T-A dangerous and cold, say T-Mobile riders

Andreas Klöden is happy to be racing again, but is not necessarily happy with the conditions at Tirreno-Adriatico. "The course here doesn't make us riders particularly happy. At times we are riding on roads that are in a desolate condition," the T-Mobile rider wrote on his website, www.andreas-kloeden.com.

"In the first two stages, there were places where the potholes were as big as soccer balls. Plus the course is not sufficiently closed, especially in the last 20km or so. Cars parked left and right, buses standing on the street behind a curve - these things don't really give the impression that the race management particularly cares about the riders' health and safety." Klöden concluded by saying: "Many of my colleagues and I have agreed that something like this doesn't belong in the ProTour."

And his team-mate Bernhard Kohl wasn't impressed with the weather, either: "Normally you wouldn't send a dog out in weather like this, but, hey we cyclist are up for any fun! It was 3° with streaming rain as we were supposed to start," he said on www.bernhardkohl.at.

"Supposed to, because first it was discussed with lots of gestures (after all, we're in Italy) and then a strike [happened]. But nothing helped, we had to go, even when they were already announcing mixed snow and rain on the first mountain."