Tour team news

Telekom manager Walter Godefroot has modified his final lineup for the Tour de France. The 31-year old Italian Francesco Frattini comes in for fellow Italian Giovanni Lombardi.

"It was a difficult decision", said Godefroot. "But we have made the decisions with Jan Ullrich, Bjarne Riis and Erik Zabel." Frattini has been preferred over Lombardi because of his qualities in the mountains.

Godefroot: "For us, the yellow jersey is the absolute priority. The previous year we has some problems in the mountains and that is why Frattini has been chosen.

TVM

TVM has ignored Tristan Hoffmann, who came 2nd in the National Championship over the weekend. Instead they have chosen: Jeroen Blijlevens, Bart Voskamp, Steven de Jongh, Servais Knaven, Peter van Petegem, Lars Michaelsen, Sergei Oetsjakov, Sergei Ivanov, and Laurent Roux.

Other TVM news is that elite rider Remco van der Ven signed for 2,5 years with TVM on Monday. He won Olympia's Tour last year and at the end of June he won the Ronde van Drenthe. His debut as a professional will be in the Ronde van Ulvenhout on July 29.

Saeco

Saeco's Ivan Gotti will not participate in the Tour de France. He hasn't being able to overcome the intestinal virus that prevented him from finishing the Giro d' Italia and also forced him to withdraw from the Tour de Suisse and it continues to weaken him. The proof was the National Championship yesterday where once again Gotti had intestinal problems. Also from Team Saeco, Roberto Petito is suffering an inflamation of the throat.

Lotto-Mobistar

Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke, sport director for Belgian Team Lotto, has not selected sprinter Jo Planckaert for their Tour de France team. Planckaert has not recovered from an unlucky injury to his knee that he suffered in the Spring.

The team is: Andrei Tchmil, Andrei Teteriuk, Kurt Van de Wouwer, Rik Verbrugghe, Peter Farazijn, Paul Van Hyfte, Laurent Madouas, Joona Laukka and Geert Verheyen. Replacements: Chris Peers and Jo Planckaert.

GAN:

Frédéric Moncassin, Chris Boardman, Cédric Vasseur, Stuart O'Grady, François Simon, Magnus Backstedt, Jens Voigt, Eddy Seigneur and Eros Poli.

Canmore, World Cup MTB Cross Country

World Cup Standings:

1. Cadel Evans 475 points, 2. Höydal (Nor) 430, 3. Meirhaeghe (Fra) 390, 4. Van Dooren (Ned) 372, 5. Martinez (Fra) 361, 17. Tolhoek (Ned) 264.

EDS US National Track Rankings

Team Overall

 1.    361     Shaklee
 2.    353     Team EDS
 3.    312     Ikon-Lexus
 4.    202     Cox Atlanta Velo
 5.    124     Tri-State Velo
 6.    105     BMC-WalMart
 7.      9     Marion Bicycle Club
 8.      6     Coastal-Southern Elite

Men’s Sprint

 1.    76     Jason Garner, Ikon-Lexus, Newport Beach, Calif.
 2.    72     Marty Nothstein, Team EDS, Trexlertown, Pa.
 3.    60     Trey Gannon, Team EDS, Plano, Texas
 4.    56     Adam Payne, Cox Atlanta Velo, Conifer, Colo.
 5.    49     Paul Swift, Peleton Fitness-Shaklee, Kenosha, Wis.
 6.    48     Bill Clay, Ikon-Lexus, Gurnee, Ill.
 7.    41     Sky Christopherson, Cox Atlanta Velo, Tucson, Ariz.
 8.    38     Gil Hatton, Team EDS, Alburtis, Pa.
 9.    35     Mark Garrett, Team EDS, Arcadia, Calif.
10.    35     Garth Blackburn, Cox Atlanta Velo, Houston, Texas

Men’s Endurance

 1.    90     Jame Carney, Shaklee, Durango, Colo.
 2.    87     Chris Carlson, Team EDS, Dallas, Texas
 3.    75     Ben Sharp, Ikon-Lexus, Indianapolis, Ind.
 4.    63     Kent Bostick, Shaklee, Corrales, N.M.
 5.    62     Jonas Carney, Shaklee, Boulder, Colo.
 6.    48     Dylan Casey, Shaklee, Mountain View, Calif.
 7.    44     Shaun Wallace, Harlow CC-Cox Atlanta Velo, Southampton, England
 8.    43     Steve Hegg, Shaklee, Cardiff, Calif.
 9.    37     Adam Payne, Cox Atlanta Velo, Newnan, Ga.
10.    36     Ryan Oelkers, Team EDS, New Tripoli, Pa.

Women’s Sprint

 1.    46     Chris Witty, PowerBar, West Allis, Wis.
 2.    38     Jennie Reed, Ikon-Lexus, Issaquah, Wash.
 3.    36     Tanya Lindenmuth, Tri State Velo, Trexlertown, Pa.
 4.    36     Rebecca Quinn, Tri State Velo, Quakertown, Pa.
 5.    30     Missy Thompson, Cox Atlanta Velo, Colorado Springs, Colo.
 6.    30     Nicole Reinhart, Shaklee, Portland, Ore.
 7.    30     Amber Holt, Ikon-Lexus, Torrance, Calif.
 8.    23     Tammy Thomas, GS LaBorde, Yazoo City, Miss.
 9.    13     Janie Quigley, PowerBar, Encinitas, Calif.
10.    13     Suzie Marshall, LGBRC-Easton, Redwood City, Calif.

Women’s Endurance

 1.    42     Jennifer Evans, Team EDS, Austin, Texas
 2.    39     Marisa Vande Velde, BMC-WalMart, Lemont, Ill.
 3.    38     Erin Veenstra, BMC-WalMart, Colorado Springs, Colo.
 4.    37     Janie Quigley, PowerBar, Encinitas, Calif.
 5.    34     Karen Dunne, Team EDS, Colorado Springs, Colo.
 6.    22     Nicole Reinhart, Shaklee, Portland, Ore.
 7.    21     Megan Troxell, Stanford-NationsBank-Shaklee, Palo Alto, Calif.
 8.    15     Ryan Kelly, Team EDS, Colorado Springs, Colo.
 9.    14     Rebecca Quinn, Tri State Velo, Quakertown, Pa.
10.    13     Brenda Brashears, PowerBar, Grants Pass, Ore.

Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic Stage Race, USA, July 2-5

Knickman spent 64 kms solo, and barely kept the pedals turning over to cross the finish line ahead of a hard-charging Frank McCormack (Saturn), who finished second and took the lead on general classification.

In the top women's event, Dede Demet surpassed her Saturn teammate Elizabeth Emery in the overall standings after also finishing second in the stage, to the aggressive Leigh Hobson (Hydro Quebec).

From the start line of this 165 km race, Saturn and Mercury continued to wage a battle born on the roads of Friday's circuit race. The pace started fast as both teams ate through early attacks. On the second of nine laps of this 20 km course, two Navigators riders rolled off the front. Mercury marked the move, and soon a handful of riders joined them. Significant members in the break included Skip Spangenburg (Navigators), Mark Walters (Mercury), Bart Bowen (Saturn) and Knickman.

These four popped ahead of the break at the 90 kms mark's points sprint, and soon had a gap of 8:17 on the field, making Bowen the leader on the road. Then Walters made a jump just past the descent, dropping only Knickman and setting up the ploy that would lead to his team's stage win.

Knickman dangled off the back of the trio by 50 meters for some 16 kms Ahead of him, Walters and Spangenburg had placed the responsibility of the work on Bowen's shoulders, who became frustrated. The three backed off pace to bicker, then Bowen jumped and started skirting across the road. Back together, the trio noodled up the left hand lane on an uphill section.

Then Knickman shot past a line of cars up the right shoulder and kept on the attack. No one responded. Knickman spent the remainder of the race gritting his teeth to the task. Dripping with sweat and snaking his bike up the difficult hills, it didn't look as though he would hang on to his four-minute gap. But the field didn't show interest until the last lap, when Mercury's David Clinger lit the torch on the longest climb of the course. He was followed through by brothers Frank and Mark McCormack, Trent Klasna (Navigators), and Mat Anand (Mercury). They quickly gained ground on the fading Knickman.

After the race entered the road to the top of Wachusett Mountain, Frank McCormack attacked on the second steep section. Only Klasna followed.

Ahead, Knickman bottomed out to his 39 x 21 to just try to get the race over with. McCormack charged up the climb in a 55 x 21. Knickman hung on to win the stage with six seconds in hand, immediately dropping to the ground. McCormack lashed out with a late sprint to take second from Klasna. Saturn's Brian Walton, leader going into the stage, finished 56 seconds back and passed the race mantle over to his teammate.

In the women's event, Demet and Hobson swallowed a long break and charged up Wachusett Mountain to decide the race. Hobson proved faster to take the stage, while Demet took overall lead from her teammate Elizabeth Emery, who finished 51 seconds down.

The Fitchburg Longsjo Classic concludes Sunday with the popular downtown criterium.

Stage 3, Road Race at Wachusett Mountain

Men, 165 kms

1. Roy Knickman (Mercury), Colorado Springs, Colo.; 2. Frank McCormack
(Saturn), Leicester, Mass.; 3. Trent Klasna (Navigators), Pine Valley, Calif.;
4. Mat Anand (Mercury), Canada; 5. Mark McCormack (Saturn), N. Easton, Mass.

Overall

1. Frank McCormack (Saturn), Leicester, Mass.; 2. Brian Walton (Saturn), N.
Delta, B.C., Canada; 3. Klasna; 4. Anand; 5. Adham Sbeih (Nutra Fig),
Sacramento, Calif.

Women, 100 kms

1. Leigh Hobson (Hydro Quebec), Kitchener, Ont., Canada; 2. Dede Demet
(Saturn), Boulder, Colo.; 3. Rebecca Bailey (New Zealand), New Zealand; 4.
Cheryl Binney (Ralph’s-Klein), Los Angeles, Calif.; 5. Katie Compton (First
State Velo), Newark, Del.; 6. Anne Samplonius (Hydro Quebec), Canada; 7.
Elizabeth Emery (Saturn), New York, N.Y.; 8. Annie Gariepy (Elita), Canada; 9.
Cybil DiGuistini (Elita), Victoria, B.C., Canada; 10. Ward Griffiths (Safeway-
Saturn), Seattle, Wash.

Overall

1. Dede Demet (Saturn), Boulder, Colo., four hrs, 43 mins, three secs; 2.
Emery, @:24; 3. Hobson, @:34; 4. Samplonius, 42; 5. Gariepy, @1:22; 6. Tina
Mayolo (PowerBar), Athens, Ga., @ 1:54; 7. Binney, s.t.; 8. Compton, @1:57; 9.
Griffiths, @2:15; 10. Bailey, @2:42.

On the final day of the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic, Mercury’s Roy Knickman was still stuck in overdrive at the downtown Fitchburg criterium.

Knickman spent 40 miles off the front yesterday to win the Wachusett Mountain road race, along the way collecting points for the sprints competition. After watching Knickman completely drain himself to take the stage win, no one expected to see him off the front again.

But when Knickman followed Colorado Cyclist’s Danny Pate up the road for the first points-lap sprint about 10 laps into the 80 kms, 55-lap criterium, the field let the pair go. Saturn, protecting Frank McCormack’s overall lead, and keeping and eye on the second-place tie between Brian Walton, winner of the first stage’s time trial, and Navigator’s Trent Klasna, saw no reason to chase. So Knickman found himself logging another 64-plus kms ahead of the pack.

"It was to our advantage to let them go," said race winner McCormack. "He gave us the opportunity to play a safe race."

Knickman and Pate gained up to a minute’s advantage before Saturn sent all six of their riders to the front to dial Knickman back just past the half-way mark, under the mistaken impression that the solo Nutra Fig rider Adham Sbeih had gone up the road as well.

With about 10 laps to go, the gap had dropped back to bring the fleeing pair within sight along the long uphill finishing stretch, at about 20 seconds. This tempted the opportunistic Czeslaw Lukaszwicz (Cycliste Espoire) to jump off the front of the field. Marked by Mercury’s Michael Sayers, Lukaszwicz crossed in just two laps. Colby Pearce (Colorado Cyclist) took the cue as well, and made the break five before the Mercury door swung shut on the field.

Meanwhile, as the lap cards waned, first Pate then Knickman fell off the pace as the others sprinted for $50 and $100 prime offerings. Then at four laps to go, the race announcers dangled out the big fish of the day: the local Northeast Bicycle Club had collected $560 in cash -- more than the value of the stage win itself -- from the crowd for a winner-take-all prize for the 52nd lap. Pearce said no one in the group seemed to key on the cash leading up to the line, and Lukaszwicz admitted he didn’t want to expend his sprint yet. Pearce said at the last second, the cash register went "ca-ching" in his head, and he jumped fastest to take the prize.

The move didn’t really effect the final sprint: the Canadian national champion Lukaszwicz played the last drag race smartly to come around Sayers and Pierce for the stage win. Knickman held off the pack to take fourth on the day, and Colorado Cyclist’s John Peters, winner of stage two, took the field sprint for fifth.

Frank McCormack, relying on a solid time trial, a powerful finish atop Mount Wachusett and smart team racing through the four days, garnered one of only a handful of repeat wins at the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic. Klasna was awarded second place based on stage place finishes after tying on time with Walton 14 seconds down. Knickman went home with the SmartFuel sprints jersey.

Team Saturn saw equal success in the women’s competition. Their 25-mile criterium stayed together through the day, marred halfway through by a pileup just before the finish that sent two local riders to the hospital with broken collarbones; the presence of an ambulance on course caused the race to be neutralized for three laps.

Once given the go to compete again, the crowd was treated to spectacular sprints between points leader Laura Van Gilder (Navigators) and Karen Bliss Livingston (Saturn). On the final lap, Saturn’s Dede Demet rolled off the front in hopes of catching a solo stage win to compliment her leader’s jersey. But the field wasn’t going to be complacent, and it was the speedy Livingston who roared up the final straight to take the stage win past Tina Mayolo (PowerBar) and Anne Samplonius (Hydro Quebec), with Demet fighting through for fourth on the stage.

The Saturn women thus put the wraps on first with Demet and second with time trial winner Elizabeth Emery. Leigh Hobson and Samplonius, who were part of a strong Canadian-based team contingent who kept the stage race from being a giveaway, took third and fourth less than 40 seconds behind. This was one of the tightest women’s races at Fitchburg in recent years.

The win solidifies Demet’s lead atop the U.S. National Racing Calendar standings, the system used to rank elite cyclists in American competition.

"I’m really proud of Team Saturn," said McCormack, whose Fitchburg win in 1994 was his springboard onto the team and enabled him to rise to be one of the top road racers in America. "Both our men’s and women’s teams are very close. We are both similar in terms of sprinters, climbers, and teamwork that allow us to earn wins like here at Fitchburg."

The next events on the National Racing Calendar are the Cascade Cycling Classic (men only), July 14-19, in Bend, Ore., and the International Cycling Classic (men and women), July 17-26 in Wisconsin.2

Stage Four, UMass Medical Center Criterium, July 5

Men, 80 kms

1. Czeslaw Lukaszwicz (Cycliste Espoire), Canada, one hr, 56 mins, 34 secs; 2.
Michael Sayers (Mercury), Sacramento, Calif., s.t.; 3. Colby Pearce (Colorado
Cyclist), Boulder, Colo., s.t.; 4. Roy Knickman (Mercury), Colorado Springs,
Colo., @:09; 5. John Peters (Mercury), Santa Rosa, Calif., @:15; 6. Eddy
Gragus (OilMe), Fort Collins, Colo., s.t.; 7. Derek Wilkerson (BMC-WalMart),
San Antonio, Fla., s.t.; 8. Amos Brumble (Eurotek-Rhygin), Westerly, R.I.,
s.t.; 9. Mark McCormack (Saturn), N. Easton, Mass., s.t.; 10. Trent Klasna
(Navigators), Pine Valley, Calif., s.t.

Overall

1. Frank McCormack (Saturn), Leicester, Mass., nine hrs, 22 mins, 34 secs; 2.
Klasna, @ 0:14; 3. Brian Walton (Saturn), N. Delta, B.C., s.t.; 4. Mat Anand
(Mercury), Calgary, Alb., Canada, @:26; 5. Adham Sbeih (Nutra Fig),
Sacramento, Calif., @:27; 6. Clark Sheehan (Colorado Cyclist), Boulder, Colo.,
@:41; 7. M. McCormack (Saturn), N. Easton, Mass., @:44; 8. Gragus, @:53; 9.
Skip Spangenburg (Navigators), Travelers Rest, S.C., @1:18; 10. Bart Bowen
(Saturn), Albuquerque, N.M., @1:37.

Sprint Jersey: Knickman

Women, 40 kms

1. Karen Bliss Livingston (Saturn), Gainesville, Fla., one hr, 21 mins, 20
secs; 2. Tina Mayolo (PowerBar), Athens, Ga., s.t.; 3. Anne Samplonius (Hydro
Quebec), Blackstock, Ont., Canada, s.t.; 4. Dede Demet (Saturn), Boulder,
Colo. s.t.; 5. Katie Blincoe (Safeway-Saturn), Mercer Island, Wash., s.t.; 6.
Sabine Gentieux (Hydro Quebec), Canada, s.t.; 7. Sophie St. Jacques (Elita),
Canada, s.t.; 8. Katie Compton (First State), Newark, Del., s.t., 9. Jen Dial
(CRCA-Sony), Southampton, Mass., s.t.; 10. Ashley McCullough (CRCA/Sony), New
York, N.Y., s.t.

Overall

1. Dede Demet (Saturn), Boulder, Colo., six hrs, four mins, 23 secs; 2.
Elizabeth Emery (Saturn), New York, N.Y., @:24; 3. Leigh Hobson (Hydro
Quebec), Kitchener, Ont., Canada, @:34; 4. Samplonius, @:39; 5. Annie Gariepy
(Elita), Canada, @1:22; 6. Mayolo, @1:49; 7. Cheryl Binney (Ralph’s-Klein),
Los Angeles, Calif., @1:54; 8. Compton, @1:57; 9. Ward Griffiths (Safeway-
Saturn), Seattle, Wash., @2:15; 10. Rebecca Bailey (New Zealand), New Zealand,
@2:42.

Sprint Jersey: Laura Van Gilder (Navigators), Cresco, Pa.