If Jakob Piil is on form, why is he not in La Vuelta?

From the Team CSC website. Jakob finishing strong!

© Tim De Waele

Fifth Place for Piil

[27.08 19:27] After his second place in Italy a couple of days ago Team CSC’s Jakob Piil today confirmed the fact, that he is in great shape in the French ProTour race, GP Ouest France Plouay.

Piil was very aggressive during the last laps of the traditional race in Bretagne, which was decided between four riders, who escaped towards the end. Liquigas’ Vincenzo Nibali took a comfortable victory ahead of Juan-Antonio Flecha (Rabobank).

Piil won the sprint among the pursuers and took a fifth place.

“We did fine the whole day and at the end we had quite good cards on our hands. Again Jakob was very convincing and even had the strength for several attacks during the final lap. He was very strong today. All in all we’re quite satisfied with the result and we probably managed to get some points for the ProTour rankings as well,” said sports director Alain Gallopin after the race.

Fränk Schleck was involved in crash, but escaped with only cuts and bruises.

Saul Raisin Update

Two weeks ago, I talked about the amazing progress Being made by Saul Raisin. In searching Saul’s website, it seems he will be attending the US Pro championships in Greenville SC over Labor Day weekend.

What floors me is after only two weeks of being allowed to ride outside, Saul will be riding for Charity! Saul will be participating in the Palmetto Peloton Project charity ride. The Palemtto Peloton Project is an outgrowth of the Peloton Project, a grass roots effort to raise funds for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Having been a member of the Peloton Project since 2002, what these guys have done in SC is amazing.

Not nearly as amazing as what Saul is doing!

Mighty Thor strikes gold at La Vuelta.

Adding to his jersey collection, Thor Hushovd of Credit Agricole took the Golden Fleece from Carlos Sastre after the CSC rider punctured in the final two kilometers. Sastre recovered to get awarded the same time as the main peloton however Hushovd gained enough bonus seconds to remove the Maillot Oro from Sastre’s shoulders. Paolo Bettini took the sprint ahead of Hushovd, Luca Paolini of Liquigas, and Robbie McEwen of Davitamaon-Lotto. So, Robbie can be beat this year.

CSC with perhaps the strongest team for the Team Time Trial claimed the first stage and allowing Carlos Sastre to cross the line first to take the first leaders jersey of this year’s Vuelta.

Andreas Klöden moves to Astana

In a move that makes me happy and nervous, Andreas Klöden has announced on his website that he will be signing on with the Kazach team in 2007.

“I did not want to leave T-Mobile, but the situation there is not clear right now. I’m looking forward to a new beginning and a big challenge at Astana, which has proved itself to be a very good team.”

The happiness is that this should continue to build Astana as a legitimate ProTour team as it looks to raise itself out of the Liberty Seguros ashes. The nervousness comes in knowing that the downfall of T-Mobile came when riders specifically Klöden, refused to work for the good of the team. Instead, he focused on his personal ambitions.

Walter Godefroot, who put the T-Mobile team together thus proving the “sum of the parts is less than the whole” theory, is responsible for advising Astana in this deal. He also brought along Mathais Kessler from T-Mobile. Godefroot says this will not be an issue.

“Klöden will surely not be captain at Astana in any case, because this role clearly belongs to Alexandre Vinokourov.”

Klöden, however was not as emphatic. In fact, his words sound eerily like his carefully parsed words when asked about supporting Jan Ullrich in previous tours.

“The main reason for my decision is especially the fact that I will go to a very strong team with riders like Alexandre Vinokourov and Andrei Kashechkin, with whom we will be able to accomplish much in the coming season.”

Does bringing both Klöden and a lieutenant in Kessler sow the seeds of discontent? Net result, I think Klöden’s negatives outweigh the positives. Bad deal.