Floyd Landis joins Rahsaan Bahati after a lackluster stint with OUCH-Maxxis (Photo: Roberto Bettini)
Landis Joins Bahati Foundation The Bahati Foundation Pro Cycling Team announced the arrival of two new riders Tuesday, including the enigmatic Floyd Landis and Josh Berry. Landis most recently was linked to Rock Racing, which was denied a professional license by the UCI for 2010.
"Cycling has given me so many opportunities that I wouldn’t otherwise have had, and I look forward to helping provide the same opportunities for less fortunate kids," said Landis in a team statement.
Team General Manager, Steve Owens commented "we’re confident in Floyd’s commitment to being a powerful ambassador for the Bahati Foundation and supporting the team in winning marquee events like the Tour of California."
Josh Berry, a Portland, Oregon resident, comes to the program as a member of the US national cyclo-cross team.
Rahsaan Bahati and Floyd Landis will be at Helen’s Cycles at 2501 Broadway in Santa Monica, California on Thursday, March 11 from 5-7pm to present the one-of-a-kind Cannondale X Mike Giant graffiti bike that will be on auction at the Bahati Foundation Launch and discuss the Foundation outreach programs. The team launch is scheduled for March 12.
Sanchez Sprints to Green While the race leader's yellow jersey is thus far eluding defending Paris-Nice champion Luis León Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne), he did put in a strong sprint to finish third and stay close to current leader Lars Boom (Rabobank). Sanchez took over the green points jersey in Tuesday's second road stage into Limoges.
"There was a strong headwind, which made things complicated," Sanchez commented after the race. "I had to settle for third place, unable to finish with success another day where my teammates did an incredible job."
"Thanks to the bonus seconds, I'm getting closer to first place in the general classification," he noted. "Now it's important to remain focused and continue to ride as well as we have been until now."
Lars Boom leads Paris-Nice with a five second gap over Saxo Bank's Jens Voigt and another five ahead of Sanchez. Wednesday's stage 3 will take the peloton from Saint-Junien to Aurillac in central France.
|  Sébastien Rosseler gave RadioShack its first victory in February | | (Photo: Roberto Bettini) | Rosseler Ready to Think About Himself Belgian Sébastien Rosseler is ready to emerge from the shadow of his former teammate and classics master, Tom Boonen. Rosseler moved this year from Quick Step to the newly formed Team RadioShack where he will play a supporting role but also take his own chances in the single day classics of spring. With Gert Steegmans out of action for up to two months following his crash in the Paris-Nice prologue, Rosseler may get those chances even sooner than he expected.
"With a Tom Boonen on your team, it's easier to work [for others] than to take on responsibility," Rosseler told La Dernière Heure. "It's true that I need to think more about myself. My problem has always been that I've put myself in the service of others without believing in my own abilities."
This year Rosseler is part of a star-studded RadioShack lineup that is built more for stage racing than the classics, affording names other than Armstrong, Kloden, and Leipheimer chances at team leadership in the one-day races.
"I'm very happy to have changed teams," Rosseler said, adding that he got along well with his Quick Step mates but was ready for a new challenge.
"I'm finally going to have an important role in the races that really excite me: the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, which I've only ridden once because of a number of problems."
| | Michael Rogers will hope to continue his good form at Tirreno-Adriatico | | (Photo: Roberto Bettini) | Cavendish and Rogers lead HTC-Columbia in Italy Super sprinter Mark Cavendish will line up for HTC-Columbia at Tirreno-Adriatico as he tries to hone his form for the defense of his 2009 Milano-Sanremo title. While Tirreno-Adriatico is not a sprinter's paradise, the tough field and parcours should sharpen the legs for Cavendish. He will be joined by Michael Rogers, who has already shown himself to be in better form than previous seasons after suffering thgouh a variety of illnesses and injuries.
"Michael's certainly in great shape, although it's a pity there's no time trial, which would have suited him even more", said directeur sportif Valerio Piva. "For the overall classification we've also got Michael Albasini, who's always up there with the other top guys on stages with uphill finishes. And Marco Pinotti's always got a good chance in these sorts of races, too."
As for Cavendish, Piva wouldn't mind seeing a few more chances for stage wins, even if the race is ultimately a tune-up.
"There's no way he'll be going in too deep," Piva said. "You don't want to burn yourself out in Tirreno-Adriatico and not have enough strength left to do well in Milano-Sanremo. But whenever there's a bunch sprint, that's always a good stage for Mark."
HTC-Columbia for Tirreno-Adriatico: Michael Albasini, Lars Bak, Mark Cavendish, Bernhard Eisel, Marco Pinotti, Bert Grabsch, Peter Velits, Michael Rogers
Milram Backs Gerdemann at Tirreno-Adriatico Linus Gerdemann will lead Milram in Tirreno-Adriatico, which begins Wednesday. The Italian stage race will cover a total of 1,247 kilometers and for those not contesting Paris-Nice will be the first major test for the stage racers.
"Tirreno-Adriatico is the first highest-ranked stage race for us in Europe this year," said Milram directeur sportif Christian Henn. "It is a very important race to which we will send a strong team."
Gerdemann has the support of Markus Fothen, Johannes Fröhlinger, Servais Knaven, Christian Knees, Roy Sentjens, Niki Terpstra, and Fabian Wegmann. He returns to a race that will not have good associations following his serious crash in 2008 in which he broke his femur during a rainy individual time trial.
"To win a stage, you have to be able to sprint uphill in the finale in a leading group," Henn added. "We are well prepared for that and have various possiblities with our team."
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