Saturday’s EuroFile: Astarloa’s screwed; Hinault on Di Luca’s rivals; Perez Cuapio takes Trentino
- By Andrew Hood
- Published Apr. 23, 2005
Astarloa patched up, but not packing it it
Igor Astarloa is all screwed up – literally.
The 2003 world champion is trying to kick-start his season after crashing hard at the Haribo Classic in February, leaving him with a fractured arm.
To keep things all in one piece, he’s racing with five screws and a metal plate in his left arm.
“Things are going better, but it still hurts,” Astarloa told the Spanish daily MARCA. “I was with the lead group going up the Cauberg (at Amstel Gold), but I wasn’t in good enough shape to challenge for the win. I was upset, because there are going to be few chances that good to have a shot at victory. Before I had only raced GP Indurain and Clásica de Amorebieta (in early April), so I didn’t know how strong I would be.”
The 28-year-old may be living proof that the curse of the rainbow jersey truly exists.
What should have been Astarloa’s banner season racing in the arco-iris stripes was complicated by the Cofidis scandal that engulfed the French team just months after signing with them. He was never implicated in the doping scandal and left his contract to join Lampre, but he was never able to hit his stride with the Italian team.
Astarloa won only two races wearing the rainbow jersey in 2004, a stage at the Brixia Tour and the Circuito di Maderno, hardly top-shelf stuff for the man from Urmea.
After riding with elite teams such as Mercatone Uno, Saeco, Cofidis and Lampre during his career, Astarloa had to lower his sights in 2005 and signed with the second-division Barloworld team. With additional funding, the team is upping its expectations this season, but it’s not among the 20 ProTour teams.
That gives Astarloa even fewer chances to shine in the bigger races. He didn’t race in Flèche Wallonne – a race he won in 2003 — and won’t be at the start line for Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
He just finished racing at the Giro del Trentino after competing in the Amstel Gold race with the added weight of five screws in his arm. He’s worried about pushing too hard too fast.
“I try to force the hand because it’s only been seven weeks and told it would be between eight and nine weeks before everything was fine,” he said.
Now he says he’ll just have to bide his time until the post-Tour de France races when he hopes his team will be selected to ride. Barloworld was overlooked for the Giro d’Italia and isn’t expected to earn a bid for the Vuelta a España.
“I am losing the part of the season that I like the most. Like this I have no other option than to wait for the second half of the season, for races like Hamburg and San Sebastián, and the world championships,” he said.
Hinault: Why wait to last climb?
Bernard Hinault knows a thing or two about winning classics and the French cycling legend is a bit exasperated looking ahead to Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
The five-time Tour de France champion said he can’t understand why Danilo Di Luca’s rivals wait until the final climb to try anything against the Italian tornado.
Di Luca has shot away to victory in Amstel Gold and Flèche Wallonne and is the favorite to win Sunday’s battle in the Ardennes if someone doesn’t take him to task, or so says the Badger.
“Di Luca is the strong rider now; everyone saw that for themselves at Amstel and Flèche. Why then do his rivals wait until the final hill to attack him?” Hinault told the AFP in an interview.
Hinault says the more demanding Liège course is well-suited for a more strategic play and he hopes to see it come Sunday.
“When they’re up against the likes of Di Luca and Rebellin, the others shouldn’t just sit there. They should be attacking from further away,” he continued. “I see no other solution.”
Perez Cuapio takes Trentino crown
Mexican climbing sensation Julio Perez Cuapio (Panaria) sewed up the overall title in the four-day Giro del Trentino on Friday. The win is the biggest in his career and bodes well for the upcoming Giro d’Italia. Perez Cuapio won the best climber’s jersey and two stages in the 2002 Giro.
Andrus Aug (Fassa Bortolo), meanwhile, won the final stage that came down to a mass sprint.
Pascual Rodriguez in charge in Rioja
Spanish rider Javier Pascual Rodriguez (Comunidad Valenciana) is in the driver’s seat in the Vuelta a Rioja in Spain after holding on to his lead in the hilly second stage to the Ermita De La Virgen De Lomos De Orios.
Jorge Ferrio (Spiuk) won the stage, but Pascual Rodriguez came through third with the same time as overall challenger Israel Perez (Spiuk).
Pascual Rodriguez holds a 10-second margin to Perez going into the 176km rolling course through the heart of Spain’s Rioja wine region around Logroño.
FILED UNDER: Road
Andrew Hood
Hood cut his journalistic teeth at Colorado dailies before the web boom opened the door to European cycling in the mid-1990s. Hood's covered every Tour since 1996 and has been VeloNews' European correspondent since 2002. He lives in Leon, Spain, when he's not chasing bike races.