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23.04.2007/ Boogerd fifth in final Amstel Gold Race, Schumacher with supurb win!, Tour de Georgia: J.J. Heado takes final stage, Toyota-United with great performance at Tour de Georgia, next stop Tour of the Gila, Zabel and Petacchi for Milram at Tour of Niedersachsen, Rabobank for Fleche Wallonne,
Final stage of Giro d'Ambruzzo: Jaksche in breakaway group, Simon Schärer ends cycling career
Mailbox - win a picture in poster format with Original Autograph of Michael Boogerd
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.
Please note: your letter should not be longer than 350 words. The editor choose every month "The letter of the month".
The writer of the best letter in April 2007 will receive a picture in 20 X 30 CM format with original handwritten
autograph of Michael Boogerd.
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Henk Vogels: "Nice to get back in the winners circle"
O'Grady becomes first Aussie to win Paris-Roubaix
Picture gallery Paris-Roubaix, April 15, 2007, 5 pages
New Henk Vogels Tour de Georgia riders diary: stage 7
New: Mancebo, Sevilla & Perez: "We are cyclists with heart and soul"
New: Jörg Jaksche is back!
Boogerd fifth in final Amstel Gold Race, Schumacher with supurb win!
Once again, Michael Boogerd (Rabobank) was one of the best in course but, like often before, he had to deal
with his traditional shadows in the difficult classics. Paolo Bettini (Quickstep), Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner), Danilo
di Luca (Liquigas), and Alessandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne), were a part of the lead group along with the Germans Stefan
Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) and Matthias Kessler (Astana). All top notch cyclists, and all of them are better sprinters
than Boogerd.
There was no sprint, however. Four kilometers before the finish line, Schumacher took handily advantage of
the rivalry among the favorites and of the fact that his team Gerolsteiner had one cyclist more. The German, who has had his
training to become a pro in the Netherlands, quickly enlarged the gap to 27 seconds and after that the race was over. Boogerd
did sprint to fifth place.
Ten Times Top Ten
With that, Rabo's team captain finished for the tenth time in his career
in the top ten of the Amstel Gold Race. Boogerd was being pretty modest when he described that as "Also a good score." Ten
times a top ten ranking in one and the same classic. Only few have ever done so. It is a pity, however, that he only scored
one victory. Boogerd was often good enough for a second one in the Amstel Gold Race, including Sunday, but it is difficult
to pull that off when you are in a lead group with Bettini, Valverde, Rebellin, and Di Luca. It was the same trap he had to
deal with in many previous Amstel Gold Races.
"I was holding my own pretty well and that was it. Unfortunately. I could not make more of it. I think I did
well. I did not take the lead to often and held back when I was. I did not do any wild things. I know I have done some wilder
cycling in previous years," sighed the man who was cheered on by tens of thousands of fans during his goodbye tour through
Limburg's countryside.
First attack also by Schumacher
Boogerd, Bettini, and Kessler were the only ones able
to respond when Schumacher went full throttle on the Eyserbosweg. "You could then already see that Schumacher was a dangerous
pal today. He was riding very strongly," according to Boogerd. The rest had to pass on the extremely steep climb. The attack
was the first one of four serious attempts in the final, after a long escape by five harmless cyclists had been defused. The
five took a maximum lead of eight-and-a-half minutes but were caught up with in small groups some forty kilometers before
the finish.
Before that happened, the race's pace was extraordinarily high but the race itself was also quite bland. It
got exiting and interesting only after the groups had melted together. The Rabo team held its own in the rough final. Boogerd
was part of the attack. Oscar Freire and Thomas Dekker held on in the second group. In the mean time, Rebellin, Valverde,
and Di Luca succeeded in making the jump to the lead group. The number of top favorites increased dramatically because of
that. Schumacher and Rebellin were together. "They took advantage of that quite handily," thought Boogerd. "I was pretty upset
when Schumacher left. It is a pity. Oh well, it is a good victor and he did not steal it."
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| Michael Boogerd, always concentrated before the race starts.. (Picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Tour de Georgia: J. J. Haedo takes final stage!
After two second places in second and sixth stage of Tour de Georgia Team CSC's Juan José Haedo secured
the team a happy ending in Sunday's final stage of the American race.
But it was not an easy win, J. J. Haedo said: "(With) two km (kilometers) to go, there was a crash… I almost crashed… the last
700m a train with the Tinkoff guys came up and I moved behind them. (It was an) uphill sprint and headwind, so you have to
wait as long as you can ‘til the end. I think I wait long enough and then I touch a little with Ivan Dominguez (Toyota-United),
so I lost speed with like 100m to go, but I was still able to pass Freddie (Rodriguez) with 50m to go."
CSC was happy that the team finally took a stage win: "It was a huge relief for us to win today. J.J. was a bit ticked
off by yesterday's second place, so he wanted action. The rest of the team did their bit and J.J. did, what he does best and
took a well-deserved victory. We've done well over here with Christian's overall second place and generally speaking we've
been up front in all the stages, so this win was the perfect round off," said CSC Sports Director Dan Frost after the victory,
which is Haedo's fourth this year.
The general classification was won by Discovrey Channel's Janez Brajkovich. Brajkovich said about the help of his team
mates: "Yesterday and today they did an amazing job protecting me. Yesterday for the first
hour and half there were so many attacks and when I saw them sacrificing themselves for me it was an amazing thing." The young
rider got a flat tire during the final stage: "Immediately Brian (Vandborg) gave me his rear wheel… within seconds
the whole team was at the back of the peloton waiting for me. It wasn’t a problem… we were in the front of the
group in a matter of a few minutes. To have the guys like George (Hincapie), Tom (Danielson) and Levi (Leipheimer) helping
me, a young guy, it’s an amazing feeling."
Winning the Tour of
Georgia means a lot to Brajkovich: "(This is
the) the biggest win of my career so far. I wasn’t even planning to be here, so it’s really an amazing victory.
To win this race by myself would be impossible, but with the team we had here, they were just amazing and they did a lot of
work the past few days." Brajkovic is one of the major talents in todays pro cycling. Brajkovich knows he could develope into
a future grand tour winner: "It’s
going to be a long way to win a race like a Grand Tour, but I have to be optimistic. I know it’s not gonna be possible
in the next two, three, four or even five years…"
Results stage 7 Tour de Georgia 2007
1 Juan José Haedo (Arg) Team CSC
2.25.30 (44.329 km/h)
2 Fred Rodriguez (USA) Predictor-Lotto
3 Sergey Lagutin (Uzb) Navigators Insurance
4 Ivan Dominguez (Cub) Toyota-United
5 George Hincapie (USA) USA Discovery Channel
6 Richard England (Aus) Priority Health
7 Ruggero Marzoli (Ita) Tinkoff Credit Systems
8 Andrea Tonti (Ita) Quick Step
9 Evan Elken (USA) Jittery Joe's
10 Charles Dionne (Can) Colavita/Sutter Home
11 Karl Menzies (Aus) Health Net
12 Hubert Schwab (Swi) Quick Step
13 David Mccann (Irl) Colavita/Sutter Home
14 David Canada (Spa) Saunier Duval - Prodir
15 Alexandre Moos (Swi) BMC
16 Jackson Stewart (USA) BMC
17 Jason Donald (USA) Team Slipstream
18 Steffen Weigold (Ger) Tinkoff Credit Systems
19 Sheldon Deeny (USA) USA National Development Team
20 Jonathan Garcia (USA) BMC
21 John Devine (USA) USA National Development Team
22 Christian Vandevelde (USA) Team CSC
23 Pavel Padrnos (Cze) Discovery Channel
24 Tom Danielson (USA) Discovery Channel
25 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Discovery Channel
Final general classification
1 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Discovery Channel
25.26.33
2 Christian Vandevelde (USA) Team CSC
0.12
3 David Canada (Spa) Saunier Duval - Prodir
3.04
4 Rubens Bertogliati (Swi) Saunier Duval - Prodir
3.06
5 Kevin Seeldraeyers (Bel) Quick Step
4.22
6 Scott Nydam (USA) BMC
5.35
7 Jeff Louder (USA) Health Net
6.00
8 Timothy Johnson (USA) Health Net
6.59
9 Lucas Euser (USA) Team Slipstream
10.08
10 Ivan Santaromita (Swi) Quick Step
12.15
11 Tyler Wren (USA) Colavita/Sutter Home
12.53
12 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel
24.48
13 Tom Danielson (USA) Discovery Channel
26.57
14 Nathan O'neill (Aus) Health Net
27.15
15 Anthony Colby (USA) Colavita/Sutter Home
28.55
16 David Zabriskie (USA) Team CSC
29.03
17 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Health Net
29.09
18 Danny Pate (USA) Team Slipstream
29.55
19 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Saunier Duval - Prodir
30.00
20 George Hincapie (USA) USA Discovery Channel
30.13
21 Michael Blaudzun (Den) Team CSC
30.37
22 Brian Vandborg (Den) Discovery Channel
30.49
23 Alexandre Moos (Swi) BMC
30.50
24 Sergey Lagutin (Uzb) Navigators Insurance
31.28
25 Hubert Schwab (Swi) Quick Step
31.30
During the Tour de Georgia Cyclingheroes
will publish a riders diary of Henk Vogels. Today you can read the sixth part, about the final stage: Henk Vogels Tour de Georgia riders diary: stage 7
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| Janez Brajkovich won the overall (Picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Toyota-United with
great performance at Tour de Georgia, next stop Tour of the Gila
The Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team picked up its fourth top five finish at the Tour de Georgia Sunday when
Ivan Dominguez finished fourth in Stage 7’s circuit race through downtown Atlanta.
'
Dinguez had already placed
fifth on Stage 1 and Stage 6 while teammate Ivan Stevic gave Toyota-United a victory on Stage 3 in Rome on Tuesday. That win
helped Toyota-United become the only domestic team to win a stage of both the Tour de Georgia and the Amgen Tour of California
two years running.
"I’m very satisfied," Toyota-United Team Director Harm Jansen said. "I think the guys made
a big presence for themselves in this race. In all the stages where we thought we had a chance to win, we did a lot of work
to control the stage."
Like it did on nearly every stage, Toyota-United drove the chase to catch a two-man breakaway
that threatened to spoil the day for the sprinters. After the escapees were run down inside the final 10 km, it was Juan José
Haedo (Team CSC) who took the win at the end of the 66.8-mile (107.5 km) race in a time of two hours, 25 minutes and 30 seconds.
Fred Rodriguez (Preditor-Lotto) was second and Sergey Lagutin (Navigators Insurance Cycling Team) placed third.
Dominguez
said he mistimed his sprint on the long, uphill drag to the line.
"Yesterday I waited too long, today I went too soon,"
he said.
It didn’t help that Dominguez lost one of his leadout men, Caleb Manion, in the final three kilometers
when a rider in front of him locked up his wheel going into an off-camber turn.
"When Henk and I went into the turn,
we just ran out of room," Manion said. "There was nowhere to go, so I ended up going into the gutter and then over the handlebars
into the crowd."
Manion avoided serious injury, but did come away with some road rash.
In the final overall standings,
Justin England was highest-placed for Toyota-United in 54th, followed by Ivan Stevic (56th), Chris Baldwin (57th), Manion
(76th), Burke Swindlehurst (78th), Vogels (92nd) and Chris Wherry (96th).
"Toyota-United has stepped up to an international
level in the 16 months or so it has been part of the sport," Vogels said. "We were very, very strong all week and between
us, CSC and Discovery, we controlled the race. I think we gained a great deal of respect."
Tour of the Gila Next Up For Toyota-United
The Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team will field a squad for the 21st annual Tour of the Gila that includes three former
champions of the five-day, five-stage race.
Three-time Gila champion Burke Swindlehurst (1996, 1998, 2005), two-time
winner Chris Wherry (1999, 2002) and defending champion Chris Baldwin will be part of the eight-rider squad Toyota-United
will field for the start on May 2.
The remainder of the Toyota-United squad will be Stefano Barberi, Heath Blackgrove,
Justin England, Jose Manuel Garcia and Ivan Stevic.
Kirk Willett, who will handle Toyota-United Team Director duties
for the National Race Calendar event, said there are several ingredients needed to experience overall success at the race.
"he Tour of the Gila is a climber’s race, but you also have to have good time trialing ability," Willett said.
"There’s a hilly time trial to start it out, followed by a mountain top finish on the second stage. The final stage
is the Gila Monster road race with multiple long climbs. Whoever wins this race is very well deserving. It won’t necessarily
be the best time trial or climber who wins. It is someone who can do both."
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| Toyota-United at an autograph session after the final Georgia stage (picture: Kathleen Poulos) |
Zabel and Petacchi for Milram at Tour of Niedersachsen
Team Milram will start at the Niedersachsen Tour, which is called
Lotto-Tour this year, on Wednesday
(25 to 29 April) with a selection
led by Alessandro Petacchi and Erik Zabel. Last year Alessandro
Petacchi
won all of the five stages as well as the overall
classification. This year the tour of five days and 890 kilometers
is
specific to the sprinters again However, it will be difficult to
repeat last year's success.
Erik
Zabel is also known in Lower Saxony. In 1992 the then 21 year-
old started in the German National Jersey, gaining first
experience.
This year Zabel is highly motivated and wants to give all for Team
Milram to be successful
again. With Christian Knees and Marcel
Sieberg the team management also sends two strong all-rounders to the
start
who can shape the race.
Milram for Niedersachsen:
Erik Zabel, Alessandro Petacchi, Christian Knees, Ralf Grabsch,
Marcel Sieberg, Alberto Ongarato, Enrico Poitschke, Fabio Sabatini
Rabobank for Fleche Wallonne
Teamleader
Erik Breukink of the Rabobank Cycling Team has completed his team for Fleche Wallonne. Coming Wednesday Breukink will line
up the following eight riders: Thomas Dekker, Theo Eltink, Robert Gesink, Koos Moerenhout, William Walker, Oscar Freire, Pieter
Weening and Bram de Groot.
Sébastian
Langeveld and Thorwald Veneberg are on the reserve list for the Rabobank Cycling Team.
Final stage
of Giro d'Ambruzzo: Jaksche in breakaway group
Jörg
Jaksche attacked during yesterdays final stage of the Giro d'Ambruzzo. The German Tinkoff rider made his comeback at the Giro
d'Ambruzzo after he was forced to stop riding as a result of the Fuentes affaire which started about 10 months
ago. As reported Jaksche always insisted that he had nothing to do with the affair and he was cleared by the Austrian Cycling
federation. In yesterdays final stage of the Giro d'Ambruzzo Jaksche was active in a long break away with Stefano
Usai (Uc Palazzago), Luca Gasparini (Sc Pagnoncelli), Marco Cattaneo (Sc Pagnoncelli), Norena Carlos Quintero (Gs Futura Team),
Marco Stefani (Maltini Lampadari), Alessandro Donati and Aurelien Passeron ( both Acqua&Sapone-Caffè Mokambo). The
group had a maximum lead of 2 minutes and 30 seconds. The group with Jaksche was caught and the bunch sprint was won
by Ivan Fanelli (Cinelli - Endeka - OPD). Luca Ascani (Aurum Hotels) won the final general classification.
Read our interview with Jörg Jaksche at:
Jörg Jaksche is back!
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| Jörg Jaksche in the breakaway group (picture: www.girodambruzzo.it) |
Simon Schärer ends cycling career
"I'm not made for cycling. There is too little variety." With these words 24-year-old Swiss neo-pro Simon
Schärer abandons his cycling career. "It have been two beautiful months with the Team Volksbank, but I noticed that this is
not for me. You have to be used to your life as cyclist. I was missing the structured daily routine and certainly it's
a matter of discipline as well, that I can't brace myself for this.", Schärer explains his desicion. "I want to see what I
have achieved each evening when I'm lying in my bed. This happens extremely rarely in cycling. That's frustrating for me",
says the rouleur from Muttenz in Basel canton.
But yet he has enjoyed the time being a professional rider at the Team
Volksbank. "Especially the strong company and the spirit of the team were impressing. This is the most beautiful souvenir
I picked up during my short professional career." In future Schärer , who had signed his first professional contract with
the Team Volksbank, only plans to cycle with friends. "I don't want to race anymore." Schärer, a skilled electrical engineer,
will continue on his occupational career as service technician.
Volksbank-team manager Thomas Kofler regrets his rider's
desicion. "He impressed me by being the runner-up at the Swiss time trialling championship 2006. That's why I wanted to sign
him for 2007. Everybody saw that he really had power on the bike. Athletically he has everything for a solid career. However,
if Simon isn't happy, I understand and respect his desicion. I want to wish him all the best for the future."
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