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Edited by John Stevenson
The Ivory Coast rider at the heart of the 'Was Fausto Coppi murdered' allegations (see stories in Monday's and Sunday's news) has been named by the president of the Ivory Coast cycling federation.
Speaking in yesterday's Corriere dello Sport, the Italian newspaper that broke the story on Sunday, Eugene Die Kacou said, "He was called Canga and fell into a ravine in strange circumstances during a race in Burkina Faso, between 1958 and 1959."
According to Corriere dello Sport, Brother Adrien, a Benedictine monk in Burkina Faso, claims the death of a rider from the Ivory Coast inspired the poisoning of Coppi in a revenge killing.
Magistrates in Rome decided yesterday to transfer the enquiry into the alleged poisoning of Coppi to the city of Piedmont, where he died – officially of malaria – on January 2 1960.
When the racers lined up for this Sunday's GP Temple Texas Cup cyclocross race in Temple, Texas, they noticed someone next to them wearing a jersey that was a little unusual in their parts. That's because the reigning Women's World Mountainbike and U.S. Cyclocross Champion, Alison Dunlap (Clif Bar), decided to take a trip from her home of Colorado Springs, Colorado, down to the Lonestar state as part of her preparation for the World Cyclocross Championships being held on February 3 in Zolder, Belgium. "I have to race before I go to World's and so it's either snow and miserably cold or I come down here."
And race she did. In the combined Women's A and Men's B race, she immediately went to the front on the first climb and by the midway point of the second 1.3 mile lap had a 45 second lead on the eventual Men's B winner, Andrew Crooks (Texas A&M University.) She continued to build her lead during the remainder of the 45 minute race, eventually lapping everyone in the field except Crooks, and finishing with a commanding 5 minute lead over him.
Only 10 minutes after the completion of her first race, Dunlap was back at the starting line for the 60 minute men's A race. Those riders didn't fare much better against Dunlap. A first lap attack by local cyclocross icon Will "The Thrill" Black (Lonestar Racing Team) immediately strung the field out, resulting in a 20 second gap to Brian Walburn (Team Superdrome) followed 10 seconds later by a 5-person chase group containing Dunlap. Midway through the second lap Dunlap had moved herself clear to 3rd place and by the 3rd lap she was clear of the field in second place, 45 seconds behind Black. Shortly after the race's half-way point, though, Dunlap decided to pack it in, saying that she was tired from the back-to-back races and that she had accomplished her primary goal of completing another 30-minute effort, equal to the length of her upcoming appointment in Belgium.
When asked how her day of Texas racing went she replied, "The B race felt really good – I was pretty psyched. I had good power in my legs but I was really klutzy with the barriers and the running because I haven't run for three weeks, since Nationals, but I've been riding a lot. So, my riding's great, but the running will come. At World's, running is such a small part of it, you know, but you've got to be fast [on the bike.] So I was pretty excited. It went well." And about World's? "It's gonna be good. I want to win it, that's all I'm focusing on. I don't want top 3, I want to win it. It's going to be really hard, but if the next four weeks go well and I stay healthy, knock on wood..."
Alison will be back to mix it up in Texas on January 19 for the GCCA Offroad Classic, being held at Eleanor Tinsley Park in downtown Houston in conjunction with the Houston Marathon. The race is the last event in the 10 race-long Texas Cup Cyclocross Championship Series and will be offering a $2500 purse. More information on the event can be found on the Texas Bicycle Racing Association web site at www.txbra.org.
Contributed by Brian Walburn, The Texas Racing Post www.texasracingpost.com.
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Places are still available for An Evening with Stuart, an informal get-together with Stuart O'Grady at the Crown Casino on Wednesday, January 9. The event is open to all over 18 and will feature an interview with O'Grady about his rise from club to international rider - and everything in between - by the voice of cycling, Phil Liggett. It gets underway at 7.30pm, entry is $32 per person on the door and includes a meal and a $10 Crown voucher. For more information Karin Jones on 0408 375 238.
US track rider Jame Carney has had a successful couple of weeks at the Tasmanian track carnivals and now looks very hard to beat in Tasmanian Cycling's inaugural 'Rider of the Season' contest. Carney won the Hobart Wheelrace at the weekend, his second win in this event in three years, adding to the more than $5800 he has already amassed from the Basslink Tasmanian Carnival Series from Latrobe (Boxing Day) to Burnie (New Years Day), Carney was only second to Queenslander Aaron Kemps on the SCAT Order of Merit.
This should be enough to land him Rider-of-the-Season for 2001-2002, despite the fact he will miss the closing two carnivals at Mersey Valley (Jan. 13) and St Helens (Jan. 19).
For a full report and results from the Hobart Carnival, click here.
New Australian squad iteamNova.com is one of the first to announce its line-up for the Tour de Langkawi.
IteamNova.com will be led at Langkawi by David McKenzie, who won stage three of the race back in 1999. The following year saw McKenzie win the seventh stage of the Tour of Italy, after which he was named Australian Cyclist of the Year. Despite his troubles with the ill-fated McCartney team, Melbourne-born McKenzie took eight victories in 2001, including a stage of the Tour Down Under and the Grafton to Inverell Classic and the Melbourne to Warrnambool race.
Jamie Drew is another rider making a return trip to Malaysia having won Stage two of the 2000 Tour de Langkawi. In the same year Drew was Australian road champion and won the prestigious Mi Aout Series.
New Zealander Scott Guyton is a strong climber whose 2001 season was disrupted when he broke his wrist in a racing crash. However, he came back later in the year to finish eighth in the Tour of Japan.
Russell Downing from England is an aggressive competitor with a fast finishing sprint, Downing raced successfully in France last year scoring 10 victories.
Former Australian road champion Alan Iacuone, who finished third in the Tour de Langkawi in 1999, is making a comeback to the sport after taking a year out. Still only 27, he says the opportunity of racing with an Australian pro' team was too good to miss.
Trent Wilson from Sydney is a rising star on the Australian scene. One of the younger riders in the team at 23, he scored six top-10 placings in Italy during 2001.
Canadian Dominique Perras, completes the iTeamNova.com line-up. An excellent time climber he campaigned in Switzerland last season, wearing the King of the Mountains jersey in the Tour of Romandie.
Managing the team will be former British road racing star Sean Yates who competed at the highest level in Europe for 16 seasons, winning stages in the Tour de France and Tour of Spain and wearing the yellow jersey of the Tour de France. In December 2001, he was voted into fifth place in a British cycling magazine's poll of the 50 top British cyclists of all time.
Yates's know-how will be invaluable to the team which will be competing in Europe after the Tour de Langkawi.
Belgian rising stars Mario Aerts and Steve Vermaut will bring their Tour de France-honed talents to the vanguard of Lotto-Adecco's team for Langkawi.
Both riders are stage race specialists and proved their worth in last year'sTour de France, where Aerts finished 27th overall and Vermaut was 36th. Aerts is at his best in the high mountains, as he proved with a string of high placings in the Pyrenees. Vermaut, who was in his first season with Lotto-Adecco, rode consistently throughout and was hailed as the Belgian revelation of the Tour.
All eyes will be on first-year professional Kevin Van Impe, who enters the pro' ranks with a big reputation having won 16 races in the under-23 category in 2001. It was the fifth year in succession that Van Impe had topped the under-23 table, making him the hottest property in Belgian cycling and Lotto-Adecco were delighted to sign him.
Wesley Van Speybroeck won the final race of the 2001 Belgian season at Putte-Kapellen last October and is hoping his good form carries over to 2002. Van Speybroeck is a powerful sprinter and should shine in the spectacular sprint finishes that are a feature of the Tour de Langkawi.
The team's selection is completed by Frederic Amorison, Tom Stremersch and Fulco Gulik, who is the only Dutchman in an otherwise all-Belgian line-up.
Lotto-Adecco is competing in the Tour de Langkawi for the first time. Established 15 years go, the team enjoyed its best ever season last year with a total of 39 major victories.
Over 130,000 spectators are expected at this year's Bremen Six, January 10-15. German TV host Sabine Christiansen will give the start signal and film star Roger Moore is expected to attend the racing at some point over the six nights. What's James Bond's connection? Bremen is the twin city of child welfare organisation UNICEF and Moore is that organisation's patron.
Among the track stars circling for the entertainment of Moore and the crowds will be the Amsterdam, Gent and Zurich-winning duo of Scott McGrory and Matthew Gilmore; and local hero Andreas Kappes, paired with Andreas Beikirch. Previous Bremen winners returning to try and add another notch to theikr palmares include Bruno Risi/Kurt Betschart of Switzerland and Italians Silvio Martinello and Marco Villa.
Riding in his 17th and final Bremen Six, Belgian Six Day legend Etienne de Wilde will say farewell to the Six Day scene at Bremen; this will be the last race in the 43 year old's long career, and he will no doubt hope to take home a retirement present from the event's 500,000 Euro prize list.
Italian cyclo-cross rider and twice world champion Daniele Pontoni has announced he will hold a press conference on Wednesday to talk about his problems with the Italian cycling federation. Pontoni claims "unjustified exclusion" from the national cyclo-cross team and will also talk about his new team, GS Hit Casin˜-Marchiol-Site Frezza.
Swedish rider Nicklas Axelsson was yesterday handed a four year suspension by the Swedish Cycling Federation after testing positive for EPO at last year's world road race championships.
Axelsson was fired from Alessio in November last year after he admitted using EPO. He said at the time that his career was over and it seems highly unlikely the 29-year-old will attempt to make a comeback from a four year ban.
The Colnago Landbouwkrediet team starts its preparation for the 2002 season on January 11 with a week-long training camp in Follonica (Grosseto), Italy. Ten team-members will attend, including team leader Rolf Sorensen, Oscar Cavagnis and Domenico Romano.
During this camp, the team will also plan its racing program for the year.
The squad's next assembly will also be at Follonica, January 23 to February 2, and that will include the full 24-strong roster. Immediately afterward, the team will begin its racing program for 2002 with the GP Etruschis in Tuscany, February 3.
Former Mapei rider Bart Leysen has found a new home for 2002 as team leader of Didier Paindavaine's Marlux squad (formerly Ville de Charleroi). The full name of the team may be Marlux-Ville de Charleroi-Bery Floor, though this has yet to be announced – more details are expected tomorrow. What is known is that the Division II team will have 16 rider and a budget of around a million Euro.
Only two riders from Ville de Charleroi will get carry on with the new team: Marc Chanoine and David Debremaeker. Other signings include Andy Cappelle, Kris Matthijs, Tom Desmet, Steven De Neef, Lorenzo Lapage, Christophe Stevens, Johan Dekkers and Johan Coenen, plus two riders from Luxembourg: Christian Poos and Marc Vanacker. There are still places for two French riders.
Swiss neo pro Jacques Chapatte will be the penultimate addition to Swiss Division III team Jura, according to manager Jacques Jolidon. With the addition of the 22-year-old, Jura needs just one more rider to complete its nine-man roster.
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