Cyclingheroes flash-news Friday 30.03.2007

30.03.2007/ Vuelta a Castilla y Leon: Contador takes stage! , Coppi & Bartali: Di Luca won third stage, Montanari wins GP Stad Waregem U23

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.

Cyclingheroes Mailbox March 12

Saul Raisin: "Mom if I ever get back on a bike I want help people like me"

New: Austrian Volksbank team wants to start at the 2010 Tour de France

Vuelta a Castilla y Leon: Contador takes stage!

Yesterdays Queen stage took the riders over 154 kilometres from Valladolid to first category Alto de Navacerrada, with the finish line on a mountain top. With a strong comeback of Oscar Sevilla on a fifth spot, Discovery's Alberto Contador won the stage and this years overall winner of Paris-Nice also took over the overall lead.

Results stage 4 Vuelta a Castilla y Leon

1 Alberto Contador (Spa) Discovery Channel      3.52.04 (39.92 km/h)
2 Koldo Gil (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir
3 Juan Jose Cobo (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir                        0.28
4 Manuel Beltran (Spa) Liquigas
5 Igor Anton (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
6 David Lopez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                               0.29
7 Julian Sanchez (Spa) Relax-Gam                                   0.33
8 Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Karpin Galicia                           0.34
9 Oscar Sevilla (Spa) Relax-Gam
10 Jan Hruska (Cze) Relax-Gam                                      0.38
11 Ivan Basso (Ita) Discovery Channel 1.04
12 José Azevedo (Por) Benfica
13 Francisco Jose Ventoso (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir               1.19
14 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank                                    1.24
15 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel
16 Thomas Danielson (USA) Discovery Channel
17 Jose Alberto Benitez (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir
18 Manuel Lloret (Spa) Fuerteventura-Canarias
19 Vladimir Miholjevic (Cro) Liquigas
20 Pieter Weening (Ned) Rabobank                                   1.37
21 Angel Vallejo (Spa) Relax-Gam                                   1.51
22 Christian Vandevelde (USA) Team CSC                             2.09
23 Volodymir Gustov (Ukr) Team CSC
24 Eduardo Gonzalo (Spa) Agritubel
25 Luis Perez Rodriguez (Spa) Andalucia-Cayasur                    2.12

General Classification after stage 4

1 Alberto Contador (Spa) Discovery Channel     11.04.16
2 Koldo Gil (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir                             0.36
3 Juan Jose Cobo (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir                        0.46
4 Igor Anton (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi                               0.48
5 Oscar Sevilla (Spa) Relax-Gam                                    0.55
6 David Lopez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                               0.58
7 Jan Hruska (Cze) Relax-Gam                                       1.05
8 Julian Sanchez (Spa) Relax-Gam                                   1.06
9 Manuel Beltran (Spa) Liquigas                                    1.13
10 Francisco Jose Ventoso (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir               1.18
11 Ivan Basso (Ita) Discovery Channel              1.21
12 Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Karpin Galicia                          1.22
13 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel         1.28
14 Vladimir Miholjevic (Cro) Liquigas                              1.36
15 Thomas Danielson (USA) Discovery Channel        1.40
16 Manuel Lloret (Spa) Fuerteventura-Canarias                      1.46
17 José Azevedo (Por) Benfica                                      1.54
18 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank                                    2.03
19 Jose Alberto Benitez (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir                 2.20
20 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Caisse d'Epargne                         2.30
21 Pieter Weening (Ned) Rabobank
22 Angel Vallejo (Spa) Relax-Gam                                   2.33
23 Christian Vandevelde (USA) Team CSC                             2.53
24 Volodymir Gustov (Ukr) Team CSC                                 2.54
25 Santos Gonzalez (Spa) Karpin Galicia                            3.05

Coppi & Bartali: Di Luca won third stage

In the bounch sprint at Serramazzoni he beats Riccardo Riccò. The killer is back. After the wonderful success at Milano - Torino and the forced withdraw from Milano - Sanremo, because of a bothersome influenza virus, Danilo Di Luca came back to win. After a bunch sprint, he won the third stage of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi & Bartali, over 165 kilometres from Scandiano to Serramazzoni. Riccardo Riccò, the new talented cyclist discovered at the Tirreno - Adriatico, finished second and Alexander Efimkin (Barloworld) came in third.

Saunier Duval's Ricco managed to unite the group again after an attack of Raffaele Illiano (Ceramica Flaminia). The Liquigas team has stood out during the last 10 kilometres, before the slope which brought the riders to Serramazzoni. Thanks to Andrea Noè's action, who has countered the attacks coming from opponents, Di Luca has succeeded in winning the sprint of the leading group of about thirty cyclists.

"I am happy with this win, above all because it is a clear recovery signal. We wanted to win a stage," Di Luca explained. "Even if the form is not the same as the one at Milano - Torino, I wanted to recover lost time because of influenza." The killer does not hide himself: "Today starts the short run towards Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallonne and Liège."

"Fast and bloody tough" Volksbank rider René Weissinger described the third stage of the five-days-tour. While the climbers of the ProTour teams put up a hard fight, young Swiss rider Florian Stalder was able to keep pace and sprinted for the stage win. "Unfortunately I pushed forward too early and was in the wind. Today, a lot could have been possible", Stalder analyses conttentedly. Stalder came in 10th.

Results stage 3 Settimana Ciclista Internazionale

1 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas                                          4.23.07 (36.485 km/h)
2 Riccardo Riccò (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir
3 Alexander Efimkin (Rus) Barloworld
4 Krzysztof Szczawinski (Pol) Miche
5 Hubert Schwab (Swi) Quickstep-Innergetic
6 Daniele Pietropolli (Ita) Tenax-Menikini
7 Mirco Lorenzetto (Ita) Milram
8 Matthew Lloyd (Aus) Predictor-Lotto
9 Luca Mazzanti (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
10 Florian Stalder (Swi) Volksbank
11 Massimo Giunti (Ita) Miche
12 Marco Marzano (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
13 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Acqua & Sapone-Caffè Mokambo
14 Cédric Vasseur (Fra) Quickstep-Innergetic
15 Sergey Lagutin (Uzb) Navigators Insurance
16 Luca Pierfelici (Ita) Aurum Hotels
17 Cristian Gasperoni (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia
18 Josep Jufré (Spa) Predictor-Lotto
19 Ruggero Marzoli (Ita) Tinkoff Credit Systems
20 Michael Rogers (Aus) T-Mobile
21 Morris Possoni (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
22 Evgeni Petrov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems
23 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor-Lotto
24 Pedro Arreitunandia (Spa) Barloworld
25 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Predictor-Lotto

General classification after stage 3

1 Luca Pierfelici (Ita) Aurum Hotels                                    11.02.33
2 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Acqua & Sapone-Caffè Mokambo                       0.02
3 Michael Rogers (Aus) T-Mobile                                             0.09
4 Riccardo Riccò (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir                                 0.14
5 Morris Possoni (Ita) Lampre-Fondital                                      0.31
6 Josep Jufré (Spa) Predictor-Lotto                                         0.36
7 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Predictor-Lotto
8 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor-Lotto
9 Massimo Giunti (Ita) Miche                                                0.39
10 Mirco Lorenzetto (Ita) Milram                                            0.42
11 Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr) Barloworld
12 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas                                            0.47
13 Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz) Astana                                           0.48
14 Daniel Navarro (Spa) Astana
15 Evgeni Petrov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems                               0.56
16 Andrea Noè (Ita) Liquigas                                                0.57
17 Hubert Schwab (Swi) Quickstep-Innergetic                                 1.03
18 Sylvester Szmyd (Pol) Lampre-Fondital
19 Paolo Tiralongo (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
20 Marco Marzano (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
21 Valerio Agnoli (Ita) Aurum Hotels                                        1.06
22 Cristian Gasperoni (Ita) Ceramica Flaminia                               1.10
23 Mauricio Soler (Col) Barloworld                                          1.14
24 Pedro Arreitunandia (Spa) Barloworld
25 Sergey Lagutin (Uzb) Navigators Insurance                                1.16

Danilo Di Luca is back... (picture: Cyclingheroes)

Montanari wins GP Stad Waregem U23

Enrico Montanari has won the GP Stad Waregem (U23) today. The Italian was the fastest in a bunch sprint and beat Danilo Wyss and Koen Vermeltfoort.

Austrian Volksbank team wants to start at the 2010 Tour de France

30.03.2007/ With a 10th spot for Swiss rider Florian Stalder on yesterdays queen stage of Coppi & Bartali, the Austrian Volksbank team showed that they have a team which is getting stronger every year. Cyclingheroes spoke with team manager Thomas Kofler.