Latest Cycling News for August 4, 2004

Edited by Chris Henry

Mancebo out

Francisco Mancebo suffered an hard fall in the final 10 kilometres of stage 2 in the Vuelta a Burgos, injuring his left wrist and hand. The Illes Balears-Banesto leader, coming off a strong Tour de France and thinking ahead to the Vuelta a España, finished the stage but is out of the race after x-rays revealed broken bones.

Mancebo will undergo more tests Wednesday to determine whether or not surgery will be required. Dubbed "Mr. Consistency" by his team manager Eusebio Unzué, Mancebo could recover in time for the Vuelta but his chances are not year clear.

Vinokourov and Savoldelli in Germany

T-Mobile riders Alexandre Vinokourov and Paolo Savoldelli, both of whom are returning from injury, will line up for competition at the five day Regio Tour in Germany (August 4-8). Vinokourov in particular is trying to make up for lost time after a crash in the Tour de Suisse kept him from the Tour de France with an injured shoulder.

"After being ruled out of the Tour de France, Athens has become the highpoint of my season," Vinokourov said on the team's website. Vinokourov finished second in the 2000 Olympic road race (riding for Kazakhstan) behind Jan Ullrich, his T-Mobile teammate.

Vinokourov and Savoldelli will be joined at the Regio Tour by Tour of Austria winner Cadel Evans, Torsten Hiekmann, Tomas Konecny, Stephan Schreck, Christian Werner, and Sergei Yakovlev.

CSC Ready for home tour

Voigt and Julich
Photo ©: Franklin Tello

Danish Team CSC is ready to race for victory on home turf as the Tour of Denmark begins Wednesday in Aabenraa. The team will count on Germany's Jens Voigt, winner last weekend of the Luk Challenge two-man time trial along with Bobby Julich. Jakob Piil is out due to a knee injury sustained in the Tour de France, but Voigt's compatriot Jörg Jaksche will race in Denmark despite a shoulder injury in training last week.

"We're not afraid to claim the honour of being favourites," manager Bjarne Riis commented on the team's website (team-csc.com). "We have a very strong team and the goal is to make up for the victory we missed out on last year. Our tactics are to try to make the race as tough as possible, and then make our move when the opportunity arises."

Illes Balears for San Sebastian

The Spanish Illes Balears-Banesto team will field the following roster for the next round of the World Cup, the Clasica San Sebastian: José Vicente Garcia Acosta, Ivan Gutierrez, Vladimir Karpets, Denis Menchov, Aitor Osa, Mikel Pradera, Xabier Zandio, and José Antonio Lopez.

The following day, Garcia Acosta, Osa, Pradera, Zandio and Lopez will be back in action at the Subida Urkiola, along with Isaac Galvez and David Novas.

Fassa Bortolo for San Sebastian

Fassa Bortolo will send a number of its Tour de France riders to the upcoming Clasica San Sebastian on Saturday. Stage winners Fabian Cancellara and Aitor Gonzalez will line up alongside Marzio Bruseghin, Dario Cioni, Massimo Codol, Juan Antonio Flecha, Volodimir Gustov and Kim Kirchen.

McCann smashes Irish 10-mile TT

David McCann shattered the Irish 10-mile record in the Cycling Ulster Time Trial league event at Woodgreen on July 29th. Averaging over 31.5 miles per hour, he recorded a time of 18'58, beating the existing record by an incredible 25 seconds. Simon Thomson of the Maryland club was second, in a time of 20'14, while existing record holder Tommy Evans came in 3rd with a below par 20'50.

Just back from the international Tour of Quinghai Lake in China, where he finished 15th, McCann knew he was in good condition but he was surprised with his time.

"I only got back from China on Tuesday and I'm tired from 9 days racing and 2 days of Travel so I didn't think I would go quite so fast tonight," he explained. "Only a handful of people in the world have broken 19 minutes so I'm pretty happy. My plan was always to reach my top form for the Olympic games, and I'm sure in a couple of weeks I'll be going even better."

Courtesy: Leon Litvack, Cycling Ulster

LAF Fundraiser exceeds expectations

The yellow "Livestrong" wristbands created as a fundraiser for the Lance Armstrong Foundation have proven more successful than the organisation expected, with more than seven million sold already. The LAF expected to sell six million, but by the end of the Tour de France that figure had already been passed, with plans to sell 1.8 million more. The small yellow bands sell for 1 dollar (or 1 euro) and are available online at www.laf.org.

"It's been an overwhelming experience," foundation President Mitch Stoller told the Associated Press. "I think everybody, from average Americans to celebrities, are getting the message of courage and hope."

Armstrong's rivals had no problem supporting the fight against cancer, as many riders in the peloton during the Tour faithfully wore the wristbands.

"A lot of his competitors were wearing them," foundation spokesperson Michelle Milford said. "Cancer doesn't pick teams."

With roving salespeople present before, during and after the Tour stages, traffic naturally jumped during July. Over 25,000 wristbands were sold on the Tour's final day in Paris and another 400,000 were sold on the LAF website during the following three days.

All proceeds from the sales go to support programs for young people fighting cancer, which Armstrong himself overcame before winning the first of his six Tours de France in 1999.

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