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18.06.2007/ Dauphiné Libéré: Vinokourov takes final stage, Moreau overall winner, Tour de
Suisse: Zabel won bunch sprint, Toyota United dominates Austin weekend races, T-Mobile for Ster Elektotoer, Circuito
Montanes : Ocampo takes ITT
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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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"
New: Picture gallery: Austin Criteriums, USA June 16 & 17, 2007
Dauphiné
Libéré: Vinokourov takes final stage, Moreau overall winner
Le Chien (The dog, Christophe Moreau, AG2R) won the overall of the Dauphiné Libéré for the second time in his career.
And he had to work hard for it as his opponents attacked again and again in the final kilometers of the final stage.
The springboard
for Moreau's title capture were stage wins at St Etienne on Tuesday and on the legendary 20 km Mont Ventoux on Thursday.
Then
on Saturday's gruelling ride through the Alps, the Frenchman dropped overnight leader Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) on the final
climb of the stage to recapture first place overall.
"I won because I knew how to stay calm at the crucial moments,"
Moreau told reporters. "Consistency rather than panicking, going all out and then losing time was the key."
"When I
won at St Etienne and on the Mont Ventoux I knew I was on good form and could start thinking about overall victory," he added.
The final stage over 129 km from Valloire to Annecy was won by Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana), who broke away
four kilometres from the line to seal his team Astana's fourth stage win in the race. Vinokourov had a bit of luck as Levi
Leipheimer (Discovery Channel) was at the front of the race but the US rider crashed in a corner on a wet street.
"I
came here to test my form and that's exactly what I did," Vino told reporters. "Today's move wasn't planned, I just went for
it to see what would happen."
"In any case, four stage wins and third overall for Kashechkin for the team is a great
result."
Spaniard Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d'Epargne) finished second in the stage through the Lower Alps, which included
the Tamié and Forclaz climbs, and Australian Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) came in third.
Rabobank Sports Director Erik Breukink was satisfied with his team: "We have played a role until the end," realized
Erik Breukink. "And that with only four men. Additionally, the guys have come out of this tour with a much stronger condition
than when they started. Denis Menchov was doing very well during the weekend. That is very promising with a view to the Tour."
Menchov indicated to Breukink after the finish on Sunday that he was feeling very well. Breukink: "Denis had energy
left today. He placed an attack at the right moment, but there were still too many Astana's left in that group. Otherwise,
it might have worked. But, the general mood, with regard to Denis and the team, is very positive. We have shown more with
four riders than other teams with six or seven."
Breukink was impressed by the show of force from the Astana team, which achieved 4 stage wins and Kashechin became
third in the overall: "The team to look out for in the upcoming Tour. A very strong collective," confessed Breukink. "What
else did the Dauphiné teach with regard to the Tour? That for a very long time it will most likely be tough to control. Because
of the absence of a real top favorite, it will be unclear and unpredictable for quite some time, but definitely exciting."
David Zbriskie was surprisingly strong in the mountains and finished 5th in the overall: "I'm happy for Dave, because
he really deserves this. He was very disappointed after his third place in the time trial. But in the mountains he showed
that he's got class, when he's relaxed like that. Today he had loads of extra energy on that final mountain, where he was
second all the way up, and he did well on the descent too even though it was wet out there, so he has every reason to be satisfied
with himself," said CSC Sports Director Alain Gallopin following the race.
The 36-year-old Moreau, who also won the
overall in 2001, finished in a group containing all the favourites, less than a minute behind Vinokourov.
Evans came
second overall (+0'14) and Kazakh Andrey Kashechkin grabbed the third spot.
Results
Stage 7
1 Alexander
Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana 2.55.33 (44.09 km/h)
2 Oscar
Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0.37
3 Cadel Evans (Aus)
Predictor-Lotto
4 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank
5 Tadej Valjavec (Slo) Lampre-Fondital
6 Manuel Beltrán (Spa) Liquigas
7 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Ag2r Prévoyance
8
José Antonio Redondo (Spa) Astana
9 Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz) Astana
10 Alberto Contador (Spa) Discovery Channel
Final General
Classification
1 Christophe
Moreau (Fra) Ag2r Prévoyance
29.50.35
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 Alberto Contador (Spa) Discovery Channel
4.24
7 Mikel Astarloza (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
5.00
8 Manuel Beltrán (Spa) Liquigas
5.01
9 Tadej Valjavec (Slo) Lampre-Fondital
5.17
10 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis
5.38
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| Alexander Vinkourov won 2 stages at this years Dauphiné (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Tour de Suisse: Zabel won bunch sprint
Erik Zabel has won the second stage of the Tour de Suisse. In the bunch sprint after 157.2 kilometers the Milram-pro
relegated Daniele Bennati to rank two. Fabian Cancellara (CSC) finished third.
It was Zabel’s third win this
season. After his team-mates had worked a lot especially in the finale, catching up with the last escapees, Alberto Ongarato
prepared the sprint for his 36 year-old captain. 200 meters to the finish Zabel started the sprint first and finished with
a narrrow gap to Daniele Bennati. „With two mountain classifications on the last kilometers the stage was pretty demanding.
There was a slight rise on the home stretch as well, so it wasn’t easy,“ Erik Zabel said. He didn’t notice
a crash behind him. However, he nearly crashed himself. „I also slid there.“
Daniele Bennati said: "I had good feelings in the sprint for what concerns my legs." Bennati continued by saying:
"The problem is that my left shoulder, hurted in a crash on Thursday during training, didn't permit me to move in
a pefect way".
In the overall standing, Lampre-Fondital's rider is 2nd, 7" behind Cancellara.
After the two sprinters,
the winner of the prologue, Fabian Cancellara, was third and is going to start the third stage on Monday from Brunnen
to Nauders over 228 kilometers as the overall leader again.
Results
Stage 2
1 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram
4.04.56 (38.508 km/h)
2 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
3 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team CSC
4 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Team CSC
5 Murilo Antonio Fischer (Bra) Liquigas
6 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Predictor-Lotto
7 William Bonnet (Fra) Credit Agricole
8 Marcus Burghardt (Ger) T-Mobile Team
9 Alberto Ongarato (Ita) Team Milram
10 Patrick Calcagni (Swi) Liquigas
General Classification after stage 2
1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team CSC
4.09.10
2 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
0.07
3 José Ivan Gutierrez Palacios (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
0.15
4 William Bonnet (Fra) Credit Agricole
0.16
5 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Team CSC
6 Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
7 Martin Elmiger (Swi) Ag2r Prevoyance
0.17
8 Benoît Vaugrenard (Fra) Française Des Jeux
0.18
9 Stefan Schumacher (Ger) Gerolsteiner
10 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram
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| Erik Zabel won his third race of the current season (picture: Cyclingheroes) |
Toyota United dominates Austin weekend races
Short on numbers, the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team still managed to come up with impressive results at
a pair of weekend races in Austin, Texas.
Only Sean Sullivan, Ivan Stevic and Henk Vogels made the trip to Texas’
capital city to compete in Saturday’s AT&T Downtown Austin Criterium and Sunday’s Driveway Criterium.
In
front of a huge crowd, Sullivan nearly pulled off a win Saturday jumping out of a three-man breakaway – only to be caught
on the last lap of the 70-minute race.
Frank Travieso (AEG-Toshiba-Jet Network) took the win, as Stevic and Vogels
finished third and fourth, respectively.
“We were hoping Sean would make it to the finish,” Stevic said.
“It was really hard to control things with only three guys.”
Sunday’s race featured a smaller field
but speeds were still high on the car and go-kart racing track where the race was held.
The 45-minute race featured
a flurry of attacks. But it all came back together in the end with Stevic taking the win and Vogels placing third. The victory
was Stevic's third of the season.
Swindlehurst Finally Gets High Uintas Classic Win
Toyota-United’s Burke Swindlehurst climbed to the top step of the podium Sunday as the winner of the two-day, three-stage
High Uintas Classic Stage Race in Evanston, Wyo.
Swindlehurst soloed away to win Saturday’s 80-mile race through
the rugged mountains of the Wasatch-Cache National Forest to the summit of Bald Mountain. He followed that with third in Sunday
morning’s 10-mile time trial and second in the afternoon criterium.
“I'm pretty happy with this since
I've been second at this race the previous four times I’ve done it,” Swindlehurst said.
Lea Sets Sights On Olympic Track Berth
Bobby Lea’s quest to compete in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing
began Friday night in the venue known as the “Track Cycling Capital of the World,” the Lehigh Valley Velodrome
in Trexlertown, Penn.
Over the next three-and-a-half months, Lea will become very familiar with the 333.3-meter concrete
track and its 28-degree banked turns as he attempts to gain enough points to make the United States Olympic team in the points
and Madison races.
“It’s no secret that it’s less competitive to make the Olympic team on the track
than on the road,” Lea said. “For someone like me, track is by far my best shot. I know that if it is something
I want to do, I have to get it done now, then I can switch over to road racing full-time.”
Lea has the opportunity
to compete in seven Union Cycliste Internationale events this season, the most of any velodrome in the world. During UCI-sanctioned
events, riders accumulate points for the world championship and toward qualifying for the Olympic Games. Because of this,
more than a dozen top international riders are spending the summer in Trexlertown.
Since he started racing at Lehigh
Valley (at the age of eight) in 1991, Lea has won seven elite national championships, five national titles as a junior and
30 National Collegiate Cycling Association national track titles. But adding to those victories seemed questionable this spring
when Lea underwent surgery to repair arteries in his legs.
The Easton, M.D., native had been experiencing problems
with blood flow to his legs while pedaling with maximum effort during competition and training. An examination revealed constriction
of the external iliac artery in both legs. Surgeons at the University of Virginia Medical Center placed a patch inside each
artery to act as a wedge and open the artery back up to its proper size.
After extensive rehabilitation following
the March 8 surgery, Lea was back on the bike in a few weeks and racing again by the last week of April.
“The
first couple of weeks back were tough,” he said, “but I am definitely stronger than what I was before the surgery.”
Lea surprised even himself with a win at the Leonardtown Criterium on May 20 and raced impressively at the Mt. Hood
Cycling Classic earlier this month.
The two events Lea has his sights on for the Olympics are similar. In the Madison,
he will pair with another rider to compete for points during sprint laps. The event is a variation of the points race –
Lea’s other main discipline – in which points are awarded to the first five finishers of sprints that occur periodically
throughout the race.
Even though his primary goal is to compile UCI points toward an Olympic qualifying spot, Lea
will split his time between the track and road racing.
Sunday was a prime example of the demands he will face. After
finishing third in the 30 km points race and fifth in the 15 km scratch race Friday night, Lea was racing early the next afternoon
in the Crystal City Classic criterium in Arlington, Va.
“I rode the first 45 kilometers sitting in, just trying
to find my legs,” Lea said.
After working his way into three different breakaways – the last of which
was caught with two laps to go – Lea finished 19th.
More pictures at: Picture gallery: Austin Criteriums, USA June 16 & 17, 2007
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| Bobby Lea wants to compete at the 2008 Olympic Games (picture: Toyota-United) |
T-Mobile for Ster Elektotoer
The T-Mobile Team go to the five-day Ster Elektrotoer (19.-23. June) stage race in the Netherlands on Tuesday
with a team dominated by sprinters. Fast men Mark Cavendish, Gerald Ciolek and Bernhard Eisel lead the charge at the sprinter-friendly
race, where their job will be to win bunch finishes.
"It is great to have three top class sprinters at our disposal,"
says team director Jan Schaffrath ahead of the 700 Kms tour. "They will all get their chance to put their sensational top-end
speed to good use. We will decide on a day-to-day basis whether to ride for Cavendish, Ciolek or Eisel.”
Fresh
off two wins at the Triple Crown series in the US, Austrian Eisel is brimming with confidence. "My confidence and morale is
sky-high after the wins in the US. We will be a powerful force in Holland. If the competition is marking me, then I will ride
for Mark or Gerald. Most important is that the team wins", says Eisel.
Cavendish aims to add to season tally
Young
British sprinter Mark Cavendish is on the same wavelength. With five season wins already in the bags, the Manx speedster is
keen on more wins to stay in the frame for a Tour place.
„It’s like a dream sometimes, I never thought
I’d be celebrating two ProTour stage wins at race as big as the Tour of Catalonia in my first pro season,” says
the 22-year-old. “We are bringing a strong team to Elektrotoer. If the legs are good, then I will sprint for the stage
win. But I will also be there for Gerald and Bernhard.“
Supporting the three fast-men in the borderlands region
that straddles the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany are the two experienced veterans Servais Knaven (Netherlands) and Axel
Merckx (Belgium). Also in the eight strong squad are Thomas Ziegler, Lorenzo Bernucci and Canada's Michael Barry – in
his first race outing since recovering from a bout of pneumonia.
Border excursions
The sprint competition
in the Netherlands will be fierce - fast men Max van Heeswijk and Graeme Brown spearhead a strong Rabobank squad, while CSC
have defending champion Kurt-Asle Arvesen and sprinter Juan José Haedo in their ranks.
The UCI Category 2.1 race makes
cross-border excursions on stages three and four - Thursday's longest stage is from Aachen in Germany to Valkenburg, where
the finale will be played on the famous Cauberg of Amstel Gold Race fame. Friday’s stage finishes in Belgium, but the
race returns to the Netherlands on Saturday for a likely bunch finish in Eindhoven.
T-Mobile for Ster Elektrotoer: Michael Barry (31/Canada), Lorenzo Bernucci (27/Italy), Mark Cavendish (22/Great
Britain), Gerald Ciolek (20), Bernhard Eisel (26/Austria), Servais Knaven (36/Netherlands), Axel Merckx (34/Belgium), Thomas
Ziegler (26).
Sports Director: Jan Schaffrath (35)
Circuito Montanes : Ocampo takes ITT
The Spaniard Pedro Romero Ocampo (Extremadura - Spiuk) has won the 17 kilometres' time trial in Circuito
Montanes yesterday. Ocampo was faster than the Dutchmen Bauke Mollema and Martyn Maaskant of Rabobank CT.
Bauke Mollema (Rabobank CT) is the new leader in the general classification. Lucas Persson (Unibet.com CT)
is now second at 48 seconds.
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