26.03.2006 3: Charleville-Mezieres - Charleville-Mezieres (8 km ITT)
Nice performance of Schleck, Basso takes overall win
Results:
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José Martinez
Ivan Basso
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7th at 13"
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11th at 2'34"
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47th at 47"
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52nd at 15'53"
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With an excellent 7th position in the concluding time-trial of the Critérium International 2006, Frank Schleck has shown once again that he has made fantastic progress in the "discipline of truth" since two years. On entirely flat roads, Frank was already with the Best in the first kilometers (9th at 12" after 3,6 km) but on the second part of the course, he was even better, losing only a single second to the surprising stage winner José Martinez. Schleck finally ends up in 7th place, 13 seconds behind Martinez as well as one position and only 3 seconds slower than his teammate and rouleur par excellence Jens Voigt, multiple winner of this short time-trial. With his second place in the time-trial, the other team-mate of Frank, Ivan Basso, secured an overall victory in the 2006 Criterium International. Kim Kirchen, who had lost a lot of time on Saturday, didn't really have anything to expect of this time-trial and wasn't among the very best. In 45th position at 27" at half-race, Kim lost another 20" until the conclusion, finishing 47th of the stage, 47 seconds behind Martinez.
26.03.2006 2: Les Vieilles Forges - Montherme (101 km)
Ivan Basso in command
Results:
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Ivan Basso
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7th at 1'02"
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11th at 2'22"
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21st at 1'11"
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53rd at 15'07"
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Kim Kirchen and Frank Schleck have ridden well on the traditionnal mountain stage on Sunday morning at Criterium International. Both have been up front and it was the Luxemburgish champion who launched the decisive break on the penultimate climb of the day, the mont Malgré-Tout. After an acceleration of Schleck, a lead group of 10 riders formed around him and his leader Basso. Then, after another acceleration of Ivan Basso, only 4 riders remained in the lead: Basso, Dekker, Botcharov and Dominguez, whereas Kim Kirchen was chasing only a few seconds behind. But the T-Mobile rider couldn't make the junction and he and Schleck found themselves in a second group of 20 riders. The gap to the 4 leaders was already close to a minute and Basso, Dekker, Botcharov and Dominguez remained out of reach. At the finish, the Italian star of CSC proved fastest and scored double with the stage win and the overall lead, whereas the two Luxemburgish riders finished in the first chasing group a little bit more than a minute down with Frank Schleck taking 7th place, yet another top-ten position in his palmares.
25.03.2006 1: Sedan - Charleville-Méziaires (192 km)
Erik Dekker wins, Kirchen and Schleck attack
Results:
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Erik Dekker
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13th at 1'14"
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13th at 1'24"
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127th at 13'50"
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128th at 14'00"
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The first stage of the Criterium International is categorized as "flat" stage, but one had to look very close to the course today to find the few flat meters on it. The stage went up and down all the time and like the course, and the weather also, the race went a little bit crazy with attacks everywhere and small groups chasing each other. Frank Schleck was part of the decisive move of about 30 riders that went away with 50 km to go, among them 5 CSC riders and 2 team-mates of Kim Kirchen from T-Mobile. Under the impression of Rabobank, the lead group was torn apart in the last kilometers, with Frank Schleck being in the second group. The Luxemburgish champ tried to come back together with Moerenhout, Gerdemann and Lopez-Garcia, but there wasn't anything to do against the leading group of 10 riders, driven by the very strong Dekker, Basso, Grivko or Astarloa. The three podium spots of the stage where claimed by the three riders mentioned first in this list, with the Spanish rider being victim of a crash in the last kilometers. Frank Schleck finished 13th a little bit more than a minute down. Kim Kirchen had already been offensive in the first part of the stage where he had been part of a group of 17 riders that broke away after km 34 and had around 30 seconds of advance on top of the côte de Stonne. Then Jens Voigt accelerated at the front and took the lead together with Zaballa, Calzati and Le Mevel. After 10 km of chase, Kim Kirchen also joined this group, together with Efimkin, Lopez and Olmo. But the bunch did not want riders like Voigt or Kirchen to get away and the gap, which never exceeded a minute, decreased more and more. After km 70 finally, Kirchen, Voigt, Zaballa and Olmo stopped their adventure in the lead, whereas Le Mevel, Lopez and Calzati continued for another 30 kilometers. Kim finished the stage in the biggest group of about 50 riders, more than 13 minutes behind the worthy winner Erik Dekker.
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Sunday, March 19, 2006: 29th Cholet - Pays de Loire
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19.03.2006 Cholet - Cholet (204 km)
Bad luck for Andy Schleck
Results:
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Chris Sutton
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DNF
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Andy's week-end wasn't quite as good as
the one of his brother Frank. Whereas Schleck the elder rode brillantly at Milano-San Remo, Schleck the younger knew really bad luck at Cholet - Pays de Loire. He crashed at the very beginning of the race and broke his collarbone. This means several weeks of recovery for Andy who was in good shape at the beginning of the season. As for the race victory, it was claimed by Australian rider Chris Sutton who won the sprint of an 80 men strong lead group, after the escapes of Leblacher and Bergès as well as of Vogondy, Roy and Berthou had failed.
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Saturday, March 18, 2006: 97th Milan-San Remo
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18.03.2006 Milano - San Remo (294 km)
Frank Schleck nearly created a surprise
Results:
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Filippo Pozzato
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20th at 0"
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Frank Schleck wasn't far away from being the
first Luxemburgish rider ever to win Milano San Remo. With one km to go until the summit of the Poggio, the CSC rider was alone in the lead and with one km to go until the finish, he was still in the wheel of eventual winner Filippo Pozzato. After having already been at the top in the Cipressa where he followed attacks of Bettini or Garzelli, Schleck managed to get away from the peloton together with Moerenhout, Trenti and Reynes around 15 km from the finish.
The 4 riders worked well together and had nearly 30 seconds of advance at the foot of the Poggio. Schleck was clearly the strongest of the group and saw that Moerenhout had troubles holding onto his wheel.
He didn't hesitate long, attacked and took the lead of the race alone on this mighty climb, with a victory within reach. But less than 1 km from the summit, Allessandro Ballan came from behind, bringing with him Pozzato, Astarloa, Nocentino and Sanchez. Despite a critical moment for Schleck who failed to crash on the descent, this group stayed together in the lead until 1 km from the finish line. The peloton led by Zabel came closer and closer behind them, but Pozzato made a last attempt and managed to keep a small advantage until the finish line. Frank Schleck, who had given everything in the Poggio, had no strength left to follow the Italian and was swallowed up. Alessandro Petacchi won the sprint for second place in this group of around 30 riders, whereas Frank had to settle down with 20th place.
12.03.2006 7. Nice - Nice (135 km)
Landis relaxed to the overall win
Results:
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Markus Zberg
Floyd Landis
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18th at 18"
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5th at 1'22"
4th at 16p
31th at 47p
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Whereas the final victory of Floyd Landis newer was put
into doubt on this difficult last stage with 3 climbs of category 1, the col de la Porte, the col de la Turbie and the traditionnal col d'Eze at the end, the battle for the third podium spot was the most exciting point of the day. At first, Frank Schleck participated in an intermediate sprint after 15 km at Levens, thus gaining 1 bonus second, passing Toni Colom in the overall classification and getting a little bit closer to the third place overall held by Sanchez this morning. But Colom didn't see it that way and attacked in the last kilometers of the col d'Eze. He took 15 seconds of advance on the rest of the field and then made a faboulous descent, joining the last riders left of the early break at the front without losing any time on what remained of the peloton. 18 seconds of advance at the finish line on Schleck and Sanchez were enough for the Spaniard to take the third place overall, which meant that Schleck returned back to fifth where he had been this morning. The Luxemburgish champion hasn't really attacked today, probably discouraged by the way Phonak locked the race behind the early break, allowing Landis to ride relaxed to the overall win, and by the lack of support from his team CSC, who hadn't made of Paris-Nice one of its major goals this year. Nevertheles, the analyses of this first Pro-Tour race for 2006 should be extremely positive for Frank who finishes 5th overall as well as 4th in the points classification, which shows his extraordinary regularity with several top-ten placings. As for the stage victory, it went to Swiss rider Markus Zberg, who suffered a lot on the last uphill where he was dropped several times by the Spanish climbers Contador and Rodiguez, but did it the smart way by joining the lead again together with Colom and Petrov who had attacked the peloton. In the sprint, Zberg had no problems to hold off Petrov and his other break companions.
11.03.2006 6. Digne-les-Bains - Cannes (179 km)
A Kazakh in Cannes
Results:
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Andrei Kashechkin
Floyd Landis
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10th at 1'33"
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5th at 1'23"
6th at 45p
26th at 38p
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On a very hilly course that was an invitation
for attacking and for the first time this year under brilliant sky, the race was animated today, and team CSC were among the most offensive. They had with Jens Voigt and Bobby Julich two of their best riders in a 19-men break that took possession of the lead around mid-stage. In addition to these two, there were in this very prestigious group also riders like the never tiring Moncoutié and Mourey, Verbrugghe, Montfort, Osa, Garcia-Acosta, Popovych, Chavanel, Casar or Kashechkin. Despite of a long solo ride of Evegeni Petrov in front, it was the runner-up of the prologue that played best his cards. Kashechkin attacked on the Col de Tanneron, chased down and immediately dropped Petrov and was untouchable on the last kilometers to Cannes, where he could celebrate a nice solo victory, two years after his landmate Vinokourov. Behind the Liberty-Seguros leader, a bunch of French riders took the next places: Chavanel, Voeckler, Casar, Moncoutié. As for the favourites for the overall victory, it was somewhat calm today before the difficult stage of tomorrow. Behind the break, Phonak controlled the race and the course wasn't difficult enough to show Schleck, Vila, Colom or Sanchez a real attacking opportunity. Nevertheless, the Luxemburgish champ showed himself very often at the front of the bunch and he even sprinted for 8th place at the finish, so that he has now another top-ten placing (10th) in a stage on his list and he also moves up to 6th place in the points classification.
10.03.2006 5. Avignon - Digne-les-Bains (202 km)
Solo-win for Joaquin Rodriguez
Results:
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Joaquin Rodriguez
Floyd Landis
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8th at 33"
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5th at 1'23"
9th at 56p
19th at 38p
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Instead of rolling alongside the côte d'Azur towards Nice,
the stage race offered itself this year a trip to the Alpes de Provence. The 200 km with two climbs of the first category suited well the capacities of Frank Schleck and the Luxemburgish rider rode very attentively at the front of the pack, searching for an opportunity to gain some time on his main rivals. He attacked several times, notably at the beginning of the last climb, but he didn't succeed an escape. 9 riders had attacked in several waves after 50 km of race and they soon found themselves in the lead with over 4 minutes of advantage. There were five French riders (Mourey, Moncoutié, Portal, Clément and Pineau), two Spaniards (Contador, Rodriguez), one Dutch rider (Posthuma) and one Belgian (Aerts). On the main difficulty of the day, Joaquin Rodriguez broke away from the leading group and crossed the summit with 30 seconds of advance on Moncoutié and Contador. There were still 15 km to ride on the road to Dignes-les-Bains, but the little rider form Illes Balears managed to hold off the chasers to take a nice solo win in front of Posthuma, who did an excellent downhill. In the Corobin, the peloton decreased rapidly to only 30 units and in this group, Frank Schleck participated at the finish in the sprint for 3rd place. But he was locked in by some other riders and thus couldn't gain any bonus seconds. This on paper very exciting looking stage didn't bring any major changes in the overall classification.
09.03.2006 4. Saint-Etienne - Rasteau (193 km)
Boonen is back
Results:
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Tom Boonen
Floyd Landis
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32nd at 0"
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5th at 1'23"
20th at 69p
15th at 35p
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With a relatively flat stage, the riders
have now headed south for good to Rasteau near Vaison-la-Romaine in the French provence, from where they can see the Mont Ventoux ... without having to climb it. And Tom Boonen has profited from the occasion to execute a familiar gesture again: raise the hands to the sky. Despite a little problem with his bike at 300 m from the finish that nearly crashed him to the ground, Tornado-Tom managed to rise again in the pedals, to come around everybody and to take his third stage victory in front of Davis and Napolitano. Of course, the Quick-Step team had perfectly prepared his sprint in the last 10 km, but the Lampre of Napolitano also have worked very much today by chasing down a leading duo. Bas Gilling and Eric Leblacher had escaped after 80 km and stayed for over 100 km at the front with a maximum advance of 5 minutes and a half. Frank Schleck, on his side, has done the intermediate sprints today, trying to get some extra seconds and move up one or two positions overall. But unfortunately for him, there was only one second left to take behind the two leaders and other riders had the same idea than him, for example Stefan Schumacher, the leader in the best young rider competition. The CSC-rider, who finished the stage in the first part of the peloton, didn't earn anything for his efforts and has to accept a status-quo among the 5 best of the general classification.
08.03.2006 3. Julienas - Saint-Etienne (168 km)
Frank laughs, Kim cries
Results:
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Patxi Vila
Floyd Landis
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4th at 1'16"
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5th at 1'23"
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DNF
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On the way to St-Etienne, the riders have
faced for the first time in this Paris-Nice a climb of the first category, the col de la Croix-de-Chaubouret (10 km at an average slope of 6,5%), and our two Luxemburgish riders have written very different tales today. Early in the stage, Kim Kirchen has abandoned, once more handicaped by recurrent back problems that he isn't able to solve. Yesterday, he had already finished the stage in pain and today, it ached so much that Kim had to put feet on the ground after about 50 kilometers. Frank Schleck on the other hand was at the front when the battle began on the last climb: after attacks from Martinez and Moncoutié, five riders found themselves in the lead, among them the Luxemburger as well as Floyd Landis, recently winner of the Tour of California and the Spaniard from Lampre, Patxi Vila Erandonea. These two riders even accelerated more and crossed the summit of the Col as a duo, thirty seconds before Schleck, Colom and Sanchez. A little bit further more behind, there was another group with riders like Cauchioli, Azevedo, Horner, Rubiera or Zubeldia, whereas race leader Tom Boonen was noted more than 4 minutes late. Despite all efforts of Schleck, the descent didn't change anything at this situation and on the last straight, the two leading riders have cut the cake in two: stage victory for Vila and leader jersey for Floyd Landis. Frank has taken the 4th place and is now 5th at 1'23" in the overall classification where he keeps all his chances for a podium spot in Nice, but where the American from Phonak has taken a very very big option on the final win. To be noted also lots of Spanish flags in the Top Ten and a bad day for numerous favorites like Julich, Popovich or Moreau.
07.03.2006 2. Cerilly - Belleville (200 km)
Boonen despite a long break from Crosbie
Results:
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Tom Boonen
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25th at 0"
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14th at 26"
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115th at 0"
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80th at 42"
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The stage to Belleville near Lyon has
already done some damage: up and down all the time with 6 climbs, among them one of the second category and an elevation to more than 750m above the sea level. After a very calm beginning, the peloton was very animated in the final kilometers with several attacks from riders like Marichal, Parra, Van Summeren, Osa, Dumoulin or Grivko. Around fifty riders suffered from the hight rythm and were dropped, among them Contador, Sastre, Verbrugghe, McGee or Wiggins. But the world champion Tom Boonen wasn't dropped and so Quick-Step locked the race towards the end to ensure a sprint finish which the Belgian star won without problems, once more in front of Davis. But the hero of the day is another one: Nicolas Crosbie attacked at km 1 and rode for 190 km alone in the lead with a maximum advantage of more than 25 minutes. The rider from Agritubel has passed all the climbs in first place and taken over the jersey of the best climber. Unfortunately for him, he was exhausted, caught by the chasing peloton with 10 km to go and immediately dropped. The team Agritubel pleases with its offensive racing style because they had already yesterday Christophe Laurent in a long break. Frank Schleck and Kim Kirchen have accomplished the trip through the wineyards of the Beaujaulais without damage and finished both in the main peloton, the CSC-rider at the front and the T-Mobile-rider at the bottom of the group.
06.03.2006 1. Villemandeur - Saint-Amand-Montrond (193 km)
Boonen as expected
Results:
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Tom Boonen
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49th at 0"
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17th at 16"
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76th at 0"
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99th at 32"
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A stage for the sprinters with only one
climb of the 3rd category and a local circuit opens the route towards the south of France for the riders. The scenery was set from the beginning and like at the Giro di Lucca today, everything turned out according to plan. Whereas sprinter-rival Pettacchi won in Italy, Tom Boonen and his Quick-Step team didn't leave any doubt about their superiority at Paris-Nice. A French duo with Augé and Laurent took over 10 Minutes of advance, but after only 70 km of chase, the sprinter teams had brought down this gap to nothing. Despite a good sprint from Allan Davies, Tom Boonen didn't have any problems to win with two lengths of advance and take over the yellow-white leader jersey. Under rain and temperatures just above the freezing point, Kirchen and Schleck also finished in the main field.
05.03.2006 Issy-les-Moulineaux (prologue 4,8 km)
Team CSC very strong: Julich winner, Schleck 17th
Results:
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Bobby Julich
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17th at 9"
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17th at 9"
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101st at 23"
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101st at 23"
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Like in the last years, the "race into the sun" started with a prologue
in the garden of the organizing ASO at Issy-les-Moulineaux, a southern suburb of Paris. The course was quite selective with a little climb at the beginning and then a downhill part with lots of turns to the finish where risk-taking could be a deciding factor with some rain-drops coming down from time to time. At this little game, Kazakh rider Andrey Kaschechkin turned out to be very strong, finishing in 6'08" at an average speed of exactly 47 km/h. That was the best time for a long while, a very long while ... eventually until the last rider, defending champion Bobby Julich. In his superb, very easy-looking style, the American did less than a second better than Kaschechkin and took the leader's jersey: a familiar picture at Paris-Nice. On the Luxembourgish side, Frank Schleck did very well, finishing on a provisional 7th place, just 8 seconds behind the leading Kashechkin. With this performance and a time of 6'16", the CSC rider finally finished 17th in the definitive rankings. Kim Kirchen, who was a little bit handicaped by some rain-drops and didn't take any risks in the turns, finished in 6'31" in 101st position only, at an average speed of 44 km/h.
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Monday, March 6, 2006: 8th Giro della Provincia di Lucca
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06.03.2006 Fornaci di Barga - Capannori (194 km)
Pettacchi as expected
Results:
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Allessandro Pettacchi
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65th at 24"
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An entirely flat local circuit, to be ridden three times, and
three small climbs to get there were on the menu for the riders of the 8th Giro di Provincia di Lucca, a perfect meal for sprinters. And the stars Pettacchi and Zabel were among the main attractions in the field, together with riders like Basso, Di Lucca or Bettini. But like Andy Schleck, the latter didn't really have big ambitions on this type of course. As expected, Milram locked the race together with Liquigas and the attacking riders haven't got much freedom. The most convincing escape was realized by Krol, Marinangeli and Nikandrov who took more than 5 minutes of advantage, but the were also reeled in with 20 km to go. Milram then conducted the sprint perfectly with Marco Velo at the 500m and took the places one and three at the finish with Pettacchi and Zabel, Claudio Corioni finishing in between them. Andy Schleck has crossed the finish line in third part of the peloton that has been split into several groups in the very last kilometers.
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Saturday, March 4, 2006: 91st Milano - Torino
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04.03.2006 Novate Milanese - Torino (199 km)
Astarloa shines in bright colour
Results:
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Igor Astarloa
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59th at 1'11"
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Since he races in red, the colour of his new team Barloworld,
Igor Astarloa has found back some of his former strengh, that had allowed him to wear the rainbow-colours in the season 2003/2004. The Spaniard had already showed good form in the recent Gran Premios in Chiasso and Lugano and has now been able to celebrate a victory in the traditionnal Milano-Torino by beating in a four-man-sprint Franco Pellizotti, Mirko Celestino and Alessandro Ballan. It was on the climb of the Superga, only tough difficulty of the day, where the race has been decided. The accelerations of Bertagnolli, Tonti and Garzelli had reduced the main group to only 30 riders and at the same time destroyed all the hopes of the break that dominated the race until then (Belohvosciks, Mazzanti, Petito and Duma). Due to a small crash at this very bad moment of the race, Andy Schleck wasn't able to follow the very best on the Superga, but was only a few seconds behind them in the next group. On a false flat, just after the top, Igor Astarloa then made his move and he took Pellizotti with him. But their margin on the 20 chasers remained very thin, so thin that at the entrance of Torino, they were joined in the lead by Celestino and Ballan. But the latter couldn't prevent Astarloa and Pellizotti from taking the two highest steps of the podium. The sprint of the chasing group has been won by Erik Zabel, whereas Andy Schleck finished in the main group of about 50 riders, a little bit more than a minute down.
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