News for September 2, 2002

Edited by Jeff Jones

The Vuelta approaches

By Jeff Jones

The 57th edition of the Vuelta España starts next Saturday, September 7 with a 30 km team time trial in Valencia, finishing three weeks later with a 45 km individual time trial in Madrid's famous Stadion Santiago Bernabeu, which has hosted Spain's most famous soccer team Real Madrid for the past 100 years. Although organisers Unipublic would have liked to have included some more soccer-like aspects into the Vuelta, such as having a qualifying week with two pelotons racing concurrently, that was knocked on the head by a number of teams when it was announced a few months ago.

However, the Vuelta remains the most innovative major tour on the calendar, featuring a shorter overall distance than either the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, and therefore shorter and more intense stages. Given that most of the riders are getting tired at this end of the season, it's a ploy that has worked well to keep the interest in the race right up until the last day.

In fact, the 2001 Vuelta was decided in favour of Angel Casero on the last day when he finished fourth in the final time trial, and leapfrogged Oscar Sevilla. Casero, whose season had been hampered by injury up until that point, did not even win a stage, but his consistency was good enough to win him the Vuelta.

This year, riding for Team Coast, he will have the role of defending champion, and again will approach the Vuelta with a minimal amount of racing in his legs due to a knee injury. Casero says that he is fully recovered from the injury, and has been training very hard of late. His ambition is to finish on the podium again, which will be no easy task.

Casero considers his biggest challengers to be Gilberto Simoni, who was strong in the mountains of the Giro d'Italia and after missing the Tour de France is itching to test his legs on the big climbs again. Then there are 2000 winner Roberto Heras, last year's runner up Oscar Sevilla, and the always dangerous Joseba Beloki.

The race will feature 21 stages, including two individual time trials, a team time trial, eight flat stages, and ten medium to high mountain stages. There will be four mountain top finishes this year, including the dreaded Alto de L'Angliru which was absent from last year's race. The mountains start as early as the fifth stage which finishes at Sierra Nevada (2520 m), followed by the sixth stage from Granada to Sierra de la Pandera (1840m).

2002 Vuelta preview
Provisional start list
Stages & climbs

Cipollini at the helm of Acqua e Sapone

Mario Cipollini will be Acqua e Sapone's top rider in the Vuelta España, taking a team of specialist lead out men to deliver him to the line in the flatter stages. With the speed of Giovanni Lombardi and the powerful Mario Scirea to wind up the speed in the last 2 km, the rest of the squad also packs a lot of punch. Spanish sprinter Miguel Angel Martin Perdiguero, time trialist Santos Gonzalez, Ruben Lobato, Daniele Bennati, Guido Trenti and Martin Derganc should be a good combination. The team will be directed by Antonio Salutini and Enrico Paolini.

Saeco-Longoni Sport with three leaders at the Vuelta

The Saeco-Longoni Sport team has announced the squad for the Vuelta España, that starts in Valencia next Saturday. Led by Gilberto Simoni, Danilo Di Luca and Igor Astarloa, the team promises to be very competitive in the third and final grand tour of the season. The other riders are Fabio Sacchi, Alessio Galletti, Leonardo Bertagnolli, Gerrit Glomser, Alessandro Spezialetti, Juan Fuentes, with Claudio Corti as team manager and Giuseppe Martinelli, Bruno Vicino and Guido Bontempi as directeurs sportifs.

Lanfranchi breaks two ribs

Paolo Lanfranchi (Index-Alexia) has been injured after breaking two ribs in a fall at his home. The 34 year old has been forced to finish his season early as a result.

A new Belgian team for 2003?

Belgian newspaper Het Volk reports that there will be a new Belgian team next year, sponsored by Toyota Europa, Massi and Habex, with the hope of some Australian sponsors. The team will be directed by Pol De Baeremaeker (formerly with Ipso-Euroclean), with Willy Vanderkelen behind it all. Phil Anderson and Sean Yates have also been named as part of the project. The team would number around 20 riders, a mixture of Belgians, Australians and Spaniards, and would debut in Division II.

Brandt to Lotto-Domo

The Lotto-Domo ranks are filling up for next season, with Belgian Christophe Brandt being the latest rider to sign a contract. So far, 18 riders have definitely signed for the new combined team.

Two Australian stagiaires

Two Australian riders have secured stagiaire contracts for the rest of the season. Mark Roland will ride for Palmans-Collstrop, while Glen Chadwick will ride for Landbouwkrediet-Colnago. Russian rider Mihkail Timochine has also been named as a stagiaire for Landbouwkrediet-Colnago, where he will join former teammates Yaroslav Popovych, Volodomir Bileka and Lorenzo Bernucci.

For more, see the stagiaires list.

Ster Elektrotoer preview

The 16th Ster Elektrotoer will take place this year from September 11-15, and is being billed as a battle between Rabobank's Michael Boogerd and CSC-Tiscali's Carlos Sastre. Both squads are amongst the strongest in the Toer, which will feature a very international line up. German teams Nürnberger and Gerolsteiner, Poland's CCC-Polsat and Mroz, Italy's Index-Alexia, Colpack, Acqua e Sapone, Belgium's Palmans-Collstrop and Denmark's EDS-fakta will compete alongside the top Dutch division II and III teams, as well as a national team from the Netherlands.

The organisers were afraid that with several other tours running concurrently, including the Vuelta España, Tour of Poland, Tour de l'Avenir, Brandenburg Rundfahrt, Tour of Yougoslavia, and Tour de Hokkaido, they wouldn't be able to attract a good quality field. However, with the race's 2.3 classification and an attractive parcours, there will be sufficient depth to provide some interesting racing.

The stages

• Stage 1 - September 11: Eindhoven - Boxmeer, 188.4 km
• Stage 2 - September 12: Boxmeer - Sint-Michielsgestel, 207.7 km
• Stage 3a - September 13: Valkenburg - Valkenburg, 116.2 km
• Stage 3b - September 13: Valkenburg ITT, 10.3 km
• Stage 4 - September 14: Valkenburg - Verviers, 184.2 km
• Stage 5 - September 15: Nuth - Schijndel, 191.3 km

Scottish Track Championships back on track next week

The Scott & Paterson Scottish Track Championships resume on Friday 6th September at 7.30pm following postponement as a result of heavy rain during the original scheduled weekend at the beginning of August.

With over half of the championships still to be decided Championship Director David Menzies said "We hope that the weather will be kinder to us this time. Over the three days at the beginning of August we only managed around 8 hours racing. Riders are travelling the length of Britain to try and win a Scottish Championship and the fact that Scotland does not have a covered velodrome is very frustrating for the riders and officials alike."

The sprint championship is at semi final stage where number 1 seed James Taylor (City of Edinburgh RC) takes on defending Champion Graeme Steen. In the other semi-final, Commonwealth Games Bronze medallist in the Team Sprint event, Marco Librizzi will face Stefan Collins (both City of Edinburgh). James Taylor is also a favourite for the 15km scratch where the likely challenge will come from Martin Lonie (Europcar RT) and Nicky Hall (City of Edinburgh RC). Defending champion Richard Chapman failed to sign on for the original championship and is therefore not able to ride the rearranged race.

The Women's pursuit has reached round 2 where Kate Cullen has qualified fastest and takes on Denise Lamond (both Edinburgh RC) while Emily Forde (Team Caledonia) takes on Jenny Wright (Edinburgh RC) for a place in the final. In the Youth Pursuit, Shane Charlton is out to take revenge over Kevin Barclay who won the Youth Sprint Championship but will have to beat Ross Mitchell and Thomas Mckay respectively if they are to reach the finals.

In the Veterans pursuit final Graham Barclay (Fife Cycling 2000) takes on Robert Maclean (Team Velo Ecosse) in what is sure to be a close contest with only 4 thousands of a second separating them in qualifying while in the Junior pursuit final Stuart McManus (Glasgow Wh) takes on Stephen Robertson (Glasgow Couriers).

The two and a half hour programme of racing starts at 7.30pm and entry to the event at Meadowbank Velodrome is free for spectators.

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