News

13th March 2007

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Jean-Patrick Nazon sprints to stage 1 victory for AG2R Prévoyance with no change overall

Stage one of the 65th edition of the Paris-Nice, from Cloyes-sur-le-Loir to Buzançais, has been won by AG2R Prévoyance rider Jean-Patrick Nazon. The Frenchman claimed the victory ahead of Sebastian Siedler (Milram) and Mathew Hayman (Rabobank). The result meant there was no change to the overall position with none of the riders being in contention to take the leaders jersey from the shoulders of Britain's David Millar.

Early in the stage a group of four riders had escaped, namely Romain Feillu (Agritubel), Hervé Duclos-Lassalle (Cofidis), Iban Velasco Murillo (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and the ever aggressive Christophe Laurent (Crédit Agricole).

Together they worked strongly building a lead of 10'30" but it still wasn't enough. Gradually the Saunier Duval-Prodir team reduced the breakaway's advantage, keeping it to manageable proportions before the teams of the sprinters came to the fore to set up the stage for their sprint leaders.

Together Lampre-Fondital and Quick Step-Innergetic worked together lessening the breakaway's advantage with every turn of the pedals and by the time they reached 15 kilometers to go their advantage was already under 2 minutes.

With Milram also joining the chase the break was doomed and was soon caught paving the way for the inevitable sprint finish.

Quick Step-Innergetic were looking to give their leader Boonen the prefect lead out to the finish hoping for a stage win but in the closing stages a Caisse d'Epargne rider darted up the inside breaking late into a left hand corner. What he did manage to do was split up Boonen's lead out train with only one rider left in front of the fast finishing Belgian ex-world champion.

With a dying team-mate Boonen soon found himself at the head of the peloton too far from the finish to open up and no team-mates around him. Suddenly Frenchman Nazon kicked surprising everyone from around 200 meters to go and with his speed he found himself ahead of the rest, maintaining his advantage to the line where he claimed a deserved win.

For the other sprinters who had been expected to challenge for the win, Lampre-Fondital's Daniele Bennati took 4th, ex-world champion Igor Astarloa (Milram) took 6th and Boonen crossed the line in a disappointing 8th place.

Speaking on team-milram.com second placed Siedler said, "It was very, very difficult. First of all a big thanks to my team, without their help it would have been very, very tight. In the final turn I wanted to do everything to get to the front, but the others did so, too. After the turn the drive was gone at once, there was nearly a little traffic jam. Nazon’s reaction was very clever, he started perfectly. I first had to wait a bit, otherwise I would have prepared the sprint for the others and it wouldn’t have worked out. It wasn’t the fastest sprint, rather a power sprint, on the rising street. But the team’s work was perfect, they did a really good job. Our tactics worked out perfectly. With Mirco Lorenzetto we have another fast rider. One was to follow Bennati, the other Boonen. When Quick-Step starts a train here it doesn’t make sense to start one ourselves. But everything worked out perfectly."

The race continues later today when the riders will roll out on stage two of the race, a 177 kilometer stage from Vatan to Limoges, another stage that looks likely to come down to a sprint finish. Will it be a battle between Boonen and an on-form Bennati? Or will an opportunistic move spoil their day again?

Click here for the full results from stage one of the Paris-Nice...

Astana, Milram and Euskaltel-Euskadi name riders for Tirreno-Adriatico

As the start of the Italian stage race Tirreno-Adriatico draws ever closer, Astana, Milram and Euskaltel-Euskadi have each named their riders that will represent them. The race kicks off tomorrow with a 175 kilometer road stage starting and finishing in Civitavecchia and runs to the 20th of March after a total of 1,112.5 kilometers of racing.

Astana will field what could be considered the strongest team in the race, a team that will include 2006 Vuelta a España winner Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) and 2006 Tour de France podium finisher Andreas Klöden (Ger). Both riders will be accompanied by: Koen De Kort (Ned), René Haselbacher (Aut), Serguey Ivanov (Rus), Matthias Kessler (Ger), Gregory Rast (Swi) and Serguey Yakovlev (Kaz).

Milram will field a powerful squad also headed by top sprinter Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) and world championship medallist Erik Zabel (Ger). Both riders, as many others who will lineup for the Italian stage race, will be looking to build form for the Milan-Sanremo classic. They will be joined by: Mirko Celestino (Ita), Alessandro Cortinovis (Ita), Volodymyr Diudia (Ukr), Fabio Sacchi (Ita), Marco Velo (Ita), and Christian Knees (Ger).

Basque team Euskaltel-Euskadi will be represented by: Beñat Albizuri, Jon Bru, Unai Etxebarria, Koldo Fernández de Larrea, Aitor Hernández, Antton Luengo, Iban Mayoz and Aketza Peña (all Basque riders).

Stephen Gallagher crashes and breaks his wrist by Gerard Cromwell

Murphy & Gunn-Newlyn Group-M. Donnelly's Stephen Gallagher will be out of action for at least a fortnight having crashed out of Sunday's Grand Prix Lillers in France. The Irish international may now miss some of his main objectives, the hillier one-day races in April.

"It was a silly crash," Gallagher said today. "Someone in front braked hard when there was no need to and there was a switch in the bunch. His back wheel went up in the air and I was directly behind him. I went head first over the handlebars and broke my left wrist-arm. My knee is badly swollen too but that should be fine in a couple of days. I hope to be back on the home trainer by Thursday."

Gallagher is still hoping to be fully fit for his main objective, the FBD Insurance Rás in May. "I hope to be on the start line for Brandbitse de Pijl in Belgium at start of April. My main objectives were the hilly one days in April, along with the Tour of Majorca and the Rás I still hope to be competitive by the Tour of Majorca in mid- April but I may not be at full fitness for the one days at the beginning of the month."

CSC prepare for Italy's Tirreno-Adriatico

The CSC team that will take part in the Tirreno-Adriatico that starts tomorrow are in Italy and getting ready for the 'Race of the two seas'.

Speaking on team-csc.com, the squads sporting director Scott Sunderland said, "Tirreno-Adriatico is always a tough race. Most of the stages are hard and you have to be very fit just to keep up with the peloton, but I'm confident we'll get some good results. Our ambition is to get a rider in the top-five and maybe two in the top-10."

Sunderland continued, "Jens is our leader in this race and he has shown great form so far, so I think he'll do really well in the general classification. Lars Bak also looks good at the moment and he' s very confident, so I'm hoping he'll be among the top-10 overall."

As reported on ProCycleNews.com, the CSC lineup for the Italian stage race will be: Lars Bak, Matti Breschel, Fabian Cancellara, Allan Johansen, Marcus Ljungqvist, Lars Michaelsen, Stuart O'Grady and Jens Voigt.

Murphy & Gunn-Newlyn-M. Donnelly team announce their riders for Wanzele and look back on a turbulent week

Irish Continental team Murphy & Gunn-Newlyn-M. Donnelly will lineup this Wednesday for in Wanzele, Belgium with a strong roster that includes ex-Irish national champion Morgan Fox and current Irish under-23 champion Paidi O'Brien. Both riders will be joined by: Mark Cassidy (Irl), Glenn Bak (Den), Christophe Beddegenoodts (Bel), Tim Meeusen (Bel), Devi Vervaeke (Bel), John Dempsey (Irl) and Rieno Stofferis (Bel).

Ireland's Paul Healion is also a possible starter but it will depend if he recovers in time from a chest infection that he has been suffering from recently.

The Irish team were in action over last weekend at the Vlaamse Pijl and the GP Lillers, both races categorized by the UCI as 1.2 events.

At Saturday's Vlaamse Pijl, a typical Flemish race the Belgian trio of Christophe Beddegenoodts, Devi Vervaeke and Tim Meussen joined Dane Glen Bak and Irishman Paul Healion. Unfortunately though Healion was forced to abandon with a chest infection. Meussen, who won the race in 2000, was also forced to abandon because of illness while Beddegenoodts was plagued by problems with his shoes.

The following day, Sunday, saw the team start the GP Lillers in France. Irish riders Paidi O'Brien, Mark Cassidy, Simon Kelly, Morgan Fox, John Dempsey and Stephen Gallagher were joined by Belgians Rieno Stoferis and Christophe Beddegenoodts at the start line for the 175kms event.

Cassidy infiltrated an early breakaway group but soon after disaster struck again when Stephen Gallagher crashed out with a suspected broken wrist [see separate story above]. Simon Kelly and John Dempsey hit the deck soon after while Morgan Fox also abandoned. Stoferis, O'Brien, Cassidy and Beddegenoodts all finished in the second group with Stoferis being the best placed in 23rd, just 37 seconds behind race winner Benoît Daeninck of French team UV Aube.

Unibet.com gain selection for the Milan-Sanremo

The Unibet.com ProTour team will be on the start line for the Milan-Sanremo classic on the 24th of March. RCS Sport, organizers of the event who also organize the Giro d'Italia have issued the team from Sweden with a wild-card invitation to the Italian spring classic.

So, will RCS Sport also issue Unibet with a wild-card selection for the Giro?

Cofidis name their riders for Santarem and Milan-Sanremo

French team Cofidis have named their teams for upcoming races, namely the Volta Distrito de Santarem from the 15th to the 18th of March and the Milan-Sanremo classic on the 24th of March in Italy.

Mickaël Buffaz (Fra), Bingen Fernandez (Spa), Maryan Hary (Fra), Damien Monier (Fra), Ivan Parra Pinto (Col), Chris Sutton (Aus), Rik Verbrugghe (Bel) and Bradley Wiggins (GBr) will all lineup at the Volta Distrito de Santarem.

For the Milan-Sanremo the team will be: Kevin De Weert (Bel), Michiel Elijzen (Ned), Mathieu Heijboer (Ned), Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra), Sébastien Minard (Fra), Christian Moreni (Ita), Nick Kuyens (Bel) and Staf Scheirlinckx (Bel).

Predictor-Lotto's Wim De Vocht gets checked for exhaustion

Young Belgian rider Wim De Vocht has underwent medical tests to find the reason why he has been unable to build his stamina.

According to reports on the Predictor-Lotto team's website the cause could be something as trivial as catching his finger in a shower door at the Tour of Qatar at the end of February. His finger has reportedly not healed because of resistant bacteria because of which a new antibiotic will be used meaning that the Predictor-Lotto rider will have to take it easy and not do any hard and heavy training for about ten days.

Pro-riders celebrate their birthdays today

Vuelta a España stage winner Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel) will be celebrating his 29th birthday today. Danielson isn't the only rider who will be celebrating today though. Other riders who will be celebrating will be: Lars Michaelsen (CSC - 38), Joseba Zubeldia (Euskaltel-Euskadi - 28) and Frenchman Stéphane Goubert who turns 37 (AG2R Prévoyance).