If Jens Voigt hangs on after Friday’s decisive 33.1-kilometer time trial and wins the Deutschland Tour, he can be grateful to reigning world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara and the rest of his CSC teammates.

It’s thanks to victory in the 42.2km team time trial in stage 2 that Voigt was able to defend the yellow jersey in Wednesday’s climbing blitz up high in the Austrian Alps.

Powered by Cancellara, Team CSC took 25 seconds out of runner-up Discovery Channel and 57 seconds out of Caisse d’Epargne.

Those seconds gave the renowned rouleur Voigt an invaluable head start as he faced off against the climbing specialists up the 2670-meter summit, the highest point of this year’s ProTour.

Motivated to keep the jersey, Voigt played those seconds off archrivals Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel) and eventual stage-winner David Lopez Garcia (Caisse d’Epargne).

“I knew I had those seconds. I was riding within myself, not looking too much right, too much left. I stayed right at the edge before blowing up,” Voigt said. “When I heard that the others (Leipheimer) were getting dropped, I only gave more to the pedals. I was chasing Garcia because knew I had some seconds to him, but not sure how many. I was riding to conserve the podium. It turned out pretty good, I suppose.”

The TTT head start helped keep Voigt securely in the yellow jersey. With the victory and time bonus, Lopez slotted into second place at 33 seconds back, but Voigt can still exploit that cushion going into Friday’s time trial.

Although Leipheimer dropped off the pace in the final three kilometers up the Rettenbachferner, he still presents a dangerous threat poised in fifth at 1:31 back.

“If Levi time trials like he did at the Tour, he can still smoke me,” Voigt said. “I’d like to believe my lead is enough, but anything can happen.”

Cancellara was Voigt’s secret weapon. The team brought him into the race solely to add power to the team time trial performance. He led the way across the line, but Voigt snagged the leader’s jersey thanks to a one-second time bonus he wisely picked up in the first stage.

With his duties fulfilled, Cancellara rode in support for Voigt through the next three stages and abandoned on the road to Soelden. Cancellara was more than happy to pay back the favor to Voigt, who buried himself in the first week of the Tour de France to defend Cancellara’s run in the maillot jaune.

“Fabian wasn’t on the schedule to do the German tour, but we added him because we thought we could get some time in the team time trial,” said Team CSC sport director Kim Andersen. “Just to get a little extra time we knew would help Jens in the mountain stage. Everyone knew the race would be decided on that one climb.”

Bettini, Boonen back for Vuelta bounce
Two world champions know a good thing when they see it.

Defending world champion Bettini and 2005 champ Boonen have both confirmed they start the 2007 Vuelta a España

Both know the value of September in Spain. Each rode Vueltas before their respective world titles and both are committed to the September 1 start in Vigo to see if lightning strikes twice.

“We are bringing a strong team,” said QuickStep-Innergetic team spokesman Alessandro Tegner. “We are also bringing (Juan Manuel) Garate. Both Paolo and Tom will be preparing for the world’s.”

Both will be hoping to catapult out of the Vuelta and into another rainbow jersey. The pair are teammates at QuickStep but will be rivals in the Sept. 30 men’s road race in Stuttgart.

Boonen capped his remarkable 2005 season, that also included the Flanders-Roubaix double, with a somewhat surprising sprint to victory in downtown Madrid. Alessandro Petacchi was the big favorite, but the brawny Belgians delivered a strong Boonen perfectly to the line.

Boonen’s road to Madrid came through the Vuelta, where he abandoned in the 14th stage after two weeks of honing his form on the sun-baked asphalt roads of Spain. He said the miles gave him the depth and resistance he needed to withstand the world championship distances of around 250km.

Last year, Bettini’s dramatic sprint victory in stage 2, when he uncorked a flash of top-end speed, revealed the Italian would be a major player in Salzburg. He pulled out in stage 18 to ride into Austria with the strength to sprint after seven hours of racing.

There’s a fine balance between being fresh and over-cooking the legs in the Vuelta.

In last year’s world’s final sprint, Bettini out-kicked third-place Alejandro Valverde, who was hot off second overall in the Vuelta. World’s-bound Bettini used the grueling Vuelta mountain stages as training while Valverde had to ride 100 percent trying to fend off the Vinokourov-Kashechkin double-whammy.

Valverde has picked up on the clue. He wants to avoid the media circus that would come with a Vuelta appearance and is skipping the Spanish rider altogether so he can go into the Stuttgart world’s fresher than last year.

Schleck Bros. head to Ireland
The professional cycling Tour of Ireland received another boost today with the announcement that CSC team riders Andy and Frank Schleck will both be travelling to the inaugural event sponsored by Fáilte Ireland. 22-year-old Andy burst on the cycling scene in 2004 when he won the Fleche de Sud as an amateur and was given a trial by CSC at the end of that year. The youngster has enjoyed his best year in 2007 when he impressed many by finishing second overall to Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas) in the Giro D’Italia (Tour of Italy) and won the best young rider classification. The talented Luxembourgian finished third on three tough stages in Italy and his reputation as a climber continues to grow. 27-year-old brother Frank has been with the world’s top team CSC since 2003. His key victories include the Amstel Gold Race, the L’Alpe d’Huez stage of the Tour de France in 2006 and he was ranked third in the UCI Pro Tour standings that year. The former Luxembourg road race champion has ridden strongly this season winning stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse and finishing third in the one day classic Liege-Bastogne-Liege. In all he has finished inside the top 10 in 20 major one day races or tour stages this year including the Criterium International, Paris-Nice and La Fleche Wallonne.

"The Tour of Ireland is proud that the world's no. 1 ranked team, CSC, is sending Andy & Frank Schleck to our inaugural Tour," said Project Director Darach McQuaid. "They are a great addition to our line up and will really add to the race with their attacking style. Their results speak for themselves. Team CSC director, Kim Andersen, is a former stage winner in the Nissan Classic so the Schleck brothers will be able to rely on him for crucial tactical advice." The Failte Ireland sponsored five-day race runs from 22nd to 26th August covering 864km of Irish roads. Starting in Kilkenny, the race travels along some of the best of the Irish countryside in many counties before finishing in Dublin on a circuit based on Merrion Square. The race has attracted three Pro Tour teams CSC, T-Mobile and Unibet.com as well as top teams from the Europe and the USA. Colavita/Sutter Homes, Navigators insurance and Team Slipstream/Chipotle represent teams from the USA.