First Edition Cycling News for January 24, 2005

Edited by Hedwig Kröner and Jeff Jones

Better than ever: Team CSC enters ProTour with tremendous focus for 2005

By Tim Maloney, European Editor in Firenze, Italy

At a low-glitz, high-contact media presentation at Villa Paggeria Medicea in Artimino, Italy, Team CSC unveiled its roster for 2005, a team that looks to be one of the best ProTour teams this year. On a cold and snowy Sunday afternoon in the hills south of Firenze, Cyclingnews spent several hours with all the key members of Team CSC, including team manager Bjarne Riis, team leader Ivan Basso, Americans Bobby Julich and Dave Zabriskie and Jakob Storm Piil among others, to get the lowdown on what's up with Team CSC this season. Inside the villa, the atmosphere was warm and welcoming as CSC's always charming media manager Brian Nygaard made sure everyone got a shot at the CSC stars.

In Part One of our report, Cyclingnews talked extensively to CSC team manager Bjarne Riis in an exclusive one on one interview about how he has created a unique environment for success, as well as his biggest success story, Italian rider Ivan Basso, who had a breakthrough Tour De France last season to finish third in Paris.

Right up front, we asked Riis what his goals were for Team CSC as it embark on its 2005 season and he explained that, "We want to be present all year, to try to perform well in the spring classics, to win the Giro d'Italia and to have a good Tour de France with the strongest team there. Maybe we won't win the Tour, but we'll be there and we'll be in the front." Like his fellow Dane Soren Kierkegaard, who was called an existential humanist because he stressed the power of the individual and sought to put pressure on humans, Bjarne Riis has brought a existential, almost zen-like approach to running a pro bicycle racing team at CSC. Talking to the 1996 Tour De France winner is more like a discussion with the young CEO of a successful high-tech business than someone who runs a bike team. Looking into the intense blue eyes of Bjarne Riis, you become convinced that his approach isn't bs, since he has big time results to back up his talk.

We asked Bjarne about the highly touted "battle" between Cunego and Basso in the upcoming Giro d'Italia, but the Dane chose to take a contrarious perspective, saying "Forget it! That's not what the Giro is about... Everybody is trying to make a big deal out of this, but that's the worst thing you can do. I told Ivan 'we are focusing on the Giro, with or without Cunego, with or without Lance, with or without anybody. We are preparing the best we can for the Giro because we want to win it, and if you want to win it, you have to beat everybody; it doesn't matter who."

Click here for the full report

Proud Preatoni relaunches Domina Vacanze for 2005

By Tim Maloney, European Editor in Milano, Italy

Domina Vacanze presented its 2005 team at the Domina Genius hotel near Milano's Malpensa airport and the only thing that remained the same from last year's Division 2 team led by Mario Cipollini and this year's ProTour squad led by Serguei Gonchar was the name and the garrulous owner of the Domina Vacanze hotel and travel company, Ernesto Preatoni. New riders, new team management (mostly from the DeNardi-Colpack team) and new bike sponsor Colnago are all hallmarks of the 2005 edition of Domina Vacanze cycling squad.

With an array of cycling personalities present, including former Giro d'Italia winners Gianni Bugno and Gianni Motta, team bike sponsor Ernesto Colnago and former director of La Gazzetta dello Sport Candido Cannavo, Mr. Domina Preatoni is looking "above all" for results.

Preatoni told of how he made the transition from the team run last year by Vincenzo Santoni to one run by Gianlugi Stanga, and he explained that "I wanted to stay in cycling and when our team didn't get selected for the Tour De France last year, I asked my friend Hein Verbruggen [head of the UCI - ed.] who I should work with and he indicated Stanga."

Ernesto Colnago also was pleased with the initial collaboration with the new Domina Vacanze, telling Cyclingnews that "we are happy to be associated with Preatoni, Stanga and Domina Vacanze. This is one of two ProTour teams we will sponsor in 2005 along with Rabobank and I look forward to some excellent performances from the riders."

Domina Vacanze will count on three key riders to bring home the bacon in 2005. Looking to improve his runner-up spot in the 2004 Giro will be taciturn 34 year-old Ukrainian hardman Serguei Gonchar, while classics man Mirko Celestino will be DV leader for one day races. Sprinter Ivan Quaranta will be the Domina fastman and the exceptionally quick Italian hopes to be competitive at the top level of sprinting again in 2005. Stanga has also added some promising neo-pros to Domina Vacanze, including Andrey Grivko and former Italian and European U23 champ Giovanni Visconti.

For the full Domina Vacanze team roster, click here.

Top sprinters to Qatar

The fourth Tour of Qatar will enjoy the participation of some of Europe's top sprinters. With the start list for the UCI rated 2.1 stage race now published, the line-up includes Max Van Heeswijk (Discovery), Mario Cipollini (Liquigas), Tom Boonen (Quick.Step) and, last but not least, Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto), who has just won three stages of the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under. Also participating will be Robert Hunter (Phonak), who will try to defend his victory from last year.

An overview of the registered teams to the Tour of Qatar:

Phonak Hearing Systems: Robert Hunter, Aurélien Clerc and Nicolas Jalabert
T-Mobile Team: Olaf Pollack and Daniele Nardello
Team Wiesenhof: Sebastian Siedler
Team CSC: Giovanni Lombardi and Fabrizio Guidi
Discovery Channel: Max Van Heeswijk and Stijn Devolder
Quick.Step: Tom Boonen and Servais Knaven
Davitamon-Lotto: Robbie McEwen and Axel Merckx
Chocolade Jacques-T Interim: Paul Van Hyfte
Saunier Duval-Prodir: Andrea Tafi and Rubens Bertogliati
Bouygues Telecom: Thomas Voeckler and Sébastien Chavanel
Crédit Agricole: Damien Nazon and Alexandre Botcharov
Ag2r Prévoyance: Alexandre Usov and Andy Flickinger
Domina Vacanze: Simone Cadamuro and Angelo Furlan
Liquigas-Bianchi: Mario Cipollini and Magnus Bäckstedt
Shimano - Memory Corp: Rudi Kemna, Laurens Ten Dam and Tomoya Kano
Marco Polo Cycling Team: Maarten Tjallingii
Aljazeera Sport Channel

Gerdemann joins CSC

Linus Gerdemann, one of Germany's most promising U23 riders, will join ProTeam CSC this season, according to Radsportnews.com. Gerdemann has reached an agreement with his German Continental team Akud to release him from his contract. Christian Müller, European U23 time-trial champion, will also start his professional career with the Danish squad.

Cummings' heart OK

Olympic silver medallist and recent World Cup Gold medal winner in Manchester Steve Cummings (23) has had a slight setback to the start of the season with his new top professional team Landbouwkrediet-Colnago. A standard UCI medical test found an abnormality, an ectopic heartbeat, not a very unusual occurrence, but one that always has to be investigated further. This meant that he had to spend a day in hospital and had to have cathetrization, in this case the insertion of catheters in his groin to scan his heart thoroughly.

This left him very sore and he was told by his doctors not to ride his bike for five days. However, the good news was that after the advanced tests he was confirmed 100 percent OK. The recovery time he needed meant he will miss the Tour of Langkawi, which he was meant to ride with his new team. Steve's debut will probably the Etoile de Bessèges in the South of France at the beginning of February.

Comnet-Senges prepares for season

German team Comnet-Senges will depart to the island of Mallorca soon to hold a two-week training camp. Swedish champion Petter Renäng will join his teammates in Germany on Monday to fly out to the Balearic island, where a 2005 race schedule will be established. Petter hopes to ride several stage races, the first one possibly being the Tour de Normandie in France. After the training camp, the team will present itself to the public in Aachen, Germany, on February 25.

Spanish team ready for St. Wendel

After the cyclo-cross race Ayuntamiento de Ispaster, National 'cross coach Amadeo Olmos announced the Spanish line-up for the World Championships of cyclo-cross at the end of this month in Sankt Wendel, Germany.

The Spanish riders selected are:

Elite: Unai Yus, David Seco, Isaac Suárez, Santiago Armero and Oscar Vázquez
U23: Ismael Esteban, Asier Corchero, Néstor Rodríguez and Alex Izquierdo
Women: Rosa Bravo
Juniors: Erlantz Uriarte, Ander Gómez, Gorka Izaguirre, Víctor Rodríguez and Mauro González

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