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The 2000 Cycle Classic Teams


The Teams

60 riders from 12 teams make up the field for this year's Cycle Classic, the usual mix of young Australian riders and international competitors. Some familiar sponsors are back once again for the final edition of the Classic, including the Dutch Websdale Printing and German Bosch teams, the largely British Du Pont team, the NSW Institute of Sport and Sport and Recreation teams, the Casino Canberra, Bates Bikes (World), Caravello and QANTAS-One World teams, and of course the Polish MROZ team who are race favourites. In addition there are two new Australian teams this year, Western Australia and Puegeot.

Over the years, the winner of the Cycle Classic has often gone onto greater things, whether it be a more lucrative pro contract in Europe, a win in the Tour de France, a World Championship or an Olympic Gold Medal. Who will it be this year?

On paper, the only European trade team, Mroz (Poland) look to be the favourites for the overall win. Despite not having Sun Tour stage winner, Eugen Wacker, or their number one rider Piotr Wadecki, Mroz are always competitive and will be so with Grzegorz Wajs, Pawel Niedzwiecki, Dariusz Skoczylas and Dariusz Wojciechowski and Australian Bart Duraj. The team recently won the overall, KOM and teams classification in the Herald Sun Tour, and have been fine tuing their legs around Sydney's criterium circuit.

Nothing is certain however, and the German Bosch team that dominated the event in the early 1990's, have an experienced campaigner in Stefan Gottschling, who has ridden for Post Swiss this season. He has had some consistent results this year, and has a fairly young team behind him (with the exception of Thorsten Wilhelms).

The Dutch Websdale team will see Classic favourite, Jans Koerts back for some more sprinting action. Koerts always manages to win a stage or two, and this year won stage 3 in the Vuelta a Espana, his biggest career win. He moves to US team Mercury next year and will be looking for a few late season results.

Dupont have sponsored a British team for the last few years, and three members of the 1999 team will be back this year. Huw Pritchard, Julian Winn and Anthony Malarczyk will be joined by the experienced Matt Illingworth and Yento Barker, and will certainly be one of the more aggressive teams in the race. Two other Brits are riding in the QANTAS-One World team, Jeremy Hunt and Dan Smith: both won stages last year, and both are in good form at the moment. Their team should be one of the stronger ones for the criteriums, containing none other than Tasmanian six day legend, Danny Clark (stage winner in this year's Tour of Tasmania), American Dave McCook (stage winner in the Sun Tour) and Brent Dawson (winner of this year's Hornsby criterium).

Another mixed team is the Bates Bikes squad, sponsored by the race promoter, Phill Bates himself. Two Aussies (Ben Day, Russel van Hout), a German (Heiko Szonn), a Czech (Tomas Buchacek) and an American (Martin Lonie) may combine to produce some surprises.

Two more teams that have been associated with the Classic for many years are the NSW Institute of Sport and Sport and Recreation teams. The former (NSWIS) contains ex-Australian time trial champion, Josh Collingwood, who rode for the US Jelly Belly team this year. He was the best Australian finisher in the Sun Tour and should challenge for the overall. He has a strong team to support him in Graham Brown, Ben Brooks, Ashley Hutchinson and Darren Rolfe.

The Sport and Rec. team contain the top two riders (Phil Thuaux and Henk Vaassen) from this year's NSW state championships, held on October 31 on a very tough course in the Southern Highlands. They will be supported by Peter Milostic, back from an overseas stint in Europe, Jono Davis and Scott Bradburn.

Western Australia have entered their own team this year, and it combines a mixture of youth and experience. Hilton McMurdo, 3rd in this year's NASAT titles, combines with National Points champion, Scott Suckling, paralympic representative, Edmund Hollands, as well as Jarrod Poad and Brett Stapleton. The other new team this year is Puegeot, that contains Camerons Hughes and Jennings, as well as Tour of Tasmania stage winner, Glen Chadwick, Adam Cox, and the irrepressible Baden Burke.

The final two teams are Caravello Australia, headed by the always consistent Steve Williams, and Casino Canberra with up and coming junior, Rory Sutherland, one to watch.

The Teams

QANTAS - One World             Websdale - Netherlands

1. Danny Clark (Aus)           6. Jans Koerts (Ned)
2. Dan Smith (GBr)             7. Paul van Schalen (Ned)
3. Jeremy Hunt (GBr)           8. Martijn Simons (Ned)
4. Dave McCook (USA)           9. Tino Haakman (Ned)
5. Brent Dawson (Aus)          10. Bjorn Hoeben (Ned)

Bates Bikes - World            MROZ - Poland

11. Martin Lonie (GBr)         16. Bart Duraj (Aus)
12. Heiko Szonn (Ger)          17. Grzegorz Wajs (Pol)
13. Ben Day (Aus)              18. Pawel Niedzwiecki (Pol)
14. Russel van Hout (Aus)      19. Dariusz Skoczylas (Pol)
15. Tomas Buchacek (Cze)       20. Dariusz Wojciechowski (Pol)

DuPont - United Kingdom        NSW Institute of Sport

21. Huw Pritchard (GBr)        26. Joshua Collingwood (Aus)
22. Julian Winn (GBr)          27. Graham Brown (Aus)
23. Matt Illingworth (GBr)     28. Ben Brooks (Aus)
24. Yento Barker (GBr)         29. Ashley Hutchinson (Aus)
25. Anthony Malarczyk (GBr)    30. Darren Rolfe (Aus)

NSW Sport & Recreation         Western Australia

31. Henk Vaassen (Aus)         36. Jaarod Poad (NZl)
32. Peter Milostic (Aus)       37. Edmund Hollands (Aus)
33. Scott Bradburn (Aus)       38. Hilton McMurdo (Aus)
34. Jono Davis (Aus)           39. Scott Suckling (Aus)
35. Phil Thuaux (Aus)          40. Brett Stapleton (Aus)

Puegeot                        Caravello - Australia

41. Cameron Hughes (Aus)       46. Giles Baudet (Aus)
42. Cameron Jennings (Aus)     47. Mark Renshaw (Aus)
43. Glen Chadwick (Aus)        48. Chris White (Aus)
44. Mark Chadwick (Aus)        49. Andrew Payne (Aus)
45. Baden Burke (Aus)          50. Steve Williams (Aus)

BOSCH - Germany                Casino Canberra

51. Thorsten Wilhelms (Ger)    56. Alan Sieper (Aus)
52. Stephan Gottschling (Ger)  57. Dennis Mungovern (Aus)
53. Timo Scholz (Ger)          58. Michael Tolhurst (Aus)
54. Dirk Schumann (Ger)        59. Brent Millar (Aus)
55. Danilo Klaar (Ger)         60. Rory Sutherland (Aus)


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