News for January 24, 1999

No foreign doctors in France this season

Doctors from foreign teams will not go to France in the coming season to work. The French have announced that they will prevent foreign doctors who are not registered in France from practising there. The ruling will apply to all UCI First and Second Division teams. The UCI president Hein Verbruggen has told all the teams of the new ruling. Further, in the future, all medicine and other supplements used by teams will have to be obtainable on the French market.

Belgium, Langemark, Cyclocross, Cat A

 1. Bjorn Rondelez (Bel)
 2. Geert Vandaele (Bel)		1.00
 3. Tom Pynaert (Bel)			2.23
 4. Rudi Vandesompel (Bel)		3.29
 5. T. Vandaele (Bel)			3.54
 6. P. Baelen (Bel)			4.23

Started: 20

UCI Cyclocross Standings as at January 18

 1.  (1) Mario De Clercq (Bel)		1961
 2.  (2) Sven Nijs (Bel)		1565
 3.  (3) Daniele Pontoni (Ita)		1431
 4.  (5) Adri van der Poel (Ned)	1339
 5.  (4) Richard Groenendaal (Ned)	1229
 6.  (6) Marc Janssens (Bel)		 975
 7.  (7) Erwin Vervecken (Bel)		 865
 8.  (8) Bart Wellens (Bel)		 780
 9.  (9) Beat Wabel (Swi)		 708
10. (11) Thomas Frischknecht (Swi)	 604
11. (10) Radomir Simunek (Cze)		 568
12. (12) Peter Van Santvliet (BeL)	 504
13. (13) Wim De Vos (Ned)		 470
14. (14) Jiri Pospisil (Cze)		 464
15. (15) Petr Dlask (Cze)		 409
further detail www.uci.ch

1999 Tour of Wellington

There will be no Australian National team because according to the organiser there has been a lack of communication from Cycling Australia. They were given and invitation from the organiser 4 months ago and on two occasions he was given guarantees that the Australian team would be racing. It has been a traditional event on the team's calendar over the last nine years and a member of the team has won the tour 3 out of the last 4 editions. Last week, the CA office told the organiser that "nobody knew anything about the tour." It is a pity that CA is no longer willing to support the smaller events which have endured for many years and offered our riders the chance for tough competition. Perhaps the ridiculous amounts of taxpayers' money that has been thrown around in South Australia this last week has distorted their view of second division cycling.

Anyway, the largest international race in NZ has already attracted a good field. Race director Jorge Sandoval said "This race boasts the strongest line-up ever seen in New Zealand." A total of 80 riders will start the race in Wellington on February 2. The confirmed starters include:

Amore e Vita - Maurizio de Pasquale and Roberto Gaggioli. De Pasquale, a pro since 1995, has won 18 races including stages of tours of Italy, USA and France. He came 34th in the 1998 Giro de Italy. The other riders in the team include Mirko Puglioli, winner of the Juniro Tour of Italy 1996, top sprinter Manuel Scopsi and Giuseppe Baldoni.

Collstrop - Franke Van Haesebroucke, Hans Redant and Christf Bracke.

Czech Republic Team - with three times winner of the Czech Cup and winner of the Tour of Poland, Petr Pucelik and the 1998 Under 23 Czech Champion Jindrich Vana.

Synergy USA - a newly formed team including top Dutch sprinter Harm Jansen, American Chad Gerlach and 1995 USA National Champion David McCook.

The Hong Kong National Team - including top hill climber and winner of the King of the Mountains in the 1998 Tour of Australian, Wong Kam Po.

The Australia WAIS Team - including Michael Simms and Hamish Guy.

The China Taipei National Team - featuring the four times stage winner of the Tour of Taiwan, Lin Wei-Hsing and former Asian Champion Ting Cheng-Chang.

The New Zealand National Team - with high profile riders such as the 1994 Tour of New Zealand winner Murray Spencer and hill climber specialist Brendon Vesty who has show his class by wining, among others, the King of the Mountains in the 1997 Tour of Australia.

The Giant Bicycles Team - featuring top professional riders such as Commonwealth Gold Medallist Glen Thomson, US Postal professional Julian Dean and New Zealand National Champion Scott Guyton.