EuroTrash Monday! Monday, March 26, 2007 8:19:07 AM PT
by Jered Gruber
Ahh, now it's really begun - the first Monument of 2007 is finito, the Via Roma is quiet (sort of), and now there's only two weeks till De Ronde. It's good to be a bike fan right now. It's the final Monday in March and the news is poppin': MSR of course, Castilla y Leon coming, Redlands wrap, Gerolsteiner's awful luck, and so much more.
Via Roma Wrap
It never seems possible for a break to go in back to back years at Milano-Sanremo, and this year held true to it - after a lovely, more than entertaining fight over the Cipressa and Poggio, a ho-hum sprint ensued, and by ho-hum I mean, one helluva cool sprint.
Oscar Freire dispatched the best sprinters in world with apparent ease and made it Win #2 at MSR.
Behind him, fighting for the leftovers were a trio of Aussies and a Belgian you'll be hearing a lot more from in the next few weeks: Tom Boonen.
Boonen popped onto the podium for the first time in his career for third, whilst Aussies were all around him: Allan Davis was 2nd, Robbie McEwen 4th, and Stuey O'Grady in 5th.
Boonen was mildly pleased with his podium: "I feel like I'm 85 years old after such a demolishing race. But I felt great during the whole day. On the Cipressa and the Poggio, I wasn't very far behind the best. The team also performed perfectly for the task. I think we were the strongest team in the finale, but in the final sprint, Oscar Freire jumped ahead. Oh well, the best guy won. If my back had been okay, maybe there would have been a different result, but that's not an excuse. Also, I hesitated when Reynes and McEwen passed me on the right and the left just when I was about to start the sprint, but that's not an excuse either. There was nothing I could do against Freire, and I'm glad that after a fourth and eighth place I stood on the podium for the first time. That shows me that I'm ready for the rest of the spring season."
Speaking of Freire, he was diplomatic post-race: "I decided to get behind Petacchi in the final kilometer because I knew his team would lead him out and that it was the best position. I had the legs, the position and even had the space to get past Petacchi, so it was a perfect sprint."
Milram's Unhappy Day
The Milram camp wasn't too terribly happy after the race on Saturday: Erik Zabel led out Alessandro Petacchi, actually, it appeared he gift-wrapped it for him. The Milram train did it right and put Petacchi into the perfect position for...8th. Zabel led him out, then came back around him to take 6th. That's pretty close to embarrassing.
Petacchi commented post-race: "I wasn't up to it today. I'm still lacking power. My left leg, the one where I broke my kneecap, still hasn't the same power than my right leg. I didn't put any pressure on it for so long... I don't know how long it will take for both legs to have the same power again, but I feel that I'm not far away anymore. I'm fine during the race - the only problem is the sprint itself. It demands enormous power of my leg, which is not used to that anymore."
Apparently, this wasn't communicated to Ete, but he was diplomatic after the race: "I'm happy with my performance: 6th after leading out the sprint." When pressed about the Petacchi issue he shrugged and fessed up that his lead-out was on paper: "It's a part of my contract."
Gerolsteiner's Disaster
There were crashes here, there, and everywhere on Saturday en route to San Remo, and for some reason, they all seemed to involve Gerolsteiner. The two worst? Andrea Moletta and David Kopp.
Moletta's wreck was particularly painful to see: he was in a break with Franco Pellizotti and Popovych on the Cipressa. On the descent he took a turn a bit hot and hit a lamp post. He broke his femur.
Team director, Hans-Michael Holczer was taken aback at the aftermath of Moletta's wreck: "He was screaming from the pain. That was the worst that I've ever seen."
It could be months before Moletta can return from the awful break, but he was already planning his return as he was taken away: "...I'll see you at the Vuelta a Espana."
Earlier in the day, David Kopp broke his nose and sustained some mean wounds to his face in another crash.
Gerolsteiner's Stefan Schumacher described it all as a "Horror Race."
Gerolsteiner took the brunt of it, but there were other broken bones as well: last year's uber-surprise 2nd place at the Giro, Jose Enrique Gutierrez (LPR), broke his wrist in yet another wreck.
There's More To It Than MSR
Milano-Sanremo obviously attracts most of the huge names in the bike racing world, but most of the ProTour teams are numbering upwards of 30 riders, meaning that over 2/3 of the riders on most teams WEREN'T enjoying the coastal views en route to San Remo.
There was plenty to do for everyone else though, as two 1.1's were on the docket for the rest of the world: the Cholet-Pays De Loire in France and the Ronde van het Groene Hart in not so close by Holland.
Cofidis' Stephane Auge took the 30th running of the Cholet-Pays De Loire in a two-up sprint. He dispatched breakmate Petilleau with ease, and pulled off a solid punking of both Bouygues Telecom and Francaise Des Jeux - both teams were well-represented in the early break that eventually decided the race, but neither could put a rider in the winning move.
In other interesting news - Unibet raced under their new French banner: the team races as Canyon.com in France. The hopes were that this would solve the problem of the gambling advertisement stupidity, but apparently not, because Unibet still isn't doing Paris-Roubaix.
In Dutchland, Wouter Weylandt swiped his second win of the season (remember Qatar?) in a bunch sprint over Graeme Brown and another Qatar winner, Greg Van Avermaet.
And it was really fast. Scratch that: really, really fast: the race ran off at a clip of over 46 km/h! Ouch.
Vuelta Castilla Y Leon Enjoys TT Fun
The Vuelta Castilla Y Leon started today with a 10k time trial, which means, of course, that a plethora of Grand Tour hopefuls were out in force.
Just take a gander through that Top 15...
1 Vladimir Karpets (Rus, Caisse d'Epargne) 00:11:55
2 Egoi Martinez (Spa, Discovery Channel) 00:00:02
3 Florent Brard (Fra, Caisse d'Epargne) 00:00:03
4 Fco. Jose Ventoso (Spa, Saunier Duval-Prodir) 00:00:05
5 Alberto Contador (Spa, Discovery Channel) 00:00:06
6 Magnus Backstedt (Swe, Liquigas) 00:00:09
7 Ivan Basso (Ita, Discovery Channel) 00:00:09
8 Levi Leipheimer (USA, Discovery Channel) 00:00:10
9 Vladimir Miholjevic (Cro, Liquigas) 00:00:18
10 Sergio Paulinho (Por, Discovery Channel) 00:00:18
11 Jason Mccartney (USA, Discovery Channel) 00:00:18
12 Reinbert C. Wielinga (Ned, Saunier Duval-Prodir) 00:00:19
13 Janez Brajkovic (Slo, Discovery Channel) 00:00:21
14 Thomas Danielson (USA, Discovery Channel) 00:00:22
15 Denis Menchov (Rus, Rabobank) 00:00:23
A few things of note: welcome back Magnus Backstedt! We've enjoyed Magnus' diaries for sure, but all the depressing news about injuries and stuff, really was starting to bum me out, and then he returns and returns in style. Congrats to Mr. Backstedt.
Alberto Contador apparently didn't get lucky at Paris-Nice. Maybe he really is fast. I'm kidding. Ventoso is pretty fast too - normally better known for his sprint though. Hmmm.
Oh, and that rock star Karpets won. So there's that.
Updated ProTour Standings
Discovery's Alberto Contador is still in the ProTour lead after not even starting Milano-Sanremo on Saturday. MSR winner, Oscar Freire, jumped nicely to third overall. Of very interesting note though is Tom Boonen, who sits 9th, 19 points in arrears of Contador. Considering that the eight riders in front of him aren't exactly known for their cobbled classic prowess, Tommeke could be headed for ProTour leadership with just a decent showing in two weeks.
1 Alberto Contador (Spa, Discovery) 56 pts
2 Andreas Klöden (Ger, Astana) 53
3 Oscar Freire (Spa, Rabobank) 52
4 Davide Rebellin (Ita, Gerolsteiner) 42
5 Kim Kirchen (Lux, T-Mobile Team) 41
6 Allan Davis (Aus, Discovery) 40
7 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz, Astana) 38
8 Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa, Caisse d'Epargne) 38
9 Tom Boonen (Bel, Quick Step - Innergetic) 37
10 Stefan Schumacher (Ger, Gerolsteiner) 35
Teams
1 Caisse d'Epargne 53 pts
2 Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 52
3 Team CSC 49
4 Liquigas 46
5 Ag2R Prevoyance 39
Unibet Once Again Screwed Over
So there's this big race coming up, you might have heard of it, runs between Paris and Roubaix, it's big and hard, it's a Monument, and it's a ProTour race, and well, since it's a ProTour race and Unibet is a ProTour team, you can obviously assume that Unibet won't be taking part, because ASO is the dumbest organization in sport, or maybe the most backward, or perhaps just looking for a reason to flex their muscles. Whatever the case may be, ASO continues to make an example of poor Unibet, and once again, ProTour team Unibet, has been passed over for a ProTour race.
Instead, such stellar teams as: Astana, Wiesenhof-Felt, Chocolade-Jacques, Landbouwkrediet-Tönissteiner, Agritubel, and Skil-Shimano, will be taking the start in three weeks time.
That's fantastic! If you're going to dump Unibet, you'd at least hope the teams selected for were good...of course though, this is ASO, and rational decision-making is not involved.
At least Giro organizers RCS are stepping back a bit on their We-Hate-Unibet stance - they raced Milano-Sanremo on Saturday...to no great effect, but then again, T-Mobile wasn't exactly blowing any doors off, so who's counting.
Bettini's Pain
World champion Paolo Bettini set this vital three week stretch of racing as his early season highlight - MSR, Flanders, even Roubaix, but he's a wounded soldier, and his quest to breakthrough at Flanders doesn't look too close to happening anymore.
Bettini rode a solid race on Saturday, he was once again unlucky (he was caught behind a big wreck and had to pull off a BIG chase to get back on), but in the finale he put in some huge work for Boonen and the Quick.Step team.
Bettini's problems began at the recently completed Tirreno-Adriatico, where he met pavement on more than a few occasions, and one time nailed a signpost, which in turn apparently cracked his left rib.
"I went hard to simulate race conditions during a training ride and I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my ribs. I couldn't breathe and had to stop riding. I did some checks in hospital and discovered I've got a cracked rib and a large bruise on my chest muscle. I'm not in a lot of pain when I am walking but it does hurt when I go hard on my bike."
That sounds pretty much unpleasant, but apparently nothing new for Il Grillo at MSR: last year the World Champ rode MSR with two compressed vertebrae after some unpleasant pavement surfing in the lead-up to MSR.
"To tell the truth if it wasn't such an important race I probably wouldn't ride but Milan-San Remo is a big goal and one of the most important races of my season. I really suffered last year but want to win this year because I'll be wearing the world champion's rainbow jersey. Unfortunately now I don't know what I can do. If it doesn't hurt me too much I'll be up there trying to win but if it's a problem I might not be competitive. I just hope the adrenalin of racing will help numb the pain."
No Vino In Sanremo
Alexandre Vinokourov has been an animator of many a Milan-Sanremo in the past. He's never burst through for a win, but his presence was often felt in the finale, this year though, Vino opted to skip MSR (and perhaps wisely after the absolute carnage on the road from the innumerable wrecks).
"I've got a fixed programme until the Tour and I don't want to change it. Milan-Sanremo is not a race for me. Look at the scenario these last few years, the finish is almost always reserved for a sprinter, because the Poggio is not selective enough. You have to be a tough-man to support the pressure before the Cipressa, a tension that makes the peloton take lots of risks. At this point of the season, it's really not made for me."
Of course, the most asked question was Vino's stimulating performance at Tirreno-Adriatico: 3rd overall. "I was really surprised. I didn't think I would find myself at that level, especially not after a week on antibiotics after a dental infection. I came to Italy to train."
Next up for Vino though is a date with a race that he has won in the past - Liege-Bastogne-Liege: "At Liege I will be there to aim very high. That will be my first true test of the season, an important stage in view of my progress for the Tour."
It's a shame that dreams of the Tour de France take even the fire out of one of the fieriest (definitely not a word) riders in the world.
The price for eternal biking glory is high.
Former Aussie Olympian Dies
1996 Australian Olympic cyclist and Commonwealth Games Gold Medallist, Damian McDonald, was killed in a freak accident in a Melbourne tunnel on Friday. A semi blew a tire in the tunnel, pulled over to the side, but a chain-reaction opened up in its wake, as cars collided with the slowing behemoth. There was an explosion and three died - including McDonald.
Deep link provided by Citebite
