First Edition Cycling News for May 9, 2005Edited by Anthony Tan Giro d'Italia Stage 1 wrap-upBettini back to his best
After a disappointing Spring Classics campaign, Olympic road champion Paolo Bettini (Quick.Step-Davitamon) triumphed on the road to Tropea yesterday, taking the opening road stage of the 88th Giro d'Italia in convincing fashion. The difficult finish caught many - including Alessandro Petacchi and his Fassa Bortolo team - by surprise, but 31 year-old Bettini wasn't one caught off-guard: "I saw it the climb the other day and knew it was good for my characteristics as a rider," he said at the finish. "But to say [I can win] is one thing, but to do it is another. So I'm happy, because I haven't won yet this year." Until yesterday, Bettini had never won a stage of his home Tour, nor the maglia rosa, but he accomplished both on Stage 1, and goes into today's stage from Catanzaro Lido to Santa Maria Del Cedro with a 12 second advantage over Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) and 14 seconds on Ale-Jet Petacchi. "My objective at the Giro was to do well here and so far it's good! My wife and daughter were here today and my team rode very well for me. We'll just have to see what happens," said Bettini about defending his race lead. "Maybe I won't defend it, but will try to get it back later." Stage 1 Full results
& report Australian round-upOnce again, Cyclingnews' John Trevorrow was our man at the finish in Tropea as the Aussie riders came rolling in: Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto, 2nd at 0'03) "I would have liked to have won but Bettini was too strong. He went away on the steep bit...he just went. Then Petacchi and Cookie followed him and we were just dangling on the wheel. Then he just went another gear and said: 'catch this'. He opened up a big lead and I saw that we wouldn't catch him. I went from the last corner and I gapped everyone else. Bettini put everything into winning the jersey, but maybe tomorrow... " Baden Cooke (Francaise des Jeux, 4th at 0'04) "It's great to be back in form in a Grand Tour. That finishing hill was a mongrel. I was right on Petacchi but Bettini just hit the afterburners and he was gone. But they were all positive signs today. My legs are feeling good and I reckon I have the form to get a win over the next couple of weeks. Maybe not on a straight run in, where it's hard to get past Petacchi, but in the finishes where there are plenty of corners, it gives us an opportunity for us to upset his train. Stuart O'Grady (Cofidis, 61st at 0'23) "Ah, the group split and I probably lost a few seconds. It was pretty lumpy today and that hill 800 metres out was a ripper. I felt about as good as I can expect, seeing as I haven't raced in a month. I reckon it'll take a few more days to get competitive in these finishes." Trent Wilson (Colombia-Selle Italia, 152nd at 1'02) "The last 10 km was like riding a Bay Crit. Matty Wilson, Cookie, Stuey, Robbie, Gatesy... all there together." Russell Van Hout (Colombia-Selle Italia, 189th at 1'55) "Yeah it was pretty comfortable. It's nice to have an easy start to the Giro. That was easier than the prologue." Lampre DS confirms Simoni as leaderAlthough speculation continues over who will be Lampre-Cafitta's leader at the Giro d'Italia, directtore sportivo Giuseppe Martinelli said to cyclismag.com: "Simoni stays our charismatic leader for the Giro." "Everybody must know that Simoni is not at the end of his career. He wanted to stay with our team, whereas Cunego is on his ascending slope, and this means that Gilberto has a great serenity and big self confidence. We, the team, still give him a lot of credit. This considered, we decided that Simoni would be the leader on the Giro, and Cunego the leader on the Tour. Gilberto definitely thinks he can get past Cunego on this Giro." Martinelli added that Cunego's form, considered a little less than the same time last year, is intentionally so: "We chose to privilege training over competition, and the work has just started to pay off. Damiano made the right program of races this year, and has rode more in competition than last year, 23 days compared to 19." After the Giro, the 23 year-old is not scheduled to race until the Tour de France, apart from the possibility of riding the his national road championship, with the focus on resting first and training later. "Damiano must keep [his] strength for the Tour de France," cautioned Martinelli. "He comes to the Tour to learn, and with Armstrong [as a competitor] he will have a good teacher... " 33's the number, says T-Mobile"This number says everything about the course," said T-Mobile Team's sporting manager Mario Kummer on the 33 classified climbs to be tackled in this year's Giro d'Italia. Ex-professional Jens Heppner, an 11-day wearer of the maglia rosa in the 2002 Giro and now a directeur-sportif of Team Wiesenhof, also believes the number and severity of the passes will lead to a natural selection, in particular Stage 13 from Mezzocorona to Ortisei, finishing atop St.Ulrich in Val Gardena. "The pass hasn't been featured in the Giro for a long time, so I only know it from training. But I think the number of the possible winners will be dramatically reduced here," said Heppner on www.t-mobile-team.com. Daniele Nardello, who hasn't ridden the Giro since 2001 when he was still with Mapei, also believes this year's parcours to be very difficult, and outlined the penultimate stage that tackles the 18.5km, 2178 metre Colle de Finestre to be one of the hardest. "I rode the most important mountain stages - mamma mia, were in for something!" he said. This year, the 32 year-old Italian missed out on most of the Spring Classics due to a crash at the Tour of Qatar, which injured his back and prevented him from racing far longer than expected, and it was only in April at the Tour of Aragon and Vuelta Ciclista a la Rioja that Nardello started racing again, in the company of his team leader Jan Ullrich. "I am much better by now, I hardly feel any pain any more. I've only ridden [the Giro] two times so far and am delighted to have another go at it this year," said Nardello. "The Tour may be somewhat more commercial, while the Giro is more spontaneous and despite its toughness, it is more relaxed to ride. For an Italian, the Giro is very important, it's a national event! There are three things in the life of a tifosi: Soccer, Ferrari and the Giro." Nardello added he would like to win a stage, but knows the inclusion of all 20 ProTour teams means the level of the race has been raised: "In past years, the Italian top riders were more or less among themselves", he said, "but now for the first time, someone like Erik Zabel will race here, too. That attracted a lot of attention by Italian media - and that attention is good for the Giro." With the last-minute addition of Zabel in the team, Nardello said the team will try and help him win a stage on the flatter days, and to ride aggressively and attack for the other stages. Finally, on countryman Mario Cipollini's recent adieu, Nardello acknowledged the peloton has lost someone unique: "The sport of cycling, especially for the Italians, has lost a great personality, not only a world-class rider. Sport-wise, Petacchi has long been filling his shoes, but Cipo had a unique charisma," he said. Sanchez shows his strengthBeloki unconcerned with Giro formLuis León Sanchez (Liberty Seguros-Würth) took his second victory of the year at Sunday's Clásica Internacional Alcobendas, winning the 14.2 kilometre final time trial and finishing 12th overall. The 21 year-old now goes into the upcoming Volta a Catalunya with plenty of confidence, especially for the team time trial stage. "Well, yesterday [Saturday] I was already good enough in Navacerrada, although I noticed that I was lacking the pace of competition," said Sanchez. "Today, on the other hand, I felt even better on the morning stage and then in the ITT, I confirmed it. "This year's [time trial] was not the same circuit to that of 2004; it was different, with continuous climbs and with a lot of wind. The key is that I was strong. In the warm-up, I felt good enough and because that, we decided to use a 56-tooth chainring instead of a 55." Speaking about being out of form up till now, Sanchez said: "I came to Australia [he won the third stage and the overall classification at the Tour Down Under - ed.] after having worked extremely hard in the winter, but I believe that I did not recover well [afterwards]. The injury in the wrist was good for me in a way, because I had to stop a little and could recover my strength." Over in Italy, despite finishing 1'40 down on stage winner Paolo Bettini on the opening road stage of the Giro d'Italia yesterday, Joseba Beloki is unconcerned with his form, and stressed his motives for racing at present: "I have done a good stage, but I was not challenging myself at all in the end and I preferred not to take any risks," he said. "My aim at Giro is very clear: to take the form for the Tour de France and to help [Michele] Scarponi." Scarponi, who is targeting the overall classification and currently lies 36th overall, said of yesterday's stage to Tropea: "The end was very dangerous and I could not place [myself] well. There were many nerves in the bunch, but I believe that the stage was good and I have felt very well. I'll wait to continue on improving in next days, where it will also be necessary to be very attentive at the finish." A satisfying start for CSCYoung guns strong in DunkirkDave Zabriskie was Team CSC's best rider in 20th place at Saturday's Giro prologue in Reggio Calabria, four seconds off the winning time set by Brett Lancaster (Ceramica Panaria-Navigare), with team leader Ivan Basso another two seconds behind the US time trial champion in 53rd place, but directeur sportif Bjarne Riis was satisfied with the outcome. "Today was not an important test for us, but I think we got a fine start," said Riis on the team's website, www.team-csc.com. "It was a very special prologue; we did OK and Ivan didn't lose any valuable time to the other main contenders for the GC. Now the race has started and there's a good atmosphere among our riders, who are ready to face this challenge." Basso echoed his DS's comments, and says he feels ready for the coming three weeks: "I'm satisfied with my prologue, and it was nice to finally get started," he said. "It was a very special opening of the race, but I believe the audience down here liked what they saw, and I think it was great fun to start out like this. There's still a long way to go, but I'm really comfortable and most important of all, I can feel that I'm ready." Meanwhile, over in France, two of the team's younger riders, Linus Gerdemann and Andy Schleck, both finished in the top 10 overall at the Four Days of Dunkirk, with Gerdemann finishing fifth overall in his debut for Team CSC, and along the way, wearing the leader's jersey, the young rider's jersey and the mountains jersey. "All in all we're very satisfied," said sports director Kim Andersen. "We really put our mark on this race and the young riders showed great enthusiasm and excellent morale all the way through. This is definitely not the last we've heard of them." Malaysian's five-month time testIn stark contrast to Saturday's 1,150 kilometre-long prologue in Reggio Calabria, 19 year-old Malaysian Ng Yong Li's time test, who was recently offered a contract to ride for Liberty Seguros-Würth's feeder team, will have up to five months to prove himself before the final outcome is decided. "When he gets here, he will have to three, four or five months to prove himself," the team's public relations manager Jacinto Vidarte said on the New Straits Times. "At the end of the period, there are only two positives. If he is very good, he definitely gets a contract; if he is good enough, then he will be considered. In case there is a tussle with other riders for the contract, then his marketability or sponsorship prospects will swing it in his favour," added Vidarte. While the Liberty Seguros ProTour team is managed by Manolo Saiz, former rider Pablo Anton manages the under 23 squad. "We believe this will be good for Yong Li and, more importantly, for Malaysian cycling," Vidarte said. "It is interesting to see how well a Malaysian cyclist can do in Europe." Fantasy Giro 2005 - don't miss out!
Brought to you by Wilier Triestina, this year's Fantasy Giro d'Italia game marks the third year of fantasy games at Cyclingnews. Wilier Triestina are offering a team Cofidis Le Roi bike for this year's grand prize. Campagnolo is also offering its record component group to the first runner-up. More New Prizes
In addition to the main prizes above we have confirmed the following runners-up prizes. This year we have 3 Atmos Fassa Bortolo Team Issue helmets from Giro, Arione saddles including the team Lampre, Liquigas and Barloworld saddles from fi'zi:k, and specially engraved tools from Park Tool. In addition we have just confirmed the following new prizes: Upland Sports are providing three pairs of DMT shoes, a Coaching package from Ric Stern, and a whole suite of goodies from Bontrager (Race X Lite Aero wheels, Race X Lite OS handlebars, a Race XXX Lite OS Carbon stem and a Race X Lite Pro saddle). Go to the prizes section to find out more.
DMT's Kyoma shoeAs worn by Giro favourite Ivan Basso and his CSC team, the Kyoma offers the same overall characteristics as the Flash in a three-Velcro strap-closure system. The heel cup construction includes an external, anti-weakening stiffener for optimal support and stability, and the new SLHC (Super Light Hardened Carbon) sole combines superior energy transfer at minimal weight, available in a Look compatible, three-hole drilling. At a mere 209 grams, the Kyoma sets the bar in lightweight, performance-oriented, carbon road shoes. New FeaturesIn this year's game you will be able to see a full ranking list and the details of who picked which riders and for which stage. You can use the search feature to find your friends teams and see what they have entered. We have also changed the GC points system this year to be in accordance to the UCI's changes to last year's points system. Now only the top 15 GC riders score points. We hope this will even up the points distribution further. Join For Free!You can begin creating your team/s now. You can play the first 5 stages for FREE! We will be adding additions to the startlist on a daily basis. The Tour games are easy to play, all you need to do to manage your own team is select 15 riders from the live start list then select 9 of these riders to race each day throughout the Giro. You score points according to how well each of the riders place each day in the Giro. So try your team today and see if it's for you. It's a great way to follow the Giro. Create your teams now at fantasy.cyclingnews.com/ You can join after the Giro has begunThere is no disadvantage in entering a new team now that the Tour is underway. You have as much chance as any other team manager of winning the Cofidis Wilier Le Roi team bike. For more info go to: fantasy.cyclingnews.com/game/rules.htm#joining The Fantasy Cyclingnews Team
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