News for November 6, 1999

Teams and contracts

Luxembourg

Courtesy of Gérard Schiltz

23-year old Luxembourg rider Christian Poos, who was riding for the French Elite-2 Team Nogent sur Oise last year has signed a contract with the Post Swiss Team. He has signed for the next two years. Poos was the 1997 winner of Liege-Bastogne-Liege for Under 23s.

Netherlands

Courtesy of Dick Soepenberg

The Dutch division II team, Batavus-Bankgiroloterij-Big Star will have the following riders on its roster for next year:

Johan Bruinsma
Cees Jeurissen
Rudie Kemna
Rik Reinerink
Paul van Schalen
Jan van Velzen

New signings:

Wim van de Meulenhof
Lars Teutenberg
Wim Omloop

Norway

Courtesy of Tomas Nilsson

Norwegian plans to form a minor professional team, Vestfold Elite, will not be carried out and the team will dissolve after a major sponsor backed out.

A new attempt will be made for 2001. The riders will split to other Norwegian clubs and two riders, Lennart Slinning and Řyvind Lillehagen are pondering foreign amateur team offers.

Nations rankings - per capita

Courtesy of Skye Legon

Following Tomas Nilsson's nations ranking analysis in yesterday's news (note: HJ&J are safely into division one next year), Skye Legon from Switzerland redid the calculations based on UCI points per capita. Here is the surprising analysis:

Rank  UCI rank   Country       UCI Points  Pop. (Jul 99) Pts/million
1       15	Estonia         1,925.5     1 408 523 	 1,367.0	  
2       6  	Switzerland     7,045.0     7,275,467 	   968.3	  
3       2  	Belgium         9,560.5    10,182,034 	   939.0	  
4       13  	Latvia          2,114.0     2,353,874 	   898.1	  
5       9  	Denmark         4,063.0     5,356,845 	   758.5	  
6       23  	Slovenia        1,081.5     1,970,570 	   548.8	  
7       32  	Luxembourg        231.0       429 080 	   538.4	  
8       4  	Netherlands     7,244.5    15,807,641 	   458.3	  
9       21  	Lithuania       1,314.0     3,584,966 	   366.5	  
10      3  	Spain           8,711.0    39,167,744 	   222.4	  
11      16  	Sweden          1,791.8     8,911,296 	   201.1	  
12      1   	Italy          11,238.0    56,735,130 	   198.1	  
13      20   	Austria         1,468.0     8,139,299 	   180.4	  
14      26   	New Zealand       648.0     3,662,265 	   176.9	  
15      60   	Liechtenstein       5.0        32 057 	   156.0	  
16      25   	Norway            680.8     4,438,547 	   153.4	  
17      11   	Kazakhstan      2 339.5    16,824,825 	   139.1	  
18      5   	France          7 206.5    58,978,172 	   122.2	  
19      22   	Czech Republic  1 248.0    10,280,513 	   121.4	  
20      24   	Portugal        1 043.0     9,918,040 	   105.2	  
21      14   	Australia       1 939.0    18,783,551 	   103.2	  
22      7   	Germany         5 746.3    82,087,361 	    70.0	  
23      12   	Poland          2 258.0    38,608,929 	    58.5	  
24      30   	Slovakia          290.0     5,396,193 	    53.7	  
25      34   	Moldavia          224.5     4,460,838 	    50.3	  
26      33   	Finland           225.0     5,158,372 	    43.6	  
27      17   	Colombia        1 692.0    39,309,422 	    43.0	  
28      40   	Ireland           153.0     3,632,944 	    42.1	  
29      43   	Uruguay           113.0     3,308,523 	    34.2	  
30      19   	Ukraine         1,509.0    49,811,174 	    30.3	  
31      18   	Great Britain   1,542.5    59,113,439 	    26.1	  
32      10   	Russia          3,489.0   146,393,569 	    23.8	  
33      28   	Venezuela         542.0    23,203,466 	    23.4	  
34      48   	Croatia            98.5     4,676,865 	    21.1	  
35      27   	Canada            585.0    31,006,347 	    18.9	  
36      8   	USA             4,475.0   272,639,608 	    16.4	  
37      44   	Hong Kong         112.0     6,847,125 	    16.4	  
38      37   	Yugoslavia        158.0    11,206,847 	    14.1	  
39      39   	Cuba              154.0    11,096,395 	    13.9	  
40      42   	Hungary           114.0    10,186,372 	    11.2	  
41      38   	Chile             155.0    14,973,843 	    10.4	  
42      45   	Zimbabwe          101.0    11,163,160 	     9.0	  
43      56   	Kirghyzstan        39.0     4,546,055 	     8.6	  
44      46   	Burkina Faso       99.0    11,575,898 	     8.6	  
45      51   	Belarus            83.0    10,401,784 	     8.0	  
46      49   	Guatemala          92.0    12,335,580 	     7.5	  
47      29   	South Africa      306.0    43,426,386 	     7.0	  
48      55   	Dominican Republic 47.0     8,129,734 	     5.8	  
49      59   	Trinidad & Tobago   6.0     1,102,096 	     5.4	  
50      46   	Uzbekistan         99.0    24,102,473 	     4.1	  
51      58   	Armenia            13.0     3,409,234 	     3.8	  
52      31   	Egypt             235.0    67,273,906 	     3.5	  
53      35   	Iran              199.0    65,179,752 	     3.1	  
54      52   	Peru               80.0    26,624,582 	     3.0	  
55      53   	Algeria            78.0    31,133,486 	     2.5	  
56      50   	Argentina          86.0    36,737,664 	     2.3	  
57      36   	Mexico            163.0   100,294,036 	     1.6	  
58      57   	Syria              19.0    17,213,871 	     1.1	  
59      61   	Costa Rica          4.0     3,674,490 	     1.1	  
60      41   	Japan             122.0   126,182,077 	     1.0	  
61      61   	Georgia             4.0     5,066,499 	     0.8	  
62      54   	Brazil             51.0   171,853,126 	     0.3