Tour de France News for June 23, 2004
Edited by John Stevenson
US Postal Tour team announced
Lance Armstrong (right) and Tour
team-mate Viatcheslav Ekimov at the Dauphiné Libéré
Photo: © www.velofotopro.fr.st
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Lance Armstrong's US Postal team has announced the riders that will join
the Boss when the Tour kicks off in Liege on July 3. Six members of last
year's squad return to do battle on the roads of France, with two new
faces, one of whom will be riding his first Tour de France.
The squad comprises Americans George Hincapie and Floyd Landis, Russian
Viatcheslav Ekimov, Pavel Padrnos of the Czech Republic, Jose Azevedo
of Portugal and Spaniards Manuel Beltran, Jose Luis Rubiera and Benjamin
Noval. Azevedo and Noval are first-year team members. The team's two reserve
riders are Luxembourger Benoit Joachim and Victor Hugo Pena of Colombia.
"Basically, we have the same team as the other years," said Armstrong
in a statement on the team's official fan club site www.thepaceline.com.
"We have a very experienced team and more than anything else, we have
a very committed team. They know what it takes to win the Tour and they
want to do that again."
Armstrong also commented on this year's Tour route, saying, "The last
week looks really tough, the toughest we have ever done. It will be much
better to have a stronger second half than a strong first half."
Team general manager Don Osipow told Cyclingnews that the team
was feeling "as confident as we have been the last handful of years"
about its ability to deliver Lance Armstrong a sixth Tour de France victory.
"This has become the team's main goal," said Osipow. "Johan
[Bruyneel, USPS directeur sportif] has created a schedule to have a number
of riders peaking [for the Tour] and this year he wants to have guys peaking
toward the end of the race, with the more difficult final week."
"There's a lot of experience in this team," said Osipow, "Lance
has said that experience will be key and everyone except Noval has done
a grand tour before." However, Osipow stressed that nothing is certain,
"We have a plan and after the gun goes off in Liege anything can
happen. Some years we've been able to control, but you saw last year that
things don't always go to plan."
Directeur sportif Johan Bruyneel offered an extensive analysis of his
reasons for the selection, with particular emphasis on the area where
challengers to Armstrong will have to make their moves: the mountains.
"We will have a very strong team in the mountains, stronger than last
year," said Bruyneel. "Azevedo is riding very strong and even in the Dauphiné
(Libéré), where he wasn't in top shape, he was always there with Lance
and was able to attack sometimes. I am confident he will be a key rider
in the mountains. Let's not forget he placed fifth in the Giro (2001)
and sixth in the Tour (2002). He can do a lot of work when we need him.
"As for Chechu (Rubiera), of course, we know what he is worth every year
in the Tour. I trust he will be in good shape when the mountains arrive.
Triki (Beltran) the same - we all saw what he was able to do last year.
I hope he will be on the same level (this year) and even if he will be
a little less, he will still be a good supporter in the mountains. Where
we will improve is with Floyd. Don't forget he came back last year from
his hip fracture just a few months before the Tour and didn't really play
a role in the mountains. This year, he will. That will give us four support
riders for Lance in the hills.".
US Postal's two super-rouleurs, George Hincapie and Viatcheslav Ekimov
bring the experience of 21 Tours de France between them - 14 for 38-year-old
Ekimov who is likely to be the oldest rider in this year's Tour and seven
for Hincapie. "I also looked to two guys you always know will be there
- George and Eki," said Bruyneel. "George even added support in the mountains
last year. Eki will play his usual role in the team time trial and on
the flat and rolling stages."
Filling the final two spots are Pavel Padrnos and Benjamin Noval, selected
on experience and fitness respectively. "For Pavel, I choose him for his
experience," said Bruyneel. "It was not an easy choice between Pavel and
Benoit. For those two, they are basically in the same condition but I
went with the experience of Pavel. As for Noval, I selected fitness over
experience. This will be his first Tour [de France] but he has raced in
three Tours of Spain. He is very professional and very dedicated and will
do his job. He may be nervous in the beginning but that's the risk you
have to take. You have to be in shape and he was in good enough shape
to be selected."
Bruyneel said Armstrong agreed with his selections. "I talked with Lance
about the selection," said Bruyneel. "He didn't want to make any decisions
and agreed with my choices. He has a lot of confidence in this team. We
have six riders from last year and two new guys - although Azevedo was
always guaranteed a spot. Lance is confident he has a strong team and
now it's up to him to be ready. His form is coming. This year, things
were planned a little different. The Tour route is different, with the
mountains coming so late, so we are trying to have everyone reach top
shape right at the start of the Tour, maybe even a bit later. It's not
easy to plan but I think we calculated it well and the guys have confidence
that their form is coming."
Evans out of T-Mobile Tour team
Cadel Evans will probably not be riding the Tour de France as part of
the T-Mobile team, contrary to yesterday's
unofficial team listing. Sources close to Evans, who recently won
the Tour
of Austria, say he learned late last night that his current status
is 'first reserve' although he has been working toward being a Tour team
member all season.
In the most recent update to his
diary, posted yesterday before he learned he was not in the team,
Evans expressed his frustration with not knowing if he was going. "Jan
and Erik are the only two riders who know for sure that they are going
to the Tour," he said. "I've been training for the Tour since October
last year and now here we are less than two weeks from the start and I
still don't know if I'll be there."
In other T-Mobile Tour news, Tobias Steinhauser has indicated on his
website that he will not be able to ride the Tour because of the injuries
he sustained in a crash at last week's Tour of Switzerland.
Madariaga's Tour dream
Iban Mayo (Euskaltel)
Photo ©: AFP
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With team leader Iban Mayo developing as a contender for victory in the
Tour de France, Euskaltel-Euskadi manager Miguel Madariaga has already
realized his dream of taking his modest Basque team to the Tour. Now with
a budget of €6 million and well rounded group of riders, including
two top-ten finishers from last year's Tour, Madariaga can realistically
dream of the ultimate success in cycling. In an interview with AS.com,
Madariaga stressed the importance of the entire team, not just the strength
of his leader Iban Mayo, recent winner of the Dauphiné Libéré.
"The Basques have always had a special gift of teamwork, and that's
been seen in the Tour by the old KAS team," Madariaga explained. "When
we began with the Euskaltel-Euskadi team eleven years ago, our goal was
to make it to the Tour. Honestly, we never dreamed about one day being
able to win it."
This year Madariaga expects a somewhat different line up for the Tour,
with a new importance placed on the team time trial. Euskaltel has traditionally
been a team of climbers, but to compete with the likes of Lance Armstrong
and Jan Ullrich in the Tour, the team will also have to limit its losses
against the clock.
"If Armstrong, Ullrich or Hamilton take more than a minute from [Mayo]
in the team time trial, where is Mayo going to get back that minute?"
Madariaga asked aloud. "He'll have to attack a hundred times throughout
the race, and those riders will still be there. It's for that reason that
I place as much importance on the team."
Madariaga admitted that Mayo does not necessarily relish the role of
leader, having had difficulty carrying the pressure in the past. This
year, however, Mayo's confidence has taken big leaps, thanks in no small
part to his victory against Armstrong, Hamilton and others in the Dauphiné,
including his crushing time trial win on the Mont Ventoux.
"He can win the Tour because he has everything to make the difference,"
Madariaga said of Mayo. "He just lacks a bit of experience. If he doesn't
make any mistakes, he can at least make the podium. But don't forget that
he's covered by a rider who was fifth in last year's Tour, Haimar Zubeldia."
Madariaga knows who his teams rivals will be for the Tour, and will
now wait to see how his close-knit Basque team rallies to support Mayo
and/or Zubeldia in the collective bid to unseat five-time winner Lance
Armstrong.
Pevenage on Lance vs. Jan
Jan Ullrich's personal assistant Rudy Pevenage is more confident about
the prospects of his rider in the upcoming Tour de France. Before Ullrich
won the Tour de Suisse on the final day by just one second, Pevenage told
L'Equipe, "The Tour de Suisse wasn't really an objective, but if
he can win it he'll be very happy Sunday night. It's important for the
morale."
With that morale booster behind him, Ullrich will enter the Tour with
his best June form for years, after a final month build up that included
the Tours of Germany and Switzerland. "Jan's condition is a little better
than last year," Pevenage told Belgian TV channel Sporza. He hasn't
had any health problems in the last month. And if there's one thing that
there is no doubt about, it's his base condition. He trained in his high
pressure chamber sometimes. In the afternoon he was training on the road
for six to seven hours."
Pevenage rued the absence of Alexandre Vinokourov, who was third in
the Tour last year but injured his shoulder in a crash during the Tour
de Suisse. "Vino is irreplaceable," said Pevenage. "Zabel will certainly
do his sprints, but the other seven should ride in Jan's service."
Pevenage hopes that T-Mobile will not lose any time to US Postal in
the Stage 4 team time trial, and is also keeping an eye on Stage 3 from
Waterloo to Wasquehal, which contains a long stretch of cobbles near the
finish [and also a small Tour de France museum near Frasnes-lez-Anvaing
en route-Ed.]. "A few will lose time there," said Pevenage.
On the climbs, Pevenage still rates Armstrong as the best. "Jan cannot
ride away with a blistering uphill attack," he said. "That remains the
specialty of Lance. But if the condition is a little improved, he can
certainly respond to such an attack, à la Indurain. As for race instinct,
Lance is perhaps a bit better than Jan, but he has still reacted well
in the last few years. Take Jan's attack on the Tourmalet last year. He
felt good and with some luck he could have been away with someone like
Mayo."
An interview with Theo De Rooij
This year, after having worked as a sports director with the team since
1996, Theo De Rooij took over the helm from Jan Raas to become manger
of Rabobank. With their team for the Tour de France selected just a few
days ago, Cyclingnews' Gabriella Ekström spoke with De Rooij to find out
about life as a decision-maker on one of the world's best teams.
At the end of March, the team's long-time sponsor Rabobank decided to
prolong its sponsorship until the end of 2008. The official announcement
was made on the morning of Tour de Flanders, and the future should look
bright for Theo. Does he have faith in the future?
"I sure have. I have always been an optimistic person and we have a
great sponsor with Rabobank. We'll celebrate 10 years engagement with
Rabobank next year. This year has felt a bit like a fresh start, with
Erik Breukink taking over from me as sports director and giving new impulses
to the team. I think things have evolved in a smooth way. Erik is always
calm, experienced in cycling and manages to keep a good overview of the
team in race situations, despite the fact that he was relatively inexperienced
in this new field at the start of the year. On top of this, there's no
doubt that our future rests with our young talented riders, both those
in our top performing TT3, as well as those in our TT1. They are very
important for the teams, our sponsor and for Dutch cycling in general."
Despite a new contract with the sponsor, and good colleagues, it can
sometimes be hard to hold your head up if things are not going as planned,
but once again, De Rooij turns to his co-workers: "All teams experience
some hard times, but we have very good people on board and we have been
working together for many years. This gives the team a good balance and
when the results are lacking, the confidence in our line of work stays,"
he says.
"My way of handling stress is by moving and discussing, I have always
been someone who 'moves around'. I feel my job is sometimes extremely
exciting but I have always stood behind my decisions, even though some
few million people may have seen and thought something else about it."
Earlier this year, De Rooij spoke about the keystones in the team, and
the breathing space allowed between the spring classics and the Tour.
In June, we should find ourselves just in that gap. "Naturally the Tour
de France is the most important race for us so we are creating a 'gap',
a possibility for the riders to recuperate from the Spring Classics. 'Doing'
the Spring Classics might be even harder than finishing a three week stage
race. The preliminary Tour selection was made in the beginning of May,
with some eleven riders for nine places. The key riders are Rasmussen,
Boogerd, Leipheimer, Dekker and Freire. [note: the final selection was
announced on June 22, with Freire excluded due to injury-Ed.]
Click here
for the full interview with Theo de Rooij.
Zberg out, Wegmann in?
Team Gerolsteiner has announced that Markus Zberg will not be taking
part in the Tour de France, due to injuries suffered in a crash in the
Tour de Suisse last week. Zberg fell in the fourth stage and badly injured
his right thumb, which required an operation. "There's simply no point,"
said Zberg. "I can't even hold a drink bottle yet."
Zberg will now concentrate on recovering in time for the second half
of the season. His replacement will be named after the national championships
this Sunday, although team manager Hans-Michael Holczer told DPA
that there is a "90 percent chance" that Fabian Wegmann will go. "He has
recovered well from the Giro and should try something in the first six
to eight days of the Tour. There won't be any particular tasks for him...Perhaps
he'll make it to the finish in Paris."
The rest of the Gerolsteiner Tour team is: René Haselbacher (Aut), Danilo
Hondo (Ger), Sebastian Lang (Ger), Sven Montgomery (Swi), Uwe Peschel
(Ger), Ronny Scholz (Ger), Georg Totschnig (Aut) and Peter Wrolich (Aut).
No Maier in Tour prologue
Austrian ski star Hermann Maier will not take part in the Tour de France
prologue this year, despite expressing a strong desire to do it again
after his debut last year. Maier cited a lack of training and a cold for
his no show, as he wanted to have a better result than in 2003. Last year
he lost 1'19 to prologue winner Brad McGee over the 6.5 km course, and
finished a mere 13 seconds slower than the slowest rider on the day.
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