Oliver Kaiser won GP Gerrie Knetemann

The GP Gerrie Knetemann was held yesterday, The race over 6 local circuits near the Dutch city of Oosterbeek, with a total of 145,2 km.

The race was run under very hard weather conditions. A 20-man breakaway group animated the race, and they made it to the finish.

In the final lap, the group has exploded, and, with 210 kilometres to go, Olivier Kaisin attacked. He made a 40" gap, and, his Predictor-Lotto team mates controlling the chase, Olivier Kaiser made it to the finish. It was Kaisers first win this season.

CSC will sign UCI charter

As reported by Dutch TV station N.O.S. reported on Sunday that Danish team CSC will not sign the UCI riders charter. But there were also ther reports which indicated that the CSC squad would let their riders decide themselves. Yesterday Dutch daily newspaper 'De Telegraaf' reported that CSC will sign the statement.

Petacchi not to Tour

The anti-doping committee of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) will advice the Italian Cycling Federation (FCI) to suspend Alessandro Petacchi for one year after he was tested 'non-negative' during this years Giro d'Italia. Petacchi is suspended by Team Milram. Milram replaced Petacchi at the Tour roster by Andrey Grivko.

Van Impe renewed with Quickstep

Kevin Van Impe has renewed his contract with the QUICK STEP-Innergetic team of manager Patrick Lefevere. 

Van Impe will race with the QSI team at 2008 with an option for 2009.

Liquigas for Tour de France

T-Mobile for Tour of Austria

T-Mobile is sending a team of classics specialists and all-rounders to the Tour of Austria from Sunday (July 8-15), where the magenta team will focus its energies on stage wins.

One candidate for a stage win at the eight-day 1.246 Kilometre trek through the Alpine nation is World U23-champion Gerald Ciolek. „The first two stages and the final stage are sprinter-friendly. It would be great if I could start the race on the right footing, but a final day stage victory would also be great", says Ciolek, who will be hoping that the breakaway specialists don't spoil the party.

Strange as it may sound, the Tour of Austria is almost a home race for Australia's Adam Hansen. Before joining T-Mobile for this season, the Aussie spent four years riding for Austrian teams and he feels particularly motivated to do well on routes and stages he is very familiar with.

"It's my first race back since breaking my hand at the Giro, so I am look forward to it," says the 26-year-old who placed 12th overall in Austria last year. "I'll play it by ear, try to get into breakaways and see what happens. I expect the Austrian teams to be really strong at their race."

Schaffrath: "Staying flexible"
"We won't lay too much emphasis on the general classification. In Ciolek we have an excellent candidate for stage wins," says sporting director Jan Schaffrath. "We will also try to be opportunistic and get some of our riders away in the decisive breakaways. The most important thing is that we stay flexible, keep on probing and take our chance we get them.“

While Ciolek will work hard to make his top-end speed count on the flat stages, the lanky Czech Frantisek Rabon will hope to follow up on his solid Giro d'Italia performances by impressing on the many Alpine stages. Andreas Klier, Servais Knaven, Michael Barry, Scott Davis and Thomas Ziegler round out the eight-man roster.

'Queen stage' Wednesday
After the two relatively flat opening stages, the first GC shake-up is expected on stage three, when the race hits the high mountains; climaxing with a summit finish on the Kitzbüheler Horn (HC/1.670 m). A day later the riders tackle the tour's 'queen stage' - an epic 182 km climb-fest that takes them over the legendary Großglockner climb, the Fuschertörl (HC/2.423 m) and the Hochtor (2.575 m).

The survivors from the 144 starters will have 25.000 metres of vertical climbing in their legs when the race finishes in Vienna on Sunday week.

T-Mobile for Tour of Austria: Michael Barry (31/Canada), Gerald Ciolek (21), Scott Davis (28/Australia), Adam Hansen (26/Australia), Andreas Klier (31), Servais Knaven (36/Netherlands), Frantisek Rabon (23/Czech) and Thomas Ziegler (26).

Sports Directors: Jan Schaffrath (35) and Allan Peiper (47)

Masterseek new co-sponsor for Team CSC

The Internet company Masterseek has signed a contract as the new co-sponsor for Team CSC starting with the 2007 edition of Tour de France. Masterseek will get a prominent spot on the new clothes worn by the riders for the first time, when the Tour kicks off on Saturday in Central London.

Masterseek is the biggest and most global business-to-business search engine on the web and connects more than 45 million companies with customers and business partners in over 75 countries.

”We are very happy to sponsor the most prestigious and professional cycling team in the world. The team has some well-defined values, which we share and which reflect a professional, modern company. In our dialogue with the team we have been met with a passion and respect for what it takes to be the best in the world and that ties up perfectly with own ambitions in our particular area of business. We are looking forward to the next three weeks and to this partnership in general,” announces Robert P. Perz, who is President and CEO of Masterseek Corp.

”In Masterseek we have found an exciting and dedicated new sponsor and we are excited to start the Tour with this new partner on board. Over the next three weeks our team has to show our fans and sponsors, what we do best, and I am very proud and happy that we can do this with a new co-sponsor. I look forward to working with Masterseek,” says Bjarne Riis about the contract, which runs till the end of 2007.