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Tom Boonen was the name on everyone’s lips of potential winners as the Tour hit Belgium. Boonen managed to escape a crash and had most of his team still in tact driving a sprint train to the finish. The timing was all set except for the last leadout man Geert Steegmans who was told not to sprint until the final 200 meters because of the uphill nature of the finish. The last second sprint was too much for Boonen to come around giving the domestique a rare moment to shine. Quick Step can take solace in a One-Two home soil victory. Boonen seemed just as happy for Steegman’s win as Steegman’s himself. So Quick Step should not mind too much of the last secong blunder. For a few moments it looked as if the Yellow Jersey might be up for grabs as a crash on narrow road looked to have injured several racers and held back most of the peloton. However, the whole group was marked as finishing at the same time since the last kilometer rule was used.
One by one racers limped into the finish with Alexandre Vinokourov signing the cross on himself thanking the man upstairs for saving him from getting injured. Not that God cares more about a Tour victory or Super Bowl Touchdown or any of those things. Vino is happy that he escaped one dangerous moment unscathed. In the first week of the Tour you take each day as it comes and try to stay away from crashes and try not to lose any time before you hit the mountains.
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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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Italian cycling took a blow when Ivan Basso was not allowed to start the Tour de France. Since then it has been numerous second places by Lampre riders such as Commesso, Bennati, Ballan and Cunego. The traditionally strong country could not get a win. Matteo Tossato today finally got the win for Italy ahead of Christian Moreni and a pursing Manuel Quinzato. The tifosi can rest knowing that Italy will not be shut out of this Tour de France.
Tosatto also got a stage win for Quick Step, who were left without star Tom Boonen as the race hit the Alps. Tosatto was part of Petacchi’s Fassa Bortolo team last year and now moved to Quick Step to provide the same service to Boonen. Tosatto wanted to impress his new employers.
“It’s my first year at QuickStep and it’s pretty important to win here. You are not really a pro until you win a stage on the Tour.”
The Spring Classics this year have been a tale of two teams so far with Quick Step and CSC each getting back-to-back victories. Quick-Step started proceedings with victories in Milan San Remo and the Tour of Flanders. By Flanders, Quick Step worked over the competition to submission as they controlled most of the race much like a Tour de France sprint stage. Since then, Boonen has gone home to Manco to relax, but Bettini is still hopping like his nickname of “The Cricket”. “Il Grillo” however, will have to face a strong CSC team which is on a roll since Fabian Cancellara’s Paris Roubaix victory followed by Frank Schleck’s Amstel gold win.
To make things more difficult, CSC will welcome Ivan Basso onto the roster. The Giro favorite is scouting out some of the early Belgian Giro stages and will test his form in Fleche Wallone and Liege Bastogne Liege. With the Giro only a few weeks away, Basso has already shown good form in the Criterium International and other races.
“They are two key steps in my build-up for the Giro in May.” Basso told Reuters. “I’ve always done well in these two races and if I’m up there I’ll have a go myself.
“But we have plenty of strong guys in my team and I would be proud to help any of them to win, too.”
Plenty of strong guys are on the team with Carlos Satre and Jens Voight joining the squad for the Ardennes. Many of the CSC men have featured well in recent races meaning that the domination could continue well into this weekend.
Yahoo News: Italy’s Basso bullish about Belgium cycling classics
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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It’s hard to bet against Tom Boonen doing a double-double (Win Paris Roubaix and Tour of Flanders back to back for two years) but it just seems so inevitable. It is a bit like Lance Armstrong winning the Tour de France between 2000 and 2005, you really could not bet against him to win, and you knew that the end would show Lance on top followed by two other animators. But this is Paris-Roubaix, “The Hell of the North” is not an easy race. Winning the HotN requires knowledge of the course and a healthy dose of luck. But Tom Boonen is not a superstitious guy. He is the World Champion and has defied the curse of the World Champ by purely dominating a majority of the races that he contested so far this year. He brushed off “The Curse” by explaining that there is no curse, there is just simply a great deal of pressure that some riders could not deal with. This is true, the World Champ gets burdened with lots of pressure and we have seen riders from Luc LeBlanc to Mario Cipollini succumb to some sort of misfortune, but the base of it could point to pressure.
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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.
What team has the current World Champion and the reigning Olymipic Road Race Champ, plus several top classics riders? Quick-Step looks strong this year and the team flexed its muscles in three separate races this week.
Remmert Wielinga won the GP Chiasso, Nick Nuyens won Kuurne Busselles Kuurne and Paolo Bettini took the GP Lugano.
Our team was fantastic today – Bettini said, with this his 2nd win of the season – at the bottom of the final ascent I had 4 other team members around me. Scarselli, Wielinga, Vasseur and Van de Walle all did a fantastic job that I went on to finish. I’m in good form and must admit that I’m having a great start to the season. I am motivated and want to make the most of this and the great form that I am in order to try and get a few more victories under my belt
Some very impressive results show that the Belgian team has good form for the Classics which are still a month away. Milan San Remo will be a challenege with Paolo Bettini and Tom Boonen both aspriring to win the race.
Qucik Step News
Jose Rujano is pulling a Terrell Owens type move on his small Italian team Selle Italia. Rujano wants to renegotiate his contract to get more money and focus his efforts on the Tour de France. Jose Rujano was the bust out revelation of a legendary Giro D’Italia in 2005. The little Venezualan climber looks to be a favorite for the 2006 Giro which features serious climbing in the final week. So much climbing that Alessandro Petacchi was almost going to skip the Giro altogether.
Rujano had a contract with Selle Italia that ran through 2006. In August Quick-Step was calling Rujano with offers. Selle Italia team manager Gianni Savio worked out a deal that would allow Rujano to ride the Giro for Selle Italia and then let Quick-Step become Rujano’s new employer on June 1st. Selle Italia even brought in several veteran Italian riders to help Rujano get through the first week and give him some support on climbing stages. Everything seemed set for Rujano to make a serious bid for the Maglia Rosa.
Now problems are surfacing between Rujano and Savio about money and contracts. It seems that Rujano is not too happy with the contract and would like to renegotiate the five month deal that was reworked to allow him to move to Quick-Step. Rujano, asked to focus his effort to the Tour de France and only use the Giro as preparation for the Tour. Apparently, Rujano would like to focus his energy this year on the less mountains and more time trail intensive Tour de France. He could probably win a few mountainous stages in the Tour, but the Giro gives him a serious chance of winning overall.
So the question now is, did anybody see Drew Rosenhaus in Italy talking to a small Venezualan dude? If so, Jose needs to be filled in on the Terrell Owens story before it is too late.
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