News for August 3, 2002Edited by Jeff Jones Rumsas to be represented by top French lawyerThe Lithuanian Embassy in France has hired a top French lawyer, Jean-Marc Varaut, to defend Raimondas and Edita Rumsas, the latter who has been imprisoned in France under suspicion of transporting and supplying doping products. Mr Varaut said that he will travel to Italy meet Raimondas on Sunday, to discuss the case and the best possible course of action. "If I had some advice to give him, it would be to return to France," said Varaut today, but Rumsas clearly doesn't wish to travel to France just yet. Next Monday, Mr Varaut will announce when and if Raimondas will be ready to come. Varaut added that his son Alexandre, who is also a lawyer, is helping him in the case and will visit Edita in prison in Bonneville on Saturday, after he was not able to today (Friday). Rumsas to undergo independent doping tests next weekLithuanian cyclist Raimondas Rumsas, who is under suspicion of doping by French justice, will undergo independent drug tests next week. The news was confirmed by Chief Anti-doping Program Expert Rimas Berloviene, appointed the co-ordinator of a group formed by Lithuania's Physical Culture and Sports Department, according to Lithuanian newsagency ELTA. Neither the date nor the country of the testing were revealed, although it's believed that it will take place in a Scandinavian country. When asked what was the reaction to the doping test by Rumsas himself, the official underlined the Rumsas gave a firm "yes" to it. Rumsas was tested four times during the Tour - twice on July 9 and twice on July 22. All of his blood and urine tests were negative. On Thursday he received an invitation from the UCI to be present at a medical commission sitting in the UCI headquarters in Switzerland on August 15 this year. Official: All Tour anti-doping controls negativeThe Anti-doping Commission (ADC) of the UCI has officially announced that following the analysis of the urine samples taken during the 2002 Tour de France, all 141 controls were negative for doping products, including EPO and Nesp. In the coming weeks, the ADC will examine all of the medical justifications presented for the substances subjected to restrictions. Saeco-Longoni Sport leaves the AIGCPThe Saeco-Longoni Sport has decided to leave the AIGCP (Associazione Internazionale Gruppi Sportivi Professionistici, the International Association of Professional Cycling teams). Team manager Claudio Corti communicated the team's intention in a letter to AIGCP president Manolo Saiz. "I believe that the AIGCP has betrayed the very reason why it was established," Corti said. "Our ideals, if there were ever any, and the internal running of the association, were inspired by a vague concept of democracy. We do not have any political power or any function regarding the future prospects in which our sport can find serenity and a better chance of development." Corti also criticised the AIGCP over its handling of the Gilberto Simoni affair, which resulted in the team's exclusion from the Tour de France. "I think it would have been logical to expect a stance from the AIGCP and a declaration of solidarity, instead all we got was total silence. Obviously the association looks after the interests of some and not others, or perhaps only the interests of some to the detriment of others. Simoni has been absolved and our team has paid a very high price. It's unacceptable that the association has not considered the event as a problem for them to resolve, instead they preferred not to get involved." But the AICCP wasn't the only organisation targeted by Corti. "All I can say is; continue to accept the logic of those with the power, and accept with heads bowed every old and new situation ordered by the Tour de France organisers." Corti also touched on the position of the teams regarding the organisers of the Championship of Zurich: "I find the decision of the association to boycott the race absurd for an economical problem which isn't fundamentally important. The Saeco-Longoni Sport team will ride the race. If the AIGCP agrees or not with our decision is not very important because from today we are no longer members." Cannondale's president comments on the Simoni affairIn an open letter to the "bicycle racing community", Cannondale's founder and president Joe Montgomery provided some more details into the Simoni affair, after the Italian was recently cleared by the FCI and the Public Prosecutor in Trento for testing positive to cocaine. Simoni tested positive on two occasions, and was forced to leave the Giro d'Italia as a result. However, the subsequent investigation showed that the trace amounts of cocaine found in his urine originated from South American throat lozenges, that were given to him by his aunt, and he was therefore not sanctioned for doping. "As the official bicycle sponsor to the Saeco/Longoni Sport pro road racing team, we were extremely gratified to learn that all charges of cocaine use against team rider Gilberto Simoni were dismissed by both the public prosecutor's office in Trento, Italy and the Italian Cycling Federation. "Their announcement of Simoni's innocence followed an exhaustive investigation that included chemical analysis of hair samples which would have immediately and conclusively revealed any history of drug abuse, had it existed. Instead, the samples proved entirely negative. "The investigation also included chemical analysis of homeopathic throat lozenges that Simoni had been taking to ward off a possible case of bronchitis when the two positive drug tests were administered. The throat lozenges, which were of Peruvian origin, were shown to contain trace amounts of cocaine that were determined to be the source of the positive test results. A second, independent test of the lozenges returned identical findings. " With the satisfactory resolution to this matter, and with the full support of the Italian Cycling Federation, it is with great happiness that we welcome Gilberto Simoni back to the Saeco/Longoni Sport team and turn our attention once again to racing. "We would like to thank the many, many fans who stood by us during this difficult time, and who passionately urged us not to abandon our support of bike racing. We share your passion for our sport, we support the efforts to maintain its integrity, and we look forward to a continued presence at the highest levels of racing. Sincerely, Joseph S. Montgomery HEW Cyclassics Cup previewAfter a three month break, the UCI World Cup resumes on Sunday, August 4 with the HEW Cyclassics in Hamburg. Over the next three weekends, the World Cup will feature this race, followed by the Clasica San Sebastian on August 10, and the Meisterschaft von Zurich on August 18. The final two World Cup races are in October: Paris-Tours (Oct. 6) and Giro di Lombardia (Oct. 19). The HEW Cyclassics has been on the World Cup program since 1998, when Leon Van Bon won it. In 1999, Italian Mirko Celestino surprised everyone to win from an eight man breakaway group. In 2000, Gabriele Missaglia and Francesco Casagrande stole the show in the final kilometres, preventing the expected bunch sprint. Last year, despite the best attempts of Jan Ullrich and others to escape, the race did finish in a bunch sprint with Erik Zabel taking the honours from Romans Vainsteins and World Cup leader Erik Dekker. Cyclingnews will be providing live coverage of the race, starting at 11:00am CEST/02:00 PDT/05:00 EDT/19:00 Aust EST. New York City Cycling Championship previewLive coverage on CyclingnewsBy Tim Maloney, European editor in New York The first ever NYC Cycling Championships will occur this Sunday in Lower Manhattan, close to Ground Zero, the site of last September 11th's World Trade Center terrorist attack. As part of the spirit of revival of Manhattan's Financial District, Threshold Sports and title sponsor BMC Software decided to place the course near Wall Street in the heart of lower Manhattan. NYC Cycling Championships kicks off with two races Sunday morning; men's and women's elite (0900 and 1030 respectively), while the 100km main pro men invitational event kicks off at 1:30pm. The start/finish is at Water and Wall and the dogbone shaped circuit is over 1 mile, along Water, looping around Whitehall and Pearl at the south end, and Maiden Lane and Front Street on the North end. The weather is expected to A hot, sunny and humid summer Sunday, with large crowds expected to cheer the rare Stateside appearance of Lance Armstrong. Fresh from his 4th consecutive Tour De France victory and wearing dossard #1, Lance Armstrong will head up the USPS squad in the NYC Cycling Championships, with USPRO Champ Chann McRae, sprinter Tony Cruz and support riders Dylan Casey, Robbie Ventura and Kenny Labbe. Unlike the Tour De France, Armstrong will face only speedy sprinters Sunday. Italian Ivan Quaranta (Index-Alexia) will be looking for glory on his first racing trip Stateside, and the ever dangerous "Leopard" is back in form after a spring injury slowed him at the Giro d'Italia in May. Marty Nothstein (Navigators) is a very quick track sprinter with an Sydney Olympic gold medal to his credit, but Nothstein has yet to prove himself in any elite road race. Can the big man from Trexlertown sprint to victory in Manhattan? This may be the his moment. Other speedsters looking to stop Armstrong, Quaranta and Nothstein are crit maestro Jonas Carney (Prime Alliance) and aging but still rapid Canadian Gord Fraser (Mercury). In the NY Metro area, WABC-TV channel 7 will provide live coverage of the NYC Cycling Championships beginning 1pm EDT, while Outdoor Life Network will also have the crit live where OLN is available. Check your cable schedule for details. Of course, Cyclingnews.Com will have exclusive live coverage of NYC Cycling Championships beginning at 13:30 EDT/10:30 PDT/19:30 CEST/03:30 Aust EST (Monday). Men's Commonwealth Games road race previewBy Gerry McManus, Cyclingnews correspondent in Manchester Australia are firm favourites for another cycling gold medal in the road race at Rivington on Saturday 3rd August. The re-enforcements to the strong squad arrive in the shape of Stuart O'Grady and Baden Cooke, fresh from the Tour De France which finished last weekend. All the riders have been preparing all week on the roads around Manchester in the rain. Of the teams entered, there are a number of strong squads and recognised names including Gordon McCauley and Glen Mitchell (NZL), Robert Hunter (RSA), David McCann (NI), Gordon Fraser, Eric Wohlberg and Mark Walters (Can) with Max Sciandri and Jeremy Hunt representing the host nation. Individually, the other nations are not as strong as Australia but their combined force could see them take the initiative ahead of the Australians and dictate the race pattern.
Thursday night's 20km scratch race in the Manchester velodrome, saw the bunch close down after the stronger nations had a race winning nominee in the breakaway quartet and this could be repeated in the road race too. However, with the Australians the strongest on paper, they may choose to try to get more than one rider on the podium. The rain is expected to stay for the afternoon's race of 16 laps of a 7.3-mile circuit and this could cause some problems for the peloton. The strength sapping route begins relatively flat for 2 miles before a small climb is followed by a long 45 mph decent towards the reservoirs. Once over the bridge, a tight right-hand turn will see the bunch lined out as they approach the first of three 'steps' around the back of the circuit. The first will be difficult for those caught at the back, who will need to chase on the flat section before the next 1-in-6 ascent begins. A short respite again before the final shorter 'step' and they go into another long descent at up to 40 mph towards a 90-degree left-hander. If the rain persists, there could be casualties on this tight corner and it is noticeable that a BBC camera is already in position here. The run in to the finish is largely uneventful and the downward sloping finishing straight may require the judges to use the photo-finish camera if there is a bunch sprint. More from the Commonwealth GamesPhotos CSC-Tiscali interested in Verbrugghe and McEwenAccording to Remi Demoor, whose company Vosschemie co-sponsors CSC-Tiscali, the Danish team is interested in Lotto's Rik Verbrugghe and Robbie McEwen, who have been named as possible replacements for the retiring Laurent Jalabert. However, Riis is still reportedly very interested in Jan Ullrich, despite denials from the latter's manager. Demoor made the remarks in Het Laatste Nieuws. Mapei-Quick Step for HEW CyclassicsRiders: Paolo Bettini, Laszlo Bodrogi, Davide Bramati, Oscar Freire, Pedro Horrillo, Daniele Nardello, Luca Paolini, Andrea Tafi. DS: Serge Parsani. Lampre-Daikin for upcoming racesLampre-Daikin will take part in the GP Camaiore on Wednesday 7 August with the following riders: Rubens Bertogliati, Pavel Tonkov, Alessandro Cortinovis, Matteo Frutti, Gabriele Missaglia, Mariano Piccoli, Maximilian Sciandri and Zbigniew Spruch. The same team, except Matteo Frutti who will be substituted by Marco Serpellini, will take part in the World Cup event on 10 August, the Klasica Ciclista di San Sebastian, and on Sunday 11 August the Subida a Urkiola: Rubens Bertogliati, Alessandro Cortinovis, Gabriele Missaglia, Mariano Piccoli, Zbignew Spruch, Maximilian Sciandri, Marco Serpellini and Pavel Tonkov. Itera for LGBFTechnical director Walter Zini has selected the riders who will represent the Itera team in the upcoming Grande Boucle Féminin, that starts on Sunday in 's Hertogenbosch. The team has ambitions for the general classification, with Russian Valentina Polkhanova, who finished second in the Tour de l'Aude and won the Tour Féminin in 1994, their main rider. In the sprints, the team will work for Olga Slioussareva, who won the sprint classification last year. The team is as follows: Joulia Martisova (Rus), Valentina Polkhanova (Rus), Svetlana Samokalova (Rus), Kim Shirley (Aus), Olga Slioussareva (Rus), and Lada Kozlikova (Cze). New sponsor for Junior Tour of IrelandBy Tommy Campbell, Irish Independent, Evening Herald, Sunday Independent The annual Junior Tour of Ireland will take place in Waterford this year from August 6-11. There is a new addition to this year's team - M Donnelly has become the Junior Tours main sponsor. Said Alice Sherratt, race organiser, "The race is growing stronger again this year with the help of our new sponsor M Donnelly. This support allows the race to climb to a higher level internationally as the development of the race is essential to competitive junior cycling in Ireland." M Donnelly is no stranger to sports sponsorship as he has funded many GAA teams such as Clare hurling and Meath Football in the past. This six-day cycle tour will begin in Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), and travel through the county touching on Kilkenny. The Junior Tour has been one of the premier International events in Ireland since its inception in 1978 when JJ McCormack Eagle CRC devised it. Rás winner Philip Cassidy said, "Despite limited finance available it was decided to continue running the event as we felt that it would be a major loss to let the JT slip away. We are sincerely grateful to M Donnelly for his support and the numerous other stage sponsors we have worked with over the years. Without these efforts we would not be able to run the event." The cyclists will start this year with a Time Trial at Dunmore East. The stages
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