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14.03.2007/ Pelizzotti won stage two and took yellow jersey, Volksbank team presentation
in Vienna, Unibet.com will start at Milano-San Remo
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?
Cyclingheroes Mailbox March 12
Pelizzotti won stage two and took yellow jersey
Franco Pelizzotti led Italy to a formidable treble in Limoges at the end of the 177-kms second stage between
Vatan and Limoges. The Liguigas rider, a former top ten finisher at the Giro, outwitted the rest of the bunch in the
last stretch to win the stage and take the overall leader’s yellow jersey.
Daniele Bennati (Lampre) had to be content
with second place, two seconds behind, with Luca Paolini third on a great day for the Liquigas team.
The finale was a
nail-biting one as the bunch only caught escapees Thomas Voeckler of France and Murilo Fischer of Brazil, another Liquigas
man, in the last kilometre.
Pelizzotti said about the race: "With Fischer in the break, Liquigas did not have to work until the finale.
Near the finish, I sensed that Quick Step were very strong and were preparing the sprint for Boonen. I found a way to
move in the last few hundred metres. I’m very glad to have won here." Pelizzotti about the success of Liquigas: "The
season is going very well for us. I think we’ve won four races so far. Personally, I badly wanted to do something on
this Paris-Nice. Two years ago, I came second on a stage and I really wanted to win one. With the yellow jersey on top of
it, the joy is complete."
Results stage 2 Paris-Nice
1 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas
3.57.36 (44.696 km/h)
2 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
0.02
3 Luca Paolini (Ita) Liquigas
4 William Bonnet (Fra) Crédit Agricole
5 Joaquím Rodríguez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
6 Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu) Discovery Channel
7 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner
8 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
9 Patrick Calcagni (Swi) Liquigas
10 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
11 Samuel Sánchez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
12 Patxi Vila (Spa) Lampre-Fondital
13 Igor Astarloa (Spa) Milram
14 Sébastien Joly (Fra) Française Des Jeux
15 Igor Abakoumov (Bel) Astana
16 Luis León Sánchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
17 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Crédit Agricole
18 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas
19 Roy Sentjens (Bel) Predictor-Lotto
20 Nicolas Jalabert (Fra) Agritubel
21 Claudio Corioni (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
22 Patrik Sinkewitz (Ger) T-Mobile
23 David Millar (GBr) Saunier Duval-Prodir
24 Francisco José Ventoso (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir
25 Thomas Fothen (Ger) Gerolsteiner
General Classification after stage 2
1 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas
8.33.12
2 David Millar (GBr) Saunier Duval-Prodir
0.06
3 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
4 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas
0.07
5 Sébastien Joly (Fra) Française Des Jeux
0.08
6 Luis León Sánchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
7 Francisco José Ventoso (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir
0.10
8 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
0.11
9 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner
0.13
10 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
0.14
11 Samuel Sánchez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
0.15
12 Tadej Valjavec (Slo) Lampre-Fondital
13 Igor Astarloa (Spa) Milram
0.16
14 Joaquím Rodríguez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
15 Joost Posthuma (Ned) Rabobank
0.17
16 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Crédit Agricole
0.18
17 Murilo Fischer (Bra) Liquigas
0.19
18 Patxi Vila (Spa) Lampre-Fondital
19 Patrik Sinkewitz (Ger) T-Mobile
20 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis
0.21
21 Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu) Discovery Channel
22 Jurgen Van den Broeck (Bel) Predictor-Lotto
23 William Bonnet (Fra) Crédit Agricole
0.22
24 Aitor Pérez Arrieta (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
25 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team CSC
0.23
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| Franco Pelizzotti won the second stage (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Volksbank team presentation in Vienna
The Austrian Team Volksbank squad has big ambitions for the 2007 season. During the team presentation in Vienna
it was announced that the team has a total budget of 1.3 million Euros, which nearly doubled lasty years budget.
Team Volksbank was a continental team but is a professional continental team in the 2007 season. During a press conference
team manager Thomas Kofler said: "We are the Austrian team." Kofler continued by saying that he never said it publicly before
but: "We want to go to the Tour de France." Kofler also said the team wants to start at next years Giro d'Italia. This season
the highlights for Volksbank will be the Tour of Austria and the Tour de Suisse.
New rider Gerhard Trampusch will be one of the captains of Team Volksbank. Trampusch came from the German Wiesenhof
squad and said: "I am glad that at the third attempt it finally worked to come to team Volksbank. I tried again and again
in the last two years but in the end it did not happen. Team Volksbank is a young, ambitious squad. I am sure that it will
be a good season. For me the Tour de Suisse and the Tour of Austria the absolute highlights. I want to start with a top form
and win a stage for the team. A lot of riders have the potential to achieve that."
As reported Jan Ullrich did not attend at the Volksbank team presentation. Kurt Kaiser, marketing manager of sponsor Volksbank
said: "We did not want an Ullrich show." But it looks like things are put on hold: "We hope things will turn into the right
way, " Kaiser said. According to Austrian newsagency APA, the team management said they will announce details about the cooperation
with Ullrich in two weeks.
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| Team Volksbank during yesterdays presentation (picture: Team Volksbank) |
Unibet.com will start at Milano-San Remo
Unibet.com ProTour Team is participating in Milano-SanRemo on Saturday March 24th. RCS, the organizer
of Milano-SanRemo, Tirreno-Adriatico and Giro d'Italia, provided the Swedish ProTour Team with a wild card for the Italian
spring classic yesterday.
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