News

26th February 2007

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Jan Ullrich retires from pro racing...next stop Team Volksbank where he will act as a team advisor

Jan Ullrich announced his retirement from Professional cycling earlier today at a press conference in Hamburg, Germany. Ullrich, who was suspended and then sacked by the T-Mobile team last year following his alleged involvement in the Spanish 'Operacion Puerto' drug investigation, will not completely disappear from the sport. Now Jan will now work as an advisor to the Austrian Pro-Continental team Volksbank, helping the team to develop further.

Volksbank team manager Thomas Kofler has spoken of his delight at having Ullrich come on board saying, "For Jan Ullrich this job is not ordinary, it is a passion. With his experience he will build the healthy basis for a secured future for the Volksbank team. Jan Ullrich fits marvelously into our concept: We will remain in our direction with small, but dynamic steps towards the large goals. And who knows, perhaps we can upset the larger teams in the foreseeable sporting future. With Ullrich's Charisma our riders will be helped outside of racing also. I am optimistic and look forward to the common future with one of the most colorful and popular personalities of the German-speaking sporting world."

This was not Ullrich's only choice. He spoke of having offer's from several different teams including ProTour teams but after careful consideration he made the decision to quit racing. The 1997 Tour de France champion who has also finished second at the Tour de France five times said that he could have gotten a license and was fit enough to compete but that he was happy with his decision to end his career.

The German Olympic gold medallist also took the opportunity to state that he had never cheated, without actually going into any detail of Operacion Puerto directly.

Ivan Dominguez takes the final stage in California while Leipheimer takes the overall leading from Day 1

Toyota-United's Ivan Dominguez claimed victory at the end of the 7th stage of the Tour of California. Dominguez claimed the final stage of the American race beating Rabobank's Graeme Brown to the line at the end of the 124.7 kilometer circuit race around Long Beach.

For Toyota-United it was the perfect ending to a successful race where they were the only non-European ProTour team to score a stage win.

For Discovery Channel too it was a day of glory after they guided their team-leader and race leader Levi Leipheimer around the roads of California following his prologue time trial win. Even with repeated attacking from the CSC team they never faltered in their quest to keep Levi at the head of the race. Discovery Channel and their man Levi Leipheimer were simply too strong both physically and mentally to be beaten.

Second place overall went to CSC's Jens Voigt ahead of Jason McCartney, the Discovery Channel rider who has to be the revelation of the race this year. The question must be asked now what this young man is capable of throughout the remainder of the year and beyond..

Click here to read the full results from stage 6 of the Tour of California...

Petacchi takes the final stage and the overall win at the Volta ao Algarve

Italian Alessandro Petacchi has shown the good form he is currently enjoying when he took the final stage of the Volta ao Algarve and the overall general classification in the process.

Milram rider Petacchi's win was his third straight win in the event even after he was relegated after crossing the line first on stage one!

His third straight win came when he bested Barloworld's Fabrizio Guidi to the line with ex-T-Mobile rider Olaf Pollack, who now rides for the Wiesenhof-Felt team finishing back in third place.

Overall Petacchi was the clear winner in the general classification beating Austrian René Haselbacher (Astana) by 0'20" and Discovery Channel's Tomas Vaitkus by 0'22" The Italian super sprinter also ran out as clear winner in the points competition on 96 points, a full 40 clear of the second place rider.

Speaking on his team's website, team-milram.com, the Italian said, "This is the fourth time I won a stage race. I’m very happy about that, and especially about my good condition. This is extremely important for my mind and for the whole season. Especially for Milan–Sanremo."

So can Petacchi now go on to win the Milan-Sanremo classic? No doubt he will be one of the favorites but he will have to ride the race 100% to outfox and outpace riders like Oscar Freire from the Dutch Rabobank team...

Click here to read the full results from stage 5 of the Volta ao Algarve...

Filippo Pozzato wins the 39th Tour du Haut Var

Italian star Filippo Pozzato has taken his first win of the season when he outsprinted Australian Simon Gerrans from AG2R Prévoyance at the end of the 192 kilometer French UCI 1.1 category race.

Liquigas rider Pozzato had been active right from the start of Sunday's race breaking away with 10 others and out sprinting them at the finish. Later he dedicated his victory to his Liquigas team.

The 25 year-old rider has been in tremendous form since the start of the season and recently finished second in the Trofeo Laigueglia race that was won by Russian rider Mikhao Ignatiev riding for the Pro-Continental team Tinkoff Credit Systems.

Now Pozzato will be turning his attentions towards the Het Volk and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne next weekend in Belgium where he will be up against Belgium's Tom Boonen from the Quick Step-Innergetic team amongst others.

Images of the race will appear here tomorrow. Please check back then.

Images from the race are on the sides of the page...

Click here for the full results from the Tour du Haut Var...

Hincapie to miss spring classics after breaking wrist in California

American Champion George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) is out of the Spring Classics after a crash during the penultimate stage of the Tour of California ended with a broken wrist.

Hincapie's team-mate Antonio Cruz touched fellow Discovery Channel rider Ivan Basso, when jumping to follow attacking riders, crashing to the ground in front of Hincapie. With no time to react and nowhere to go Hincapie went crashing to the ground.

Even though Hincapie finished the stage an x-ray later showed the American had broken a bone in his wrist. As for Cruz, he came away from the accident a lot better off than his Discovery Channel team-mate pretty much unharmed.

At the minute it is unknown how long Hincapie will be out of competition for. ProCycleNews would like to take this opportunity to wish George a fast recovery and we will look forward to seeing him back in the thick of the action sometime in the not so distant future.

Geraint Thomas takes a silver medal from the track world cup

Young British rider Geraint Thomas who rides professionally for the Pro-Continental Barloworld team took a silver medal at the Manchester round of the UCI's track world cup over the weekend. Partnered with Robert Hayles, who rode for the French Cofidis team a couple of years ago, the pair were immediately in the thick of the action fighting from the start.

With 55 laps remaining the British pair lost some distance on the Dutch pair Schep/Mouri who went onto take the gold but still managed to hold onto second place to take the silver.

Proof of the talent the young Barloworld professional has!

Teams announce their squads for the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana

The Lampre-Fondital, Saunier Duval-Prodir and Astana ProTour teams have announced their lineup's for the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana from the 27th of February to the 3rd of March.

Lampre-Fondital sporting directors Giuseppe Martinelli and Fabrizio Bontempi will bring a strong team to the Spanish race in search of success. The team will be: Fabio Baldato, Daniele Bennati, Claudio Corioni, Damiano Cunego, Enrico Franzoi, Francesco Gavazzi, Tadej Valjavec and Marco Vila.

Martinelli said, "We will run a good Volta Valenciana. The positive performances we realized in Ruta del Sol demonstrate that we worked in a good way during San Vincenzo training camp, thanks to perfect weather and logistic conditions. Bennati showed that he's ready to win, Cunego will with the aim of following a good fit, Valjavec ran the Ruta del sol as a protagonist. I underline the seasonal debut of Vila, the first road race of Franzoi after the bronze medal in the cyclocross world championship and the first race of Gavazzi in the professional cycling."

For Saunier Duval-Prodir they will field Britain's David Millar who will be joined by Raúl Alarcón, Iker Camaño, Juanjo Cobo, David de la Fuente, Luciano Pagliarini, Christophe Rinero, and Alberto Fernández de la Puebla.

Representing Astana will be 2006 Vuelta a España winner Alexandre Vinokourov, Assan Bazayev, Thomas Frei, Maxim Gourov, Maxim Iglinskiy, Andrey Mizurov, Jose Antonio Redondo and Serguei Yakovlev.

Following the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana the Saunier Duval-Prodir team will be back in action at the Clásica de Almería on the 4th of March. The same riders will take the start with the exception of Alberto Fenrández de la Puebla who's place will be taken by Javier Mejías who suffered from tendinitis earlier this year delaying the start of his season.

Backstedt looks forward to the rest of the year by press release

After four months of constant pain that in his own words has tested even his limit of pain tolerance, Magnus Backstedt can look forward to 2007 with renewed optimism.

Backstedt's crash in October left him in incredible pain and after returning from the Tour of Majorca visited his surgeon to review his options. The consultant decided that the best solution was to go ahead and remove the plate and pin inserted after the crash to reset the collarbone.

When the big Swede woke up after the operation his reaction was more than justified "Straight away I was in less pain than when I lay down on the operating table. I haven't had a pain free moment in four months and I couldn't hold back the tears I cried like a little kid!"

Its been a testing year for the Liquigas rider who crashed on the opening day of his season in 2006 and suffered a career threatening knee injury, but Backstedt has now revealed a more sinister problem that he has also had to deal with alongside everything else.

"I visited the doctor in December because of a mole that I didn't like the look of. He removed it anyway and said it was probably nothing to worry about. Then in January I received the news that it was a malignant melanoma, skin cancer! I then had to have another operation where they took a piece of skin 9cm by 5 cm from my chest."

"As you can imagine I am now quite a beauty with my shirt off," he joked. "We as bike riders whether you are a pro
or otherwise, spend a lot of time in the sun. I have got the all clear, but I am now going to look at raising awareness of the risks of skin cancer. I am though ready to get back and put all this behind me. I am so fired up to get back to my best," he concluded.

Backstedt now has a fighting chance of getting himself ready for his beloved Paris Roubaix on April 15th.

Good form for Barloworld rider Fabrizio Guidi at the Algarve

Italian rider Fabrizio Guidi was on good form again at the Volta ao Algarve. The ex-Phonak rider finished a solid second place on the final stage behind Milram rider Alessandro Petacchi who claimed the overall classification.

Speaking after the final stage in Portugal on teambarloworld.com the veteran rider said, "Everybody was waiting for a sprint showdown- although they knew Petacchi was the man of the moment: he really showed an impressive shape during this Portuguese week. I'm quite satisfied anyway."

Already on impressive form this year Guidi will no doubt be looking forward to crossing the line in first place in the not so distant future in the colors of his Pro-Continental team Barloworld.

Saunier Duval-Prodir for one day races in Switzerland

The Saunier Duval-Prodir team will be traveling to Switzerland where they will be riding two one day races, the GP Chiasso and the GP di Lugano this coming Saturday and Sunday respectively.

Pietrro Algeri will bring a strong team that will include Remmert Wielinga, the winner of the GP Chiasso in 2006. Wielinga will be joined by two time Giro d'Italia winner Gilberto Simoni, Riccardo Riccò, Raivis Belohvosciks, Rubens Bertogliati, David Cañada, ‘Litu’ Gómez, Manuele Mori and Guido Trentin.

CSC announce a new sporting director

Danish team CSC have just announced the appointment of Jørgen V. Pedersen as a new sporting director with the team. Pedersen takes the place of Dutchman Tristian Hoffman who left to take up a position with the German T-Mobile team for this season.

The 47 year-old Dane started in his new position over the weekend at the Tour du Haut Var in France and even though he has never worked as a sporting director before he still brings a wealth of experience with him.

Speaking on team-csc.com Pedersen says, "I quit cycling after a bad accident during Tour de Loire in 1990, where I crashed into a car and broke my jaws, my arms, my legs and a few other bones. I still can't feel my one cheek, because I tore some nerves there."

"A lot has happened within the cycling sport since I was a rider and of course I'll have to get my self up to speed, so I'll be taking it slow at the beginning watching and learning from the other sports directors. I've got quite a lot of contacts through my previous job - especially in Italy - so I won't have a problem with all the practical stuff. But life as a rider is very different from when I was a neo-pro living in a small room with no heating or phone in the early eighties. So it's probably a whole other mentality now as well. But I'm very much looking forward to it all."