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12.03.2007/ Millar took prologue Paris-Nice, Vuelta Murcia: Valverde won ITT and general
classification - Napolitano won final stage, Milano - Torino for Di Luca, Hans Dekkers won stage
2 of Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, Casper won Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen - Third stage to Weylandt, Team Milram led
by the top duo at Tirreno-Adriatico, Schwab is recovering, Pro-Tour conflict: PRESS RELEASE: F.F.C. - A.S.O.
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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Jörg Jaksche: no team and without investigation
Special coverage Jan Ullrich retires
Will Puerto be archived?
New: Cyclingheroes Mailbox March 12
Millar took prologue Paris-Nice
David Millar won the 4.7 kilometer long prologue of Paris-Nice on Sunday. 160 riders started at this
years race to the sun.
Banned for two years for doping, the Briton had signalled his return last season by winning
stage 14 of the Vuelta Espana, a 48-km individual time trial.
In six minutes and one second, the Scot beat unheralded 19 years old Czech Roman Kreuzinger by one second, Frenchman Sebastien
Joly taking third place a further second adrift.
Millar was happy with his victory: "Its was my first objective of the season and it’s great to achieve it. I’m
very impressed myself. Last year was very hard after two years without racing. It was tough physically and mentally. This
year, the start of the season was my objective and I had told my friends I felt ready to win this."
Asked if it was a tough course, Millar said: "Yes, the climb made it very technical but I’m very satisfied as this
was my first objective this season."
Millar hopes to keep the yellow jersey and says about his ambitions: "Defend this jersey as long as I can and hopefully
take it all the way to Nice. I have a great team around me, one of the very best in this race. They might not be the most
famous names in the bunch but they always ride in the front. They will be a very valuable asset. "
Results prologue Paris-Nice 2007
1 David Millar (GBr) Saunier Duval-Prodir
6.01 (46.869 km/h)
2 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas
0.01
3 Sébastien Joly (Fra) Française Des Jeux
0.02
4 Luis León Sánchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
5 Alberto Contador (Spa) Discovery Channel
6 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel
0.03
7 Francisco José Ventoso (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir
0.04
8 Remmert Wielinga (Ned) Saunier Duval-Prodir
9 Thomas Lövkvist (Swe) Française Des Jeux
10 Joost Posthuma (Ned) Rabobank
0.05
11 Bobby Julich (USA) Team CSC
0.06
12 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
13 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
14 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas
15 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner
0.07
16 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Quickstep-Innergetic
17 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor-Lotto
0.08
18 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française Des Jeux
19 Rémi Pauriol (Fra) Crédit Agricole
20 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
21 Luke Roberts (Aus) Team CSC
0.09
22 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis
23 Samuel Sánchez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
24 Tadej Valjavec (Slo) Lampre-Fondital
25 Jurgen Van den Broeck (Bel) Predictor-Lotto
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| David Millar is back! (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Vuelta Murcia: Valverde won ITT and general classification - Napolitano won final stage
Danilo Napolitano obtained his first seasonal victory by winning the final stage of the Vuelta Murcia. Lampre-Fondital's
sprinter won thanks to an outstanding sprint that permitted him to beat Graham Brown at the stage which lead
from Ceuti to Murcia, a distance of 151 kilometers.
Napolitano conquered the point classification too, Alejandro
Valverde won the general classification after the Spanish rider won the individual time trial on Saturday.
Milano - Torino for Di Luca
The Italian Danilo di Luca has won the 92nd edition of the classic Milano - Torino(1.HC)
on Saturday, another important success for the Liquigas squad. In the sprint of a small break di Luca outpaced Mauricio Soler
(Barloworld) from Columbia after 199 kilometers. T-Mobile rider Kim Kirchen was third nine seconds behind.
The
preliminary decision fell 15 kilometers to finish when Danilo di Luca escaped on the last climb with some others riders. Di
Luca, who impressed with a strong race, was only followed by Mauricio Soler. In the sprint the Italian eventually was faster.
The leaders had to accelerate in the finale, a pursuers' group of 30 riders was right behind them. However, they couldn't
close the gap anymore. In this group Mirko Celestino (Milram) did a good performance when he tried to catch the escapees.
Eventually his power didn’t last to sprint to one of the top ranks.
After the race Di Luca said: "This victory is very important for me." The first ever
winner of the Pro Tour continued by saying: "I have had a very bad season behind me and a victory feels good."
Di Luca concluded with: "My next goals are the Ardennes classics. At Milano-San Remo Filippo Pozzato will be our captain."
Sergio Ghisalberti (Milram) had bad luck. The Italian crashed in the finale, but without
consequences.
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| Danilo Di Luca showed great form (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Hans Dekkers won stage 2 of Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen
Stage 2 of Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen went from Torhout to Handzame with a distance
of 184 km, 162 km in line and two local circuits of 11 km each.
The Unibet team of leader Jimmy Casper kept a constant
control on the race, and it was very difficult to break away from the peloton. Robbie McEwen took the occasion to make some
hard training, and was very active. So, when 5 men broke away after some 100 km, McEwen was with them.
Not only
Robbie was there, but also Preben Van Hecke and Greg Van Avermaet. They remained for 50 km ahead of the peloton, but they
wee caught at the beginning of the local circuits at Handzame.
No other attack was allowed and Agritubel rider Hans
Dekkers outsprinted the other fast men of the bunch.
Casper won Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen - Third stage to Weylandt
Jimmy Casper (Unibet.com) has won the final general classification of Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen today.
Casper
managed to keep the lead in the third and final stage won by Wouter Weylandt (Quickstep-Innergetic) in a bunch sprint.
Just
like yesterday's stage, the Unibet.com ProTour team had to control the entire race to protect Jimmy Casper's lead position
in the general classification. "The riders did an excellent job and perfectly kept Casper in front", said Unibet.com team
leader Hilaire Van der Schueren.
It was already the third victory for Jimmy Casper this week. Earlier this week, he
was already victorious in the GP le Samyn (Wednesday March 7th) and the first stage of Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen (Friday
March 9th).
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| Hans Dekkers during last years Tour de l'Avenir (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Team Milram led by the top duo at Tirreno-Adriatico
On wednesday Team Milram will start at Tirreno-Adriatico (ProTour)
with a selection of eight
riders led by the top duo Erik Zabel and
Alessandro Petacchi. With Mirko Celestino Milram has another rider with
chances in the hard stages in their squad.
Tirreno-Adriatico (14 - 20 March) is the second ProTour race
in this season. Since it was first
carried out in 1966 it is regarded
as the last serious test for Milan-Sanremo.
The selection:
Mirko Celestino,
Alessandro Cortinovis, Volodymyr Diudia, Alessandro
Petacchi, Fabio Sacchi, Marco Velo, Erik Zabel, Christian Knees
Schwab is recovering
Hubert Schwab is doing better again. The unfortunate Quickstep Innergetic rider was touched
by a car before the start of the GP of Lugano. Most of the suffering is over, Hubert trained for about 3 hours on thursday.
Before
the start of the GP of Lugano Hubert Schwab was involved in a accident. On his way to the starting line the Quickstep rider
was hit by a car.
Pro-Tour conflict: PRESS RELEASE: F.F.C. - A.S.O.
As a response to the recent insistent interventions, the President of the UCI has notified Thursday
8th of March in the evening in a clear way to the French Cycling Federation and to Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O.):
- First of all that he gave up on demanding sanctions “against the F.F.C. and French cycling linked to
the events that have brought them in conflict these last few weeks” (especially concerning the organisation of Paris-Nice);
- That as a consequence of the convention concluded on the 5th of March in Brussels with the IPCT,
the World level events of A.S.O. of RCS and of Unipublic, placed outside of the UCI Pro Tour calendar, were indeed no longer
subject to the rules of selection and participation of teams as planned by the current UCI regulations (article 2.15.261-
UCI pro Tour) for the 2007 season.
Based on this clarification, the F.F.C. and A.S.O. have decided to abandon the set-up of their convention
for the organisation of the next edition of Paris-Nice, the conditions being now united to allow this event to take place
under the support of the UCI.
The F.F.C. and A.S.O. are delighted about the outcome of their joint processes with the UCI in this matter
and are happy with the solutions that have been found in order to see Paris-Nice, one the major French cycling events, take
place normally.
They however remain careful concerning the evolution of the “UCI Pro Tour” case, that is at the
origin of the disagreement between the organisers of the major Tours and the UCI and that needs to be considered in a thoughtful
way by the different actors concerned during the next months, in a spirit of dialogue and consultation.
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