News

26th March 2007

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Quick Step-Innergetic's Wouter Weylandt wins in Holland

Belgian rider Wouter Weylandt has won the Ronde Van Het Groene Hart in Holland, the first time the race has been held. The Quick Step-Innergetic rider took the win ahead of Rabobank's Australian sprinter, Graeme Brown, with Predictor-Lotto's Greg Van Avermaet in third.

The trio were part of a leading 13 man leading breakaway group that also contained Irish professional Ciaran Power from the American Pro-Continental team Navigators Insurance, showing good form already this season.

For Weylandt the win was his second of the season after having already won the Daagse Van West Vlaanderen.

Results :

1 Wouter Weylandt (Bel) Quick Step-Innergetic 4.23.58

2 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank

3 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) Predictor-Lotto

4 Steffen Radochla (Ger) Wiesenhof-Felt

5 Aart Vierhouten (Ned) Skil-Shimano

6 Ciaran Power (Irl) Navigators Insurance

7 Roy Curvers (Ned) Time-Van Hemert

8 Bas Giling (Ned) Wiesenhof-Felt

9 Nikolas Maes (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen

10 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Skil-Shimano

Cofidis & Lampre-Fondital name their squads for the Critérium International

The Critérium International in France will run over the coming weekend, Saturday the 31st of March to Sunday the 1st of April. Already the teams invited for the ASO organized event have started naming their squads, including French team Cofidis and Italian team Lampre-Fondital.

The Cofidis squad will be guided by their sporting director Bernard Quilfen. The selected riders are: Frédéric Bessy, Sylvain Chavanel, Marvan Hary, Ivan Parra Pinto, Steve Zampieri, Rik Verbrugghe, Chris Sutton and Maxime Monfort.

Lampre-Fondital will field: Damiano Cunego, Giampaolo Caruso, Claudio Corioni, David Loosli, Gorazd Stangelj, Tadej Valjavec and 23 year-old Matteo Bono, the winner of the 6th stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico. Sporting directors for the Lampre-Fondital team at the event will be Giuseppe Martinelli and Maurizio Piovani.

Martinelli said, "With Critérium International for Cunego began the second part of races that will bring him to Liege-Bastogne-Liege. The time trial is another test, that Damiano will face without worries but with the aim to improve his sensation in this specialty. I think we will see again good thing by Valjavec, great in this first part of the season."

Cofidis rider Stéphane Augé wins the Cholet-Pays de Loire

French rider Stéphane Augé has won the 202 kilometer Cholet-Pays de Loire, the 30th edition of the French race. Augé took the win ahead of fellow breakaway companion Stéphane Pétilleau riding for the Bretagne-Armor Lux team.

0'36" later Estonian Janek Tombak (Jartazi-Promo Fashion) led in the main peloton out-sprinting Agritubel's Romain Feillu and Patrice Halgand from Crédit Agricole for 4th and 5th.

Last years winner Chris Sutton from Cofidis failed to finish in the top 10 this year

Results :

1 Stéphane Augé (Fra) Cofidis 4:47:39
2 Stéphane Pétilleau (Fra) Bretagne-Armor Lux +0.03
3 Janek Tombak (Est) Jartazi-Promo Fashion +0.36
4 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel
5 Patrice Halgand (Fra) Crédit Agricole
6 Jan Kuyckx (Bel) Landbouwkrediet-Tönissteiner
7 Freddy Bichot (Fra) Agritubel
8 Jérémy Roy (Fra) Française des Jeux
9 Jonas Ljungblad (Swe) Unibet.com
10 Sébastien Duret (Fra) Bretagne-Armor Lux

Quick Step-Innergetic, Milram, T-Mobile & Lampre-Fondital name for the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali

Quick Step-Innergetic, Milram, T-Mobile, Lampre-Fondital and Barloworld have all named their selections for the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in Italy from the 27th to the 31st of March.

Quick Step-Innergetic will once again field world champion Paolo Bettini who will be joined by: Mauro Facci, Alessandro Proni, Ivan Santaromita, Leonardo Scarselli, Hubert Schwab, Andrea Tonti and Cedric Vasseur - The teams sporting directors for the event will be Serge Parsani and Davide Bramati.

Milram will be represented by Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi and teammates Fabio Sacchi, Andrey Grivko, Matej Jurco, Mirco Lorenzetto, Elia Rigotto, Sebastian Schwager and Marco Velo.

German team T-Mobile will be guided by their sporting director Jan Schaffrath and led by ex-world time trial champion Michael Rogers from Australia. Rogers will be joined by: Lorenzo Bernucci, Scott Davis, André Greipel, Giuseppe Guerini, Serhiy Honchar, Aaron Olson and Marco Pinotti.

Lampre-Fondital will be represented by: Paolo Bossoni, Marzio Bruseghin, Jaime Alberto Castaneda Ortega, Francesco Gavazzi, Marco Marzano, Morris Possoni, Sylwester Szmyd and Paolo Tiralongo.

Barloworld will look toward climbers Pedro Arreitunandia and Mauricio Soler who will be joined by Ryan Cox, John-Lee Augustyn, Kastantsin Siutsou, Alex Efimkin, Giosuè Bonomi and Enrico Degano.

Lampre-Fondital sporting director Fabrizio Bontempi commented, "We aim to realize good performances in the toughest stages, because we have good grimpeurs. I think that in the overall standing we can obtain good results. We haven’t a leader, so our young riders will have the chance for point themselves out."

Leading Milram duo scheduled for the Lotto-Tour

Erik Zabel and Alessandro Petacchi will both line up for the Milram team at the Lotto-Tour following Petacchi's exceptional performance in 2006 when he won all stages of the race and the overall general classification. For Zabel this year will be his first time competing at the race.

Speaking on team-milram.com Zabel said, "The Lotto-Tour is very important for our sponsor MILRAM. It leads through Lower Saxony and one stage even ends in Bremen. So I’m happy to start here with my team. I hope I can win the one or other stage. But the competitors are strong and I’m sure Alessandro will try to repeat last year’s success."

Gerry van Gerwen, Commercial Manager of Team MILRAM said, "The main thing is that the team wins. For the team it is important to tie up to last year’s success. With both captains starting our chances to repeat the fantastic results of 2006 are higher."

Irish rider Nicolas Roche returns at the Fleche Brabançonne

Ireland's Nicolas Roche will return to serious competition when he lines up for his Crédit Agricole team at the Fleche Brabançonne in Belgium this coming Sunday, the 1st of April.

The young rider, the son of Irish 1987 Tour de France champion Stephen Roche, crashed on the opening stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico when a race motorbike clipped Rabobank professional Grischa Niermann.

The Crédit Agricole team will name the rest of the selected riders over the coming days.