Cycling Beat

The 2007 Tre Valli Varesine (Cat. 1.HC) is a 198km race around Varese and its environs. The course is made up of a flat section of 30km, then the riders will do 2 laps of a 19.4km loop. After that they head out on a 41.75km section that includes the only climb of any note and finally the will complete the course with 5 laps of a 17.5km circuit. This is the first of three races that make up the Trittico Lombardo with the Coppa Agostoni and the Coppa Bernocchi to take place on August 22 & 23 respectively.

Well, it was wet...damn wet in Varese today and the race came down to a two man sprint after Christian Murro (Tenax-Salmilano) and Alessandro Bertolini (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Selle Italia) had gotten themselves clear of their breakaway group of 19 with 12 kilometres to go. Christian Murro prevailed in horrible conditions in a race that was shortened by one of the final 17km circuits.

Overall Results (Top 10)

1 Christian Murro (Ita) Tenax Salmilano
2 Alessandro Bertolini (Ita) Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni- Selle Italia
3 Kanstantin Siutsou (Blr) Barloworld
4 Dario Andriotto (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo
5 Francisco Javier Vila Errandonea (Spa) Lampre - Fondital
6 Marlon Alirio Perez Arango (Col) Team Universal Caffe' - Ecopterol
7 Serguei Klimov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit System
8 Miguel Angel Rubiano Chavez (Col) Ceramica Panaria - Navigare
9 Andrea Noe (Ita) Liquigas
10 Riccardo Chiarini (Ita) Team L.P.R.

The Vattenfall Cyclassics is in its 12th year, previously known as the HEW Cyclassics, the race is along a 229km figure 8 course in and around Hamburg. The final 126km consists of 3 laps of a 42km loop that incorporates a 600m hill called Waseberg. Although not particularly long it reaches gradients of up to 19 per cent which will hurt the legs of any rider.

After only 12km a breakaway of 3 riders, Luke Roberts (Team CSC), Gerben Löwik (Rabobank) and Floris Goesinnen (Skil-Shimano), escaped and worked together to reach a lead of up to 14 minutes on the peloton. By the time they had covered 134km the lead had dropped back to 10 minutes, the Waseberg was climbed for the first time and the work in the peloton was being put in by the Milram team as well as T-Mobile and Gerolsteiner.

By the time the last of the three laps was started the lead was down to under 5 minutes and with around 10 kilometres to go it was all back together again.

The next attack involved 6 riders, one of them Tour of Germany winner Jens Voigt (ya gotta love him, don't ya?) He, along with Paolo Bettini (Quickstep-Innergetic), Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval-Prodir), Pablo Lastras (Caisse d'Epargne) and Jussi Veikkanen (Française Des Jeux) worked hard for a few minutes but were unable to make their escape.

Then it was down to Simon Gerrans (AG2R Prevoyance) and Vladimir Gusev (Discovery Channel) to try their luck and they rode together to for another few kilometres but they, too, were unable to skip clear.

With 2 kilometres to go they were reeled in by a flying Rabobank team who looked to be setting things up nicely for Oscar Freire to defend his title. That is, until Alessandra Ballan (Lampre - Fondital) made a neat move that gave him some separation with just over a kilometre to go. He looked far from confident, continually peering over his shoulder as he waited for the responses to come after him. When he finally realised that he may just have stolen it he put his head down and banged away furiously on the pedals.

Coming into the final 200m he was still checking for challengers and had focused his sights on the flying Gerald Ciolek (T-Mobile) who was coming fast on his right hand side. Ballan was almost oblivious to the presence of Oscar Freire who was closing fast on his left and as he raised to salute his victory was very nearly beaten on the line.

A crash by Lampre - Fondital rider Claudio Corioni occurred 2 kilometres from the finish when he misjudged some road furniture, clipping a barricade right in front of Thor Hushovd (Credit Agricole) taking him out of the picture in the process. Earlier, Tom Boonen (Quickstep - Innergetic) had also been involved in a crash that removed his chances and he finished 5 minutes behind the peloton.

There's no doubt about the form of Gerald Ciolek at the moment, given a little bit of luck and a stronger lead out, he could have continued his stellar run with a victory here. He was certainly going as well if not better than any of the other finishers.

The Vuelta a Burgos (Cat 2.HC) is held from August 14 - 18.

Taking a 2 second lead into the final stage, Tour de France King of the Mountains winner Juan Mauricio Soler would have had to have been nervous. Then, when the field was 2 kilometres from the end of the race, Alejandro Valverde made his attempt to take the lead away from the Colombian, but the Barloworld team was ready and reacted strongly to cover assuring Soler the win.

Winning the final stage was Vasil Kiryenka (Tinkoff Credit Systems) who pulled clear of Francisco Perez Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne) to finish 2 seconds ahead. Third place went to Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo).

Classification winners for the Tour were : Points - Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne); Mountains - Vasil Kiryenka (Blr) Tinkoff Credit Systems; Teams - Caisse D'Epargne.

For a full list of starters, please visit cyclingstartlists.com

Stage Results (Top 10)

GC Overall Standings (Top 10)

Points Classification

Sprint classification 

Mountains Classification

Teams

The Vuelta a Burgos (Cat 2.HC) is held from August 14 - 18.

The Individual Time Trial was on the agenda for the 4th stage of the Vuelta a Burgos and it was Alejandro Valverde (Caisse D'Epargne) who stepped up and took the stage. He rode the 15km course in a time of 16' 47" to win the day by 22". Such was the authority in which he won he very nearly ripped the overall lead from Juan Mauricio Soler (Barloword) only to miss out by 2". Second for the day was youngster Mikhail Ignatiev (Tinkoff Credit Systems) and in 3rd place, 34" behind Valverde was Andrei Kunitski (Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo)

For a full list of starters, please visit cyclingstartlists.com

Stage Results (Top 10)

GC Overall Standings (Top 10)

Points Classification

Sprint classification 

Mountains Classification

Teams

The 4th and final stage of the  2007 Tour de l'Ain provided more opportunites for the GC lead to change, but in the end John Gadret (AG2R Prevoyance) was never under threat of losing.

A slight controversy marked the end of the Tour de l'Ain with the tightest of stage finishes between Patrice Halgand (Crédit Agricole) and Johannes Fröhlinger (Gerolsteiner) had to be decided by the race jury. The situation was unusual because, after they had crossed the line Halgand gave every indication that he thought he'd lost it and Fröhlinger was equally as satisfied that he had won. The photo proved otherwise and the stage victory went to Halgand.

As mentioned earlier the winner of the 2007 Tour de l'Ain was John Gadret (AG2R Prevoyance) by 39 seconds over his team-mate Ludovic Turpin with a further 7 seconds back to Bauke Mollema (Rabobank - Continental).

Pierre Rolland took points in all three classified mountain passes but fell a single point short of John Gadret who picked up 10th place on the final climb of the Tour, the Category 1 Col de la Faucille.

The Points Classification remained static at the top with Beat Zberg maintaining his lead to take it out. Similarly, there was no movement at the top of the Young Rider Classification with Bauke Mollema (Rabobank - Continental) taking it out by around 2 and a half minutes.

The Team Classification was taken out by the AG2R Prevoyance team by over 5'30" from Quickstep - Innergetic.

Stage 4 Results (Top 10)

Final Overall GC (Top 10)

Points Classification

Mountains Classification

Young Rider

Teams