It was his 142nd professional victory and Saeco have said that they do not wish to resign him. He reacted bitterly: "I learned just before the Tour that Cipollini was not interesting for Saeco any more. I felt like an old car that consumes too much petrol and which you leave in the garage. I did not have to wait for today's win to prove what I'm worth. I was a little bit depressed by the decision. To change teams at 32, to have to mix with youngsters will not be easy. It's not easy either to split with friends after sharing fine memories. I'm ashamed that people might put my name alongside his. I will never compare with a rider like Coppi but maybe to win the same number of stages means I've left a trace in cycling's history."
He was referring to the fact that he had just equalled the great Fausto Coppi's record of Tour wins by an Italian. He also said that he was chasing new goals and would be aiming at winning the individual men's pursuit at the Worlds later this year and perhaps go onto the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
He said that the sport is dependent on doping, and that "It's not a clean sport, it's a tragedy." He added that cycling authorites do all that they can, but that the solution is a radical change in the culture, which takes time, or a substantial increase in the means given to the anti-doping struggle. He noted that the dangers that EPO and growth hormones pose, mean that stricter controls are imperative.
According to Catlin, the 1998 Tour de France, full of scandals, served as an alert to the IOC. However the International Conference on doping, held in Lausanne in early 1999, did not give rise to concrete measures because of internal quarrels. He stated that doping is the only problem that could really upset the Olympics, noting that the Australians, hosts of the 2000 Olympics, are the best prepared in the World on the subject. He added, however, that advance preparations cannot be made for everything.
Amongst these 16, are riders in all categories and all disciplines. The 16 are not uniquely the riders in the Elite road category. No rider at the highest levels of the UCI classification are holders of such statements, the UCI statement said.
Blood testing was introduced into the peloton by the UCI in 1997. The hematocrit rate must not exceed 50 percent. Above this level, there is a suspicion of doping with EPO, and those concerned are stopped for 15 days because the controls are not for anti-doping but for health reasons.
The 180 participants in the 86th Tour de France passed this control with success last Saturday, before the prologue of Puy-du-Fou. There were rumours that some rates were over the 50 per cent limit and one press agency reported that Jonathan Vaughters, a US Postal rider, benefitted from an exemption up to 52 percent for his hematocrit level.
According to the UCI statement, in the general population, 3 percent will have a hematocrit rate above 50 percent. However according to the French national laboratory for drug testing, the numbers are inferior to this. They estimate that less than 1 percent of the general population would have a hematocrit level of 50 percent and that the proportion would rise to 3 percent with a hematocrit level above 42 percent.
Prologue:
Tomas Nilsson, who reports from Sweden, writes that the Youth 6 days of Hökensås has been arranged for many years for all youth classes but this year for the first time with an interational race for Under-23 riders. Teams from Finland, Denmark, Germany and the Czech Republic are among the 68 riders. The prologue winner was quite a sensation. Hägg was 48th in last week's Swedish elite championships TT while Ljungblad and Nilsson were eighth and ninth respectively.
1. Anders Hägg (Swe) Borlänge CK 3.11 2. Jonas Ljungblad (Swe) Team Crescent/Tranemo 0.01 3. John Nilsson (Swe) Team Wirsbo 0.02
1. Murray Crawford 2. Laurie Norris 3. Phil Hardy 4. Sally Smalley 5. Jim Brennan 1st Fastest: Graham Carlson 2nd Fastest: Peter Herrewyn