Latest Cycling News for May 4, 2005Edited by Jeff Jones No TT in Four Days of DunkirkThe 51st edition of the Four Days of Dunkirk kicks off in Dunkirk on Wednesday with a 154 km stage to Marcq-en-Baroeul. The five day race will not feature a time trial this year, and instead will be decided in five standard road stages. The first stage is a 154 km leg from Dunkirk to Marcq-en-Baroeul, which contains the climbs of Mont Cassel, Mont des Cats, and Mont Noir. Stage 2 is the longest, 204 km between Marcq-en-Baroeul and Lens, but over fairly flat terrain. Stage 3 from Liévin to Sangatte Cap Blanc Nez over 194 km features the only uphill finish, and should start to break up the field. Stage 4 is the hardest, and consists of six laps of a 23 km circuit plus an additional 30 km for a total of 173 km. The circuit contains four climbs per lap, and tends to slowly shred the field by day's end. The final stage is a fairly flat 165 km between Bourbourg and Dunkirk. 20 teams will start, including six ProTour teams: Davitamon-Lotto (Rodriguez, Van Bon), Bouygues Telecom (Voeckler), Cofidis (Casper), Crédit Agricole (Moreau, Hushovd), Française des Jeux (Gilbert), Team CSC (Breschel), as well as continental teams MrBookmaker-SportsTech (Hunt, Van Dijk, VDB), Landbouwkrediet-Colnago (De Waele), AG2R Prévoyance (JP Nazon), Agritubel (Brard), Chocolade Jacques-T-Interim (Eeckhout), Acqua & Sapone-Adria Mobil (Marzoli), Team Barloworld (Efimkin), Team Wiesenhof (Kopp), Ed'System-ZVVZ (Svorada), Navigators (Grichkine), Relax-Fuenlabrada (Florencio), Naturino-Sapore di Mare (Nauduzs) and Intel Action (Bodnar). The stages Stage 1 - May 4: Dunkirk - Marcq-en-Baroeul, 153,7 km Saunier Duval ready for the GiroThe Saunier Duval-Prodir team has named its nine riders for the Giro d'Italia, with the experienced Spanish climber Juan Manuel Garate leading the charge. Garate, who hails from Irun, Spain, finished 10th in last year's Giro, but also has a 4th overall in 2002 to his credit. The team should be strong in the mountains with 2004 Setmana Catalana winner Joaquin Rodriguez as second GC rider, Tour de Romandie mountains winner Ruben Lobato, and young Swiss climber Oliver Zaugg. For the flatter stages, Marco Pinotti, Juan José Cobo, Francisco José Ventoso, Angel Gomez Gomez and Manuele Mori will be the key riders. Cipollini vs. Fanini saga continuesThe legal wrangling between Mario Cipollini and the patron of the Amore e Vita team, Ivano Fanini, is continuing, with the Cipollini camp demanding that Fanini create a ProTour team if Cipollini is to ride for Fanini next year. "Within two or three days, Ivano Fanini will know if Mario Cipollini will race with his team in 2006," said Cipollini's lawyer Massimo Martini to tuttobiciweb.com, after meeting with Fanini on Wednesday morning. "The meeting was interlocutory, but I believe I can confirm with certainty that there is no doubt about the desire of Mario to retire." According to Fanini, Mr Martini said that Cipollini would only race for a ProTour team, something that is several steps removed from Amore e Vita at the moment. If Cipollini doesn't race for Fanini's team, the latter has demanded €600,000 from Cipo for breach of contract. "I'm calm," said Fanini. "Because the contract signed by Mario in 1998 guaranteed the rider being in my squad, otherwise he would risk damages of 600,000 euros. I think that Martini understood this and all the requirements are there to satisfy Cipollini. Among other things, to confirm the validity of the contract in '98, Mario already paid me a sum of 60 million old lira." Niemec extendsPolish rider Przemyslaw Niemec has extended his contract with Miche until the end of 2007. Niemec has had a particularly strong first part of the season in Italy, winning a stage of the Giro del Trentino, and the team considers him a good investment for the future. Jens Voigt on a Tandem
German strongman Jens Voigt (CSC) made a blind couple's dreams come true, when he rode with them on a tandem. Last December, Katja Löffler sent a letter to Eurosport asking whether they could help give her husband Michael a special birthday present: some kind of training session with his favourite cyclist Jens Voigt. But it had to take place on a tandem, because both she and her husband are blind. "Ulli Jansch from Eurosport asked me if I wanted to do it," Voigt commented on team-csc.com. "At first I was a little bit scared, not so much because Michael is blind, but I was afraid if I did this, perhaps a lot of people suddenly wanted me to participate in this and that. I mean, you can't please everybody, no matter how hard you try." Voigt agreed, and a Eurosport commentator borrowed a racing tandem from disabled World Champion Manuela Fuchs, replaced the clipless pedals with normal ones, and picked up the Löffler family, who had travelled by train from Hamburg to Berlin. They met Jens at a quiet street in a forest near his home. According to Jansch, it was a very warm, emotional scene, when Jens met the two Löfflers. He hugged them both and they started chatting as had he known them for a long time. "First I tried the tandem on my own, and then I rode with both Michael and Katja," said Voigt. "Obviously they don't see the corners, etc. but they can feel it and adapt to your movement, so it was really no problem at all, and I think they had a lot of fun." The Löfflers couldn't believe their dream had come true, so they called friends and relatives to be sure it really happened. And then the climax; Jens invited them to his home for Christmas cookies. Michael and Katja asked a bunch of questions and they learned a lot about the life and the career of Jens. They were really happy, when they took the train back home. "Ride for Wishes" benefit trail rideThe second Ride for Wishes will be held on Sunday, July 17 to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Illinois, USA. The event is a non-competitive trail ride on the Rock Island Trail and features a choice for trail riders and distance riders. Participants may choose to ride a distance of 10, 20, or 40 miles.. In addition, event sponsors are seeking teams or individuals who want to collect pledges for the day ride. Those individuals who collect $200.00 or more in pledges and bring the funds to the event will qualify as a member of the Wish Riders Pledge Club. Wish Riders will receive special recognition for their efforts. More information: www.rideforwishes.org Fantasy Spring Classic Winners and Giro prize announced!
The Grand Prize for the Giro 2005 fantasy game has been announced. We are pleased to announce that a Cofidis Wilier Le Roi is the Grand Prize for this year's Giro game. A bike company with a long and noble tradition of Italian craftsmanship, Wilier is also bang up to date with the carbon fiber Le Roi, the bike of the Cofidis team. With a frame weight of just 950g and 7.2kg all up, the fully Campagnolo Record equipped Le Roi is ready for everything from the rigours of the Spring Classics to the mountains of the Giro - and beyond. The Le Roi comes with a suite of high-quality finishing components to complement its frame and group, including ITM carbon bar and stem, Mavic Ksyrium wheels, Selcof carbon seat post, Selle Italia SLR saddle and Look Keo pedals. More prizes will be announced in the coming days. To find out more go to the Fantasy site and register/login. Fantasy Spring Classic overall competition resultsThe results from this season's first fantasy game, the Spring Classics 2005, have also been finalised. The Grand prize goes to manager John Frey (Northampton, Massachusetts, USA) with 1475 points. He wins a Specialized Roubaix bicycle equipped with Shimano Dura-Ace 10-speed groupset worth US$4400. John said the following about his approach: "...when the new rules were announced I knew the approach would need to be way different than with the Grand Tour competitions. It was imperative that one score high points each and every event. I figured if I could pick at minimum first and second place with a couple extra places thrown in that would be enough to win. Basically, I was biding my time until some of the dark horses came through. And sure enough, it was the two Wednesday races, the so-called lesser classics Gent-Wevelgem and Flèche Wallonne where the theory paid off. I won both of those races by a decent margin and was able to hold that lead to the end." The 1st runner-up prize goes to manager "y barrankas" from San Sebastián, Spain with 1436 points. She wins a pair of Zipp 404 wheels worth US$1,600. The second runner-up prize goes to manager "The Shining" from Denmark with 1391 points. He wins a pair of 2005 model Carnac M5 Carbon road shoes. The following 10 runners-up win a B-2 multi-tool from Park Tools: Manager "Suts the Mut" from UK - 1312 pts The full top 50 managers can be viewed here. Per Classic competition resultsIn addition to these prizes, the per classics prizes consisting of six Specialized Decibel helmets worth US$169 each were awarded for the highest scoring team in the following individual races: La Flèche Wallonne: Manager "Satomi" with team "Satomi IV" scoring 240 pts. Amstel Gold: "The Shining" with team "Shining10" scoring 227 pts. Paris- Roubaix: "y barrankas" from San Sebastián, Spain with team "Bepputativo05" scoring 260 pts. Gent-Wevelgem: Manager "John Frey" with team "PEP Results 30" scoring 219 pts. Tour of Flanders: Manager "Obélix" with team "Fightersss" scoring 255 pts. Milano - Sanremo: Manager "fietser" (from Bolingbrook, Illinois, USA) with team "fietser" scoring 193 pts. Joining the Giro 2005 gameRemember you can play for free for the first 5 stages! Try the game out and see how best to play. For more details go to rules section of the site for more info. It's a great way to follow the Giro 2005. To register your teams for the game go to fantasy.cyclingnews.com Good luck! The Fantasy Cyclingnews Team (All rights reserved/Copyright Knapp Communications Pty Limited 2005) |
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