Dekker Confirms With TT Victory

4th Stage Tirreno Adriatico

Time trial of 12 kms, Rieti-Rieti, without hills.
Today’s 12 km individual TT was won with a fine performance by Erik Dekker (Rabobank), who triumphed over Ruslan Ivanov (Alessio) by 12 hundredth, and on Floyd Landis (Us Postal) for 3″.
Great perfomance for Oscar Freire (Mapei). He closed 8th with 15″ from the leader.
He and Dekker are showing great form for the World Cup, stating in SanRemo this week.
Dekker is also the leader, with 11″ on Ivanov, and 23″ on Freire.
The performances ofHruska (Once) and Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) seem to have left them out of games for the final victory.

Tomorrow Rieti-Torricella Sicura.

Another Raid: Riders, their rooms and possessions were checked again this morning by a blitz of Nas and Guardia di Finanza at 7am.
They checked and after interrogation of Rebellin (Gerorsteiner), Sacchi (Saeco), Stangelj (Fassa Bortolo), Casarotto, Casagranda, and Leoni (Alessio).
The riders were a bit shocked (of course), but the policemen found nothing.

Interview

Dekker:”There are still some difficults stages, but it’s better to have some seconds of advantage.
The stage of Montegranaro seems the most difficult, but I don’t think I’ll be the worst rider.”

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