News for October 12, 1999

Sunderland update

Australia's Scott Sunderland, who rode in the World's road race on Sunday was reasonably happy with his ride, although he would have liked to have made the selection with four laps to go. He was just 100 m off the back over the climb in a group with Frenchman Cedric Vasseur, and they could not rejoin. His lead up to the championships was hampered by a dose of the flu and he was not in top condition. However he is keen to finish the rest of the season and do some racing in Australia before returning to Europe at the end of January next year.

As to the court case (with Cees Priem), it's still going on and will not be finalised anytime soon. He is nearing a decision about his team for next year as well.

Rebellin sore

One of the strongest favourites to abandon in Sunday's World road race championships, Italian rider Davide Rebellin, is still in hospital. He crashed heavily on his left side, fracturing two ribs and may have to have surgery to drain an air pocket on his side. He said he will not be able to rider for at least 20 days, hence his season is finished.

Although he wasn't able to contest the finish, he praised the winner, Oscar Freire Gomez (just in case you've forgotten). "...Freire was strong, he didn't reach the finish in a long breakaway, because he took advantage. He reached the finish with all the favorites. Yesterday could have been the day of discovery of a great talent," commented Rebellin.

Once and Vitalicio Seguros in duel over Freire

By Tomas Nilsson, cyclingnews.com correspondent

ONCE is the main option for next year for the new 23 year-old World Champion Oscar Freire, according to his agent Juan Carlos González Salvador. Freire had an offer from his present team before the World's but had the nerve to wait, a quite profitable wait obviously.

"The economic perspective is less important than the sports. He wants to remain in Spain in a powerful team that can assure him participation in the classics with good support. ONCE is the main alternative if he will be able to ride the classícs ", said González Salvador. Vitalicio Seguros has offered Freire, after the World's, a contract worth around US$700,000. Polti, Saeco and Mapei have also shown interest.

Oscar Freire is something quite unusual for a Spaniard - a classics rider. That means that he can count on full support from his team in the World Cup, no matter which team it is. Spanish entries in the classics have in the last few years, with some exceptions, had the level of "also-running".

The selection of Freire's is almost as sensational as his victory in the World's. He has started only eleven races this year since an operation on a knee injury kept him off the roads until august. But since Olano, Heras, Jiménez, Aitor Osa, Igor González de Galdeano, Escartin and Mikel Zarrabeitia had to say no to the World's, the Spanish management made place for a promising young rider. The World's have never, with the exception of 1995, been much of an affair in Spain.

His victory in Verona was Freire's second pro victory, and here are his career palmares:
1997:
Second in U23 road race World championship
1998:
Victory in Stage 1 of Vuelta a Castilla y León
Second in stage 2 and 6 in Vuelta a Asturias and stage 4a in Vuelta a Castilla y León. Third in Spanish road race championships, Clásica Almería, Circuito de Getxo, stage 3 of Challenge de Mallorca and stage 4a of Vuelta a Murcia
1999:
World road race champion
Second at Trofeo Luis Ocaña
He was ranked 388 in the world until some minutes past four last Sunday afternoon. Now he is heading for a place around 60th.

Ullrich for the Olympics

The Tour, the Vuelta, the Olympics and the World Championships are Jan Ullrich's main goals for next season, according to an interview given to the German news agency TST. That means that he at least is prepared to be one of the great champions of cycling, instead of a rider with only one goal - the Tour de France, on his mind.

This season showed to him the folly of a one-goal ambition. A simple fall in the Tour of Germany and everything was lost. But the comfort of a Vuelta victory and a World's title, and certainly a key role in the road race drama, made his season look respectable. Now he is going to show the world that he wants to be a complete rider.

Mystery men

This year's World Championships contained a few surprises, with Oscar Freire's victory in the road race and Michael Andersson's second place in the ITT. We examined another couple of relatively unknown riders, worth noting for the future.

Latvian rider Raivis Belohvosciks who came 4th in the elite men's ITT, came from Mapei to Lampre this season. He won the TT of the Tour of Germany, a stage that, due to bad weather, didn't count for the GC. He also won stage 6 of the Ronde van de Waalse Regions in 1997. He is 23 years old, had a decent TT as lanterne rouge in the Tour in Metz this year before he retired on the next stage (to Sestrieres). He was ranked number 750th by the UCI before the ITT, now he is 302nd.

25 year-old Eugen Wacker, representing Kyrgyzstan was 12th in the ITT and was a late addition to the field, is a more mysterious person. He was just seconds behind Dekker, Voigt, Zülle and Ekimov in the ITT and ahead of Velo and others. He rode the Cat 2.5 Olympias Ronde earlier this season as a German for the third division team Leonardo/Coast (with Aussies Mark Brindle and Corey Sweet among others) and was 29th on the TT stage. He was unranked on the UCI list. Now he is 668th. He has also done some track racing. Merits: 4th Tour of Tunisia 1997, 28th Olympias Ronde 1999.

Shimano gets the jump on Campag

Following Campagnolo's introduction of 10 speed gearing to their top groupsets next year, Shimano have decided to put the matter to rest for a few years and go to 14 speed.

In a remarkable display of one-upmanship, they've put in a patent for a narrower chain and sprockets, with a spacing of less than 2 mm between each one. The inner sprockets actually follow the slope of the spokes to give extra mounting room. How soon this will make it to our bicycle wheels is not known.

For those interested, you can view the patents for the sprockets and chain. (Links should work now).

Andersson addition

Surprise silver medallist in the ITT, Swedish rider Michael Andersson and his wife had their first baby a few nights ago. He said proudly that it was "Better than the silver medal." It might make training a little more difficult though.

Contracts

Björn Cornelissen (23), winner of the Omloop van de Bommelerwaard in 1998 will turn pro in the year 2000 with the team Tonissteiner Colnago, moving from team Tegeltoko.