News
29th
March 2007
Have
your voice heard on ProCycleNews... Click here to E-mail
us with your comments on the stories below!
A weekend of 'Raisin Hope' by
Brian C. Grenier
 This
weekend I will be traveling to Dalton GA USA to ride with
one of ProCycleNews
favorite sons, Saul Raisin in his inaugural charity ride
the “Raisin Hope for Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries”.
This 50 mile (80K) charity ride is shaping up to be a star
studded event and even though the distance seems slight
for a charity ride, Saul insured me this morning on the
phone that it would take me all of 4 hrs! Those avid readers
of the pages of ProCycleNews
are well aware of Saul’s horrific accident and miraculous
recovery from a crash in last years Circuit de la Sarthe!
His story has been immortalized on these very pages!
After
talking with Saul this morning he and I agreed to a meeting
Saturday after the ride so I could check up on him and see
how things are going this year. I wanted to open it up to
our readers world wide for questions and if you can get
them to me before  the
start of my day, Saturday 31 March 2007 6 am, I will gladly
include the question in my dialog with Saul. Just drop me
a line here and state your question and who you are (full
name) what country and your home town. I will sort through
the mess and pick the best 5 questions to talk to Saul about,
fair enough? Drop me a line at grenierracing@yahoo.com
as this is the only mail access I will have while away from
home. Better yet if you just happen to be in the states
come on by and put in 50 or donate a Lb or so for a great
cause!
Here
is some info:
The
Raisin Hope ride is a fundraising ride. As most of you know
Pro Rider, Saul Raisin, suffered a life threatening accident
in April 2006 during a race in France. Saul has battled
back from the odds and would like to take this opportunity
to give back to the organizations that have helped and continue
to help him recover. For more information on Saul’s
accident & recovery please visit his website at www.saulraisin.com.
 Please
bring the family out to the park for a day of fun! There
is a playground at the start/finish location as well as
a festival area highlighting the wonderful companies that
helped to make the ride possible.
The
funds raised will be donated to 4 charities close to Saul
and the Raisin family. The charities that will benefit from
your generous contributions are: Shepherd Center, Camp Twin
Lakes, The Brain Injury Association of Georgia as well as
the USA Cycling Development Foundation.
How
you can give to the causes:
- Make
an online donation - Click
Here
- Place
a bid on the silent auction items. These items will be
open for bid at the end of February but check back for
sneak peaks at items up for auction!
Beneficiaries:
Michele Scarponi wins the 2nd stage of the Coppi
e Bartali as Luca Pierfelici takes the lead
 Acqua
e Sapone-Caffè Mokambo's Michele Scarponi soloed to the
victory at the end of the 175.6 kilometer 3rd stage of the
Settimana Ciclistica Internazionale Coppi-Bartali from Castel
San Pietro Terme to Faenza. The win comes after a long four
year drought for Scarponi and a win that has moved the Acqua
e Sapone rider into 2nd place on general classification.
Scarponi crossed the line 0'06" in front of fellow
countryman Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Prodir) and T-Mobile's
Michael Rogers. The result meant that Rogers moved into
3rd place on general classification at 0'09" with Riccò
now holding 4th place at 0'20".
Luca Pierfelici riding for the Aurum Hotels team done all
he needed to move into the overall lead, overtaking Russian
Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff Credit Systems) who had started the
stage as leader. By the end of the stage Brutt lost 1'36"
finishing back in 35th place.
Afterwards
T-Mobile's sporting director Jan Schaffrath said on t-mobile-team.com,
"The team was able to ride Michael into a  strong
position on the three final climbs. So, well done to the
team, but also to Michael who tried all day to get away
in a break. We are now in a very good shape for the stages
ahead. Tomorrow we want to defend Michael’s high GC place.
Maybe Michael can even manage to get his nose ahead."
The
race goes on later today with a 165.9 kilometer stage from
Scandiano to Serramazzoni, a report for which we will have
tomorrow...with images!
Stage
2 results :
1 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Acqua e Sapone-Caffè Mokambo 4.28.00
(40.49 km/h)
2
Riccardo Riccò (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir 0.06
3
Michael Rogers (Aus) T-Mobile
4
Morris Possoni (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
5
Massimo Giunti (Ita) Miche
6
Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr) Barloworld
7
Mirco Lorenzetto (Ita) Milram 0.38
8
Luca Mazzanti (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
9
Daniele Pietropolli (Ita) Tenax-Menikini
10
Raffaele Ferrara (Ita) Team LPR
General
classification after stage 2:
1 Luca Pierfelici (Ita) Aurum Hotels 6.39.26
2
Michele Scarponi (Ita) Acqua e Sapone-Caffè Mokambo 0.02
3
Michael Rogers (Aus) T-Mobile 0.09
4
Riccardo Riccò (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir 0.20
5
Morris Possoni (Ita) Lampre-Fondital 0.31
6
Josep Jufré (Spa) Predictor-Lotto 0.36
7
Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Predictor-Lotto
8
Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor-Lotto
9
Massimo Giunti (Ita) Miche 0.39
10
Mirco Lorenzetto (Ita) Milram 0.42
Check
out images from stages 2 at the sides of the page....
Tom
Boonen wins Dwars door Vlaanderen
 Belgium's
ex-world champion Tom Boonen has won the Dwars door Vlaanderen...on
his new bike! The Quick Step-Innergetic looked comfortable
as he powered to the line in Waregem, Belgium.
Throughout
the race riders tried to split the race, attacking off the
front looking to survive to the end. Each time though the
moves were brought back. With 60 km to go, six riders went
clear but once again the break got reeled in before the
finish.
In
the final kilometers of the race the race was all back together
with just over 70 riders together at the front on the race.
And so the race was set for a sprint finish, a finish that
Boonen was determined to succeed in winning.
Boonen
powered to the line beating Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen's
Belgian road champion Niko Eeckhout with Australian CSC
rider Stuart O'Grady 3rd.
Speaking
after the race on qsi-cycling.com Boonen said, "I am
really pleased with this win. Already last week before the
Milano Sanremo I was feeling great and on good form. This
is the best way to start the Northern Races and is made
even better still by the fact that this is the first time
I have ever won this race."
Speaking
on team-csc.com Scott Sunderland, CSC's sporting director
said, "We did well today and every one stuck to the
plan without problems. It was great to see them all up front
doing their thing. Unfortunately Kasper Klostergaard crashed
about halfway through, but he got back on his bike and completed
the race. I'm very pleased with the effort put in by the
whole team today, and I think this is a sign that we'll
be able to make some results in the oncoming races in Belgium
and Holland."
Stage
- Dwars door Vlaanderen
(Top 10) :
1 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step-Innergetic 4.47.00 (41,81
km/h)
2
Nico Eeckhout (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport Vlaanderen
3
Stuart O'Grady (Aus) CSC
4
Mathew Hayman (Aus) Rabobank
5
David Kopp (Ger) Gerolsteiner
6
Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu) Discovery Channel
7
William Bonnet (Fra) Crédit Agricole
8
Wouter Weylandt (Bel) Quick Step-Innergetic
9
Lars Michaelsen (Den) CSC
10
Antonio Murillo Fischer (Bra) Liquigas
Milram's
Petacchi abandons in Italy
 Italian
sprinter Alessandro Petacchi and his Milram teammate Fabio
Sacchi both abandoned the Settimana Ciclistica Internazionale
Coppi-Bartali yesterday in Italy.
Afterwards
Petacchi said on team-milram.com, "I didn't feel good
physically and mentally," while Sacchi was forced to
abandon because of stomach-ache.
Hopefully
we will see both of the riders back in action and in top
form sometime in the near future.
T-Mobile
name their rosters for the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen and the De
Brabantse Pijl
Two
separate T-Mobile squads are set to compete in Belgium this
weekend. Only Frantisek Rabon and Bert Grabsch will lineup
for both races.
At
the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen event in Harelbeke, Belgium, Marcus
Burghardt will lead the team after riding aggressively throughout
yesterday's Dwars door Vlaanderen. Tristan Hoffman, sporting
manager of the T-Mobile squad for the race said, "Marcus
will be pushing hard and probing to attack, ready to take
his chance."
With
their options open though for the race T-Mobile will also
field Bernhard Eisel, Servais Knaven and Roger Hammond,
all strong classics riders and riders who have the possibility
to win the race themselves. Hoffman continued, "They
have all shown that they can be in the thick of things when
we arrive at the business-end of a race."
Rounding
out the squad will be Eric Baumann and Mark Cavendish, both
strong sprinters who could finish off if the race comes
towards the line all together.
Hoffman
added, "The riders who can stick the pace here, can
also be confident about their chances at the 'Ronde' [Tour
of Flanders - ed]."
One
notable absentee from the T-Mobile lineup is Andreas Klier
who was the runner-up to Quick Step-Innergetic's Tom Boonen
in 2005. As reported here on ProCycleNews, Klier has been
sidelined following a training accident that has left him
with a broken cheekbone and concussion.
Joining
Rabon and Grabsch on Sunday at the hillier De Brabantse
Pijl race will be classics specialists Kim Kirchen and Axel
Merckx along with Michael Barry, Adam Hansen, Jakob Piil
and Thomas Ziegler.
Sporting
director for the race will be Italy's Valerio Piva who said,
"Kim has shown top form with his performances in the
past couple of weeks. At Tirreno he showed that he's in
his element on shorter climbs." As for experienced
Merckx Piva said, "Axel knows the parcours here like
the back of his hand, and he has twice placed third in this
race."
The
T-Mobile roster for the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen will be: Eric
Baumann (Ger), Marcus Burghardt (Ger), Mark Cavendish (GBr),
Bernhard Eisel (Aut), Bert Grabsch (Ger), Roger Hammond
(GBr), Servais Knaven (Ned) and Frantisek Rabon (Cze) -
Sporting director Tristian Hoffman (Ned).
At
the De Brabantse Pijl the lineup will be: Michael Barry
(Can), Bert Grabsch (Ger), Adam Hansen (Aus), Kim Kirchen
(Lux), Jakob Piil (Den), Axel Merckx (Bel), Frantisek Rabon
(Cze) and Thomas Ziegler (Ger) - Sporting director will
be Valerio Piva (Ita).
Astana
announce their teams for the Critérium International
and the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
 This
weekend the Astana team will be competing in France at the
Critérium International and in Belgium at the E3
Prijs Vlaanderen.
The
two day Critérium International on Saturday and Sunday
will see a strong lineup with both Andreas Klöden and
Alexandre Vinokourov competing. The pairing were last in
action together at the Tirreno-Adriatico where Klöden
ran out as overall winner and Vinokourov rounding out the
podium in 3rd place.
They
will be joined by Alexey Kolessov (Kaz), Julien Mazet (Fra),
Thomas Frei (Swi), Andrey Mizurov (Kaz), Yevgeny Sladkov
(Kaz) and Sergey Yakovlev (Kaz).
At
the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen the team will be: Igor Abakoumov
(Bel), Koen De Kort (Ned), Benoît Joachim (Lux),
Sergueï
Ivanov (Rus), Aaron Kemps (Aus), Gennady Mikhailov (Rus),
Dimitri Muravyev (Kaz) and Michael Schär (Swi).
Austrian René Haselbacher had been scheduled to ride the
E3
Prijs Vlaanderen but has been forced to sit it out because
of illness and watch his teammates on television instead.
|
