VUELTA A ANDALUCIA:
The last stage of the Vuelta a Andalucia was won by Ventoso,who outsprinted the climbing sprinter Simon Gerrans and race leader Michael Rogers,who won the overall classification of the race.5th in the stage and 4th in the GC was Jens Voigt,who now will have to answer to questions like "Did you expect it to begin your season so well after your dreadful crash in the Tour 2009?" in every single bloody interview.You have my support,Jens.
19th in the last stage was Frank Schleck,who was also 13th in the GC.Second in the GC was Jurgen Van Den Broeck,whereas 3rd was Sergio Pardilla.
Considering Frank's good results,me is confident that he will get good results also in the Paris-Nice.
THE GIRO DI SARDEGNA:
The Giro di Sardegna overall classification was won by Roman Kreuziger,winner of stage 2.The 1st stage was won by Gavazzi and the 3rd one by Petacchi,who's already looking forward to the Milan-Sanremo.The 4th stage ended in a bunch sprint which wasn't won by Petacchi but by his teammate Hondo.In fact Petacchi fell in the last meters of the race because he hurt the arm of a spectator who was taking a picture of the sprint.Also Gatto,Colli and Sabatini fell.Luckily none of the riders suffered major injuries and they were all able to take part in the last stage of the race.
The "rider hits spectator and goes down" scenery is unfortunately pretty common in cycling (it happened also last yer at the Tour Down Under,if my memory doesn't fail me) and I think I'd go crazy if I caused an accident like that during a race.In fact the idea of hurting a rider without realising it disturbs me so much that every time I go to see a race I always climb a hill/wall/something similar in order to avoid this kind of problems.Unfortunately,not everyone pays attention to these things...
Anyway,the last stage of the race (and the only one that I managed to watch) was won by Loddo, who outsprinted Petacchi and Gatto.The stage was characterised by a solo attack by Bruno Radotic,a Croatian rider from team Mediterrania Kamen,who broke clear from the peloton after few kms and was caught with just 10 kms to go.
The sprint,as already said,saw the victory of Alberto Loddo.This victory was pretty special to Loddo,since he actually comes from Sardinia and because this victory (the 27th in his career) was the first one that he ever achieved in Italy.
OMLOOP HET NIEUWSBALD:
The Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (what does its name mean,me wonders) was won by Juan Antonio Flecha,also known as Van Der Flecha because of his love for Classics held in Holland or Belgium. This race,whose name is impossible to pronounce for me,allowed Flecha to get his first individual victory since October 2008.The Spaniard (who I still considered a Rabobank rider until few minutes ago) attacked with 20 kms to go and got a very nice and important victory.
Haussler came in 2nd,Farrar was 3rd,4th was Paolini,5th was Sieberg and 6th was Boasson Hagen.
(Pics by Bettini and AFP)
(Pics by Bettini and AFP)
Omloop het nieuwsblad doesn't really mean much. Het nieuwsblad is the name of a belgian newspaper/newsmagazine. The nieuwsblad is the main sponsor of the race. It is actually the dutch word for newsmagazine. And omloop means circuit.
RispondiEliminaI think Flecha deserved to win a race (I also thought he was a rabobank rider untill I saw his kit :P)
Thank you very much for the translation! I've always wondered what the name of that race meant,and I'm always pretty curious when foreign languages are concerned,so your help has been very welcomed! :)
RispondiEliminaUnfortunately I couldn't see the race (they don't broadcast it here in Italy),but I'm very happy to know that Flecha won,since he's a rider I pretty like.Anyway I think it will take me a lot of time to get used to his team change-I've always seen him racing for Rabobank!