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14.02.2007/ Thomas Dekker won third stage at Mallorca, Klöden happy with Astana, Kurt-Asle
Arvesen needs surgery
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Looking back in anger
A Day in the Life of a Soigneur
Ullrich with Klöden and Kessler at Mallorca
Thomas Dekker won third stage at Mallorca
Thomas Dekker (Rabobank) showed great form yesterday as he won the first mountain stage of the Vuelta Mallorca.
Yesterdays third stage was an exiting race with lots of attacks. At the beginning of the race there
was an early breakaway of 11 riders including Thomas Vaitkus (Discovery Channel) , who sat third on GC. But when the
break reached the Coll de Sóller, the first climb after 85 km, it was reduced to seven riders. On the Coll
de Puig Major, a new breakaway group of 12 riders tried their luck. But Rabobank and Caisse d'Epargne controled the race,
and the break was caught with eight kilometres to go.
On the uphill finish to Mirador des Colomer, Dekker attacked with Vladimir Gusev (Discovery Channel) , Alberto
Fernández (Sunier Duval) and Ezequiel Mosquera (Karpin-Galicia) . Dekker started the sprint in the last 200 meters and
won by two seconds over Gusev, Fernández came in third and Mosquera came in fourth.
Dekker told reporters after the race: "Koos Moerenhout and Joost Posthuma did a lot of work chasing the
front group during the final. I started as one of the last riders at the final climb. From that position I passed them one
after the other. Than I saw a few men riding at the front. I jumped to them and took the wheel of Fernandez. With two hundred
meters to go i opened the sprint and that went so easy that I did not see the others anymore. I did not even know that Gusev came
in second."
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| Thomas Dekker during last years Tour of Germany (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Klöden happy with Astana
As reported Andreas Klöden trained with his former team mate Jan Ullrich at Mallorca earlier this week. Speaking about Jan Ullrich,
Klöden told German based website sport1.de: "If he becomes a license from the Swiss federation, I expect that he will
start at the Tour." In a poll yesterday 94% of Cyclingheroes readers voted for a start of Ullrich at this years Tour
de France.
Meanwhile Klöden is very happy with his new team. After eight years
with T-Mobile, the German rider signed with Astana: "I never have regret my move. With T-Mobile this year I would not have
had such a strong team as our new squad is." Klöden is co-captain with Alexander Vinokourov and hopes to win the Tour
de France this year.
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| Andreas Klöden during last years Tour de France (Picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Kurt-Asle Arvesen needs surgery
Kurt-Asle Arvesen has to undergo surgery on his thumb, which he fractured last week during the training
camp in California, because it was not put together properly first time around.
"I've come back to Norway to get a
specialist to take a closer look and I'm having the operation tomorrow [Wednesday], so it's a bit of a bummer really," sighs
the Norwegian rider, who does not know exactly what the consequences will be regarding his preparations for the season ahead.
"Time
will tell how fast I can get back into action, but I imagine about four weeks before I'm ready. I've been training on my home
trainer though for two hours this morning, so it's no problem for me to keep fit, I just can't go on the road in the near
future," explains Arvesen.
The plan was for Arvesen to start his season with Volta a la Comunidad Valenciana at the
beginning of March, but it is doubtful whether he will be taking part in this particular race.
Source CSC
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| Kurt-Asle Arvesen needs surgery(picture: Cyclingheroes) |
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