April 12, 2007 – The three-time world champion finished third at Gent-Wevelgem behind Germany’s Marcus Burghardt and Great Britain’s Roger Hammond of the T-Mobile team and so increased his UCI ProTour points total to 77 points.

Freire overtook compatriot Alberto Contador of the Discovery Channel team, who is now second in the individual UCI ProTour rankings with 56 points. Tirreno-Adriatico winner Andreas Klöden of Germany is third with 53 points, while recent Tour of Flanders winner Alessandro Ballan (Lampre) of Italy is fourth with 50 points.

After joining the decisive breakaway at Gent-Wevelgem, Freire was favourite to win the Belgian race because of his fast finishing sprint.

However the T-Mobile team had both Burghardt and Hammond in the move and played a perfect team strategy. Burghardt attacked strongly one and half kilometres from the finish and then Hammond controlled Freire when he tried to chase.

T-Mobile’s impressive one-two gave the German team 19 points and lifted them from tenth to sixth position in the overall UCI ProTour team rankings. Discovery Channel still leads the season-long rankings after a strong start to the 2007 season with 79 points, while 2006 team winners Team CSC is a close second with 76 points. Italian squadra Liquigas is third with 73 points.

Thanks to Freire’s victory at Milano-Sanremo and third place at Ghent-Wevelgem, and Contador’s victory at Paris-Nice, Spain still lead the nations rankings with an impressive total of 216 points. Germany is now second with 168 points, with Italy third at 166.
Rankings

Individual

1. FREIRE GOMEZ Oscar RABOBANK 77
2. CONTADOR VELASCO Alberto DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM 56
3. KLÖDEN Andreas ASTANA 53
4. BALLAN Alessandro LAMPRE-FONDITAL 50
5. MCEWEN Robbie PREDICTOR-LOTTO 44
6. REBELLIN Davide GEROLSTEINER 42
7. KIRCHEN Kim T-MOBILE TEAM 41
8. BURGHARDT Marcus T-MOBILE TEAM 40
9. HOSTE Leif PREDICTOR-LOTTO 40
10. DAVIS Allan DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM 40
11. VINOKOUROV Alexandre ASTANA 38
12. SANCHEZ GIL Luis Leon CAISSE D’EPARGNE 38
13. BOONEN Tom QUICK STEP — INNERGETIC 37
14. PAOLINI Luca LIQUIGAS 36
15. SCHUMACHER Stefan GEROLSTEINER 35
16. HAMMOND Roger T-MOBILE TEAM 30
17. KROON Karsten TEAM CSC 30
18. VALJAVEC Tadej LAMPRE-FONDITAL 30
19. O’GRADY Stuart TEAM CSC 29
20. PELLIZOTTI Franco LIQUIGAS 28
21. GUSEV Vladimir DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM 25
22. BRAJKOVIC Janez DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM 25
23. LOPEZ GARCIA David CAISSE D’EPARGNE 23
24. VENTOSO ALBERDI Francisco José SAUNIER DUVAL — PRODIR 22
25. VAITKUS Tomas DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM 20
26. ZABEL Erik TEAM MILRAM 20
27. VOIGT Jens TEAM CSC 20
28. MENGIN Christophe FRANÇAISE DES JEUX 15
29. NUYENS Nick COFIDIS, LE CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE 15
30. EVANS Cadel PREDICTOR-LOTTO 15
31. MURAVYEV Dmitriy ASTANA 10
32. PETACCHI Alessandro TEAM MILRAM 10
33. SCHLECK Frank TEAM CSC 10
34. VAN HEESWIJK Max RABOBANK 7
35. BOOGERD Michael RABOBANK 7
36. RICCO Riccardo SAUNIER DUVAL — PRODIR 6
37. COOKE Baden UNIBET.COM 5
38. REYNES MIMO Vicente CAISSE D’EPARGNE 5
39. SANCHEZ GONZALEZ Samuel EUSKALTEL — EUSKADI 5
40. ROJAS GIL Jose Joaquin CAISSE D’EPARGNE 3
41. RODRIGUEZ OLIVER Joaquin CAISSE D’EPARGNE 3
42. FERNANDEZ Koldo EUSKALTEL — EUSKADI 3
43. BENNATI Daniele LAMPRE-FONDITAL 3
44. POPOVYCH Yaroslav DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM 3
45. MILLAR David SAUNIER DUVAL — PRODIR 3
46. BONO Matteo LAMPRE-FONDITAL 3
47. KOLOBNEV Alexandr TEAM CSC 3
48. NAZON Jean-Patrick AG2R PREVOYANCE 3
49. GASPAROTTO Enrico LIQUIGAS 2
50. KREUZIGER Roman LIQUIGAS 2
51. LORENZETTO Mirco TEAM MILRAM 2
52. SIEDLER Sebastian TEAM MILRAM 2
53. USOV Alexandre AG2R PREVOYANCE 1
54. HUSHOVD Thor CREDIT AGRICOLE 1
55. KRAUSS Sven GEROLSTEINER 1
56. HAYMAN Mathew RABOBANK 1
57. PINEAU Jérôme BOUYGUES TELECOM 1
58. VISCONTI Giovanni QUICK STEP — INNERGETIC 1
59. JOLY Sébastien FRANÇAISE DES JEUX 1
60. DUMOULIN Samuel AG2R PREVOYANCE 1

Team

1. DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM USA 79
2. TEAM CSC DEN 76
3. LIQUIGAS ITA 73
4. CAISSE D’EPARGNE ESP 71
5. ASTANA SUI 62
6. T-MOBILE TEAM GER 61
7. RABOBANK NED 57
8. AG2R PREVOYANCE FRA 57
9. PREDICTOR-LOTTO BEL 49
10. TEAM MILRAM ITA 47
11. LAMPRE-FONDITAL ITA 47
12. COFIDIS, LE CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE FRA 42
13. QUICK STEP — INNERGETIC BEL 42
14. SAUNIER DUVAL — PRODIR ESP 40
15. UNIBET.COM SWE 35
16. CREDIT AGRICOLE FRA 33
17. GEROLSTEINER GER 30
18. BOUYGUES TELECOM FRA 27
19. FRANÇAISE DES JEUX FRA 25
20. EUSKALTEL — EUSKADI ESP 16