Alessandro Petacchi si the King of the Etruscans. This makes no sense unless you are talking about the Gp Costa degli Etruschi one of the first races of the season in Italy. Alessandro Petacchi won the race for the third consecutive year and for his 120th win overall. Petacchi did have the usual bunch of Italian sprinters that he is able to beat. Riders such as Bennati and Balducci are a challenge, but rarely are they able to beat AleJet in a sprint.
Even though Petacchi was unable to get a win vs main rival Tom Boonen in the Tour de Qatar, it is no worry to him or his sponsor Milram. Races such as Etruschi, Milan San Remo and the Giro are where the wins matter most, and Petacchi is usually able to come up with top results.
The new Tinkoff Credit Systems Team has been close to getting a win a few times. The newish team with big ambitions needs to light up the early season with wins to get consideration as a wildcard team for the Giro D’Italia and other races.
On Saturday the team got its first win as Pavel Brutt took stage 9 of the Tour de Langkawi.
Check out the videos of the stage below.
Alberto Loddo is on fire in Malaysia, no I am not talking about some disease, but the rate of winning that the Italian is achieving. Five wins is not unusual for a sprinter in Malaysia as Graeme Brown acheived this number only two years ago. But Loddo is the lastest sprinter to totally dominate the race.
Ivan Basso was interviewed by SkyLife.it where he was asked about the current problem in Italian Soccer, Marco Pantani, the USA and his objectives for 2007. The interview is quite frank both the the interviewer’s side and Basso’ side. This is really a refreshing let’s not beat around the bush type of interview. Unfortunately Basso does not want to talk much about Operation Puerto and does not care to see the Pantani movie.
On Soccer:
“My first thoughts are with the policeman that died. I would like that no one forgets him and what happened. Then I would like to add that last year on the Giro course there were 6 million spectators and not one punch was thrown. There aren’t as many police present and usually nothing bad happens.
Then soccer connotates violence?
At the moment yes. Why is there violence in soccer and not in cycling? It is difficult for me to give an answer that will satisfy everyone. But my take would be like this: Soccer is closely followed. All it takes is one error by a referee, any mistake could reignite tension with fans. In my world fortunately this does not happen.
A change in the top level management at Discovery Channel has resulted in a loss of sponsorship for the cycling team at the end of 2007.
Armstrong’s agent spoke to USA Today to relay the news that was released on the Friday which is when most high profile people like to dump bad news.
Stapleton told USA TODAY Friday that the Discovery’s decision to not renew for a fourth year is connected to Monday’s firing of Discovery Network’s president Billy Campbell by new Discovery Communications president and CEO David Zaslav.
Campbell was the major force behind the company’s decision to sponsor the team in 2004. He also pushed the team to sign Italian star and Tour favorite Ivan Basso this year despite a since-resolved controversy about the rider’s role in a Spanish doping scandal.
“This would not have happened if Billy Campbell was still there,” Stapleton said. “This is about their change in management.”
Stapleton said the company is already evaluating potential replacements for Discovery and could sign another company before the 2007 season is over.
Dailymotion has a few videos from this year’s Tour de Langkawi that are worth checking out. This video is from Stage 4 which featured a brutal crash near the end. Alberto Loddo took the victory and you can read more about it at cyclingnews.com
While those of us unable to obtain a “pirated” version (thanks Fritz) of the Marco Pantani movie will have to wait for some other way of seeing the new Marco Pantani movie. There is a recent movie made by RAI that chronicles another great Italian Champion Gino Bartali.
A movie following Marco Pantani’s life will be shown on RAI Uno on Monday February 5th. Rolando Ravello who looks almost exactly like ‘Il Pirata’ will play the lead role which follows Pantani’s career during its zenith when he won the Giro and Tour double in 1998.
Tom Boonen is clearly a step ahead in the first face-off of the season winning four stages in the Tour of Qatar. Boonen took the bunch sprint over Petacchi three times and was able to get into a break and avoid cross winds for a fourth stage win. Boonen missed the podium only once when Greg Van Avermaet took the sprint win from a breakaway that managed to hold off the bunch gallop in stage five.
Checkout the three minute trailer for the movie Pure Sweet Hell. Its been out since 2004 but this is my first encounter with it so forgive me if I am a johnny come lately.
While those of us unable to obtain a “pirated” version (thanks Fritz) of the Marco Pantani movie will have to wait for some other way of seeing the new Marco Pantani movie. There is a recent movie made by RAI that chronicles another great Italian Champion Gino Bartali.
