Cycling News Extra for July 19, 2006
Edited by John Stevenson & John Kenny
Friends, family & team-mates commemorate Amy Gillett
Mary and Denis Safe, Amy Gillet's
parents, unveil a memorial
Photo ©: Florian Schaaf
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Last night after the prologue of the Thüringen Rundfahrt, the Mayor of
Thuringen put on a concert for the family and friends of Amy Gillet, who
died after being hit by a car preparing for this very race one year ago.
After an emotional couple of days in memory of Amy, the concert was a
cheerful celebration of Amy's life and the amazing things that have come
from her tragic death.
The morning saw a private ceremony at the scene of the accident, where
Amy's parents Mary and Denis Safe, husband Simon Gillett and other close
friends and fellow cyclists gathered for a ceremony held by a local minister.
Mary and Denis Safe unveiled a plaque in memory of Amy which will remain
at the site.
The last few days have been a very emotional time for the people close
to Amy and also for her teammates involved in the crash. All of them are
still recovering from the injuries they sustained in the accident, and
it was also important for some of them to make this trip for their emotional
recovery. "Just coming back here is important," said Louise Yaxley who
has made a remarkable recovery, but is still going through intense physical
therapy for her injuries.
Floral tributes
Photo ©: Florian Schaaf
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This day was also very important for the Amy Gillett Foundation, set
up to foster better relations between cyclists and motorists, fund young
female riders and assist the crash survivors. As the Foundation's general
manager, Melinda Jacobsen, told Cyclingnews on Monday, "out of
adversity comes fortune" and the Amy Gillett Foundation, with so much
enthusiasm behind it and the support of Mary and Denis Safe and Amy husband
Simon Gillett, is now working hard toward its goals.
By creating awareness and trying to establish a harmonious relationship
between cyclists and motorists the Foundation hopes to decrease the number
of accidents between motorists and cyclists on the road in an attempt
to prevent a repeat of the crash that took Amy's life.
In its quest for safer roads, the foundation has recently begun
screening a TV commercial in Australia that encourages riders and
motorists to understand each other. Its support of the next generation
of Australian female cyclists through the Amy Gillett Scholarship saw
the Foundation recently give its first award to Canberra cyclist Jessie
MacLean.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by
Florian Schaaf/www.cyclingpictures.de
Coming up on 
Cyclingnews will cover the 60th edition of
the Dauphiné Libéré live
as of stage 4 on Wednesday, June 10, at approximately 15:00 local Europe
time (CEST)/ 23:00 Australian time (CDT)/ 9:00 (USA East).
WAP-enabled mobile devices: http://live.cyclingnews.com/wap/
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Pellizotti and Nibali to captain Liquigas at the Brixia Tour
Franco Pellizotti and Vincenzo Nibali will captain the Liquigas team
at the Brixia Tour, which runs from July 20-23 in Brescia. Both the Liquigas
riders have already taken a victory in 2006, Pellizotti won a stage of
the Giro d'Italia and Nibali won a stage of the Settimana Internazionale
Coppi & Bartali.
Dario Cioni will lend support along with Enrico Gasparotto, Stefano Zanini,
Eros Capecchi, Roman Kreuziger and Charlie Wegelius.
Team manager Mario Chiesa said, "The route of the Brixia Tour is quite
demanding. Some of our riders are [coming] back after a rest period, but
we could leave our mark especially with Vincenzo Nibali who performed
well in the Österreich-Rundfahrt."
Meanwhile, Nibali and Danilo Di Luca have inspected the route of the
World Championships in Salzburg with team manager Franco Ballerini. Di
Luca said, "The route is tougher than I expected because of the hills
and the winding roads. Some passages of the route are narrow and you must
concentrate. The World Championships are the last important goal of my
season. I've changed my training schedule to get ready for it and I'm
also going to take part in the Vuelta."
Gerolsteiner for Brixia Tour
Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) returns to racing this week, and will
lead Gerolsteiner in the Brixia Tour, which starts tomorrow in Italy.
"We will have a strong team, with Rebellin as captain. After all, he
was second overall last year and won a stage," said Gerolsteiner climber
Sven Montgomery, who will support his captain in the two mountainous stages.
The Gerolsteiner team for the Brixia Tour is, Rene Haselbacher, Sven
Krauss, Andrea Moletta, Sven Montgomery, Davide Rebellin, Marcel Strauss,
and Markus Zberg.
Bettini confident of world's victory
By Susan Westemeyer
Italy's Paolo Bettini is confident of victory in the world championships
in Salzburg, Austria after checking out the course on Tuesday. Bettini
and Danilo Di Luca led a national contingent to have an advance look at
the worlds course held in September.
"This is my course!" said Bettini, "It's very similar to the Meisterschaft
von Zürich." Bettini won that race in 2005.
"It's a very nervous course," Bettini said, "because many of the descents
are very narrow. You have to be in the forward twenty from the beginning
onwards if you want to have any chance at all." Di Luca said he expects
to see such riders as Alejandro Valverde, Alexander Vinokourov and Michael
Boogerd near the front. "The course is too hard for Tom Boonen, and for
a rider like [Bernard] Eisel. I think [Georg] Totschnig will have better
chance on this course," he said.
National coach France Ballerini said he hoped for a situation similar
to that from 1982. "That year Italy won football's World Cup and shortly
thereafter Giuseppe Saronni won the world title in Goodwood [England].
Why shouldn't that happen again this year? We already have the football
title! We'll do everything we can to make the race our own. The course
is difficult and we will only have nine riders at the start. Nevertheless,
we will have to try everything so that one of us is forward at the end.
We want the world title, regardless of which rider it is," he said.
Ballerini said last year's tactics, where the team backed Alessandro
Petacchi, would not be repeated, "We have Paolo Bettini, Danilo Di Luca
and many other good riders. The final team will be announced the first
week of September."
Erik Dekker to race Boxmeer criterium
Erik Dekker (Rabobank) started training again yesterday after his fall
in the first week of the Tour and will race in Monday's Boxmeer criterium
in Holland.
Dekker, in his last year as a professional cyclist, was able to ride
for an hour and a half. "Boxmeer is the next step, after that the plan
is to ride a number of criteriums," he said.
Vandenbroucke loses Unibet.com contract
Unibet.com management has lost patience with Frank Vandenbroucke and
reached an amicable arrangement with the rider to cancel his contract,
after several seasons marred by doping scandals. This latest setback for
VDB could spell the end of his career.
Terry Koen, Unibet.com's directeur sportif said, "I do not want him any
more in my team. I was sufficiently patient, but in the end, no valid
result rewarded this indulgence. You can count his days of racing on the
fingers of the two hands. We wish to integrate [the team into the] ProTour.
But with people like VDB, we lose our credibility… I indeed believed in
his return… I was mistaken. It is really regrettable."
Vandenbroucke has ridden for Cofidis and Quick-Step during his career
and won Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 1999.
Floyd's doctor goes for hour record
Floyd Landis' physician, Dr. Brent Kay, will make an attempt on the world
master's hour record on August 12.
Dr. Kay's hour record attempt will be held in conjunction with the American
women's track cycling fund's Celebration of Excellence fundraiser at the
ADT Event Centre Velodrome in Carson, California. Reigning World Champion
track cyclist Sarah Hammer will be hosting this first annual fundraising
event.
More information about the record attempt and the American Women's Track
Cycling Fund can be found here. [www.awtcf.org]
Portaferry three day starts on motor racing circuit
By Tommy Campbell, Irish Independent, Evening Herald, Sunday Independent
The sixth edition of the Portaferry Three Day, organised by Ards CC,
starts on Friday at the Kirkstown Motor Racing Circuit. The opening stage
begins with twenty laps of the circuit.
2004 winner Gary Crory will be backed by a strong Team Terry Dolan squad
including Willie Hamilton, Tommy Evans, Brendan Graham and Alan Hall.
Adam Armstrong and Frazer Duncan of Northern Dave Kane will be among the
favourites and locals Kirk Sloan and promising junior Andrew Hedley will
also take part.
Prizes will be awarded for the first four on each stage, the first four
overall, the first category 2 overall, the first category 3, Junior and
Veteran overall and the first two teams plus the points competition.
The entry list so far includes Norway based Linus Murphy, who was Irish
Junior Champion back in 1983, comeback rider Raymond Brownfield (North
Down and Lenny Kirk (Slane Cycles) a stage winner in the recent Newry
three-day. Shaun Gray (Orchard), overall winner of the Newry three-day,
will also take part.
Saturday's 50-mile morning stage includes four laps of Strangford Lough
circuit followed by a time trial in the afternoon.
Sunday's 51-mile road race over three laps of the Portaferry-Cloughy-Kircubbin
course will not be as predictable as in the past due to the evenness of
the field.
The Tour de France of give-aways and competitions
Don't miss out at Tour time!
Resident freebies expert, Rufus Staffordshire, sniffs out some competitions
where over $600,000 in prizes are on offer as manufacturers clamber for your
eyeballs. Woof!
Scratch - but don't sniff
Photo ©: Trek
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The Tour de France is not only a reasonably popular bike race, ahem, it's also
a great opportunity to win an incredible range of prizes and competitions on
offer from manufacturers, publishers and distributors.
Many of our sponsors are offering Cyclingnews readers a schwag-fest
of give-aways during the lap-around-France. The prizes on offer range from pedals
and laptops through to trips to Paris for the 2007 TdF, as well as actual kit
being ridden by top pros in the Tour - including top bikes from Trek, Blue,
and Avanti.
So that you don't have to go hunting around the Internet for all these goodies,
we've assembled the Cyclingnews complete
guide to Tour freebies and competitions.
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(All rights reserved/Copyright Knapp Communications Pty Limited 2006)
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