|
02.03.2007/ Vuelta Valenciana: Bennati won third stage, Savoldelli will start his
season at Almeria, Skil-Shimano team presentation
Mailbox
Letterbox: You can send your letters with ideas, comments and other things you would like to let us and
our readers to know to: letters@cyclingheroes.de . Some of the letters will be published on our website. We can only publish letters with your full name, hometown
and country.
The editor choose every month "The letter of the month". The writer of the best letter in February
2007 will receive a picture of Michael Boogerd in poster format (20X30 CM) with origial handwritten autograph of Michael.
|
New: Open letter Unibet.com to ASO, RCS and Unipublic: Do not wreck the European bike!
Jörg Jaksche: no team and without investigation
Special coverage Jan Ullrich retires
Vuelta Valenciana: Bennati won third stage
In the third stage of the Vuelta Valenciana (Vila Real-Vila Real of 151,8 kms) Bennati took hin
second win of the Spanish stage race: in the final sprint Bennati defeated Petacchi, Benitez and Colli. At 800 mts
from the finish line a crash selected a little group of athletes that took part in the sprint: Petacchi was the first
to begin the sprint, but Bennati overtook him with great speed and grabbed an outstanding victory. "I’m very happy:
it’s beautiful to win again after yesterday third place," commented Bennati. "The sprint was complicated by the fall
and by the wind: I was in a very good form and so I realized a great sprint."
Bennati is also the new leader of the general
classification with a lead of 2 seconds on Petacchi.
|
| Daniele Bennati won the first stage... (picture : Cyclingheroes) |
Savoldelli will start his season at Almeria
At Sunday March 4 Paolo Savoldelli will start at the GP Almeria. For the two times winner of the Giro d'Italia
it will be the first race of the season and the first race for the Astana squad. Eddy Mazzoleni will also start at the GP
Almeria, for Mazzoleni this will also be the first race of the season and his debut in a Astana jersey. Other Astan riders
that will start at the GP Almeria are: Azzan Bazayev, Benoit Joachim, Steve Morabito, Daniele Navarro, Yevgeny Sladkov and
Serguei Yakovlev.
|
| Paolo Savoldelli during last years Tour de France (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Skil-Shimano team presentation
The Skil-Shimano professional cycle racing team was presented on February 28 at Vaals in the south
of the Netherlands. For this season the team has 25 riders, four more than last year. There are a total of seven newcomers:
Fabien Bacquet (France), Maarten den Bakker (NL), Ji Cheng (China), David Deroo (France), Clément Lhotellerie (France), Christian
Müller (Germany) and Albert Timmer (NL).
The internationally oriented team has more or less the same ambitions as last year, according to team managers
Arend Scheppink and Iwan Spekenbrink: "We hope that we can continue the progression we made last season, when we had some
excellent results in the form of wins in the Tour of Belgium and the Tour of Qinghai Lake. On top of that our aim is to take
part in some prestigious races and to continue with our up-front racing style, while we will also be focusing on the development
of talented riders."
Just like last year, the Skil-Shimano team will this season again have a number of Asian riders as part of
its efforts to develop cycle racing in Japan and China. Five Japanese riders (Hidenori Nodera, Tomayo Kano, Yoshimasa Hirose,
Yukihiro Doi and Masahiro Shinagawa) and the three Chinese riders (Fang Xu, Jin Long and Ji Cheng) will ride a primarily European
program. The other Japanese riders will mainly race in Asia.
Riders and team management in 2007
Team management: Arend Scheppink (NL), Iwan Spekenbrink (NL).
Sports directors: Rudie Kemna (NL), Piet
Hoekstra (NL), Hisafumi Imanishi (Japan), Akira Bandou (Japan).
Riders: Maarten den Bakker (NL), Maarten Tjallingii (NL),
Paul Martens (Germany), Clément Lhotellerie (France), Aart Vierhouten (NL), Christian Müller (Germany), Fang Xu (China), Jin
Long (China) , Ji Cheng (China), Piet Rooijakkers (NL), Christoph Meschenmoser (Germany), David Deroo (France), Kenny van
Hummel (NL), Fabien Bacquet (France), Masahiro Shinagawa (Japan), Floris Goesinnen (NL), Albert Timmer (NL), Yukihiro Doi
(Japan), Hidenori Nodera (Japan), Tomayo Kano (Japan), Yoshimasa Hirose (Japan), Yoshiyuki Abe (Japan), Kaoru Ouchi (Japan),
Takamitu Tsuji (Japan), Masamichi Yamamoto (Japan).
|
| Paul Martens stayed with Skil-Shimano (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
|
