News for December 24, 1999
First division teams The UCI have announced the list of the twenty two first division teams for 2000. They are as follows:
1. Mapei (Ita) As well as: Polti (Ita), Fassa Bortolo (Ita), Liquigas-Pata (Ita), Kelme (Spa), Française des Jeux (Fra) and Memorycard Jack-Jones (Den), the latter winning the second division rankings. Two cyclists in top ten of the century Two cyclists are among the ten sports personalities that have most "illuminated" the century, according to French leading sports daily L'Equipe. They are, of course, Fausto Coppi and Eddy Merckx. L'Equipe has elected one person per decade and the cyclists represent the forties and the seventies respectively. The ten top sports personalities according to L'Equipe are:
Pierre de Coubertin, Francce, founder of the IOC (1900-10) Tyler-Sharman: CA response Australian cyclist Lucy Tyler-Sharman has been "considering her future as an Australian cyclist" according to several reports in the Australian press recently. She flew out of the country yesterday to spend Christmas with her mother in Miami, but not before letting her thoughts known about the National Cycling Federation (Cycling Australia) and her relationship with them. As reported yesterday, she felt "ostracised, antagonised, and undermined by them", and Australian Cycling was full of "people who are either incompetent or full of malice." However, her main concern was with funding, where she claimed that she had not received a great deal of support from CA, and was having trouble financing her training and racing schedule. According to CA head, Graham Fredericks, Tyler-Sharman had received a substantial amount of support from the federation over the past year - between $AU65,000-70,000 in cash, and other benefits. This was despite training outside the AIS program for the past year. This was backed up by Australian Sports Commission director, Geoff Strang who gave a more detailed breakdown of the funds she'd received. Fredericks also finds odd Tyler-Sharman's assertion that she had "little or no chance in being selected for the Olympics next year", and he stated that "she's the front-runner to represent Australia in the pursuit (at the Sydney Games). At this stage she is still our best prospect in that event and is the only female endurance track rider to have met the qualifying standard." [don't let us start that one again!]. However, relations between T-S and CA are somewhat unclear, as CA reports they have found it very hard to contact her for the past few months, to ask her what her intentions are. Despite working outside the AIS program because of difficulties with head coach Charlie Walsh, Fredericks said about T-S that "there is by no means any suggestion that she would not have been considered (for the Olympics). Any athlete who trains and prepares outside the AIS cannot logically expect funding to that same extent. However, I'd like to think we're doing everything we can to support her." The question is for Lucy, is it enough for her to represent Australia in the 2000 Olympics? |