Roberto Heras knows about winning, in fact he has helped Lance Armstrong during several tours and was his right hand man during the all important mountain stages several years ago when he rode for the defunct US Postal Team (now the Discovery Channel Team). Roberto has also won some very impressive races himself including last years Vuelta Espana (Tour Of Spain) which is considered one of the three major or “Grand Tours” of the sport of cycling.
However this year Roberto Heras has ambitions of his own, a podium placing is what his sights will be upon. Talking to the Spanish daily Marca, he said “I believe that we are going to do a good Tour because this team has real quality.” Not surprisingly, Heras considers the biggest Team rivals to be “Discovery Channel, Phonak, CSC and T-Mobile. Riding with team mate Josheba Beloki for Team Liberty Seguros Heras and Beloki promise a few tricks up their sleeve for Armstrong when they reach the all important first mountain stage.
Joseba Beloki makes a welcome return to the tdf this year after an awful (I watched this one live and it really was a terrible moment) high speed crash decending during a mountain stage of the 2003 tour. This year Beloki is in fine spirits and welcomes the race as well as the Tour Of Spain later in the season. Beloki says, “Well, I hope that I do well in the Tour de France. For me it is just another race, but it has got to me and that’s why I want to do as well as I can. I think we have the team to do a great Tour if everything goes well. The team is very good and so we want to be competitive in the best race in the world. Then, of course, we have the Vuelta, but I can’t think about that now. When you have the Tour in mind, you have to completely concentrate on it. Only when you have finished can you begin to look towards other objectives.”
Both riders commented on Lance Armstrong saying he will be the man to beat (like we did not know that) however they also made reference to T-Mobile with both Vinokourov and Yan Ullrich. Vinokourov has been in excellent form over the last several weeks riding away from Armstrong several weeks ago in the Dauphiné Liberé on the toughest mountain stage. Also riding for T-Mobile is the German star Ullrich, who won the Tour de France in 97 but has had the unfortunate luck of coming up during the Armstrong rein.
2005 Tour de France Liberty Seguros Team
- Roberto Heras
- Joseba Beloki
- Alberto Contador
- Allan Davis
- Angel Vicioso
- Marcos Serrano
- Jörg Jaksche
- Luis León Sanchez
- Allan Davis
- Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano
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