News
6th
March 2007
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Peace
talk agreement see's ProTour teams allowed to start the
Paris-Nice
'Peace
Talks' yesterday in Brussels, Belgium between the organizers
of the three Grand Tours (ASO, RCS Sport and Unipublic),
the world governing body UCI and the IPCT (International
Professional Cycling Teams) have found a temporary solution
meaning that the Paris-Nice stage race, the first round
of this seasons ProTour which is only five days away, will
go ahead with ProTour teams on the start line.
It
appears that all the ProTour teams will now have automatic
entry to all 11 of the ProTour races which the Grand Tour
organizers run.
Recognizing
18 of the 20 teams, they will each be given automatic selection,
with Astana and Unibet.com most likely to get the nod to
compete also.
A
statement released to the media read, "Without prejudicing
their right to grant wild cards to all other teams of their
choice, for the duration of this agreement ASO, RCS and
Unipublic will examine in a positive spirit the granting
of wild cards to the teams Astana and Unibet, in particular
insofar as such decisions are not likely to expose or be
likely to expose the organizers to legal consequences, of
whatever nature they might be."
Legal
consequences.. Rolland Fangille the organizer of the Etoile
de Bessčges stage race in France was recently fined €4,500
and given a two month suspended sentence for allowing Unibet.com
to ride with their team jersey's on, not neutral jerseys
because French law which prohibits advertising of foreign
lottery and betting institutions. So
will the ASO for example allow the Unibet.com team to race
their events wearing neutral jersey's?
Either
way the Paris-Nice will now be ran with most, if not all
of the ProTour teams on the start line. Speaking on t-mobile-team.com,
sporting director of the German team, Rolf Aldag said, "For
the sake of the sport of cycling we are delighted that a
solution could be found."
Already
some of the ProTour teams have named their selections for
the Paris-Nice, CSC and Crédit Agricole among them
[see separate story below] so lets all hope that the rest
of the season will now run smoothly with the teams who are
in the ProTour all able to compete in the full calendar
of races.
Even
with work ahead, as the statement puts it, those in attendance
forged, "an agreement which guarantees a friendly solution
for the whole of the season 2007."
CSC's
Lars Michaelsen to retire after Paris-Roubaix
Danish
rider Lars Michaelsen has announced that he will retire
following this years Paris-Roubaix classic on the 15th of
April.
Starting
his season later this year the CSC strong man was reportedly
disappointed with his form recently at the Vuelta a Valenciana,
a race in which he said he found it hard to find his rhythm
in..
The
38 year old CSC rider turned professional in 1994 for the
Catavana-Corbeil team. The following year he moved onto
the Festina team where he raced for two seasons before racing
for TVM, Francaise des Jeux and Team Coast, each for two
years. Since then the Danish rider has been a member of
the CSC team for whom he finished 19th in last years edition
of the Queen of the Classics, the Paris-Roubaix.
Michaelsen's
best ride on the pavé of northern France came in
1999 when he was riding for the French team Francaise des
Jeux. On that occassion he finished in 10th place.
Lars
already runs his own cycle tour business in his spare time
when he is not in competition and no doubt after he retires
this is just one of the things he will look forward to spending
more of his energy and time on.
Agritubel
and Jatazi-Promo Fashion name their lineups for the GP Fayt
le Franc and the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen in Belgium
Pro-Continental
team's Agritubel and Jartazi-Promo Fashion have announced
the riders that will represent their team in upcoming races
in Belgium, the GP Fayt le Franc (Mémorial Samyn)
and the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen.
At
today's GP Fayt le Franc and the Driedaagse van West-Vlannderen,
which runs from the 9th to the 11th of March, French team
Agritubel will field: Linas Balciunas, Emilien-Benoit Bergčs,
Cédric Coutouly, Hans Dekkers, Cédric Hervé, Denis Robin
and Benoit Sinner. Their sporting director for both races
in Belgium will be Emmanuel Hubert.
At
today's GP Fayt le Franc (Mémorial Samyn) race the
Jartazi team will field: Yohan Cauquil, Mathieu Criquielion,
Mathieu Drouilly, Denis Flahaut, Vytautas Kaupas, Eddy Lembo,
Mindaugas Striska and Janek Tombak.
Wednesday
will see a different team lineup for the Jartazi team at
the. On that occassion the team will be: Mathieu Criquielion,
Jurgen François, Vytautas Kaupas, Geert Omloop, Sven Nevens,
Janek Tombak, Jarno Van Mingeroet and Jukka Vastaranta.
On both occasions the team will be guided by sporting director,
Jef Braeckevelt.
Landbouwkrediet-Tönissteiner
name riders for the GP Fayt le Franc
Another
team who have named it's squad for the GP Fayt
le Franc (Mémorial Samyn) race today in Belgium is
the Landbouwkrediet-Tönissteiner
squad, a Pro-Continental team from Belgium.
Their
lineup for the 191.9 kilometer race will be: Frédéric Amorison,
Nico Sijmens, David Boucher, Kevin Neirynck, James Vanlandschoot,
Wouter Van Mechelen, Frédéric Gabriel, Sjef De Wilde. Their
sporting director for the event will be Gino Verhasselt.
Liquigas
rider Filippo Pozzato becomes a Northern Classics contender
 Following
his win at Saturday's Het Volk semi-classic in Belgium,
Liquigas rider Filippo Pozzato already turning his thought's
towards the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race which starts on
the 14th of March. On top of that he is now also being considered
as a serious contender for the upcoming Northern Classics.
On
Saturday the 25 year-old Italian beat many of the classics
specialists including Quick Step's Tom Boonen who is himself
the leading classics rider, the man to beat on the pavé
of northern Europe.
So
what are his chances?? Well lets look at his palmares so
far. Already this season he has won the Tour du Haut Var
in France and the Het Volk in Belgium. In 2004 he won a
stage of the Tour de France and last year he won the classic
all Italian's want to win, the Milan-Sanremo. Looking at
his progress over the years who would bet against him winning
one of the spring classics in northern Europe? Certainly
he'll be one of the riders to watch in races like the Tour
of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Whether he will win...we'll
just have to wait and see!
Crédit
Agricole and CSC name their team for the Paris-Nice
Following
yesterday's 'peace talks' in Brussels, Belgium between the
UCI, the Grand Tour organizers and the IPCT, the Paris-Nice
is once again on the calendar for the ProTour teams.
French
team Crédit Agricole and the Danish CSC squad are
two of the first teams to now name their lineups for the
French race, the first race on the 2007 ProTour calendar.
For
Crédit Agricole their team will be: Dimitri Fofonov,
Pietro Caucchioli, Anthony Charteau, William Bonnet, Rémi
Pauriol, Christophe Laurent, Angelo Furlan and Alexandre
Botcharov.
Competing
for Danish team CSC will be: Íńigo Cuesta, Bobby Julich,
Alexandr Kolobnev, Karsten Kroon, Fränk Schleck, Andy Schleck,
Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie.
Predictor-Lotto's
Dries Devenyns condition stabilizes
Last
Friday, the 2nd of March, Predictor-Lotto rider Dries Devenyns
was hit by a delivery van when training near Zottegem in
Belgium. Immediately he was taken to hospital where a severe
blow to the head was diagnosed even though externally he
was not suffering from any injuries.
The
good news is that his condition is now stable but he will
remain in intensive care for another couple of days and
will not be allowed to return home before the weekend.
Devenyns
will now be off his bike for approximately six weeks and
will not be allowed to resume competition before mid-April.
ProCycleNews
would like to take this opportunity to wish Dries best wishes
for his recovery to full health and we will all look forward
to seeing him back in the professional peloton in the coming
months.
Servais
Knaven celebrates his birthday
Dutch
T-Mobile rider and ex-Paris Roubaix winner Servais Knaven
will be celebrating his birthday today.
The
now 36 year-old rider from Lobith, Holland, turned professional
in 1994 and has enjoyed a career that has seen him winning
the Dutch road championships in 1995, a stage at the 2003
Tour de France and the 2001 Paris Roubaix.
Before
joining T-Mobile Knaven has rode for the Quick Step, Domo,
Farm-Frites and TVM teams.
Without
a team Jörg Jaksche is on the verge of retirement
German
rider Jörg Jaksche is reportedly on the verge of quitting
the sport because his search for a new team continues in
vain.
The
German rider was one of the riders allegedly linked to the
'Operacion Puerto' Spanish drug investigation while riding
for the Liberty Seguros-Würth team who later became known
as Astana.
Jaksche
had been linked to a possible deal with Austrian team Volksbank,
who only last week named Jan Ullrich as a team consultant,
but following the negotiations nothing was offered to him.
With
no deal on the table for him to continue through 2007 and
no teams seemingly interested in making him an offer there
seems to be no other option open for him except for retirement.
And if this is the case it will be the end of another professional
cyclists career without any hard and firm evidence against
him.
Milram's
Petacchi to ride Niedersachsen again
Milram
will be sending their star sprinter Alessandro Petacchi
to the Niedersachsen-Tour which is now called the Lotto-Rundfahrt...again!
Last
year Petacchi took all five stages in the tour and will
once again be aiming for a repeat of last years success
when the race kicks off on the 25th of April in Wallenhorst,
north of Osnabrück.
The
race runs to the 29th of April, finishing in Göttingen after
900 kilometers of competition.
As
yet the rest of the Milram team that will support Petacchi
in his quest have yet to be named. As soon as the remainder
of the squad is confirmed you will read it here!
Team's
announce riders for the Vuelta a Murcia
Saunier
Duval-Prodir, Euskaltel-Euskadi and Karpin-Galicia are just
three of the teams who have announced their rosters for
the upcoming Vuelta a Murcia which kicks off this Wednesday,
the 7th of March.
Saunier
Duval-Prodir will be sending some of their big guns into
competition tomorrow. The team that will be guided by sporting
director Pietro Algeri will be: Gilberto Simoni, José
Angel Gómez Marchante, Koldo Gil, David de la Fuente,
Alberto Benítez, Arkaitz Durán, Javier Mejías and
Rubén Lobato.
Euskaltel-Euskadi will field: Haimar Zubeldia, Ińigo Landaluze,
Ińaki Isasi, Igor Antón, Aitor Galdos, Jorge Azanza, Lander
Aperribay and Unai Uribarri.
As
for Karpin-Galicia, they will be represented by: Marcos
Serrano, Isidro Nozal, David Abal, Carlos Castańo, David
Herrero, Luís Fernández Oliveira, Gonzalo Rabuńal and Enrique
Salgueiro.
Saunier
Duval-Prodir announce their lineup for Saturday's Milano-Torino
Saunier
Duval-Prodir have also named their roster for Saturday's
Milano-Torino, the oldest of the classics races currently
on the calendar.
The
team for this race will be: Riccardo Riccň, Manuele Mori,
Luciano Pagliarini, Guido Trentin, Ángel Gómez "Litu", Peter
Mazur, Rubens Bertogliati, and Raivis Belohvosciks.
Belgian
team Landbouwkrediet-Tönissteiner gets attacked by injury
and illness
Landbouwkrediet-Tönissteiner, Chocolade Jacques-Topsport
Vlaanderen, Team Wiesenhof-Felt, Skil-Shimano en Tinkoff
Credit System .
T-Mobile's
Henderson to ride the track world championships for New
Zealand after all!
Greg Henderson from New Zealand will lineup for the track
world championships in the colors of New Zealand after all.
Originally the selectors of the team had left Henderson
out of the team because of his commitments with his professional
trade team, T-Mobile, but now the German squad have given
him to go ahead to compete when the championships kick off
in Majorca, Spain.
The
Otago born rider is now expected to lineout in the scratch
race and the Madison where he is expected to reunite with
Hayden Roulston.
Henderson
has just returned to Europe from America where he recorded
high placing's at the Tour of California showing good form
in his rapid integration to top flight professional cycling.
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