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Mt Hood Classic
Photo ©: Swift

Latest Cycling News for July 27, 2005

Edited by Jeff Jones

Moreau to leave Crédit Agricole

Christophe Moreau (CA)
Photo ©: Luc Claessen
Click for larger image

Christophe Moreau, France's best Tour rider in recent years, will leave Crédit Agricole at the end of the year, according to L'Equipe. Moreau, who finished 11th in this year's Tour, has ridden for Roger Legeay's squad since the start of 2002. His team announced that he would be departing them, but his future squad is not yet known.

Moreau was annoyed with Crédit Agricole's secret interest in signing Alexandre Vinokourov, who has now gone to Liberty Seguros. But Legeay - although not pleased with Moreau's comments either - maintained that this had nothing to do with the separation. "The two files are different," he told L'Equipe. "We met with the agents of Christophe in Pau, where they demanded for us to continue for two more years under the same conditions. Now, I give my response after consulting with the technical staff and the directors of the team."

Marinangeli out for rest of season

Sergio Marinangeli (Naturino-Sapore di Mare) has finished his season after a bad crash on the second day of the Brixia Tour last Saturday. Marinangeli crashed with two kilometres to go in Stage 2a, falling on his face and breaking his collarbone, left wrist and jaw. He has been transferred to Le Torrette di Ancona hospital in Milan, where he will undergo an operation for his jaw and collarbone on Thursday morning.

How to win and break your collarbone

Painful finish for Sachsen Tour winner Matt Hayman

By Jeff Jones

Mathew Hayman (Rabobank)
Photo ©: Luc Claessen
Click for larger image

27 year-old Australian rouleur Mathew Hayman (Rabobank) scored the biggest win of his career in the Sachsen Tour last Sunday, but at the same time managed to sideline himself for several weeks after breaking his collarbone in a finish line crash. Fortunately for Hayman, the crash happened inside the final kilometre and he did not suffer a time penalty, but all the same, it was a painful way to finish what was a great tour for him and his team.

"I'm not exactly sure what happened," Hayman explained to Cyclingnews from his home in Lanaken, Belgium, on Wednesday. "On GC, there were a few guys within a few seconds of each other. So we let a group of 13 go up the road and controlled the race. Coming into the finish, we couldn't let any of the GC guys go in case they got a gap [Hayman only had a 3 second lead to defend], so my teammates just wound it up for a sprint. One guy pulled off at 500 metres, another guy came past and said 'come on', but he had two guys from Wiesenhof on his wheel and they didn't want to let me in. That was at about 300 metres to go, and it was uphill into a bit of a headwind. People started sprinting past me for 14th, and before I knew it, I was lying on the ground!

"I knew I had broken my collarbone straight away. No HEW classic, no Benelux Tour, and probably no Vuelta. I wasn't even able to go to the ceremony after the race. I was thinking 'this is unreal' - I was all bandaged up, they were playing the national anthem, and I was already getting into the team car. I got changed at the airport and was operated on Monday at 11:00am in Amersfoort. They put a plate in with screws, and said that after three or four days - as long as I can tolerate it - I can start on the home trainer."

Hayman said that he also had a lot of skin taken off his back and a small amount of bruising on his hip, but remained optimistic that he could get back in shape again fairly quickly. And although he couldn't savour the final victory on the podium in Dresden, he had the satisfaction of knowing that it was his. "At least I won, so I'm pretty happy about that," he said. "No-one can take that away from me."

After finishing fourth in the six man lead group in Stage 1, Hayman explained how he rode into the yellow jersey on Stage 4 between Görlitz and Sebnitz, a windy, hilly leg over 168 km. "I was one second behind on GC before that," he said. "We decided that we'd try to control the race. The first sprint was after 25 km, and we controlled it to there, but I didn't get time back. After that there was some crosswinds, and we had been racing so hard that the bunch split a bit and we were left with maybe 30 guys. At the second sprint I took second place [two seconds], then I got two seconds in the next sprint as well. So I was three seconds ahead on GC.

"We had a few laps to finish, and it was a really hard circuit. [Allan] Johansen won that stage, and we [the GC riders] were attacking each other. I was just trying to follow them." Hayman finished 12th on that stage, but didn't lose any time to his main rivals, and thus found himself in the lead with just one stage to go.

"The whole team rode so well on the last day to control it - we never got in any bad situations, so that was awesome. I was going pretty well, which I was happy with. Then nerves started to take over..."

Although Rabobank has already named nine riders for the Vuelta, Hayman gives himself an outside chance of making it back into the team. "I was in that team on Saturday. There are four weeks of racing before the Vuelta starts, and if I should be back and somebody else should have a problem, then it's possible. I would have preferred to have been put on a reserve list with a question mark. We'll still see."

Rabobank realigns for the Vuelta and Eneco Tour

The Rabobank team has named Denis Menchov and Oscar Freire as its top men for the Vuelta a España, which starts on August 27. Both riders have had health problems this year, with Menchov getting sick during the Tour and failing to perform to his potential, and Freire suffering from a saddle sore problem since the spring. Rabobank has also named Jan Boven, Bram de Groot, Pedro Horrillo, Alexandr Kolobnev, Niels Scheuneman, Jukka Vastaranta, and Thorwald Veneberg.

For next week's ProTour Eneco Tour of Benelux (August 3-10), Rabobank has selected a strong squad with Erik Dekker and Michael Boogerd as captains. Jan Boven, Thomas Dekker, Bram De Groot, Steven de Jongh, Thorwald Veneberg and Marc Wauters complete the line up.

Viganò to Quick.Step

Young Italian rider Davide Viganò has signed a three year deal with the Belgian Quick.Step squad. Tuttobiciweb.com reports that he will make his debut as early as August 4 in the GP Camaiore in Italy, alongside Olympic Champion Paolo Bettini.

Lore's fan club

By Sabine Sunderland

Just when you thought after watching the Tour de France, that cycling couldn't get any crazier, here's a mad topic from Belgium: The girlfriend of demigod Tom Boonen has her own fan club. Lore, who has captured the hearts of cycling fans in Belgium, was writing her own diary in one of the Belgian newspapers. Even after Tom had to leave the Tour and the green jersey because of injury, she still kept putting her thoughts on paper.

Yesterday, the huge crowds in Diksmuide came mainly to see their hero from Balen beat McEwen and Hushovd in the evening criterium, but there were also a few present for his beautiful girlfriend Lore. Cartoonist Nesten made one of his larger than life drawings and Tom seemed to be quite pleased with the result. The new fan club of Tom's girlfriend Lore was launched with loud approval.

The Grafton is go

Australia's Grafton to Inverell classic has announced that its title sponsor of the last four years, Eastmon Digital Photo Stores, will be back on board in 2005, enabling the race's $20,000 prize list to be retained. This year's race, held over the same unforgiving 230 km parcours, will be run on Saturday, September 17, and will be the 45th time that the Grafton has been held.

Funeral arrangements for Amy Gillett-Safe

The funeral service for Amy Gillett-Safe will be held at the Doveton Park Funeral Centre, 1251 Doveton St, Ballarat. The service will commence at 11am on Friday, July 29. The memorial service is a private one and only those invited to attend will be able to gain access. These include Amy's family and friends, and representatives from the Australian government and sporting organisations.

Amy's family have asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Amy Gillett-Safe Cycling Foundation. The foundation will initially help support the rehabilitation of Amy Gillett's five injured team-mates and in the long term will establish a scholarship program for young women cyclists and support and promote projects aimed at road safety awareness amongst cyclists and motorists. Details on how to donate are available on the Cycling Australia website at www.cycling.org.au

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