Tour de France 2011

Danielson exits Dauphiné early

thepaceline.com | Stomach problems knock Danielson out

Discovery Channel's Tom Danielson exited the Dauphiné Libéré yesterday, complaining of stomach problems. Danielson was expected to make his first Tour de France start next month, but missed the Tour of Catalonia with a stomach virus and now will miss the Dauphiné's climbs.

Gerolsteiner's Heinrich Haussler won Stage 1, and looks to be a lock for Gerolsteiner's Tour squad.

Also dropping out was former world champion Igor Astarloa of Team Milram, suffering from toxoplasmosis. VeloNews reports Astarloa requires two weeks of rest, and will not start the Tour.

Tour of California rosters released

Amgen Tour of California | 2007 Rider Roster Announced

I am going to hate missing the Tour of California. With the obvious exception of Floyd Landis, fans will get to see pretty much every American racing in the ProTour, and many of the world's best riders will be racing in the US for the first time.

The race, kicking off Sunday, will feature the winners of 4 stages and the prologue of the 2006 Tour de France: Thor Hushovd, who took the prologue and Stage 21, CSC's Jens Voigt, Stage 13, Michael (Spider) Rasmussen, who dominated the Alpine climbs and won Stage 16 and the king of the mountains, and Matteo Tosatto, who won Stage 18.

You want Americans? They got 'em: George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, Tom Danielson, and Jason McCartney from Discovery Channel; Dave Zabriskie, Bobby Julich, and Christian Vandevelde from Team CSC; Freddie Rodriguez and Chris Horner from Predictor-Lotto; Aaron Olson, now with T-Mobile; and of course the US-based Pro Continental and Continental teams, mostly populated by US riders.

You want ProTour royalty? They got 'em: World champion Paolo Bettini, world time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara, reigning Giro champion Ivan Basso, and former world TT champion Michael Rogers.

There are also lots of old faces on new teams, as with Michael Barry, Greg Henderson and Jakob Piil, all now with T-Mobile, Juan-José Haedo, dominant in US sprints last year, and now racing for CSC, and Henk Vogels, now racing for the Continental Toyota-United squad.

Also, injured Credit Agricole rider Saul Raisin, whose recovery continues, plans to ride each stage noncompetitively and visit with fans at the start and finish. He's also promoting a ride March 31st in Dalton, Ga. called Raisin Hope.

Should be a heck of a race.

Milan-San Remo wrapup

PezCycling News | Milano-Sanremo 2006: New Prince Crowned in Primavera!

Pozzato's perfect move
AP/Antonio Callani

I just finished watching the OLN coverage of Milan-San Remo. What an awesome race. Filippo Pozzato played it exactly right both strategically and tactically. Reading the live text feeds on the web, I couldn't tell whether the Frank Schleck group with Sanchez and Pozzato got swallowed up or not, and now I see why.

The peloton made contact with the six leaders, who were fighting every inch of the way, so instead of the typically engulfing end to the break, the break members stayed out at the tip of the spear. As Milram tried to set up its finishing sprint, coming around the break remnants, Igor Astarloa (the OLN commentators thought it was Rinaldo Nocentini of Acqua e Sapone) just put the hammer down. Pozzato not only caught him, but came around him, charging super hard, and the gap held up. Astarloa wound up 11th.

If you watched the TV coverage, VeloNews fingers Ivan Gutierrez as the Caisse d'Espargne rider trying to wave off the motorcycles -- he thought they were hovering a little too close to Petacchi's chasers, giving the peloton a bit of a draft.

Petacchi was all class in defeat:

"I was in top form, but I didn't have the luck today," Petacchi said. "You need to have the luck to win Milan-San Remo. Our team rode great today and I wanted to pay back their efforts with a victory. But my compliments go to Pozzato. Quick Step worked the tactics perfectly with Pozzato on the wheel and they left the chase up to us."

Top 10:

1) Filippo Pozzato, Quick Step, in 6:29:41

2) Alessandro Petacchi (I), Milram, same time

3) Luca Paolini (I), Liquigas, s.t.

4) Tom Boonen (B), Quick Step, s.t.

5) Danilo Napolitano (I), Lampre, s.t.

6) Oscar Freire, Rabobank, s.t.

7) Stefano Garzelli, Liquigas, s.t.

8) Alessandro Ballan, Lampre, s.t.

9) Martin Elmiger, Phonak, s.t.

10) Matteo Carrara, Lampre, s.t.

Also:

VeloNews.com | Pozzato outfoxes favorites to win Milan-San Remo

Daily Peloton | 97th Milan-San Remo Rider Comments

rec.bicycles.racing | What's written on Pozzato's right arm?

VeloNews.com | Full Results

Graham Watson Milan-San Remo photo gallery

GrahamWatson.com | Milan-San Remo

Pozzato in a late break; Boonen celebrates Pippo's placing
Graham Watson

If you check out the left-hand image above at GrahamWatson.com (just click through), you can see that Sanchez at right isn't too happy with Pozzato disrupting the break's rhythm.

Also:

cyclingnews.com | Milan-San Remo photo gallery

Astarloa out two months

Eurosport | Astarloa out of action

Igor Astarloa's crash on Sunday is going to keep him out of action for two months. The 2003 world champion, now riding for Barloworld, crashed at the Classic Haribo.

Svorada, Astarloa to exit Lampre?

procycling | Astarloa looking for new team?

Eurosport.com | Svorada leaves Lampre

The Lampre team has inherited many of the riders from the dissolved Saeco team, including Damiano Cunego and best bud Gilberto Simoni. That leaves less room for some of the team's previous leaders, and today Jan Svorada announced that he'll move down to cycling's minor leagues, signing with eD'system ZVVZ (don't ask me how to pronounce THAT).

Procycling also reports that former world champion Igor Astarloa is on the prowl for a new team. Astarloa has hotfooted it from Saeco to Cofidis to Lamppre since his rainbow jersey in 2003. Bjarne Riis says he looked at signing Astarloa, but couldn't afford him on the team's current budget.

Procycling also quotes La Gazzetta dello Sport, interviewing Simoni, who says Cunego "betrayed" him at Bormio in last year's Giro, and that he will target the 2005 Giro, "but I don't trust anyone anymore."

Astarloa signs with Lampre

Procycling | Astarloa and Lampre look to relaunch together

Reigning world champion Igor Astarloa, released last week from his contract with the embattled Cofidis team, signed Tuesday with Italy's Lampre team.

Lampre have so far notched just four victories this season, all in relatively minor races, and moved for Astarloa after team captain Francesco Casagrande was forced out of the Giro d’Italia by a persistent knee problem. Astarloa will make his Lampre début at the GP Larciano in Tuscany on May 1 before lining up at the Giro on May 8.

"After missing Amstel Gold, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, I’m now forced to aim for wins in single World Cup races," Astarloa admitted. "As a Basque, San Sebastian in August now becomes a major objective. The Giro? I can only realistically hope for a stage win and to help my fellow Basque, Juan Manuel Garate, on general classification."

The Procycling story suggests Astarloa's former team, Cofidis, will try to dump one more rider, Mederic Clain, and resume racing at the Four Days of Dunkirk, running May 5-9.

Where will he land?

BBC SPORT | Astarloa leaves Cofidis

Reigning world road champion Igor Astarloa has been released from his contract with Cofidis, allowing the Italian to pursue a contract with another team, and start riding.

The Cofidis team has suspended operations will allegations of doping against current and former riders and team officials are investigated. Astarloa, who joined the team just before winning the world title in October, is being released by mutual agreement.

Astarloa previously raced for the Saeco team. AFP reports ">he's expected to sign with Lampre.

Cofidis statement (in French)

Astarloa statement (in Italian)