* Alessio will be the new co-sponsor for the Ballan team of Flavio Miozzo. Maxim Smirnov and Oleg Grichkine are riding as stagiaire for the team.
* The Tissot company wants to sponsor a cycling team under the direction of Tony Rominger. An alternative plan is that it would like to become a partner with the Societé de Tour de France. See more below.
* Glenn D'Hollander (Bel) has stopped racing for the year and has indicated that he will probably leave the Vlaanderen 2002 team for next season.
* Rumours are that Lampre-Daikin will sign Franco Ballerini (!), Jan Svorada, Pavel Tonkov, Oskar Camenzind, Marco Serpellini (!), Giuliano Figueras and Gianni Faresin. The team will also sign 3 Belgian Riders. One of them is Johan Vertrepen (now with Vlaanderen 2002), the other names mentioned are Chris Peers and Ludo Dierckxsens (both Lotto), but the last named has still a contract with Lotto for 1999.
Amsterdam, International Derny Race 1. Etienne de Wilde (Bel) behind gangmaker Zijlaard 2. Matthew Gilmore (Aus) 3. Robert Slippens (Ned) Belgium, Aalter, Elite with Contract 1. Roger Hammond (GB) Palmans-Ideal 2. Koen Beeckman (Bel) Ipso 3. Nico Eeckhout (Bel) Lotto-Mobistar 4. Kurt Van Lancker (Bel) Vlaanderen 2002 5. Bert Everaert (Bel) 6. Geert Omloop (Bel) Spar-RDM 2.30 7. Frank Hoj (Den) Palmans-Ideal Started: 68 Belgium, Tienen, 164 kms: 1. Kris Gerits (Vlaanderen 2002) 2. Gert Vanderaerden (Bel) Palmans-Ideal 0.04 3. Andy De Smet (Bel) Ipso 1.17 4. Nico Renders (Bel) Vlaanderen 2002 5. Jean-Pierre Heynderickx (Bel) Home Market-Charleroi 6. Eric De Clercq (Bel) Collstrop 1.52 7. Bart Heirewegh (Bel) Ipso Started: 60 riders Netherlands, Dronten, Dutch Club Teams ITT, 52.8 kms: 1. Westland Wil Vooruit 1.00.56 2. RTV Oldenzaalse WCL 2.05 3. WSV De Peddelaars 21.05
Four sponsors of the seven French professional teams will quit the sport entirely or cut down their financial contribution to cycling. It is considered the reaction to the bad publicity that their companies have been receiving following the Tour de France drugs scandal. Already, the Parisien-based La Mutuelle de Marne et Seine (budget $US2,000,000) will stop entirely. Festina and Casino have announced that they will reduce their budget considerably and La Française des Jeux will decide next week.
Casino will also stop entirely after 1999. Their budget of $US4,000,000 will be reduced next season to $US3m. They are cutting their contracted rider list from 22 to 17. They have sacked Alberto Elli and Pascal Richard. Laurent Brochard (Festina)and Laurent Roux (TVM) are new Casino riders. Festina will cut down from $US6m to an unspecified amount. They will contract only 20 riders instead of the current number of 25. La Français des Jeux (the French national lotery) will have a meeting about their future after the announcement by team manger Marc Madiot about the use of drugs in his team.
As announced above there will be a new sponsor, the Swiss watch-factory Tissot. They have a budget of $US7.5m per year for a minimum of 3 years. Tissot wants to take the place of watch-factory Festina as the official time piece of the Tour de France. But the complication is that Festina still has a contract with the Société Tour de France.
Guesdon questioned
On Friday morning, the French rider Frédéric Guesdon was questioned by police in Lille as a witness in the Festina drugs scandal. Last week the investigating judge, Patrick Kiel charged Belgian Jef d'Hont (masseur with La Française des Jeux and formerly with Festina) with drug offences. He is currently being detained in jail awaiting trial. He was apprehended after rider Emmanuel Magnien had declared that d'Hont had distributed banned substances.
Spanish riders out of Worlds
Daniel Clavero (who was in 7th place on GC in the Vuelta) and Jose Carlos Dominguez, both riding with Vitalicio Seguros, were thrown out of the Vuelta on Friday after bllod tests performed on 5 teams revealed their haemocrit level's being above the allowed 50 per cent.
Both riders have to wait 15 days before they can be retested and given their racing licences back. That mean that they will miss the Worlds in Valkenburg which start on October 6. Both riders were on the 24-rider Spanish squad from which the team would have been chosen.
Jalabert to miss worlds?
Laurent Jalabert is thinking about withdrawing from the World Championships which begin in the Netherlands next week. He will make his decision public on Monday or Tuesday but has indicated that he is both physically and mentally tired. Dutch TV also suggested that there is a chance that the UCI which is meeting on Monday will suspend Jalabert for his statements about them being "fascists" over their handling of the Festina drugs scandal.
He will not be alone if he withdraws. Several other top riders will also be missing at the Worlds. All the Festina riders who were expelled from the Tour de France will not be able to ride because the investigations are not yet finished. It is unclear if this applies to Australian Neil Stephens who was allowed to ride in the Commonwealth Games. The Australian Cycling Federation does not seem to be taking any action.
Laurent Brochard will therefore not be able to defend his title.
The race was won by Etienne De Wilde (Bel) Spar-RDM, followed by Geert Verheyen, Newcomer Darius Strole, Christophe Detilloux, and Wim Vansevenant in that order at 12 seconds.
Stupidity had taken the gloss off the Australian cycling team's outstanding performance at the Commonwealth Games. That was the view of triple world champion and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Shane Kelly on his return to Melbourne yesterday. Kelly, who claimed gold and broke his own Games record in the 1000m time trial at Kuala Lumpur, said he was disappointed the debacles surrounding Lucy Tyler-Sharman, national coach Charlie Walsh and Kathy Watt had reflected badly on the whole team.
"To take away the great performance we've had by something stupid is disappointing. We've had great results," he said. "The whole team gets a bad name. When it comes down to it I'm a part of that and when I'm a person who hasn't done anything wrong it's pretty bad."
Kelly said he supported a review of the sport but conceded the damage was probably irreparable. "It's got to the stage where it's probably gone too far," he said. "There's been some big accusations made ... I think one of them (Tyler-Sharman or Walsh) will have to go."
After several months riding in Europe - where he narrowly missed a fourth consecutive world title in the 1000m time trial - and then Kuala Lumpur, the Ararat flyer was relieved to be home and was looking forward to some of "mum's cooking". In three weeks Kelly leaves for Paris for the Open des Nations, the Tour de France equivalent of track racing, which features the top eight countries racing over three days. In the four years the 26-year-old has been involved, the Australian team has always finished a close second to the highly-rated French cyclists.
"I see it being a hard task to knock the French team off, they are pretty well on top this year," Kelly said. Individually, he couldn't be happier with his performances and anticipates further improvement in the months before the Sydney Olympics. "I believe I can get quicker," Kelly said. "I'm finding as the years go by I'm coping better with the pressures of the event and expectations of the public. "I think the big one for me will be 2000."
Derny-Omnium: 1. Slippens (Opmeer) 135 points 2. Kops (Heiloo) 120 3. Steenbeek (Amsterdam) 53. Derny-Omnium for Speedskaters: 1. Straathof (Zoeterwoude) 2. Leeuwangh (Alkmaar) 3. Bos (Hierden) Tandems: 1. Straathof/Mulder 2. Van Hoorn/Van Donk