News for December 3, 1998

Henk Vogels crashes his car

Australian Credit Agricole rider Henk Vogels has been involved in a car accident in Perth which could have been fatal. He hit a guard rail and ran off the road. He was taken to a nearby hospital. The diagnosis indicates that he will need rest only. He said: "I have had a lucky escape."

Reaction from French Cycling Federation

The President of the French Cycling Federation, Daniel Baal said that results from the expert medical report which said that 8 of 9 Festina Tour de France riders were involved in drug taking are "valid and precise". He said: "The fact that the level of some of the riders, amongst them Virenque, is under the legal limit set by the UCI, doesn't mean anything. EPO figures in a list of substances that the UCI has banned and its consumption is sanctionable. At the present time, several different tests are required to detect traces of EPO in the body of cyclists, since these can't be detected in urine tests."

He says that Virenque will have difficulty maintaining a defense based on the fact the his hematocrit level was recorded at 49.3 per cent.

The French Cycling Federation has to consider the penalties that they can impose on the riders. But Baal indicated that they will wait until the judicial process is over. This will in all likelihood take until the end of the year.

French judicial sources are now saying that none of the riders will face charges as a result of the Festina scandal. Only the suppliers and traffickers can go to jail under the French drug laws.

Vitalicio Seguros aims higher

The Spanish team Vitalicio Seguros is reappraising their 1999 goals after a successful start to professional racing in 1998. The sport's director Javier Mínguez said the team was happy with their first year and would approach the next with "experience and serenity." Vitalicio Seguros finished the season with a total of 19 wins (six more than Kelme and four less than ONCE) and posted good overall performances at la Vuelta (Zintchenko and Clavero), the Giro (Clavero) and Tour de France(Casero).

Javier Míngue summarised the season: "The results have been good on the sport's front and very good from a publicity perspective because we've had an impact equivalent of more than 2,000 million pesetas (US$12.8 million). Even with all of that, we need to be ambitious and recognize that there are times where we expected more - like to win a stage at the Giro or to have finished the Tour, which we didn't".

With this base, Vitalicio faces next year with optimism and they want to dispute the three major stage races. For now the Giro and la Vuelta are confirmed, but not the Tour, from which they expect an invitation.

The team has grown, from 22 riders in 1998 to 24, with four riders leaving. That means that there will be six new riders: Cerezo (a domestique), the González de Galdeano brothers (for which there is a lot of hope), Medina (a young sprinter) and Colombians Parra & Peńa.

There won't be a fixed leader, but that job will be spread amongst Blanco, Clavero, Casero, Zintchenko and even Álvaro González de Galdeano. Mínguez is very clear in this matter: "I'm the leader of Vitalicio".

Peter Rogers Update

Peter Rogers has been talking with Die Continental and they have offered him a good contract which he will be taking up. It looks like he will be living in Dortmund not to far from Scott McGrory and they expect him at their Majorca training camp in February. They race a pretty solid prgram though out the season and he tells me that they have told him to be in good shape for the new "German Tours" 1.4 stage race at the end of May as this is one of their big aims for 1999.

Peter says that: "Training wise, things are progressing well as I've started 1 month earlier than previous years. Im doing the Brisbane crit on the 13th and in January I'll do the Bay Crits before the Nationals and finnishing with the Tour Down Under."