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

Maratona Dles Dolomites on 29 June 2008

Next year's edition of the famous Maratona Delle Dolomiti will be held on Sunday, 29 June. In order to assign the entry tickets, a pre-registration phase will be organised between 18 October and 8 November 2007. The draw will be held roughly a week later.

Of course it will also be possible to buy a package tour that includes a starting ticket and accomodation as of November.

The maximum number of participants will once again be 8500, half of which will be Italian.

The Maratona will be organised next year to the benefit of a reforestation scheme in Ecuador.

All info can be found on the Maratona website.

T-Mobile Cycling Tour: Nürnberg

Nürnberg - The 103km event in Nürnberg was won by Thomas Wickles from Team RadioAktiv Racing. He outsprinted Team Strassacker's Nicko Wernicke and Team Lexxi's Alexander Bauer. Frankfurt-based Briton Gary Weir had his best T-Mobile result of the season with a 27th spot.

The women's long distance race went to Annika Grüber, who consolidated her 1st place in the T-Mobile ranking. She finished 4 minutes ahead of Judith Cramer and five of Martina Hausmann.

The next races are held next weekend, with a time trial in Tübingen and a tough race in Bad Dürrheim (RiderMan).

The finale will be held in Münster on 3 October.

Update: Elin's season over

With some reluctance Elin Amundsen has to allow six weeks of plastercast for her broken left hand to heal properly. Her season is now formally over, just when the desired third spot in the T-Mobile ranking is easily within her grasp (check the ranking, now updated with the Hamburg results).

Elin hopes to return to the scene in 2008, hopefully with support of an appropriate team structure.

The T-Mobile Cycling Tour continues this weekend with Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt, a flat race with a max distance of just over 100km. Close to a thousand riders have already signed up.

The final race of the season on 3 October in Münster, home of Team Agapedia, can expect already now more than 2000 participants according to latest reports.

Prestigio: Cinque Terre - Antonio Corradini wins solo

La Spezia - The final event of the Prestigio series this season was dominated by Mg.K Vis rider Antonio Corradini, who finished 3'15"ahead of Konstantin Klyuev and Gianni Fontana. Stefano Sala was alone in fourth nearly five minutes down.

In the final race of the Grand Trophée series in France, La Ronde Picarde, Jerome Minard outsprinted Benjamin Audoux and four others in a small group finish.

Interview with Elin on Challenge-Magazin

A lengthy and very fun to read interview with Elin Amundsen has been published on the website Challenge-Magazin.

The interview was taken after the race in Hamburg on 19 August. As reported yesterday, Elin broke three bones in her left hand last Sunday in a race - which she still won - in France. She has been advised to allow six to eight weeks for recovery. In any case, her participation in the upcoming races in Nürnberg, Tübingen and Bad Dürrheim is highly in doubt.

Les Ballons Vosgiens: Elin wins "Route des Crêtes" with broken hand!

GERARDMER - Despite a very heavy T-Mobile schedule in August and her nasty crash in the RegioTour last weekend, Elin Amundsen could not live without a week of competition and travelled to the French town of Gerardmèr in the Vosges for the cyclo Les Ballons Vosgiens. Equipped with her "old" LOOK-bike she raced on the 92km and 1500 Hm distance - nicked La Route des Crêtes - and took a smashing victory by nearly five minutes over her nearest rival! She finished in 2:56:01 (avs 29.31 km/h), beating a female field of 33 riders.
However, it didn't go all that smoothly. In the descent of the Schlucht, Elin missed a corner and went down for the second consecutive week... This time it's not so much the bike but the body that got hurt. After the race, doctor's diagnosed a few broken bones in her left hand. The healing process theoretically lasts six to eight weeks, so Elin's season might suddenly be over. Still, she is not giving up hope that she can at least start in the next T-Mobile events and defend her position in the rankings.

The men's 155km (3500hm) races was won by local matador Thomas Dietsch, bronze medalist in the MTB long-distance world championships, who outsprinted Cofidis-pro Nicholas Hartmann and Dutchman Michel Snel in 4:54:47 (avs 31.75 km/h). Oege Hiddema, winner in 2005, made his comeback after his big crash in the Transalp in June and finished sixth after being dropped in the descent.

Ötztaler Radmarathon: Negrini back on top!

Soelden - Bologna-based Italian Emmanuele Negrini came back from a number of shocking defeats this season to claim his second Oetztaler Radmarathon in a row. Negrini had to outsprint fellow-Italian Antonio Corradini and the surprising Dutch veteran Bert Dekker in the town of Sölden in a dramatic conclusion to the 238km race. The clock stopped at 7:03:37.

The event was held in the best weather conditions in years, resulting in overall faster times. The podium place of Bert Dekker was unexpected. The former three-time winner of La Marmotte did not make the top 10 on Alpe d'Huez this year and seemed to be on his return at the age of 37. Interestingly, the winner of La Marmotte this season, Andrea Ciavatti only managed 21st in 7:32.

T-Mobile Cycling Tour: RegioTour - Elin crashes out of contention

After a long hard summer, Elin had battled her way back to the top 3 of the T-Mobile Cycling Tour ranking... only to lose it all again in one race, the shortest race on the calendar. The 52km long race was full of incidents - an unfortunate characteristic of this season's T-Mobile events - and Elin was one of many to crash down hard. After the Texaspass Elin had found herself in second position (Annika was in a first group) when the rider in front of her made an unexpected move aside. Elin hit the rear wheel and went down, taking several other riders with her. She escaped with bruises herself, but her Cervelo suffered the most. Fork broken, handlebar bent and what have you: game over. The disappointment was huge. No points for Elin, Judith Cramer and Katharina Reitmaier are now much more comfortable in their podium slots in the Tour. Elin will now focus on the individual events and snatch a victory or two still this season.

The men's race saw a dominant performance by Nino Ackermann, who went solo on one of the climbs and reached the finish with a 1'40" advantage over Alex Bauer and the rest. Strong stuff. Markus Hagedorn also went down half-way the race and came in 74th.

There's a break in the schedule now, with the first event taking place in Nürnberg on 16 September.

T-Mobile Cycling Tour - Hamburg & Hannover

HAMBURG - Elin Amundsen is very likely to have regained her second spot in the T-Mobile ranking after last weekend's races in Hannover and Hamburg. On EDEKA Race Day Elin rebounded immediately from Friday's disappointment in Fürth, to snatch fourth place behind Annika Grüber (second) but way ahead of Katharina Reitmaier (9th) and Judith Cramer (3rd on 70km distance). The win went to a new name Gundula Henning, who managed and avs of nearly 42 km/h over the 100km distance. Martina Höllige from Team Strassacker is clearly a mountain and time trial specialist as she had to settle for sixth.

In Hamburg Elin managed sixth place but ahead of all the usual suspects including Annika (ninth). The first five places went to stars of the day. Interestingly, Elin showed the best recuperative powers over this intensive weekend as she even beat the #3 of the race in Hannover! She completed the 155km in 3:53:26 (avs 39.55 km/h). For once she was 3 minutes ahead of Annika Grüber who came in ninth. Reitmaier was 12th, Cramer 13th.

In the men's events Morten Hansen proved oncemore that Hamburg is his event. This season he finished 289th in 3:49 (avs 40.21 km/h), his best ever! In Hannover he was 107th in the 70km race. Markus Hagedorn was 96th in that race. In Hannover he finished in top 20 according to his own timing but official results are still not online due to a hick-up by Mika Timing. Markus Hagedorn also finished in top 20 on the medium distance.

T-Mobile Cycling Tour - Elin no chance without time trial machine

FUERTH - The 33km long GIANT individual time trial saw the men's winner Marcel Barth finishing with an average speed of46.83 km/h. Awesome performance. The traditional stars of the Tour turned out to be not the greatest time trialists so we may see some changes in the ranking. Alex Bauer was 30th and Nino Ackermann still stood his ground in 40th place, nearly five minutes down. Michael Rademacher was 46th. The Strassacker boys were cleary beaten too. Marc Leischner was fifth, Günter Höllige was 19th, Nico Wernicke 26th.

Markus Hagedorn managed 54th place with an avs of 41.37 km/h, 5'35" behind Barth. He was marginally quicker than Gary Weir (57th).

The women's race brought another win for Annika Grüber ahead of Martina Höllige. The Agapedia ace scored a time of 48'56" (40.57km/h). Without a time trial bike, Elin Amundsen was defenceless and had to be satisfied with 19th place, over six minutes down on Grüber. Unfortunately, Elin's two main rivals for the podium in the overall ranking finished ahead of her today. Judith Cramer was 10th and Katharina Reitmaier 17th. Let's see whether Elin can take revenge tomorrow and Sunday in Hannover and Hamburg!

Sunday 19 August: RTF Henninger Odenwald

FRANKFURT - This Sunday RV Henninger 1895 Sossenheim organises its annual RTF Henninger Odenwald with start and finish at the Henninger brewery on the Darmstädter Landstrasse in Sachsenhausen.

A great and recommended 117km tour goes to the Odenwald, where a few hills need to be climbed. A nice ride for those who don't race in Hamburg.

Check

T-Mobile Cycling Tour - Big weekend coming up

A big weekend is coming up in the T-Mobile Cycling Tour with no fewer than three events after one another. On Friday, the Deutschland Tour continues with the Giant time trial in Fürth over 32.8 km. Saturday is EDEKA Race Day in Hannover, a more or less flat race over 100km and Sunday is of course the Vatenfall Cyclassics in Hamburg, the most popular German cyclo event of the year.

Elin Amundsen will be riding all three of them in her ongoing attempt to regain second place in the overall tour ranking. After the mountain time trial in Sölden last Tuesday she is actually already back in third place, only 33 points behind Katharina Reitmaier.

Other ECB Cyclosports riders active this weekend will be Markus Hagedorn, Morten Hansen (photo) and newcomer Roswitha Hutter. Markus is the surprise of the season. A string of solid performances has put him in 74th place in the overall ranking so far, and his ambition is endless. In Fürth he is aiming high with his brand new Cervelo time trial bike, before travelling to Hannover - a course that should suit him well. Morten is doing Hannover and Hamburg, his traditional late summer goal. After a bit of a dip in his performance level during the month of June, Morten has come back strongly with a top 200 placing in Bochum two weeks ago.

T-Mobile Cycling Tour: Mountain challenge on Rettenbachferner

SOELDEN - Elin Amundsen had to settle for seventh place in the mountain time trial on the Rettenbachferner yesterday. She climbed the 13km in 1:16:18, ten minutes slower than winner Annika Grüber but considerably faster than the numbers two and three in the overall T-Mobile Tour ranking Cramer and Reithmayer. Elin is now looking forward to the flat events in Hannover and Hamburg where she has a better chance against the Agapedia lady, who admittedly is in stunning form these days. Second in Sölden was Strassacker's Martina Höllige, winner in Stuttgart this season, more than two-and-a-half minutes down on Grüber...

Slovenian Miran Cvet won the men's event with an advantage of 43 seconds over Günter Höllige.

T-Mobile Cycling Tour Update: Elin wins in Bochum!

It is summer holiday time but not for those with an interest in the points ranking of the T-Mobile Cycling Tour! Among those is Frankfurt-based Norwegian Elin Amundsen, who is still keen on a top three ending after the unfortunate Fürth debacle. Elin raced in Dresden, Nürburg and Bochum in the past few weeks. She came in second once again to Annika Grüber in the first two, but beat her rival in Bochum last week on Sunday in a sprint finish. It was Elin's first official victory of the season.

Elin will be competing today as well in the mountain time trial (13km and 1300hm) on the Rettenbachferner in Austria, which is the first stage of the jedermann Deutschland Tour. The next two events take place on Friday in Fürth (hopefully Elin will have more luck there this time!) and on Saturday in Hannover.

She warmed up for the Rettenbachferner last Saturday in Andermatt, Switzerland, where she did the 120km (3550hm) Alpen Brevet ride. Rumour has it she was second woman, but the event is officially not a race.

Two other members of the ECB Cyclosports squad were active in Bochum and Nürburg. Markus Hagedorn is continuing his amazing debut on the scene with a 51st place, preceeding seasoned powerhouse Morten Hansen who also found his legs back in 183th spot. Frankfurt-based Briton Gary Weir was 86th.
In Rad am Ring, Morten came in 77th in the 70km event won by Bad Vilbel rider Gerhard Hack.
Gary finished 80th on the 140km.

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 :-)