News for October 5, 1999

Ullrich using chemicals - on the tires

By Tomas Nilsson, cyclingnews.com correspondent

Jan Ullrich will race on a special high tech tires on the ITT Wednesday. The tire manufacturer Continental's development department has come up with a new set of tires. They are prepared with a special thinning liquid which is supposed to lower the rolling friction by 30 to 40 percent.

"This could mean a couple of seconds per kilometer", said Continental manager Michael Marx, who was track world champion in 1983.

The engineers of Continental will come to Treviso to prepare the tires by hand, a process that will take a couple of hours. The disadvantage is a shorter life span, but they should probably hold together over the 50 kms of the World Championships. The tires were tested in the Vuelta recently and seemed to work as Ullrich won.

De Jongh OK

TVM rider Steven de Jongh has no problems anymore with his 'third ball', which caused him to pull out of the Giro di Lucca on the weekend. He is now down to start in the road-race for the Dutch squad in Italy.

Spanish hit hard

In addition to being without Abraham Olano for the World's, the Spanish team for the world championships, have also lost Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano and Roberto Heras to injury. The Vuelta certainly took it's toll on the Spanish!

The Spanish National Selector almost didn’t choose Manuel Beltrán, who was seventh at la Vuelta, because he was the guest of honor at the parties in his native city. Also Santi Blanco, the Spanish cyclist in the best form, wouldn’t be in the team, if it wasn’t for the fall and broken collarbone of Aitor Osa.

Traditionally, the Worlds and the great classics have been pretty much ignored by the Spaniards with one exception. In 1995, Miguel Induráin and his team got serious in Colombia and the road race win went to Abraham Olano, while Big Mig won the TT. Olano has featured in two World ITTs, placing first and second in '98 and '95, respectively.

Sport directors such as ONCE’s Manolo Saiz refuse to pay any attention to it. He claims that he will have nothing to do with a race that won’t allow Laurent Jalabert to ride.

So don't expect to see a hell of a lot of fireworks from the Spanish.

Two new for Cologne

The German second division squad "Team Cologne" has signed two German riders. Martin Müller, age 25, from Agro Adler and 22 year-old neo pro Stefan Kupfernagel (brother of Hanka). Müller's job will be to lead out the sprints while Kupfernagel is a fairly complete rider who will be given the opportunity to "ripen his talents" according to manager Dieter Koslar.

The team have already signed Bert Hiemstra from Rabobank, Søren Petersen, (Acceptcard) and promising South African, Kosie Loubser. On the team for next year are also: Raymond Meijs (captain), Erwin Thys, Michael Schlickau, Bert Grabsch and Michael van der Wolf.

German Team Nürnberger aims high

Team Continentale riders Heinrich Trumheller and Russian Artour Baibatsev are going to German Team Nürnberger in the coming season. With Holöger Sievers from Hohenfelder-Concorde and Thorsten Wilhelms of team Greese they will strengthen the team with their overall skills.

The 28 year-old Trumheller, born in Russia, won the German pro championships as early as 1992 but has not lived up to expectations although he did ride the 1995 season for Telekom.

Baibatsev, 28, won a stage in Poitou Charentes in the Grand Prix Soissons this year and was recently third in the Rheinland Pfalz Rundfahrt. The team has also signed swiss Christoph Göhring of Ericsson-Villigier, fourth in the Swiss Championships this year.

"We have strengthened our cadre. If our riders live up to our expectations we will really be able to put up some good performances next season", said sports director Uwe Raab, amateur World Champion in 1983 for the DDR

The team for next year will be:

Bert Dietz (captain) Raphael Schweda, Jens Zemke (four times German mountain champion and recent Tour of Hessen winner), Jörn Reuß (winner of Sachsen-Tour), sprinter Jürgen Werner, Swiss Roland Müller, Alex Kastenhuber and the five new signings, Holger Sievers, Thorsten Wilhelms, Artour Babaitsev, Heinrich Trumheller and Christoph Göring

"We are negotiating with Klaus Diewald and want also to sign some younger neo-pros", said Udo Sprenger who will lead the team with Uwe Raab and Dieter Burkhardt.

Nobody rides like an Irishman

25 year-old Irish rider Morgan Fox has signed for Belgian Tönissteiner Colnago, where he is currently serving as a stagiaire. He will also participate in the Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic (Oct 9th ) and the Herald Sun Tour in Australia (Oct 14-24) for the Irish national team.

The team will comprise: Ciaran Power, Michael McNena, Morgan Fox, Dermot Finnegan, and Eugene Moriarty