Grand Trophée - La Marmotte: Ciavatti continues Italian dominance

ALPE D'HUEZ - What the Maratona or Oetztaler is for Italians, Austrians and Germans is the Marmotte for the Benelux and French cyclo enthusiasts. A 174km hardcore ride through the Alps with 5000 hm covering the Col du Glandon, Col de la Télégraphe, Col du Galibier and last but not least the ascent to Alpe d'Huez. A royal Tour de France stage!

The Dutch love this race in particular as nearly half of the 6000 to 7000 participants each year come from the low country. But since a few years it's the Italians who dominate the race up front. As in the Oetztaler, however, every rider crossing the finish line is a winner.

After some very nasty accidents the past three years, attendance dropped slightly with 6000 doing the standard Marmotte, and some 500 the shorter cyclotour from Valloire to the Alpe.

Emmanuele Negrini, winner in 2005 and 2006, was absent but his role was taken up by Andrea Ciavatti from Rimini. The professional soldier dropped his compatriot Giovanni Maiello (who took victory in the Fausto Coppi last week) in the final climb to finish in 6h00'56". Stefano Sala, twice second behind Negrini, was now third in 6h03'47". Michel Roux and local community worker Patrick Gueraud gave French cycling something to cheer about with fourth and fifth. Feike Loots was the first Dutchman in sixth with 6h14'38". Michel Snel had to settle for ninth, while Oege Hiddema was sidelined after a heavy crash on training a few weeks ago. Former tripple winner Bert Dekker came in 12th.

The time of Ciavatti, interestingly, was nearly 10 minutes slower than Negrini the past 2 years. Ciavatti finished third in the Oetztaler last season.

I finished the Marmotte for the fifth time, and improved to 7h19'46". Good for rank 151. My bruised ribs, which I suffered last week in the Maratona, hampered my breathing to really race and gave me some pain on the bad road surface of some parts of the descents. I was happy to beat my 30 hometown pals from Belgium, though:-)

T-Mobile Cycling Tour - Wiesbaden: Elin keeps finishing second

WIESBADEN - Elin Amundsen changed her mind last week about travelling to the Maratona Delle Dolomiti in favour of riding the next T-Mobile event, and finished second once more. Going strong for three laps, she had to let Annika Grüber go on lap 4 out of 5.

Meanwhile, the T-Mobile Cycling Tour crew is apparently trying to settle the famous Fürth issue. Elin finished behind the barricades in that race as she had to jump on the sidewalk to avoid a mass crash in the final straight. As a result she did not cross the transponderzone and did not get ranked, which meant a significant loss of points and basically a logical end to her aspirations to win the overall Tour this year. Video footage of the finish in Fürth exists, but the organisers there need to confirm before the T-Mobile squad can assign any points.

Also in Wiesbaden we saw a brilliant performance by ECB Cyclosports newcomer Marcus Hagedorn. In only his fourth race ever he stayed with the first major group and finished in 22nd place, 56 seconds behind race winner Günter Hollige (Team Strassacker). Frankfurt-based Briton Gary Weir finished 64th and Cyril Monnet (ECB Cyclosports) 101st after mechanical issues.

The next T-Mobile event is scheduled for 29 July in Dresden.

Prestigio: Maratona Dles Dolomites - Outsider Jones ends Negrini's reign

CORVARA - The four year reign of Emmanuele Negrini in the Maratona Dles Dolomites came to an end yesterday with the victory of Timothy David Jones. The Zimbabwe-born Italian took control of the race from the get-go together with teammate Raimondas Rumsas, who had to retire from the race later on. Jones was engaged in a fierce dual with Italian Michele Ladomada, whom he eventually beat in the sprint. 22-year old Bulgarian Alex Pauliukovich took the final step on the podium, three-and-a-half minutes down. Negrini had to settle for fourth place five-and-a-half minutes behind Jones, and Fabio Bulgarelli concluded in fifth place.

Negrini had won the past four editions of the Maratona. Last week in Aprica he also couldn't achieve more than fifth.

Barbara Lancioni and Monica Gallucci sprinted for the win in the women's race, with the former scoring her second consecutive win. Monica Bandini took third.

8500 riders started for the 21st edition, like last year in superb and even warm conditions. The Maratona remains the most internationally established granfondo of the year with 35 countries present. Almost 20,000 people wanted to get in this year, but only 8500 were allowed to start.

The ECB Cyclosports section had four riders in this year's edition. I had a very good run, sitting in a small group of about 12 including Lancioni and Gallucci until the descent towards the Giau. I hit a bump going into a sharp corner, missed my braking zone and slammed hard against a wall of rock with my left body side. It took a minute before I had my senses back and realised I could still move everything. That was the end of my race while riding in the top 80 according to the intermediate times... As the left brake handle was bent, and my front wheel was not 100% straight, I didn't trust going down full speed anymore. In addition, I suffered a few bruised ribs, big swellings on shoulder and hip and a badly bruised elbow so even standing on the pedals on the Giau and Falzarego hurt. I crossed the line still in 5:42, only seven minutes above last year's time. I trust I would have gone under 5:30 and even 5:20 this year. My detailed report follows in due course.

Lorenzo Borghini beat his 2004 time by 12 minutes on the granfondo. Riding better than ever this season, Lorenzo entered Corvara in 6:52:51. A great achievement. His wife Julia opted for the mediofondo after having tasted the percorso corto last season. She came home in style in 6:55. Morten Hansen did not find the legs back to brought him a splendid 10:15 time in last year's Oetztaler. Morten redirected himself to the mediofondo and arrived in 5:38:57. Not much behind him was Holger Hacklaender, from Frankfurt, in 5:45:45.

A big name was in the race this year: Greg LeMond, three-time Tour de France winner and double World Champion, got spotted during the race and indeed appears in the result list with a time of 5:44:24 (227th). That's two minutes behind me :-)