RABOBANK BRINGS TALENTED SQUAD TO THE VUELTA A ESPANA
|
;setCaption(document.image_thumb); "3) Robert Gesink (left) and Lars Boom will both ride Giant in the 2009 Vuelta a Espana. Photo by Cor Vos")
;setCaption(document.image_extra_one_thumb); "2) 3-time World Champion Oscar Freire aboard the Giant Trinity Advanced SL TT bicycle—the fastest bike on the planet. Photo by Cor Vos")
;setCaption(document.image_extra_two_thumb); "1) Juan Manual Garate rides Giant across the finish line first atop Mont Ventoux in Stage 20 of the Tour de France. Photo by Cor Vos")
Universal Sports to Broadcast Grand Tour on TV and the Web
Team Rabobank members competing at the upcoming 2009 Vuelta a Espana include a 23-year-old Dutch rider who will be making his Grand Tour debut. Lars Boom, the 2008 cyclo-cross World Champion has already established himself on the road, winning the Tour of Belgium earlier this summer. He will be concentrating on the Vuelta prologue, as well as simply gaining general experience.
Also seeing action in the year’s Vuelta (which begins in Holland on August 29th and ends in Madrid on September 20th) are Rabobank riders Robert Gesink and Juan Manuel Garate. Both men raced in the 2009 Tour de France, with Garate riding his Giant TCR Advanced SL bicycle to a decisive Stage 20 win at the top of Mont Ventoux. Gesink, the Best Young Rider in the 2009 Tour of California, crashed and had to abandon the Tour de France with an injured wrist. Team Rabobank officials say Gesink is completely healed and was already looking forward to riding in the Vuelta shortly after his mishap in Stage 5 of the Tour de France. "I saw he was not too disappointed after his fall in the Tour," said Rabobank Sporting Director Erik Breukink, at a press conference prior to the Vuelta. "I think that even as he was suffering to finish that stage he was thinking of the Vuelta. That is typical of Robert, he is always looking ahead."
Each stage of the 2009 Vuelta a Espana will be broadcast daily on Universal Sports TV beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET. Check with your local cable/satellite provider on where to find Universal Sports TV and the times the Vuelta will be broadcast. You can also watch each stage of the Vuelta, streaming live on the internet beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET, at www.universalsports.com.
The Rabobank squad for the Vuelta, with the inclusion of 3-time World Champion Oscar Freire, looks to be quite strong—and the team has the added advantage of riding the fastest, most technologically advanced bicycles in the pro peloton. On most stages, they will ride the TCR Advanced SL, delivering unmatched power and efficiency, from sprint finishes to mountain summits. In the Vuelta time trials (Prologue, Stage 7, Stage 20) the team will ride the Trinity Advanced SL – proven to be one of the fastest bikes in the world. It’s a ground-breaking, wind-cheating design that’s been proven by world championship-winning results, wind tunnel testing and competition at the highest levels of the sport, with a host of proprietary technologies and features that make this the sleekest clock-beater ever:
• AeroDrive aerodynamically honed stem-and-fork control center that locks the stem, steerer and fork crown into a single structural unit for ultimate handling
• MegaDrive aero downtube and top tube for unprecedented front-end steering precision
• SpeedControl proprietary braking system that’s virtually invisible to the air
• Vector SLR aero seatpost with integrated internal seatclamp for aero, efficiency and maximum fore-aft stiffness and pedaling stability
The Dutch-based team will have extra motivation for stage victories in the Vuelta; the first three stages take place in the Netherlands, home turf for six of the ten team members selected for the Grand Tour.
Team Rabobank selection for the 2009 Vuelta a Espana:
Mauricio Ardila
Lars Boom
Oscar Freire
Robert Gesink
Juan Manuel Garate
Tom Leezer
Paul Martens
Koos Moerenhout
Bram Tankink
Pieter Weening
Download the 2009 Universal Sports Vuelta a Espana broadcast schedule