News

1st March 2007

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Bennati takes the stage and regains control overall

Lampre-Fondital's Daniele Bennati have regained the overall lead at the Vuelta a la Comunidad Valenciana after winning the third stage earlier today.

Bennati took the lead in the race after winning the first stage of the race but lost out yesterday to Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) who won yesterday's second stage with Bennati only managing to place third.

But once again Italy's Bennati was back on top winning the stage and pushing Petacchi back in second with Benfica rider Javier Benitez placing third.

Bennati now leads fellow Italian Petacchi by a slender 0'02" advantage as the race heads into the fourth stage from Albaida to Alt del Campello (Vallada), a stage of 162 kilometers

Lampre-Fondital's stage winner Bennati said, "I'm very happy: it's beautiful to win again after yesterday third place - The sprint was complicated by the fall and by the wind: I was in a very good fit and so I realize a great sprint."

Speaking after the stage on team-milram.com second placed Petacchi said, "Today I have to thank my team mates again, they did a very good job." But critical of himself he continued, "I started too soon and I had headwind. I was too sure of myself."

Click here for the full results from stage three of the Vuelta a la Comunidad Valenciana...

Milram announce their squads for upcoming races

Milram have announced their riders rostered for the GP Chiasso and the GP di Lugano, two UCI category 1.1 races in Switzerland this coming weekend.

Spanish ex-world champion Igor Astarloa will lead the team that will be completed by Andrey Grivko, Matej Jurco, Mirko Lorenzetto, Alberto Ongarato, Björn Schröder and Sebastian Schwager while the team will be guided by their sporting director Oscar Pellicioli.

At the same time the Milram team will be lining out in Belgium at the Het Volk on Saturday and the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne on Sunday. With a typical Flemish terrain over short steep climbs and some pavé sections for good measure Gianluigi Stanga will bring: Alessandro Cortinovis, Fabio Sabatini, Carlo Scognamiglio, Ralf Grabsch, Marcel Sieberg, Martin Müller, Sebastian Siedler and Niki Terpstra.

ASO announce teams for the Critérium International

The ASO, the organizers of the Critérium International who also run the Tour de France, have named the teams who will make up the field for their race from the 31st of March to the 1st of April.

20 teams have been named for the race which kicks off in Asfeld in France with a 180 kilometer first stage running to Charleville-Mézières.

The squads selected are: Gerolsteiner (Ger), Team Wiesenhof Felt (Ger), Landbouwkrediet-Tonissteiner (Bel), Team CSC (Den), Caisse d'Epargne (Spa), Euskaltel-Euskadi (Spa), Karpin Galicia (Spa), Team Slipstream (USA), AG2R Prévoyance (Fra), Bouygues Telecom (Fra), Cofidis le crédit par téléphone (Fra), Crédit Agricole (Fra), Française des Jeux (Fra), Agritubel (Fra), Barloworld (GBr), Ceramica Panaria-Navigare (Irl), Lampre-Fondital (Ita), Skil-Shimano (Ned), Astana (Swi), Team L.P.R. (Swi).

Some teams who have not been invited are Discovery Channel, T-Mobile and Unibet.com to name just three.

More teams name their squads for the GP Chiasso and the GP di Lugano

T-Mobile and Barloworld are the latest two teams who have named their squads for the GP Chiasso and the GP di Lugano this coming weekend.

The T-Mobile ProTour team will not only be looking for success in Belgium this weekend but will field a strong team led by Patrik Sinkewitz and Thomas Ziegler in the Italian speaking Ticino region of Switzerland.

Speaking of both riders T-Mobile sporting director Valerio Piva said, "They both showed food form and performed well at the Algarve-Tour. The Ticino parcours should suit them."

Piva himself will be directing the team at both races, a team that will be completed by Giuseppe Guerini, Serhiy Honchar, Axel Merckx, Marco Pinotti, Michael Rogers, Patrik Sinkewitz, Thomas Ziegler and Australian Scott Davis.

For Davis though he has only been scheduled for Saturday's GP Chiasso. On Sunday his place will be filled on the team by Linus Gerdemann at the GP di Lugano. Piva continued, "Linus needs to get some good hard races in his legs before he goes to the start of the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race in ten days time."

For Italian based veterans Serhiy Honchar and Giuseppe Guerini the races will be their first of the season while Michael Rogers will enter return to Europe following the recent Tour of California.

For Barloworld, the Pro-Continental team will be represented by Pedro Arreitunandia, John-Lee Augustyn, Diego Caccia, Gianpaolo Cheula, Paolo Longo Borghini, James Perry, Kanstansin Siutsou and Mauricio Soler with Alberto Volpi as their sporting director for both races.

Skil-Shimano present their squad

Dutch team Skil-Shimano presented their team yesterday, Wednesday the 28th of February. The launch took place in Vaals, Southern Holland and featured the complete lineup of the 25 rostered riders, four more than what they had during 2006. Seven new riders and eighteen returning riders will share in the same ambitions as last year. Team managers Arend Scheppink and Iwan Spekenbrink said, "We hope that we can continue the progression we made last season, when we had some excellent results in the form of wins in the Tour of Belgium and the Tour of Qinghai Lake. On top of that our aim is to take part in some prestigious races and to continue with our up-front racing style, while we will also be focusing on the development of talented riders."

Once again the squad features a number of Asian riders aimed at developing cycle racing in Japan and China. Five Japanese riders and three Chinese riders will ride a program based mainly in Europe whereas the other Japanese riders on the team will ride an almost complete program based in Asia. The five Japanese and three Chinese riders who will be based in Europe will be: Hidenori Nodera, Tomayo Kano, Yoshimasa Hirose, Yukihiro Doi, Masahiro Shinagawa, Fang Xu, Jin Long and Ji Cheng.

The complete team lineup for the 2007 season will be: Maarten den Bakker (NL), Maarten Tjallingii (NL), Paul Martens (Germany), Clément Lhotellerie (France), Aart Vierhouten (NL), Christian Müller (Germany), Fang Xu (China), Jin Long (China) , Ji Cheng (China), Piet Rooijakkers (NL), Christoph Meschenmoser (Germany), David Deroo (France), Kenny van Hummel (NL), Fabien Bacquet (France), Masahiro Shinagawa (Japan), Floris Goesinnen (NL), Albert Timmer (NL), Yukihiro Doi (Japan), Hidenori Nodera (Japan), Tomayo Kano (Japan), Yoshimasa Hirose (Japan), Yoshiyuki Abe (Japan), Kaoru Ouchi (Japan), Takamitu Tsuji (Japan), Masamichi Yamamoto (Japan).

Lampre-Fondital for this weekends Clasica Almeria

Italian team Lampre-Fondital will line up this weekend in Spain where they will contest the Clasica Almeria before the same riders ride the Vuelta a Murcia from the 7th to the 11th of March, again in Spain.

The riders selected are Damiano Cunego, Giampaolo Caruso, Francesco Gavazzi, Marco Marzano, Danilo Napolitano, Morris Possoni, Paolo Tiralongo and Sylwester Szmyd. The team will be guided by their experienced sporting director Giuseppe Martinelli.