The adjunct-prosecuter Gerald Vinsonneau pleaded for stronger rules to be brought to bear against Massi. Keil last heard Massi in July 1998 during the Tour de France. He was then charged with being involved in the supply of banned substances. On July 30 last year the French police found corticoids in his room.
Elite, 30 kms TT: 1. Björn Sjöberg (Motala AIF CK) 37.48.2 2. Jonas Olsson (Motala AIF CK) 24.8 3. Jonas Gartman (Svanesunds GIF) 1.11.8 4. Tomas Eriksson (Uddevalla CA) 1.39.6 5. Peter Johansson (Alingsås CK) 1.46.1 6. Peter Berntsen (CK Master) 1.52.8 7. Hans Carlsson (Mölndals CK) 2.06.5 8. Jonas Rydberg (Team Crescent Tranemo) 2.07.9 9. Robert Nilsson (IK Vinco) 2.40.6 10. Arvid Nilsson (Kungälvs CK) 2.41.6 11. Mattias Carlzon (Team Crescent Tranemo) 2.42.6 12. Mattias Forslund (Alingsås CK) 3.25.0 13. Jens Larner (Åstorps CK) 3.29.3 14. Mattias Jansson (Alingsås CK) 3.32.9 15. Johan Svensson (Falkenbergs CK) 3.37.1 16. Mikael Wall (IFK Kristianstad) 3.37.8 17. Mattias Reck (Mölndals CK) 3.47.0 18. Joakim Öhlund (CK Bure) 9.43.7 Women, 30 kms TT: 1. Susan Ljungskog (Burseryds IF) 41.46.9 2. Jenny Algelid (Åstorps CK) 36.2 3. Lotta Green (CK Revanche) 1.55.9 4. Maria Pålsson (Eslövs CK) 7.47.0Thanks to Tomas Nilssen, Sweden
Road Race Championship, Vilaseca, 153 kms: 1. Sergi Escobar (Ideal Olimpic, born 1974) 3.54.21 (39.2 km/h) 2. David Montero (Tadesan-Sport Ter, born 1974) 3. David Bedoya (Vestisport-Hospitalet, born 1977) 4. Jaume Rovira (Trujillo, born 1979) 0.33 5. Xavier Lindez (Saunier Duval, born 1980) 2.09 ITT Championship, la Pobla de Mafumet, 16.8 kms: 1. Josep Guillen (Ideal Olimpic, born 1977) 20.21 (49.5 km/h) 2. Carles Torrent (Trujillo, born 1974) 0.09 3. Xavier Florencio (Iberdrola, born 1979) 0.31 4. David Molinero (Trujillo, born 1978) 0.43 5. Sebastia Franco (Vivers Alcanar, born 1975) 0.53Thanks to Àlex Tarroja, Spain
This article was written my Matthew Moore, the Olympics Editor for the daily newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald. It appeared on the 28th May 1995 under the title "Tour de Bankstown leaves Games cyclists in a spin" with a by-line of "It's just going to be a big roll around" ... The new Olympics cycling course - through the back streets of Bankstown - is put to the test yesterday. The verdict: too flat."
The new road cycling course proposed by Sydney's Olympic organisers is so bad the world's leading cyclists are unlikely to turn up, two of Australia's best-known cyclists have predicted. Brett Dutton, who won a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics and a gold medal two years earlier at the Commonwealth Games, and has also ridden in many major road races, tried the course yesterday and dubbed it completely unsuited for the Games road races because it has no hills steep enough to test the best riders in the world. On the one long rise, on Henry Lawson Drive, Dutton predicted all cyclists would be pedalling at more than 40 km/h without even getting out of the saddle.
"There's no way in the world the good ones will struggle on that hill. It's just going to be a big roll around." Stephen Hodge, who competed at the Atlanta Games, in six Tour de France races and 10 world championships, said a circuit with only one modest hill about a kilometre long meant the circuit was not fit for the Olympics. "I think that would be totally unacceptable for an Olympic road race," he said. Hodge said the previous course through Sydney's eastern suburbs was "a very good course for a city course ... certainly better than Atlanta". But, he said, even that course, with two steep hills including a sharp climb up from Bronte Beach and another in Queens Park, had been questioned by the French technical delegate who had concerns that there were already too many stretches of wide roads and not enough steep climbs. "If we then go to a circuit which is all wide open roads with nothing to allow the top riders to show their ability, the whole race becomes marginalised and not a true event.
"If the event gets any easier than Bronte it won't be classed a true event," Hodge said.
Both riders thought the Italian champion Marco Pantani was unlikely to come because the new circuit would give him no chance to show his climbing ability in the 230-kilometre race, no chance to "attack and split up the field". Instead, the course would ensure each team would bring a sprinter and two helper cyclists whose job would be to help the sprinter for a dash to the line in a bunch finish which does not necessarily reward the best overall cyclist.
The board of Sydney's Olympic organising committee (SOCOG) decided last week to move the race to Bankstown after pressure from the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox Studios to move part of the course from the studio's front door in Driver Avenue, Moore Park. The president of Australian Cycling, Mr Ray Godkin, said he had been told the day before the Anzac Day long weekend to find a new course because SOCOG managers feared a compensation claim of up to $6 million from Fox if the course was not altered, a claim SOCOG has denied. SOCOG says its main reason for moving the course is to save up to $2 million because there are fewer roundabouts to move in Bankstown and the media centre at the velodrome could also be used for coverage of the road race. Mr Godkin originally described the eastern Sydney course, which has been worked on for more than two years, as "without question, the best course I have ever seen, absolutely".
But later, after pressure from SOCOG organisers over his remarks, he said: "The proposed Bankstown course is equal or better that the eastern suburbs course without Driver Avenue." He also said "it has more hills than the eastern suburbs course", a claim hotly disputed by Dutton and Hodge. "You could probably say there are half a dozen rises, but they are not hills," said Dutton. "But in a bunch they go so quickly that Henry Lawson Drive is nothing and after that all there is is flat. "I am not one that likes hills but for me that's easy. "It's just ordinary. I think it's quite embarrassing," he said.