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A move to new Russian team Katusha next season did not get in the way of Filippo Pozzato’s teams on the Liquigas cycling team as they help propel him to the first Golden Jersey of the Vuelta. Perhaps the power of the new mustache helped get the win, but the margin as seen below was more than a hair. The Liquigas team worked well over a short 7.7km course throught he streets of Granada Spain. The city course was technical with several turns and slick spots. Teams with GC contenders such as CSC- Saxobank and Astana placed within 3 seconds of each other. That is a good start for Carlos Sastre and Alberto Contador who look to be the main protagonist for the Golden Jersey.
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The four musketeers were giving French cycling renewed hope in today’s stage 2 in the Tour de France. You could not get a better mix to please the French public than Thomas Voekler, Sylvain Cavanal, David Le Lay and Christophe Moreau in a long breakaway. It’s been a long time since the Tour experienced such a sign of French virility at the Tour. Racing in the region of the last Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault you could get a sense that maybe just maybe the Tour is getting over the doping plague of the past few seasons. Then reality hots as you remember that Aleandro Valverde was riding for Kelme and had his name mixed up in the Operation Puerto, but only peripherally. Hopefully no one finds anything incriminating during or after the Tour just as Valverde’s Tour hopes start to get real.
Today’s stage almost up ended the sprinters. Pippo Pozzato won here years ago riding for Fassa Bortolo taking advantage of the climbs to the finish in a well timed break. This year it looked like he could repeat the feat as he bridged up to an attacking Fabian Cancellara. But they did not have the extra gas as the peloton roared up with Thor Hushovd taking first place and two Team Columbia’s in second and third.
Race highlights from Velonews.tv
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Filippo Pozzato took a very fast sprint finish into Autun on Stage 5 of the Tour de France. The final slightly uphill finish was so fast that speeds reached up to 50mph. That is some fast turning of the pedals.
The stage was being billed as a hilly challenge that would disrupt the sprinteres and possibly change the Yellow Jersey. The long break that included new Polka Dot wearer Sylvain Chavanel helped to keep things together for most of the race. With sprinteres getting shelled in the final climbs to the finish a select group of the peloton roared in for the finish. Pozzato and other “climbing” sprinters were gunning for the finish including Oscar Friere and Alessandro Ballan. This is the second stage win for the Italian who moved out of the shadow of Tom Boonen at Quick Step.
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(Alessandro Petacchi of Fassa Bortolo wins in 2005)
Scroll to the end for the full start list for Milan-San Remo from tuttobiciweb.com
Filippo Pozzato gets the number one for being defending champ. Danilo DiLuca will not be lining up at the start due to the flu. Liquigas have a strong lineup featureing Enrico Gasparotto and Franco Pellizotti.
Tom Boonen and Paolo Bettini will be ready, but their recent form does not indicate that they will put in a spectacular performance. Bettini and Boonen are “gamer” type riders who get up for the big races. So it will not be a surprise to see these two in a good position on the Via Roma. I would not bet against the killer “B”s.
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Filippo Pozzato’s switch from the talent laden Quick-Step team to the Liquigas team for 2007 was a sign that the 25 year old Italian was ready to be his own man in the Classics. The winner of Milan San-Remo in 2006 was a new talent in a talent rich team twhose goals all seemed to mirror his own. How can you try to win MIlan San Remo on a team win Paolo Bettini and win the Tour of Flanders on a team with Tom Boonen? Pozzato accomplished the first task by being in the right place on the Via Roma and attacking at the right time. Now he is on a new team and is the captain for the Classics such as Paris-Roubaix, and the Tour of Flanders. Pozzato’s win in the junior version of the Tour of Flanders came Saturday as he took the win from the fading O’Grady and Flecha. Once again he is in the right place at the right time.
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Tom Boonen is going to rest up for the next month. He will make his return in time for the Tour of Belgium May 23rd with an eye to preparing for the Tour de France.
With the focus of the Classics moving to the hillier Ardennes region, Quick Step will now be under Italian leadership, with Bettini and Pozzato sharing the leading roles for the upcoming Amstel Gold Race. Joining them will be Serge Baguet, Kevin De Weert, Ad Engels, Jose Antonio Garrido, Bram Tankink and Cédric Vasseur.
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Some in my local once thought that Ghent Wevelgem was some sort of Viking holiday. The response to the name was “ok let’s wear our viking helmets…”. Surpirsingly no Norwegian has ever won this race that takes the heartiness of a Viking to win. With only two climbs versus the 17 of Flanders, Ghent Wevelgem promised to be a sprinters duel. Team Milram looked all set to setup Petacchi for the win, but it was Pippo Pozzato that overturned the Milram cart. Pozzato launched an all out flying attack reminicent of his Milan San Remo flyer. Although the attack was launched from a farther distance, it staill had the same affect of denying Petacchi a victory. This time the winner was a very deserving THOR Husovd. Hushovd is gaining a reputation as a Petachhi killer as this is his second victory in a mano-a-mano sprint. THOR has more victories versus Petacchi that Boonen does this year.
As for Boonen, he was still feeling the effects of Sunday’s effort and decided to call today a training day. Better to save the strength for this Sunday when the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix call.
George Hincapie was in the mix for the final sprint finishing 5th just behind the gasping Pozzato. Can Hincapie convert his great form this year and finally win the coveted race?
Seven classics victories in twelve months, the Squadrone of Patrick Lefevre showed incredible domination in the Tour of Flanders. World Champion Tom Boonen had Belgian champ Serge Baguet, Olympic Champion Paolo Bettini and Milan San Remo winner Fillipo Pozzato guiding the elite riders in the final kilometers of the Tour of Flanders. The control that Quick Step took of the race mad eother teams seem to forget about even attacking the Boonen-Hoste race winning break. What is most amamzing about Quick Step is that all of these top class riders can co-exist and even sacrifice themselves for each other.
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Quick Step played their cards perfectly in an exciting finish to Milano San Remo. I wanted to actually see the finish before commenting on it. So far, I have watched the OLN coverage which was not bad. Next I will be watching taped coverage of the from RAI Sport. The finish was as described in most major website reports and was still exciting to watch despite knowing the outcome. Being an American cycling fan, you get used to watching events from which you know the outcome.
The most impressive aspect of Pippo Pozzato’s win, was the cold calculation (as described by Bob Roll) with which he waited before launching his attack. This may be a case where radio contact helps play out the finish. My guess is that Pozzato may have gotten the all clear from Boonen when the sprint did not look to unfold to the World Champ’s favor.
Pozzato was watching the breakaway deflate just in time for the sprinters to take the final charge to the line. Milram still had their team working, but Quick Step had riders everywhere expect in front of Boonen. Boonen’s tactic seemed to be just to stay on Petacchi’s wheel and go around if possible.
Pozzato stayed out long enough and was in a great position to launch a final sprint just ahead of the charging peloton. Pozzato did not look back to the charging sprint when he lauched his attack leading me to believe that he was instructed by either Boonen or Lefevre to go for the win. Petacchi came in just a few bike lengths behind in frustration at not being able to catch the young Italian at the line.
Quick Step’s tactics for the race were a risk, but played out perfectly. Everyone expected Quick Step to have their Treno Blue working side by side with Milram and Rabobank to help deliver the race to the Via Roma in a bunch finish. Quick Stp put pressure on Rabobank and Milram by constantly putting riders out to cover breaks and make Boonen shadow Petacchi until the finale. The end result was a brilliantly orchestrated team win. Pozzato is definately a deserving champion, but he certainly should thank his super teammates Bettini and Boonen.
Paolo Bettini put in a great performance to guide the peloton through the Cipressa and bring things together enough for the next break. Although he probably did not have the snap to launch an effective attack on the Poggio he showed that he is well on hs way to a full recovery and should be ready for the Tour of Flanders.
Luca Paolini is coming out of Bettini’s shadow with a scrappy third place. I say scrappy because he threw his bike to beat a celebrating Boonen. Paolini will be ready for more at the Tour of Flanders and the rest of the Spring Classics.
You have to feel for Ballan and Astarloa. They put themselves in the decisive break on the Poggio and had a good gap heading into the Via Roma finish. The only problem is that Pozzato’s effective covering of the break and the cat-and-muse tactics of the entire break doomed them to pack fodder. Too bad they could not organize anything more effective or at leats get rid of Pozzato somehow. Pozzato was too strong after not having to take a pull and feeling no pressure since his thought was more on working for Boonen than chasing personal glory. In the end Pozzato was in the right position and probably got the signal from the radio telling him to go for it.
