News for May 9, 2002

Edited by Jeff Jones

Ullrich: "Don't write me off yet"

A day after revealing to the world that he won't be taking part in this year's Tour de France, Telekom's Jan Ullrich gave a press conference in Umkirch (near Freiburg) to discuss his decision and plans for the future.

"I am convinced that I will come back," said the 28 year old German from Rostock. "My career is not finished. I am very sorry, but it was not worth the trouble. The pain did not go away when I was training. I will not start the Tour to finish 30th."

Ullrich wants to keep going though, and he still in theory has his best years ahead of him. He has a contract with Telekom until the end of 2003, but hopes to defend his Olympic Road Race title in Athens in 2004.

For now, "I will probably take four weeks of rest. It is possible that I will dispute the Vuelta in September. All depends on how I recover."

Ullrich added that he felt upset for his fans, many of whom have emailed him over the last few days. He also considered that this year's Tour will "evidently be more boring."

Gerolsteiner for the Giro

Davide Rebellin and Georg Totschnig will lead the Gerolsteiner team in the Giro d'Italia. Both riders have recorded top 10 GC places in the Giro (Rebellin's 6th in 1996, Totschnig's 9th in 1995) and will be hoping for success in the mountains. Other riders in with a chance for stage victories include Saulius Ruskys, Torsten Schmidt, Peter Wrolich and René Haselbacher, with Italians Daniele Contrini, Gianni Faresin, Ellis Rastelli making up the rest of the team.

Index Alexia for the Giro

Paolo Savoldelli will lead the Index-Alexia team for the Giro. The 1999 runner up and stage winner hopes to return to his form of three years ago, but it has been slow in coming. The rest of the squad is Dario Andriotto, Bo Hamburger, Paolo Lanfranchi, Mario Manzoni, Ivan Quaranta, Daniele Righi, Eddy Serri and Mauro Zinetti. Directors: Giovanni Fidanza and Ennio Vanotti.

Giro rights in the Netherlands: NOS TV still negotiating

The Dutch NOS TV network, which broadcasts a number of major cycling events, is still negotiating with Italian RAI TV about the rights to rebroadcast the Giro d'Italia. The race starts in Groningen on Saturday, but an agreement has yet to be reached between the two channels. If a resolution is not made, the Dutch cycling fans will have to watch the Giro on Eurosport, which reaches approximately 80% of all households, or Belgian TV1, which reaches 97%.

For those without TV coverage of any sort, Cyclingnews will be providing live updates of all the stages of the Giro, starting at approximately 14:30 local time each day (8:30am Eastern, 5:30am Pacific, 10:30pm Australian Eastern time).

Full Giro d'Italia start list
Gilberto Simoni pre-Giro interview
More Giro news

Lotto on waterbeds in Dunkirk

First it was earpiece radios and now it's waterbeds. Lotto's director sportif Jef Braeckevelt has had waterbeds installed in the hotel rooms of the Belgian team during the Four Days of Dunkirk. "It is a test project" said Braeckevelt today. "If the experiment works, we will consider having the beds installed in the Tour de France hotels that we get appointed."

A spokesman of the waterbed firm TTI said that "Waterbeds help with the relaxation of the muscles; that way the riders will recuperate better after the race."

Lampre-Daikin is showing interest in the project and Rik Verbrugghe and Serge Baguet already purchased one of the beds.

Lopez de Munain fractures left arm

Euskaltel-Euskadi's Alberto Lopez de Munain fractured his left arm in an accident during last Sunday's Tour de Romandie time trial. Lopez de Munain was taken to the Centro Intermutual de Euskadi in Bilbao, where the diagnosis was made. The crash happened when Lopez de Munain collided with a pedestrian who was crossing the road on a high speed section of the parcours. The cyclist was coming round a blind right hand corner, and had no chance to avoid the person.

Doping bag in Denmark

After the CSC-Classic race in Denmark last Sunday, a couple out on an evening stroll found a plastic bag with syringes and ampoules in a grove some 30 metres off the road near the feeding zone at Herskind. In the bag was an EPO ampoule, two insulin syringes, both on the doping list, and also an infusion kit, creatine and ampoules with glucose, amino acids and other medicines.

The couple took the bag to the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, who reported the findings. The organisers have issued a press statement saying that they belive that the bag must have come from a single rider or a single team.

33rd Grand Prix cycliste de Wallonie

Suffering from a bad calendar placement this year, the 33rd edition of the GP de Wallonie will see a reduced quality field taking part on Ascension Day, May 9. The 196 kilometre race is one of the most picturesque on the Belgian calendar, starting and finishing in Namur, and taking in a pleasant but hilly tour of the Meuse and Sambre rivers. It finishes with two laps of a circuit around the citadel of Namur, a 2 km cobbled climb averaging 5.4% which prevents any kind of a bunch sprint.

Defending champion Axel Merckx (Domo) will not be present this year, and his team will actually form a composite with Landbouwkrediet-Colnago. Lotto-Adecco will not send a team at all, as they are competing in Dunkirk and the Giro d'Italia.

The teams are as follows: Domo-Landbouwkrediet-Colnago (Bruylandts), Palmans, Vlaanderen-T Interim, RDM-Flanders, Marlux, AXA-VVZ, Team Coast (Mauro Gianetti), EDS-fakta, Jean Delatour (Laurent Roux), Bonjour (François Simon), La Française des Jeux, AG2R (Sébastien Demarbaix), Cofidis (Nico Mattan), Bigmat, Amore e Vita.

Poland, South Africa lead challenge in FBD Milk Ras

A huge field of 195 riders from Ireland, France, Germany, Denmark, Japan, Canada, South Africa, Britain, Poland, USA, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man will face the starter when the FBD Milk Ras 8 Day International Cycle Race gets underway from the GPO on Sunday week, May 19. Last year's winner, Paul Manning, will lead the British national team in defence of the title, while Irish professional rider and former winner, Ciaran Power will spearhead a powerful Irish challenge.

Canada, South Africa and Poland are represented by professional teams, Sympatico, HSBC and Legia, respectively. South African Nicolas White who finished a mere 43 seconds behind Manning last year will be out to peddle at least one third of a second per kilometre faster than the Briton this year. The Polish Legia Team won the international team award last year and will be favourites to retain the title this year as well as producing an overall winner in Jaroslaw Welniak.

Ireland has no shortage of favourites, '98 winner Ciaran Power, former world champion and prolific winner of top category races in France this year, Mark Scanlon, '96 winner Tommy Evans and Mayoman David O'Loughlin, riding as a professional in the USA. As well as the national team of Power, Evans, Scanlon, Tim Barry and Paul Griffin eighteen county teams with top riders such as Paddy Moriarty, David Peelo, Stephen O'Sullivan and Ritchie Cahill will make it very difficult for any team, professional or otherwise, to win the Golden Jubilee of this great race.

Nigeria is due to be represented by the Lagos Cycling Team but so far have not received the necessary Visas.

The stages

• Stage 1 - May 19: Dublin - Ballinamore, 156 km
• Stage 2 - May 20: Ballinamore - Nenagh, 163 km
• Stage 3 - May 21: Nenagh - Killorglin, 156 km
• Stage 4 - May 22: Killorglin - Castletownbere, 171 km
• Stage 5 - May 23: Castletownbere - Midleton, 168 km
• Stage 6 - May 24: (Transfer To Dungarvan) Dungarvan - Arklow, 155 km
• Stage 7 - May 25: Arklow - Baltinglass, 153 km
• Stage 8 - May 26: Phoenix Park Circuit Race, 50 km

For more information, see the Official FBD Milk Ras website.