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31st Internationale Niedersachsen Rundfahrt - 2.1
Germany, April 25-29, 2007
Main Page Results Overall standings Next Stage
Stage 1 - April 25: Wallenhorst - Bremen, 161.1 km
Niedersachsen belongs to Petacchi
By Susan Westemeyer
Alessandro Petacchi picked up right where he left off last year, winning the first stage of the Niedersachsen Rundfahrt in Bremen, Germany, home of his team sponsor Milram. He took the sprint ahead of Rabobank's Graeme Browne and Tiziano Dall Antonia of Panaria. In 2006 Petacchi won all five of the race's stages.
"This victory is really important for me and my team," said Ale-Jet after the race. "We've put a bad phase behind us. Several crashes took away strong and experienced riders from our team. But it's also important to me because I missed being victorious; it is such a beautiful feeling.
The Italian supersprinter had a hard time this spring. "I had a lot of doubts, but all the same I knew that it was just a question of time," he continued. "I rested and trained at home specifically to get back my strength and explosiveness. I don't claim to be back to where I was before, but I'm on the right path. My team was super again; I must especially thank Zabel who led me out in the last metres with his usual class and experience."
His teammate and ace sprinter Erik Zabel was happy to have done the job for the Italian. "We all worked for Alessandro today and it finally worked out," said Zabel. He finished ninth on the stage, "but that's secondary. More important was the success today."
The final sprint was marred by a four-man crash about 100 meters before the finish line. Wiesenhof's sprinter Olaf Pollack was taken directly to the hospital with a broken collarbone.
40 km into the race on a hot, summery day, a foursome of Ronny Scholz (Gerolsteiner), Clement Lhotellerie (Skil Shimano), Björn Papstein (3C Gruppe-Lamonta) and Richard Faltus (Sparkasse) broke away and built up to a three and a half minute lead. That was enough for Milram, which led the chase and caught the four escapees about 10 km before the finish.
Results
1 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Team Milram 3.29.51 (46.06 km/h) 2 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank 3 Tiziano Dall'Antonia (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 4 André Greipel (Ger) T-Mobile Professional Cycling 5 Aaron Kemps (Aus) Astana 6 Kenny Van Hummel (Ned) Skil-Shimano 7 Assan Bazayev (Kaz) Astana 8 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Gerolsteiner 9 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram 10 Thomas Fothen (Ger) Gerolsteiner 11 Paride Grillo (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 12 Lado Fumic (Ger) German National Team 13 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Thüringer Energie Team 14 Oleg Grishkine (Rus) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 15 Pedro Horrillo Munoz (Spa) Rabobank 16 René Obst (Ger) Team 3C-Gruppe Lamonta 17 Peter Möhlmann (Ned) Team Regiostrom-Senges 18 Ruben Guillermo Bongiorno (Arg) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 19 Max Van Heeswijk (Ned) Rabobank 20 Daniel Becke (Ger) Thüringer Energie Team 21 Elnathan Heizmann (Ger) Team 3C-Gruppe Lamonta 22 Karsten Hess (Ger) Thüringer Energie Team 23 Jonas Owaczarek (Ger) Team Sparkasse 24 Stefan Ganser (Ger) Team Regiostrom-Senges 25 Alexey Kolessov (Kaz) Astana 26 Benjamin Brooks (Aus) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 27 Masahiro Shinagawa (Jpn) Skil-Shimano 28 Hilton Clarke (Aus) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 29 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) T-Mobile Professional Cycling 30 David Deroo (Fra) Skil-Shimano 31 Jochen Käß (Ger) German National Team 32 Benoît Joachim (Lux) Astana 33 Kristian House (GBr) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 34 Evgenyi Sladkov (Kaz) Astana 35 Christoph Meschenmoser (Ger) Skil-Shimano 36 André Korff (Ger) T-Mobile Professional Cycling 37 Philipp Klein (Ger) Thüringer Energie Team 38 Linus Gerdemann (Ger) T-Mobile Professional Cycling 39 Sven Krauss (Ger) Gerolsteiner 40 Daniel Musiol (Ger) Team Wiesenhof Felt 41 Andreas Klier (Ger) T-Mobile Professional Cycling 42 Stephan Parinussa (Ger) Team Sparkasse 43 Matteo Priamo (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 44 Tobias Erler (Ger) Team 3C-Gruppe Lamonta 45 Leon Van Bon (Ned) Rabobank 46 Tim Klessa (Ger) Team Regiostrom-Senges 47 Bert Grabsch (Ger) T-Mobile Professional Cycling 48 Maxim Gourov (Kaz) Astana 49 Tilo Schüler (Ger) Team Sparkasse 50 Grischa Niermann (Ger) Rabobank 51 Dennis Pohl (Ger) Heinz von Heiden Focus 52 Gerben Löwik (Ned) Rabobank 53 Rick Flens (Ned) Rabobank 54 Leif Lampater (Ger) German National Team 55 Richard Faltus (Cze) Team Sparkasse 56 Mauricio Ardila (Col) Rabobank 57 Henning Bommel (Ger) German National Team 58 Mathias Russ (Ger) Gerolsteiner 59 Martin Hebik (Cze) Heinz von Heiden Focus 60 Eric Baumann (Ger) T-Mobile Professional Cycling 61 Philipp Mamos (Ger) Team Sparkasse 62 Christoph Von Kleinsorgen (Ger) Heinz von Heiden Focus 63 Christian Knees (Ger) Team Milram 64 Domenik Klemme (Ger) Team 3C-Gruppe Lamonta 65 Jörg Ludewig (Ger) Team Wiesenhof Felt 66 Michael Wolf (USA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 67 Patrick Gretsch (Ger) Thüringer Energie Team 68 Filippo Savini (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 69 Sören Hofmann (Ger) Team 3C-Gruppe Lamonta 70 Björn Papstein (Ger) Team 3C-Gruppe Lamonta 71 Lucas Schädlich (Ger) Thüringer Energie Team 72 Matthias Hahn (Ger) Thüringer Energie Team 73 Christian Müller (Ger) Skil-Shimano 74 Albert Timmer (Ned) Skil-Shimano 75 Volker Ordowski (Ger) Gerolsteiner 76 Malaya Van Ruitenbeek (Ned) Team Regiostrom-Senges 77 Corey Sweet (Aus) Team Regiostrom-Senges 78 Clement Lhotellerie (Fra) Skil-Shimano 79 Steffen Radochla (Ger) Team Wiesenhof Felt 80 Andreas Beikirch (Ger) Team Sparkasse 81 Christian Leben (Ger) Team Wiesenhof Felt 82 Florian Frohn (Ger) Thüringer Energie Team 83 Holger Sievers (Ger) Team 3C-Gruppe Lamonta 84 Hans-Jürgen Juretzek (Ger) Team Regiostrom-Senges 85 Manuel Fumic (Ger) German National Team 86 Francesco Tomei (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 87 Ronny Scholz (Ger) Gerolsteiner 88 Lars Wackernagel (Ger) Team Sparkasse 89 Jason Phillips (Aus) Heinz von Heiden Focus 90 Julien Mazet (Fra) Astana 91 Roman Jördens (Ger) Heinz von Heiden Focus 92 Robert Bartko (Ger) German National Team 93 Marcel Sieberg (Ger) Team Milram 94 Tomoya Kano (Jpn) Skil-Shimano 95 Torsten Schmidt (Ger) Team Wiesenhof Felt 96 Felix Gniot (Ger) Heinz von Heiden Focus 97 Andreas Schillinger (Ger) Team Sparkasse 98 David O'loughlin (Irl) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 99 Andrea Pagoto (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 100 Ralf Grabsch (Ger) Team Milram 101 Daren Lill (RSA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 102 Robert Bengsch (Ger) German National Team 103 Wolfram Wiese (Ger) Team Regiostrom-Senges 104 Carlo Westphal (Ger) Gerolsteiner 105 Guido Fulst (Ger) German National Team 106 Enrico Poitschke (Ger) Team Milram 107 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Team Milram 108 Alberto Ongarato (Ita) Team Milram 109 Bernard Van Ulden (USA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 110 Björn Glasner (Ger) Team Regiostrom-Senges 111 Serge Herz (Ger) Heinz von Heiden Focus 112 Matthias Friedemann (Ger) Team 3C-Gruppe Lamonta 113 Dimitry Muravyev (Kaz) Astana 0.50 114 Felix Odebrecht (Ger) Team Wiesenhof Felt 1.20 115 Richard Geng (Ger) Heinz von Heiden Focus 1.34 116 Robert Wagner (Ger) Team Wiesenhof Felt 117 Oscar Gatto (Ita) Gerolsteiner 118 Marcus Burghardt (Ger) T-Mobile Professional Cycling 2.25
