The Cycliste Moderne - June 27, 2005

Geoff is in Anaheim, CA this weekend with a laptop but without free internet access. As luck would have it, Kristin, the single-mom-for-a-weekend, gets to guest blog again. Let’s see how Geoff did on his national championship predictions (see 6/24/05) – hint, he didn’t do so well.
- Kristin Wardle

National Championships

France: Despite winning the French Time Trial last week, Sylvain Chavanel was a non-player in Sunday’s road race. Cofidis lost out to Bouygues Telecom again this year, with Pierrick Fedrigo taking the win from his teammate Laurent Brochard, who bonked in the last 10k. Chavanel finished 10th overall at 7 minutes back. So much for good form. We’ll see if Fedrigo can repeat the miracle of last year’s French Champion, Thomas Voeckler, and spend some time in yellow at this year’s Tour. Actually, I can’t find where Bouygues Telecom has announced their Tour team, so maybe he’s not even going. Wouldn’t that be interesting?

Italy: Geoff had the right team (Liquigas-Bianchi), but the wrong rider. 23-year-old Enrico Gasparotto won his first national championship and added it to his win at the Tour de Catalunya in May to make a career total of two pro wins. With 200 meters to go, the sprinter pulled away from the other 40 sprinters and pulled off the upset. Pretty good year, wouldn’t you say? Geoff's pick Dario Cioni didn't even figure into the results posted on cyclingnews.

Germany: Erik Zabel is having a bad year. First no Tour, now no national championship. The only one having a worse year is his team. After a 12-year streak in the German championships, T-Mobile lost out to an 18-year-old named Gerald Ciolek with team Akud-Arnolds Sicherheit. Yes, I said EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD. Not only did Ciolek outsprint Robert Forster of Gerolsteiner and Zabel of T-Mobile, he did it by three bike lengths. Earlier this year, he was still competing in Juniors. You know, Zabel is almost old enough to be his dad. Ouch. T-Mobile did manage to get wins in Russia (Ivanov) and Kazakhstan (Vinokourov), so their weekend wasn’t a total loss.

Spain: Geoff’s favorite, Alejandro Valverde, did no better than 8th. His Illes Baleras teammate Francisco Mancebo did a bit better, but fell second to Juan Manuel Garate (Saunier Duval) who outsprinted the defending champion at the line.

Norway: Mrs. Hushovd is off the hook – sort of. Her son Thor (Credit Agricole) did not win the National Championship, so she will not need to iron his jersey during the Tour. However, he did pull out a victory in Wednesday’s Time Trial. Morten Christiansen (Team Sparebanken Vest) claimed the National Champions Jersey on Saturday with a disappointed Hushovd finishing fifth.

Netherlands: Rabobank missed out. They failed to keep enough riders in front to effectively lead-out Steven de Jongh for the win, which was taken by Leon van Bon of Davitamon-Lotto. De Jongh took second and Max van Heeswijk of Discovery Channel took third. Geoff’s pick Thomas Dekker finished 67th. Not even close.

Belgium: The buzz was that this race would be wide open; without Tom Boonen or Axl Merckx, it was just that. 35-year-old Serge Baguet of Davitamon-Lotto won the Belgian National Championship in a photo-finish over his training partner Kevin Van Impe (Chocolade Jacques). Stijn Devolder of Discovery Channel was fourth. Note: Baguet is also old enough to be the German champion’s dad.

Estonia: I can’t find any report of the Estonian championship on-line, so we’ll just assume that Jaan Kirsipuu won. I know that I can’t name any other Baltic cyclist. Since Geoff picked every other winner wrong, we’ll give him this one. However, most of the aforementioned winners were out of the blue, so I guess there’s a chance that Geoff is wrong on this one, too.

The Rest of Them

In case you care, here are the rest of the National Champions crowned this weekend:

Austria: Gerrit Glomser (Lampre-Caffita)

Czech Republic & Slovakia: Jan Svorada (eD'system) & Martin Prazdnovsky (ZP Podbrezova)

Denmark: Lars Ytting Bak (Team CSC)

Great Britain: Russell Downing (Recycling.co.uk)

Hungary: László Garamszegi (P-NIVO Betonexpressz SE)

Iceland: Fjerd Magliusen

Ireland: David O’Loughlin (Navigators Insurance) – defending champion

Kazakhstan: Alexandre Vinokourov (T-Mobile)

Luxembourg: Frank Schleck (CSC
Note: Benoît Joachim (Discovery Channel) placed fourth

Poland: Adam Wadecki (Intel - Action)

Portugal: Joaquim Andrade (Riberalves)

Russia: Sergey Ivanov (T-Mobile)

Switzerland: Martin Elmiger (Phonak Hearing Systems)

Ukraine: Mikhailo Khalilov (LPR)


Other items of interest to Kristin

Item #1: Last week in Park City, Utah, Kristin Armstrong (T-Mobile) added the Elite Women’s Time Trial to her palmares. In 2004, she was the National Road Race Champion and placed 8th in the Olympic Women's Road Race. Kristin is a native of Idaho and calls Boise home. At the Tour of Eagle (Idaho) earlier this month, Kristin surprised the field by entering the criterium and competing in the weekend’s events with the pro men. Kristin was very gracious, granted an interview to the race announcer, signed an autograph for my daughter, and posed for a picture with my son. Her website at www.karmstrong.com features her story. Very, very nice and gracious lady. Based on interviews that I’ve read, she appears to be the anti-Simoni.

Item #2: The AP is reporting that The Lance crashed his time trial bike last week while training in Nice, France, cracked his helmet in two, and is now sporting a black eye, scraped knees and elbows, and a cut over his right eyebrow. That sounds a lot like my five year old (except for the helmet part). He said he is feeling better than ever and that he is excited to have his kids at the Tour this year. Hopefully he can figure out how to handle his time trial bike within the next week.

Item #3: In other news, apparently Jan Ullrich has a new girlfriend. In my opinion, this is just what he doesn't need before the biggest race of the year. Apparently she’s the sister of his teammate Tobias Steinhauser and although they’ve known each other for a long time, things didn’t connect until after he split with his ex-girlfriend, Gaby Weis. Hmmmm.

One more week to Le Tour . . .