Latest Cycling News for May 30, 2005Edited by Jeff Jones Eighth grand tour win for Bruyneel's team
Paolo Savoldelli's overall victory in the Giro d'Italia marked the eighth grand tour win for Johan Bruyneel's Discovery Channel (formerly US Postal) team: six Tours de France, one Giro d'Italia, and one Vuelta a Espana. The boys in blue have now won all three major tours between them, with Lance Armstrong going for a seventh Tour de France this July. And with talented riders like Yaroslav Popovych and Tom Danielson, there is at least a base for future big wins. Savoldelli finished up beating Gilberto Simoni (Lampre) by 28 seconds and Jose Rujano (Selle Italia) by 45: a close margin, but certainly not the closest in the history of the Giro. In 1948, Fiorenzo Magni beat Ezio Cecchi by 11 seconds, while in 1974, Eddy Merckx beat Giambattista Baronchelli by 12 seconds, and in 1955, Magni beat Fausto Coppi by 13 seconds. But it has been nearly 30 years since a Giro was decided by a margin of less than 30 seconds (Gimondi beat De Muynck by 19 seconds in 1976). "Everyone did a great job," said team director Sean Yates in a team statement. "We knew it wasn't over until we finished up today and hit the line with one lap to go, as that was where the official time was taken. And with one to go, we had Michael Barry at the head with Paolo on his wheel, as we knew one crash or something like that could potentially lose it all. After that, everyone sat up and that was it." Now, Discovery will refocus itself on the Tour de France, where Armstrong is again the great favourite. The Giro is over for another year. "Finishing up any big Tour is a bit anti climatic," said Yates. "You're hyped up for three weeks and then all of a sudden, it's over. It almost feels like you can go another three weeks." Stage 20 Full results
& report Gerolsteiner satisfiedGerman team Gerolsteiner was satisfied with its Giro d'Italia, which saw Sven Krauss in the Intergiro jersey for a long time before finally losing it to Stefano Zanini, Robert Förster picking up several top three placings, and Markus Fothen finishing 12th overall in his first grand tour. Krauss also won a Piaggio scooter for spending the most time in breakaways. "Frösi proved with another excellent third place that he belongs among the world's elite sprinters," commented team director Christian Henn. "Markus Fothen's 12th place in the overall classification and the outstanding achievement of Sven Krauss in the special categories show the strength and depth of our team." Calling Ivan ParraRunner-up in the mountains competition in the Giro, Ivan Parra (Colombia-Selle Italia), managed to lose his mobile phone during the final stage of the Giro d'Italia in Milan. He told Cyclingnews that at the start of the stage, he was talking on the phone, but didn't have time to get to the car and hand it back like normal. He put it in his back pocket and forgot about it. When the race heated up on the finishing circuits, it jumped out of his pocket. He felt it go, and on the next lap he slowed down to see if he could see it. But, no luck for Ivan. His teammate Russell Van Hout might have been able to lend a hand, but the Australian was busy defending his last place on GC, the so-called maglia nera. Van Hout told us that he got on the back of the bunch, and anyone who tried to go behind him would find it hard. "This is my position!" he said. In the end, Van Hout beat Frank Hoj (Gerolsteiner) by 22'51 to 'win' the maglia nera, with teammate Trent Wilson in third last at 23'59 ahead of Russ. ProTour rankings: Di Luca builds big lead
By finishing fourth in the Giro d'Italia and garnering a couple of stage wins, Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas-Bianchi) extended his lead in the ProTour rankings by a big margin over Tom Boonen (Quick.Step). Di Luca, who won three ProTour races before the Giro, now has 184 points, while Boonen is on 112, and Alessandro Petacchi on 111. Oscar Freire (Rabobank) is in fourth place on 94 points, while Giro winner Paolo Savoldelli (Discovery Channel) enters the rankings in fifth place on 89 points, all of which were scored during the Giro. In the teams rankings, Davitamon-Lotto and Rabobank are tied on 191 points, ahead of Phonak on 173. Italy is in command of the nations rankings on 540 points, followed by Spain on 336 and Belgium on 223 points. The Continental rankings have also been updated, with Stefan Schumacher (Shimano-Memory Corp) holding a big 125 point lead in the European tour over Ruben Plaza (Comunidad Valenciana). In the other tours, Tiaan Kannemeyer (Barloworld-Valsir) leads in Africa, Edgardo Simon (Arg) in America, Graeme Brown (Panaria) in Asia, and Robert Mclachlan (MG Xpower Presented By Bigpond) in Oceania. In the last UCI women's rankings update on May 10, Oenone Wood and Judith Arndt (Nürnberger) were the number one and two ranked women, with Nürnberger the top team and Australia the top nation.
Rankings as of May 29, 2005 Individuals 1 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi 184 pts 2 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step 112 3 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 111 4 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank 94 5 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 89 6 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner 86 7 Michael Boogerd (Ned) Rabobank 80 8 Bobby Julich (USA) Team CSC 75 9 George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 75 10 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team CSC 72 Teams 1 Davitamon-Lotto 191 pts 2 Rabobank 191 3 Phonak Hearing Systems 173 4 Team CSC 170 5 Fassa Bortolo 158 6 Saunier Duval-Prodir 152 7 Liberty Seguros-Würth Team 151 8 Credit Agricole 137 9 Liquigas-Bianchi 130 10 Cofidis, Le Credit Par Telephone 125 Nations 1 Italy 540 pts 2 Spain 336 3 Belgium 223 4 Germany 193 5 United States Of America 154 6 Australia 132 7 Netherlands 112 8 Ukraine 86 9 France 74 10 Russian Federation 73 Full rankings: ProTour, Continental Tours, Elite Women, Teams, Nations Davitamon-Lotto for Dauphiné LibéréThe next major race on the program for the Davitamon-Lotto team will be the Dauphiné Libéré, which will be held from June 5-12. Giro stars Mauricio Ardila and Wim Vanhuffel will be part of the line-up, along with Mario Aerts, Serge Baguet, Axel Merckx, Koos Moerenhout, Preben Van Hecke, and Johan Vansummeren. The team will be directedby Eric Van Lancker and Allan Peiper. Lampre-Caffita go StatsideThe Lampre-Caffita team has flown to the USA for the Wachovia Cycling Series this week. Six riders plus director Bruno Vicino departed Malpensa airport on Sunday morning bound for Philadelphia. The races are: May 31: Wachovia Invitational, Lancaster (PA), 147 km Lampre will be represented by: Alessandro Ballan, Gerrit Glomser, Marco Marzano, Samuele Marzoli, Andreas Matzbacher and Dario Pieri. "I'm convinced to go there with a competitive team. Marzoli is ready for the sprints and Ballan, Glomser and Matzbacher will have their chance if the race is going stronger," said Vicino. New Zealand team for Junior World'sCycling New Zealand has named its team for the 2005 Junior Road World Championships, which will be held in Austria between August 12-14. Under 19 Men Clinton Avery (Rotorua) Under 19 WomenRushlee Buchanan (Te Awamutu) Buchanan will be New Zealand's sole representative at the Junior Track Cycling World Championships held 7-14 August, also in Austria. The team departs for France and Switzerland in late July to prepare for the Junior World Championships.
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