News for April 29, 2002Edited by Jeff Jones Amstel Gold Race newsPost race comments
Michele Bartoli (Fassa Bortolo, first) "Yes, this is the win I've been waiting for. Up until now, I've had a lot of bad luck; I've blown all the big races since the beginning of the season...but now the classics season is over and my morale is very good." "Ferretti gave us good direction in the break. He said, Ivanov can get away by himself and you can win in a sprint. But Armstrong was too strong today; he was the one who pulled back all the moves. Next I'll be racing the Giro but mostly to help (Francesco) Casagrande." Lance Armstrong (US Postal, fourth) "(It was a) tough call. When you have numbers in cycling, you normally win. And it was two strong Fassas (today). (It was) tough to do much. "I felt good. I was sick two nights before so I didn't expect much, but I was surprised. I tried to hang tough and see how it went. It's a great event with great fans. The people of Holland, and specifically the people from the Limburg region, are incredible." On his preparation for the Tour: "I feel fine. It's hard to compare from previous years, but I'm satisfied where I am. The next two months will dictate whether or not I can win the Tour again. I need to really focus, lose some kilos, and not have any problems." [Interesting to note that the second-placed Postie was Christian Vandevelde, in 27th place at 0:53, making him a strong contender for a major role as an Armstrong lieutenant in the Tour - Ed] Peter Van Petegem (Lotto-Adecco, sixth) "Because of the rain and the strong wind it was very tough. The legs weren't as good as last week [in LBL where he also finished 6th] and I came up short. When the deciding move came, I was too far back. If you are good, you normally ride in the top five of the peloton."
Johan Bruyneel (US Postal manager) "The only possibility was an attack on the last hill. The parcours didn't lend itself to that. Lance could not make the difference. In the sprint, that logic was respected."
Johan Museeuw (Domo, World Cup leader) "I raced on guts alone today; like at Liege-Bastogne-Liege. I couldn't have given more. I've been running on my reserve tank for two weeks now. I started my season early at the Tour Of Qatar in January and I'll be happy to take a break now. At my age, I know what I need to do." "I'll start racing again in the Tour Of Belgium, the Tour Of Germany and then Tour de Suisse and the (Belgian) National Championships, but no Tour De France. Instead, I'll do a training camp at altitude in Saint-Moritz to prepare for the World Cup races in August. With the World Cup leaders jersey, me and my Domo-Farm Frites team have extra motivation to go for the World Cup this year." Full results
and report Winner's profile: Michele Bartoli
With his fifth World Cup win today in Maastricht, Fassa Bortolo's Michele Bartoli is showing strong signs of his former brilliance that saw him dominate the one day scene in the mid to late 1990's. A terrible knee injury in the 1999 Tour of Germany was a big setback to his career, and it has taken him this long to recover his form. He is nearly 32, and in the coming years we should see him back on the podium again with more regularity. Today's Amstel Gold Race win put him equal with Andrea Tafi in terms of World Cup victories (5 in total), and only behind Johan Museeuw (10) and Erik Zabel (7) of all the currently active riders. He has also won the overall World Cup twice, in 1997 and 1998. This year, he started well by dominating the Tour of the Mediterranean, before falling sick and struggling for results. He came back with a good performance in Fleche Wallonne (3rd), although he could only place 59th in last weekend's Liege-Bastogne-Liege, a race that he has won twice. Today he got it right, combining with his teammate Sergei Ivanov in the four man break to shut out both Armstrong and Boogerd. Bartoli Bio Born: May 27, 1970 in Pisa, Italy Major wins 2002 Amstel Gold Race 2001 Omloop Het Volk 2000 Italian Road Championship 1999 Fleche Wallonne 1998 Overall World Cup 1997 Overall World Cup 1996 Ronde van Vlaanderen 1995 Stage + GC Driedaagse van De Panne 1994 Brabantse Pijl 1993 2 stages + GC Settimana Siciliana 40 riders testedA total of 40 riders from five different teams were tested by the UCI this morning before the start of the Amstel Gold Race in Maastricht. All riders from the Telekom, US Postal, EDS-fakta, Domo-Farm Frites, CSC-Tiscali were tested, and all were declared fit to start.
French teams step up for Tour selectionsBy Jeff Jones Next Thursday, May 2 will see the final six (or five) teams selected for the Tour de France, which starts in Luxembourg on July 6. 16 teams have already been pre selected according to UCI rules, but only one of these is French: Cofidis, Le Credit par Telephone. There are six other French teams in division I that are eligible for a wild card, in addition to the foreign teams. On the French side we have Crédit Agricole, Ag2r-Prevoyance, Jean Delatour, Bonjour, La Française des Jeux, and BigMat-Auber. In the foreign corner we have Team Coast, Saeco-Longoni Sport, Gerolsteiner, Mercatone Uno, Acqua e Sapone, Index-Alexia, Milaneza-MSS, and Phonak Hearing Systems. Going on past experience, it will be absolutely no surprise that the majority, if not all, of the wild card spots go to the French teams. Most of them have done something this spring, with Jean-Delatour and Ag2r-Prevoyance probably behind the rest in terms of results. Credit Agricole is pretty much assured a spot based on its performance last year, while Ag2r and BigMat have done enough in the races that are important for Tour selection (read: organised by the ASO); and Bonjour and Francaise des Jeux have done well in plenty of other races, as well as during last year's Tour. That's five teams taken care of, with Jean Delatour having an outside in due to the Brochard/Laurent Roux factor, if that can be considered as such.
That's not to write off the performances of the other teams this year: Team Coast has had a much better season, with its sprinter Thorsten Wilhelms winning a number of races. However, Angel Casero seems to be on the injured list at the moment; Saeco's Gilberto Simoni looks to be in shape for the Giro, and is one of the few climbers with the ability to challenge Armstrong in the Tour; Acqua e Sapone have Cipollini, but despite his success in the Tour he did not win too many friends by snubbing Paris-Roubaix after his team had gained a special invite. Then there are Gerolsteiner, Mercatone Uno, Index-Alexia, Milaneza-MSS and Phonak, which have to be considered outside chances given the odds against them. Who's it to be? Here's a prediction, without knowing the answer in advance (honest): Crédit Agricole, Bonjour, La Française des Jeux, Ag2r-Prevoyance, BigMat, and Saeco. Thinking about that, there really needs to be another three wild card slots to cater for all... Pre-selected teams1 Fassa Bortolo 2 Team Deutsche Telekom 3 Rabobank 4 Mapei-Quick Step 5 Lotto-Adecco 6 iBanesto.com 7 O.N.C.E.-Eroski 8 Cofidis 9 US Postal Service 10 Domo-Farm Frites 11 Alessio 12 Kelme-Costa Blanca 13 Lampre-Daikin 14 CSC Tiscali 15 Euskaltel-Euskadi 16 Tacconi Sport-Vini Caldirola 54th Dauphiné Libéré course unveiledThe 54th Dauphiné Libéré (June 9-16) will start in Lyon this year with a 3 kilometre prologue time trial. The race then follows an anti-clockwise direction, touring the French Alps, before finishing in Geneva on June 16. The parcours is as challenging as ever this year, with stage 2 finishing atop Mont Ventoux, followed by a 41 kilometre individual time trial the next day from Montélimar to Pierrelatte. Stage 6 is the toughest, containing three category 1 (Col des Saises, Col des Aravis, Col de la Colombiere) and one hors category climb (Col de Joux Plane) in its 146 kilometres. It is here that the race will be won, as the final stage is fairly flat. Given its proximity to the Tour de France, the Dauphiné is often used as a form tester by the big guns, and that will be the case this year. Although only 14 teams will take part, riders include Lance Armstrong (USPS), Christophe Moreau (Credit Agricole), Laurent Jalabert (CSC), Oscar Sevilla and Santiago Botero (Kelme), and Richard Virenque (Domo). The stages
Teams Credit Agricole (Moreau, Brard)
Casero won't start GiroAngel Casero (Team Coast) is having similar problems to last year, with an injury preventing him from racing at his best in the early part of the season. Casero abandoned the Vuelta a Rioja yesterday due to a problematic knee, and will probably not contest the Giro d'Italia. He has not yet found the cause of the problem and will have it further investigated in the coming days.
New course for Belgian 'cross championshipsThe Belgian cyclocross championships scheduled for January 11-12, 2003 will be held in Wielsbeke, but not on the Leiebos course that was used for the December 25 race in 2001. Instead, the championship parcours will be run around Hernieuwenburg. The reason was that part of the old course was destroyed by a container park.
NORBA changesThe National Off-Road Bicycle Association (NORBA) announced three changes this week to the 2002 Chevy Trucks NORBA National Championship Mountain Bike Series. The U.S. pro national dual slalom champion will be crowned in a one-day showdown at the season opener at Snow Summit, Calif. between May 9-12 in Big Bear Lake. The top American finisher in the pro men's and women's categories on Saturday, May 11, will be awarded the 2002 pro national dual slalom title. This five-race series traditionally uses all its stops to determine pro champions in various disciplines. A decision made earlier this year by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to phase out the dual slalom and introduce the new Mountain Cross format required NORBA to examine its events as well. "With the UCI changing their dual format to a mountain cross, we would be doing a disservice to those racers who want to compete at the World Cup and World Championship level," said USA Cycling National Events Manager Eric Moore. "How could we expect American athletes to be competitive at the international level if we aren't providing similar training and racing opportunities Stateside?" Out of respect for the tradition of the dual slalom, the NORBA Board of Trustees also decided on the one-day pro championship race. The national title for pro Mountain Cross will be awarded based on accumulated results over the four remaining Chevy Trucks NORBA Nationals - Alpine Valley, Wisc., Snowshoe, W.Va., Durango, Colo., and Mount Snow, Vt. Another rule change for 2002 is that pro National Bicycle League (NBL), USA Cycling's BMX association, licenses will be honored for riders racing the dual slalom and mountain cross events at the Chevy Trucks NORBA Nationals at the pro level. This licensing procedure was tried out at the 2002 Sea Otter Classic with success. "We want to lower the entry barriers to our sport," said Moore, who encouraged the licensing decision. The final change, which affects pro athletes, is that all five Chevy Trucks NORBA Nationals events count will count toward the overall series and the national championships. In previous years, an athlete's overall series standings were determined only by their top four results, allowing them to "throw out" one result. "We felt this is a sport at a professional level," said Sutton. "You can't throw out a game in the NFL; you can't choose not to play a game in the NHL. If you want to win a national title or the most prestigious series in the sport, you'll have to show up and race well every time."
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