News for March 29, 2002

Edited by Jeff Jones

71st Criterium International

A total of 22 teams will participate in this weekend's 71st Criterium International, held in the north eastern part of France. On Saturday the riders tackle a 192 kilometre undulating stage, starting and finishing in Charleville Mezieres. On Sunday morning there is a hillier 98.5 kilometre stage from Les Mazures to Montherme, followed by a flat 8.5 kilometre time trial again in Charleville Mezieres.

Last year's winner Rik Verbrugghe (Lotto-Adecco) will wear number 1 in this year's event, which will be a big form tester for him in preparation for the Ardennes classics. Other notable participants include Lance Armstrong and Roberto Heras (US Postal), Paris-Nice winner Alexandre Vinokourov (Telekom), Marco Pantani (Mercatone Uno) and Alex Zülle (Team Coast).

Neither Laurent Jalabert nor Danilo Di Luca will be present due to sickness and injury, but French favourites Richard Virenque (Domo), Didier Rous (Bonjour), Laurent Brochard (Jean Delatour), Christophe Moreau and Florent Brard (Credit Agricole) and Sandy Casar (FdJ) are all scheduled to start.

The teams

Ag2R Prevoyance: Agnolutto, Botcharov
Alessio: Dufaux, Pellizotti
Big.Mat-Auber 93: Heulot, Garcia Casas
Bonjour: Rous, Chavanel, Simon
Cofidis: Kivilev, Moncoutie
Credit Agricole: Brard, Hushovd, Voigt, Moreau
CSC Tiscali
Domo-Farm Frites: Merckx, Virenque
Euskaltel-Euskadi: Martinez, Sanchez
iBanesto.com: Osa
Jean Delatour: Brochard, Halgand
Kelme-Costa Blanca: Zaballa, Rodriguez
La Francaise Des Jeux: Casar, McGee
Lotto-Adecco: Verbrugghe, Aerts
Mercatone Uno: Pantani
Oktos-Saint Quentin: Barthe, Nuttli
ONCE-Eroski: Olano, Beloki, Hruska
Phonak Hearing Systems: Schnider, Salmon
Saeco-Longoni Sport: Celestino
Team Coast: Zülle
Team Telekom: Vinokourov, Klöden
US Postal Service: Armstrong, Heras

The stages

• Stage 1 - March 30: Charleville Mezieres - Charleville Mezieres, 192 km
• Stage 2 - March 31: Les Mazures - Montherme, 98.5 km
• Stage 3 - March 31: Charleville Mezieres ITT, 8.5 km

Dekker won't do the Giro

Erik Dekker will not be racing in time to do the Giro d'Italia, which starts on May 11 in Groeningen. Dekker broke his left leg last Saturday in Milan-San Remo, and is currently recovering in Amersfoort's Eemland Hospital.

His surgeon Luuk de Vries believes that Dekker may be able to ride on a home trainer by the end of next week. "If he is going well in the fourth and the fifth weeks after the fall, then he can get back on the bike," said De Vries.

Micro fracture for Simoni

The results of a scan taken yesterday have revealed that Saeco's Gilberto Simoni has a micro fracture in his knee. Yesterday evening Simoni had further liquid removed from the knee. The injury will take between 10 and 15 days to recover, but Simoni remains upbeat.

"The results of the exam are not as comforting as we hoped but I 'm still optimistic," Simoni said. "The knee is still swollen but it has gone down compared to yesterday. The best thing is that I don't feel any pain."

Vainsteins back on April 25

Romans Vainsteins (Domo-Farm Frites) will be back in action again at the end of April, after recovering from an operation on a scrotum abscess. The 2000 World Champion will start in the Tour of Trentino (April 25-28), Rund um den Henninger Turm (May 1), GP Larciano (May 4) and Giro di Toscana (May 5). He will then ride in the Giro d'Italia which starts on May 11.

Schaffrath OK

Telekom's Jan Schaffrath who was a victim of a fall on the descent of the Poggio last Saturday is OK to ride again, according to his team. Schaffrath hit a guardrail quite hard and there were fears that he had broken a bone in his chest. Team leader Rudy Pevenage says that he should start in the Driedaagse van De Panne next Tuesday.

Raffaele Ferrara operated on

Alessio cyclist Raffaele Ferrara has been operated on in the hospital of Castelfranco Veneto to remove three cysts. Ferrara will have to rest for two weeks before resuming his preparation for the upcoming Giro d'Italia.

Sven Nys will become a dad

Belgian cyclocrosser Sven Nys will become a father in November when his soon-to-be wife Isabelle will give birth. The pair will be married on May 18, and will spend their honeymoon in Jamaica two days after Paris-Roubaix in April. Everything in the correct order.

No result for Italian police

The latest series of raids on rider hotel rooms in Italy have yielded no results in terms of the discovery of illegal substances. Yesterday before the second stage of the Settimana Coppi-Bartali, members of the Italian narcotic squad (NAS) paid a visit to the rooms of Mercatone Uno riders Marco Fincato and Marco Villa. The raids were authorised by Paola Cameran, one of the magistrates in charge of the Giro d'Italia investigation. There were also parallel raids carried out on the riders' homes, however nothing at all suspicious was found by police.

Roland Green voted Canadian athlete of the year

Mountain Bike World Champion Roland Green has been voted Canada's male athlete of the year at the Canadian Sport Awards. In addition to winning two World titles in Vail, Colorado, Green also won two rounds of the MTB World Cup, the overall World Cup classification, the Canadian national championships and the NORBA NCS overall title. He also finished 14th in the individual time trial at the Road World Championships.

Canada's female athlete of the year was speed skating star Catriona Le May-Doan.

Farm Frites to keep sponsoring women's team

The Dutch Farm Frites company has decided to extend its sponsorship of the Farm Frites-Hartol women's cycling team until December 2004. The extension is in line with the decision of the team's best known rider, Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel, who has chosen not to retire until after the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Van Moorsel won three gold medals in the Sydney Olympics and is an important cycling figure in the Netherlands.

At the beginning of the year, Farm Frites-Hartol was significantly strengthened by the arrival of world number 2 Mirjam Melchers, who is also in second place in the World Cup standings after winning the third round last weekend.

In addition to Farm Frites, the team's co-sponsors Hartol, bike manufacturer Koga Miyata, hotel chain Van der Valk, automobile company Mercedes Benz and dealer ASV will all stay with the team for the next two years.

Grande Boucle Féminin to start in Den Bosch

The 2002 Grande Boucle Féminin will start in the Netherlands this year with two stages in Den Bosch, a town that previously hosted the start of the men's Tour de France in 1996. A almost certain starter in this year's race is Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel, a previous winner of the Tour Féminin in 1992 and 1993. The first stage will pass through her birthplace of Boekel, and she hopes to do well in it as well as the 15 kilometre team time trial that follows.

After that, LGBF heads back towards France with a stage from Brussels to Valenciennes, before completing the more traditional lap of France. In addition to the team's event, there are two individual time trials , the last of which concludes the race in Paris on August 18.

In an interview with ANP, Van Moorsel said that she hopes to finish the race this year, in particular if her teammate Mirjam Melchers is in the top 10 on general classification. "I will help her to win the Tour," she said.

The town of Den Bosch also wishes to host another men's Tour de France stage, after investing so much in 1996.

The stages

Stage 1a - August 4: Den Bosch - Den Bosch
Stage 1b - August 4: Den Bosch Team time Trial
Stage 2 - August 5: Brussels - Valenciennes
Stage 3 - August 6: Charleville-Mezières
Stage 4 - August 7: Bar le Duc - Nogent-sur-Seine
Stage 5 - August 8: Saint-Vallier - Monteceau le Mines ITT
Stage 6 - August 9: Lyon - Villard de Lans
Stage 7 - August 10: Aix le Bains - Courchevel
Stage 8 - August 11: Courchevel - Vaujany
August 12: Rest Day
Stage 9a - August 13: Grenoble - Grenoble
Stage 9b - August 13: Grenoble - Lac d'Aiguebelette
Stage 10 - August 14: Montrond-les-Bains - Issoire
Stage 11 - August 15: Bellac - Civaux
Stage 12 - August 16: Le Mans - Chateaudun
Stage 13 - August 17: Chartres - Lisieux
Stage 14 - August 18: Paris ITT

Gorey Dublin Skip Three Day

By Tommy Campbell, Irish Independent/Evening Herald/Sunday Independent

The Gorey Dublin Skip Three Day and the PO Tour of the North are synonymous with Easter as the start of the stage race season in Ireland. Sharing the billing with them this year is the Fexco Munster event, which in its relative short time on the go has made significant inroads and is now commanding a lot of overseas interest.

Munster this year has attracted an overseas entry, which on paper looks very formidable. Racing gets under way this afternoon (Friday) in Killorglin, Co. Kerry (Home of the Puck Fair) and continues over the weekend.

The PO Tour of the North has also a strong line-up with Tommy Evans returning from his base in France in an attempt to wrestle the title.

But pride of place has to go to the organisers behind the Gorey with the generous sponsorship of Dublin Skip who will have Sean Kelly on the start sheet. Checking back the records, no competitor has ever scored a double in the history of the race, which started in 1967 and was won by Peter Doyle of Bray Wheelers. 'Doyler' on the final stage back to Bray went from the line in Gorey and was never headed. His breakaway companion on that day was Brendan Ferris of the Tailteann CC.

Sean won the event back in 1973 as Junior. It would be asking a lot of the Carrick cyclist to confound the critics and score a notable double. Reliable sources say that he is serious in his quest but the years of inactivity since he retired in 1995 may ultimately tell their tale. But don't rule out a win on the time trial stage on Sunday morning. The distance is only 6 km and historically Sean had no equal against the clock.

On this auspicious occasion Sean has teamed up with the Mayo Wheelers and will have the support of Mark Quigley, Tom O'Toole and Willie Ormond.

"We are delighted that Sean Kelly has chosen to ride with us in Gorey, an event that he won almost 30 years ago. The club has a strong association with Sean, Tony Ryan and the Carrick boys which was fostered by Martin Wall initially and our annual Kelly Mayo training weekend which has grown to be a very big and successful event, is only just one of several visits during the year by Sean to Mayo," said Brendan Quigley of Mayo Wheelers who will manage the team.

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