Latest News for October 3, 2003

Edited by Jeff Jones

Cipollini says no to World's

A disappointed Mario Cipollini
Photo: © Olympia Photo

Defending champion Mario Cipollini will not be not be lining up beside his 12 teammates in Hamilton on Sunday week in the 2003 World Championships road race. The Domina Vacanze rider, who since May 21 has only made a cameo racing appearance in the Vuelta, announced his decision on Friday morning at a press conference in Milan.

"It was a tough decision," said Cipollini. "But I believe that it is correct because at the end, I respect the national team. The parcours is too difficult for someone of my characteristics, and furthermore I don't want to take away the interest in my teammates who have prepared for the Canadian appointment with a great deal of commitment."

Teams and principal riders for Paris-Tours

The 97th edition of Paris-Tours, round 9 of the World Cup, will start in Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines at 11:10am this Sunday, October 5, finishing in the Avenue de Grammont in Tours 257 kilometres later. The race organiser Société du Tour de France has now confirmed the principal riders that will be taking part in this late season French classic.

Ag2R Prevoyance: Kirsipuu, Brochard, Portal
Alessio: Baldato
Brioches La Boulangère: Beneteau, Pineau
Credit Agricole: Voigt, O'Grady
Cofidis Credit Par Telephone: Vasseur, Planckaert, Tombak
Domina Vacanze-Elitron: Lombardi
Euskaltel-Euskadi: Egoi Martinez, David Etxebarria
Fassa Bortolo: Petacchi, Bartoli
FDJeux.com: Cooke, Casar, Durand
Gerolsteiner: Rebellin
Jean Delatour: Dumoulin, Krivtsov
Landbouwkrediet-Colnago: Capelle
Lampre: Serpellini, Piccoli
Lotto-Domo: McEwen, Van Petegem
ONCE Eroski: Vicioso, Davis
Phonak Hearing Systems: Usov
Quick Step-Davitamon: Bettini, Boonen, Museeuw
Rabobank: Freire, Wauters
Saeco: Di Luca, Astarloa
Team Telekom: Aerts, Zabel
Team CSC: Piil, Sandstød, Jalabert
Team Bianchi: Guidi
US Postal-Berry Floor: Ekimov, Van Heeswijk
Vini Caldirola-Saunier Duval: Vainsteins
iBanesto.com: Menchov, Flecha

Look for live coverage on Cyclingnews this Sunday commencing from 14:00 CEST/05:00 PDT/08:00 EDT/22:00 AEST.

ONCE-Eroski for Paris-Tours

Four of ONCE's Vuelta riders will be lining up this weekend for the 97th Paris-Tours World Cup. Jan Hruska, Mikel Pradera, Marcos Serrano and sprinter Ángel Vicioso will join Rene Andrle, Gorka Beloki, Allan Davis and Alvaro Gonzalez de Galdeano in France for the race.

Six ONCE riders will contest the Memorial Galera this weekend also: Ángel Castresana, Alberto Contador, Rafael Diaz, Koldo Gil, Jonathan González and Mikel Zarrabeitia.

Swiss team led by Camenzind

The Swiss men's team for the World Championships will be led by 1998 World Champion Oscar Camenzind (Phonak), who will have several of his trade teammates with him in Hamilton. Roger Beuchat, Niki Aebersold, Martin Elmiger, Alexandre Moos and Daniel Schnider (all Phonak) will be part of the selection, which also includes Fabian Cancellara and Sven Montgomery (Fassa Bortolo), Fabian Jeker (Milaneza), Marcel Strauss (Gerolsteiner), Steve Zampieri (Vini Caldirola) and Beat Zberg (Rabobank). Cancellara and Jean Nuttli will ride the time trial.

The women's team will feature Nicole Brändli (Prato), Priska Doppmann, Annette Beutler, Bettina Kuhn, Diana Rast and Irene Hostettler, with Brändli and Karin Thürig to ride the time trial.

Cañada to Saunier Duval

Spanish rider David Cañada has been signed by the Saunier Duval-Vini Caldirola team for next season. Cañada rode for Quick.Step this year, but did not receive a contract renewal. Saunier Duval also hopes to sign Miguel Martin Perdiguero (Domina Vacanze) as part of its ambitions to strengthen the squad for 2004.

De Clercq to continue as director with Palmans

Mario De Clercq, who earlier this week announced that he would retire from cyclo-cross on October 12, will take on a role as a directeur sportif in the Palmans-Collstrop team next year. "Mario De Clercq will become a directeur sportif with us from March 1, 2004, as we already promised," team boss Charles Palmans told Het Nieuwsblad. "We still have to see how to fill the gap between January 1 and March 1."

Team director Hilaire Van Der Schueren suggested that De Clercq could take up a role training the members of the cyclo-cross team.

Vlaanderen-T Interim riders extend

Several riders from the Vlaanderen-T Interim squad have extended their contracts with the team for another season. Track riders Matthew Gilmore and Wouter Van Mechelen, along with Kevin Van der Slagmolen, Jehudi Schoonacker, and David Meys will all continue with the team.

Enough racing for Van Bon

Lotto-Domo's Leon van Bon has called it quits for the season, suffering from an ongoing sinus problem that may require an operation. At the moment, Van Bon is taking antibiotics but he is not allowed to ride.

Nebraska Cyclo-cross Series

The 2003 Nebraska Cyclo-cross Series starts this Sunday, October 5, 2003 at Pioneers Park in Lincoln, NE. The races will be held in the lower half of the park beginning at 12:00pm. The other race divisions will start at 1:00pm, 1:45pm and 3:00pm.

Cyclingnews Fantasy Vuelta: and the winner is...

First prize!
Photo: © Orbea

Cyclingnews, together with Fantasy Sports International, is pleased to announce the winners of the Fantasy Cyclingnews.com Vuelta a España game, our third grand tour fantasy game of the year. In first place is a personal fitness trainer from Chicago USA, Marcin Kadzielawski, whose team of Roberto Heras, Isidro Nozal, Alejandro Valverde, Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano, Felix Cardenas, Alessandro Petacchi, Erik Zabel, Tom Boonen, Julian Dean, Angel Edo, David and Unai Etxebarria, Luis Perez, Joaquin Rodriguez and Carlos Sastre scored a total of 5007 points. Marcin's riders placed first to fourth in the general classification, as well as winning 16(!) stages, the points and the mountains jerseys.

Originally from Poland, Marcin describes himself as a "huge cycling fan...I really love your game and I also participated in the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia fantasy games, in both my teams were in top 15 so I already had some experience that helped me win this time.

"In my opinion besides luck in order to win you need on your team at least 2-3 top sprinters and 4-5 raiders who will finish in top 10 in general classification and of course winner of the tour is a must."

In second place, on 4676 points, is Portuguese Joao Marques, who also entered a second team that finished in fourth spot on 4474 points. Third place is Norwegian Hans Jacob Hofgaard on 4661 points, and fifth place goes to Australian Heath Jackson on 4462 points (with the "ONCE are Warriors" team).

Heath, who works for Mercedes Benz in Melbourne, said "My initial decision was to base a team around ONCE as it was their final race in a grand tour. I also looked for people I thought would do well on GC and for stage wins. Felix Cardenas was the big plus as he was such a good selection with only 1 UCI point. I stayed away from the teams I didn't know anything about as I felt they would not be in for a showing which proved to be right."

"It's a great competition and anyone who has a love of cycling should have a crack at it," added Heath. "Thanks to Fizik and Rudy Project for the great prizes."

Our winner Marcin Kadzielawski has won a limited-edition Orbea Vertex, featuring an O3 Lobular Voop+Zaccs frame, Zeus Ziccs FCM fork, Campagnolo Chorus and Centaur 10s components and Mavic Ksyrium wheels. The supplementary prize winners (second to fifth place) will each win a Fi'zi:k saddle and a pair of Rudy Project sunglasses. Congratulations all!

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