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26 September 2006

28 September News ...

Long Night for World Champion Bettini

The celebrations continued late into the night for Paolo Bettini after he won the 2006 World Championships. The 32 year-old Italian was at a disco-bar late Sunday night and into early Monday morning, being joined by his Squadra Azzurra teammates, Quick-Step managers (Parsani, Bramati and Lefevere) and former World Champion Tom Boonen.

After the festivities, Bettini went back to the team hotel where he re-watched the race that brought him the rainbow jersey. Finishing at 4.00, Il Grillo was awake again at 7.45. "Then I went and found the other team members, to get them out of bed," said Bettini, the early riser.

After breakfast and a farewell to his teammates, Bettini was on his way home. In Salzburg he waited for his flight to Firenze, looking over all the messages he received from the day before.

"The first message I got was from Manolo Saiz," said Bettini with a sense of wonder. "Then, I received two great messages from Michele Bartoli. But I think the best one was from O'Grady. He called and left a message that said, 'Before I judged you, now I bow down.'"

Bettini also hypothesized his 2007 goals, talking of the Giro d'Italia and Paris-Roubaix. "I don't know about the podium of the Giro. But this is something I will discuss. I am planning on racing the Paris-Roubaix."

The new World Champion boarded the airplane with his parents, wife, daughter and teammate Nocentini. Back in Belgium, the Quick-Step officials must have been happy with their decision of renewing Bettini's contract, which, with the provision of winning the Worlds, is now valued at 700,000-800,000 euro for two years. "I think with this victory I have repaid them," Bettini finished.

Read:
Bettini Completes Circle with World Championship, 25 September

Bettini's Palmarès and Fall Schedule

Paolo Bettini (Quick-Step) added another monumental win to his incredible list of palmarès. By winning last Sunday's World Championships, Bettini's list of major one-day wins is up to 10, including eight classics. The 32 year-old has a list of one-day wins that rivals any other active rider, closest being Erik Zabel, who also has eight Classics.

Bettini's big ones: 2000 Liège-Bastogne-Liège, 2001 Züri Metzgete, 2002 Liège-Bastogne-Liège, 2003 Milano-Sanremo, HEW-Cyclassics, Clásica San Sebastián, 2004 Olympic Champion, 2005 Züri Metzgete, Giro di Lombardia and 2006 World Championship.

"I would still like to win Amstel and Flanders. ... Also, Paris-Tours is not unattainable," said Il Grillo last fall after his Lombardia victory.

Bettini will line up in Zurich this weekend in his first race in the World Champions colors, but there are no plans to race the French sprinters' Classic, Paris-Tours (8 October). Il Livornese will instead race in Italy, with the Giro dell'Emilia on 7 October and the GP Beghelli the day after. The last race of the season will be the Giro di Lombardia (Saturday, 14th), where Bettini will return as reigning victor in the race's 100th edition.

Petacchi Dreams of Stuttgart Worlds

Alessandro Petacchi watched his compatriot win the World Championships two days ago, and is starting to dream up plans for 30 September 2007, when the Worlds will be raced in Stuttgart, Germany. The race, 267 kilometers, presents two significant climbs, with the final two kilometers rising 50 meters.

"Paolo was excellent on Sunday," commented the Italian sprinter. "Certainly I would have wanted to be in Salzburg but I will make up for it. Sunday, Erik Zabel also impressed me. He is worthy of a World Championship jersey after racing an exemplary career. Zabel is the one who explained that 2007 in Stuttgart I could aim for victory."

In 2008 the Worlds will return to Italy for the 11th time. The three kilometer Ronchi climb, average 4.5% gradient and a max of 12%, should make the Varese parcours less sprinter-friendly than Stuttgart. (See the Varese Worlds Profile.)

Read:
Varese Uses 1951 Circuit, 23 September 2005

A Major Relief for Cancellara

"It was a major relief. I've been working towards this for so long," said the new World Time Trial Champion, Swiss Fabian Cancellara. Last Thursday the CSC rider won gold for his country in Salzburg by time trialing the 50.8K course in a time of 1:00'11". "It's my specialty, so of course I've pushed myself to the limit in order to be the best in this particular discipline."

Cancellara (25), a double TT Champion as a junior rider and silver medalist in the U23 category, was a marked man. He faced some serious competition, like Britain's David Millar, who narrowly beat the Swiss a week earlier in the Vuelta a España's crono.

"I received reports from Kim Andersen in the sports director's car during the race. A couple of kilometers before the finish, he said I could raise my hands whenever I felt like it, because my lead was so big. But I just told him, that I didn't want to know, after my narrow defeat in Spain."

The gold in the crono Worlds pushed the Swiss rider on to something special in the road race. If you noticed, there was a rider in the finale, in a red jersey with a white cross, who was attacking and attacking.

"The race started out quite bad for me, I felt like I hadn't recovered well from the time trial, but tactically I did the right thing, and then my legs were great in the end," Cancellara continued via Team CSC. "I felt so good, I just had to do something, cause I knew I wasn't able to win a bunch sprint, so I went full gas and hoped the other riders wouldn't be able to follow me. In the Tour of Denmark I won a stage the same way, but unfortunately it didn't work out this time."

Fabian Cancellara will conclude his season, which includes victory in the cobbled Classic, Paris-Roubaix, in the Züri Metzgete this Sunday.

Read:
Cancellara: Two out of Three Isn't Bad, 22 September

Merckx, Vandborg and Haedo on the Move

Belgian Axel Merckx will jump from the sinking Phonak ship at the end of this year, continuing his career for one more year with T-Mobile. Earlier this year the Belgian had hinted at retirement but instead he will help form part of the completely restructured German T-Mobile squadra. Merckx started his career in 1994 with the early incarnation of T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom.

Also joining T-Mobile is Brian Vandborg. The Dane, fourth in the World TT Championship, will leave Team CSC at the end of 2006.

Taking the step to big time ProTour racing is Juan José Haedo. The Argentine made his mark in February of this year by taking two sprint stages of the Tour of California for his newly formed Toyota-United Pro squadra. JJ's wins caught the attention of Team CSC, who finished second overall in the race with David Zabriskie.

Züri Metzgete Preview

The 93rd Züri Metzgete (or The Championship of Zurich) is the last of three ProTour races on the calendar for 2006. This year the Swiss rendezvous continues its later slot on the calendar, following the World Championships by only one week. That means that the race will be an opportune time for Italian Paolo Bettini to show off his World Champion stripes. Read the entire Züri Metzgete Preview.

Züri Metzgete, 1 October, 240.9K, World Champ Race Debut
Main Page, Overall Map, Profile, Startlist
Report and Results, Photos
2005 Results

25 September News ...