The Italian one day races in August are a chance for top Italians to show off their form to Franco Ballerini in order to get a spot on the coveted Azzurri squad for the World Championships road race. This year Stefano Garzelli has been one of the more dominat riders in these one day races. Garzelli chalked up another win in the Trofeo Melinda. He beat out Giovanni Visconti and Siclian Santo Anza of Selle Italia. This win would probably wrap up Garzelli’s selection for the Salzburg worlds.
Garzelli may be joined by the resurgent Danil DiLuca who is not aiming for a high placing in the Vuelta even though he took the race by the scruff of the neck yesterday. Diluca is always coy about his intentions when he is on form. This may be another Giro 05 situation where DiLuca keeps playing down his chances while going for a high GC finish.
When you need to clean up some Aqua e Sapone is all you need. The very basic soap and water combo is actually the name of an Italian drug store chain. After recently signing up red hot Stefano Garzelli the red squad have picked up the new Amateur Grand Fondo dominator Francesco Del Ponte. The man who carries an Italian license with Tom Boonen’s picture on the front and dominates amateur cycling compeitions before abandoning in the last 100 meters and going home is back on the Pro circuit.
Frank Vandenbroucke has found another squad to give him a chance to stay off the amateur circuits. Could Aqua e Sapone upgrade to the ProTour soon? There is an opening, but it is not very likely. Aqua e Sapone may get a slot to ride the northern spring Classics which is where VDB would like to return. After getting dumped from Unibet.com mid way through the year, does Aqua e Sapone think they can keep VDB competative? Or is it just an easy way to get headlines?
(Pic from Yahoo! News)
Third Grand Tour is a charm for Danilo DiLuca. After much promise for a great performance in the Giro and the Tour de France Danilo DiLuca came up short. Illness and bad form made DiLuca’s attempt to improve on his 2005 magical year impossible. Today “The Killer” took control in the Vuelta’s first mountain top stage finish.
DiLuca showed great climbing form as most of the favorites lost time to the little Italian. Sastre, Valverde and Danielson lost up to a minute. Damielson did not look very strong as he was bested by teamates Beltran and Janez Brajkovic.
Of course it is still very early so anything can happen int eh Vuelta, but for now at least DiLuca looks to have some confidence back.
This month also looks to be a good month for Liquigas. With Garzelli and Nibali winning races, DiLuca has added to a month of good results for the Leeky-gas squad.
Erik Zabel has been on a bad streak of second place finishes for a long time. Today he finally broke out of the slump and showed flashes of classic Erik Zabel. The typicaly sprint finish stage saw THOR Hishovd finish second and keep his overall lead.
Zabel is obviously happy with the result:
“Today I am very happy because the whole team worked for me and it’s good to see the train is working better and better,” said Zabel after notching just his second win of the season. “I am very happy with this victory.”
Velonews.com
Eurosport.com: Vintage Zabel
(Brad (Turbo) Crosby Chasing, eventually finished second)
The Chris Thater Memorial Criterium is one of the oldest and most respected races in the Northeast. The race includes an NRC event that brings out some big names as you can see in an earlier report by Matt Howey. The event this year was spread over two days which included citizens races on Saturday and regular racing on Sunday with a 5k running race mixed in.
Conditions were cold and rainy. As I headed outof my house at 6am for an 8am start the rain started coming down. When I arrived in Binghamton conditions were still dry. After I went through registration and got my number the rain was getting steady. I went out and warmed up on the course which has several Cat 4/5 riders warming up already. I just upgraded to Cat 4 after doing the mandatory 10 races to move up. So If I placed well or won a prime, I could get cash 
My least favorite part of racing is the waiting before the start. No matter how good my warmup I always get cold and my pulse goes down to resting which means I am not ready for the quick start. The situation was worse today since it was raining and everyone lined up early meaning we were waiting around longer than I wowuld have liked. The chills started setting which is not good when you have to charge off in a Crit.
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(pic from Flickr user das jan)
The T-Mobile overhaul continued this week with Mattais Kessler and Andreas Kloden joining old buddies Walter Goodefroot and Alexandre Vinokourov at Astana. It seems like a mini T-Mobile reunion at the Kazak based team.
Kloden’s move to Astana must mean that he does not have many hopes for a high overall placing at the Tour since the team is pretty much Vinokourov’s. Kloden is used to playing support, but has shown flashes of brilliance this year and in 2004. If Vinokourov truly thought that this year was his last chance at an overall win, then getting Kloden on the team gives Astana a strong option in case Vino is genuinely done with the chase for the Yellow Jersey.
Andreas Kloden blasted Olaf Luwig for poor team management during the Tour de France. T-Mobile has never been know team tactics a point which was highlighted last year when Kloden and Ullrich reeled in an attacking Vinokourov. This year the blunders continued as T-Mobile seemed to have one of the strongest teams but would still execute the occasional blunder of chasing down a teammate. Overall T-Mobile probably executed better than in the in the past, but Kloden blames T-Mobile and Phonak for allowing Oscar Periero so much time, a move which could eventually give him the overall Tour title over Kloden if/when Landis is stripped of his title.
Kloden and Kessler’s move may not have been too much of a surprise to T-Mobile management since they did not reward the team’s performance in the Tour with better contracts. Some riders were even offered paycuts according to Kloden.
T-Mobiles shakeup must be long overdue since the team was notoriously known for paying huge contracts but not getting many results. Ironically this is all happening after a better than usual team performance at the Tour de France.
In very wet conditions, competition is fierce on 6-corner Thater course
By Matt Howey
Hilton Clarke (Navigators) Salutes Victory at Chris Thater
Binghamton, NY (August 27, 2006) – In pouring rain and cooler temperatures, many of the United States’ brightest cycling stars stood at attention as the national anthem was played in anticipation for the start of the men’s professional race at the 2006 Chris Thater Memorial Criterium. The race, in its 23rd edition, is held on a tough and semi-technical 1.2 mile course around Binghamton’s Recreation Park. With a short climb, substantial prize money (to the tune of $20,000 for the pros alone), and a stop on the national racing calendar, the Chris Thater Criterium has become known as one of the toughest events of the year to win.
Brandon Chricton (Symmetrics) Took 25% of Available Primes
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(Pic from Velonews)
With a few Grand Tours under his belt and a win in the Tour of Austria this year Tom Danielson is quietly building a good resume as a GC contender. While Discovery Channel were flailing away at the Tour de France wishing that Lance Armstrong never retired, Danielson was winning the Tour of Austria. This was perhaps a glimmer into the future GC contender for Dscovery Channel. At the Vuelta, Danielson will be the one guy that the Discos can pin all of their hopes on. Disco does best when they have one rider to focus on instead of four galloping horses contending for leadership.
Plus, with a stage one team time trial, Discovery Channel might have a chance to right the ship after a season of frustration.
This year’s Vuelta look to be good for climbers. Five mountaintop finishes and assorted stages should make things easier for the guys who like to go fast uphill. Danielson is a gifted climber and is hoping to build on his win in Austria with a high placing in the Vuelta.
Danielson has also focused on his time trialing ability something that the Disco team has a certain amount of expertise. He chnaged his position slightly to give him a lower front end and has been riding the TT bike often to get used to the position and the effort.
With a good mix of time trialing and climbing Danielson has all the tools needed to impove upon his eigth place of a year ago. If you look at the results only Carlos Sastre and Denis Menchov are the only riders that placed higher than Danielson last year and are competeing this year. Others such asSevilla, Heras and Mancebo are out due to Operation Puerto and EPO bust. Others are not riding since Communidad Valencianna are not allowed to ride the Vuelta. Seeing that Sastre and Menchov could be less sharp since they rode the Tour, Danielson has a very serious chance at a podium spot or overall victory. Just hope he does not resort to any testosterone patches like ‘ol Floyd if the going gets tough.
Velonews Interview with Danielson
First there was Ron Mexico, now there is Francesco Del Ponte. Frank Vandenbroucke was spotted racing in the amateur Italian circut under the name of Francesco Del Ponte and Italian version of his name. This was after he was sacked by the Unibet.com team for acting like Frank Vendenbroucke. The odd part is that on Francesco’s license, he has a picture of Tom Boonen, and did not hide the fact.
In typical Vandenbroucke fashion he acted like a total douche:
According to the newspaper reports the Belgian’s race tactics consisted of setting a blistering pace at the front of the peloton until most of them dropped off.
After taking a healthy lead over the bunch after around 60km of racing, Vandenbroucke would peel off and head for home before the race finish.
Velonews
The embattled Astana and Phonak teams are cleared to ride the Vuelta as long as they do not include any staff or rides that are implicated in the Operation Puerto investigation. Previously ther were called by ProTour teams to exclude the controversial teams to avoid further controversy in the Vuelta.
Phonak will be riding its last Grand Tour and hopes to avoid any more negative headlies after Jose Guitierrez and Floyd Landis landed in hot water after the Giro and Tour respectively. Meanwhile, many of the Astana riders who were under investigation before the Tour de France were cleared of any involvment in Operation Puerto after the Tour. This made Astana’s non start frustrating since the criteria used against those Astana riders was based on newspaper reports and an ongoing investigation.
