* Leonardo Piepoli (Ita) who is having a great end of season with Saeco has signed a two-year contract (1999-2000) for the Spanish team of Banesto.
* Belgian Marc Streel (Casino) signed a contract with Lampre, a new Italian team with Tonkov, Camenzind, Svorada, Belli.
* The UCI wants to create a third Division of Cycling Teams.
* Danish team Acceptcard Pro Cycling and US team Saturn has been negotiating about the formation of a new pro team (Acceptcard/Saturn) for next season. It has been motivated by the good relations between Acceptcard riders Jens Veggerby and Brian Holm and Saturn's Danish sports director Rene Wenzel. The discussions started at the US Pro Championships and continued during the Tour of Denmark. A new team would have around 1500 UCI points and 22 pro riders.
* Francesco Secchiari (ita) will leave Scrigno-Gaerne and will ride for Saeco next year.
115 of the best Australian riders started the tour which was held in Victoria north of Melbourne.
Aitken has signed with Palmans-Ideal for next year.
In the morning was a 54km curcuit race, 9 laps of a 6km course held in the village of Pulheim on the outskirts of Koln. Sara Carrigan attacked right from the start and was soon joined by Natalie Bates and one other. This group of 3 rode strongly to hold off the bunch right to the finish, with the help of Kristy Scrymgeour covering all the moves back in the bunch.
An up hill sprint to the line saw Sara crossing the line a clear winner with Natalie in 3rd. Certainly a huge confidence booster for both.
After a quick shower, feed and prize presentation we took off to the other side of Koln to the village of Morbach (1 hr drive) for a 34km, 40 lap Points Score Criterium (4 sprints for points every 10 laps with the final sprint being worth double points).
Once again Sara took off right from the gun with one other girl in tow, by half way the 2 of them had taken a lap and looked to have the race in the bag....but then Kristy Scrymgeour launced down the road, once again with a woman in tow. With 3 laps remaining Kristy and her companion latched onto the back of the bunch, now it was going to come down to the last sprint to decide the winner.
Kristy was just too strong and with 2 laps to go was off the front again and won the sprint to the line easily taking out the win, Sara road an extremely impressive race finishing 3rd across the line but with enough points to take 2nd place.
Our Commonwealth Games Team, Anna Wilson, Liz Tadich, Juanita Feldhahn and Tracey Gaudry are flying out at lunch time tomorrow for KL.
Next Sunday (September 13), 4 riders (Kristy Scrygeour, Leasa Robinson (NSW), Sara Carrigan and Natalie Bates) are going to the Beneden Maas World Cup in the Netherlands
Netherlands, Rossum, Omloop van de Bommelerwaard, neo-amateurs: 1. Cornelisse (Nijmegen) 176 km in 4.05.18 2. Löwik (Tubbergen) 3. Veen (Houten) 4. Hiemstra (Rottevalle) 5. Nijland (Hengelo) Netherlands, Emmeloord, Ronde van Schokland 1. Zuijderwijk (Poeldijk) 180 km in 4.10.11 2. Post (Breda) 3. Kemna (Deurningen) 0.10 4. Reinerink (Harbinkhoek) 5. Luppes (Hoogeveen) Amsterdam Velodrome: World Championship Revenge, 3000m Pursuit: 1. Lucy Tyler-Sharman (Aus) 3.39.38 - Van Moorsel (Ned) 3.40.15. Madison: 1. Martinello/Silvia (Ita) 2. De Wilde/Lapage (Bel) 3. Madsen/Sansted (Den) Miss and Out: 1. Madsen/Sanstod (Den) 2. Roberts/Rogers (Aus) 3. Martinello/Villa (Ita) Points Race: 1. Madsen/Sanstod (Den) 2. De Wilde/Pieters (Bel/Ned) 3. Martinello/Villa (Ita) Canada, Bromont, World Cup MTB: Women's Cross Country: 1. Dahle (Nor) 2. Sydor (Can) 3. Leboucher (Fra) 4. Fullana (Spa) 5. Pezzo (Ita) Standings: 1. Sydor 426 points 2. Leboucher 410 3. Pezzo 397 Men's Cross Country: 1. Dupouey (Fra) 2. Miguel Martinez (Fra) 3. Cadel Evans (Aus) 4. Pallhuber (Ita) 5. Höydahl (Nor), Standings: 1. Cadel Evans 562 points 2. Miguel Martinez 541 3. Höydahl 533
The race started at 8.00 with a 13 kms neutral start to the town of Ste-Foy, then followed the 138 West all the way into Montreal. The morning was a bit cool and quite windy, head cross winds prevailed for most of the day and hence, riders had a long hard day in the saddle. The beginning was quite civilized with a few early attacks which didnt get very far with the head wind. Then at around the 84km mark, and with 188 km to go, the first serious break went with most of the top riders for a top finish. Riders included John Harris of New Zealand, Canadian Olympian Jacques Landry, 1997 Canadian Champ and Morz rider Czeslaw Lukascewicz, Andrew Randell (National Team Member), Jason Newbauer, and Gregory Seganfreddo.
Riding at about 40km/hr into the wind, they started opening up time, first 1:30 then up to 2:40 over the next 100km, before Tim Lefebvre, Darko Ficko, Heath Cockburn, Daniel Bellville, Alexandre Tremblay made the bridge across to the leaders, and leaving the peloton some 5:30 behind.
With 88 km to go, the large lead pack, did not work well together, in which Czeslaw Lukascewicz took advantage, to split from the leaders. The lead group began to attack one-another until John Harris, Tim Lefebvre, Andrew Randel, Darko Ficko, Jackques Landry, Damien Matthews, and Yannick Cojan were left to chase Lukascewicz with 50 km to the finish. With an incredible ride, Lukascewicz finished with around a 40 second lead over the chase group.
1. Czeslaw Lukascewic 2. John Harris 0.40 3. Tim Levebvre .. 21. Gregory Seganfreddoof all the starters only 47 finished
The teams were as follows:
Espoirs De Laval Yannick Cojan Czeslaw Lukascewicz (on loan from Mroz) Alexandre Lavallee Etienne Tremblay Alain Guimond Yourik Caron Dominic Perras Denis Boucher Jacques Belzile Jerzyna Jacek Jonathan Tremblay Radio-Energie Sylvain Beauchamp Charles Dionne Jacques Landry Pierre Chevrier Frederic Vachon Sebastien Morissette Daniel Belleville Peter Wedge Ontario Provincial Team Darko Fico Ray Doggan Heath Cockburn Pat Sher Exellence Sports-Harveys ALexandre Bernard Eryk Lyman ALexandre Cloutier Samuel Thibodeault Marc Eanstern ItalPasta Team John Harris (NZ) Simon Small Tim Lefebvre Damien Matthews Norm Shattock National montagne Adam Walker Neil Grover Jet Fuel Team Joe Juliano Andrew Randell Jason Newbauer Matt Hansen Antoine Verghese Velo Zone Stephane Tremblay Juan Marco Luc Proulx Yvan Richer James Shaw Eric Moody Saeco Canada Bruno Langlois Pascal Choquette Pascal Rego Brian Ruche Kuillian Leigh Jann Blinder Eric Allen Italino Les Ailes Carl Dessureault Jean-Francois Robert Ariel De Cardenas Walid Abughazaleh Mathieu Fagnan Merlin Langevin Team Sportable Jason Chenny Mike Leach Team Aries Sports Robert Dapice Kevin Dutt Tim Johnson Todd Bowden Mike Berry Didier De gall Chris Finn Andrew Meehan Karl Brannigan Premier Tech Yohann Deshaies Christian Dufour Sebastien Levesque Martim Savard Medico Sportif Fabien Bergeron Vasco Nicolov Yvan Dion Woodbridge Italia CC Gregory Seganfreddo Brent Authors David Fry Ian Starke Ste-Foy Team Daniel Fortin Martin Gosselin Cedric Greaux Francois Bernatchez Independant Riders Claude Maltais Gervais Bernier Greg Boileau Walter Meco (winner of a stage in the Giro during the late 50's) Mathieu Toulouse Paul Rowney Seamum McGrath Benoit Poirier Vincent Caron Daniel Vaillancourt Eric Vanier Franco Cerone Paolo Vida Brendon Sant