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Thursday's Eurofile: Ullrich to ride Swiss Tour; Comunidad shake-up; Hoste to Davitamon

Ullrich rode Romandie in April and will return to Switzerland this month

Photo: AFP (file photo)

Jan Ullrich – fresh off riding most of the 89th Giro d’Italia – will race the Tour de Suisse later this month as part of his preparations ahead of the Tour de France.

Ullrich, who abandoned during the 19th stage at the Giro, was considering racing the hilly Vuelta a Asturias in northern Spain, but opted for the Swiss tour (June 10-18) because it’s four days longer and features harder climbs than the Spanish race.

Three-time world time trial champion Michael Rogers, who was forced to abandon the Giro with a toothache in stage 13, will also race alongside Ullrich, which the German won in 2004. Others expected to start include Andreas Klöden, Linus Gerdemann, Sergey Ivanov, Lorenzo Bernucci, Giuseppe Guerini, Kim Kirchen and Patrik Sinkewitz, though the official lineup will be announced next week.

With the Swiss tour on tap, the team will scratch plans to preview decisive climbing stages in the French Alps ahead of the Tour.

Labarta resigns, Belda says team deserves Tour berth
José Ignacio Labarta – the Comunidad Valenciana assistant sport director who was picked up with four others last week by Spanish authorities as part of a doping investigation – resigned from the team Wednesday.

The move comes after reports Wednesday that Tour de France organizers are poised to revoke the team’s wild-card bid to start the 2006 Tour.

Team manager Vicente Belda insists that his Comunidad Valenciana has nothing to do with the doping investigation dubbed “Operación Puerto” and that his team deserves a spot in the season’s most important race.

“If we are not in the Tour it will be the biggest injustice that can be committed in the world of cycling,” Belda told reporters at the Euskal Bizikleta bike race. “We have a clear conscience. We hope the bad news stops right there. We´ve been doing things the past few years as they should be done. We have nothing to hide and have nothing that can make us guilty.”

Labarta, whose decision to leave the team was announced on the team’s web page, said he “maintains his innocence” of anything to do with the police investigation, but said he left the voluntarily to distance any suspicion from the team. The team communiqué also insisted the team has always acted wthin a “legal and sporting ethic.”

Labarta was one of five people detained as part of the police investigation last week, along with doctors Eufemiano Fuentes and José Luis Merino Batres, ex-mountain biker Alberto León and team manager Manolo Sáiz.

Hoste to leave Disco
Belgian classics rider Leif Hoste will ride for Davitamon-Lotto next season following a two-year stint with Discovery Channel. The 28-year-old Hoste - who won the Three Days of De Panne and finished second in Tour of Flanders – accepted a better offer to return to the Belgian team.

Discovery Channel manager Johan Bruyneel said the team made a solid offer to keep Hoste.

“The principle we have is if a rider performs well and likes the environment and the team setting then it takes a lot better offer to leave. No one leaves for the same money. Hoste had a good spring and we offered him a good improvement on his contract for 2007, but others offered him more,” Bruyneel said on thepaceline.com. “I thought our offer was good for him and his value on the market, so in order to leave then someone has to offer to pay him more than his value. We won't overpay anyone just to keep him, so then the rider has to decide if the change he is offered is worth the money.”

More down time for Petacchi
Any chance of a recovery in time for the Tour de France was erased for Alessandro Petacchi after X-rays taken Wednesday of his knee revealed the Italian sprinter will need two more weeks of rest before returning to serious training.

Petacchi, 33, was operated on May 10 after a crash in the third stage of the Giro d’Italia.

“I have to remain immobile for another two week and then undergo another exam,” Petacchi said. “I was hoping for better news, but as I have previously said, the most important thing is to have a full recovery and not compromise the remainder of my season.”

Di Luca to race Tour, Nibali leads Liquigas at Dauphiné
Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas) will race the Tour de France with the hopes of erasing his disappointing performance at the Giro d’Italia (23rd at 58:50).

“I still believe I can fight for the overall classification in a three-week tour,” Di Luca said. “The relief of the climbs aren’t as hard as the Giro this year and I still want to try to do something. Basso won with a lot of merit on a very hard course and I am still convinced of my potential to race for three weeks.”

Di Luca – who roared through last year’s spring classics to finish fourth overall in the 2005 Giro en route to claiming the inaugural overall ProTour title – sacrificed his spring campaign to arrive in top shape for a run at the Giro podium. Di Luca was never able to stay with the top favorites in any of the climbing stages and faded out of contention by the second week.

While Di Luca still believes he has something to prove in three-week tour, Discovery Channel’s Johan Bruyneel said Di Luca should take another lesson out of his Giro disappointment.

I think it was risky to put everything on the Giro. He was fourth last year, but it was at the end of a a great period,” Bruyneel told VeloNews last weekend. “If you don’t try, you don’t know. Now he knows that it’s better for him to focus on the big classics because he’s one of the best in the world there.”

In other news, the team announced Italian sensation Vicenzo Nibali – a winner this spring of a stage in the the Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali - will be the team leader for the Dauphiné Libéré.

Liquigas for Dauphiné Libéré (June 4-11)Vincenzo NibaliMauro Da DaltoFrancesco FailliNicola LodaMarco MilesiManuel QuinziatoMarco RighettoAlessandro Spezialetti