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16.02.2007/ Etxebarria won final stage - Luis Leon Sanchez overall winner of Mallorca,
Tour Méditerranéen, third stage for Ignatiev, Sørensen Highly Motivated, World-class field announced
for the 2007 Amgen Tour of California
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Looking back in anger
A Day in the Life of a Soigneur
Ullrich with Klöden and Kessler at Mallorca
Etxebarria won final stage - Luis Leon Sanchez overall winner of Mallorca
Unai Etxebarria (Euskaltel) has won the "Trofeo Calvia" on the fifth and final stage of the five-day Mallorca
Challenge. A solo victory for the 34-year-old from Venezuela after completing 150 km from Magalluf to Palmanova. Spannish
rider Francisco Ventoso (Saunier Duval) lands second place ahead of Brazilian rider Murilo Fischer (Liquigas). Luis León
Sánchez (Caisse d'Espargne) is the overall winner.
Tour Méditerranéen, third stage for Ignatiev
Russian rider Mikhail Ignatiev won the third stage of Tour Méditerranéen in style. More experienced pros
had to yield to powerful onslaught of the youth, who managed to entertain spectators and organizers with inventive tactical
scheme and determination that lead up to a final which none of the specialists bet on. The 21-years old Olympic point race
champion showed the best of his individual qualities on 158km- long roller-coaster stage laid between Saint Cannat and Marseille.
At slightly more than 20 km to go Ignatiev bridged up to the Frenchman Alain Moinard of Cofidis, who had been in a solo breakaway
by then; then he attacked all by himself, creating an important gap which the peloton, for all the efforts of sprinters teams,
failed to close. Italian kings of speed, pre-race favorites Bennati, Balducci and Furlan had to put up with disputing no more
than second spot.
Ignatiev said after the race: “To tell the truth, for me the first half of this stage
was full of pain. My legs burned after yesterday’s numerous woes. Just for reminder, we had two stages yesterday, and
the second one went just horrible. The guys from Banesto [Ignatiev keeps on naming the team by its old sponsor] set the pace
at the front, and they were first to get caught in a pile-up on a wet and winding road. Liosha Markov was one of those who
hit the tarmac [ Alexey Markov rode with Mikhail for the same team from St Petersburg for a long time]. More crashes followed.
I managed to stay in the saddle, but get cut off from the leaders, and chasing is a problem when you drag along at 15 km\h
in some turns – so slippery it was. So yesterday I lost precious seconds, but got some freedom as I wasn’t watched
so closely as the leaders of the general classification.
Today I was almost ready to throw in the towel, but I told myself:
Look at them, they are tired too, perhaps even more. We climbed some short leg-breakers up to 20 % of gradient, and strangely
enough, they helped me to mobilize my reserves. I knew there was a guy from Cofidis in front who had some 7 minutes at some
point, but the sprinters’ teams closed the gap rather steadily. About 30 km to go it looked like the chasers relaxed
a bit, as they saw the Frenchman had to be caught pretty soon. It was then that I decided to attack uphill, apparently they
just didn’t take it seriously. I joined the Cofidis rider, and later managed to break away from him on a Cat. 3 climb.
I saw the information oh the board telling how quickly the gap thinned down – yet not quickly enough for me to give
up! I got mad at them – hey, men, you’re gonna take it away from me after all this suffering?! Fat chance! The
fact that the final stretch was downhill helped me a lot, it was slightly easier to keep them at bay. And now it feels great.”
Sørensen Highly Motivated
The latter part of the 2006 season went very well for one of the more anonymous riders on Team CSC, Nicki
Sørensen. This has meant a boost in motivation for the former Danish Champion regarding the up and coming season, with participation
in the Tour as his major goal. But he is well aware of the competition being tough.
During last season Sørensen found
his form in Vuelta an España and all of a sudden saw himself riding alongside some of the very best. The end result was a
28th place in spite of the fact that most of his strength was spent helping Carlos Sastre. Later followed a seventh place
in Züri Metzgete and a 12th place at the World Championships as well as several other great results.
"I'd hoped to
keep it up so I could've made a good result in Giro Di Lombardia, but I ran out of strength. But I was doing well for a long
time there, so I've definitely got high hopes for 2007," determines Sørensen.
The 31-year-old Dane has been with Team
CSC since 2001 and had his major break through in the Grand Tours with a 20th place in the 2002 edition of Tour de France.
His impressive result in the 2006 Vuelta was a nice follow-up to his performance in the same race in 2005, where he won a
stage. But now he hopes to be selected for the Tour and be able to work hard for his teammates.
"I'm looking forward
to the new season and I think I'll be able to reach the same level and hopefully stay there for a long time. The Tour is a
major goal for me, but the Giro could also be a possibility, because I know the competition for a spot on the Tour-team is
tough," says Sørensen, who has reached an age, where routine and experience provide a certain insight on how to achieve the
maximum.
"I know I still have a lot to give to the team if I'm able to reach the same level as 2006, which I believe
I am," comments Sørensen, who is very pleased with Carlos Sastre's selection as team captain.
"Carlos is very open
to other riders getting a break as well some times, and I think he has done brilliantly in 2006. He always has a good attitude
and it'll be exciting to see how far he's able to take it with the experiences he gained from 2006 - after having done all
three Grand Tours," is the final comment from the Danish rider.
During his career Sørensen has won nine victories all
the while working very hard helping the team. Nicki Sørensen won the Danish Championships in 2003 and wore the Danish Jersey
in Tour de France – who knows: maybe he will make a repeat performance in 2007.....
Source: CSC
World-class field announced for the 2007 Amgen Tour of California
The world-class roster of teams and cyclists - considered to be the finest collection of talent to compete
in a U.S. stage race - entered in the 2007 Amgen Tour of California, an internationally sanctioned professional cycling road
race that will host 18 teams and 144 riders racing throughout California February 18-25, 2007, has been announced by race
presenters AEG.
In its second year, the race has already received an upgraded rating from the Union Cycliste Internationale
(UCI), the international governing body of cycling, to a 2. Hors Classe (2.HC), the highest rating a professional stage race
outside of Europe can receive.
The race will bring the top cycling talent in the world to compete across 650 miles
of California roadway from San Francisco to Long Beach. Attracting an unprecedented field of riders from 28 countries, cyclists
hail from countries as far away as Trinidad and Tobago, Lithuania, Uzbekistan, Cuba, South Africa, Belarus, Luxembourg and
Kazakhstan.
The collection of riders, considered the strongest field of participants ever to race in the United States,
will include Discovery Channel Pro Cycling, T-Mobile, Predictor-Lotto, HealthNet and Team CSC, which returns to defend the
title as the overall classification winner of the 2006 Amgen Tour of California.
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