Christian Vande Velde (CSC) and Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel) have both confirmed they will race next month’s Vuelta a España. Vande Velde, fresh off a rock solid 15th in the Clásica San Sebastián on Saturday, was the fourth-best American at the Tour de France, slotting in at 25th overall, finishing behind Levi Leipheimer (Discovery) in third, Chris Horner (Predictor-Lotto), 15th, and George Hincapie (Discovery) in 24th. “I will take a little break and then I will get ready for the Vuelta,” said Vande Velde, who’s raced in the Vuelta three times, with a career-best 25th in 2002. Danielson, meanwhile, hopes to be over health troubles that derailed his hopes of debuting at the Tour this year. The American climber was plagued with a mysterious stomach ailment that sapped his strength and forced him to miss important pre-Tour races such as the Volta a Catalunya and the Dauphiné Libéré.

Doctors determined it was a double whammy of intestinal parasites. Danielson returned to the United States in June to undergo treatments to rid his system of Giardia and a still-unknown parasite doctors suspect he picked up while racing the Tour of Langkawi in 2003. Danielson lit up last year’s Vuelta, overcoming a bad day in the first climbing stage in the first week to improve as the race developed. He later won a dramatic stage into Granada and slotted in for a career-best sixth overall.

Danielson will race the Tour of Germany ahead of the Vuelta, but admitted he’s still recovering from his treatments.

“In training, I am feeling good, but I gained some weight when I was sick. I ate as much as I could to recover. I didn’t even try to watch my weight. I just wanted to get my health back,” Danielson said. “You never know, racing is so difficult. I’d love to ride well at the Vuelta; what well is, we’ll have to see. I suspect I’ll do better at the Vuelta than in Germany.” Rasmussen back on bike, CSC doubted him in 2002
Michael Rasmussen returned to competition for the first time since being expelled during the Tour de France to ride a criterium Monday on the streets of Copenhagen.

Rasmussen received cheers from a crowd estimated to be 20,000 people as he rode in an unmarked yellow jersey. The 33-year-old Dane was fired by his Rabobank team after being forced out of the Tour while leading with just four stages left to Paris.

Despite his controversial departure from the Tour over doubts about his whereabouts in critical pre-Tour testing periods, Rasmussen vows to return to the pro peloton with a new team.

“I’m juggling a few options and we’ll see what happens,” Rasmussen told the Danish wire service Ritzau. “Hopefully this is a new beginning.”

Rasmussen’s reappearance comes on new reports about questions of his past.

According to the Danish newspaper, Jyllands Posten, Team CSC sidelined Rasmussen ahead of the Giro di Lucca in 2002 after the Dane revealed irregularities in internal doping controls conducted by the team.

Team spokesman Brian Nygaard confirmed to the newspaper that the team didn’t renew Rasmussen’s contract for the 2003 season.

“The tests they conducted were made manually and were not with authorized instruments, so the results were only to give a reference. The irregularities could have been caused by a sickness,” Nygaard said. “The question is that the situation between Michael and the team was tense. He’s an individualist and our team is based on collective values.”

The team also told the Danish cycling federation as well as Rabobank, which later signed Rasmussen to a contract.

“I remember (Bjarne) Riis told me that they didn’t renew Rasmussen and that we should be careful with him,” Danish cycling federation president Jesper Worre told the paper. “This story forms part of our history with Rasmussen.”

Contador hid sickness in final days of Tour
Tour de France winner Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel) admitted he hid worsening health problems in the final days of the race so rivals wouldn’t pick up on any perceived weaknesses.

The 24-year-old held on during the final time trial to win the Tour following the controversial expulsion of race leader Michael Rasmussen to become the first Spanish winner since 1995. “From the day of Aubisque I was hoarse and I had problems with my throat. Three days before the time trial, I was feeling bad and I was very worried,” Contador told the Spanish daily MARCA. “When they asked in the press conference about my voice, I told them I was perfect so nobody would know.”

Contador also admitted he was struggling on the final mountain stage up the Aubisque when Rasmussen attacked him to win the stage and secure the yellow jersey, adding that teammate Levi Leipheimer was the stronger rider that day.

“I was not going well and in the end I thought I could not make it, so I started to tell (Levi) ‘stop, stop’ through the headphone,” Contador said. “But (neither) he or Bruyneel heard me, so I thought, ‘well, we’ll see how far I can go.’”

Bettini back for Germany
Paolo Bettini will return to competition for the Tour of Germany, his QuickStep-Innergetic team reported. The reigning world champion missed the Tour of the Wallonne Region and the Clásica San Sebastián with tendonitis in his knee.