Jul 24, 2008 0
The crazy descent of the Cole de la Bonnette featured the spectacular looking crash of John lee Augustyn who took the corner a little too fast. Thankfully Augustyn was not injured and was able to get back on with a new bike. The team did recover the bike, so there is no souvenir waiting for a mountain goat.
Jan 4, 2007 0
Igor Astarloa is one man who can attest to the legendary curse of the Rainbow Jersey. The Spanish Classics expert who would rather ride on Italian teams (sounds like Oscar Friere) has been in the doldrums since his 2003 World Championship victory in Hamilton Ontario. After winning with Saeco Astarloa switched over to French outfit Cofidis for 2004.
That spring all hell broke loose with drug allegations surrounding the team. Several riders were under suspicion and team management decided to suspend the team from competition until they could resolve the situation. Astarloa was not involved in any of the drug issues, but the suspension of team activities happened during his beloved Spring Classics.
Mar 4, 2006 0
Since NBC and most other Olympics reporters were saying Torino instead of Turin, I will hereby keep referring to Turin as Torino and Milan as Milano. Now that we have that clear, Igor Astarloa is coming back from the doldrums with a sprint win in Milano Torino today.
The Spanish wannabe Italian beat out Oscar (Porno Hair) Pellizotti, Mirko Celestino and Alessandro Ballan to take the important win. This is the first win for Barloworld under the direction of Claudio Corti and Alberto Volpi who came in to restructure the underperforming team during the winter.
Barloworld has been on great form since the begining of the year. They gained entry to bigger races in Belgium, Spain and France and had good form going into one of the more important races on the Italian schedule.
I am extremely happy with this victory. My last victory was in August, and this victory helps the team’s morale. This was my third race of the season and I am happy to show my good form. I have to thank the team, and the organizers RCS that let us in this race, Tirreno Adriatico and Milan San Remo. We would like to put on a good performance to repay their faith in our team.
In the Giro Contender Watch: Ivan Basso had a good result finishing one second behind with the leading contenders. Danilo DiLuca had a worse outing.
Jan 27, 2006 0
Claudio Corti and Igor Astarloa had a great year in 2003. They won Fleche Wallone together, had a powerhouse Italian team and Igor won the World Title. Their team had red kits and Cannondale bikes. Nothing could be better. In 2004, Astarloa suffered the “Curse of the World Champion” and eventually tumbled down to the lowly South African Barloworld team for 2005.
Now in 2006, old friend and team manager Corti comes in to bring back the glory days of only two years ago. What happened since then? The ProTour changed the climate that smaller Italian teams used to enjoy. They could put together a team almost at the last minute and still get into some very big races, even the Tour. But this is 2006 and Barloworld will have to spend some time in the Continental circuit and hope for an upgrade sometime in the future.
Checkout the stories at:
http://www.ciclismo-online.it/
and Cycling News.com
Dec 20, 2005 0
The mini-saga of where will Igor Astarloa ride next season has been solved. As predicted in the virtual pages of Velochimp.com (which is a new way for you readers to get to this site), the Spanish classics specialist will stay with the South African/ British/Italian Barloworld team. The former World Champion must have been swayed by the recent signing of Claudio Corti as Director Sportif. As part of Corti joining Barloworld, Astarloa will be riding on Cannondale bikes once again.
Dec 6, 2005 0
Claudio Corti who was behind the Saeco success as well teams such as Chateau D’Ax with Gianni Bugno joined the struggling Barloworld team. With the signing, he may bring in co-sponsor Caffitta and possibly Cannondale bikes. Former Fassa assitant DS Alberto Volpi who was headed to Aqua e Sapone is instead joining Corti at Barloworld. Corti is moving quickly to ramp up the struggling team.
Where’s Igor?
Velochimp is venturing to guess that Barloworld may possibly re-sign Igor Astarloa since he is still without a team. The lack of news about Igor Astarloa’s team for next year and the signing of Corti, Volpi and possibly Cannondale bikes may mean that the Spanish one-day specialist may stay in the British/Italian/South African outfit.
Nov 28, 2005 0
This came off of the news at TuttoBici this morning saying that reports saying that Igor Astarloa has signed for Liquigas are not true. Last heard around Velochimp offices was that Astarloa was mulling over a contract offer from Lampre, but that wasn’t sweet enough. Todociclismo has the story about Astarloa and buddy Peio Arreitunandia signing for Liquigas. TuttoBici says has a quote from Liquigas Team Manager Roberto Amadio saying:
We have had contact with Igor Astarloa, but there was no offer since we already have 28 riders which we feel is enough to tackle the intense new cycling season that awaits us.
