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News :: May 2005

1 May 2005

2 May News ...

Eki Down in Training

Viatcheslav Ekimov, who has been Lance Armstrong's super-domestique in the Tour de France for many years, has crashed while training in Austin, Texas. The Discovery Channel duo, Lance Armstrong and Viatcheslav Ekimov, were out training when Eki hit a hole in the road. The Russian is a master on the bike, but was unable to control his machine and went down.

Eki hit his chest on the stem and then crashed hard on his back. He was later diagnosed with a broken sternum and a broken vertebrae. Armstrong on his tough-as-nails companion, "Eki's a really tough guy and he thought he was OK, just banged up. But later on, the pain wouldn't stop so we went to a hospital and got him checked out."

It seems that due to the long recovery time required that Eki will not be participating in the 2005 Tour de France. Let's not bet on that. Eki is one tough rider, and if anyone can comeback in two months, it is Eki. BiciRace.com wishes Eki a quick recovery.

Contador Win, Cunego Yellow

Cunego gets Kisses, photo: Tour de Romandie

In yesterday's stage 4 of the Tour de Romandie, Liberty Seguros-Würth rider Alberto Contador, won on top of Les Paccots after 148K of racing. It was the last mountain stage of the race, and today the riders get dolled up in their skin-suits for a test against the clock

Contador regarding yesterday's win, "It is special because it means that my success this season is not a one day thing, but I have a very solid year, in spite of the bad luck that I had in races like Paris-Nice."

Today's TT stage 5 will be an exciting stage Santiago Botero (Phonak) is just 3 seconds behind GC leader, Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Caffita). The yellow leader's jersey might give Cunego the wings he needs to win, but his big objective is in one week, the Giro d'Italia. "I don't know if I can win because Botero is a time trial specialist but I'm going to give it everything and I hope to pull it off," said Cunego after stage 4.

Spanish Boys in Italy

Do not discount the Spanish teams in this year's Giro d'Italia. One team in any stage race who is always a threat is Team Manolo Saiz. In the past it was ONCE, and now it is Liberty Seguros-Würth. They will be packing punches with a strong line up, including Italian Michele Scarponi and comeback-champion Joseba Beloki.
Liberty Seguros-Würth: Rene Andrle, Darius Baranowski, Joseba Beloki, Giampaolo Caruso, Koldo Gil, Jan Hruska, Javier Ramírez, Nuno Ribeiro , Michele Scarponi

You have to love the boys in Orange, the Giro d'Italia will be a little bit outside of their usual stomping grounds, but Euskaltel-Euskadi is always strong. They have TT threat Aitor Gonzalez, overall threat Samuel Sánchez, and mountain man Roberto Laiseka. Look for these boys to flash color in stage wins.
Euskaltel-Euskadi: Samuel Sánchez, Haimar Zubeldia, Alberto López de Munain, Gorka Verdugo, Joseba Zubeldia, David López, Unai Etxebarria, Aitor Gonzalez, Roberto Laiseka

Read BiciRace.com's pink pages for toe-to-knee coverage of the 88th Giro d'Italia.

Giro di Toscana ... Bennati

Daniele Bennati (Lampre-Caffita) won the 78th Giro di Toscana today in Arezzo. A big win for Bennati, a Tuscan, after 196K of racing. Bennati dealt with such strong-men as Mikhailov Khalilov (Lpr), Marco Velo (Fassa Bortolo) and the Russian Dimitri Konychev (Lpr).

30 April News ...