Wednesday’s EuroFile: Zajicek knocking on Euro doors; Tours ready to go their own way
- By Andrew Hood
- Published Sep. 28, 2005
By now, Phil Zajicek is somewhere in Europe checking out the sights in a 10-day trip around the continent after racing in Sunday’s world championships.
The 26-year-old admitted it was tough going in the hilly 273km circuit course in Madrid after flying to Europe just three days before the race. Zajicek did his job protecting team captain Fred Rodriguez before dropping out with two laps to go.
“My legs were kind of blocked, but I was there to keep Freddie out of the wind as long as possible,” he said. “When the attacks started, it just blew up the bunch.”
Zajicek’s season is over, and after his European tour, he’ll return to Tucson to build up for the 2006 season with eyes on a making a strong debut at the Tour of California (still penciled in for Feb. 19-26 on the UCI calendar).
Zajicek was hoping his fourth-place finish in the Tour of Britain in August could pry open some doors for a European contract for 2006.
“It’s just not easy to break out,” he said. “You try to come over here and get a result here and there, but it’s tough to get that initial break.”
Zajicek said he was talking with Team CSC and Saunier Duval about a contract, but things didn’t quite work out. It looks likely he’ll stay with Navigators for the upcoming season. Vuelta director says grand tour ready to go it alone
Ignacio Ayuso, general director of Antena 3 and new owners of the Vuelta a España, said the three grand tours are ready to create a rival racing league if the ProTour crisis cannot be solved in an amicable manner.
In an interview with the Spanish daily MARCA, Ayuso said differences between the grand tours and the UCI have reached a breaking point.
“We don’t want to leave and we want to stay in the UCI calendar with our dates and our race, but if they don’t agree with us, we’ll leave,” he said. “We’re not looking for this, but if the debate ends badly and they force us to leave, we will, and they’ll end up the worse.”
The Vuelta joined forces with the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia last fall to defend what they see as their collective interests against the UCI and the ProTour teams on the other side.
Among other disagreements, the grand tours don’t like the closed system that includes permanent, four-year licenses for the 20 ProTour teams. The races want more flexibility in selecting teams to compete in their respective races.
The power struggle has turned sour, with both sides trading barbs and threatens to fracture the international racing calendar, putting the ProTour in peril.
Ayuso said if a resolution cannot be hammered out, the grand tours are prepared to break away from the UCI.
“(We could make) a competition similar to the Formula 1, would create an association, we would register in the Ministry of the Interior and other European organizations,” he said. “The three grand tours are supported by large media groups. We are prepared and working on an alternative plans if the UCI obliges us to leave.”
Ayuso also said the Spanish cycling authorities feel insulted by the comportment of the UCI at the recently celebrated world championships in Madrid.
Among the many beefs include the UCI’s boycott the opening ceremonies, returning of gifts presented by the organizing committee, sanctions against the Spanish cycling federation for supporting a rival candidate ahead of the UCI presidential election and threats to keep Spanish riders out of the road race, all insults that have further muddied the waters between the UCI and the Vuelta, Ayuso said.
Petacchi defends world’s ride
Alessandro Petacchi has been getting blasted from all sides for Italy’s failure in Sunday’s world championships and finally the mercurial sprinter has struck back.
In a lengthy interview posted on an Italian web page, Petacchi defended his performance and firmly stated he wasn’t disloyal to his fellow teammates by not telling them earlier he wasn’t in winning form.
“I’ve remained silent since the world’s, but there’s been a lot of criticism of my merits as an athlete, attacks at my maturity as a man and my loyalty to the team,” he said. “The answer is a simple one: I am a man, not a machine.”
Petacchi described how he was feeling well until the final 10km of Sunday’s race, and by then it was too late to change the team’s strategy. He insisted that if he realized he wasn’t feeling better earlier in the race, he would have notified his teammates.
“I wasn’t feeling as good as I did in Milan-San Remo, but I’ve won many races when I wasn’t feeling great,” he said. “My strength was waning and at the decisive part of the race, I didn’t have the legs to stay with the best.”
Di Luca looks to close book on ProTour
ProTour series leader Danilo Di Luca hopes to seal the overall season title this weekend at Sunday’s Zürich Metzgete.
The Italian holds a comfortable lead in the inaugural ProTour series and can officially wrap up the title with a strong performance in Switzerland.
“In Zürich I can settle the Pro Tour. I like the route and my condition is very good,” said in a team press release. “A good placing could be enough for me, but I won’t race as an accountant. If I can, I will look for the win. I would like to make it mine definitely so I can race the last classic, the Giro di Lombardia, only concentrating on the day’s result.”
On paper, Di Luca has 209 points and could still be overtaken, but the three closest riders – Tom Boonen, Jan Ullrich and Lance Armstrong – have already ended their 2005 seasons. Alexandre Vinokourov is a distant fifth at 136 points. Sixth and seventh place riders, Levi Leipheimer and Bobby Julich, have also hung up the cleats for the year.
Lining up with Di Luca will be Liquigas-Bianchi teammates Dario Andriotto, Michael Albasini, Patrick Calcagni, Mauro Gerosa, Vladimir Miholjevic, Andrea Noè and Charles Wegelius. New German team axes director for links to Stasi
New German-Italian cycling team Milram has cut ties with its manager and sport director after reports linked them to East Germany’s notorious Stasi state police.
Team manager Jörg Strenger and sport director Michael Schiffner will be dismissed immediately after their role with Stasi was published in the German media.
“It is not just that Mr. Strenger was connected with the regime, but he was an instrumental piece in an oppressive system,” said Stephan Tomat, head of the German dairy producer Nordmilch. “The image of our brand must not be tarnished by the past exploits of certain individuals.”
The new ProTour team is set to replace Domina Vacanze and will be headlined by sprinters Alessandro Petacchi and Erik Zabel. The team was officially revealed Friday at in Madrid. Belgian coach stepping down
Jose De Cauwer, the Belgian national coach who delivered Tom Boonen to the world title Sunday, will announce his resignation during a news conference tomorrow, Belgian national television station Sporza reported on Tuesday. De Cauwer, 56, took over the national team eight years ago from Eddy Merckx and will join ProTour team Davitamon-Lotto in 2006.
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.