News for November 19, 1999Big US Tour to start again Courtesy of John Alsedek For the first time since 1996, the United States will have an international stage race on the UCI calendar. The Heritage Tour, a six-day event to be held in the state of South Carolina, was recently unveiled. Consisting of a prologue and five road stages, the Heritage Tour will be held April 18-23, and boasts a prize list of $US 100,000. Saturn USPRO Cycling Series US cycling will also see the return of the lucrative Saturn USPRO Cycling Tour in 2000. The Tour comprises 17 events, and includes three new races in 2000: The Dayton Pro-Am, the BMC Software Tour of San Jose and the BMC Software Tour of Boston. In addition, the Tour Le Fleur, the fifth race of the series will serve as the National Time Trial Championship. Nearly two dozen teams will compete for more than $600,000 in prize money with an end of season $100,000 bonus pool. The inaugural 1999 Saturn USPRO Cycling Tour saw Eddy Gragus (IKON/Lexus) and Suzy Pryde (Saturn) take out the top prizes. "Every sport needs a season-long series for fans to follow (PGA Tour, Winston Cup, NBA Playoffs, Triple Crown)," said USA Cycling Chief Operating officer Philip Milburn. "The Saturn USPRO Cycling Tour is working to follow that model for professional road racing. There are also more UCI [cycling's international federation] events on this year's schedule, which adds more prestige to this outstanding series." 2000 Saturn USPRO Schedule March 7-12 Redlands Classic (Cat. 2) Redlands, Calif. April 8 BMC Software Downtown Criterium (Cat. 2) Austin, Texas April 29 Golden Pantry Twighlight (Cat. 2) Athens, Ga. May 14 BMC Software Tour of Houston (Cat. 2) Houston, Texas May 18 Tour LeFleur (Cat. 3) Jackson, Miss. May 28 U.S. Postal Service Clarendon Cup (Cat. 3) Arlington, Va. May 30 First Union Invitational* (Cat. 2) Lancaster, Pa. May 31 First Union Wilmington Classic* (Cat. 2) Wilmington, Del. June 1 First Union Classic* (Cat. 2) Trenton, N.J. June 4 First Union USPRO Championship (men) (Cat. 1) First Union Liberty Classic (women) (Cat. 1) Philadelphia, Pa. June 24 BMC Software Tour of San Jose** (Cat. 2) San Jose, Calif. June 29 - July 2 Fitchburg Longsjo Classic (Cat. 2) Fitchburg, Mass. July 7-9 Dayton Pro/Am Cycling Series** (Cat. 2) Dayton, Ohio July 15 Zinger Grind Bicycle Race (Cat. 3) Boulder-Breckenridge, Colo. July 5-30 Wendy's International Cycling Classic (Cat. 3) Columbus, Ohio August (Cat. 2)7 Chris Thater Memorial (Cat. 2) Binghamton, N.Y. September 17 BMC Software Tour of Boston** (Cat. 2) Boston, Mass. *men only **new event on tour
Nandrolone update There has been a recent spate of positive tests to the banned steroid nandrolone involving several top sports stars. Lindford Christie, Merlene Ottey and Fabiana Luperini are examples of very high profile athletes who have been labelled as "drug cheats", due to the substance showing up in their urine samples. However, they may be heartened by a new UK review which has demonstrated that nandrolone may be found in food samples, as well as some sports supplements. Although the cases may be genuine examples of substance abuse, some athletes may be able to seek a lesser penalty on the grounds that they did not knowingly ingest anything illegal. This would of course, apply when there was only a small amount found in their sample. For example, the review found that despite the fact that in Europe, feeding animals steroids is illegal, it still occurs, leading to the steroid being present in the food chain. At last, an explanation as to why I put on so much weight when I was in Belgium in '98. In terms of nandrolone's presence in sports supplements, some of the athlete's liability would rest with the supplement manufacturer. If they could show this, athletes' penalties could be reduced and they could sue the manufacturer. It should be noted that although the UK review resulted from a large number of positive tests, particularly amongst British sportspeople, there was no bias towards clearing any specific individual. In doubt also were the drug testing and interpretation procedures, which must be reliable if the fight against doping in sport is to succeed.
Oceania road selection Controversy and team selection often go hand in hand, especially when Australian cycling is involved. Followers of the local scene will have noted that the road team selected for the Oceania Games, to be held in one months time, is certainly not the strongest on offer. Sure, Jonathon Hall, Bart Hickson, Peter Milostic are there. But why choose Robert Upton (not to criticise here: he is arguably one of Australia's strongest 40+ yr old riders) over national champion Eddie Salas, or even Laurent Vignes who was one of the best riders in the Australian Veteran's Championships recently? Strangely enough it was more due to a lack of interest from the cyclists, most of whom are at the end of their seasons. Riders were asked to nominate themselves and provide a summary of their recent results and selection took place from there. Eddie Salas, one of our "national road champions" (Henk Vogels is the other), told cyclingnews that he was simply too tired after a long season, culminating with the Sun Tour, and many of the other Sun Tour and Bank Classic riders feel the same way. Why make an already long season longer? Again, it may be too early for those riders aiming at Olympic selection - the preliminary ~15 man squad will be chosen in January at the time of the "other" Australian road championship. However, this is still too early for many riders, including Salas, to be at their peak. The track on the other hand will see a stronger team, as there are a few Olympic qualification spots up for grabs. There will also be an international track competition run concurrently with several strong teams outside of Oceania scheduled to start.
Le Tour - no big deal for TV By Tomas Nilsson, cyclingnews.com correspondent French television has an "unbalanced" contract with the agency Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) for broadcasting the Tour de France, according to Jean-Marie Le Guen, a socialist member of parliament who has investigated the matter for the ministry of communications. He presented his report on Thursday, November 18th. The contract sum for the year 2000 is 100 million francs (about 15 million USD) and for 2001 it's 102 million. Then it rises to reach 130 million Francs in 2003. Le Guen writes that the ten year contract for 1994 to 2003 was renegotiated in 1998, a weak year for cycling with the doping scandal and sinking ratings for the transmissions from the race. The European Union works to keep certain big sports events on public television channels, so as to guarantee that people can follow great sports events without having to pay fees to cable or satellite networks. The report therefore can be seen as an important tool for the politicians towards that effort.
French rankings According to the final UCI rankings, Jean Cyril Robin is ranked as the best French rider of the year. What about Jaja and Virenque, you may ask? Answer: they are riding on foreign licenses. Only licenses issued by the French Federation are eligible, even if they are issued to foreigners like Pole Grzegorz Gwiazdowski. The list ranks all riders on French licenses, Elite, National and Regional riders, on one list. The top ranked riders with UCI ranking as of the 31st October in parenthesis are: 1. Jean-Cyril Robin (48) La Francaise des Jeux 312.277 pts 2. Stéphane Heulot (51) La Francaise des Jeux 308.072 3. Christophe Moreau (60) Festina 284.584 4. François Simon (74) Crédit Agricole 263.620 5. Benoît Salmon (97) Casino 195.012 6. Cédric Vasseur (105) Crédit Agricole 187.948 7. Gilles Maignan (119) Casino 181.922 8. Grzegorz Gwiazdowski (116) Cofidis 162.360 9. Laurent Brochard (124) Festina 159.248 10. Laurent Roux (146) Casino 132.030 Farm Frites' plans Dutch team Farm Frites is intending starting the three big tours: the Giro, the Tour and the Vuelta next year. The team was ranked 9th at the end of this season, however some riders have left the team taking their points with them. Now, Farm Frites isn't in the top 14, which is a guaranteee for a place in the Tour. The team will start in the the Tour Down Under and the Tour of Malaysia as well.
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