Second edition news for April 4, 2002

Edited by Jeff Jones

Ullrich will start the Tour: Pevenage

Jan Ullrich's team leader Rudy Pevenage has said that he will be on the start line in Luxembourg on July 6 for the Tour de France. Ullrich has been suffering from knee problems for a month now, and has hardly competed all year. However, Pevenage said that "We still have three months from the start of next week, when he will start training on the bike again. He will do a test around the 20th of April, in which he goes under full load. If all goes well then, Jan could start racing at the beginning of May for the first time since the Tour of Qatar in January."

"Even if he is not fit by the start of the Giro d'Italia on May 11, there is still enough racing for him to prepare for the Tour," added Pevenage. "In comparison with this time last year, he has not got any concerns with his fitness and weight."

"He is hot to go again. To predict the healing process in this unusual injury is extremely difficult. Jan has had no pain for some time now, so we can assume that he can start soon with training again."

Ullrich has spent the last four weeks doing aqua-jogging, watched by a number of interested spectators in the Freiburg swimming pool.

Dekker back home

The world's number one cyclist Erik Dekker was able to leave Eemland Hospital in Amersfoort and return home today (Wednesday), 10 days after he was operated on for a fractured left thigh bone. He sustained this in a crash during the first World Cup race of the season, Milan-San Remo, and he is not expected to be back in competition until the end of May at the earliest.

Broken hand for Sassone

Robert Sassone (Cofidis) was one of seven victims in today's crash on the descent of the Kemmelberg, during stage 2 of the Driedaagse van De Panne. Although Andrei Tchmil (two broken fingers, two torn quadriceps muscles) and Chris Peers (bad bruising to his hip) were thought to be the worst hurt, it was also found that Robert Sassone had broken his hand. Tchmil wants to come back in time for the Amstel Gold Race on April 28, while Sassone is expected to be out for a similar period of time.

The other riders involved in the fall: Dario Pieri, Kristof Trouvé, Paolo Bossoni and Daniele Bennati were not as seriously hurt.

Simoni recovering well

Gilberto Simoni's right knee is quickly getting better and he will soon be able to train and start racing again, according to his team Saeco. Simoni saw specialist Prof Gianni Ricci on Wednesday morning, who confirmed that he will be able to start riding seriously soon.

"I saw that his knee is in good shape," Prof Ricci said. "It's not swollen and there's no liquid present. Simoni can gradually start training and even try and test his knee in a couple of days."

Simoni was naturally happy to hear the good news: "It was exactly what I wanted to hear," he said. "I rode for a few kilometres yesterday and felt a bit unbalanced but that was perhaps due to not having moved my leg for five days. Now after this good news I can start training properly and might even do a tough ride this weekend."

Simoni hopes to start racing again at the Tour of the Basque Country which starts next Monday.

"I need and want to race," Simoni said. "It's important I start as soon as possible so that I can get used to racing. Starting the Tour of the Basque Country would be perfect even if I'm not in great shape. I only have to be competitive from the Giro del Trentino."

The decision whether Simoni rides in Spain will be made by the Saeco medical and technical staff in the next few days after seeing how Simoni responds to training.

Lampre-Daikin for Ronde Van Vlaanderen

The Lampre-Daikin team will race with the same squad of riders in the Ronde Van Vlaanderen who are in the Driedaagse van De Panne. Ludo Dierckxsens, Maximilian Sciandri and Zbigniew Spruch will be the team's captains on Sunday, with Dierckxsens showing some signs of form this week in De Panne, winning the climber's classification. The whole team is as follows:

Ludo Dierckxsens
Maximilian Sciandri
Zbigniew Spruch
Johan Verstrepen
Gabriele Missaglia
Marco Serpellini
Luciano Pagliarini
Raivis Belohvosciks
Team manager: Pietro Algeri

Raimondas Rumsas, after the injury that will keep him out of the classics, will start racing again in the Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco, from April 8-12, a race that he won last year. Rumsas will be part of a team captained by Pavel Tonkov, who is looking at the Giro d'Italia:

Pavel Tonkov
Raimondas Rumsas
Sergio Barbero
Simone Bertoletti
Massimo Codol
Alessandro Cortinovis
Juan Manuel Garate
Mariano Piccoli
Team manager: Maurizio Piovani

No velodrome tests for Escartín, Sevilla and Vicioso

Spanish cyclists Fernando Escartín (Team Coast), Oscar Sevilla and Angel Vicioso (Kelme) have decided not to take part in physical tests on the Zaragoza velodrome today, due to various health problems. Escartin has the flu, while Vicioso is having knee problems, so Sevilla did not think it was worth coming.

Vicioso is still suffering after his fall in Milan-San Remo, which made life difficult during the Catalan week. He will probably still race in the Premio de Estella as preparation for the Giro.

VDB hasn't lost the motivation

In spite of a six month suspension for drug possession, Frank Vandenbroucke is still thinking of yet another comeback. Although it would be like "Lazarus with a triple bypass" (to quote a certain Australian politician), VDB's psychologist Jef Brouwers believes that he can do it.

Speaking on Belgian Radio 1, Brouwers said "Vandenbroucke has not yet lost the motivation to come back. He is working well with me, but it essentially comes down to a sensible activity for him to seek."

He wants to prevent VDB from just watching TV and going back to bed. "As a matter of fact, Frank now doesn't have much to do," said Brouwers, who added that he is riding his bike every day. "He is in a difficult situation, but mentally he is at 70%".

ONCE and iBanesto consider Giro boycott

Spanish teams ONCE-Eroski and iBanesto.com are considering boycotting the Giro d'Italia, due to the ongoing broadcasting rights issue between RAI TV and the rest of the world. Spanish television TVE will not carry the race live, due to the high cost of retransmission rights, reported as 300,000 euros. Thus, the Spanish teams will not get enough exposure at home to justify racing in Italy to their sponsors.

ONCE threatened to do this last year, but ended up racing in the Giro anyway. This year they have been joined by iBanesto.com in their protest, who have presented their case to the organisers. Both teams placed riders on the podium last year, but no-one in Spain could see it.

Major sponsor announced for Scottish Cycling Union team

The SCU Race Team has been signed up by VisitScotland to help promote Scotland as a cycling holiday destination. The sponsorship was announced in a press meeting at the velodrome attended by VisitScotland chairman Peter Lederer and SCU Race Team members.

The SCU Racing Team will play an integral part in the new £150,000 Cycling Scotland marketing campaign which is being spearheaded by the Kingdom for Fife Tourist Board. The campaign will target Scotland's key cycling markets such the France, Sweden and Holland in addition to the domestic market.