Tour 1998The Dutch teams TVM and Rabobank are already certain of riding the Tour de France this year. They are in the first 16 teams (each with 9 riders) who the organisation of the Tour have chosen (based on UCI rankings at January 1).The Italian team Riso Scotti (with Baldato and Minali) was not chosen due to the fact that the team on January 1 was not in the top 16 teams. In between time, transfers have put Riso Scotti near to 20th position. Polti, also from Italy, with some top hitters in Frenchman Luc Leblanc and the Belgian Axel Merckx, profited in a similar manner. In total, by July 11 in the Irish Capital, 20 or 21 teams will start. Last year there were 22 teams at the start. On June 16, after the Tour of Italy and the Criterium Dauphiné Libéré, we will know the fate in the Tour of another 4 teams and the one wildcard. The Organisers have the wildcard joker in the hand to select the 21st team. Already participating are: Festina, La Française des Jeux, GAN and Casino (Frane), Mapei, Saeco, Mercatone Uno en Polti (Italy), ONCE, Banesto and Kelme (Spain), TVM en Rabobank (Netherlands), Telekom (Germany), Lotto (Belgium) and US Postal (USA). Rincon makes comebackRoberto Vecchio (Eurosport) writes: What I can see in the list from Wielerevue is that there is only one rider that has made a comeback in the Div 1 group. It is Oliverio Rincon from Colombia. He stopped after the 1996 season when he rode for the ONCE team. This year he's back in business as a professional with the new Vitalicio team.Sven NijsThe new (but also the former) World Espoirs Cyclo Cross Champion, Sven Nijs, has been awarded the 6th Provincial Sport's Prize for the Province of Vlaams-Brabant. The award was made in Hofstade. Nijs won the award ahead of the other contenders tennis players Dominique Monami-Van Roost en Sabine Appelmans.The young cyclo cross rider received a bronze craftwork from the Craftsperson from Leuven, Fred Bellefroid. The Jury comprised leading provincial sports experts and journalists. Food poisoning for Ivan SchrijverDuring a training camp in Benidorm (Spain), 18-year old Dutch rider Ivan Schrijver has come down with food poisoning. The rider from the AXA Cycling Team is in a hospital in Alicante. There is a fear that more riders from the team with former professionals John Van den Akker, John Den Braber and Luppes will contract the illness.Delay for 3 TeamsThe Belgian teams Collstrop and Palmans and the Swiss team Post-Swiss nearly didn't start in the Marseillaise race since some bank papers required by the UCI had not arrived in time. After much negotiation with the headquarters in Lausanne the three teams finally heard the verdict of the jury which was: "That while the matter is still outstanding, the three teams will not be considered as "complete" teams."This means they are under a cloud for the depart of the Etoile de Bessèges with the risk of being deprived of their UCI that they may eventually get during the week of the race. Some Beautiful Data to ConsiderIn one of my lives I spend hours building large economic models using pretty complex systems estimation (regression) techniques. I have a fair liking for data of all sorts. See some data, do some analysis. So when David Cowie, a regular contributer (of the South African Cycling Page fame) sent me the latest musings from his spreadsheet I thought - the gang are going to like all these numbers.Dave used data available from the 1997 Tour de France. So what are they? Well BMI = Body Mass Index is equal to weight in kgs divided height in metres squared. The denominator is designed to scale the measure to reproduce standardised height-weight relations found in broad populations. The riders are listed in order of their height in metres. In general the lower the better if you want to go up hills fast. Have fun with it.
Rider Height Weight BMI (m) (kg) ARROYO Miguel 1.61 59 22.7615 PELLICIOLI Oscar 1.64 54 20.0773 GONZALEZ PICO José Jaime 1.68 56 19.8413 DUFAUX Laurent 1.69 59 20.6575 HERVE Pascal 1.69 62 21.7079 VALOTTI Gianluca 1.70 54 18.6851 SIMONI Gilberto 1.70 58 20.0692 FRATTINI Francesco 1.70 60 20.7612 SAUGRAIN Cyril 1.70 62 21.4533 BERZIN Evgueni 1.70 64 22.1453 SALIGARI Marco 1.71 65 22.2291 STEPHENS Neil 1.71 65 22.2291 McEWEN Robbie 1.71 66 22.5710 GUALDI Mirco 1.71 68 23.2550 PANTANI Marco 1.72 56 18.9292 CHAURREAU Inigo 1.72 60 20.2812 SGNAOLIN Daniele 1.72 60 20.2812 CHANTEUR Pascal 1.72 62 20.9573 SIMON François 1.72 62 20.9573 CASAGRANDE Francesco 1.72 64 21.6333 HAMILTON Tyler 1.72 67 22.6474 REBELLIN Davide 1.72 67 22.6474 HEPPNER Jens 1.72 69 23.3234 BLIJLEVENS Jeroen 1.72 70 23.6614 VIDAL MARTINEZ José Angel 1.72 71 23.9995 DOJWA Jean-Philippe 1.73 58 19.3792 LUTTENBERGER Peter 1.73 60 20.0474 CUESTA Inigo 1.73 61 20.3816 LEBLANC Luc 1.73 62 20.7157 CABELLO LUQUE Francisco 1.73 65 21.7181 GOTTI Ivan 1.73 65 21.7181 MENGIN Christophe 1.73 67 22.3863 MINALI Nicola 1.73 67 22.3863 HAMBURGER Bo 1.74 58 19.1571 PIOVACCARI Giusvan 1.74 61 20.1480 FURLAN Giorgio 1.74 63 20.8086 CAMENZIND Oskar 1.74 65 21.4692 JALABERT Nicolas 1.74 68 22.4600 KOKORINE Vitali 1.74 68 22.4600 ABDOUJAPAROV Djamolidine 1.74 70 23.1206 ESCARTIN COTI Fernando 1.74 74 24.4418 GIANETTI Mauro 1.75 62 20.2449 TOTSCHNIG Georg 1.75 62 20.2449 ROMINGER Tony 1.75 65 21.2245 LELLI Massimiliano 1.75 66 21.5510 BOARDMAN Chris 1.75 68 22.2041 GARMENDIA Aitor 1.75 68 22.2041 PIEROBON Gianluca 1.75 69 22.5306 FRASER Gordon 1.75 70 22.8571 DJAVANIAN Viatcheslav 1.76 64 20.6612 FONTANELLI Fabiano 1.76 68 21.9525 JALABERT Laurent 1.76 68 21.9525 EKIMOV Viatcheslav 1.76 69 22.2753 ZABEL Erik 1.76 69 22.2753 BAFFI Adriano 1.76 70 22.5981 FINCATO Marco 1.76 70 22.5981 VAN BON Leon 1.76 71 22.9210 O'GRADY Stuart 1.76 73 23.5666 TCHMIL Andrei 1.76 75 24.2123 STRAZZER Massimo 1.77 68 21.7051 DESBIENS Laurent 1.77 69 22.0243 PASCUAL SOLER Manuel 1.77 69 22.0243 BARANOWSKI Dariusz 1.77 70 22.3435 BELTRAN MARTINEZ Manuel 1.78 60 18.9370 BOOGERD Michaël 1.78 61 19.2526 VANDENBROUCKE Frank 1.78 64 20.1995 BUENAHORA GUTIERREZ Hernan 1.78 65 20.5151 GUERINI Giuseppe 1.78 65 20.5151 LANCE Pascal 1.78 65 20.5151 BLANCO GIL Santiago 1.78 66 20.8307 ARRIETA LUJAMBIO José Luis 1.78 68 21.4619 BROGNARA Andrea 1.78 68 21.4619 FAGNINI Gian Matteo 1.78 70 22.0932 SORENSEN Rolf 1.78 70 22.0932 TALMANT Gilles 1.78 70 22.0932 LOMBARDI Giovanni 1.78 73 23.0400 GOUVENOU Thierry 1.78 74 23.3556 ZARRABEITIA Mikel 1.79 63 19.6623 BARTOLI Michele 1.79 65 20.2865 VIRENQUE Richard 1.79 65 20.2865 ZBERG Markus 1.79 69 21.5349 TARTAGGIA Giuseppe 1.79 70 21.8470 TRAVERSONI Mario 1.79 70 21.8470 BOLTS Udo 1.79 73 22.7833 OUTSCHAKOV Serguei 1.79 73 22.7833 SCHMIDT Torsten 1.79 73 22.7833 STEELS Tom 1.79 73 22.7833 BALDATO Fabio 1.80 60 18.5185 ROBIN Jean-Cyril 1.80 63 19.4444 SIERRA Roberto 1.80 66 20.3704 ELLI Alberto 1.80 68 20.9877 LAUKKA Joona 1.80 68 20.9877 BROCHARD Laurent 1.80 69 21.2963 FARAZIJN Peter 1.80 69 21.2963 PILLON Laurent 1.80 69 21.2963 BRASI Rossano 1.80 70 21.6049 CONTI Roberto 1.80 70 21.6049 NELISSEN Danny 1.80 70 21.6049 PLANCKAERT Jo 1.80 70 21.6049 VASSEUR Cédric 1.80 70 21.6049 ARTUNGHI Marco 1.80 71 21.9136 JEMISON Marty 1.80 71 21.9136 BORTOLAMI Gianluca 1.80 74 22.8395 FOIS Valentino 1.81 64 19.5354 FRIGO Dario 1.81 65 19.8407 SIBONI Marcello 1.81 66 20.1459 HEULOT Stéphane 1.81 69 21.0616 ALONSO MONJE Marino 1.81 70 21.3669 LECCHI Angelo 1.81 70 21.3669 ZEN Marco 1.81 70 21.3669 TOSSATO Matteo 1.81 71 21.6721 ODRIOZOLA Jon 1.81 73 22.2826 NARDELLO Daniele 1.81 74 22.5878 DEKKER Erik 1.82 66 19.9251 PODENZANA Massimo 1.82 67 20.2270 ROUS Didier 1.82 70 21.1327 HENN Christian 1.82 71 21.4346 JAERMANN Rolf 1.82 73 22.0384 MONCASSIN Frédéric 1.82 73 22.0384 TETERIOUK Andrei 1.82 73 22.0384 RUE Gérard 1.82 74 22.3403 OLANO MANZANO Abraham 1.82 76 22.9441 GENTY Laurent 1.82 80 24.1517 DEN BAKKER Maarten 1.83 70 20.9024 JIMENEZ SASTRE José Maria 1.83 70 20.9024 LIVINGSTON Kevin 1.83 70 20.9024 PERON Andrea 1.83 70 20.9024 PRETOT Arnaud 1.83 71 21.2010 JULICH Bobby 1.83 73 21.7982 LODA Nicola 1.83 73 21.7982 ULLRICH Jan 1.83 73 21.7982 CASERO MORENO Angel Luis 1.83 74 22.0968 GONTCHENKOV Alexander 1.83 74 22.0968 VOGELS Henk 1.83 75 22.3954 JASKULA Zenon 1.83 76 22.6940 GONZALEZ GUTIERREZ Arsenio 1.84 62 18.3129 MAULEON Javier 1.84 62 18.3129 JONKER Patrick 1.84 69 20.3804 MUSEEUW Johan 1.84 70 20.6758 RIIS Bjarne 1.84 71 20.9712 CENGHIALTA Bruno 1.84 73 21.5619 CREPALDI Mirko 1.84 76 22.4480 VANZELLA Flavio 1.84 78 23.0388 BREUKINK Erik 1.85 70 20.4529 SCINTO Luca 1.85 71 20.7451 BOURGUIGNON Thierry 1.85 72 21.0373 GUESDON Frédéric 1.85 72 21.0373 DERAME Pascal 1.85 73 21.3294 WAUTERS Marc 1.85 73 21.3294 GAUMONT Philippe 1.85 76 22.2060 PEETERS Wilfried 1.85 76 22.2060 MADOUAS Laurent 1.86 69 19.9445 MOREAU Christophe 1.86 71 20.5226 LINO Pascal 1.86 72 20.8117 ZULLE Alex 1.86 72 20.8117 DE VRIES Gerrit 1.86 75 21.6788 GARCIA ACOSTA José Vicente 1.86 76 21.9679 TAFI Andrea 1.87 73 20.8756 SCIANDRI Maximilian 1.87 75 21.4476 BUSCHOR Philipp 1.87 76 21.7335 FINCO Carlo 1.88 74 20.9371 ANDREU Frankie 1.88 77 21.7859 FORNACIARI Paolo 1.90 70 19.3906 MEINERT-NIELSEN Peter 1.90 73 20.2216 CIPOLLINI Mario 1.90 76 21.0526 COLOMBO Luca 1.90 78 21.6066 PADRNOS Pavel 1.90 83 22.9917 ALDAG Rolf 1.91 75 20.5586 HINCAPIE George 1.91 83 22.7516 POLI Eros 1.94 85 22.5848 Average 1.79 68.75 21.4701 6 Day Ranking UpdatesIf all those numbers were not enough, Wim van Rossum sent me his latest 6-day rankings. There have now been 14 from the 18 Six Day races completed for the 1997/98 season.Silvio Martinello-Marco Villa (Ita) won their 5th race of the season in Copenhagen earlier this week. They are the leading riders so far this season. Kurt Betschart-Bruno Risi (Swi) have 4 wins, Danish couple Jimmi Madsen-Jens Veggerby have 2 winds, and one for Etienne De Wilde (Bel) and Matthew Gilmore (Aus), Tayeb Braikia-Jakob Pill Storm (Den) and one also for Adriano Baffi (Ita) paired with Andreas Kappes (Ger). Individuals:
1. Silvio Martinello (Ita) 535 points
2. Marco Villa (Ita) 472
3. Kurt Betschart (Swi) 430
Bruno Risi (Swi) 430
5. Jimmi Madsen (Den) 360
6. Jens Veggerby (Den) 352
7. Adriano Baffi (Ita) 340
8. Etienne de Wilde (Bel) 279
9. Matthew Gilmore (Aus) 254
10. Andreas Kappes (Ger) 225
11. Gert Dörich (Ger) 161
12. Carsten Wolf (Ger) 149
13. Tayeb Braikia (Den) 137
Jakob Pill Storm (Den) 137 ?
15. Scott McGrory (Aus) 129
16. Giovanni Lombardi (Ita) 125
17. Juan Llaneras (Spa) 100
18. Lars Teutenberg (Ger) 87
19. Andrea Collinelli (Ita) 85
20. Bjarne Riis (Den) 80
21. Miguel Alzamora (Spa) 52
22. Laurenzo Lapage (Bel) 50
23. Michael Sandstöd (Den) 47
24. Jens Lehmann (Ger) 45
25. Andreas Beikirch (Ger) 44
26. Ralf Liehner (Ger) 42
27. Rolf Aldag (Ger) 40
Gabriel Curuchet (Arg) 40
Juan Curuchet (Arg) 40
followed by some 20 other riders with less than 40.
By Country
1. Italy 1557 5 riders
2. Danmark 1133 7 riders
3. Switzerland 895 4 riders
4. Germany 889 13 riders
5. Belgium 393 4 riders
6. Australia 383 2 riders
7. France 154 8 riders
8. Spain 152 2 riders
9. Argentina 80 2 riders
10. The Netherlands 20 1 rider
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