Road Bike Racing - HEW-Cyclassics-Cup World Cup Results

Paolo Bettini outsprinted breakaway companions David Rebellin and Jan Ullrich to win this leg of the World Cup Series in Hamburg, Germany.

George Hincapie was in one of the final breaks but was caught with about 25 kms to go.

Since Bettini won Milan-San Remo, this vaults him into contention for the World Cup Leaders jersey, currently held by Peter Van Petegem, winner of Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders. Each World Cup victory is worth 100 World Cup points. Petegem had 200 pts. coming into todays race. Petegem finished 23rd today, for which he was awarded 3 WC pts. This gives Petegem a slim lead of 203 pts to Bettini's 200 pts in the overall competition.

www.cyclingnews.com/road/2003/worldcup03/hew03/?id=results

It's nice to see Rebellin have a good result after a bad tour.

To bad that guy can't sprint. Seems like he's always there at the finish. I was really hoping for Celestino tho. Did you hear that Rebellin has been diagnosed with Asthma? I wonder how that will affect his future results.

Didn't hear that. As an ex-racer with asthma, I'm always interested in hearing about pro riders with the same condition.

Who was the poor guy who abandoned the tour after he forgot to bring his inhaler with during one stage? I felt awful for him.

By the way, what is Rebellin's specialty, if any? Or is he just a all around kind of guy who is smart enough to keep himself towards the front?

Rebellin has always appeared to be an opportunistc all-rounder to me. Kinda like Tchmil, but not the hard man type. Gets in breaks then solos away close to the finish.

I'm trying to compile a list of riders who could be called "pure" in their respective specialty. Remember the word "pure." Armstrong is a great climber but he's not a pure climber in the same way that Cippo is a pure sprinter.

Anyone willing to help?

Heras and Simoni are "pure" climbers in my book. An on-form Simoni at the Giro owned the mountains. Heras attacked on the Angrilu in the Vuelta last year, something like a 21% grade!? Would've won GC if he could time trial at all.

Petacci is probably as pure a sprinter as Cipo and may well replace him. When on form he's beaten Cipo and McEwen isn't really in the same league. Like Cipo sure can't climb either.

Can we safely put Mayo, Viranque and Rubiera in the pure climber catagory?

How about Cook, Steels, Nazon and Kirsipuu in the sprinter catagory?

Well Cook took the Green jersey from McEwen who is a sprinter so I'd say so.

Virenque specializes in the long solo breakaway on mountain stages, That seems to be his forte. As a pure climber he's probably behind many others. One reason he gets to pull those breakawys off is that he's not a GC threat. If someone like Mayo or Heras tried that they'd be marked in heartbeat.

Nazon's sprint in Paris was beautiful (as a spectator I love the sprints) and I've heard him referred to often as a sprinter but can't recall any other successes. OLN doesn't show everything though.

Just a reminder that OLN is showing this tonight. 8:00 eastern time.

Categorizing riders is tougher than it first appears. It seems easy to say that Virenque is a pure climber. But he won Paris-Tours in a Jacky Durand type of move. Is he a climber? Sure. But is he also an outstanding cyclist who can win in other ways, given the right situation? Yep.

If Virenque could time trial....? How many Tours would he have?

Arrrrgh!! No, don d. don't do it. I can't take another "What if..." thread. :-)

Ok-I'll stop.:D