News for March 1, 1999

Drugs Scandal - Roussel speaks

Bruno Roussel, the former director sportif of the Festina team has assumed total responsibilty for the drug taking within the team but has told an interview with the French newspaper L'Equipe that: "he will not pay for the sins of everyone. If one takes the drugs then you take the benefits but have to be prepared to take the responsibilities - the costs - that is normal. But you don't want to take responsibilities for everyone."

He continued: "The problem now is that some of the accused will be imprisoned or heavily fined whereas the drug taking and practices were universal in the sport. I haven't heard anybody - neither team managers nor riders - admitting to that and thus I don't think the mentalities that led us to this have changed much at all."

On December 10, 1998, Bruno Roussel and Willy Voet, the Belgian ex-soigneur of Festina were suspended by the French Cycling Federation for 3 and 5 years respectively. They are not permitted to have any functions at all associated with cycle racing. On Tuesday this week they will be appearing before an appeal hearing to argue for a relaxation of the sanctions.

Olano hopes to be back soon

What a start! Abraham Olano abandoned the Vuelta a Valencia with stomach troubles. The ONCE team were earlier hit by the withdrawal of its co-leader Laurent Jalabert, who suffered a bad fall on the first stage. The team generally did not perform well at Valencia. Olano abandoned some 60 kms before the finish of the stage that took the peloton over the Eslida mountain. He was already suffering with dehydration arising from the constant vomiting. He will remain on track however for the Tirreno-Adriático which begins on March 10.

Escartin in doubt for the Tours

Fernando Escartín has not yet decided whether he will be going to the Tour de France or the Giro d'Italia. The leader of Kelme-Costa Blanca will make his decision before the end of la Vuelta a Valencia and will probably go with the Tour. Escartín is analyzing the pros and cons: "I don't know what I will do. I think that there is 80% that I will ride the Tour, but it is not definite. The Giro has in its favor, the mountanous route, which I like a lot and that I would have more time to recuperate for the Vuelta a España, my big objective. Going against that would be the fact that Kelme would take a less competitive team to the Tour and that I would have to radically change my preparation".

Pantani criticises Tour de France route - again

There is still no certainty about Marco Pantani's plans for the Tour de France this year. He has said that he will not be participating but has always left the door ajar. He has said that the parcours is not set up for him and that he prefers the Giro and the Vuelta. But he keeps talking about the Tour. In his latest outburst he told the Spanish press that: "I won the tour last year with a course which was not favourable to me. I hoped for a better route this year but it wasn't the case. The tour is the most important race in the world and because of that it must take the riders into account. Without the riders the tour is nothing."

He has stuck to his last statement that he will only decide on the Tour after the Giro finishes in June.

Belgium, Saint Severain, February 27

This was the opening race of the season for the Liege province in Belgium. A good day for the Dutch.

 1. Jos Lucassen (Ned) P&O-Löwik-Giant
 2. Marco Engels (Ned) MGI
 3. Patrick Claessens (Ned) P&O-Löwik-Giant

Dutch Top Competition Agreement

The KNWU (Dutch Cycling Federation) has met with the representatives of the riders, the team leaders and the main race organisers to come to agreement about the Top Competition in the Netherlands in 2000. This follows the move by a number of race organisers to establish their own competition because they didn't think the KNWU was running the sport very well.

For next season the neo-amateur competition will be cancelled. The Under-23 riders shall have their own competition. For the Top Competition there will be 10 races and they will be ranked between 1.4 and 1.5 on the UCI scale. The presence of the riders of the National Trade Teams (UCI III), selected sponsors and the better amateur clubs will guarantee the competition is first-class. The teams will be allowed to enter between 6-8 riders.

The organisers of the Ronde van Limburg and the GP Wielerrevue, have still announced their intention to set up their own competition. As a result of these most recent talks with the KNWU the schedule now is to establish a plan by April 1 of how this new competition will work.

How some Dutch riders prepared for 1999

Leon Van Bon:

Maarten Den Bakker

Servais Knaven:

Steven de Jongh:

Charlie Walsh Interview

Following the "clash" between Kathy Watt and Lucy Tyler-Sharman at the nationals on Wednesday the head-to-head record between the two now stands at 11-1 to Kathy. "SPORTSWORLD" on Channel 7 this morning, Sunday February 28 1999, included an interview by Bruce McAvaney with Charlie Walsh. The transcript follows:

Bruce: Any publicity is good publicity. One organisation that would disagree with those sentiments would surely be Cycling Australia.For a long time now the big headlines regarding this sport have featured events which have happened off the track. Perhaps the biggest and most disappointing followed Lucy Tyler-Sharman's expulsion from the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. Since that time Australian coach Charlie Walsh has refused all requests for interviews. Until now. But, before we talk to him let's go back and see what's gone wrong for a sport that should be so right.

(Voiceover) 1984 and these four men (team pursuit) are the hottest ticket in town, Los Angeles gold medalists, and Australian cycling is recognised as a world power. They credit this man, Charlie Walsh, their coach. Charlie's still the Australian coach, and success has continued, but the cost has been high, and it has centred around three of the best riders that we have ever seen - Kathy Watt, Lucy Tyler-Sharman and Darryn Hill. Court cases, allegations of sabotage and downright refusal to train with the rest of the team have dominated. Knowing it had to act, following Lucy Tyler-Sharman's extraordinary outburst in Kuala Lumpur, Cycling Australia reviewed its whole operation and at this moment the best you can say is that there is an uneasy truce. Walsh's role has been modified to try and limit friction between himself and the athletes. And what's been overlooked, is that at the national championships in Perth in this past week, some outstanding performances have played second fiddle to the existing tension. For the first time since Kuala Lumpur Charlie Walsh has agreed to go public, but still refuses to discuss any issues surrounding Lucy Tyler-Sharman, Kathy Watt and Darryn Hill. (End of voiceover)

Bruce: It's been an unbelievably traumatic and volatile time in cycling, hasn't it? Have you thought about throwing it in, giving it away, not going on?

Charlie: Well, you do have some very special athletes. If you look at it ... we've got something like 12,000 cyclists and you are probably talking about 11, 997 or 5 of them are all just wanting to get on and do their job. And when you work with people like O'Grady, with Shane Kelly. Neiwand back eppersesent (sic!). The young girls Alayna Burns and Higginson and look, all of those together, they excite a coach. And when you have those people working with you its terribly difficult to just get out and walk away and leave them. when they've got a goal that's coming along that's so important to them and in Kelly's case I just wouldn't want to walk out with something half done on him.

Bruce: Do you feel like you've made any mistakes, Charlie, yourself?

Charlie: Oh I think that life is a continuance of mistakes! I think, if you reflect back, there's some things or maybe you wouldn't have done ... some people you maybe wouldn't have worked with or whatever else, but at the end of the day you've got to look back and you've got to say well, I've been able to manage to achieve this, I've got something like 20 odd cyclist that have got gold medals from world championships and Olympic Games around their necks and I'm pretty proud of that.

Bruce: Charlie, there's been a bit of irony in the fact that two men beaten earlier in the week who have captured a lot of the headlines, have been world champions in the past, Shane Kelly and Gary Neiwand. What are their prospects in Berlin this year and then in Sydney next year?

Charlie: We're very happy with the progress of both of them. They've set their goal of Sydney 2000. Ahhh in Shane Kelly's case, he's had a couple of down years, he's back in and going now. He's enjoying the atmosphere, the environment that we've set-up. And you can see that sparkle in him and we're more than delighted and you can see that in Gary also. You can see the character now starting to bubble when he's seeing his progress and the way he's going and so that does nothing but enthuse us. I mean he's an eppersesent (sic!) character. He has a huge amount of talent and he's also taken on some of the roles and responsibilities that we've asked of the cyclists to try and generate that very positive environment, and we're very happy with it.

Bruce: Is it working, do you think ?

Charlie: Yeah. It is working. It's working particularly well. Look there's been a lot of work put in by Jim Ferguson, from the Sports Commission, a whole range of people - Ray Godkin, Craig McClutchley and those - in trying to help us generate that .... what we used to have . And as far as I'm concerned it's back and it's going.

Bruce: Your roles' changed. Are you happy with the change ?

Charlie: Well, the change is to try and set cycling up for the future and that's something that all of us have been very keen about for a long time in setting into place structure, lines of c ommunication, roles of responsibility and those sorts of things and that's all laid out and I think it's particularly good and the coaching staff's quite happy with it.

Bruce: We were 4th last year in terms of the medals table at the world championships where the French dominated. Do you think it's a level playing field at the moment in world cycling on the track.

Charlie: Ahhh No.

Bruce: What can we do about it?

Charlie: Well, I think I'm very hopeful that people like John Coates who have worked so hard have been able to have an impact. And you do that basing on an assumption of what say took place in the Tour de France, and if they are able to bring that level playing field back then cycling in Australia will be very much to the fore.

Bruce: Charlie, we were talking about EPO ?

Charlie: What we face now with EPO is something that is a huge challenge. We're sat down the coaching staff and looked at it and seen how we can actually try and come up with more effective training programs that are going to put us back up there.

Bruce: If you could put a percentage on it. What percentage advantage do you think the use of EPO could give the opposition to a country that's been clean ?

Charlie: Well, the reports that we've had given to us are that on some of the tests, in say the one minute test, 15% more power. I mean that's a huge amount. It probably might help the coaching staff keep up with the cyclists but ..... its a pretty fair challenge.

Bruce: Do you think we're clean here Charlie ?

Charlie: Ahhh, I'd certainly like to say that anybody working in our program is clean. We have a philosophy that we try and educate the people about the use of drugs. As I say to them, when you sit down and talk to people later on you can look them in the eye and you also know that you've got the possibility of a very healthy life and as I said Stuart O'Grady is exposed to that world in the peloton over there and I sit down and have chats with Stuart, and look he's very honest with me, and tells me what he thinks is going on, and where he sits and he's still clean and I think that what that says is the philosophy that we get through to our people that work inside our program stays with them.

Bruce: Is he available for the world championships and what is his positioning in terms of Sydney 2000.

Charlie: In terms of Sydney 2000 I've had talks with Stuart and his boss, Roger Legeay, and Roger has given me the commitment that in the year 2000 he will release Stuart to us to prepare for the Olympic Games. So we are particularly happy about that. Roger and I have looked at Stuart's program for this year and it's a huge year and in real terms, and if he follows the racing program that he's got this year, by the time we get through to the end of October he's going to be very tired and probably not of great value. So, that's where we are sitting with him at the moment because things could change.

Bruce: Thanks very much, Charlie, appreciate talking to you.

Charlie: Thanks Bruce.

Thanks to Laurie Cousins for the transcript

Hennie Kuiper to move into speed-skating?

Hennie Kuiper has been asked to take over the role of team manager for the new speed-skating team in the Netherlands. Frisia, a financial organisation, has already signed four top marathon-skaters - Henk Angenent, Piet Kleine, Jan-Eise Kromkamp en René Ruitenberg. Henk Angenent is the last winner of the Elfstedentoch - the 11 city classic in Friesland which can only be staged infrequently because the canals have to freeze over. [Bill notes: to race the elfstedentoch is one of my ambitions in sport!]. The youngest one, René Ruitenberg, has received a 6-year contrat. This is unique in speed-skating as the normal maximum contract length is 2 years.

London Cycle Racing Update

It may be cold, very cold at times and I cannot remember a race when the wind didn't blow hard but having just finished my first winter series here in London, I have to say the races were a great success. In all, there were 14 races and overall, it was the UK's number 1 ranked rider for 1998, Peter Swettenham, who took the overall honours.

The races are held on a purpose built cycle racing circuit on the west side of London, within sight of Heathrow airport. Each Saturday at 1.30pm, including Boxing day, as many as 40 riders lined up in temperatures around 5 degrees Celsius. Being an Australian more used to racing in conditions that were too hot rather than too cold, it takes a little getting used to but the winter series for 1998 and 1999 was notable for many reasons.

The winter series is run by one of the biggest clubs in the capital, Twickenham CC who are sponsored by Evans Cycles and Stairmaster. The races themselves are the work of former professional Doug Collins. With plenty of help from Eddy, the two run each event, creating an environment where there is not only plenty of hard racing but also one where you feel among friends. In fact, if you take away everything I have got out of the winter series and just left the friendships I have made, then the 3 months of racing would have been worth it for that alone.

Add to this, the kids racing in the morning before the seniors, and the whole day is made great by the racing and not at all ruined by the weather. In fact, Doug certainly has friends in high places when it comes to weather, because the last two races were actually quite sunny. Not the grey and miserable days those in Oz might expect it to be here. Well, not all the time! You may not believe it, but on one race day, the sun shone for the whole day with hardly a cloud in the sky! That didn't mean it was warm, far from it! Reminded me of some days I spent in Mount Isa in the winter where it was freezing but sunny in the early mornings.

The majority of the races were 52km on what is a reasonably easy circuit with plenty of twists and turns. What made the races hard was the wind down the back straight and the speed up the hill past the finish. An easy circuit it may be, but many of the races were won by breaks and in just as many, the main field was lapped. My heart rate data alone proves just how intense the races were.

The standard of the riders was high. Besides Peter Swettenham, there were other Elites and 1st category riders like Jason Streather from Amore e Vita for example. Vince Halpern was there as was Alan Leach. The find of the series however was Doug Crow. Here was a rider who rode mostly 3rd and 4th category events last year but in the winter series made his mark with 2 superb back to back victories, countless placings and would have won the final race had it not been for an untimely puncture.

What is surprising is the question why do it. For me, that's easy. In Oz, most riders already ride all year round so why be any different here. The events provided good competition over a short distance which helps keep the sharpness there in not only the fitness but the general feeling of being in a fast moving bunch around a tight circuit. You also have the chance of getting BCF ranking points. For those who want to move up a category, it helps a great deal.

I know of many riders who rode all last year looking for their second category licence but didn't make it. Thanks to the winter series, I nearly have the points I need and the season is just starting. It takes the pressure off so you can ride more races for training for example. One of the riders who wants to be a 1st category rider, almost has enough points for that. This enables him to ride in the Premier calendar events in the UK, the top races you can ride this side of the North Sea.

So there are plenty of reasons for doing the winter series, even if many of them are just for social purposes and getting out and having some fun once a week with little pressure.

The last race in the winter series was last Saturday. A good field lined up including a women rider, Gail Longenecker. Gail was one of many women who rode the races during the winter and did very well in a male dominated event.

As always, it was an eventful start to the last race and a break of eight soon had a sizeable gap. The surprise was the make up of the break because missing from it was Peter Swettenham, the overall series leader. With no less than four teamates in the break however, Peter didn't need to worry.

Like in many races, good looking breaks don't always succeed. I for one can remember being in breaks that get pulled back but with some of the strongest riders in the series such as Doug Crow, Alan Leach (Team Sport & Publicity) and Bill Butterworth ably supported by Mick McManus, all working well together, the break ended up lapping most of the field towards the end of the race.

Behind, Peter Swettenham with a couple of other riders such as former Kiwi pro Grant Philips (Team Synergy) for company, gave chase but never made a real impression on the leaders. This was despite the tactical side of things taking over at the end when the Twickenham riders eased up after Doug Crow had attacked down the road and was well away leaving Alan Leach and Leon Wright to chase.

Doug Crow was however, stopped with a puncture and although he regained the leaders, it was a tight sprint at the end with only a couple of bike lengths between the first six. The winner for the second time in the series was Vince Halpern.

The placings were:

 1. Vince Halpern (Twickenham CC)
 2. Alan Leach (Team Sport and Publicity)
 3. Doug Crow (Twickenham CC)
 4. Stuart Jackson (Heffs Bike Shop)
 5. Bill Butterworth (Twickenham CC)
 6. Larry Hickmott (Team Synergy)
 7. Mick McManus (Twickenham CC)
 8. Leon Wright (Sigma Sport)
 9. David Cowie (Twickenham CC)
10. Peter Swettenham (Twickenham CC)

Overall

 1. Peter Swettenham
 2. Vince Halpern
 3. Mick Hill
 4. Dave Griffiths
 5. Doug Crow
 6. Mick McManus
 7. Alan Leach
 8. Jason Streather
 9. Bill Butterworth
10. Larry Hickmott

The most recent results are:

 1. Peter Swettenham (Twickenham CC)
 2. David Cowie (Twickenham CC)
Thanks to Larry Hickmott for the report