News
19th
February 2007
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Levi
Leipheimer takes the prologue & the lead at the Tour
of California
Discovery
Channel took their first win of the year yesterday when
Levi Leipheimer thundered around the short prologue time
trial course to take the stage and claim the first leaders
jersey of this years Tour of California in San Francisco.
Leipheimer, the firm pre race favorite made it two wins
out of two following on from his prologue win at the TOC
last season.
Leipheimer
took the win ahead of Team Slipstream rider Jason Donald,
a first year professional in his first major race. Third
was Benjamin Jacques-Maynes (Priority Health). Behind in
5th place was world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara
(CSC), George Hincapie in 9th for the Discovery Channel
team, ex-world time trial champion Michael Rogers (T-Mobile)
in 12th, CSC riders and American time trial champion David
Zabriskie in 14th and another Discovery Channel rider Tom
Danielson back in 17th place.
The
race continues later today with a 155,7 kilometer stage
from Sausalito to Santa Rosa.
Click
here to read the full results from the prologue stage of
the Tour of California...
Predictor-Lotto
score a win with Dario Cioni at the Ruta del Sol
Predictor-Lotto
put all their bad luck of the past couple of weeks behind
them yesterday when Dario Cioni scored a win for them at
the end of the opening stage of the Ruta del Sol.
The
146 kilometer stage saw Cioni attack from the peloton with
46 kilometers remaining in the company of Spaniard Anton
Luengo (Euskaltel). Behind the Predictor-Lotto team controlled
the main bunch helping their rider and his breakaway companion
to reach the bottom of the 1,5 kilometer finishing climb
ahead of the race.
Italian
Cioni took the win one second ahead of the Euskaltel-Euskadi
rider Luengo with the chase being led in by Rabobank's ex-world
champion Oscar Freire only 0'05" back.
The
win gives Cioni the lead going into today's second stage,
a 156,6 kilometer stage from Vegas del Genil to Cazorla.
One
rider who won't be finishing the stage though will be Unibet.com's
Baden Cooke. Australian Cooke has abandoned the stage after
60 kilometers because he was suffering from a touch of the
flu. Unibet.com's team doctor Eugene Janssen said on the
team website, "It was absolutely no use continuing
the race today. Baden couldn't follow the bunch's speed
due to his illness. He's going home tonight to recover."
Click
here for the complete results from stage 1 of the Ruta del
Sol ...
More
teams name their squads for the Volta a Algarve
The
Volta a Algarve [Tour of Algarve] kicks off on the 21st
of February and will cover a total of 949,4 kilometers by
the time it reaches it's climax on the 25th of February.
Milram
are just one of the teams who will field a strong lineup
led by their big Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi. Petacchi
himself is coming to the race looking to further improve
his condition after an injury blighted season in 2006.
Davide
Rebellin will lead the Gerolsteiner assault in a team that
will also include one of last seasons revelations, 25 year-old
Stefan Schumacher.
The
Barloworld Pro-Continental team will be led by their sprinters
Fabrizio Guidi and Robert Hunter who both rode for the Phonak
team in 2006. Team manager Claudio Corti said, "Hunter
and Guidi are better suited to ride the Algarve in Portugal,
which is also a key market for our sponsor Barloworld."
The
Milram team will be: Alessandro Petacchi, Alessandro Cortinovis,
Volodymyr Diudia, Alberto Ongarato, Björn Schröder, Fabio
Sacchi, Marcel Sieberg and Marco Velo.
For
Gerolsteiner, they will field: Thomas Fothen, David Kopp,
Andrea Moletta, Davide Rebellin, Matthias Ruß, Ronny Scholz,
Stefan Schumacher and Markus Zberg.
The
Barloworld lineup will be: Robert Hunter, Fabrizio Guidi,
Pedro Arreitunandia, Giosué Bonomi, Ryan Cox, Enrico Degano,
Alex Efimkin and Hugo Sabido.
Lampre-Fondital,
Milram, LPR, Volksbank, Barloworld & Ceramica Flaminia
name their teams for tomorrow's Trofeo Laigueglia
The 44th Trofeo Laigueglia race will be staged tomorrow
in Italy and will bring together a host of cycling stars
including last years winner Alessandro Ballan (Lampre-Fondital)
and ex-world champion Igor Astarloa (Milram) who will both
lead powerful squads in search of success in the event UCI
category 1.1.
Other
teams who have named their teams for the Italian race are
Barloworld and Ceramica Flaminia, both Pro-Continental teams.
Barloworld will look towards their younger riders for a
result rather than their sprinters, Fabrizio Guidi and Robert
Hunter. Team manager Claudio Corti said, "Changing
the teams was a technical decision as we need our riders
to compete in as many races to help them find and maintain
their form. We do not want to be penalized by the Italian
race organizers for the late changes to our squad, but unfortunately
the Professional teams face constant problems when planning
their race calendar. This is caused by the current UCI rules
and by the actions of some race organizers and the UCI’s
refusal to intervene. The latest example of this was at
the Tour of the Méditerranéen, where the maximum
number of ProTour teams were not respected, and the Professional
teams faced the consequences. There currently seems to be
underlying issues and confusion within cycling and this
is a concern to me and my sponsors."
Ballan
will lead a powerful squad that will look to repeat his
win of last year. The Lampre-Fondital lineup will be: Fabio
Baldato, Alessandro Ballan, Daniele Bennati, Paolo Bossoni,
Matteo Bono, Marco Marzano, Massimiliano Mori and Daniele
Righi.
Milram
will field: Igor Astarloa, Mirko Celestino, Sergio Ghisalberti,
Andrey Grivko, Matej Jurco, Mirco Lorenzetto, Elia Rigotto,
Fabio Sabatini.
LPR
will bring along: Paolo Bailetti, Maurizio Bellin, Borut
Bozic, Luca Celli, Marco Marcato, Walter Proch, Luca Solari
and Roberto Traficante.
Volksbank
will bring: Pascal Hungerbühler, Andreas Matzbacher, Harald
Morscher, Werner Riebenbauer, Patrick Riedesser, Simon Schärer,
Florian Stalder and Rene Weissinger.
The
Barloworld team will be: neo-pro John Lee Augustyn, Mauricio
Soler, Diego Caccia, Gianpaolo Cheula, Paolo Longo Borghini,
James Perry and Kanstansin Siutsou.
The
Ceramica Flaminia roster will be: Wladimir Duma, Antonio
D'Aniello, Raffaele Illiano, Domenico Quagliariello, Michele
Scotto D'Abusco, Hubert Krys, Tomasz Marczinski and Maurizio
Varini. .
Milram's
Mirco Lorenzetto comments on his win into Sanremo at the
Tour Méditerranéen
As
reported yesterday here on ProCycleNews,
Milram's neo-pro Mirco Lorenzetto outsprinted Lampre-Fondital's
Daniele Bennati to take the final stage of the Tour Méditerranéen
into Sanremo in Italy. Lorenzetto had already showed the
speed necessary to score a win when he took third place
the day prior on the penultimate stage of the race into
La Garde. On that occasion the young Milram rider finished
behind Bennati and Acqua e Sapone's stage winner Gabriele
Balducci.
After
the finish in Sanremo the Italian sprinter said on team-milram.com,
"I started to pull through with Bennati 250 meters
before the finish. I was on the left side of the group and
he on the the right. I took his wheel and started again.
I won with just one millimeter, but I am very happy now
about my first victory. I took his wheel and started again.
I won with just one millimeter, but I am very happy now
about my first victory."
Now
Lorenzetto is looking forward to his next races, the Trofeo
Laigueglia, the GP Chiasso, the GP Lugano and Paris-Nice,
where he is looking to continue on from his first success
of the season. "I’m going to try to repeat my success
there." And who would bet against it happening? Lets
watch out for him throughout the season as he looks for
a lot more victories at the start of his career.
RCS
Sport name the wildcards for their races including the Giro
d'Italia
Last
week RCS Sport, one of three Grand Tour organizers, released
the names of the team's who have received wildcard invitations
to it's races, namely the Giro d'Italia, the Milan-Sanremo
and Tirreno Adriatico.
Having
already stated that they would only invite 18 ProTour teams
rather than the full complement, RCS Sport went ahead and
issued Astana with a wildcard but did exclude the Unibet.com
team.
A
wildcard invitation was given to the new Pro-Continental
team Tinkoff Credit Systems who recently invited the Giro
organizer Angelo Zomegnan to their official team presentation.
The other two wildcards went to Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
and Acqua e Sapone-Caffè Mokambo, a team that will be led
by ex-Giro winner Stefano Garzelli.
Team
selections are as follows-
Giro
d'Italia: AG2r Prévoyance (Fra), Bouygues Telecom
(Fra), Caisse d'Epargne (Spa), Cofidis (Fra), Crédit Agricole
(Fra), Discovery Channel (USA), Euskaltel-Euskadi (Spa),
Française des Jeux (Fra), Gerolsteiner (Ger), Lampre-Fondital
(Ita), Liquigas (Ita), Predictor-Lotto (Bel), Quick Step-Innergetic
(Bel), Rabobank (Ned), Saunier Duval-Prodir (Spa), CSC (Den),
Milram (Ita), T-Mobile (Ger) - Wildcards: Acqua e
Sapone-Caffè Mokambo (Ita), Astana (Swi), Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
(Irl) and Tinkoff Credit Systems (Ita).
Milano-Sanremo:
AG2R Prévoyance (Fra), Bouygues Telecom (Fra), Caisse
d’Epargne (Spa), Cofidis (Fra), Crédit Agricole (Fra),
CSC (Den), Discovery Channel (USA), Euskaltel-Euskadi (Spa),
Française des Jeux (Fra), Gerolsteiner (Ger), Lampre-Fondital
(Ita), Liquigas (Ita), Milram (Ita), Predictor-Lotto (Bel),
Quick Step-Innergetic (Bel), Rabobank (Ned), Saunier Duval-Prodir
(Spa) and T-Mobile (Ger) - Wildcards: Acqua & Sapone-Caffè
Mokambo (Ita), Astana (Swi), Barloworld (GBr), Ceramica
Panaria-Navigare (Irl), LPR (Swi) and Tinkoff Credit System
(Ita)
Tirreno
Adriatico: AG2R Prévoyance (Fra), Bouygues
Telecom (Fra), Caisse d’Epargne (Spa), Cofidis (Fra), Crédit
Agricole (Fra), CSC (Den), Discovery Channel (USA), Euskaltel-Euskadi
(Spa), Française des Jeux (Fra), Gerolsteiner (Ger), Lampre-Fondital
(Ita), Liquigas (Ita), Milram (Ita), Predictor-Lotto (Bel),
Quick Step-Innergetic (Bel), Rabobank (Ned), Saunier Duval-Prodir
(Spa) and T-Mobile (Ger) - Wildcards: Acqua e Sapone-Caffè
Mokambo (Ita), Astana (Swi), Ceramica Panaria-Navigare (Irl)
and Tinkoff Credit System (Ita).
Cofidis
rider Frank Höj forced to postpone his season debut
Danish
professional Frank Höj has been forced to postpone his season
debut this year after he dropped a knife on his toe which
has resulted in a damaged tendon. The Cofidis rider will
now miss the early part of the Spring Classics including
the Het Volk in Belgium, a race he finished second in last
season.
As
yet it is unclear when the veteran professional will resume
training. We will keep you posted!
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