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09.03.2007/ Vuelta Murcia: second stage cancelled, first stage won by Rojas, Sastre
abandons in Murcia, Wildcards for Tour of Flanders, Casper won GP Le Samyn
Mailbox - win a nice surprise with Original Autograph of Jan Ullrich
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 March 2007
will receive a nice surprise with original handwritten autograph of Jan Ullrich.
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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 Murcia: second stage cancelled, first stage won by Rojas
The second stage of the Vuelta Murcia was cancelled yesterday after heavy storms made it impossible to race.
On Wednesday the first stage was won by Spanish rider José Joaquin Rojas (Caisse d'Epargne) ahead of
Danilo Napolitano (Lampre.) 42 riders escaped in very strong side winds during the final part of the stage and created a gap
of more than three minutes to their pursuers. Besides Haedo Team CSC also had Lars Bak, Jens Voigt, Michael Blaudzun and Nicki
Sørensen in the front group.
Blaudzun and Sørensen both crashed in a roundabout shortly before the finish, but were
put down for the same time as the stage winner, as the crash occurred within the final kilometer. Carlos Sastre also suffered
a crash at the exact moment the peloton picked up the pace in the strong winds and ended up being the last rider to cross
the finish line as number 106.
"This wasn't just ordinary winds it was gale-force, so it was all very dramatic. There
were quite a few crashes at the end. It was Rabobank, which took the lead in the peloton, but we were ready and well represented
up front. Initially Haedo was number 12 in the sprint, but he ended up all the way up front as number three. All our riders
actually looked good out there today and I predict a stage win or two down here," said sports director Kim Andersen after
the stage.
One of the crashes at the end involved Max van Heeswijk (Rabobank), who was solo at the time and crashed
in the same roundabout as Sørensen and Blaudzun. Shortly after that Lars Bak came close to victory, when he managed to avoid
the obstacle and found himself alone at the front for a few hundred meters. He was unsuccessful though but did finish in seventh
place.
Sastre Abandons in Murcia
Due to the pain caused by a crash in stage one in Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia, Carlos Sastre has decided to abandon
the race after agreement with Team CSC doctor, Joost De Maeseneer.
“Carlos had a lot of pain in his back after
the crash and we found that it was best to look into the injury a bit further instead of risking anything by having Carlos
continue riding. He will have a scanning now and hopefully it will show that it is only an injury to his surface”, says
Joost De Maeseneer, and adds that the other riders who crashed Wednesday are fine.
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| Carlos Sastre abonded (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Wildcards for Tour of Flanders
The Tour of Flanders organisers have handed Skil-Shimano, Landbouwkrediet-Tönissteiner, Chocolade Jacques-Topsport
Vlaanderen, Team Wiesenhof-Felt and Tinkoff Credit System a wildcard to participate in the event. They will join
the 20 Pro Tour teams in the race, which is scheduled for Sunday 8 April.
Casper won GP Le Samyn
Jimmy Casper (Unibet.com) has won the GP Le Samyn on Wednesday. Casper was the best of a select lead group
and out-sprinted Philippe Gilbert (Française des Jeux) and Bastiaan Giling (Team Wiesenhof). Gorik Gardeyn (Unibet.com) was
tenth.
"This is a brilliant victory for the team", said Casper. "I felt really good today and won the sprint rather
easily. This is the best way to respond to the current participation problems with the ProTour."
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