Gazzetta Challenge - Giro di Lombardia closes Granfondo season

COMO - The Italian classic Giro di Lombardia also has its cyclo version since two years. The so-called mediofondo is included in the Gazzetta Challenge (together with La Sanremo and the Dolomiti Stars-Giro d' Italia) lasts 113 km and has start and finish in Como. Michel Chocol won the race in 2:56:49 (avs 38.34 km/h) in a sprint against Andrea Paluan.

As such, the long Italian season has also come to an end.

T-Mobile Cycling Tour: Alex Bauer and Annika Grüber overall winners

Münster - The 2nd Münsterlandgiro confirmed the good vibes people already felt after the inaugural edition last year. Superb organisation, great atmosphere, good roads, limited danger, hardly a better way to close the cyclo season and the T-Mobile Cycling Tour! In the end, Alexander Bauer (Team Lexxi) and Annika Grüber (Team Agapedia) were celebrated as winners of the 2007 Tour. The 130km long Münster race saw Nico Wernicke (Team Strassacker) outsprint 50 to 60 riders who constituted a first group, and Judith Cramer (Team Lexxi) claiming her biggest win of the season in the women's event.

Wernicke thus won both the season's opener in Köln and the closer in Münster. Cramer took full advantage of the absence of Grüber, who participated in the German Hochschule Meisterschaft instead (and finished fifth over 65km). The latter's lead in the ranking was anyway so big that she could not be overtaken anymore.

One critic comment should be mentioned, though. Having all three available distances merging at the end leads to unnecessary danger. I found myself sitting in the first group all race and didn't witness any crash or tricky situation until we caught up with slower riders from the other races. Unfortunately, this also led to a crash 1.5 kilometres before the finish as we suddenly had to sweep left to overtake such a slow group. There was not enough place on the left so five, six guys went down - including myself. My race ruined. In the end I got ranked 81st, but most importantly I left without injury or bike damage.

ECB rider Morten Hansen came back from a forced break to finish his season with a respectable ride over 130 km. He hung onto the first group for a while, before the lack of training made itself felt in his legs.

Picture taken from Team Lexxi's website.

T-Mobile Cycling Tour: Münsterlandgiro ends long season

Münster - The second T-Mobile Cycling Tour ends tomorrow, Wednesday, in Münster after six months and 20 races. The protagonists are tired, both physically and mentally. There seems to be a general consensus that it has been a little bit too much. All races count, so if you go for a high ranking you are bound to start everywhere. Better would be a system in which, say, the best 12 or 14 results count - allowing at least a little breather for what are still supposed to be hobby cyclists.

The men's overall ranking is led by Alex Bauer (Team Lexxi), but Michael Rademacher is not yet out of contention with his 131-point deficit. In a flat race like the Münsterlandgiro a small problem can cost you a lot of points as the groups are larger than in a race on a hilly course. Nino Ackermann (Blue Essentials) will most likely have to settle for third place nonetheless.

The women's event has been dominated again by Annika Grüber (Team Agapedia), who will in fact be riding in front of her home crowd on Wednesday. A few women, such as Elin Amundsen, gave Annika a hard time on occasion, but on the whole her second consecutive victory in the -Mobile tour was never really endangered after Elin's debacle in Fürth in June.

The Münsterlandgiro offers three different courses, and increased the max distance to 130 km. You can also ride 110 and 65 km. Over 3000 people have already registered!

Münsterlandgiro