T-Mobile is following the latest trend among Tour contending teams by announcing their riders for the Tour long before anyone “turns a pedalin anger” as Phil and Paul like to say. There are 5 riders preselected for the Tour are Serhiy Honchar, Andreas Kloden, Eddy Mazzoleni (whos is dating Ivan Basso’s sister) and TT World Champ Michael Rogers. The rest of the lineup will be decided between Italians Lorenzo Bernucci and Giuseppe Guerini, Russian Sergej Ivanov, Spaniard Oscar Sevilla and the Germans Matthias Kessler, Stephan Schreck and Patrik Sinkewitz.
Olaf Ludwig says that this is not a completely firm list for the riders as they may change who is on the Tour team as the season takes shape.
“The role of the riders is to help Ullrich at every moment of the Tour” insists Rudy Pevenage, the director sportif in charge of Tour preparation.
Ullrich obviously is encouraged by the new approach and says that the new atmosphere is “Like a breath of fresh air”
Ullrich has not yet solidified his schedule for this season as he is still deciding on which race to start and he is not 100% on his participation for the Giro. Howwever, Der Kaiser is in a muchmore relaxed team atmosphere without internal pressure coming from Erik Zabel and Alexandre Vinokourov.
T-Mobile Name Core Squad
The T-Mobile Giro team is begining to take shape as Jan Ullrich and now Michael Rogers are looking to the Corsa Rosa as part of their agenda.
(Ulle:Hey Mick, you going to Italy with me?…Rogers: sure Jan, I am not going to push you up the climbs though…. Kloden:Yeah, Jan needs a push up climbs in May)
Mick Rogers now of T-Mobile is planning on riding the Giro D’Italia with an aim to winning the time trials. The prologue TT in Seraing and the Pontedera Time Trial will be Roger’s main objectives, but not the race for the Maglia Rosa. Rogers simply thinks that the mountainous final week will be too difficult for his abilities, so he will ride for stage wins.
TodoCiclismo
Jan Ullrich lost some weight and grew some hair while in South Africa. He is preparing to ride the Giro this year as training for the Tour de France which seems to be the new approach for most major contenders.
(Jan is using the long locks as extra training weight. He will shave his head just in time for the Tour 
)
A little light may have been shed on the relationship between Ulle and Vino at the recent Tour. Although the two said they were friends, Vino’s roll did not help anyone other than Vino.
In the end the decisive month for me will be July … Now that Vinokourov has left the roles are clearer in the squad, but there were never any sort of problems between us.
Vino was a problem, but he wasn’t a problem… Hopefully for Jan, the change in Team Management with the departure of Walter Goodefroot and the full return of Rudy Pevenage will help remove all of the ambiguity from riders rolls on the team.
It worked for CSC for so many years, so why not try the miltary style bootcamp to foster teamwork? T-Mobile and of all teams Euskatel Euskadi are out in the wilderness learning to trust each other and build rope bridges. This will foster teamwork, or could make for some scary “Deliverance” style moments. The first task of the T-Mobile “Outward Bound” camp is to climb up to a cabin in the mountains which must have been taken directly from one of my favortie Simpsons episodes.
.:. procycling .:.
