First Edition Cycling News for October 12, 2006

Edited by Laura Weislo

Discovery adds two more

Brian Vandborg (Den)
Photo ©: Andrea Hübner

The Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team has announced the addition of two riders, Antonio Cruz and Brian Vandborg, to the 2007 Team roster. Cruz returns to the Discovery Channel squad where he was a member for five years (2001-2005) while Vandborg is leaving the Danish CSC Team after three seasons on that squad.

The 25 year-old Vandborg had a break-out season this year, being crowned as the Danish National Time Trial Champion and then finishing the season just off the podium at the World Championships Time Trial. Vandborg, who also had an offer from the Belgian team Unibet, is very happy about the change since his girlfriend lives in California. "That way, everything just falls into place."

The young Dane is still overwhelmed by the development: "Suddenly, Rolf (Sørensen, his agent) called and said Discovery were interested, which is, of course, more interesting for me than Unibet. It's all a bit overwhelming, and I suppose I'll only really realise everything when we go to the first team meeting in Austin in December. I have also spoken with Johan Bruyneel", he added "[and said] that I would like to ride the Tour of California, but we haven't talked about a race programme apart from that yet."

Cruz returns to Discovery after one year on the Toyota United Pro team, where he spent the season racing in the US. He won the Tour de Nez (Reno, NV) and finished third at the US Pro Criterium Championship, but after spending the season racing domestically, Tony decided he wanted to return to the Pro Tour ranks. "After only one year away I realized just how much I missed European racing, in countries like Belgium and in races like Paris-Roubaix. I’m happy there was an opportunity for Johan to bring me back to the Discovery Team."

Cruz and Vandborg are the seventh and eighth riders to join the 2007 squad. Other recent additions to the Team include: Levi Leipheimer, Sergio Paulinho, Tomas Vaitkus, Uros Murn, Gianni Meersman, and the Team’s first Chinese rider, Fuyu Li.

Katharina Schulz contributed to this report

Quick step-Innergetic for Giro di Lombardia

World champion Paolo Bettini will lead his team's final assault on the Pro Tour, the Giro di Lombardia. He will be joined by Serge Baguet, Filippo Pozzato, Ivan Santaromita, Hubert Schwab, Matteo Tosatto, Cedric Vasseur, Davide Viganò, and director sportif Serge Parsani.

21 nations at Chrono des Nations

Renamed Chrono des Nations, the Chrono des Herbiers in France has attracted riders from 21 different countries. World hour record holder Ondrej Sosenka will defend his title under the pressure of Vladimir Gusev who came second and third in the past two years. Another favourite for the event is Brian Vandborg after his fourth place at the world championship. In the women's category, Zulfia Zabirova from Kazakhstan will try to win the event for the fifth time against the likes of Priska Doppman from Switzerland, France's Jeannie Longo and Kathy Watt from Australia.

The 25 Elite starters:

Sébastien Duret (Fra)
Aivaras Baranauskas (Lit)
Mathieu Drujon (Fra)
David le Lay (Fra)
Olivier Kaisen (Bel)
Nicolas Fritsch (Fra)
Matija Kvasina (Cro)
Florian Morizot (Fra)
Matej Jurco (Slo)
Jérémy Roy (Fra)
Piotr Mazur (Pol)
Yuriy Krivtsov (Ukr)
Matti Helminen (Fin)
Christophe Kern (Fra)
Gustav Larsson (Swe)
Pedro Horrillo (Spa)
Raivis Belohvosciks (Lat)
Manuel Quinziato (Ita)
Stef Clement (Ned)
Bradley Mc Gee (Aus)
Andriy Grivko (Ukr)
Thomas Voeckler (Fra)
Brian Vandborg (Den)
Vladimir Gusev (Rus)
Ondrej Sosenka (Cze)

Sastre, Pereiro and Piepoli in Escalada a Montjuic

by Antonio J. Salmerón

Carlos Sastre (CSC)
Photo ©: Luc Claessen

The 43th edition of the Escalada a Montjuic, in Barcelona (Spain), will be take place this Sunday, October 15th. Unlike the usual finish at the Montjuic Castle, the race will now in front of the North entrance of the Olympic Stadium. This decision has been taken by Barcelona city council and the race organization, the Esport Ciclista Barcelona, in order to hold the finish closer to the start area.

The road race will consist of five laps of a 25 kilometer circuit, including the 8.6 kilometer ascent of the Montjuic The second stage is a time trial on the Montjuic ascent. 25 professionals will take part in the race, but absent in this year's edition will be the winner of the two last editions, Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi). Sanchez will miss the event due to the celebration that UCI has prepared for Sunday to mark the finish of the Pro Tour. However, Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d'Espargne-Illes Balears), second in this year's Tour of France, Carlos Sastre (Team CSC), the third in the Tour, and Saunier Duval-Prodir's climber, Leonardo Piepoli will take part in the Escalada a Montjuic.

Post stage quotes - Jayco Herald Sun Tour

Wednesday's stage of the Herald Sun Tour was a close one: a photo finish between local hero David Tanner (Australia Under 23 team) and Japan's Satoshi Hirose (Japan-Latrobe City), and Tanner was devastated when the judges ruled in favour of Hirose. John Trevorrow talked to the young Australian after the finish.

David Tanner (Australia Under 23 team)
Q: A win into your home town would have been a fairy-tale come true. It must be devastating?
A: Especially since I’ve had a terrible season finishing second a few times in France. I think I’ve had about 12 second places over the past two years. That’s the way it goes I suppose. I’ve got to work on my sprint a bit. I was in every move and I attacked as hard as I could. Really that was the best selection I could have made and I had to make a big effort to get to them. Once we got clear Johnny Clarke did some massive turns and had us all hanging.
Q: You stepped into him a little bit near the finish.
A: Yeah I should have stepped into him a bit more.

Tour leader
Karl Menzies
Photo ©: Shane Goss

Karl Menzies (Health Net Presented By Maxxis)
Q: How was it today?
A: Same as yesterday - group went away, no GC riders in it so we just rode tempo. The team just rode awesome. The boys just kept on the front all day and I just sat in out of the wind. I just have to wait until tomorrow."
Q: Can you hold onto the yellow jersey tomorrow?
A: I don’t know. I’m not a climber so there’s no real pressure on me. There’s a lot more pressure on Gerro and the other boys. I’ve never been up Lake Mountain but I hear it’s real tough for the first four or five kilometers then it levels out quite a bit. I’m prepared to suffer so we’ll wait and see what happens.

Patrick Shaw (Australia Under 23 team)
"It was bad luck for David as we all wanted him to win in his home town. I got in the move and once we opened the gap it was pretty steady until the seven riders went clear and got to 45 sec. But Hilton Clarke was storming through and did most of the work to bring it back."

Simon Gerrans (Australian National Team)
"Started out quick but it settled down once the break went and then it was HealthNet on the front with a bit of help from DFL and an easy day for me. Well it’s not that easy, it was very hot and a long day in the saddle."

A happy Hirose
Photo ©: Shane Goss

Sitoshi Hirose (Japan-Latrobe City)
When asked about his chances for the rest of the Tour, including tomorrow’s much awaited climb up Lake Mountain, Sitose was surprisingly upbeat, despite the reservations of his team manager about his ability on the hills.

"No problem up the mountain - at school I was a mountain biker and did not take up road racing until I was at university. Today gave me good motivation. I think I am finally in good condition after three years with a problem in my lower back. Training has been getting better every day."

T-Mobile team meetings

T-Mobile is making so many changes in both its women's and men's teams that it has decided to go ahead and hold the first team meetings as early as possible. The men's team will hold their first get-together the coming weekend in Lugano, Switzerland, following the Giro di Lombaria. But before that, the women will hold center stage. The women's team is meeting as of today in Lugano, and will not only get to know the new riders but also the new team management.

The team announced today that former world-class rider Kristy Scrymgeour of Australia will be the new team manager. Scrymgeour is a former Austrialian national criterium and time trial champion and member of the national team. She rode professionally for, among others, the Saturn team. Since then she has worked as a coach and as an international marketing representative for Cyclingnews. The team meeting will also include testing of materiel and clothing, discussion of training plans, a review of the past season, and team-building exercises. A team presentation will be held the end of the week to introduce the new team roster and the management.

UCI to host awards gala

The UCI will host a gala to award trophies to the winners of 2006 UCI ProTour, and to winners of each UCI Continental Circuits following the Giro di Lombardia. On Sunday, October 15, in Como, Italy, the winners of the UCI ProTour, and Europe, Africa, America, Asia and Oceania Continental Tours will receive their awards.

Most of the races have been decided; Alejandro Valverde has wrapped up the individual UCI ProTour and the team and country rankings have almost been decided. The trophy for the leader of the UCI Europe Tour is still up for grabs. Currently, Niko Eeckhout (BEL) is in the lead over Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita), and the final ranking of the UCI Europe Tour will be decided at the Giro del Piemonte.

The winners of the individual rankings for the UCI Africa Tour, UCI America Tour, UCI Asia Tour and the UCI Oceania Tour are, respectively, Jérémie Ouédraogo (BUR) - winner of the 2005 Tour du Faso and the first rider from Burkina Faso to be crowned by the UCI, Colombian, José Serpa, Iranian rider, Ghader Mizbani Iranagh and Gordon McCauley (NZL)

Colavita and Cooking Light add Sutter Home

Sutter Home Winery has joined Colavita USA and Cooking Light to sponsor the Colavita/Sutter Home Women’s Cycling Team presented by Cooking Light, one of only two U.S.-based women’s team to qualify for cycling’s prestigious UCI designation for the 2007 season.

The Colavita/Sutter Home Women’s Cycling Team presented by Cooking Light will be led by Tina Pic, ranked #1 among women cyclists in the U.S. Joining her will be teammates Dotsie Bausch (USA), Sarah Tillotson (USA), and Iona Wynter-Parks (JAM). The team has also added Canadian powerhouse Alex Wrubleski, who currently holds the twin titles of Canadian National Road Race Champion and National Time Trial Champion, Candice Blickem (USA), Mackenzie Dickey (USA), Andrea Dvorak (USA), Stacey Spencer (CAN), and Alison Powers (USA).

"We are thrilled with the roster we’ve lined up for the upcoming season," said Team Director Jim Williams. "We’ve got a well-balanced squad, which will allow us to compete for the overall win in stage races as well as one-day events. I’m looking forward to working with this great group of accomplished riders."

The Colavita/Sutter Home Women’s Cycling Team presented by Cooking Light will race against the top U.S. and European teams at UCI events in 2007, including Australia’s Geelong Women’s Tour and World Cup and Italy’s Giro d’Italia Femminile.

Sydney Thousand entries extended

Local Aussie riders will get more time to sign up to rub shoulders with the world's best cyclists. The entry deadline for the Sydney Thousand, the first major track cycling event for the season, has been extended by one week to Sunday October 22. As in past years, the world's best will compete at the top level including Ryan Bayley, Mark French, Joel Leonard, Josiah Ng from Malayasia and Australia's greatest Tour De France rider Robbie McEwen in his only velodrome appearance in Australia.

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