share of the $20,00 prize money on offer.
