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05.06.2007/ Tour of Bavaria: Schumacher takes overall - final stage for Siedler, Mt. Hood: final stage for Heath
Blackgrove - Nathan O’Neill takes overall, Tour of Belgium: Tornado Tom takes final stage - Gusev overall
winner, Commerce bank Lancaster classic: Eisel wins in the rain, Godefroot says he will sue D'Hont
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 June 2007 will receive a picture in 20 X 30 CM format with original handwritten
autograph of Michael Boogerd.
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Former T-Mobile doctor Schmid did blood doping research for WADA
Doping: More riders speak out
Zabel is allowed to continue riding for Team Milram
University of Freiburg: 55 years of deception?
New: Special coverage Giro d'Italia 2007
Tour of Bavaria: Schumacher takes overall - final stage for Siedler
On Sunday the Tour of Bavaria ended with another double-win for Team Milram: Sebastian Siedler has won the fifth and final
stage of the Bayern-Rundfahrt from Rothenburg ob der Tauber to Fürth over 160 kilometers. Second was his team-mate Erik Zabel,
followed by Javier Benitez Pomares (Benfica). It took some time for the winner to realise his success: "we rode in the front
like we often do and in the end I wasn’t sure who of us was first. I was a bit afraid that somebody had come from behind
and tried to take Erik to the finish line. I didn’t know that I was first in the end. But what is important is that
one of us won," Sebastian Siedler said.
For Siedler it was the first success in a long time: "I have to work that out
first. I didn’t win a race in about three years and couldn’t take the feeling over the finish line. Now I know
that I’m in a good condition. Now the grand tours are about to come and I’ll approach them with high respect."
After
a hectic beginning a top group of three with Alvarus Baranauskas (AGR), Andreas Lund (CDC) and Konstantin Schubert (TRS) broke
away from the main group. The escapees could establish a lead of up to 6:35 minutes but were caught up again after the second
finish round in Fürth. Finally the team around Erk Zabel had everything under control: „Sebastian Siedler did a great
spurt. Today, Marcel Sieberg was in front for a really long time, then I stayed at Sebastian’s back wheel and thought,
if nobody else passes us, I don’t have to as well. Finally it was quite narrow, but Sebastian did a great race,“
Erik Zabel said. Marcel Sieberg was involved in a crash before his great performance in the finale:"„At the Cadolzburg
Jens Voigt crashed before me, and I couldn’t get around him," Sieberg said.
His team-mate’s win wasn’t
a surprise for Erik Zabel: "When we won on Friday we both said that Sebastian is in a great condition and that he might not
know how strong he is and that it is time for him to attack a bit. This won’t be his last win this season, I’m
sure. He’s so strong and so explosive that the one or other big name might get into trouble."
The final stage
didn’t see any more changes in the overall classification. Stefan Schumacher of Team Gerolsteiner defended his yellow
jersey and won the Tour of Bavaria, followed by Bert Grabsch (T-Mobile) and CSC-pro Jens Voigt.
For Erik Zabel the
tour was a good return to cycling. "After the turbulent time it was like jumping into cold water, but it probably was the
best way to do it. I really like this race a lot, the atmosphere is great and the viewers have helped me a bit as well."
Results
Stage 5
1. Sebastian Siedler – Team Milram - 3:47:21 Stunden
2. Erik Zabel – Team Milram
3. Javier Benitez Pomares
- Benfica
4. Gerald Ciolek – T-Mobile
5. Hans Dekkers - Agritubel
6. David Kopp - Gerolsteiner
7. Heinrich
Haussler - Gerolsteiner
8. René Weissinger - Team Volksbank
9. Emiliano Donadello - Selle Italia
10. Martin Hebik
- Heinz von Heiden
Final General Classification Tour of Bavaria
1. Stefan Schumacher - Team Gerolsteiner, 17:39:18 Stunden
2. Bert Grabsch - T-Mobile-Team +0:09 Sekunden
3. Jens
Voigt - CSC +0:15
4. Frank Schleck - CSC +0:25
5. Andreas Klöden - Astana 0:30
6. Sebastian Siedler - Team MILRAM
+0:38
7. Nicki Sörensen - CSC +0:51
8. Fabian Wegmann - Team Gerolsteiner +0:54
9. Peter Velits - Team Wiesenhof-Felt
+0:57
10. Stuart O'Grady - CSC +0:58
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| Stefan Schumacher won the overall of the Tour of Bavaria (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Mt. Hood: final stage for Heath Blackgrove - Nathan O’Neill
takes overall
Heath Blackgrove won his first race since the first week of January and teammate Bobby Lea cruised in behind
him to give the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team a 1-2 finish on the final stage of the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic.
Blackgrove
and Lea were hardly challenged in the final sprint to the line at the end of Sunday’s Stage 6 Downtown Criterium. Ryder
Hesjedal (Health Net presented by Maxxis) was third.
Blackgrove said he was originally going to lead out Lea at the
end of the 60-minute race. But on the tight, four-tenths-of-a-mile course, the New Zealander recognized an opportunity to
win himself when Lea allowed a gap to open up through the final corners.
“I took the last four corners and just
bombed through those as hard as I could,” Blackgrove said. “I didn’t want to lead Bobby out too early because
it was an uphill sprint and into the wind. Once I got through the final corner, I just kept waiting for someone to come around
me and no one did.”
Lea said he thought it would be a good idea to back off from Blackgrove heading into the
final corner in order to keep his momentum onto the 150-meter finishing straightaway.
“But when I came out of
the last corner, I hit it and no one was on my wheel,” Lea said. “So I didn’t even have to come around Heath.”
The 1-2 finish in the criterium came in addition to Toyota-United’s Stefano Barberi winning the King of the
Mountains classification.
The results brought a grin to the face of Team Director Kirk Willett.
“The
guys raced aggressively today and, in the end, the week turned out great for us,” Willett said.
Sunday’s
race was a role reversal of sorts for Toyota-United’s top two riders on the general classification. With their spots
in the top 12 overall likely not to change in the final stage, Chris Baldwin and Justin England went to work following attacks
and keeping Lea and Blackgrove out of trouble.
England, who was third across the line in Saturday’s Stage 5
Wy’East Road Race, finished in fifth place overall, three minutes behind Nathan O’Neill (Health Net), who repeated
as the race’s overall champion. Chris Baldwin, who came into the race a handful of points behind Ben Jacques-Maynes
on the National Race Calendar standings, finished 11th overall, 3:41 behind.
Blackgrove, who now has four wins to
his credit this season, said the victory eases some of the frustration that came with rehabilitating a nagging knee injury
suffered at the Amgen Tour of California in February. He only returned to racing action last month.
“It’s
been a long, hard road back but finally things are slowly starting to improve for me over the past few weeks,” he said.
Results
Stage 6
1 Heath Blackgrove (USA) Toyota-United Pro Cycling
58.21 (45.23 km/h)
2 Bobby Lea (USA) Toyota-United Pro Cycling
3 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Health Net presented by Maxxis
4 Phil Zajicek (USA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team
5 Ben Jacques-Maynes (USA) Priority Health/Bissell
6 Nathan O'Neill (Aus) Health Net presented by Maxxis
7 Andrew Fischer (USA) Hagens Berman, LLP
0.02
8 Aaron Tuckerman (USA) Team Rubicon
9 Christopher Jones (USA) Nerac Pro Cycling
10 Patrick Dunaway (USA) California Giant/Specialized
Final General Classification Mt. Hood
1 Nathan O'Neill (Aus) Health Net presented by Maxxis
13.45.49
2 Phil Zajicek (USA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team
0.05
3 Ben Jacques-Maynes (USA) Priority Health/Bissell
0.32
4 Glen Chadwick (NZl) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team
2.18
5 Justin England (USA) Toyota-United Pro Cycling
3.00
6 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Health Net presented by Maxxis
3.01
7 Chris Lieto (USA) California Giant/Specialized
3.08
8 Aaron Tuckerman (USA) Team Rubicon
3.38
9 Ben Kneller (USA) Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory
10 Darren Lill (RSA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team
3.39
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| Heath Blackgrove takes the win while teammate Bobby Lea begins to celebrate... (picture: Ted Turner) |
Tour of Belgium: Tornado Tom takes final stage - Gusev overall winner
Tom Boonen is back on winning form gaining 1st place in Sunday's final stage of the Tour of Belgium (Aywaille-Putte,
148,8 Km) beating Kenny Van Hummel (Skill Stimano) and Allan Davis (Discovery Channel) at the final sprint.
This is a splendid victory for the Quickstep – Innergetic Team athlete that has just started racing again after a
nasty injury 3 weeks ago.
"This morning I asked my team mates to take me up to the sprint,"Boonen said. "I wanted to force myself to my limit really
in order to see how things would go after breaking the big toe of my right foot and bad bruising to my shin. I am still
in quite a bit of pain and am not at 100% but I’m still able to push myself to the limit. The Tour of Belgium
has given me the chance to get back into the racing rhythm but to be honest, I didn’t think I’d be ready to try
my luck at the final sprint. I am very satisfied. On Tuesday evening I’ll be flying off to Monte Carlo where
I’ll be training for the Tour de Dauphine which is another important step towards the Tour de France."
Results
Stage 5
1 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quickstep - Innergetic
4.14.12 (43.619 km/h)
2 Kenny Van Hummel (Ned) Skil - Shimano
3 Allan Davis (Aus) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
4 Gorik Gardeyn (Bel) Unibet.com
5 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) Predictor - Lotto
6 Frédéric Amorison (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner
7 Jeremy Hunt (GBr) Unibet.com
8 Roy Sentjens (Ned) Predictor - Lotto
9 Wouter Weylandt (Bel) Quickstep - Innergetic
10 Tyler Farrar (USA) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone
Final General Classification Tour of Belgium
1 Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
17.04.34
2 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Skil - Shimano
0.39
3 Leif Hoste (Bel) Predictor - Lotto
0.40
4 Sébastien Rosseler (Bel) Quickstep - Innergetic
0.53
5 Rick Flens (Ned) Rabobank
1.13
6 Bert Roesems (Bel) Predictor - Lotto
1.14
7 Gianni Meersman (Bel) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
1.25
8 Bert De Waele (Bel) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner
1.32
9 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) Predictor - Lotto
1.34
10 Maarten Den Bakker (Ned) Skil - Shimano
2.16
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| Tornado Tom is back! (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Commerce bank Lancaster classic: Eisel wins in the rain
T-Mobile's Bernhard Eisel powered to his second season win in tropical-like rain at the Lancaster leg of
the Commerce Bank Triple Crown on Sunday. Emerging from a select breakaway, the Austrian edged out Sergey Lagutin (Navigators)
in a two-up sprint.
Rain wasn’t the only thing falling at Sunday’s first race of the Commerce Bank Triple Crown
of Cycling. A crash knocked Toyota-United’s Henk Vogels out of contention. Ivan Stevic experienced a scare with his
breathing and had to go to the hospital to be checked out. And even the Toyota-United Prius Team Car took a hit, rear-ended
by another vehicle during the race.
"This was not our day," Toyota-United Team Diretor Harm Jansen said.
Before
the 85-mile (136.7 km) race even reached its halfway point, Jansen came upon Stevic sitting on the side of the road, experiencing
a problem with his breathing. An ambulance was called and the Serbian National Champion was taken to the hospital.
An
examination revealed that Stevic suffered from cramping in his esophagus – the tube through which food passes from the
pharynx to the stomach. He was kept in the hospital overnight as a precaution, Jansen said. Stevic was released Monday morning.
"He might have had a bit of panic when it happened because it obviously disrupted his breathing," Jansen said. "But
the good news is that he will be OK and it was nothing serious."
Just a day earlier, Stevic finished second at the
CSC Invitational in Arlington, Va.
Vogels was also not seriously hurt after crashing with three laps to go. He was
one of only three Toyota-United riders to finish the race, which was run in rain that turned into a torrential downpour at
times. Chris Wherry was 63rd, Caleb Manion was 66th and Vogels was 78th.
Manion was part of the race’s first
substantial breakaway. His group of 11 eventually dwindled to six and was caught inside of 25 miles (40 km) to go.
One
of the few bright spots on the day for Toyota-United came when Manion flatted, received a quick wheel change and regained
his spot in the break. Two others in the breakaway who also flatted were unable to make it back on with the group of escapees.
The second race of the Commerce Bank Triple Crown is Thursday’s Reading Classic in Reading, Penn.
Results
1 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) T-Mobile
3.18.41
2 Sergey Lagutin (Uzb) Navigators Insurance
3 Frank Pipp (USA) Health Net - Maxxis
0.15
4 Danny Pate (USA) Slipstream p/b Chipotle
5 Svein Tuft (Can) Symmetrics Cycling Team
6 Trent Wilson (Aus) Jittery Joe's
7 Alejandro Alberto Borrajo (Arg) Rite Aid
8 David Vitoria (Swi) Bmc Racing Team
9 Frank Travieso (Cub) Aeg-Toshiba-Jetnetwork
1.23
10 Jorge Martinez (Col) Caico
1.59
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| Toyota-United's Henk Vogels crashed,but forged on and finished 78th (picture: Charles M. Herskowitz) |
Godefroot says he will sue D'Hont
Former T-Mobile and Telekom team manager Walter Godefroot held a press conference today, saying that
he did not organize and finance the use of performance enhancing drugs at the Telekom team. Godefroot also anounced he would
sue former Telekom soigneur Jef D'hont, who accused him of organising doping at the German team during the nineties.
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