Tour de l’Ain

Prologue:  Ambérieu-En-Bugey, 3km/1.9mi

By Cathy Mehl

It was a short and sweet opening prologue at the Tour de l’Ain on Tuesday night, made  all the sweeter with Haimar Zubeldia pulling out the win for Team RadioShack.   Zubeldia was the fastest rider in the short effort against the clock and was just hundredths of a second faster than the surprising young Dutch rider Wilco Kelderman (Rabobank Continental Team) who took second.  Zubeldia will start tomorrow in the yellow leader’s jersey in stage 1 of the five day race.  For 33-year old Zubeldia this is his first individual victory as a professional rider in ten years. On May 28th 2000, he won the overall classification the Bicicleta Vasca.  He also finished three times in the top ten of the Tour de France.

“This is more than I expected,” commented the prologue winner. “I only had the Clásica San Sebastián in my legs as competition. Moreover this prologue looked just too short for me, but Team Director Alain Gallopin pushed me over the limit.”

“At  1 K from the finish, I saw that Haimar was only 1 second slower than Kelderman, who had the best time,” said Team Director Alain Gallopin. “As Haimar always has been a good prologue rider, I yelled him through the  not-so-easy last kilometer to the finish in the rue Alexandre Bérard. I am convinced that Haimar can win the overall classification on Saturday. With only six riders per team it is not so easy to control the race, but we will do everything we can.”

Haimar Zubeldia broke his right wrist in the first stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné in June and was not able to participate at the Tour de France. “As I was still hoping to go to the Tour, I immediately continued for ten days my training on the rollers,” explained Zubeldia.  “When it became clear that it would be impossible to get ready in time, I stopped training for two weeks and started again during the Tour de France. With my teammate and training partner Markel Irizar I trained a lot in the Pyrenees. My goal was the Clásica San Sebastián, where I finished fourth without any prior racing in the legs. The season is not over yet. It is a pity and a shame that the Tour de France’s best team is not invited to the Tour of Spain, but we will show ourselves  in the other races. This is already a good beginning."

“I am not a winner. My job in the team is to help our Grand Tour riders in the mountains. I always kept hard working. This victory is a nice compensation for my hard work. We are a small but good team and we will try to keep yellow until the end. It would be nice to win this 22nd Tour de l’Ain,” concluded Zubeldia.    Oh we beg to differ, Mr. Zubeldia – you are indeed a winner. 

Wednesday’s stage is 144.4km/90mi from Lagnieu to Saint Vulbas.   Haimar will ride as the protected rider while Chechu, Ivan, Markel, Fumy and Dimi go about controlling the race for our Basque leader.

Top Ten Results

1              Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Team Radioshack                0:03:38                   

2              Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Rabobank Continental                    

3              Laurent Mangel (Fra) Saur - Sojasun                         

4              Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto                0:00:01  

5              Matthieu Boulo (Fra) Roubaix Lille Metropole                      

6              Tony Gallopin (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne                      

7              Moreno Hofland (Ned) Rabobank Continental   0:00:02  

8              Tejay Van Garderen (USA) Team HTC - Columbia                               

9              Romain Feillu (Fra) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team                                

10            Steve Morabito (Swi) BMC Racing Team

Team RadioShack Results

22           Markel Irizar (Spa) Team Radioshack       0:00:07                 

33           Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn) Team Radioshack 0:00:09

37           José-Luis Rubiera (Spa)  0:00:10

42           Ivan Rovny (Rus) Team Radioshack          0:00:11                 

87           Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)

Photo courtesy of Graham Watson