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27 June 2006

28 June News ...

Savoldelli Builds Squadra

Paolo Savoldelli (Discovery Channel) has added to his squadra, Monday morning at 2.00 his wife, Simonetta, gave birth to their second child. The birth comes on the heels of two other Giro d'Italia champions celebrating new members: Ivan Basso one month ago and Gilberto Simoni three days past.

Giulia (3.8Kg) joins her older sister, Marika, born 5 February 2003, to help build a strong squadra Savoldelli. However the winner of the 2002 and 2005 Giro will have to leave to join the Disco squadra tomorrow in Strasbourg for the three-week Tour de France, leaving little time to spend with the Savoldelli women.

Il Falco Bergamasco is aiming for another Tour stage victory to add to his 2005 stage win. After a Giro of suffering, causes linked to respiration, Savoldelli in the last week has built a solid base of training on the roads near his home and will strengthen Disco's team.

Simoni with Saunier in 2007

Gilberto Simoni (34) has signed a contract to race for another year with the squadra gialla, Saunier Duval-Prodir. Yesterday in Bergamo, il Trentino confirmed with the team his positive year, after leaving Lampre in 2005, by agreeing to ride through 2007 in their yellow colors.

"This gives me even more confidence for the Tour de France. I want to go and do something good for the squadra," said Simoni, winner of the 2001 and 2003 Giro d'Italia.

Today Gibo, who is still celebrating the birth of his second child, Enrico, will complete his last day of training in Italy. He will board a flight from Verona for Strasbourg and the Tour de France, where he hopes to use the form that brought him third in the 2006 Giro to win stages and help teammate David Millar.

Auguri Simoni!

Rabo Leaves Dekker at Home

Yesterday, Dutch squadra Rabobank, made a slight adjustment to their Tour de France line-up by deciding to leave Thomas Dekker at home. To fill the gap of the 21 year-old Dutchman will be Bram De Groot.

Besides De Groot, the team will consist of the new Dutch national champion, Michael Boogerd, Erik Dekker, Joost Posthuma, Pieter Weening, Juan Antonio Flecha, Oscar Freire, Denis Menchov and Michael Rasmussen.

Team Manager, Erik Breukink, on Dekker and the Tour squadra: "There were too many doubts on the form of Thomas Dekker to bring him to the Tour de France. Thomas agreed and so we replaced him with De Groot. We gave it a lot of thought and it will be hard on Thomas to miss what would have been his first Tour. We have selected the best possible team."

The team will ride for classification with 2005 Vuelta a España champion, Denis Menchov, and the rest of the orange crew will fight for stages. The form of De Groot, after eighth in the national championships, should prove very helpful for supporting the chances of Boogerd, Freire and Flecha as they go for stage wins. Finally, there is Rasmussen for the mountains and the mountain's classification.

Milram Fields Squadra of Experience and Youth for Grand Boucle

The Grand Départ for the Tour de France is 1 July in Strasbourg and Milram will bring to the start a team with years of experience but also riders with youthful faces.

The German/Italian squadra will be lead by experienced Erik Zabel, who will vie for his seventh (Yes seventh!) Maillot Vert. Backing up the German sprinter will be Christian Knees (Milram), Björn Schröder (Milram) and Ralf Grabsch (all Germans), Andriy Grivko (Ukrainian), Maxim Iglinsky (Kazakh), Fabio Sacchi, Marco Velo and Mirko Celestino (tutto Italiano).

"The squadra is a good mix of experience and youth," confirmed Team Manager Gianluigi Stanga. "The squadra will be well balanced. We will try to take stages and race for the green jersey. You should be on the look out for good results from Iglinsky, Grivko or Celestino."

Hijo Rudicio (Son of Rudy): Ullrich

According to Madrid daily El Pais, several code names in Spain's doping investigation allegedly correspond to that of 1997 Tour de France champion, Jan Ullrich. El Pais reports that the Spanish police are investigating the link of the German rider with the names that have appeared on documents obtained in Operación Puerto: "Hijo Rudicio" (Son of Rudy) and "Jan".

The connection, on the eve of the 2006 Tour de France, links Jan Ullrich, and his long time mentor, Rudy Pevenage, to the ongoing Operación Puerto. Of course T-Mobile and Ullrich flatly deny any involvement of their team leader with the Spanish case.

"I have nothing to do with this," stated Jan Ullrich, who was brought into the Spanish affair during the Giro d'Italia. "There's nothing behind these allegations," Pevenage added.

El Pais reported that police seized a calling card belonging to José Luis Merino, one the key officials at the Madrid lab who was at the heart of the blood transfusions. On the back of the card were several handwritten notes with names and a series of numbers, which allegedly correspond to blood bags.

T-Mobile is taking allegations very seriously. "We are in contact with all parties involved, from Ullrich and Pevenage through to the Spanish investigators and the Tour organizers ASO," says Christian Frommert, Director of Sports Communications T-Mobile International. "We are investigating how these allegations have arisen. By now we have only seen newspaper articles. The full facts of the case and evidence supporting it are still unclear."

93rd Tour de France - presented by , 1 - 23 July
Main, Startlist, Classifications, Tour Favorites, Team CSC versus T-Mobile
Stages and Maps, Key Stages, Overall Map
Photos, The Dust Devil's Daily Wrap
Simoni and Saunier Duval-Prodir Updates
2005 Results

26 June News ...