6.02.08
ROSTERS
FOR COMMERCE BANK LIBERTY CLASSIC ANNOUNCED
June
2,
2008:
With
less than a week to go before the Commerce Bank
Triple Crown of Cycling commences, organizers have
announced a star-studded start list for the men’s
three-race series. Among the big names that will
be toeing the line are former Paris-Roubaix champ
Magnus Backstedt, last year’s Triple Crown
series victor Bernard Eisel, multi-time Tour de
France stage winner Daniele Bennati, and Cuban sensation
Ivan Dominguez, arguably the No. 1 sprinter in the
domestic peloton.
This fearsome foursome are
part of a 25-team, 200-rider field that will begin
battle on June 3rd at the Lehigh Valley Classic,
an 85-mile, 12-lap circuit race that traces a twisting
path through Allentown and Salisbury Township. Two
days later, the Triple Crown race caravan relocates
to Reading for a 75-mile, 10-lap affair that darts
back and forth between the city’s downtown
and the summit of nearby Mt. Penn.
Finally comes the titan of
North American one-day races, the Philadelphia International
Championship. Celebrating its 24th running, this
epic 156-mile test of mettle begins and ends on
Philadelphia’s famed Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
In between, the world’s best cyclists will
blaze their way around 10 laps of the 14.4-mile
primary circuit that includes the infamous Manayunk
Wall, with its always-raucous fans and precipitous
17-percent grades. The 10 long laps are followed
by three testing finishing circuits up and over
Lemon Hill before the 2008 champion is crowned.
To the victors will go the lion’s share of
a $93,500 prize purse that includes a $10,000 bonus
for the overall series winner.
Backstedt, the reigning Swedish
national champion, comes to Pennsylvania with his
new Slipstream-Chipotle team that also includes
Olympic track cycling hopeful Mike Friedman, rising
Dutch star Martijn Maaskant, Aussie Chris Sutton,
and Americans Will Frischkorn, Steven Cozza, Jason
Donald and Tyler Farrar. Backstedt, Maaskant and
Farrar are all on the short list of riders the Boulder,
Colorado-based team may take to July’s Tour
de France.
“We’re an American
team so these are very important races for us,”
explained Slipstream team director Jonathan Vaughters,
adding that he was especially excited about Maaskant’s
prospects at the Triple Crown series. “We
feel like he could win any of those races.”
California-based Team High
Road also comes in with high expectations, bolstered
by a roster that includes 2007 series champ Eisel,
multi-time Triple Crown race winner Greg Henderson,
2001 Paris-Roubaix winner Servais Knaven, multi-time
Olympic medalist Bradley Wiggins, and key support
riders Edvald Boasson Hagen, Roger Hammond, Tony
Martin and Vincente Reynes Mimo.
Expect Eisel and Henderson
to be the team’s lethal one-two punch. A year
ago Eisel won the opening two legs of the Triple
Crown on his way to overall victory. Henderson pulled
his own double in 2006, taking the Reading Classic
and the Philadelphia International Championship.
A year earlier the Kiwi won in Lancaster, predecessor
to the new-for-2008 Lehigh Valley Classic.
Look for the Lehigh race to
be a battle among the sprinters, and right now there
is none better in the world than Italian Daniele
Bennati, leader of the powerful Liquigas squad that’s
headed to Pennsylvania next week. Already this year,
Bennati has scored three grand tour stage wins at
the famous Giro d’Italia, and another victory
at Switzerland’s Tour of Romandie. In 2007,
Bennati grabbed a win for the ages, taking the final
stage of the Tour de France on the famed Champs
d’Élysées in downtown Paris.
Come July, Bennati will be back at the Tour, but
first he’ll be looking to make a little history
in Philadelphia.
Barring a last-minute change
in plans, history will not repeat itself due to
Team CSC’s decision to not bring defending
Philadelphia champion J.J. Haedo to this year’s
Triple Crown. Danish-based CSC, the fourth Tour
de France team in this year’s Triple Crown
field, has been battered by injuries of late (two
riders broke collarbones on the same day at the
Giro d’Italia) and needed the talented Argentine
to stay in Europe. In his place, team leadership
duties fall to Aussie Matthew Goss, who was second
behind Haedo in Philadelphia in 2007. Goss will
be supported by Danes Kasper Klostergaard, Lasse
Bochman, André Steensen, Lars Bak and Matti
Breschel.
Battling these four Tour de
France teams will be a full compliment of U.S.-based
teams, plus professional squads from Poland, Ireland,
Canada, Germany and Mexico.
The likely top threat to the
big boys will be Dominguez and his Toyota-United
team, whose roster includes former Philadelphia
winners Henk Vogels and Chris Wherry, Aussies Caleb
Manion and brothers Hilton and Johnny Clarke, Serbian
Ivan Stevic and Canadian Dominique Rollin.
“We feel like we have
a really good line-up for this series,” predicted
Toyota-United team director Scott Moninger. “We’re
probably a little better suited for these races
than the other domestic teams because we have so
much speed and one-day racing talent.”
Indeed, besides the lightning-quick
Dominguez, Toyota-United can also look to Rollin
who has the coveted combination of sprinting speed
and breakaway horsepower.
“We feel like either
one of those guys could be there,” added Moninger.
“Our strategy will just depend on who has
the best legs.”
Another top U.S.-based threat
is Health Net-Maxxis and its all-purpose star Rory
Sutherland. The Aussie has been on a tear this year,
already taking overall wins at the Joe Martin and
Mt. Hood Cycling Classic stage races. He’ll
be supported by a veteran team that includes fellow
Australian Karl Menzies and Americans Tim Johnson,
Frank Pipp, Kyle Gritters, John Murphy, Kirk O’Bee
and Phil Zajicek.
“I think Reading could
be perfect for Rory,” said Zajicek. “He’s
got enough strength to get over the climb and then
get across the line.”
The wildcard of the Triple
Crown field will be the new bad boys of cycling,
Rock Racing. The California team is fresh off an
inspired performance at the Tour of Colombia and
will be looking for its first major victory of 2008.
“We are definitely going
to be ready for Philly week,” said Rock Racing
team leader Fred Rodriguez, a multi-time U.S. national
champion. “It’s really important for
me and the team.”
That team will include Colombians
Victor Hugo Peña, Santiago Botero, Spaniard
Oscar Sevilla, and Americans Michael Creed, Tyler
Hamilton, Doug Ollerenshaw and Kayle Leogrande.
“At the Tour de Georgia
we were riding on our last bit of energy,”
explained Rodriguez of his team’s sub-par
performance at the April stage race. “But
now we are on our way back up.”
Consider that a warning shot
to all the competitors of the 2008 Commerce Bank
Triple Crown of Cycling. You can be sure it won’t
be the last bullet fired.
Source:
Pro Cycling Tour
