Post-Roubaix News & Unibet Illegal in Belgium

By Jessica | Permalink |

No Comments | April 15th, 2007 | Trackback

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Some post-Roubaix news from around the peloton, courtesy of CyclingNews:

Leif Hoste’s day ended in a collision with a motorbike (yet another reason to curb the number on the course). It doesn’t appear that he was injured in the incident - “An unlucky Leif Hoste (Predictor-Lotto) was riding strong in a group with Tom Boonen (QuickStep) during the race finale when he was inadvertantly taken down by a motorcycle. ‘Tom had to swerve to avoid the motorbike, but I couldn’t avoid him anymore,’ Hoste told Belgian Sporza. ‘The race was over for me then. With Tom, we could have caught the chasers [Flecha, Leukemans, Wesemann and Petito - ed.], I’m sure of that. I knew that we weren’t in for the victory anymore, but I could have gotten second…’”

Last year’s winner, Fabian Cancellara, seems genuinely thrilled for his teammate, and says he’ll be resting for a bit now in anticipation of his next appearance - the Giro d’Italia. He says nothing happened to him today, he just didn’t have it.

Today’s 3rd-place finisher, Steffan Wesemann, is particularly pleased with his podium finish after not getting a contract from T-Mobile after last year.

CN has their photo gallery up now, so go here for a thumbnail album.

In other news, it turns out Unibet.com is actually illegal in Belgium, just like the ASO said last week. Why the team raced Gent-Wevelgem is another question entirely, but it now looks like they won’t be able to ride the Ardennes Classics.

According to Radsportnews, the Belgian public commission on gambling has now issued an official statement that “Unibet organises gambling games for which the company does not have a permission in Belgium. It targets a new group of clients through illegal advertisement, especially through the sponsorship of a cycling team.”

Stay tuned.