Tom Boonen has another Italian sprinter to help in his leadouts. Quick-Step signed Francesco Chicchi, the former under 23 world champ from Zolder in 2002. Chicchi left the Fassa Bortolo squad and will join the Belgian team with a heavy Italian flavor.
Chicchi has no delusions of his role on Quick-Step
“My objective will be to help Tom Boonen in the final meters of sprints. I will look for my own victories when I have the chance to use my sprinting ability.”
Quick Step: ingaggiato Chicchi
Interesting interview with Danilo DiLuca. He gives a no comment about Franco Ballerini’s failed plans to bring an Italian victory at the Worlds. DiLuca did not work into Ballerini’s team plans for the World’s since the Italian effort was focusing on setting up Petacchi for the sprint victory. The only other card to play for the Italian team was Paolo Bettini, who was pretty much left alone to fend for himself. DiLuca imagines a better result for gli Azzurri had he been selected to ride alongside Bettini.
However he refused to rail against Ballerini as his head is currently on the chopping block.
The next focus for DiLuca will be the next three weeks of racing which kicks off with the Championships of Zurich, followed by Paris-Tours and then the Giro di Lombardia.
DiLuca loves Lombardi and would like to win there. This would also wrap up the ProTour title for DiLuca as that would be one of the final events of the year. Even though this season has a bit more races to go, DiLuca’s eyes are already on next season when he will be looking for overall victory in the Giro.
My first objective will be overall victory at the Giro…I finished fourth this year with no expectations whatsoever. Now I understand that I can actually win. and I will prepare myself for this objective more accurately.
Di Luca: `Ballerini? No comment`
Tom Boonen just won the rainbow jersey of World Champion. But he will not be able to show it off on the road as he declared his season over due to a scheduled stomach operation. The operation is routine and is to correct some intestinal problems that afflicted Boonen last year.
Before the operation, Boonen will meet up with King Albert of Belgium.
Quickstep: Boonen sara` operato
Another World Championships has passed and no Italian victory. As a result Franco Ballerini’s job as seector and director of the Italian team is on thin ice. Silvio Martinello principal collaborator of Ferderciclo says that:
The role of the CT of the professional is an object of analysis for the next federal counsel
Martinello does point to one bright light at Madrid and that is the performance of Paolo Bettini who showed he was the strongest rider in the race. The regret is that he was without much team support which was focussed completely on Petacchi. In the end, Petacchi was not on form and the team support was wasted.
Ciclismo: rischia il Ct Ballerini
David Millar will be reinstated to pro cycling at the end of June 2006 after serving a two year suspension for taking EPO. For his return, Millar
will join Saunier Duval just in time to enter the Tour de France. Joining him will be Italian TT champ Marco Pinotti and newly crowned Under 23 World Champion Grabovskyy.
Ciclismo: doping, Millar trova team
Tom Boonen was one of the favorites going into the World Road Race Championship Sunday. But all eyes were mostly on Alessandro Petacchi, who had a squad that was his personal leadout train. Boonen timed his sprint perfectly as the peloton caught the breakaway containing Vinokourov and Bettini in the last few meters to take the win. Going into the last lap a powerful breakaway had a margin that could have lasted the distance. It nearly did. However Alexadre Vinokourov, burst out of the pack and joined the break. Once up front he mercilessly pummeled the break by launch attack after attack. This move splintered the lead break badly and wore down some of the riders up front. Paolo Bettini looked very strong as he played his cards on the final break, and was able to match several counter attacks by Valverde and others. The Cricket was badly out numbered as three spanish riders and at least two dutch riders were part of the break. Paolo was not resigned to lose, and was looking for every chance to get ahead. In the final meters the Vino and Bettini animated the last lap, but needed the course to be just a few hundred meters shorter to take the win.
Some quick thoughts:
–I did not see it, but American Saul Raisin was in a day long break that had a lead of 5 minutes.
–Petacchi finished 35th, 25 seconds back, while McEwen was 25th.
–What mishap will befall on Boonen next year? The Curse of the World Champion has caused havoc to almost every rider to wear the jersey in some form. Let’s hope Boonen manages to avoid the perils next year.
Yahoo! Sports – Cycling – Belgium’s Boonen wins World Championship men’s road race
There are more cycling films out there besides “Breaking Away” and “American Flyers”
If you are in San Francisco Oct 5th, check out the Bicycle Film Festival.
A fervor is brewing for bike culture in global urban centers. The films in the festival reflect the unadulterated passion cyclists have for their rides. The film program is amazing. We have a lot of fun stuff planned as well.
Bicycle Film Festival
The new squad in town next year will be Milram, that features the sprinting duo of Erik Zabel and Alessandro Petacchi. They will form an Italian-German team whose focus is on their sprinters. The question most everyone will have is willl Zabel be working as the last leadout man for AleJet, or will they try to split their duties or both? The Velonews article linked below has some quotes from Zabel about his ambitions for next year. Although Zabel does not have the same kick that got him numerous green jerseys and 4 Milan San Remo wins, he would still like to win one more Primavera.
Zabel, also a four-time winner of the prestigious one-day classic Milan-San Remo, added: “A perfect scenario for me would be a mass sprint of 14 or 15 riders.”
So, does this mean that this years Milano-SanRemo winner Petacchi will be helping Zabel win? Or is Zabel delusional about which races he will try to win next year? He will most certainly get full tem support for the Tour de France if Petacchi decides to skip the race again, but what if AleJet wants to go back to France come July? How will they split the leader roles and who will be the last man in the Milram leadout train? Seems like Petacchi and Zabel have much to discuss in the winter training camps. Whatever the result, Zabel is newly motivated and reaslises that he has to up his game to get leadership with Petacchi on the same team.
This setup will help both riders throughout the year. There may be an internal competition between Petacchi and Zabel where they force each other to perform better. Or we could see Zabel try to change his act a bit, by being the leadout man for Petacchi in the big races and then going for more spring classics and other prizes. Also, if AleJet does ride the Tour with Zabel, they can split out the leadership roles. Petacchi will try to win as many races as possible in the first week during the flat stages. Then, once the peloton hits the mountains and Petacchi heads home, Zabel will be the man for the sprint stages…Sounds plausible.
Pettachi and Zabel team up on new Milram squad
Alessandro Petacchi and Erik Zabel will co-captain a newly fused team sponsors by Milram.
The team is a combo of Domina Vacanze and Team Wiesenhof. Milram will take over as lead sponsor from Domina Vacanze and be entered into the ProTour.
Petacchi e Zabel firmano per la Milram
Michael Rogers of Australia and Team QuickStep has won his third straight World Championships Gold Medal in the Time Trial. Ivan Gutierrez finish second while Fabian Cacellarra of Switzerland finished third.
The Time Trial event has been owned by Rogers since he inherited the 2003 victory after Brit David Millar admitted to using EPO during the event. Rogers has not produced in the Tour de France this year where he finished 41st. He will be moving on to T-Mobile next year where he will probably play a supporting role for Jan Ullrich in the Tour de France.
Yahoo! Sports – Cycling – Australia’s Rogers wins third straight time trial
