Wednesday’s EuroFile: Peña gets a gig; Riders’ group calls for ethics changes
- By Andrew Hood
- Published Oct. 18, 2006
Peña joins Unibet.com
More ex-Phonak riders are finding contracts for next season as the Swiss team begins to shut down. The latest to escape the unemployment line is Colombian Victor Hugo Peña, who penned a two-year deal to join Unibet.com for the 2007-08 seasons.
The 32-year-old raced the past two seasons with Phonak, but the team raced its last competition in Saturday’s Giro di Lombardia after the Floyd Landis doping scandal prompted new sponsor iShares to pull out of its sponsorship deal to continue the team.
Peña became the first Colombian to wear the maillot jaune during the 2003 Tour and helped Lance Armstrong win the 2001-03 Tours.
CPA demands changes to Ethics Code
The racers union is demanding changes in the Ethics Code before next season following the chaos that came in the wake of the Operación Puerto doping investigation in Spain that left the future of more than 50 riders under a cloud of suspicion.
Representatives from the Association of Professional Cyclists (CPA) said the current Ethics Code – which requires the removal of riders from competition who are subject to an ongoing investigation – is “arbitrary and incoherent and inapplicable.”
The CPA noted that some riders were treated as “delinquents” and expelled from competition while others were allowed to continue to compete despite similar allegations. The organization wants the language excluding riders removed before the beginning of next season. Serrano joins Tinkoff
he new team Tinkoff continues to bolster its lineup for the 2007 season, with Spanish rider Ricardo Serrano expected to sign a contract in the coming days. Serrano rode for Kaiku in 2006, but the team is folded at the end of this season. The promising rider said he rejected offers from ProTour teams to join Tinkoff for next year. The team has already signed such riders as Danilo Hondo and Mikhail Ignatiev.
FILED UNDER: Road
Andrew Hood
Hood cut his journalistic teeth at Colorado dailies before the web boom opened the door to European cycling in the mid-1990s. Hood's covered every Tour since 1996 and has been VeloNews' European correspondent since 2002. He lives in Leon, Spain, when he's not chasing bike races.