There have been lots of goings on in both the road and mountain bike side of things recently.  Here are some of the headlines.

Specialized have confirmed that two time World downhill champion Sam Hill and 2006 Junior World Cup Champion Brendan Fairclough will ride their bikes in 2009.  The duo will continue to ride under their Team Monster Energy banner.  They will ride Demo 8 bikes when racing and have will have a full fleet of Specialized bikes available to train on.  The bikes feature the new Boxxer fork that Hill helped to develop.

“I wanted to ride for Specialized because we share the same goal and that’s to win races-they are really capable when it comes to building and testing new products and striving to be the best,” Hill said at the team launch. “I had a good feeling about all the people there, and it’s cool that everyone is into riding bikes, and they are all passionate about it. I’m definitely excited about the future and what myself and Specialized can achieve together.“

Also on the move is Tracy Moseley formerly of Team Kona.  For 2009 she will ride for Trek bikes who have also secured the services of cross country rider Liam Killeen in a move from Specialized.  Both riders have a lot to prove in ‘09.  Killeen in particular is coming back from a bad few seasons with illness and proved his strength in an amazing ride at the Olympics to move from last following a crash to finsih an amazing 7th place.  Had he not suffered the crash it is very likely that he could have medalled as he had to fight his way through the back markers.  One to watch in 2009 we think.

On the road Lance Armstrong has commenced training with his new Astana team at a training camp in the Canary Islands.  It is the first time that the team have met up and Armstrong will ride with Alberto Contador on Thursday.  The American has confirmed that he will ride the Tour de France despite raising concerns over protection.  Commenting on the structure of the team Armstrong said “” It is not a complicated relationship. At Astana we are professionals and we will race for the strongest…In 2008, he was the best in the world, while it is not said that I will be the same as 2004 and 2005.  Therefore, if Alberto is still the strongest I will support him.“  This seemed to surprise an obviously pleased Contador who is recovering from a minor operation.  Armstrong’s racing diary includes the Giro D’Italia  while Contador’s is allegedly built around the Tour as his main goal.  Armstrong’s first race back will be the Tour Down Under in January, a very different schedule to the one he used during his seven Tour victories when he raced very selectively to peak for the one race.  He has never finished the Giro before.

Team Saxo Bank-IT Factory (formerly CSC-Saxo bank) can drop the second sponsor from their title after  it declared bankruptcy on Monday.  The chief executive seems to have absconded with funds and is now being sought by Interpol.  Team owner Bjarne Riis is searching for a replacement with a short fall of about €4 million euros and only about a month top go to the start of the new season.  Saxo Bank have no interest in being the sole main sponsor so the squad must find another to survive.

Meanwhile Jan Ullrich has confirmed that he is at least one former pro who will not be returning to the Peloton while Ivan Basso, back from suspension, is in training with his new Liquigas team in the Italian mountains.  The picture below shows him training on a Cannondale mountain bike in the snow.

All the teams are having “mixers” at the moment.  Astana went surfing, Saxo bank went clay pigeon shooting and Liquigas were snow biking and skiing to name a few.

Drugs have been rearing their ugly head again as convicted riders claim their innocence.  The UCI are currently finalising their cases against a number of riders who they claim to have identified as cheats.  Expect news on this soon.  We are not going to go into the whole sorry mess here yet but an excellent article written by Ireland’s Shane Stokes can be found here.  Suffice to say it’s not the last we have heard of this new generation EPO drug CERA!  Bernhard Kohl the Austrian former Gerolsteiner rider convicted of doping told a recent hearing in Austria that in his opinion “probably half the peloton is on CERA“.  In a positive change to tactics dopers are now being prosecuted for fraud with many countries now making it also a criminal offense to dope.