Cycling News Roundup - 21 June 2008
Team Comments  - Tour de Suisse, Ster Electro Toer - Teutenberg wins Raboster Zeeuwsche Photos

Caisse d’Epargne
Great Results for Jose Rujano on the Col du Klausen
The Venezuelan rider of the team Caisse d’Epargne, José Rujano, was very close to win the last but one stage of the Tour of Switzerland, a difficult individual time trial (25 kilometers), raced today between the locality of Altdorf and the top of the hill of Klausen. Rujano kept leading the provisory classification for about one hour. The Young Czech rider Roman Kreuziger (LIQ), who is the new leader of the general classification, preceded the Venezuelan by 16”.

A happy José Rujano after a redemptive ride today.
Photo Abarca sports

“I felt very well and most of all very motivated by the course of this time trial”, said  José Rujano after he finished the race. “This morning I went to see the course in car, together with my team manager José Luis Jaimerena and I understood that it could suit me very well. At the end the gap with the winner was not so big but in fact I lacked forces in the last 4 kilometres. I would have be very happy to win most of all to thank my team Caisse d’Epargne for trusting me the way they do, but after I was very tired at the end of the Giro d’Italia I am feeling better every day and I am satisfied with my Tour de Suisse. Now I will prepare myself for the Olympic Games of Beijing and later for the Vuelta a España, which is my main goal of the season.”

Caisse d'Epargne's Daniel Moreno on the climb today.
Photo © 2008 Fotoreporter Sirotti

Lampre
Damiano Cunego Form Improves
Time trial of 25 kms  - Altdorf to Col du Clausen (25 kms) in Tour de Suisse. Good performance by Cunego, who obtained the 4th place at 54" from the winner Kreuziger, 38" from Rujano (2nd) and 37" from Kloden (3rd), and with an advantage of 32" on Frank Schleck (5th) and 1'14" on Andy Schleck (9th).
In the overall standing Cunego is now 4th, at 2'11" Kreuziger.

"We're very happy for Cunego's performance,"  Lampre's D.S. Piovani  commented, "Damiano showed that his pace on climbs is good and it will be better in the next weeks; as Cunego's condition will improve.. Cunego pedaled a normal bike, with light wheels, and he could keep a steady pace that allowed him to realize a good time".

Strong Time Trial by Team CSC Saxo Bank
Team CSC Saxo Bank did great in the eighth stage of Tour de Suisse,  Fränk Schleck, Jens Voigt and Andy Schleck all made the top-10 with fifth, sixth and ninth places respectively and they once again demonstrated that the form is as it should be exactly two weeks ahead of Tour de France.

Andy Schleck on the Col du Klausen.

"Today was great. Fränk is very strong at the moment. In spite of being in pain more or less all over he showed great class today and took a fifth place in a tough stage, and Jens also underlined the fact that the mountain time trial he did in the Giro was no fluke. Andy also did really well – we'd hoped he would make the podium, but still he did good out there," said Team CSC Saxo Bank sports director Kim Andersen.

Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) won both the time trial and the Leader's Jersey, while Andy Schleck is sixth overall.

Ster Electro Tour
Team High Road "Columbia"
Cavendish Blasts to Final Stage Win
Mark Cavendish scored a strong bunch sprint win in the Ster Elektrotoer race when he romped home in first place on the final stage. The Briton roared across the finish line a good two bike lengths clear at the end of the 150 kilometres stage in Germert, Holland.

“I went from a long way out, maybe 300 meters from the line.” Cavendish said afterwards. “But I had the strength and I just kept going and going. I could even put my hands in the air 15 or 20 meters ahead of the line because I could see I’d won. It was a hard and quite dangerous finishing circuit, with a lot of narrow roads and some chicanes. But the team did a really good job and kept me at the front and I was in the top ten when we got into the final kilometer.”

“Then I made my move, and it worked out perfectly. It shows that I am exactly where I should be at this point in the season.”

Cavendish’ next road-race is the British National Championships on Sunday 29th June, where he will be racing alongside High Road team-mate Roger Hammond.

“This is our second victory in the Ster Elektotoer after Tony [Martin] won the prologue, and it’s always good to see our young riders doing so well,” added High Road’s sports director on the race, Tristan Hoffman. Both Mark and Tony did the Giro and they’re reaping the benefits here. They’ve recovered well from an exceptionally tough edition of the Tour of Italy and have bounced back in time to be ready for the summer.”

“The team was a real factor in Mark’s victory, too. They helped pull back a long break during the stage and kept him in contention despite the technical finish. It was a great all-round effort and it paid off 100 percent.”  www.highroadsports.com

Ster Elektrotoer
Breschel Won Point's Competition
With a ninth place in the final stage of Ster Elektrotoer Matti Breschel secured himself the victory in the Point's Competition.

Matti Breschel in the final green jersey of the 2008 Electro Toer.

High Road's Mark Cavendish won the final stage; but with a stage win and two fourth places in the more hilly stages Breschel maintained his lead on points. The peloton was split during the finishing stretch so Breschel took a grand leap up the overall standings and finished fifth, while Michael Blaudzun finished in ninth place. Overall winner of the race was Enrico Gasparotto (Barloworld.)

"It's been a great race and we've done well down here. Today Kasper Klostergaard was in a long break before we reached a fairly dangerous stretch at the end. I tried to keep up without risking too much in both the roundabouts and a weird stretch at the end," said Matti Breschel after descending the podium.

"We've gotten a lot out of this race. I'm very satisfied with the rider's performances and for those, who are now going home to compete in the Danish Championships they're definitely well prepared, so we're hoping the best for them in Faaborg," said Team CSC Saxo Bank's sports director Dan Frost.

Members of the Team CSC Saxo Bank Official Fan Club can meet both Matti Breschel and Anders Lund on Friday in Faaborg for a small event at the rider's hotel. Read more about this on the fan club site.

Teutenberg Clinches final Stage and Overall Win in Raboster Zeeuwsche
Renesse, Holland, 21 June 2008 - High Road's Ina-Yoko Teutenberg won her second stage of RaboSter "Zeeuwsche Eilanden" today, again beating Holland's Kirsten Wild in bunch sprint.

Winning the first intermediate time bonus sprint was a definitive moment for Teutenberg and team High Road, putting them in a position to win the overall tour as long as Teutenberg could win the final sprint.

"We also had some other hands to play with both Kate [Bates] and Alex [Rhodes] placing well in the prologue,"said High Road's Director Sportif Petra Rosser, "so we wanted to use those."

As planned, both Bates and Rhodes made the cut in a late break of ten riders. With the gap opening up to over 45 second, Bates was the leader on the road with 20km to go.

The break forced AA Drink to chase, which they did with the help of Vrienden Van Het Platteland. Instead of bring the break all the way back, they left it hanging at 15 second, which put Wild back into the virtual lead on the road. "It was a tricky decision, "explained Rossner, "because Kate and Alex were doing a great job out in the break, but the timing was too close."

So the decision made, Bates and Rhodes stopped working and High Road put the team on the front to bring back the break and leading out Teutenberg for the sprint.

Wild started the sprint early, attacking around the last corner, but Teutenberg grabbed her wheel and was able to come around for the win. "It was a great move by Kirsten," said Teutenberg. "She is really strong and a good surprise attack like that could have worked. I had pretty good position though so I was able to jump right on her around the corner."

Teutenberg finished the short three day tour with the overall win plus the win in the Points Classification and the Sprint Classification.

"I felt really good today," added Teutenberg. "I was pretty nervous for the final sprint. The team had done such a good job. It would have been real great for Alex for Kate to take the win but in the end it was still a good win for the team."

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