News for October 21, 1999

Tour de France 2000 - 'balanced and fair'

By Gerard Knapp and reported by cyclingnews.com's Tim Maloney at the presentation

"IT seems like a balanced and fair tour," said Lance Armstrong at the release today of the route for the Tour de France in 2000, the 87th edition of the world's largest bike race.

"I don't want to single out any rivals," said this year's victor, "there's about 10 guys who could probably win. Ullrich, Pantani, Escartin, Olano ... the list is long."

Whomever rides around Paris in the yellow jersey on July 23 next year will have conquered what veteran tour watcher Samuel Abt from the New York Times said "looks like a very tough course. Good for a lot of the climbers".

Indeed, the defining section will be stages 14, 15 and 16, in the French Alps, with the killer stage likely to be stage 14, to be held on July 15. This 249 km nasty takes in three historic climbs on a route which has not been scaled since Fausto Coppi won it in 1949. Leaving Draguignan and finishing at Briancon, it covers the Cols du Allos, Vars and Izoard.

It's then followed by another brute which finishes in Courchevel, with the riders facing 168 km of climbs including the Galibier and Telegraph. Ironically, the peloton will then have a rest day in the mountains, before encountering a 196 km stage from Courchevel to Morzine, tackling the Cols du Columbier, Goux and Plane.

But it's not all suffering for the riders. Armstrong said he was looking forward to the return of the Team Time Trial, which has not been a part of the Tour for several yours. "I used to really like those when I was in Motorola," he told reporters.

This year's Tour also features a longer prologue of 16 km which could see the end for the prologue specialists and the emegence of a more complete time trialist leading the race. How long they remain in yellow will depend on how many bonus seconds the sprinters will earn in the first week. The time trialists will only have one further opportunity to assert themselves next year, as the only one individual time trial is on stage 19, making Tour 2000 a course which is certainly suited to the climbers.

Another distinguishing feature of next year's Tour is the final stage, which commences under the Eiffel Tower in Paris, skirts around the city for 55 km, then heads back for the traditional laps along the Champs-Elysées for the final 80 km. And in the morning before the riders head off on the final day, the organisers are planning to open the Parisian streets - turned into the race course - for the general punters. They expect some 10,000 riders will participate in the community event.

As reported in cyclingnews this Tuesday, the Tour par cours commences in Futuroscope and then heads north to Brittany, before returning back down the centre of France, south to the mountains which border with Spain. Stage 10 will see the peloton hit the Pyrenees for a 205 km stage that will scale the Col du Aubisque and finish at Hautecam, the scene of one of Miguel Indurain's most devastating displays which shattered the bunch, except for Luc LeBlanc and virtually won him the tour.

Another tough stage comes shortly after on stage 12 (July 13), with the Tour leaving Carpentras on a 149 km stage which finishes on the dreaded Mont Ventoux - with the ascent taking the steep route. Overall, the Tour 2000 features the following:
11 flat stages, two middle mountain stages, five high mountain stages, two individual time trials both totalling 75 km, and one team time trial of 69 km.

There are a total of 21 stages covering 3630 km, and the Tour will visit Lausanne in Switzerland (home of the UCI) and then into Germany, with a relatively flat individual time trial on stage 19 from Fribourg to Mulhouse. Given the proximity to his home, we can look forward to a showdown between Jan Ullrich, Armstrong and their key rivals. But there are nine months of training and racing beforehand, and as we saw this year, we should also expect the unexpected.

Stages Tour 2000


1 July prologue ITT Futuroscope, 16 km
2 July  Stage 2, Futuroscope - Loudun, 191 km
3 July  Stage 3, Loudun - Nantes, 170 km
4 July  Stage 4, Team Time Trial Nantes - Saint-Nazaire, 69 km = team tt
5 July  Stage 5, Vannes - Vitré, 198 km
6 July  Stage 6, Vitré - Tours, 197 km
7 July  Stage 7, Tours - Limoges, 192 km
8 July  Stage 8, Limoges - Villeneuve-sur-Lot, 200 km
9 July  Stage 9, Agen - Dax, 182 km
10 July Stage 10, Dax - Lourdes Hautacam, 205 km
11 July Stage 11, Bagnères-de-Bigorre - Revel, 219 km
12 July Restday
13 July 12 Stage 12, Carpentras - Mont Ventoux, 149 km
14 July 13 Stage 13, Avignon - Draguignan, 180 km
15 July 14 Stage 14, Draguignan - Briancon, 249 km
16 July 15 Stage 15, Briancon - Courchevel, 168 km
17 July Restday
18 July 16 Stage 16, Courchevel - Morzine, 196 km
19 July 17 Stage 17, Evian-les-Bains - Lausanne, 155 km
20 July 18 Stage 18, Lausanne - Fribourg-en-Brisgau, 252 km
21 July 19 Stage 19, ITT Fribourg-en-Brisgau - Mulhouse, 59 km
22 July 20 Stage, Belfort - Troyes, 248 km
23 July 21 Stage, Paris - Paris (Champs-Elysées), 135 km

Major Climbs:

10th stage 
Marie-Blanque       1,035 m
Aubisque            1,709 m
Soulor              1,474 m
Hautacam            1,560 m

12th stage 
Murs                  627 m
N-D-des-Abeilles      996 m
Mont Ventoux        1,909 m

14th stage
Canjuers              840 m
Allos               2,250 m
Vars                2,109 m
Izoard              2,361 m

15th stage
Lautaret            2,060 m
Galibier            2,645 m
Telegraphe          1,566 m
Madeleine           2,000 m
Courchevel          2,004 m

16th stage
Saisies             1,650 m
Aravis              1,498 m
de la Colombiere    1,618 m
Chatillon            ,733 m
Joux-Plane          1,700 m

17th stage 
Mosses              1,445 m

Van Eijden goes over

German sprinter and top contender for the sprint title, Jan van Eijden, has been told to take a two-week break by the UCI's vampires after he recorded a hematocrit of over 50% in a blood test.

The 23 year old was one of 21 cyclists to be tested on Wednesday morning and was the second rider to be excluded from the World Championships along with Lithuania's Edita Kubelskiene, who was to contest the women's points race. 32 cyclists were tested on Tuesday, but none recorded a high level.

Since the introduction of testing in 1997, Van Eijden is only the second male to be excluded from a track competition due to hematocrit reasons - the other being Italian pursuit star, Andrea Colinelli back in May. Van Eijden and national coach, Detlef Uibel were both shocked by the result, as 3 weeks ago he had recorded a value of 47% in a controlled test. Other experts are surprised too, as a high hematocrit would not really benefit sprinters who rely on their anaerobic system for energy. The taking of a haemaglobin boosting drug such as EPO would therefore be an pointless, expensive and risky exercise.

Van Eijden's exclusion will hurt the German team's medal hopes in both the sprint and the keirin, where he was due to start. However, their Olympic sprint team will be unaffected, as Van Eijden was not due to start although he is a former gold medallist in this event.

Ciaran Power bio

The Irish contingent of cyclingnews.com readers have been following the Sun Tour with great interest. Shane Stokes, Irish correspondent for Cycling Weekly sent us this short bio on Ciaran Power, who is currently second overall in the race.

Just four days of the Herald Sun Tour remaining, and Irish amateur Ciaran Power is causing a stir amongst the professionals in the 2.4 ranked race. Power has had a run of top ten placings in the race: two second places (stages 8 and 10), two thirds (stages 3 and 6), fifth on stage one, 7th on stage 5 and 6th on stage 7. He is now up to 2nd overall, just 22 seconds behind race leader Michael Blaudzun of the professional Team Jack and Jones squad.

Power is regarded as one of the best prospects in Irish cycling, having won the domestic Tour, the FBD Milk Ras in 1998 and taking stages in the Tour of Egypt and the Tour of Hokkaido this season. The 23 year old has a knack of rising to the occasion when thrown in with professional riders; in the British Prutour earlier this year, he registered 5 top ten placings, including a fifth place on the penultimate stage and finished fourth overall in the points competition. He was also leading non-trade team rider in 17th place.

Power represents part of a resurgence taking place in Irish cycling at present; last year Mark Scanlon won the junior world championships while 25 year old Morgan Fox recently joined the second division Tonissteiner outfit and thus became the first new Irish professional in eleven years. Power is determined to join Fox in the paid ranks next season, and his strong showing in the Sun Tour should certainly bring the talented Irishman to the attention of team managers in the sport.

The lack of competition back home meant that Power trained for this race behind his father's motorbike; next season his father Pat hopes that Ciaran will have enough top-level competition to deem that sort of preparation unneccessary.

Pantani vs Ullrich

With the forthcoming presentation of the complete route of the Tour de France due soon, there is already speculation of a Pantani vs. Ullrich battle. Both were not present at this year's Tour, won by Lance Armstrong, who will also be looking to add another Tour victory to his palmares.

29 year old Pantani, who has not raced since his exlcusion from the Giro in June, is starting his preparation for 2000 now with some mountainbike training. In December, he plans to do altitude training, probably in Bormio where he can train in peace and quiet. He plans to return to competition at the beginning of February in Spain and his first Italian race will be the Classic Milan - San Remo in March.

Although Pantani had no great desire to contest this year's Tour, he is motivated for a match between himself, Ullrich and Armstrong next year, although he considers Ullrich to be the greatest threat. He does not mind the inclusion of the team time trial either, trusting in teammate Massimo Podenzana to drive the team.

Mercatone Uno 2000

Although the team will be without Dimitri Konyshev, Roberto Conti, Massimiliano Napolitano, Marco Fincato and Sergio Barbero, Pantani's blue and yellow boys will be signing some new talent. Massimo Cigana, Daniele De Paoli, (from Amica Chips), Oscar Mason, (from Liquigas) and Spaniard Igor Astarloa will join Marco Pantani, Marco Artunghi, Simone Borgheresi, Ermanno Brignoli, Maurizio Caravaggio, Michele Coppolillo, Fabiano Fontanelli, Riccardo Forconi, Stefano Garzelli, Gianmario Ortenzi, Massimo Podenzana, Marcello Siboni, Marco Velo and Enrico Zaina next year.