Second placed Vuelta rider tests positive…
Another Phonak rider, Santiago Perez, has been tested positive for blood doping. The Tour of Spain runner-up has added to his team’s woes. With Tyler Hamilton already being accused of the same offence and Oscar Camenzind getting his marching orders for EPO use, things look bleak for Phonak. Perez, like Hamiltion, denies any wrong doing and they both question the validity of the test. Strangely the UCI and the IOC both refuse to hand over ‘test documents’ for the Phonak team to scrutinise. This looks set to be a protracted legal nightmare for all concerned.

Liam Killeen takes round 3 of the National Trophy
The 5th placed Olympic Mountain biker ran away with the third round of the National Trophy cross in Ipswich yesterday. He beat Matt Ellis by a small margin, but these two riders were over two minutes ahead of the rest of the feild. Ellis holds onto the overall, but it looks tight and could well be a season long battle.
Alex Atkins continues to dominante the Junior standings, Ian Bibby leads the Under 23s, and Victoria Wilkinson leads the women’s category.

Men’s result
1. Liam Killeen (Subaru/Gary Fisher)
2. Matt Ellis (Planet X/On One)
3. Simon Richardson (Ace RT/Farmers/Impsport/Dolan)
4. Philip Dixon (Ace RT/Farmers/Impsport/Dolan)
5. Adrian Timmis (Pinarello RT)

Etape build up begins
Have you been looking at the course profile yet? This week we will start the build up to next year’s Etape, we are planning rider profiles and training advice for all of the RCUK Etape team. Don’t forget you can still bag a place with us:
Etape Competition

Weather looks good for this week?
Could this be a dry week? Forecast looks reasonable. So will you be riding this week? Let us know if you plan to take out a group ride (And I bet that’ll be the last time we predict the weather…)

RCUK this week
We start off a series of in-depth articles to help you be a better, faster rider. Cyclefitting with Cyclefit and Sportstesting with Sportstest. An RCUK guinea pig goes to Stourbridge to get ‘assessed’. Also bike tests, we have two aluminuim/carbon rocketships from Condor and Kinesis.