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19.04.2007/ Tour de Georgia: Gianni Meersman takes third stage,
Scheldeprijs: Cavendish faster than McEwen!, Rabobank for Amstel Gold Race
Mailbox - win a picture in poster format with Original Autograph of Michael Boogerd
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Picture gallery Cologn Classic - Rund um Köln, April 9, 2007
Henk Vogels: "Nice to get back in the winners circle"
O'Grady becomes first Aussie to win Paris-Roubaix
New: Picture gallery Paris-Roubaix, April 15, 2007, 5 pages
New: Henk Vogels Tour de Georgia riders diary: stage 3
Tour de Georgia: Gianni Meersman takes third stage
With a group of 13 riders up the road representing 11 different
teams, it was left to the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team to decide whether to help chase down the rapidly moving breakaway
or let it go on Stage 3 of the Tour de Georgia.
Toyota-United Team Director Kirk Willett said there was little to
gain by assisting the Predictor-Lotto team – which also did not have a rider in the front group – with a pursuit.
“We’ve kind of burned up a lot of our team the past two days,” Willett said. “There wasn’t
any great advantage to burn guys and we didn’t have guys to burn, either. We could have put guys in the chase, but it
would not have dramatically altered the outcome because those guys up front were really motoring.”
Gianni Meersman
(Discovery Channel Pro Cycling) won the 118.2-mile (190.3 km) race in four hours, 33 minutes and 33 seconds. David Canada
Gracia (Saunier Duval) finished second and moved into the overall lead by three seconds over teammate Rubens Bertogliati.
Toyota-United’s Caleb Manion said he was disappointed he didn’t make it into the move that may prove to
be the decisive one overall in the seven-day, seven-stage race.
“I was actually looking for that sort of move
today, but I got caught a little far back but I
guess that’s racing,” Manion said. “Lotto brought it
back to about 45 seconds but the boys in the front were riding extremely fast and Lotto started blowing up because nobody
was helping them. So the bunch stopped riding. At that stage it was all over.”
With a mountain time trial Thursday
and a rolling 107-mile stage on Friday, Toyota-United Team Director Harm Jansen said the race for the overall will hinge on
two factors over the next two days.
“I believe it’s going to be one-third time trial and two-thirds Brasstown
Bald,” Jansen said. “We have great climbers, that’s why I think that it’s not over.”
But others think that the overall is almost decided: ”There's no doubt the winner is to be found among the riders in that
break today. For us it was perfect to have Christian [Vande Velde] in it, because he'll be able to well in the time trial
tomorrow, so Friday's mountain stage might turn out very exciting and may even decide the winner. All in all we're very satisfied
with the overall standings after today,” said CSC sports director Dan Frost.
Previewing The Stage 4 Time Trial
Toyota-United climbing specialist Justin England is well-suited for Thursday’s individual time trial. But the Raleigh,
N.C., native is thinking ahead to a stage where time can be gained in minutes, not seconds.
“I’ll probably
save my legs for Brasstown Bald,” England said. “There’s no point in a guy like me riding hard because the
best I could probably do is finish 10th on the stage. But if I can save my legs and do something on the Brasstown stage, that
would be worth something.”
Thursday’s 18.9-mile (30.4 km) individual time trial begins in Chickamauga,
Ga., and climbs to Lookout Mountain. The first rider goes off at 11 a.m.
Time in the
Wind Tunnel Pays Off Later Down The Road
The quest to gain a competitive edge in time trials is what lured several
members of the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team to the San Diego Air and Space Museum's Low Speed Wind Tunnel in late January.
With experts in aerospace test engineering and related fields looking on, each rider rode for 10 to 20 minutes at
a time in the wind tunnel, changing his position on the bike by adjusting the "drop" and "reach" of the bars mounted on his
handlebars.
Like a downhill ski racer tucked tightly on a descent, each was looking for a position that cuts wind
drag without reducing power to the pedals. That meant technicians had to adjust time trial handlebars up and down and forward
and back.
"There is a difference between the ability to produce power and the ability to be aerodynamic," said Chris
Baldwin, who won the US National Time Trial Championship in 2003 and 2005. "There are positions that are very aerodynamic
but impossible for you to pedal."
Results
stage 3 Tour de Georgia 2007
1.Gianni Meersman (Bel) Discovery Channel
4.33.18 (41.80 km/h)
2 David Canada Gracia (Spa) Saunier Duval - Prodir
0.01
3 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Discovery Channel
4 Christian Vandevelde (USA) Team CSC
5 Kevin Seeldrayers (Bel) Quick Step - Innergetic
6 Jeffry Louder (USA) Health Net
7 Scott Nydam (USA) BMC Racing Team
8 Rubens Bertogliati (Swi) Saunier Duval - Prodir
9 Timothy Johnson (USA) Health Net
2.20
10 Lucas Euser (USA) Team Slipstream
11 Ivan Santaromita (Swi) Quick Step - Innergetic
3.35
12 Tyler Wren (USA) Colavita/Sutter Home
13 Ciaran Power (Irl) Navigators Insurance
5.05
14 Nick Reistad (USA) USA National Development Team
29.07
15 Chad Beyer (USA) USA National Development Team
16 Thomas Danielson (USA) Discovery Channel
17 Charles Dionne (Can) Colavita/Sutter Home
18 John Devine (USA) USA National Development Team
19 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel
20 Fred Rodriguez (USA) Predictor-Lotto
21 Jacob Rosenbarger (USA) BMC Racing Team
22 Steffen Weigold (Ger) Tinkoff Credit Systems
23 Cameron Wurf (Aus) Priority Health Cycling Team
24 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Saunier Duval - Prodir
25 Jonathan Garcia (USA) BMC Racing Team
General Classification after stage 3
1 David Canada Gracia (Spa) Saunier Duval - Prodir
13.34.21
2 Rubens Bertogliati (Swi) Saunier Duval - Prodir
0.03
3 Christian Vandevelde (USA) Team CSC
4 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Discovery Channel
5 Jeffry Louder (USA) Health Net
6 Kevin Seeldrayers (Bel) Quick Step - Innergetic
7 Scott Nydam (USA) BMC Racing Team
0.23
8 Lucas Euser (USA) Team Slipstream
2.22
9 Timothy Johnson (USA) Health Net 2.51
10 Tyler Wren (USA) Colavita/Sutter Home 3.57
11 Ivan Santaromita (Swi)
Quick Step - Innergetic
12 Ciaran Power (Irl) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team
5.23
13 Gianni Meersman (Bel) Discovery Channel
6.31
14 Daniele Contrini (Ita) Tinkoff Credit Systems
27.47
15 Doug Ollerenshaw (USA) Health Net 28.16
16 Ben Day (Aus) Navigators Insurance 28.25
17 Ivan Stevic (SCG)
Toyota-United 28.54
18 Juan José Haedo (Arg) Team CSC
29.00
19 Fred Rodriguez (USA) Predictor-Lotto
29.02
20 Charles Dionne (Can) Colavita/Sutter 29.06
21
Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel
22 Thomas Danielson (USA) Discovery Channel
23 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Health Net
24 David Zabriskie (USA) Team CSC
25 George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel
During the Tour de Georgia Cyclingheroes will
publish a riders diary of Henk Vogels. Today the third part, stage3: Henk Vogels Tour de Georgia riders diary: stage 3
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| The bunch wasn't exactly chasing...(Picture: Kathleen Poulos) |
Scheldeprijs: Cavendish
faster than McEwen!
Mark Cavendish comes of age for T-Mobile! The British youngster edged out
a field of world-class sprinters to win the Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen single-day race in Belgium on Wednesday.
Delivered
to the finish by a well-oiled T-Mobile sprint train, the talented Manx speedster was able to finish off the job by overhauling
no less than Erik Zabel (Milram) and Robbie McEwen (Predictor-Lotto) in the frantic bunch sprint.
Serial
Tour de France stage winner McEwen launched his sprint with about 350 metres to go, but Cavendish latched onto Gert Steegman's
wheel to power around first Zabel on his right, and then take the long way around to pip a stunned McEwen on the line.
"I
am happy with the team roles this year, and this is the first time I had a free role," quipped the chuffed Cavendish after
the win. "I grew up respecting Robbie, and I just hope I can be the next Robbie McEwen."
"I knew that Mark has what
it takes to win big races, but I didn't think that he could take the big scalps so soon!" said T-Mobile sporting director
Allan Peiper
Peiper: "A massive team performance"
The win was also excellent pay-back for Cavendish's
team mates who had chased hard in the pack and then controlled the bunch in the finale to set up the sprint for the youngster.
Peiper: "This result was the fruit of a massive team performance. This is exactly the kind of race profile that suits
Mark's talents, so the team did their bit to set him up and lead him out.
"Mark then showed he has the class to do
the rest. I still can't believe the big names he has beaten here today," added Peiper.
It was a first ever pro win
for Cavendish, though he notched a stage second place at Etoile de Besseges in early February. Limited by illness since then,
Cavendish has struggled to make an impact, but today he showed the explosive top-end speed that saw him notch up five podium
places and the points competition at last year’s Tour of Britain while riding as a T-Mobile stagiare.
How
it unfolded
Under cloudy skies and mild temperatures the riders set off from Antwerp on a 149 kilometre clock-wise
loop over pan-cake terrain to Schoten, where they would complete three laps of a 16 kilometre circuit. Absent was Tom Boonen
– intestinal problems had forced the defending champion and home favourite to miss out.
Along the way they
covered several cobbled sections on the 197 km distance but nothing as serious and race-deciding as the ones that dotted Paris-Roubaix.
After
some initial attacks a three-man move formed containing Kevin Van Impe (Quickstep-Innergetic), Niko Eeckhout (Chocolade Jacques-Topsport
Vlaanderen) and Koos Moerenhout (Rabobank).
With the sprinters wanting their day however, the peloton never allowed
the trio to get too far up the road and the lead was never greater than 1'30.
After Moerenhout was dropped with
25km to go, the peloton led by Milram, Predictor-Lotto and T-Mobile smelled blood and the remaining breakaways were shut down
on the final lap, with 11km to ride.
Predictor and T-Mobile really knocked out the tempo in the final kilometres
to fend off counter-attacks. Nico Mattan (DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed), Gorik Gardeyn (Unibet.com) and Steven De Jongh (Quickstep-Innergetic)
did have a late dig, getting about a 10" second gap, but they were soon charged down by the sprint trains and the race was
set for the big bunch showdown, with Cavendish surprising the big name sprinters to score a superb race win and follow in
the tyre tracks of Tom Boonen. (gl)
Scheldeprijs Top-Ten Results
1
Mark Cavendish (GBr) T-Mobile Team
2 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Predictor-Lotto
3 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Quickstep-Innergetic
4
Wouter Weylandt (Bel) Quickstep-Innergetic
5 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank
6 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram
7 Baden Cooke
(Aus) Unibet.com
8 Daniel Musiol (Ger) Team Wiesenhof-Felt
9 Steven Caethoven (Bel) Chocolade Jacques-Topsport
10
Robert Hunter (RSA) Barloworld
Rabobank for
Amstel Gold Race
Teamladers Erik Breukink and Erik Dekker will lineup a team of specialists for the Amstel Gold Race. The Rabobank Cycling
Team for this ProTour classic will be composed of: Michael Boogerd, Oscar Freire, Juan Antonio Flecha, Thomas Dekker, Bram
de Groot, Pieter Weening, Koos Moerenhout and Jan Boven.
Theo Eltink and Léon van Bon are on the reserve list for The Rabobank Cycling Team.
The Rabobank Cycling Team will only lineup experienced riders for the Amstel Gold Race. Michael Boogerd, the winner
of the 1999 edition, is the most experienced Rabobank rider. Boogerd will make his twelfth start coming Sunday. In the last
nine editions he finished in the top ten of the classification. The last five years he even finished in the top three.
Sunday, Oscar Freire will ride his eighth Amstel Gold Race. Freire finished three times in the top ten.
All
eight Rabo riders together will bring the experience of 36 participations to the start in Maastricht, The Netherlands.
The Amstel Gold Race is listed twice on the roll of honor of the Rabobank Cycling Teams. After the victory of Michael
Boogerd in 1999, Erik Dekker won the Amstel Gold Race in 2001. In both editions Lance Amstrong came in second. On top of that,
the name of Rabobank teamleader Frans Maassen is on the roll of honor of the Amstel Gold Race as well. Maassen won the race
in 1991.
Results
Rabobank Cycling Team in Amstel Gold Race:
Michael Boogerd 1996:
67, 1997: 47, 1998: 4, 1999: 1, 2000: 2, 2001: 9, 2002: 3, 2003: 2, 2004: 2, 2005: 2, 2006: 3
Oscar Freire
1998: 45, 2000: 9, 2002: 5, 2003: 14, 2004: 14, 2005: 10, 2006: 17
Juan Antonio Flecha 2002: 23, 2003: 111, 2004:
69, 2006: X
Thomas Dekker
2005: 33, 2006: X
Bram de Groot
2002: 49, 2003: 113, 2006: X
Pieter Weening
2005: 50, 2006: 79
Koos Moerenhout 1999: 30,
2003: 66, 2004: 58, 2006: 32
Jan Boven
2000: 94, 2001: X, 2002: 81
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| Michael Boogerd will start at the Amstel Gold Race (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
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