News for November 19, 2002

Edited by Jeff Jones

2003 Track World Cup

The UCI has presented the Track World Cup for 2003, which will be held over four rounds starting in Moscow in February. New venues next year are Aguascalientes, Mexico and Cape Town, South Africa. The series will finish in Sydney, Australia in May.

Round 1 - February 14-16: Moscow, Russia
Round 2 - March 21-23: Aguascalientes, Mexico
Round 3 - April 11-13: Cape Town, South Africa
Round 4 - May 16-18: Sydney, Australia

Other important dates on the track calendar include the Junior Track World Championships, held between August 20-24 in St Petersburg, Russia, and the Elite Track World Championships, held between July 30 and August 3 in Shen Zhen, China.

MSR and Lombardy to be removed from World Cup?

The UCI has reiterated its position on the Italian monuments Milan-San Remo and Giro di Lombardia, threatening to remove them from the World Cup next season. The reason being that the TV rights to the Italian races are considered by most other countries to be too expensive, thus two of the world's biggest one day races will not get much air time outside Italy.

The rights are held by RAI, which has a conflict with the European Broadcasting Union (UER) about the costs of TV rights.

UCI to appeal Roux decision

The UCI will likely appeal the decision made by the disciplinary committee of the French Professional Cycling League to clear French rider Laurent Roux of amphetamine use. Roux tested positive for the stimulant in April, 2002, and was sacked by his team as a result. The LCPF ruled that there was a problem with the doctor who carried out the drug control, thus Roux was free to go.

"We don't have the intention of leaving it there," said Verbruggen to L'Equipe at Monday's presentation of the UCI Track World Cup. The UCI will probably take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Belgian and Dutch selections for the 'cross World Cup

By João Cravo

Belgian national cyclo-cross coach Rudy De Bie announced the names of the five riders that will defend the colours of Belgium at the first round of the World Cup. The event will take place in Frankfurt, Germany, on November 24.

The Belgian team will be led by the World Champion Mario De Clercq and will also include Sven Nijs, Erwin Vervecken, Tom Vannoppen, Bart Wellens and Sven Vanthourenhout. De Bie has chosen Peter Van Santvliet as reserve rider.

There is some discussion in Belgium about whether Van Santvliet should be in the squad instead of Vannoppen. However Rudy De Bie counters that Vannoppen is a 23 year old 'young wolf' while Van Santvliet (33) is not that young anymore. Besides that, the Frankfurt circuit fits Vannoppen's style of riding better, according to De Bie.

De Vos in Dutch team

The new coach of the Dutch National cyclo-cross team, Frans Francissen, will take the following riders to Frankfurt: Richard Groenendaal, Wim De Vos, Maarten Nijland, Wilant Van Gils and the current U23 World champion Thijs Verhagen.

Wim De Vos is the rider who had a hard crash last weekend during the third round of the Superprestige trophy in Gavere, Belgium. The rider has recovered, after passing Sunday night under observation at the hospital. However it remains to be seen whether he is in top race condition for Germany.

O'Grady to ride in Langkawi

Commonwealth Games champion Stuart O'Grady (Credit Agricole) will make his first appearance in the Telekom Malaysia Le Tour de Langkawi, which takes place from January 31 to February 1, 2003. The 29 year old has won stages and held the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, as well as finishing second on two occasions in the green jersey competition. He is no stranger to Malaysia either, having won silver in the Commonwealth Games time trial in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.

Credit Agricole will also bring New Zealander Chris Jenner, who finished 5th overall in LTDL in 2001 The 28 year old also won this year's Boucles de L'Aulne GP and the 2001 Tour of Wellington.

The full Credit Agricole roster for the Tour de Langkawi is as follows:

Stuart O'Grady (Aus)
Chris Jenner (Fra)
Corey Sweet (Aus)
Johan Charpenteau (Fra)
Yan Tournier (Fra)
Mad Kaggestad (Nor)
Eric Leblacher (Fra)

Elitron to sponsor Cipollini's team

Acqua e Sapone team boss Vincenzo Santoni has signed a contract with Elitron, an Italian company with an international presence that provides CAD/CAM systems for the footwear and leather goods industries. Elitron will thus be a co-sponsor of the team that boasts the 2002 World Road Champion Mario Cipollini, who brings a lot more than just results to a cycling team.

Saeco interested in Ullrich

With the Jan Ullrich-CSC deal still hanging in the air, dependent on whether Bjarne Riis finds a suitable co-sponsor, Italian team Saeco-Longoni Sport is one of the teams interested in hiring the German fuoriclasse. Saeco currently has 22 riders under contract, and hopes to gain Ivan Quaranta as its 23rd. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, team manager Claudio Corti has also made an offer to Jan Ullrich, who would prefer to ride for CSC, provided the money is there.

Brozyna signs for CCC-Polsat

Tomasz Brozyna (iBanesto.com) has officially signed for one season with CCC-Polsat. The 32 year old joins 11 others who have been signed by the team so far. Key riders will be Arkadiusz Wojtas (Team Nürnberger), Ondrej Sosenka (winner of the Peace Race 2002), Radoslaw Romanik and Dariusz Baranowski. CCC-Polsat is now waiting until December to see if their purchases for the 2003 season will help in securing a spot in Division I.

Courtesy of Marek Jankowski

Sponsor Service stops

By Tomas Nilsson, Cyclingnews correspondent

Team Sponsor Service, Norway's first and only women's trade team, will not continue next season. The project was launched in 2001 and was supposed to run for four years. Lack of results and attention are said to be the reasons for its premature end. The team had problems in finding sponsors from the beginning, thus it bore the name of the sports management company that was to sell the product.

The team was made up of what until then had been the Norwegian national team. This last year it was completed with Finland's leading female cyclist, Pia Sundstedt. Two of the riders, veterans Ragnnhild Kostol and Solrun Flatås, will retire from cycling. The future for the others is uncertain. The Norwegian sponsorship market is shrinking at the moment.

Anita Valen, who made a comeback to the National team this season, had hoped to ride with her sister Monica in the team for the next few years. But now they will probably seek personal sponsors and ride with the national team, unless they can get contracts on the continent. MTB ace Gunn-Rita Dahle, who raced on the road for the team, has on the other hand a couple of alternatives for next year's MTB season.

The company Sponsor Service will continue handling the sponsorship deals for the Norwegian Cycling Federation for another four years. The man behind the cycling team, Birger Hungerholt, who also is Thor Hushovd's manager, has left the company and is founding his own sponsorship business.

De Wolf to Palmans

Steve De Wolf (27) will reinforce the Belgian team Palmans-Collstrop in 2003. The Belgian rider became unemployed after the merger of Lotto and Domo.

Dutch cyclo-crosser dies

35 year old Maurice van Dam, a member the WV Schijndel club, has died of a heart attack after a cyclo-cross race in Etten-Leur on Saturday. Van Dam was competing in the sport class race and collapsed after finishing. He was taken to hospital, but was unable to be revived.

Maurice van Dam rode for WV Schijndel for 10 years and cyclo-cross was his hobby. He was married and had three children.

(All rights reserved/Copyright Knapp Communications Pty Limited 2002)