News
21st
February 2007
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Flash News from the Tour of California
by Brian C. Grenier
With another day of great weather the peloton snaked its
way south enjoying sunny skies. Strong head winds at times
kept the peloton down to 19 mph! With a late breakaway
Danny Pate of Slipstream blasted ahead of everyone at the
outskirts of Sacramento in a monumental effort bringing
back memories of the past, but even so Pate was caught
just as the bunch started the 3 finishing laps in the town
of Sacramento.
The
peloton pushed the pace on a short circuits and headed to
the finish altogether! It truly looked like it would be; Hincapie,
Cruz or Davis but CSC powered up and seemingly out of nowhere
came J.J. Haedo to take the stage! Levi keeps the yellow.
No lack of excitement here!
[Check
out the report and link to the full report below].
Leipheimer
commands as JJ Haedo takes his first win in CSC colors
Yes,
Levi Leipheimer remains in control of the Tour of California
for another day following a day where his Discovery Channel
team defended his lead all the way to the finishing circuits.
Soon
after the start of the race three riders jumped aiming to
snap the elastic back to the peloton. The three riders,
Irish national champion David McCann (Colavita-Sutter Home),
French rider Christophe Laurent (Crédit Agricole)
and Omer Kem of the Priority Health team, worked well together
gradually building their lead over the Discovery Channel
led peloton.
Even
with the hard work of the leading trio though it still wasn't
enough to prevent the main bunch from capturing them before
the finish. By the time the race had reached the finishing
circuits in the state capitol the race was back together.
This
was the chance for the sprinters teams to lead out their
star fast-men. Riders like double Tour de France stage winner
Thor Hushovd and CSC's JJ Haedo, Nothing would spoil that,
not even a last minute dig by Team Slipstream rider Danny
Pate.
Through
the final corners the Danish CSC team led for their rider
JJ Haedo. Perfectly they led him to the line where he kicked
and easily took the win ahead of Italy's Vuelta a España
stage winner Luca Paolini (Liquigas), Norway's ex-points
competition winner at the Tour de France Thor Hushovd (Crédit
Agricole) and Australia's Allan Davis (Discovery Channel).
Overall
Leipheimer now leads Slipstream's Jason Donald by only one
second and Benjamin Jacques-Maynes (Priority Health Cycling
Team) by five seconds.
The
race continues later today with a 152.2 kilometer stage
from Stockton to San José, stage where the General Classification
contenders will have to show themselves at the front..
Click
here to read the full results from stage two of the Tour
of California...
Toyota-United's
Ivan Dominguez finishes 8th in a showdown of the world's
fastest men in stage 2 of the Tour of California by
press release
Sacramento,
CA, February 20, 2007: The
thousands of fans who lined the boulevard in front of California's
State Capitol Building in downtown Sacramento were treated
to an exhilarating display of speed today as the world's
fastest men on two wheels charged to the finish in pursuit
of a Stage 2 victory in the Amgen Tour of California. In
a field that included Tour de France green jersey winner
Thor Hushovd and Vuelta a España stage winner Luca
Paolini, Toyota-United's Ivan Dominguez launched his way
to an eighth place finish and was the only US domestic pro
to crack the top 10. Taking the victory was Dominguez's
former teammate, J.J. Haedo, who was a dual stage winner
in last year's race as a member or the Toyota-United Team.
"I
was very happy for J.J. He is a good friend of mine and
I'm glad he got to show his teammates that he is one of
the fastest guys in the world," says Dominguez. "It
would have been nice to get the win, but the good news is,
I got to see how strong our team is. We are going to do
a lot of damage this season."
"The
guys really worked together today," says Team Director
Harm Jansen. "On the last lap it was Vogels and Dominguez
together. Henk dropped off with about 600 meters to go and
Ivan was right behind Greg Henderson (T-Mobile) and Graeme
Brown (Rabobank). There was a little hesitation in the sprint
by those guys so Ivan kind of got held up. Despite that,
he still finished eighth which is still respectable."
While
sprinters ruled the day, tomorrow's Stage 3 will favor the
race's GC riders. Leaving Stockton and heading west through
California's farm lands, riders will encounter long, constant
grades that will lead to the most difficult climb of the
race, the Sierra Road climb in San Jose . The 94.6 mile
course will end in front of San Jose's City Hall.
"It's
a big day for us," says Jansen. "Guys like Chris
Wherry, Heath Blackgrove and Chris Baldwin who were out
there working for our sprinters today will be the ones who
are delivered to the front before the climbs."
Toyota-United's
top rider in the GC so far is Baldwin who sits in 25th position
just behind Discovery Channel's Ivan Basso. Toyota-United
is 7th overall in Team GC.
Rabobank
take a one-two at the Ruta del Sol while Predictor-Lotto
control to keep Dario Cioni in the lead for another day
Rabobank
have taken a one-two at the end of the 3rd stage of the
Ruta del Sol with Dutchman Max Van Heeswijk claiming the
win over the ex-world champion, Oscar Freire. It wasn't
supposed to be that way though. Van Heeswijk opened the
sprint to lead team-mate Freire out but when Freire noticed
that nobody was coming around he decided to give the stage
to his hard working team-mate.
Overall
though it was Predictor-Lotto rider Dario Cioni who successfully
defended his overnight lead over Freire who is only one
second behind in the overall standings. Third overall at
five seconds is Francisco José Ventoso from Saunier Duval-Prodir
who had to settle for 5th place on the stage.
The
race continues later today with a 179.2 kilometer stage
from Cabra to Córdoba, a stage that once again looks set
to be decided by the sprinters.
Click
here to read the full results from stage 3 of the Ruta del
Sol...
Team's
name their squads for the Tour du Haut Var
Cofidis
and CSC have both named their squads for the Tour du Haut
Var, a UCI cat 1.1 race on the 25 of this month.
For
CSC, Lars Bak, Volodymir Gustov, Allan Johansen, Alexandr
Kolobnev, Anders Lund, Andy Schleck, Fränk Schleck and Nicki
Sørensen will compete.
In
the red colors of French team Cofidis, Frédéric
Bessy, Bingen Fernandez, Mickaël Buffaz, Nicolas Hartmann,
Yann Huguet, Maxime Monfort, Steve Zampieri and Amaël Moinard
will all compete.
Quick
Step-Innergetic & Unibet.com name their roster's for
the Volta ao Algarve
Belgian
team Quick Step-Innergetic and the Unibet.com team that
is registered in Sweden have both named their teams for
the Volta ao Algarve which starts in Portugal today.
Quick
Step-Innergetic will be represented at the five day tour
by: Ad Engels, Juan Manuel Garate, Hubert Schwab, Gert Steegmans,
Peter Van Petegem, Davide Viganò, Wouter Weylandt and Marten
Wynants - sporting director: Serge Parsani.
The
Unibet.com team will field: Jimmy Casper, Arnaud Coyot,
Markus Eichler, Jeremy Hunt, Niels Scheuneman, Erwin Thijs,
Stijn Vandenbergh and Marco Zanotti.
Gilberto
Simoni shows good form at the Trofeo Laigueglia in Italy
while Milram's Mirco Lorenzetto narrowly misses out
 Two
time winner of the Giro d'Italia Gilberto Simoni was back
in action yesterday when he was fighting out the Trofeo
Laigueglia in Italy. The Saunier Duval-Prodir rider didn't
win the race but he did show solid form early in the season
when he took the prize for the best climber of the race.
The
race itself, as reported on ProCycleNews
[click here to read
the full results] was won by young Russian Tinkoff Credit
Systems rider Mikhail Ignatiev who jumped in the closing
kilometers. Second went to impressive young Milram rider
Mirco  Lorenzetto
who claimed the final stage of the Tour Méditerranéen
into Sanremo last Sunday.
"Unfortunately Ignatiev already escaped when four kilometres
were still to go,” Lorenzetto said after the finish on team-milram.com.
"But I won the sprint of the group. I would have liked to
add another success to my stage victory at the Tour Méditerranéen.
My condition is good and all my problems have gone now."
More
images from yesterdays race will appear here later. Please
check back then...
Michele
Scarponi signs with Acqua e Sapone
Italy's
Michele Scarponi has finally signed a contract for the 2007
season. The now 27 year-old will ride this season with the
Acqua e Sapone-Caffè Mokambo Pro-Continental team after
he signed a one year contract.
The
Italian had been riding for the team of Manolo Siaz which
became the Astana team during last season, but his contract
was not renewed after he was named as having possible links
to the 'Operacion Puerto' drug investigation.
Scarponi
has been completely cleared now to race again and he is
now looking forward to getting back into the thick of the
action with his new Italian team where he will team up with
ex-Giro d'Italia winner Stefano Garzelli and Belgian Frank
Vandenbroucke.
Scarponi
is now expected to ride the Giro d'Italia with the team
in support of Garzelli who will be riding for the overall
classification after the team were issued with a wildcard
entry by the race's organizers, RCS Sport.
Liège
looks toward 2012 & a possible Tour de France start
The
Belgian city of Liège have announced that they would like
the start of the 2012 Tour de France to be staged in their
city. Already they are candidates to host a stage of the
Tour in 2010 and a stage of the Vuelta a España the
year before.
Liège is already a city steeped in cycling history so who
would bet against them winning the chance to host the start
in 2012?
Jan
Ullrich, past, present and future
Jan
Ullrich, the winner of the Tour de France in 1997 and the
ex-world time trial champion. Will he return to professional
cycling in 2007 and for what team? Will he get the opportunity
to ride the Tour de France again and will he challenge for
the win? These are all questions that the cycling world
as a whole are waiting anxiously to be answered.
The
German's career took a nosedive last year when he was ready
to challenge to become champion of the Tour de France again.
Why? As we all know at this stage he was not permitted to
ride because of his alleged links with Dr Fuentes, the doctor
at the centre of the 'Operacion Puerto' drug investigation
in Spain. Since then he was sacked by his then T-Mobile
team and has lost numerous personal sponsors.
So,
will he be back? Well all these questions look like they
will be answered on Monday when a special press conference
has been arranged in Hamburg, Germany. It is reported that
Jan will talk about his past and more importantly his future
but will not answer any questions from the media.
It
is widely thought that Ullrich should be given the chance
to make a return to the professional sport. Ivan Basso was
given the chance as was Allan Davis and Oscar Sevilla, to
name just three riders who were also linked to the Operacion
Puerto investigation.
But,
how do you feel, should Ullrich be given the chance to return
and race in the professional peloton? Have you're views
heard here on ProCycleNews.
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