Latest Cycling News for May 26, 2005

Edited by Anthony Tan

Discovery team update

Yates: "It will go down to the line on Saturday"

Speaking about Paolo Savoldelli's chances on winning the Giro d'Italia, Discovery Channel's assistant sports manager Sean Yates said in a team update: "For him, [to win] the Giro would be fantastic, much more than he ever expected. The overall win is there for the taking."

However, the former professional acknowledged those close behind him on the overall classification will be riding on the offensive, in particular Gilberto Simoni (Lampre-Cafitta).

"He has to win the Giro and that's his character and he has gone by it so far. Plus the last time he went he dropped Paolo [Stage 14], so his confidence is up. With the time trial coming up [Stage 18], [Simoni] knows he will lose time [to Savoldelli], so he will have to attack at every opportunity. He's not interested in second or third. And Di Luca has gone with him and is better than him in the time trial, so he needs to drop Paolo and Di Luca."

Yates said Savoldelli isn't worried about Saturday's mountain stage [Stage 19], but is in fact more concerned about today's [Stage 17] mountain-top finish in Limone Piemonte. "One thing's for sure - it will go down to the line on Saturday. It can be won or lost on Saturday," he said.

Danielson back on the bike next week

After a MRI scan revealed Tom Danielson's knee was inflamed, which was pushing his knee-cap up and stretching out the joint, Discovery's young-gun was sent home from the Giro d'Italia after Stage 9. Upon returning to the U.S., he was instructed to take 15 days off the bike and had his knee drained of fluid, but that period is almost over, and the 27 year-old will slowly get back into training next week.

"I'll talk with Johan about it and he will make the decision of how much I can ride. I'll start slowly and try and get back into it. I'm excited to get back," he said in a team statement.

Despite the disappointment of pulling out of his first Grand Tour, Danielson had some positive comments to make about the Giro, and was surprised how low-key the race was. "I was pretty surprised how normal it was; in fact, it was more low key than other races we had done this year," he said.

"It was nice to see it doesn't become a whole other thing. I'm sure the Tour de France is much more stressful as the level is much higher, but in Italy it was a nice surprise."

As a result of this minor setback, Danielson will now make the Vuelta a España an objective. "This can be good for that," he said. "I was forced to rest and recover and can use the knowledge I gained from the first part of the season to the end, and it sounds like a really good race."

Savoldelli to ride Tour de France

"He's one of our strongest riders and already knew from this winter that his personal goal for the season was the Giro, and that I would also count on him in the Tour to ride in support of Lance," said team manager Johan Bruyneel in a team statement, who picked Savoldelli to ride even before the start of the Giro.

"I think it's possible to do both, but on a high level would be difficult. We do expect Paolo to be there in the high mountains of the Tour," added Bruyneel.

Barry: "I think the hardest mountain days are done"

"I think the hardest mountain days are done. We have one more really hard day on Saturday [Stage 19]," said Discovery's Canadian team member Michael Barry in a team statement.

"Maybe these stages coming up will be a bit easier, who knows. For the most part, it should be a little easier to control the race. Paolo really needs to only look at two guys now, Di Luca and Simoni, and he should time trial better than them as well. We just need to protect him and get him in a good position and as fresh as possible to the mountains."

Barry also had some interesting comments to make on differences between the Giro and the Vuelta, the latter which he has raced three times. "There is more history to this race and the fan base is much greater here than in Spain. There are more spectators, media and on TV, it seems like the race is on eight hours a day - morning shows, the race, then post race shows. The towns are covered in pink. It's a really cool atmosphere," he said.

"As far as the racing goes, the stages are a lot longer than in the Vuelta and are raced differently. Here, we start off slower, then the speed picks up as the stage progresses. In the Vuelta, it's attack from the gun. It's a much different style of racing."

It's hard not to notice plenty of confidence with the team, but one thing Discovery has proven themselves to be very good at is protecting their leader, as they have shown in the past six Tours de France, as well as at the Vuelta a España.

"We started the race with Paolo as our leader and I thought he had a pretty good chance of winning," said Barry. "I had a gut feeling he would take the jersey at some point, and now it's our job to get him to the finish each day in a good position. And that's how this team knows to race - protecting its leader, racing as a unit. We've been doing that since the very beginning, so it's not a big surprise.

Following the Giro, Barry will head back to his European base in Girona to recover and prepare for his next event, the Tour of Switzerland, which begins June 11.

Rosters for Wachovia and Dauphiné

From the 10 riders listed below, the Discovery team will choose: eight riders for the Wachovia Invitational in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on May 31 and the Wachovia Classic two days later in Trenton, New Jersey; then nine riders for the USPRO Championship in Philadelphia on June 5:

Fumyuki Beppu
Michael Creed
Antonio Cruz
Roger Hammond
Ryder Hesjedal
Leif Hoste
Pat McCarty
Hayden Roulston
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Max Van Heeswijk

For the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré from June 5-12, the team's roster is likely to consist of:

Lance Armstrong
Jose Azevedo
Manuel Beltran
Stijn Devolder
George Hincapie
Benjamin Noval
Jose Luis Rubiera
Yaroslav Popovych

Boonen to undergo operation post World's

He makes it look so easy, but winning doesn't come without pain for Tom Boonen. The 24 year-old Quick.Step rider won the first stage of the Tour of Belgium yesterday, his first race back after a well-deserved break, and starts today's stage in the black leader's jersey.

"To ride in your own country is always fun; to win even more," Boonen told Het Nieuwsblad.

His future goals? The green jersey at the Tour de France, and to become world champion in Madrid.

But after the World's, Boonen will undergo surgery. Team doctor Vanmol says that the man from Balen has been annoyed since the start of the season by a 'small fracture' in his lower stomach. "It's a hole in a muscle," explained Vanmol. "It doesn't really bother him while riding, but he's lucky that it's not in the scar [tissue] of his operation from last year. That could have jeopardised the rest of the season."

T-Mobile tactics to a T - almost

When two of their riders made the decisive break of 18 during yesterday's Giro stage to Varazze, T-Mobile's tactics were going to a T.

"The tactics were to get at least one of our riders into any breakaway group," said directeur sportif Valerio Piva on t-mobile-team.com. "André and Eric were paying attention at the right moment. After that, we were able to sit back in the main bunch and the other teams were obviously also content to do the same."

Unfortunately for André Korff and Eric Baumann, the long but not overly steep climb of Bric Breton proved to be their undoing, with 31 year-old Korff the best of the rest in the chasing group, taking the sprint for 10th place. Nevertheless, Piva remains satisfied with his performance: "André rode a superb race. But the mountains are not really his cup of tea.

"So when Le Mevel's group broke away on the Bric Breton climb, he couldn't follow them. That left him with 50 seconds to make up on the descent, which was unfortunately too much time to make good," he said.

CSC favourites in Bayern Rundfahrt

Irrespective of the presence of strong local teams in the Bayern Rundfahrt, Team CSC still believe they are considered the favourites, having defending champion Jens Voigt in their squad.

"It was obvious, that even though T-Mobile and Gerolsteiner also have strong teams down here, we're considered the favourites," said directeur sportif Kim Andersen on the team's website, team-csc.com. "First off, no-one wanted to pursue the breakaway, so Linus and Jens attacked on one of the climbs in order to split the peloton into several groups, but everyone came together in the end anyway."

Despite the 'favourites' tag, however, their team still did well in the opening stage from Kempten to Sonthofen, with young Australian recruit Luke Roberts and Voigt finishing fourth and fifth respectively. Unfortunately, Jakob Piil still isn't back to race condition, losing 13'34 yesterday.

Said Andersen: "Jakob apparently has a problem with the back of his thigh, so when the attacks came, he had to keep his own pace, so he wouldn't strain it. But we'll see how it goes tomorrow [Stage 2]."

Dean's Tour de France woes

After a crash in the opening week of the Giro d'Italia resulted in a broken elbow for Credit Agricole rider Julian Dean, the New Zealander will now be forced to watch this year's Tour de France from the sidelines.

"Last year was my first year at the top of the world. I was labelled the best lead-out rider on the planet, and ever since then all I've thought about is riding the Tour again," he told the Dominion Post.

"It's so disappointing and the really sad thing for me is that the Tour de France is the only thing they [the general public] really know back in New Zealand. Last year was a big profile boost for me, and I would have been much more confident this year, maybe even won a stage," Dean added.

Following the crash, the 30 year-old had three plates inserted into his right arm, and is wearing a cast up to his shoulder. Although Dean's surgeon says he can resume training on the home trainer as early as next week, he is not expected to return to racing for at least another two months, with the Eneco Tour of Benelux ProTour event from August 3-10 likely to be one of his comeback races.

"When I broke my arm I was just coming into my first good period [of form]. If I do everything correctly, in three months' time I'll be back among the best in the world again," he said with optimism.

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