Levi Leipheimer's Astana team is keen to shine at this
years edition of the Criterium du Dauphiné Libéré to show the organisers of the Tour de France, that they were wrong (in Astana's
point of view) by not inviting the team to this years Tour de France. But although last years winner and the number three
of the 2007 Tour are both riding with Astana, race organiser A.S.O. sticked to its position after Alberto Contador won
the Giro d'Italia last week and this week A.S.O. made very clear that Astana might be invited to next years edition of 'Le
Grand Boucle' but will not start in 2008.
Leipheimer gave his personal
answer by winning yesterdays prologue of the prestigious French stage race Criterium du Dauphiné Libéré. After the race Leipheimer
said: "You always hope to win, but it is so unpredictable in a race over such a short distance." Leipheimer continued by saying:
"I knew my condition was very good. Many people had their doubts about me after the Giro, but we knew better. Don't forget
that I was in California and in moderate training mode before getting the last-second call to ride the Giro. I crashed the
first week and had cheek and elbow injuries." He continued, "As I could not get a good classification in the Giro, I worked
one-hundred percent for Alberto Contador in the mountains. I felt that last week in Italy that my condition was getting better
and better. I hope to continue that way. The team-mates believe in me. I'm not planning to shake their confidence." Leipheimer
concluded: "I would like to win the Dauphine one more time. I absolutely love this race, a little Tour de France. This is
one out of my three goals of the season with Tour of California and Olympic Games."
Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel told sporza.be that he
is still celebrating Alberto Contador's victory in the Giro. Bruyneel said: "I have to admit that deep down inside I would
have preffered to win this Dauphiné with my Tour winner. Less than a month before the start of the Tour I would have liked
to embarrass 'those from Paris' one more time."
The Dauphiné Libéré is used as a very important preparation by some potential
candidates for the overall victory in the Tour de France. Cadel Evans, Carlos Sastre and Alejandro Valverde are just some
examples. For the Dutch Rabobank team the French stage race is a main goal in itself for captain Robert Gesink. "Robert indeed
came here with ambitions for the classification," said Rabobank's sports director Adri van Houwelingen. "What sort of ambitions?
He just wants to finish as high as possible. We are not going to set any specific targets; we will see where he ends up in
the final classification. The field of participants is pretty strong."
Van Houwelingen and Gesink realize that the upcoming two days, just as it was
the case with the prologue ("This tour will not be decided by three seconds"), will simply be a matter of not suffering any
damage before the time trial and subsequently the four Alps-stages turn up on the schedule. "We know that in the 31 kilometer
time trial Robert will lose quite a lot of time vis-à-vis the guys with classification ambitions for the next Tour de France.
But, he is also still in the process of discovering himself and surprising us. I am curious to see to what astonishment it
will lead this time."
Van Houwelingen finds the last-but-one mountain stage the
toughest one. On the Saturday in question, the riders will have, among other mountains, the Col de la Croix de Fèr and La
Toussuire (final climb) on the menu. "And to top that, it will be almost 230 kilometers long."
On his personal website, robertgesink.nl, Gesink said: "A
very nice prologue today. I finished nicely in the top 20 in a flat prologue which was less than 6 kilometres." Gesink added:
"Actually I am a bit surprised by myself. Of course this does not give any guarantees for the upcoming week but the legs are
good."
Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne)
showed he is ready for next months Tour de France. Valverde was third in yesterdays prologue. Valverde said: "I've had very
good feelings. Before the race, I targeted 6th or 7th rank. I didn't imagine finishing so close to Leipheimer and Hushovd
without having recognized the route."
Maxime Monfort surprised with a strong fourth place. The Belgian
Cofidis rider told sporza.be he was surprised as well. Monfort said: "Although I did plan to clock a good time." Monfort continued
by saying: "As I rode the aweful time trial in Basque country it was clear that I had to change my position on the bike. In
the past months I worked very hard on it. This was the first serious test and it went well. But I am not there yet. To keep
a position over 30 kilometres is something different."
CSC's Carlos Sastre finished
20th, almost 17 seconds behind Leipheimer. "Carlos was looking
good out there. He looked comfortable and did a great job. Of course we'll have to wait till later on in the race to see how
his form really is. The next couple of stages are more suited for riders like Alexandr Kolobnev, Karsten Kroon, Marcus Ljungqvist
and most definitely also Lars Bak, who seemed in great shape out there today," said Team CSC sports director Scott Sunderland.
