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.
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The feast of San Giuseppe is traditional day that San Remo used to be raced on. That day to Americans is known as the day after St. Patrick’s Day. Usually San Remo was raced on the Saturday around St. Giuseppe. This year, San Remo is raced on that day, which would probably mean an Italian victory. Petacchi? Bettini? Astarloa (he is a wannabe Italian)?
Anyway, the anticipation is heating up as websites everywhere have to have some sort of word on the race. The anticipation this year is more intense due to the rivalry that is shaping up between Alessandro Petacchi and Tom Boonen. Since the World Championships in Madrid ended with a dejected Petacchi and a somewhat surpising winner in Boonen, the rivalry was on. There may have been times when the two competed against each other in the past, but this year the competition between the two sprinters seems to take on a new level. They are both looking to win Milano San Remo and there was a bit of trash talking from Boonen who said that Petacchi was not very impressive in Tirreno Adriatico. Oh, snap! Not too intense, but that is as much trash as we are going to get outside of Robbie McEwen and Gilberto Simoni.
So the stage is set, everyone is looking to the two sprinters to duke it out on the Via Roma. This is assuming they make it past the Cipressa in a bunch. It almost seems like a forgone conclusion that the result should contain a man named Boonen and another named Petacchi, either one of which will occupy the top spot. Why even race the race, just have a match sprint in the last 200 meters of the Via Roma and be done with it, save everybodies time while we are at it.
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Oscar Friere came out of the woodwork today to tell the world that his butt sore did not totally derail his career. The Spanish rider who has dealt with the curse of the World Champion more than anyone else riding today claimed a win in the Italian race of the two seas just ahead of another Spanich Classics rider and former World Champion who is coming back from the doldrums, Igor Astarloa.
The finish in Paglieta today saw an change of lead in Tirreno Adriatico as Paolo Bettini crashed out of the race. Il Grillo injured his left hand and right knee after a rider crashed in front of him on a descent.
This is after the race was delayed amid protest by riders due to bad weather and icy roads. The race was eventually started 1/2 hour later. In the end if you were Spanish and liked to ride the Classics, you were gunning for the win as Juan Antonio Flecha, Astarloa and Friere tried for the stage win at the end.
The 10 second time bonus gave Friere the red and yellow jersey of leadership.
Meanwhile in France, another Spanish rider, this time with braces took the win in a more mountainous finish. Joaquin Rodriguez attacked his breakaway that included Dutchman Joost Posthuma (Rabobank).
The win launched Rodriguez up the standings and could help him overtake Landis on Saturday’s tough stage. But, Landis has a bit of from QuikcStep, who want to keep Boonen close to the front even though the stage is very hilly. If Boonen makes it though he could win the stage. Therefore, even though Landis’ Phonak squad is weak at the moment, he has help from Boonen.
Eurosport: Bettini party cut short
Eurosport
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.
Tuttobici
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
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.
Tuttobici Web
More info at BiciRace
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.
La Barloworld sceglie Claudio Corti – Yahoo! Sport IT
Not a huge story, but more news wires are picking up that Igor Astarloa signed for Liquigas for 2006. This is false as the Yahoo! News story below has a profile of Liquigas for 2006 and the roster does not include the former World Champ. I emailed Liquigas to see what the bottom line is, but no response yet. The Liquigas Team site does not have any news about signing Astarloa either.
Liquigas: Amadio `Un organico competitivo` – Yahoo! Sport – Yahoo! Sport
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.
Astarloa y Arreitunandia fichan por el Liquigas
Tuttobici Web
