First Edition Cycling News, July 14, 2008Edited by Sue George Boonen wins Tour of Austria finaleRohregger captures overall
Team Quick Step's Tom Boonen won the final 128.5km stage of the Tour of Austria from Podersdorf am Neusiedler See to Vienna. In a sprint to the line, he defeated Roberto Ferrari (Team LPR) and Renè Weissinger (Team Volksbank) across the finish line. Boonen brought Team Quick Step its second stage win of the race after Paolo Bettini claimed stage one. Thomas Rohregger (Elk Haus - Simplon) finished safely in the peloton 30th for the day and became the 19th Austrian to capture the overall win. "I am really pleased with this victory," said Boonen. "I really like to leave my mark when I compete in stage races. Vienna is a remarkable and beautiful city and I wanted to win here. I won already in several capitals like Paris, London, Brussels."
Cyclingnews will cover the 60th edition of
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time (CEST)/ 23:00 Australian time (CDT)/ 9:00 (USA East). "My programme has been calculated as a function of Vuelta a España and races that follow it," said Boonen. "I have to say, though, that I'm on reasonable form, something that enables me to be competitive. Boonen is looking forward to a short break before he resumes racing. "My next race will be the Tour de Wallonie - so I'll have also a bit more time over these next few days to watch the Tour and support my team-mates." Boonen is not racing the Tour de France this year following a positive out of competition test for cocaine in the weeks before the French Grand Tour. See Cyclingnews' full coverage of the Tour of Austria's final stage. Teutenberg takes fourth stage victory at women's Giro
Columbia's Ina-Yoko Teutenberg won the final stage of the Giro d'Italia Femminile. Her win marked her fourth stage win of the Giro, in which she also captured the points jersey. "I think this week was something that happens once in a lifetime," said Teutenberg. "I've never won four stages in a tour before and I'm pretty sure it won't happen again. It was a great week and it's really nice to finish in the Points Jersey," said Teutenberg. The final stage started with a climb and went directly into seven relatively flat sections around the city of Desio. "We wanted to race aggressively to get a break up the road," said Teutenberg of her Team Columbia's race plan. "Our back up plan was to go for a bunch sprint if the breaks weren't sticking." After consistent attacks throughout the race, Bigla's Zulfia Zabirova and Julia Martisova from Gauss RDZ Ormu had a 50 second advantage over the field with one lap to go. That's when Team Columbia put themselves into pursuit mode at the front to reel in the duo. "It was the perfect chase and lead-out," said Teutenberg. "The girls were amazing. We caught the break with 1.5km to go and the sprint ended up being pretty straight forward." Fabiana Luperini (Menikini - Selle Italia) won the overall for her fifth-ever Giro general classification win. See Cyclingnews' full coverage of the Women's Giro d'Italia final stage. Armstrong & Aldape collect Cascade stage wins atop Mount Bachelor
The fifth stage of the Cascade Cycling Classic in Oregon finished with victories by Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo / Lifeforce) and Moises Aldape (Team Type I). Racers had to ascend to the finish up to Mt. Bachelor ski resort which challenged even the toughest of the climbers. "Coming up the climb it was only the five of us," said women's winner Armstrong after collecting her fourth stage win of the race thus far. "I made a really hard attack and no one came with me." Armstrong claimed victory, finishing 30 seconds ahead of Canadians and Aaron's racers Julie Beveridge in second and Felicia Gomez in third. Going into the final stage Sunday, the American Armstrong led the overall ranking with a 2'55" advantage over Christine Thorburn. In the men's race, Mexican Moises Aldape won his first race of the season Saturday while scoring Team Type 1's second stage win in the race. Aldape won by out-sprinting five breakaway companions in the final few hundred meters of the mountainous finish. The 26-year-old also took the lead in the King of the Mountains classification and was to wear the polka-dot jersey for the final stage Sunday. Aldape waited for just the right moment to launch a vicious sprint, which quickly closed a gap that Blake Caldwell (Team Garmin-Chipotle) had opened up with an attack of his own in the final 500 meters. Team Type 1 Sport Director Ed Beamon said he second-guessed Aldape's decision to wait for the final sprint. "It looked like Caldwell was going to win the stage at 200 meters, but at 150 meters Moises went flying by," Beamon said. "He just stayed so calm and collected and composed, it was driving me nuts." The decision to remain patient for the most decisive moment of the 83-mile (133.5 km) race was an easy one, Aldape said. Caldwell first launched an attack with six miles (10 km) to go that gained him 20 seconds on the breakaway, which at that time included eight riders. "When Caldwell attacked, Ed told me to "Go, go, go," but I felt confident I could jump across," Aldape said. "So I just waited. I was counting on a little difficulty in the terrain in the last kilometer. As long as I could see him (Caldwell) ahead of me in the last 500 meters, I was confident I could win." Caldwell faded to finish sixth, while Chad Beyer (Team USA) was second and Bradley White (Successful Living presented by Parkpre) was third. Going into the final stage Sunday, Levi Leipheimer (Astana) was leading the race. Aldape's team-mate Ben Brooks, who was seriously injured early in the race, remains hospitalized, but has since shown signs of recovery. He is awake and conscious of his surroundings according to Beamon, although the full extent of his injuries, which include head trauma, will not be immediately known. Phinney claims junior worlds pursuit gold
Just a month before he will represent the United States in the 2008 Olympic Games, 18 year-old Taylor Phinney earned a junior world championship in the 3,000-meter individual pursuit on Saturday as part of his final preparation for the Games. While in South Africa as part of the US National Team for the 2008 UCI Junior Road and Track World Championships, Phinney clocked a winning time of thee minutes, 23.759 seconds in the gold medal final to beat Australian Dennis Rohan and secure his first world title in the event. Phinney, who is the current junior world record holder in the event, earned the number-one seed earlier in the day with a mark of 3:20.264 in the qualifying round to set up a head-to-head ride against Rohan for the rainbow jersey. In the finals, Phinney finished nearly four seconds ahead of Rohan to earn his second career junior world championship. He's also the defending champion in the time trial event on the road - a title he will defend on Friday. In the consolation matchup, New Zealand's Jason Christie earned the bronze medal over Australia's Luke Durbridge. For Phinney, his junior world title in the pursuit on Saturday continues a remarkable year which has seen him qualify for the US Olympic Team as a 17 year-old after just five months of track racing. Recently, Phinney surpassed the 3000m junior world record with a mark of 3:16.589 at a selection camp at the ADT Event Center velodrome in Los Angeles, a facility considered much faster than the track in Cape Town because of the wooden racing surface. In Beijing, Phinney will compete in the 4,000-meter individual pursuit which is the standard distance in the elite ranks. While in South Africa, he will also race in the points race and the omnium. Phinney's medal wasn't the only one for the US on day one. Colleen Hayduk earned a bronze medal in the scratch race by finishing after Australia's Megan Dunn and Gemma Dudley. Hayduk was also scheduled to race the match sprint and the keirin. Australians scoop four medals in second day of junior worlds
Racing excited stepped up during the second day of the 2008 UCI Junior World Championships at the Bellville Velodrome in South Africa. The climax of the evening was the men's keirin final in which the six finalists engaged in a fierce battle for the championship title. The gold went to Charlie Concord (France) in a tight finish, the silver to Sotirious Bretas (Greece) and the bronze to Paul Fellows from Australia. It was an all-Australian final in the women's individual pursuit with Ashlee Ankudinoff taking gold and Sarah Kent completing her hat trick of silver medals in her last three major international championships. New Zealander Gemma Dudley added a bronze to the silver she won in the scratch race last night. The women's team sprint final was won by French duo Magalie Baudacci and Olivia Monauban, with the silver medal going to Aleksandra Drejgier and Kornelia Maczka of Poland and the bronze medal to Russia's pair of Victoria Baranova and Galina Streltsova. The men's team pursuit was just as tight with favourites Australia going head to head against Russia and New Zealand and France fighting for the bronze. The Australian quartet of Luke Davison and Rohan Dennis (who took silver in the men's individual pursuit on Saturday) Luke Durbridge, Thomas Palmer pipped the Russians at the post for the gold medal (4:17.933). The Russian team of Konstantin Kuperasov, Artur Ershov, Viktor Shmalka and Matvey Zubov took the silver medal (4:20.024) and New Zealand's team won bronze in a time of 4:24.290. 449 Riders from 59 nations are competing for podium finishes and world records at the junior worlds. Performances over the last two days promise some future cycling superstars. The third day of racing continues Monday and will include sprints and pursuits for the women and the time trial and points race for the men. Julich joins the Tour for stage 10
Cyclingnews is pleased to announce that Bobby Julich (Team CSC - Saxo Bank) will make a special guest appearance on our live commentary team for stage ten from Pau to Hautacam. A veteran Tour campaigner, with a podium place and an Olympic bronze to his name, Julich's huge wealth of experience and sharp sense of race tactics will provide a professional's insight into the race. Julich will be joining us as the races heats up on the ascent of the Col du Tourmalet. Cyclingnews will begin live coverage of the stage around 13:00 local European time (CEST)/ 7:00 (USA East)/ 21:00 Australia (EST) - also on WAP-enabled mobile devices at http://live.cyclingnews.com/wap/. Ex-Tour racers to face doping chargesThree Tour de France racers may be charged criminally for doping offenses at the 2007 Tour de France according to the Sud Ouest newspaper. Last summer, Former Astana racer Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for a homologous blood transfusion, Iban Mayo for erythropoietin (EPO) and Italian Cristian Moreni for testosterone. Mayo has been cleared by the Spanish Cycling federation while Moreni was banned from competition for two years although the French government may charge all three riders. AFP indicated that the police charges against Vinokourov arose from "the discovery of banned substances, believed to have belonged to the riders" when the Tour de France visited Pau last July although city prosecutor Erick Maurel did "neither confirm nor deny" the alleged charges. Bags of blood relating to Vinokourov were allegedly found in a police raid of a hotel where Vino stayed according to Sud Ouest. He will be charged with "illegal use of banned substances or methods in a competition". Mayo and Moreni will likely be charged with "acquiring and possession of doping substances". (All rights reserved/Copyright Future Publishing Limited 2008) |
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