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Swiss Week for Linda McCartney
The final preparations for the Giro d'Italia have swung into gear for the
Linda McCartney Pro Cycling Team. They are in Switzerland for a week's hard
racing against some of the sport's biggest names.
Sunday's Grand Prix of Gippengen was raced off over a hard circuit that fully
tested the big international field, but Sean Yates was delighted with the
team's performance.
"Everybody pulled together, and that was one of our best rides at a one-day
race this season," reported the happy team manager.
Matt Stephens showed that his great early season form is returning at the
perfect time, as his aggression took him into the lead for the day's best
climber prize. Only when the consistently excellent Stefan Wesemann of
Telekom took off with Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, Stefano
Garzelli and Laurent Dufaux to dispute the finish did Matt get muscled out of
the money. Ben Brooks also showed that he is coming good at the right time,
as he stayed at Max Sciandri's side as a faithful domestique from first to
last.
Wesemann won the sprint with Garzelli, Dufaux and Armstrong close behind. All
the McCartney hitters were in the rapidly closing main field.
The team had Monday off, and are now facing up to one of their biggest races
of the year, the Tour of Romandie, starting on the Italian border in Locarno
on Tuesday. It's a race that Linda McCartney's Olympic Champion Pascal
Richard has won before, back in 1994. He is fired-up to do well in front of
his devoted home following. The team will be Pascal Richard, Max Sciandri,
Matt Stephens, Ben Brooks, David McKenzie, Tayeb Braikia, Bjornar Vestol and
Maurizio De Pasquale.
Report by John Deering
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