|
17.06.2007/ Dauphiné Libéré: Astana with another Stage win but Moreau is the new race leader,
Tour de Suisse: Cancellara takes prologue, Delta Profronde: Alessandro Petacchi tried to prevent bunch
sprint
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.
|
New: Eisel with second win at Triple Crown
Vandenbroucke : back to Belgium?
New: Picture gallery: Delta Profronde, Netherlands June 16, 2007
New: Johan Buyneel: "If you live in a glasshouse you shouldn't throw to much stones"
Dauphiné
Libéré: Astana with another Stage win but Moreau is the new race leader
After Spaniard Antonio Colom (Astana) won the fifth stage on Friday with his team mate Alexander Vinoukorov taking
the second spot, on Saturday Kazakh Maxim Iglinsky (Astanao) took care of the third stage win for Astana on stage 6.
Frenchman
Christophe Moreau (Ag2r) became the new leader of the Dauphine Libere after a great ride on Saturday's crucial Alpine stage
between Gap and Valloire. Moreau moved into the yellow-and-blue leader's jersey after breaking away from a group
containing overnight leader Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) on the Col de Telegraphe climb, eight km from the finish. The veteran
Frenchman, already a double stage winner this week, could not catch the flying Iglinsky but working with Australian Cadel
Evans (Predictor-Lotto) and Italian Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval-Prodir) he put time into the isolated Kashechkin.
"I
was just 14 seconds behind Kashechkin this morning on the overall classification, so I had nothing to lose." Moreau told reporters.
"I
attacked at exactly the right moment, just when (Kashechkin's team) Astana had worked hard and tired out a lot of their rivals."
"But
I'd seen Kashechkin had been in trouble on some of the previous climbs, so it was the right move to make."
Second on
the mountainous stage behind Iglinsky, about 50 seconds back, was Russian Alexandre Botcharov (Crédit Agricole) with Frenchman
Pierrick Fedrigo (Bouygues Telecom) in third.
Cadel Evans
(Predictor-Lotto) crossed the line in the Moreau group and now moves up to second overall 14 seconds behind the Frenchman.
Kashechkin slips to third overall (+1'27) with just one stage to go - Sunday's 129km leg from Valloire to Annecy with two
climbs, Tamié and Forclaz.
"Sunday's stage (to Annecy) is difficult. Instead of just letting us ride round the lake
in Annecy the organisers have laid on two big mountain climbs," Moreau said.
"But I'm feeling confident, my morale
is really good and, unless disaster strikes, I can win."
David Zabriskie
(CSC) lost a small amount of time during the queen stage in Dauphiné Libéré, when he had to let go of the favorite's group
on Col du Telégraphe, which was the final climb, but he did manage to keep his fifth place in the general classification.
"Dave
fought like a tiger and had a lot of help from Volodymir on that final climb. Prior to that both Marcus Ljungqvist, Christian
Vande Velde and Nicki Sørensen had worked hard for him in the favorite's group, so I'm fully satisfied with our guys after
this stage. I also think we managed to hang on to our third place in the team's competition," said CSC Sports Director Alain
Gallopin.
Denis Menchov
(Rabobank) failed to follow Moreau in his attack on the col du Telegraphe. But Rabobank Sports Director Erik Breukink was
not dissatisfied with his captain's performance. "Denis was not super today but very steady in the second row instead," thought
Breukink who added that "Menchov does not need to be super yet. Only one man was today: Moreau. He was formidable. Again."
Breukink had announced on Friday that Menchov would try to hang on, but not at all costs. On Saturday, the
team leader was honest enough to conclude that his captain cannot do much better at the moment. "When Denis had had a surplus
during that last climb he would have tried to follow Moreau but he took off so terribly fast that seemed to be, and was, pointless.
Denis belonged in the group behind that and he cycled well."
Menchov's lack of a super day did not worry anyone in the Rabo team. Breukink: "Denis is doing well in the
preparations for the Tour de France. At the moment he is certainly no less than the other potential top ranking cyclists for
the Tour de France. Yes, Moreau now towers above everyone but I do not expect him to be able to hold on to that shape until
the Tour de France. Besides, the rest will improve."
Results
Stage 5
1 Antonio
Colom (Spa) Astana
4.39.28 (41.865 km/h)
2 Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana
3 Leonardo Duque (Col) Cofidis
0.15
4 Matej Mugerli (Slo) Liquigas
5 Stef Clement (Ned) Bouygues Telecom
6 Preben Van Hecke (Bel) Predictor-Lotto
0.18
7 Anthony Charteau (Fra) Crédit Agricole
8 Egoi Martínez (Spa) Discovery Channel
9 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Gerolsteiner
1.08
10 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française Des Jeux
Stage 6
1 Maxim
Iglinsky (Kaz) Astana
5.51.32 (33.795 km/h)
2 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Crédit Agricole
0.51
3 Pierrick Fédrigo (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
4 Rémy Di Gregorio (Fra) Française Des Jeux
5 Egoi Martínez (Spa) Discovery Channel
2.16
6 Mikel Astarloza (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
7 Aleksandr Kuschynski (Blr) Liquigas
8 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Ag2r Prévoyance
2.23
9 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor-Lotto
2.25
10 Leonardo Piepoli (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir
General
Classification after stage 6
1 Christophe
Moreau (Fra) Ag2r Prévoyance 26.54.25
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor-Lotto
0.14
3 Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz) Astana
1.27
4 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank
1.52
5 David Zabriskie (USA) Team CSC
2.16
6 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis
3.17
7 Mikel Astarloza (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
3.58
8 Alberto Contador (Spa) Discovery Channel
4.24
9 Manuel Beltrán (Spa) Liquigas
5.01
10 Tadej Valjavec (Slo) Lampre-Fondital
5.17
|
| Christophe Moreau took over the overall lead (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Tour de Suisse: Cancellara takes prologue
On Saturday Fabian Cancellara (CSC) demonstrated exactly why he is the ruling World Time Trial Champion in the rainbow
colored jersey, when he completely annihilated his rivals in the 3.8-kilometer prologue in Tour de Suisse.
Cancellara
won with an incredible eight seconds ahead of Lampre's Daniele Bennatti, who in turn only had one and a half seconds down
to Stuart O'Grady in fifth place.
"Fabian was amazing. Already yesterday, when we were checking out the route a couple
of times, I was sure he'd win, because it was tailor made for him. That one small mountain was perfect for him and at the
same time Fabian and Stuart are probably the strongest riders out there in the turns. So we realized quite early on that he'd
win this one. It was a good thing that we'd done the route by car as well so we were prepared, because otherwise we wouldn't
have been able to keep up with him," laughed CSC Sport Director Kim Andersen, who was also pleased with good results by the
other Team CSC riders.
"Both Stuart, Lars Bak, Carlos Sastre and Fränk Schleck were fast as well, so it was a great
day for us," concluded Andersen.
Results
Prologue
1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team CSC
4.20.90 (52.615 km/h)
2 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
0.07.96
3 José Ivan Gutierrez Palacios (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
0.08.13
4 William Bonnet (Fra) Credit Agricole
0.09.36
5 Stuart O'grady (Aus) Team CSC
0.09.67
6 Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
0.09.70
7 Martin Elmiger (Swi) Ag2r Prevoyance
0.10.82
8 Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) Française Des Jeux
0.11.12
9 Stefan Schumacher (Ger) Gerolsteiner
0.11.30
10 Leif Hoste (Bel) Predictor-Lotto
0.11.69
|
| Fabian Cancellara won yesterdays prologue (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Delta Profronde: Alessandro Petacchi tried to prevent bunch sprint
Denis Flahaut of Team Jartzi-Promo Fashion has won the Dutch one-day race Delta Profronde. In a bunch sprint
he prevailed against Stefan Dijk of Team Wiesenhof-Felt and Matthew Goss of Team CSC. Although Alessandro Petacchi did not
win the bunch sprint, he surprised the other riders by triying to prevent his favorite cycling activity from taking place
with a jump. After Ale-Jet was caught he didn’t have a chance any more and arrived 29 seconds after the winner
on rank 46.
Team CSC's young Australian talent Matthew Goss continued his string of good results, by taking third place.
Goss
was part of an early break with Kasper Klostergaard and Matti Breschel and quite a few other riders, but after about 50 kilometers
Matti was hit by bad luck and crashed in a roundabout.
"The roads were soaking wet the whole day and Matti ended up
crashing. Before he managed to get on his feet again it was too late to catch up to the break, so he was swallowed up by the
peloton. Later on he had to abandon because he was in serious pain, but he seems okay and will probably be ready to train
again tomorrow," said CSC Sports Director Scott Sunderland.
"Luckily Matthew and Kasper were able to stay in the front
group, which began with 29 riders and later grew a bit because of another group of about 20 riders catching up. Kasper did
a great job protecting Matthew and preparing him for the sprint. And Matthew did end up perfectly positioned ahead of a tough
cobble stoned finish. But he got jammed in a bit thanks to another rider, who was all over the place, so his window of opportunity
closed. He thinks he would've won if it hadn't been for that situation, but at least he managed to prove once again, what
a great talent he is – and the same goes for Kasper by the way," determined Sunderland.
Results
1 Denis Flahaut (Fra) Jartazi Promo Fashion
4.11.06 (47.56 km/h)
2 Stefan Van Dijk (Ned) Team Wiesenhof Felt
3 Matthew Goss (Aus) Team CSC
4 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank
5 Paul Van Schalen (Ned) Ubbink-Syntec Cycling Team
6 Steffen Radochla (Ger) Team Wiesenhof Felt
7 Wouter Weylandt (Bel) Quickstep-Innergetic
8 Sven Vanthourenhout (Bel) Sunweb Pro Job
9 Roy Curvers (Ned) Time-Van Hemert
10 Roy Sentjens (Ned) Predictor-Lotto
More pictures at: New: Picture gallery: Delta Profronde, Netherlands June 16, 2007
|
| Denis Flahaut was the fastest man in the Netherlands (picture: Edwin van het Westeinde) |
|
