Liquigas is finely tuned for its busy schedule
Photo: courtesy Wim Dingemanse
Photo: courtesy Wim Dingemanse
June looks set to be a pretty hectic month in the lead-up to the 2008 Tour de France. So with the Grande Boucle in its crosshairs, Liquigas is revving up its engines. The team’s latest fixtures have seen the boys in blue and green hurtling around the roads of Spain, Slovenia, America, Luxembourg, Italy and France and they’ll soon be in Slovenia again and Switzerland. And the results are coming in thick and fast. After Chicchi cracked the Catalunya, Michael Albasini won the third stage of the Tour de Luxembourg on Saturday. The success very nearly took him to the top of the final general classification, but Joost Posthuma hung on to his one second lead. «It was an important victory» said the Swiss cyclist «and it showed that I’m in good form. Posthuma’s lead was limited but enough for a rider like him: I’m still pleased though. I’ve got the Tour of Switzerland next, where I’ll be looking to place well in the general classification and even hopefully win a stage».
And the good news keeps on coming from Franco Pellizotti, one of Liquigas’ star performers at the Giro d’Italia. On Sunday the “Delfino di Bibione” won the fourth Trofeo Comune in Pieve Vergonte, beating Gabriele Bosisio in a sprint finish. His next goal is the Tour de Slovenie, a four-stage race that starts on Wednesday. Guiding him around the Slovenian roads will be the Slovene rider Goradz Stangelj, a new entry on the Liquigas team, and domestiques from the Giro d’Italia Vladimir Miholjevic and Andrea Noè. Completing the line-up are Leonardo Bertagnolli, Maciej Bodnar, Francesco Chicchi and Alberto Curtolo, led by directeur sportif Stefano Zanatta.
On Sunday the Critérium de Dauphiné Libéré kicked off with the 5.6 kilometre prologue. The Bolzano boy Manuel Quinziato came eighth, 13 seconds behind the winner Leipheimer.
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