The plan is to send Valach and Schäfer in the break to get mountain points. The break went early and they both went. Unfortunatly they couldnt really get settled in as the break kept attacking each other. On the first mountain sprint they got left behind. Mean while back in the peleton, disaster struck.. again. Starzengruber had a puncture.
The peleton were still going slow so i dropped my 5 remaining riders back to help him back. No sooner said and the pack shot off after the break. My guys were relaying hard, and still loosing time to the pack. A very unsportsman-like move in my opinion. As we hit the climbs near the end i decided enough was enough. All my riders were ordered into the team car.
I decided that our time would be better spent preparing for the Tour of California coming up in a week.
This was the final result of the Giro di Reggio Calabria.
Support riders
S. Dillier
S. Schärer (TT)
M. Brändle (TT)
S. Rucker
I have no expectations for the upcoming Tour of California. I have one of my sponsor goals coming up in 2 weeks and i need to gain some fitness on my hilly riders. With the big team usually showing up it will be a good experience for my younger riders. This will be the season debut of Keinath, Wyss and Frankhauser.
Schärer and Brändle were brought in as support riders at the start of the season. Being the only two riders with above average TT ability they are hoping for some decent results in the two TT stages of the Tour. My plan for next year is to expand and build my team's TT capability and these two riders are the start of that plan.
Stage 1
A short and flat TT of 4 km. With national/world champion jerseys flying past every 2 mins, any result will be a good result today.
Our own Schärer put in an excellent effort and a Top 25 in a field this strong is more than i could hope for.
Schärer also made the 10th spot in the U-25 ranking which again is above all expectations.
Sprint 1 David Zabriskie Team Garmin - Chipotle powered by H30 25
2 Fabian Cancellara Team CSC Saxo Bank 20
3 David Millar Team Garmin - Chipotle powered by H30 16
Classified as flat, this stage still will test my riders with the hilly bits near the end. The first break attempt was reeled in and my team got the first taste of Pro Tour tempo. The second break was let go without a struggle. We thought it was strange, with Rebellin in the break. Such a strong rider would surely be a threat in a break?
The peleton gave chase after a while, and my support riders were dropped one by one in the uphill sections. The break up front was also breaking apart but Rebellin looked strong and with 27 km to go he held a 3'30" lead.
As he got closer and closer the pack were steaming ahead, and into the sprint they had him in visual range. Still it wasnt enough, he held out for a superb victory. The peleton did manage to gain enough on him to get the same time, and 3 of my riders managed to stay in the pack.
As expected i wont get any results in this race. It's just a prelude to GP di Lugano.
