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08.11.2006/ Zabel and Bettini in Munich, Tour of Flanders 2007: Koppenberg dropped, Carrara
to Unibet.com, André Greipel underwent surgery on his shoulder, Plaza to Caisse d'Epargne, 2007 season: Omega
Pharma will replace Davitamon by Predictor, Team Barloworld already at 16 riders for 2007
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Zabel and Bettini in Munich
On Thursday Erik Zabel and Bruno Risi will start at the 43rd sixdays in Munich (Nov. 9th – Nov. 14th).
After their victory at the sixdays in Dortmund the duo is also favourite for winning the race in the Olympiahalle.
Like
in Dortmund Erik Zabel and Bruno Risi will meet strong competitors. The fight between Erik Zabel and Paolo Bettini who will
also start in Munich will be very interseting. In the world championships in Salzburg the Italian rider has won the race by
attacking Zabel in the final sprint on the last 50 meters. Because of this the sixdays in Munich will be kind of a revenge
for Erik Zabel.
Source: Milram
Tour of Flanders 2007: Koppenberg dropped
The Koppenberg, the Tour of Flanders’s legendary climb, will not be part of the 2007
edition of "Vlaanderens mooiste". The decision to drop the climb was announced by the race organisers at a press conference
in Oudenaarde, Belgium on Tuesday.
The organizers stressed the need to avoid "a fiasco" like last year when tens of riders saw their race hopes dashed
on the dangerous climb. Following a crash at the front, only about ten riders managed to get over the Koppenberg
on their bikes, the others, impeded by the tangle on the narrow stretch of cobbles, had to use their feet to pick their way
through the chaos and crest the climb.
The one-in-four 600 metres (including
430 metres of cobbles, which can be treacherously slippery when wet) has featured in 17 editions of the Tour of Flanders,
but it was deemed too steep for racing and famously dropped from the route after an incident in 1987 when the Dane Jesper
Skibby toppled over, couldn't untangle himself from his bike, and was almost crushed by a race car. The climb was returned
to the route in 2002 after a significant sum of money was spent restoring the cobbles.
Two other hills of the 2006 edition are dropped as well: the Steenberg
and the Foreest. The Kluisberg, Knokteberg and the Kortekeer returned
in the 2007 route and the organisation also added a new climg to the route: the Eikenmolen. The 2007 edition of the Tour of
Flanders will take place at Sunday April 8.
Carrara to Unibet.com
The Italian Matteo Carrara has signed a contract
for one year with the new Swedish ProTour team Unibet.com today. The 27 year-old Carrara competed with the ProTour team Lampre
this year and finished fifth recently in the Giro di Lombardia.
“Carrara is an all-round rider who has to be
capable of finishing in front in the classics races throughout the entire year”, explained Sports Director Jacques Hanegraaf
of Unibet.com. Matteo Carrara is the second Italian the Unibet.com cycling team has recruited. Earlier this year, Marco Zanotti
renewed his contract with Unibet.
Source: Unibet.com
André Greipel underwent surgery on his shoulder
T-Mobile sprinter André Greipel underwent a successful operation on Monday to correct a shoulder injury.
"We removed a bone splinter and then re-attached the torn labrum cartilage as well as the sub-capsular tendon to the socket,"
reports team doctor Dr. Carsten Temme, who performed the surgery together with Dr. Manfred Lais at the Praxisklinik 2000 in
Freiburg.
According to Dr. Temme, Greipel is doing well after the
"not so easy but successful surgical intervention". Surgeons operated on the same area of Greipel's shoulder just a year ago:
"The tissue there is quite scarred, and we had to remove some old stitches," adds Dr. Temme.
Greipel, whose injury resulted from a dislocated shoulder, will stay in the Freiburg clinic
until Wednesday, then his rehabilitation continues with a two-day physiotherapy treatment from team physio Armin Brucker.
Afterwards he returns home to Cologne.
If the healing process go to
plan, Dr. Temme reckons Greipel will be able to resume training on the rollers in three weeks time. It will be six weeks before
Greipel resumes road training.
Source: T-Mobile
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| André Greipel during this years Tour of Germany (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Plaza to Caisse d'Epargne
Former Valenciana rider Ruben Plaza signed
with Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears for the next season. The 26 year-old Spanish rider won this years Tour of Portugal. It's
unkown if Plaza has to give a DNA sample to the Spanish squad. Plaza was one of the riders who were allegedly involved with
the Puerto scandal, his case was closed by the Spanish Cycling federation on October 28.
2007 season: Omega Pharma will replace Davitamon by Predictor
As of the 2007 cycling season, Omega Pharma will replace Davitamon by Predictor as the main sponsoring brand
of the Pro Tour cycling team with top cyclists like Robbie McEwen, Cadel Evans, Leif Hoste, ... In conformity with the current
specifications the official name of the team will become Predictor-Lotto.
Davitamon includes
an array of nutriments that supplement the daily meals with the required vitamins and minerals. In order to be successful
in the market of vitamin products, a strong brand reputation is a prerequisite. Sponsoring of the Pro Tour cycling team has
significantly contributed to the success of Davitamon in strengthening its leading position on the Dutch home market as well
as in establishing its market position in numerous other countries throughout Europe. In 2002, the year before Davitamon made
its entry in the cycling world, Omega Pharma posted a turnover for this brand of less than EUR 10 million. Last year, Davitamon
represented a sales figure of EUR 24 million. Although this considerable performance cannot be exclusively attributed to the
sponsoring of the Pro Tour team, it did represent a major factor in the marketing approach for Davitamon over the past four
years.
After four years of sponsoring, all objectives in the field of brand awareness have been met for Davitamon.
From this basis, Davitamon can now continue to grow on its proper strengths. Consequently, there is room for another brand
to benefit from this powerful marketing support tool. The international brand Predictor has been selected to succeed Davitamon
as main sponsoring brand of the Pro Tour cycling team. At present, Predictor is available in almost all European countries,
including the main cycling countries as Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy,…
Source: Davitamon-Lotto
Team Barloworld already at 16 riders for 2007
Team Barloworld now have 16 riders signed for the 2007 season after adding another talented young rider
to the team line-up. Team manager Claudio Corti has signed talented Welsh rider Geraint Thomas , who rode as a stagiaire with
the Saunier Duval team in the autumn.
Like many of the young generation of emerging British riders, Thomas has an
excellent track palmares. This year he won European under 23 team pursuit title and also won silver in the world track championships
in Bordeaux as part of the Great Britain team. He won the bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March and
was 2004 junior world champion in the scratch race at Los Angeles.
Barloworld team manager Claudio Corti is working
hard to complete the line-up of the team for 2007. "We've had a good year overall and I consider it the first stage of a long-term
project with Barloworld as we work to build a high quality and prestigious team," Corti said.
Unfortunately the Barloworld
team still does not know if the team will be part of the ProTour in 2007. "We're caught up in a very confusing situation at
the moment," Corti explained. "What will happen with the ProTour is still very uncertain. We're a 'Professional' category
team and we've made a request to join the ProTour but we still haven't had any kind of answer to our request."
Barloworld
already has 16 riders for 2007: ten riders have been retained from the 2006 team (Arreitunandia, Caccia, Bonomi, Cardenas,
Cheula, Cox, Degano, Alex Efimkin, Perry, Sabido ) and six new riders have been signed: as well as Thomas there is also South
African's Hunter and Agustin , Colombian Soler and Belarus' Siutsou (both from Acqua & Sapone), and the Italian Longo
Borghini.
Source: Barloworld
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| The Barloworld squad making the pace during Züri Metzgete 2006 (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
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