Posts from — March 2010

Tasmanian focusing on developing as a domestique

Australia’s Cameron Wurf didn’t sign a professional contract until mid-February this year, yet he’s been thrown into the deep end as a member of Androni Giocattoli’s Classics program. In just four weeks of racing with the Italian Professional Continental outfit Wurf has already contested Milan-San Remo, but that won’t be the only major spring race the Tasmanian rides this year.

Wurf’s steep learning curve will continue this week at Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda, where he’ll prepare for his Paris-Roubaix debut. “I rode three one-day races in Italy within the first week of arriving here, so that was a bit of a shock with the climate change from summer in Tasmania,” said Wurf. “I must have gone okay as Gianni Savio put me into the Torino team the following week, which is a very important race for the team, then Milan-San Remo, so I really can’t complain about my program.

“I feel like I have fitted in pretty well,” he added. “This season I would really like to develop in the role of a domestique and at this team it is a role that fits well for me. We have some really great riders in Michele Scarponi and Francesco Ginanni so it is very enjoyable riding for these guys; they always show appreciation for the effort you put in, which is nice. Also, if they ask you to work it’s highly likely they will finish up front, so it is a very motivating environment in which to be a part.”

While making a Paris-Roubaix debut is a dream for any professional, Wurf’s program could get even better if he continues to impress the team’s management. His program will be decided in time, but Wurf believes he will contest Liège – Bastogne – Liège and La Fléche Wallonne where he wants to prove he’s worthy of a Giro d’Italia start.

“It is a real thrill to be riding the big Classics, although having not ridden on the cobbles of Roubaix before it sure will be a baptism of fire… I don’t mind that,” he said. “I would love to ride the Giro, but we have many good riders so this will be difficult. I will keep working hard and hope they can find a role for me in the Giro team. I am happy with whatever comes my way in the way of races.”

Wurf is keeping a level head, knowing this season needs to be about learning and after a difficult 2009, when much of his year was wiped out by glandular fever, Wurf is simply satisfied with the opportunity he’s been given.

“I would really like to ride a full season,” he said. “After the virus last year it is important to firstly be on top of my health, learning when to push and when to take it easy. As far as race goals I would like to establish myself as a reliable domestic for our team leaders, try for the odd breakaway here and there and hope to take my chance for personal glory this way.

“Basically I just want a good solid season and come out the end of the year a stronger and more complete rider,” he added.

Wurf was a rower, taking part in the Athens Olympic Games in 2004 before switching to cycling in 2006.

Source: Cyclingnews.com

Danish dynamo dumped out of Wevelgem finale

Matti Breschel (Saxo Bank) crossed the line in eighth place at Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday but it could have been a different story had he not flatted in the final 20 kilometres. Breschel was one of the leading protagonists in the 210 kilometre Classic, and made the final selection of riders on the day’s final climb. With a strong sprint he stood a good chance of picking up his second victory in a week, after he won Dwars door Vlaanderen.

“It’s shit but that’s what happens in cycling,” he told Cyclingnews. “It’s part of the game.”

Breschel skipped yesterday’s E3 Prijs Vlaanderen – Harelbeke and showed his freshness and form throughout today’s race. He was the first rider to breach the gap to Daniel Oss and Maxim Iglinskyi (Astana) with around 50 kilometres to go. He then dropped everyone on the final ascent of the Kemmelberg, and although he carved out a small gap, he sat up and waited for the rest of the favourites.

He was joined by Daniel Oss (Liquigas), George Hincapie (BMC Racing Team), Bernhard Eisel (HTC-Columbia), Sep Vanmarke (Topsport-Vlaanderen), Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Maxim Iglinskyi (Astana), Alexandr Kuchynski (Liquigas) and Oscar Freire (Rabobank).

The leaders sped towards Wevelgem but disaster struck when Breschel punctured. The Dane was forced to wait for a new wheel and but as the leaders disappeared from view, so did his chances of clinching victory.

He was joined by another group including team-mate Baden Cooke, Christian Knees (Milram), Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) and Luca Paolini (Acqua & Sapone) but despite Cooke’s heroic efforts to close the gap it was all for nothing.

“I still felt I had some power left and we tried to close the gap but after I had a puncture they went flat out at the front so I couldn’t get back on,” he said. “Cooke did great for me and tried to close the gap.”

Despite the disappointment, Breschel will still head into Flanders and Roubaix as one of the favourites.

“I felt good today so it’s a pity but anyway I’m good and I’ll be there for next week,” he said. “I’m confident ahead of next week. I feel better and better and I feel I have some power on the cobbles.”

Breschel will also need to balance his own ambitions with those of team-mate and winner of E3, Fabian Cancellara, who has repeatedly said he wants to win Flanders for the first time year. “We have to see, be honest, talk together and stay loyal,” he said.

Source: Cyclingnews.com

Spaniard taking the race as serious preparation for the Tour de France

Alberto Contador has taken the challenge of riding the Criterium International very seriously as he flew to Corsica two days before the start of the two-day event.

The Spaniard didn’t come just for the beauty of the landscapes around Porto-Vecchio in the south of the native island of legendary Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, but said will be in it to gain form to seek his third title in the Tour de France

“The climate here is usually good,” Contador told the reporters on site. “On Thursday I went to reconnoitre the final climb of the Ospedale. It was foggy, a little bit rainy as well and it was almost night time when I went up there. The climb isn’t excessively hard but it’s going to be a hard stage on Saturday because of the hills preceding the last one. I’ve also seen Sunday’s time trial and I like the course. I don’t think stage 1 will create big differences but the small differences will be very significant for the final result.”

Contador insisted that as much as he’ll try and win the Criterium International like any another race he takes part in, his first aim to improve his condition in the lead-up to the Tour de France.

Asked by Cyclingnews whether he took this event as a game or a job, the Spaniard firmly answered: “It’s not a game, it’s a competition. I’m here to maintain the rhythm of the competition towards the month of July. Every time I’m racing, I’m focused. I only think of what I have to do.”

Contador emphasized the presence on his side of Astana’s team manager Yvon Sanquer was a sign of a team “fully committed behind me” a difference from last year when Johan Bruyneel went missing at the press conferences during the Tour de France.

Contador and his new entourage decided to switch from Tour of Catalunya to Criterium International after the penultimate stage of Paris-Nice because Corsica was more suitable for the double winner of the Tour de France this time around. “Paris-Nice was a very hard race, so after that I preferred to go for two days of competition instead of seven,” Contador explained. “The course here is very good for me at the difference of the Tour of Catalunya that isn’t very hilly this year.”

He outlined the quality of the field at the Criterium International. His arch-rival Lance Armstrong is on the start line despite suffering gastroenteritis that left him aside for Milan-San Remo, but there are also world champion Cadel Evans, Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez, on-form David Millar and Simon Gerrans as well motivated Frenchmen Thomas Voeckler, David Moncoutié, Benoît Vaugrenard, Jérôme Coppel and Brice Feillu.

“I don’t like to make names before a race because I’m afraid to forget somebody important,” Contador said. “Many riders here are strong but one who is really strong is Cadel Evans. He just came out of Tirreno-Adriatico with good results (3rd overall).”

Source: Cyclingnews.com

Germany upsets France at Worlds, Britain third

The French sprint squad experienced a bitter setback at the 2010 Track World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, when they were beaten by Germany in the men’s team sprint on Wednesday. The experienced squad, used to scoring the gold medal in the discipline every year since 2006, missed out on the top step of the podium by two hundredths to the German combination.

After having clocked the best time of the qualification heats, the French trio of Grégory Baugé, Kévin Sireau and Michael d’Almeida was “disappointed” by their performance in the final. Especially Baugé, whose performance as first rider did not live up to expectations.

“I’m very, very disappointed,” he told French press agency AFP. “The German démarreur [starter - the first rider of the team sprint, in this case Robert Förstemann - ed.] went off very fast. He already showed some really good performances in the World Cup. I didn’t achieve the best time and this hurt the team, even if Kévin (Sireau) accelerated again and Michael (d’Almeida) anchored it really well.”

Indeed, Baugé passed on the relay to Sireau 19 hundredths of a second adrift of the German team, a deficit that would eventually cost them the gold medal. Sireau made up three hundredths of a second on his direct rival, Maximilian Levy, and D’Almeida again produced a stellar performance against Kilo World Champ Stefan Nimke, but it was not enough.

Baugé’s trainer, Florian Rousseau, explained that the Frenchman from the Caribbean island of Guadedoupe wasn’t able to prepare himself for the Worlds as he’d wanted because of a shoulder injury in late January. “For several weeks, he couldn’t work his starts properly,” Rousseau said. “In the qualifying, he showed off a good performance, but 17.440 in the final is of course not Greg’s best because his record is 17.200.”

“The Germans were very strong, you have to accept it,” added Sireau. D’Almeida’s disappointment was tempered with satisfaction at his own performance. “It’s a big disappointment, we wanted this title and we missed it. I achieved the best time of the tournament in third position, so now I’ll fight to become the World Champs’ fastest rider.”

Germany tunes sprint team to perfection

Meanwhile, no one was more surprised that the Germans won the team sprint than the gold meddalists themselves. Robert Förstemann, Maximilian Levy and Stefan Nimke upset the favourites to take Germany’s third World gold medal in this discipline, having previously won in 1995 and 2003. “Sure, we wanted a medal, but we really didn’t reckon on it happening,” Nimke, the team’s last man told the German cycling federation.

“That is unbelievable,” said Levy, who knew where to give credit. “But it is the product of hard work in the last week and months. In that time, all of us, whether rider, trainer or soigneur, have grown together into a real team.”

Lead rider Förstemann was happy enough to beat Great Britain in the semi-finals. “That we could top Britain and actually get into the finals was fantastic. And then to win the finals is even better.”

Germany and France were joined on the podium by bronze medallists, Great Britain.

“Technically, we weren’t as good as we would have had to be,” said Great British rider Sir Chris Hoy. “But on the positive side we found someone that is on the same level than Jamie [Staff] at the start. The French and German teams were impressive; they’ll give us something to think about for the next two years. Every medal is hard to obtain, so we have to be proud that we got one.”

Source: Cyclingnews.com

Suspected broken collarbone for Belgium’s medal hopeful

The Belgian track team for the UCI World Championships was gutted on Monday after its rider Iljo Keisse suffered a crash during a training session in Copenhagen’s Ballerup Arena and is suspected to have a broken collarbone.

Keisse was the team’s hopeful for medals in the men’s Madison and points race. He had also recently stepped into the ProTour ranks on the road with the Quick Step team.

Belgium had already suffered the loss of Dominique Cornu, who last year placed third in the individual pursuit but felt that his form was not good enough to justify the trip to Copenhagen.

Kenny de Ketele also pulled out after being diagnosed with mononucleosis.

The loss leaves three male riders for Belgium at the championships: Ingmar De Poortere, Tim Mertens and Jonathan Dufrasne.

RadioShack manager expects Armstrong to be recovered from illness

Johan Bruyneel is looking forward to the Critérium International next week, when Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong will race against each other for the first time since last year’s Tour de France. The RadioShack team manager said he expects Armstrong to be sufficiently recovered from the illness that kept him out of Saturday’s Milan-San Remo in order to ride the race on the island of Corsica next weekend.

Armstrong came down with “gastrointestinal symptoms” on Thursday after training, “but it’s nothing to worry about,” Bruyneel told the Belgian website Sporza.be. “[His participation in] the Critérium International shouldn’t be compromised.”

Earlier this month, Astana captain Contador changed his racing schedule to add the Critérium International, scrapping his previously planned appearance at the Volta a Catalunya. “I don’t know why Contador has changed his program, but it is interesting,” said Bruyneel.

However, Bruyneel expects the Spaniard to do better in the race than Armstrong. “I think that Contador has the upper hand at the moment. We’ll see how it goes. Lance does not have super form but he is now on track,” he said.

The Critérium International is a three-day race, which will, for the first time, be held on the French island of Corsica. Stage one is a 175.5 kilometre mountain stage featuring five categorised climbs, including a mountain-top finish. The second stage is a flatter, rolling stage of only 75 kilometres, to be held on Sunday morning. The race ends that afternoon with a relatively flat 7.7 kilometre individual time trial.

The past three editions of the race have been won by Saxo Bank’s Jens Voigt. However, the German will not return to defend his title this year. Armstrong has finished on the podium on both of his two appearances at the race (2nd in 2002 and 3rd in 2004), with his 2004 result coming behind five-time race winner, Voigt. Contador finished 50th overall in his only participation, in 2006.

Win a signed Quick Step 2010 team annual

Once again Cyclingnews is challenging its readers to guess the podium! Who is going to take the win today in Milan-San Remo? And who will fill steps two and three?

The first person to answer correctly in the Cyclingnews forum will win a 2010 Quick Step team annual, signed by most of their Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne team (with the exception of Stijn Devolder).

The competition opens at 12 noon (CET) and closes promptly with 10km to go.

It might sound easy, but in the past, picking the podium in this or any race has proved to harder than expected.

The competition is being held in the Cyclingnews forum. If you are not yet a member, click here and sign up!

Be sure to read the rules before making your picks.

Good luck!

Fumiyuki Beppu to take American’s place

Lance Armstrong will not ride Milan-San Remo, Team RadioShack announced Friday morning. The seven-time Tour de France winner is “suffering from acute gastroenteritis,” the team said. He will be replaced by Japanese rider Fumiyuki Beppu.

“It would have been good to have Lance in the line-up for the start but we prefer not to take any risk,” said team director Johan Bruyneel. “It would not be very intelligent to let him start in a race of almost 300K, while not being healthy.”

Armstrong’s most recent race appearance was at a charity race in South Africa. His next scheduled race is the Criterium International, March 27-28.

Team RadioShack for Milan-San Remo: Fumiyuki Beppu, Daryl Impey, Markel Irizar, Geoffroy Lequatre, Dmitriy Muravyev, Gregory Rast, Sébastien Rosseler and Tomas Vaitkus

American rider hopes to make up for crashing out in 2009

Tyler Farrar will spearhead Garmin-Transitions’ attack on Milan-San Remo on Saturday and will be looking for revenge after crashing out of last year’s race.

Farrar has had a steady but unspectacular start to his 2010 season, with two second places and two third places under his belt, but despite heading into the race without a win, the American feels that he’s closing in on his best form.

“I had really good sensations all the way through Tirreno. Luck really wasn’t on my side to get a stage win but I felt good and I’ve put in some fine tuning in the last week. I’m as good as I’m going to be,” he told Cyclingnews.

Farrar had somewhat of a breakthrough year in 2009, winning thirteen races, including his and Garmin’s first road stage in a Grand Tour, but the American is quick to distance himself from what he perceives as the true race favourites. A combination of inexperience and competitiveness to race distance of 300K combining to make him cautious on his chances.

“It’s one of the most important races of the spring so all the guys capable of winning will come to that race with their A game. I don’t personally see myself as favourite, mainly because I haven’t proven myself at this distance before.

“If it was 200K I’d think of myself as a favourite but at 300K it’s still something kind of new. It’s a big objective and I’ve done everything I can to e in the best shape possible but it will be a bit of a test to see if I can last the distance.”

Farrar crashed out last year, fracturing his collar bone but Garmin have strengthened their team in the off-season, signing riders that could potentially form one of the strongest lead outs in the peloton. Robbie Hunter and Murilo Fischer both signed and will start San Remo on Saturday in a bid to support Farrar.

Full National Road Series, Scody Cup on the cards

New Australian domestic squad Virgin Blue-RBS Morgans was launched last night at Brisbane BMW’s showroom. Australian sportscaster Mike Tomalaris was the evening’s host, introducing the team’s 13 riders and management.

Sport director Patrick Jonker is relishing the opportunity to mentor such a young group of riders. “I am looking forward to working with such a young and talented squad,” he said. “My role is not only to lead the team ensuring success but to mentor the riders. The mentoring role is one that I will relish.”

Team owner Chris White told Cyclingnews the new squad will contest both Cycling Australia’s National Road Series and Caribou Publications’ Scody Cup. That will see the team contest races like Melbourne to Warrnambool, Tour of Tasmania, Tour of the Murray River and the Tour of Geelong.

“Having a team of Australia’s brightest young stars provides us with not only a deep talent pool but also an opportunity to mentor and develop the riders as individual athletes,” said White. ”We see the Virgin Blue RBS Morgans team as being very successful and at the same time a breeding ground for Australia’s next professional cyclists.”

Virgin Blue-RBS Morgans will act as a development team for Continental squad Fly V Australia, both owned by Pegasus Racing. Having contested Australian domestic races for the past two seasons, Fly V Australia will focus its efforts on racing abroad this year with the new team taking its place in the domestic scene.

Virgin Blue-RBS Morgans roster for 2010: Michael Freiberg, Pat Shaw, Scott Law, Ben Dyball, James Hepburn, Peter Thomson, Cameron Peterson, Mitchell Pearson, Andrew Roe, James Mowatt, Rhys Gillett and Chris Pryor.

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