San Sebastian came and went just like that, and now we've got the D-Tour to look forward to...and the evil Rettenbachferner. If the Tour can't provide ridiculous mountaintop finishes anymore, then the D-Tour will. But I digress, as there's EuroTrash a'plenty, so take a bit for yourself and have a picnic - it's August, the sun is out, and it's most likely hot if you're on this side of the Equator...read on!
Arvesen Tops In Denmark
Of course CSC won the Post Danmark Rundt. Is it conceivable that they didn't? The first team that manages to usurp CSC's dominance in Denmark should get an upset-of-the-year award. Kurt Asle-Arvesen, who I mistakenly noted in a PeloPic as not having done the Tour de France, made it two overall victories at the Post Danmark Rundt - the first rider in history to pull off the feat.
Stages
St. 1: Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) bunch kick
St. 2: Matti Breschel (CSC) break
St. 3: Kurt Asle-Arvesen (CSC) break
St. 4: Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) field sprint
St. 5: Rick Flens (Rabobank) TT
St. 6: Mark Cavendish (T-Mob) bunch kick
As reward for Cav's final stage win and a solid showing by T-Mobile at the Post Danmark Rundt, director Brian Holm took the team to a Rolling Stones concert in Copenhagen Sunday evening. Pretty cool.
Final GC
1 Kurt Asle Arvesen (Nor) Team CSC 19.49.38
2 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Liquigas 0.14
3 Matti Breschel (Den) Team CSC 0.27
4 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Skil-Shimano 0.28
5 Nicki Sørensen (Den) Team CSC 0.32
Bye Bye De Rooij
Rabobank General Director Theo De Rooij resigned from his post last week. A Rabobank press release cited the disappointment from this year's Tour de France as the chief reason for De Rooij's resignation.
De Rooij commented on his departure: "This farewell is hard, really hard. The team -- it is all the world to me. But I did not see another choice."
EuroSport notes a rather impressive list of successes under De Rooij: six world titles, 81 national championships, 10 World Cup Classics and 27 stages in the three grand tours.
Relax To The Vuelta
Team Relax got a much welcomed invite to the upcoming Vuelta a Espana in September along with the embattled Astana squad.
Astana is taking a month off from racing following the positives from Eddy Mazzoleni, Matthias Kessler, and finally the big fish himself, Alexandre Vinokourov. There will be a lot to be taken care of for Astana to even have bikes to ride come September, but at any rate, the invite is there...
As for Relax, they're in a very interesting position, as they have a number of riders who can be very, very competitive, even to go so far as to say two podium possibilities in Oscar Sevilla and Francisco Mancebo (what ever happened to Santi Perez?). Vuelta organizers did make a point to note that any riders implicated in doping scandals are not welcome at their race, so it will be interesting indeed to see whether the Puerto linked Mancebo and Sevilla can get by this net somehow.
Oh, and you didn't think Unibet was doing the Vuelta did you? Silly.
Millar Gets Himself A Union Jack
David Millar took his first ever UK Elite National Road Race Championship yesterday after an aggressive day of racing, which eventually saw Millar and Daniel Lloyd get away and duel to the line. Millar took the uphill sprint and was what one might call, over the moon:
“The ride of my life. And Daniell did as well. I had to take the race by the scruff of the neck. This sounds so much like bull sh#t but I felt so bad. It’s the Tour de France legs, you feel tired but you can go all day...I wasn’t going to come here and sit back and let the race go away from me which is why I had to race aggressively. I had to modify my style of racing. I knew when that break went that the race was over if I didn’t bridge across to it. I also didn’t realise the course was so easy. When we went up the hill it was like, ‘is that it’...Before we got across, I couldn’t move, the whole bunch was watching me. So when I went to bridge across, I put in a big attack and only Daniell and Russell (Downing) could go with me. Then when I got here, I realised the bunch had started to race and it was then I realised what the day was going to be like.”
“This win is massive for me, means a huge amount. I wanted this jersey for my whole career. I have had close calls and spat the dummy a few times but with age I have matured and managed to control my temper a bit better. I am very proud of being British and wanted to get it out there a bit more.”
On his team kit for next year with Slipstream, he replied “god knows what they’ll do to this – they might manage to turn this into some form of argyle.” (from britishcycling.org.uk)
Di Luca Waiting...But Why?
CONI's pending decision on what is to become of Giro champion and ProTour leader, Danilo Di Luca, concerning his involvement from a number of years back with Dr. Carlo Santuccione will have to wait...a month.
First, CONI decided that they could not make a decision on the Liquigas rider because 'it could not be sure of some facts.'
And then there's that other little fact: CONI's doping unit is closed from August 10 to September 2.
It's Summer Break baby! The Killer can wait, I'm off to the beach!
Big Time North Carolina Racing
The NRC swing headed into North Carolina for a big money weekend starting in Charlotte with the Presbyterian Criterium and concluding on Sunday in winston-Salem with the Hanes Park Classic.
The Presbyterian Hospital Crit in downtown Charlotte is the richest crit on the planet, weighing in at 100,000 dollars on offer, plus innumerable 500 and 1000 dollar primes. For that reason, you can only imagine the quality of field that made the trip for a chance at the 25,000 dollar winner's purse. Winston-Salem homeboy, Jon Hamblen, unleashed some cyclocross fury off the line to get the race started. He was joined by Thad Dulin and the two headed off for a 10-lap stint off the front, raking in some money, but interestingly enough - apparently not cooperating in terms of the big money primes, a tactic which eventually spelled an earlier doom for the break.
After the pair were reeled in, the race really began to fire hard, and the pace just upped and upped and upped as the field got smaller and smaller. Eventually, two riders would get away to decide the monster top two spots between themselves: KGSN's Jesse Anthony and HealthNet's Frank Pipp. Pipp took the win on the line, followed by Anthony, who is having a break-out season to the extreme.
Behind those two rolled in AEG-Toshiba rider Yosvany Falcon all by his lonesome for 3rd.
The racing moved up the road about an hour and a half for Sunday's Hanes Park Classic, and the race's new NRC status brought almost all of the big hitters to the race from the night before and a huge field toed the line. Once again, it was Jon Hamblen opening the fun off the line, but there was no doing on Sunday. The race was accented by aggressive racing, but nothing ever looked to have any chance, as the twisty, fast course along with a field hell-bent on a field sprint just wouldn't see a break clear.
Ivan Dominguez was the first across the line in a fantastic bunch kick along the wide open start/finish straight. The Hanes Park Classic made a big jump up to NRC status for 2007, and it was a tremendous success - and the Pro race was just one small part of a fantastic day, which saw CycleSafe.org put on numerous events including kids races, a bike rodeo, a family fun run, and tons more. It was a true community event...
Deutschland Tour Stages
The D-Tour managed to avoid getting axed because of the recent spate of doping scandals, ok, to say 'recent' might be a misnomer, but you get the drift. Anyhow, the race will start on Friday and end the following Saturday - 9 stages later and nearly 1300 km.
Stage 1: Saarbrücken - Saarbrücken (183,7 km)
Stage 2: TTT Bretten - Bretten (42,2 km)
Stage 3: Pforzheim - Offenburg (181,8 km)
Stage 4: Singen - Sonthofen (183,8 km)
Stage 5: Sonthofen - Sölden/AUT (157,6 km)
Stage 6: Längenfeld/AUT - Kufstein/AUT (175 km)
Stage 7: Kufstein/AUT - Regensburg (192,2 km)
Stage 8: TT Fürth - Fürth (33,1 km)
Stage 9: Einbeck - Hannover (143,1 km)
Along with the TTT and the ITT, there look to be 4 stages made for field sprints, 2 tough-ish mountain stages, and one absolutely bang up mountaintop finish on Stage 5 up the ridiculous slopes of the Rettenbachferner.
It should be a good one, and if the past few years' trend continues, the racing will be fantastic.
Team CSC Keeps Up With The Danes
Michael Blaudzun and Nicki Sørensen have both had their contracts with Team CSC extended. The two Danish profiles have been part of the very foundation of the team for a number of year's and they will continue to be so over the next couple of seasons.
"Nicki and Michael are both important riders, who each in their own way contribute with a lot to this team. They have the experience and they're vital in the work we do with the new talents. They are both among the best and most reliable helpers in the peloton and at the same time they're able to get results on their own, when they get the chance. I'm glad we've extended these contracts, because the team simply wouldn't be the same without these two guys," announces Kim Andersen regarding Blaudzun and Sørensen's contracts, which have been extended for one and two years respectively.
It Just Wouldn't Be Normal Without...
Something about doping. So I'll just go and say thank you to Colombian pro biker, Libardo Niño, for coming up positive for EPO at the recent PanAm Games in Rio De Janeiro.
The 39-year-old repeat offender has won the Tour of Colombia on two occasions - in 2003 and 2005, but he looks all set to enjoy a two year vacation from bike racin if his B-Test comes up dirty too.
Tour Of Ireland Picks Up Three
Teams for Tour of Ireland have now been finalised with the announcement that Rabobank, DFL-Cyclingnews and Team Maxbo Bianchi complete the 16 team line up for the inaugural tour 22nd to 26th August sponsored by Fáilte Ireland.
Sven Nys is the elder statesman of the Rabobank team at the age of 31. Nys is better known for his exploits in the cyclo-cross discipline of the sport. In 2005 the Belgian international won the world cyclo-cross championships, the Superprestige race series and was ranked as the world number one in that discipline.
Nys is not the only Rabobank rider with a world championship gold medal. Last year Boy Van Poppel added the junior world cyclo-cross championships gold to the Dutch national gold he had already won that year. The 18-year-old talented youngster is son of the famous sprinter Jean-Paul Van Poppel who excited race fans with his explosive sprinting efforts during his successful racing career where he won ten stages of the Tour de France, nine in the Tour of Spain and four in the Giro D’Italia.
Team Maxbo Bianchi are a relatively new Norweigan team founded in 2005. The team has already achieved some good results with Edvald Boasson Hagen taking victory in the 2.2 ranked five-day Ringerike GP in June. 19-year-old Hagen had already shown his sprinting talents when he won three stages of the Tour de l’Avenir last year as part of the Norway national team and has already been snatched up by T-Mobile for 2008. The team won triple gold in the Norweigan national championships this year. Alexander Kristoff won the men's road race championship after he beat Thor Hushovd (Credit-Agricole) in the sprint after 220km of racing. Hagen had already won the men's TT championship and Joachim Bohler took the men’s criterium championship.
DFL – Cyclingnews -Litespeed has a number of riders that could be team leader on the Irish tour. Daniel Lloyd overcame altitude difficulties in the Tour of Qinghai Lake this month and finished in second place after nine gruelling stages. Lloyd wore the race leaders yellow jersey going into the final stage and lost by the narrowest margin of one second. Evan Oliphant confirmed his form taking the Scottish Road Race Championship this year. The 25-year-old has tour experience in Langkawi and Wellington and the Edinburgh man has shown he can ride tactically after taking victories in the British Cycling Premier Calendar and Criterium series events in previous years. The young team will be steered by the wise head of Nico Mattan. The 36-year-old former Mapei, Cofidis and Davitamon-Lotto professional is the former winner of Gent-Wevelgem, GP Plouay and two stages of Paris-Nice.
The five-day Tour of Ireland has gained additional world-wide TV exposure. Race organisers have received confirmation that the event will get now get TV coverage in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Russia.
DFL-Cyclingnews.com-Litespeed
Sven De Weerdt
Daniel Fleeman
Daniel Lloyd
Nico Mattan
Jens Mouris
Evan Oliphant
Jeremy Vennell
Team Maxbo Bianchi
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Alexander Kristoff
Lars Petter Nordhaug
Gabriel Rasch
Stian Sommerseth
Joachim Bohler
Frederik Willman
Rabobank
Martijn Maaskant
Thomas Berkhout
Martijn Keizer
Sven Nys
Tom Veelers
Dennis Van Winden
Boy Van Poppel
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