There will be 112 riders from 14 teams. Swiss Alex Zulle, French rider Laurent Jalabert, and Americans Lance Armstrong and Bobby Julich are the most notable entrants in the 51st edition of this stage race. Two Belgian teams will be riding - Lotto-Mobistar and Home Market-Charleroi. The 1999 edition will have a prologue time trial, 2 stages which will favour the sprinters and 2 mountain stages with the finishes in Digne en Grenoble. The final stage will end in Aix-les-Bains.
The remaining riders include: Leon van Bon, Michael Boogerd, Maarten den Bakker, Tristan Hoffman, Jeroen Blijlevens, Johan Museeuw, Axel Merckx, Ludo Dierckxsens, Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie, Henk Vogels, Stuart O'Grady, Jacky Durand, Michel Cornelisse and Robert Slippens
. Eddy Merckx will officiate at the start of the race which is over 128 kms.
The discovery of the banned substances was traced to a package mailed from the team hotel and destined for an address in Italy (Gianni Bugno's place). The complete Mapei team was detained at the time and were forced to withdraw from the last day of the Driedaagse van De Panne. The riders were interviewed on April 1 and the next day absolved of all blame. The soigneur seemed to be acting alone as part of a drug ring. But he is the personal soigner of Michele Bartoli. On Friday, the Belgian police arrested ex-rider Eduard Vanhulst. He was heard on Tuesday and will remain in detention for a month. Vanhulst is accused of supplying the drugs to the Italian soigneur.
Meanwhile, in Italy, sport's doctor Roberto Rempi, who is currently working for the Mercatone Uno team, is one of the people on the list compiled by Italian police in Bologna who should be investigated. The police have begun a large-scale investigation about the use of banned substances in sport and have accused Rempi of writing prescriptions and selling drugs to sportspersons. The matters are traced back to 1996. Rempi was not with Mercatone Uno at that time. He was expected to appear for questioning on Monday but did not turn up. Police are now seeking him.
"They suggested that I be admitted immediately, and I took their advice, but this is really bad timing in relation to my plans for the season. I have to lie here for at least two days and possibly undergo a treatment, which hopefully can get the infection to subside. But it can't as yet be ruled out that the investigation that follows indicates that it is necessary to operate. But I hope not. Because then the perspectives are entirely different."
"At the moment I have accepted the fact that I can't ride Waalse Pijl or LBL. And that's bad enough. Because those two races are what the season was all about for me. The 'best case scenario' is that I can ride at Amstel in late April. But it is far from certain that I will be able to. And I just might have to adjust my preparation for the Giro, which is my single greatest goal for the year."
Boulder Criterium Men: 1. Scott Moninger (USA) Mercury 1.30.00 2. Gord Fraser (USA) Mercury 3. Danny Pate (USA) Colorado Cyclist 4. Chad Gerlach (USA) Merlin Racing 5. Jon Peters (USA) Mercury 6. Clark Sheehan (USA) Team 7-Up 7. Colby Pearce (USA) Shaklee 8. Derek Bouchard-Hall (USA) Mercury 9. Eddy Gragus (USA) PP Velo 10. Lane Packwood (USA) US Army s.t. Women: 1. Anna Wilson (Aus) Saturn 45.00 2. Pam Schuster (USA) Timex 3. Brigette Evans (USA) 4. Kimberley Bruckner (USA) Cox Atlanta Velo 5. Anne Lannan (USA) Dean Cycles 6. Elizabeth Eme (RSA) South Africa National Team 8. Alisa Thurston Hicks (USA) Sear 9. Kerry Soraci (USA) Schwinn 10. Brenda Black (USA) Sak/Trek s.t. Roubaix Road Race Men: 1. David Clinger (USA) Mercury 3.35.00 2. Derek Bouchard-Hall (USA) Mercury 3. Mike Barry (USA) Saturn 4. Scott Moninger (USA) Mercury 5. Gord Fraser (Can) Mercury 6. Danny Pate (USA) Colorado Cyclist 7. Roy Knickman (USA) Mercury 8. Anton Villatoro (USA) Team 7-Up 9. Jaime Killen (USA) Colorado Express 10. Eddy Gragus (USA) Pro Pelo ton s.t. Women 1. Emily Robbins (USA) Saturn 2.30.00 2. Anna Wilson (Aus) Saturn 3. Kimberley Bruckner (USA) Cox Atlanta Velo 4. Erica Green (RSA) South Africa National team 5. Dede Demet Barry (USA) Saturn 6. Pam Schuster (USA) Timex 7. Kim Smith (USA) 8. Brigette Evans (USA) 9. Julie Hanson (USA) Saturn 10. Weatherly Stroh (USA) s.t.Thanks to Rich Wanninger, USCF
1. Luke Mauritsen (USA) Wizards of the Coast 2. Paul Willerton (USA) Micro Supreme 3. John Browning (USA) Safeway/Saturn 4. John Bavard (USA) Wizards of the Coast 5. Hank Pfeifle (USA) Logie Velo 6. Steve Wright (USA) Logie Velo 7. Russ Humberston (USA) Safeway/Saturn 8. Lance Coffel (USA) Rivers Edge 9. Kiefer Hahn (USA) Wizards of the Coast 10. John Mitchem (USA) Raindance VeloThanks to the Organiser Scott Goldstein
We did not race last weekend because it was Easter Sunday - all of Italy shuts down for 2 days for Easter. I was finally able to get back into a normal training routine for the last 2 weeks after a month of racing, traveling and trying to recover from the racing and travelling! It was nice and our weather has been fairly cooperative. I am learning my way around the area. It has everything you might want for training - short climbs, long climbs, flat roads etc. The tallest mountain in the area is the Monte Serra which is about a 8-9km climb that one can do in 2 directions. It is very popular among the cyclists in the area. It was the finish of one of the stages in the women's Giro d'Italia last year. I decided to do some intervals up it last Saturday. After I got through the town at the bottom, I didn't see a single car and I saw about 20 cyclists! When I got to the top, there was a cyclist stopped, putting on a jacket for the descent. I stopped to do the same and he said "Caio" and I realized it was Mario Cipollini! I only recognized him from photos. He was there with his trainer/coach who was on a motorcycle. He asked where I was from and how I liked riding for an Italian team.
The big excitement at the bike shop where our manager works last week was that they built a bike for the Pope! Our manager and the owner of the shop went to Rome to deliver it personally! It looks just like our team bikes except John Paul gets Chorus instead of Record.
One of my teammates took me to Pisa last week. I took a picture of the leaning tower along with about 1000 other tourists. Like everyone else, I wonder why it hasn't tipped over in the last 1000 years! I also got to see Italians driving in a city. The standard mode is one hand on the steering wheel, the other on the horn. This is actually necessary since at any time, another car, a pedestrain, a dog, a child or a cyclist can come darting out from a side street without looking at all! The horn basically is a way to say "everyone out of my way, I'm coming through". It is also used at intersections where one doesn't feel like stopping. Italians treat traffic jams the same way they do lines - just push your way through!
This really is a country that embraces cycling though. I realized this when we flipped on the TV one evening and after a very old episode of "Friends" in Italian (Ross and Racheal are still together!) they showed a JR race on TV!! In the US, we can't even see Pros on TV! All the big races (Tour of Flanders, Gent Willheml etc) are broadcast live.
The Monday after Easter, another of my teammates took me to the beach along with some of her friends. They told me to bring a swimsuit, but it wasn't THAT warm! We went to watch some horse races. It was interesting - they made a track in the sand (kind of like a cross country ski track) and the horses races right on the beach so you could see them up close. The riders rode bareback and the course was an out and back totalling about 1 km. It looked like a lot of jockeying for position for the first 300m or so - a lot like a bike race!
Yesterday (Sunday) we did another Italian race. It was near Como, almost on the Swiss border. Before our race, there was a Jr. Women's race and the field was probably 50-60 riders! This is pretty impressive when you coonsider how many Jr. women racers there are in the US! Our race had about 120 riders or so and was the usual World-Championship caliber field. It was the first race for Diana Ziluite in her rainbow jersey (she has been sick). The course was 10 laps of a 10km loop with 2 climbs of less than 1km each. One of them was fairly steep and was on really bad pavement with 2 tight cobbled switchbacks at the top. Between the 2 climbs was a pretty technical section through town.
True to form, there was an attack in the first 2 km and it never let up after that. What suprised me was not so much how hard the race was (I've learned to expect that) but how many people were still left in he field after it got really hard! The first 2 laps were pretty much all a fight for position. As is normal in a European women's peleton, about 80 percent of the riders can't go around a corner to save their lives. The descents were short but had a couple of tight turns. If I could manage to get to the front before them (no easy task) I could open up a 100m gap by the bottom without even pedalling!
On the first climb of the 3rd lap, Pia Sunstedt (GAS) attacked. I went after her and so did Gabriella Pregnolato (Dream Team) and a Fannini rider (Fany Lecourtous, I think). We worked well together over the top and through the only flat section of the course. It seemed promising since of the strongest most teams were represented, but we were eventually caught. On the steeper climb, a group got away again. I was in a bad positon going into the climb but my teammate Louisiana Pegoraro was up front so I let it go. The problem was it was pretty large group that got away - 10-12 or so and there were about 4 Dream Team riders so it wasn't good odds for us. I decided to bridge on the next climb. I got away from the pack, but it took some effort on the flats to finish the bridge and another Dream team rider and an Alpha Lum rider caught me right before I got up to the group helped close the gap. The group was not very organized though, and there were a lot of attacks but nothing stuck and we all eventually came back to the field which was still probably 40 strong.
Every time up the steeper climb, there were attacks and a small group would get clear over the top. Nicole Brandli (Dream Team) attacked a number of times as did Allessandra and Valeria Cappellotto (GAS), Pai, Fany and others. Edita Pukinskaite (Dreaam Team) attacked on the 2nd to last lap. I was able to go with all the attacks, but the breaks always came back. The most promising one I was in was with Allessandra Cappellotto, Roberta Bononomi (Dream Team), Fany (Fannini) and an Alpha Lum rider. It seemed promising - we all worked together and all the strongest team were represented. Still in Italy, even the pack fill is strong and there are always people willing to chase and we were eventually caught.
There were also a lot of attacks on the flats, with Bonanomi and Pregnolato being especially active. I just couldn't cover everything and I was having more success on the climbs, so I just had to let a lot of the other attacks on the flats go. Of course, when you start deciding to let things go, that is exactly when the right break finally gets away! On the last lap, on the only flat section between he 2 climbs, 5 riders got away: Bonanomi and Brandli from the Dream Team, Fabiana Luperini (GAS) and 2 others I didn't know (one was named Rocca). There was a 6th rider too, but she got dropped on the climb. They never got too far away and I decided to try to bridge on the last climb. Again, I got away from the field, but not up to the break. Edita came with me, but with 2 treammates up the road, she wasn't much help, and the field caught us.
The break stayed off and Bonanomi won. Rocca was 2nd and Brandli 3rd. The sprint for 6th was won by Pregnolato. It was pretty insane. Twice in the last 800m I had someone cut in front of me and hit my front wheel. The 2nd time, I had to lean into their rear wheel for quite awhile and I was sure I was going down, but somehow I didn't. Then on the opposite of the pack I see Zita Urbonite go sliding on her back for about 100m on the sidewalk! (She was OK, but lost a lot of skin!). At that point, I decided I liked my skin where it was and 6th place in a local race just wasn't worth rearranging it.
Today we drove to Belgium (about 10 hrs) for Fleche Wallone which is on Wednesday and is round 4 of the World Cup.