Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Pozzato new Lanterne Rouge
Filippo Pozzato, an Italian rider on the Quickstep-Innergetic team (teammate of race leader Tom Boonen), was dropped by the peleton just after the border of the Netherlands. He arrived at the finish line 18:36 after the stage winner, along with the Tour's largest rider, Magnus Backstedt (Swedish rider for Liquigas). They arrived over 4 minutes after a grupetto which included former Tour de France Lanterne Rouge Jimmy Casper.The result is that Pozzato becomes the new Lanterne Rouge in Stage 3 of the 2006 Tour de France. Yesterday's Lanterne Rouge Aitor Hernandez rode toward the back of the peleton for a ways during today's difficult stage, probably still fatigued from the long breakaway yesterday, but moves up in 170th place in the overall standings, and still holds 4th place in the King of the Mountains competition.
Pozzato was the winner of this year's Milan-San Remo race.
But more importantly, Pozzato got special mention in PezCyclingNews for his stylish curls.
Update: According to Eurosport: "The big Swede [Backstedt] suffered more than most from the heat, vomiting several times and finding himself unable to keep up with the peloton on the closing, undulating stages. The Wales-based Liquigas rider, who has spent relatively little time on his bike since crashing in Majorca in February, told Eurosport: "It's just the heat has taken its toll on me. I've thrown up four or five times. It's just one of those things. Normally I don't mind the heat. Give me a day or two and I'll be back."
