|
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)
|
