Stuart O’Grady was still on the market, so Giancarlo Ferretti signed him up to his new team. He will most likely be joined by fellow Aussie and teammate Matt White. Ferretti’s team have already signed quite a few riders for next year. O’Grady and White will join Salvatore Commesso, Andrea Tonti, Cristian Moreni, Paolo Valoti and Serhyi Matveyev.
The director sportifs all remain from Fassa, Bruno Cenghialta, Alberto Volpi, Alessandro Giannelli and Mario Chiesa.
Rumors originally pointed to the sponsor being IKEA, but it looks like it will be Ericsson a subsidiary of Sony.
Cyclisme: O’Grady rejoint l’équipe de Ferreti
Giancarlo Ferretti has found a sponsor to replace Fassa Bortolo. It’s too late to keep Petacchi as he already signed with Domina Vacanze for next year. So Ferretti has another Italian star on the horizon Gilberto Simoni. Simoni was being courted by Quick-Step, Cofidis and Credit Agricole, but nothing ever materialized. Now Simoni will stay with and Italian team and help to rebuild the remnants of Fassa Bortolo. There is no word on if Ferretti will be able to keep this new formation in the ProTour.
Ciclismo: Simoni Nel Nuovo Team Di Ferretti
Velonews has an interview with Giovanni Lombardi, the Italian who lives close to the World’s course in Madrid. Lombardi has been a professional for 13 years and has been on some
very big teams. He was leadout man for both Erik Zabel and Mario Cipollini. Now he rides with CSC in support of Ivan Basso. Lombardi originally planned on retiring right after the World’s road race, since he could ride home from the finish line. But Ivan Basso and CSC encouraged him to sign on for two more years to help Basso win the Tour de France. Lombardi accepted, so the veteran pro will be racing for a few more years. His take on the World’s course is that it will come down to a bunch sprint, and he will most definately be there to support Petacchi.
A conversation with Giovanni Lombardi: Not quite ready to hang it up
When Jan Ullrich returned to T-Mobile/Telekom in 2004 he could not allow his personal coach and assitant/guru Rudy Pevenage to join the staff. Walter Goodefrrot and Rudy Pevenage did not get along very well, so an odd arrangment was made. Pevenage could be Jan’s assitant but not part of the T-Mobile staff. This was a very odd arrangement indeed, especially since some credit Pevenage with helping Jan with his second best Tour finish in 2003 while ridig for the almost bankrupt Bianchi team.
Now that Walter Gooderoot is no longer the head of the T-Mbile team, Jan is able to bring Rudy Pevenage on the staff. This combined with a statement from T-Mobile that Jan Ullrich is the team captain for the 2006 Tour shows that Jan has the full support of the T-Mobile team for 2006.
T-Mobile: il ritorno di Rudy Pevenage
Heras wins his fourth Vuelta with his most impressive showing to date. Past Vueltas have come down to the final weekend or even the final day when final Time Trials helps determine the overall winner. That was not the case this year as the result was pretty much well know since last weekend. Heras took control of the Vuelta
on the 15th stage with an impressive display of his climbing ability. From then on Denis Menchov was no longer a threat and the last week of the Vuelta was left to the one day glory hounds.
Yahoo! Sports – Cycling – Heras highlights Spain’s dominance at home
AleJet took the win in the last stage of the Vuelta yesterday. That is no surprise, but what is interesting is that the final two circuits of the stage
covered the World Championships road race course. So the stage yesterday was seen as a mini-preview. The biggest odds-on favorite since Mario Cipollini was favored to win in Zolder, Petachhi is doing the typicla sportsman interviews where he downplays his chances.
Petachhi say:
“The designof the course in the last few kilometers is truly difficult, very tough”
So Petacchi expects:
Many attacks because it (the course) is very complicated
This is very true as the final 600 meters features a tight hairpin turn that scrubs any speed that an Italian train might develop.
The cyclist are going 70k/h heading into the turn and 30 k/h coming out.
Ciclismo, Petacchi: nulla di scontato al Campionato del mondo
Ruben Plaza took a record setting win in the last Time Trial and penultimate stage of the Vuelta.
Second place by .5 or so seconds went to Roberto Heras who shoed that he is definately the strongest rider in the Vuelta. Heras is all but assured victory in his fourth Vuelta tomorrow with a 4:36 lead over Denis Menchov.
www.cyclingnews.com presents the 60th Vuelta a España
The Tour of Poland is pretty much an Italian World’s team training camp Italian riders dominate each day.
Daniele Bennati picked up his 2nd stage win
while Luca Paolini holds the lead.
Bennati will be looking to join gli Azzurri in Madrid.
Gazzetta dello Sport – Polonia, bis di Bennati nella quarta tappa
Will he or won’t he?
Armstrong decided to stay retired. The recent spat between WADAs Dick Pound and Hein Verbruggen about who supplied samples to whom in the L’Equipe sotry made Armstrong think twice about coming back. Read about the whole mess at Yahoo.
Yahoo! Sports – Cycling – Armstrong says smear campaign means he’ll stay retired
So you think being a bike racer is glamrous stuff. They simply ride their bike, eat some powerbars and get massages and date podium girls.
They also race at 32 mph for 5 hours and bonk on some steep climbs too. Check out Christian Vande Velde’s writeup on VeloNews about hisexperience in the Vuelta.
Vande Velde’s View: Hanging on and doing what you can
