News for September 17, 2002

Edited by Jeff Jones

Women's World Cup to end in Rotterdam again in 2003

Next year's finale of the Women's World Cup will once again be held in Rotterdam. The organisers have in principle received the green light from the UCI, with it expected to be made official soon. That means there will be two Dutch rounds of the Women's World Cup, including the Amstel Gold Race in April.

This year's victor in Rotterdam was the powerful German Petra Rossner, who also clinched the World Cup title, overtaking Mirjam Melchers in the final round. The battle between the two see-sawed all season, with Rossner winning three of the nine races and finishing second in two, while Melchers won one race, finished second in two, and fourth in four. She needed to stop Rossner from winning in Rotterdam, but was unable to do so as the race finished in a bunch gallop.

"I hoped to lose Rossner in the last kilometre, but she was too sharp," said Melchers afterwards. "That's what's been going through my head for the last two days. It's hard when you come so close. But we gave everything as a team. We knew that we had to prevent a mass sprint, but unfortunately that didn't happen."

Rossner's World Cup
Photo: © Rudie Ottens

Rossner also had to survive a protest from the Farm Frites-Hartol team following last week's GP Suisse, where they claimed that she was pushed up the hills. She scored 11 valuable points in that race, compared to Melchers' 30, but the protest was turned down and there were no changes to the standings. In the end it didn't matter, as Rossner's winning margin over Melchers was 62 points, however the Farm Frites-Hartol team would have liked the buffer going into the final round.

Rossner said that her motivation was even greater than normal after that. "It was enormously exaggerated, but I know now that Melchers' partner Van Poppel was behind it," she said to ANP. "It is certain that the sport is dragged through the mud in this fashion. I hopefully showed here that I deserved the World Cup."

Belgian pre-selections for the World's

National coach Jose De Cauwer has made six pre-selections for the World Championships in Zolder. Tom Boonen (US Postal Service), Ludo Dierckxsens (Lampre-Daikin), Johan Museeuw (Domo-Farm Frites), Jo Planckaert (Cofidis), Peter Van Petegem (Lotto-Adecco) and Marc Wauters (Rabobank) have all earned automatic spots in the team, which will be doing its best to win on home territory.

As for the other six, De Cauwer is considering the sprinters Ludovic Capelle and Tom Steels, both of whom have had bad patches this season, although Capelle seems to be coming good at the right time. Belgian champion Steels was nowhere to be seen in Paris-Brussels, after having a bad day. Had he been at the finish, De Cauwer would probably have selected him.

Other riders on the short list include Niko Eeckhout, Nico Mattan, Michel Vanhaecke and Paul Van Hyfte.

Dutch selections for the World Championships

Dutch national coach Egon van Kessel has named most of the team to contest the World Championships in Zolder next month. The women's selection includes Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel, Debby Mansveld, Mirjam Melchers, Chantal Beltman, Anouska van der Zee, Sissy van Alebeek and Arenda Grimberg, with Van Moorsel and Melchers to ride the time trial.

The Espoirs (U23) Men will consist of Hans Dekkers, Bas Giling, Pieter Weening, Peter van Agtmaal and Arne Kornegoor. Stef Clement and Niels Scheuneman will ride the time trial.

The Junior Men will have Thomas Dekker, Huub Duyn, Tom Veelers, Joost van Leijnen and Jos Harms, with Dekker and Duyn to ride the time trial.

The Junior Women will be Suzanne de Goede, Loes Markerink, Marion Spijkerman and Miranda Vierling. Christa Pirard and Miranda Vierling will ride the time trial.

Gerrie Knetemann will name the men's team at the conclusion of the Vuelta, although it looks like Erik Dekker will be the number one time trialist, with Bart Voskamp or Servais Knaven the second.

Phonak for Rheinland-Pfalz-Rundfahrt

The Phonak team has announced its line up for the Rheinland-Pfalz-Rundfahrt, taking place in Germany between September 18-22. The team is as follows:

Denis Bertolini
Roger Beuchat
Christian Charriere
Fabrice Gougot
Markus Joho
Stefan Kupfernagel
Alexandre Moos
Lukas Zumsteg
Director: René Savary

Dermot Nally to begin pro trial

By Shane Stokes, Irishcycling.com

Continental based Irishman Dermot Nally will start a trial with the professional Colombia - Selle Italia team this Saturday, and will race with the second division squad until the end of October. The Spanish-based cyclist competed in Italy this year with the Maltini Lampadari team and took a number of good wins, including a stage victory and the points classification in the Giro d'Abruzzo.

Nally is back home in Spain at the moment as he is scheduled to have talks with the Jazztel team tomorrow about a possible contract. However he is not very optimistic that this will translate into a deal for 2003. "My agent has lined up the talks but I am not sure if anything will come of it as their budget is very tight for next year. We will meet them anyway, hopefully there will be some good news."

Nally is equally uncertain about his prospects with the Colombia - Selle Italia team. He was scheduled to join them in June but the fall-out of the Giro d’Italia drug scandals caused a cut in the team's budget. Now the main sponsor is pushing for a greater number of Colombian riders to be signed for 2003.

"I don’t know what are the chances of getting a deal. I will ride as well as possible in the trial and see how it goes," he said.

Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under info night in Melbourne

This coming Wednesday and Thursday (September 18-19) will see the organisers of the Tour Down Under hold two information nights in Victoria for those interested in getting to the race and what it's about. Race Director Mike Turtur and Event Coordinator, Lesley O'Grady will be in Melbourne's Crown Casino on Wednesday night (7-9pm) and in Leongatha Football Club on Thursday night (7:30-9:30pm) to give two free seminars about the race.

The details are as follows:

Melbourne: Wednesday 18 September
Sports Bar, Level 1, Crown Casino from 7 - 9pm

Leongatha: Thursday 19 September:
Leongatha Football Club from 7:30 - 9:30 pm

(Please note: 17 September at Ballarat has been cancelled)

What's included:

Highlight footage of the race
The tour explained
Visitor tips
How you can get involved - races, rides, clubs
Question time & give-aways
Plus...Jacob's Creek wine tasting!

All attendees go in the draw to win two Club Tour memberships valued at $338.

Contact: Lesley O’Grady on (08) 8463 4702 or tourdownunder@saugov.sa.gov.au.

Van Dessel to sponsor Team Bolla

US bicycle and product distribution company Van Dessel Sports has announced its sponsorship of the Colavita Bolla Division 3 professional road team. The sponsorship will be in the form of road bikes, with the team set to ride the new Campitello frame set with Carbonium components. The former are made of 7005 triple butted alloy tubing with carbon wishbone seat stays, while the latter consist of an aero carbon-spoked wheelset, a carbon crankset, a carbon water bottle cage, a carbon cyclo cross fork, and conical carbon headset spacers and plugs.

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