Team Talk 11

The Grand Prix Scheldeprijs starts in Antwerp and finishes with a small circuit around Shoten on April 16. The course from Raismes to Denain covers 194,6 kilometers, and consists of a large 99 km circuit before the decision is made on five laps of a 16 km closing lap. The traditional one-day race has been carried out in the region Nord-Pas-de-Calais since 1959 and was by Mark Cavendish in 2007.

AFP report: Tom Boonen said on Tuesday he was going to focus all his efforts on retaining his Tour de France green points jersey this year.

Fresh from winning his second Paris-Roubaix classic on Sunday said he was going to take around 10 days rest after Wednesday's Escaut Grand Prix. "I need to relax on the days following the Paris-Roubaix," said Boonen, who has won six stages on the Tour de France. "You need to let the muscles relax after such a race. "It is clear that I haven't recovered completely after the tension of Sunday. It will take me some more time, that is normal."

Boonen said that in order to win the green jersey on the Tour he would have to have a good first week. "Now, the next big target, is the green jersey. All will depend on the first week. If I can collect enough points then there will be a good chance.

After that, the world road race course at Varese (Italy) will suit me well. "Certain riders said they have found it hard? You can never compare looking over a course with the race itself." Boonen is expected to compete in the Tour of Belgium and the Dauphine Libere after he has returned from his rest.

Paolo Bettini was ruled out on Tuesday of the Amstel Gold Race, which takes place in the Netherlands on Sunday.
The 34-year-old two-time world road race champion has not recovered from the fractured rib he suffered last Thursday in the Tour of the Basque Country.

According to his Quick Step team he hopes to be back for the Tour of Trentino, which runs from April 22-25, and be fully race fit for the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic on April 27.

Team for Wednesday April 16 Schelderprjis will be; Tom Boonen, Wilfried Cretskens, Steven De Jongh, Kevin Hulsmans, Sebastien Rosseler, Kevin Van Impe, Davide Viganò, Wouter Weylandt and DS Wilfried Peeters.

Paris-Roubaix didn't shine kindly on the Barloworld squad they are looking forward to Ardennes classics (the Amstel Gold Race, Fleche-Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege) and will use the 96th edition of the Scheldeprijs in Belgium on Wednesday April 16 and the GP Denain Porte du Hainaut in France on Thursday April 17, as preparation.

Directeur sportif Valerio Tebaldi will be in charge of Marco Corti, Stephen Cummings, Christopher Froome, Paolo Longo Borghini, Hugo Sabido and Geraint Thomas for the race. The presence of Baden Cooke in the team is still unsure because of the injuries he suffered in a crash during Paris-Roubaix. He could decide to miss the race at the last minute.

The same riders will be in action on Thursday in the 194.6 km Denain race. The route is divided into three parts with a finishing circuit of 16.2 km covered five times.

Team Barloworld have also pre selected 11 riders for the Giro d’Italia and prepare for the key stages

The riders selected for the Giro d’Italia that begins in Palermo on May 10, are; Mauricio Soler, Enrico Gasparotto, Patrick Calcagni, Felix Cardenas, Rober Hunter, Carlo Scognamiglio, John Lee Augustyn, Francesco Bellotti, Christian Pfannberger, Stephen Cummings and Geraint Thomas. The final nine riders will be selected in the next few days.

Erik Zabel leads Team Milram at Scheldeprijs. The Directeurs sportif Antonio Bevilaqua and Raoul Liebregts will also look to German riders Dennis Haueisen, Enrico Poitschke, Markus Eichler and Martin Müller, as well as Australian Brett Lancaster, Luca Barla of Italy and Slovakian youngster Martin Velits.

"We expect a typical belgian one-day race with lots of wind and rain,“ said Directeur Sportif Raoul Liebregts."You have to be very attentive in this face. It is always possible for an escape group to come through and for the peloton to be held back because of the strong wind.“ That happened, for example, in 2006, when only 22 riders finished the race.

The line-up is: Brett LancasterAUS/Monsummano Terme-Pistoia,ITA), Dennis Haueisen (GER/Gera), Enrico Poitschke (GER/Gera), Erik Zabel (GER/Unna), Luca Barla (ITA/Sanremo-Imperia), Markus Eichler (GER/Mönchengladbach), Martin Müller (GER/Berlin), Martin Velits (SVK/Riemst,BEL)

Erik Zabel will also start the Grand Prix de Danain on Thursday, April 17. As per the GP Scheldeprijs the day before, the two Directeurs Sportif Antonio Bevilaqua and Raoul Liebregts will be able to look to a strong Classics-experienced team. "We will have to be very attentive and particularly keep an eye on the French teams,“ said Raoul Liebregts. „Denain is part of the Coupe de France, so the French teams will be especially active. Our goal is to bring Erik Zabel into position for the finale, hopefully for a mass sprint.“

The Astana Cycling Team lead the UCI ProTour Rankings. This competition covers races held as part of the UCI Pro Tour and which has been at the centre of much controversy as the Big Tours, and many classic races are not part of the competition in 2008.

Next ProTour event for the team is the Amstel Gold Race (April 20th).

1. Astana 56 points
2. High Road 56
3. Team CSC 53
4. Silence - Lotto 51
5. Rabobank 49
6. Caisse d’Epargne 45
7. Quick Step 44
8. Saunier Duval - Scott 43
9. Cofidis 40
10. Liquigas 39
11. Gerolsteiner 37
12. Euskaltel-Euskadi 37
13. Team Milram 36
14. Française des Jeux 36
15. Lampre 28
16. Bouygues Telecom 27
17. Ag2R La Mondiale 27
18. Crédit Agricole 24

High Road
1 CAVENDISH Mark
2 BOASSON HAGEN Edvald
3 CIOLEK Gerald
4 HENDERSON Gregory
5 KNAVEN Servais
6 MARTIN Tony
7 SIEBERG Marcel
8 WIGGINS Bradley

Quickstep (See also above)
11 BOONEN Tom
12 CRETSKENS Wilfried
13 DE JONGH Steven
14 HULSMANS Kevin
15 ROSSELER Sébastien
16 VAN IMPE Kevin
17 VIGANO Davide
18 WEYLANDT Wouter

Silence Lotto
21 DE VOCHT Wim
22 VANSEVENANT Wim
23 HOSTE Leif
24 MCEWEN Robbie
25 ROESEMS Bert
26 SENTJENS Roy
27 ROELANDTS Jurgen
28 D HOLLANDER Glenn

Milram
31 BARLA Luca
32 MÜLLER Martin
33 EICHLER Markus
34 HAUEISEN Dennis
35 LANCASTER Brett
36 POITSCHKE Enrico
37 VELITS Martin
38 ZABEL Erik

Rabobank
41 BOVEN Jan
42 BROWN Graeme
43 DE GROOT Bram
44 ELIJZEN Michiel
45 FLENS Rick
46 HAYMAN Mathew
47 LEEZER Tom
48 ELTINK Theo

Elk Haus Simplon
51 RADOCHLA Steffen
52 RUCKER Stefan
53 SCHORN Daniel
54 STARZENGRUBER Harald
55 SUMMER Jochen
56 THURAU Bjorn

Team Volksbank
61 BENETSEDER Josef
62 GLOMSER Gerrit
63 GUFLER Alexander
64 KORFF André
65 LUDESCHER Philipp
66 MUSIOL Daniel
67 WEISSINGER Rene
68 SOKOLL Christoph

Landbouwkrediet-Tönissteiner
71 BOUCHER David
72 CLANCY Edward
73 MANNING Paul
74 NEIRYNCK Kevin
75 KUYCKX Jan
76 PEETERS Rob
77 STEELS Tom
78 STANNARD Ian

Topsport
81 BARBE Koen
82 DE HAES Kenny
83 EECKHOUT Nico
84 GHYLLEBERT Pieter
85 GODDAERT Kristof
86 HOVELYNCK Kurt
87 SCHETS Steve
88 NEYENS Maarten

Mitsubishi Jartazi
91 ABAKOUMOV Igor
92 COUPE Geoffry
93 MOURIS Jens
94 NEVENS Sven
95 VAN MINGEROET Jarno
96 VAN DIJK Stefan
97 VERHEYEN Geert
98 VANTOMME Maxime

Barloworld (See also above)
101
102
103 CORTI Marco
104 CUMMINGS Steven
105 FROOME Christopher
106 LONGHO BORGHINI Paolo
107 SABIDO Hugo
108 THOMAS Geraint

Preti Mangimi
111 CENTRONE Vincenzo
112 COMMESSO Salvatore
113 FOGEN Steve
114 GAVAZZI Mattia
115 GEREMIA Gianluca
116 MAZZANTI Massimo
117 SHPILEVSKY Boris
118 ZANOTTI Marco

Skil Shimano
121 BACQUET Fabien
122 TIMMER Albert
123 DOI Yukihiro
124 DEROO David
125 HATANAKA Yusuke
126 HIROSE Yoshimasa
127 SIEDLER Sebastian

Cycle Colstrop
131 BOZIC Borut
132 CRIEL Tom
133 KOLESNIKOV Sergey
134 SURAY Gil
135 PERSSON Lucas
136 PRONK Matheus
137 SMITH Raynold
138 VAN DER SCHUEREN Kenny

Josan Mercedes
141 TUYTENS Davy
142 BASTENS Stijn
143 SIMON Jean
144 BLANCHY Michael
145 DE DECKER
146 VAN POUCKE
147 VAN DER VEKEN
148 ICKX Mario

Bodysol
151 BERTRAND Jonathan
152 BURTON Jérémy
153 DEVAUX Jérémy
154 TIMMERMANS Damien
155 HONOREZ Jeremy
156 FONTAINE Laurent
157 POLAZZI Michael
158 ROUET Rudy

Propel
161 BLUEKENS Jan
162 BOGAERT Eduard
163 DIERCKX Steven
164 REYNIERS David
165 VANDERAERDEN Michael
166 VANHIE Matthias
167 WIELANDT Sven

Willems
171 DE WILDE Sjef
172 DE ZUTTER Kristof
173 ENNEKENS Stijn
174 HOORNAERT Stijn
175 MEEUSEN Tim
176 VAN BRAECKEL Kenny
177 VAN HEESWIJK Max
178 VAN LOOCKE Jurgen

USA Pro Continental Team have been learnign the hrad way the vagaries of the Europeam race scene.

At the GP Pino Cerami, it became apparent that the enthusiastic if inexperienced American racers were quickly getting the hang of this Euro classic racing. “It was a very good day in the team’s learning process,” Directeur John Lelangue reported post race. “The tactics were good with cagey strategic moves being made by the guys, even the ones not used to this sort of racing.”

In contrast to some of the earlier Belgian races the guys took part in several weeks ago, the Cerami had six BMC riders hit the final stages of the race in the lead group. “We had five guys in the main group with 15 km left to race,” Lelangue was happy to report. “Jackson had had a tough day and lost contact with a few km left to go, but otherwise we had McKissick, Garcia, Tolleson, Kohler and Wyss.” Sadly missing from the front group was Tony Cruz who had crashed and broken his collarbone with 55 km raced. “My wheel slipped out from under me as we crested a cobbled climb,” Cruz reported. “I landed right on my shoulder, but hoped I had only strained some muscles.” He road on for another 50km before deciding that he had really broken something.

The GP Drenthe became a race of attrition with many racers getting off their bikes before the finish line. “The race started really fast with very bad cobbles,” Lelangue said. “After about 70 km there was a big split in the group, but I was very impressed to see Ian McKissick and Martin Kohler make the cut.” Ian had never raced in Belgium until about three weeks ago, but after three races and many training hours on the cobbled Northern roads, Ian has made great strides in his positioning and tactics. “I was really impressed to see Ian race so well today,” Lelangue reported. “His positioning is improving a lot and he is learning quickly how to conserve energy during these long, strenuous races.” Lelangue went on to praise another of his young charges, Martin Kohler. “Martin was instrumental in Danilo’s success this past Thursday,” Lelangue explained. “And he also had very good legs today.” Martin only just missed joining the first group during the final split in the ra!
ce.

BMC Racing Team for Tour de Georgia (April 21 - 27). Riders are: Daren Lill, Scott Nydam, Jo Garcia, David Galvin, Mike Sayers, Danilo Wyss, Tailor Tolleson, Jackson Stewart

Halfords Bikehut, Britain’s leading women’s professional cycling team, have strengthened their squad with new signing Sharon Laws. The 33-year old, who has returned to the UK after working in South Africa and Australia, will ride her first major race for the Team at Fleche Wallone on April 23.

With the benefit of professional coaching Laws’ road career began to take off, and earlier this year, after only a month of coaching, she finished runner-up to High Road’s Oenone Wood at the Australian National Championships. Laws followed up this result with 23rd place in the Tour of Geelong, the opening race in the Women’s Road World Cup, and 10th place in the Tour of New Zealand. So impressed were the Australians with Laws’ performance that they were keen to discuss her joining their squad full-time. But Dave Brailsford, Performance Director at British Cycling, was also watching Laws’ progress and arranged for her to return to the UK and join Halfords Bikehut.

“This is a fantastic opportunity” commented Laws. “When I was in Australia I actually spent more time in an aeroplane than on the ground, let alone riding a bike. Being able to concentrate on my riding is a dream come true.”

Australia’s loss will almost certainly be Great Britain’s gain, as Laws is a strong contender to join team mate Nicole Cooke and Emma Pooley as the third rider in the Olympic road race.

“Great Britain now has the potential to be one of the strongest teams on the start line in Beijing,” commented Dave Brailsford. “Nicole and Sharon will race together as team mates throughout the season, and Emma will also join them for races like the Tour de l’Aude. Should Sharon get that third berth it would put the Team in a very strong position compared to squads that only come together just before the Olympics.”