News for August 29, 200055th Vuelta a España newsZülle happyAfter he took the lead in the opening stage of the Vuelta, Swiss rider Alex Zülle has looked in no danger of losing it so far, after the first couple of stages have ended in bunch sprints, with more to come. His closest rival is Abraham Olano (ONCE) at two seconds, and Zülle knows perfectly well that there is a lot of work to come if he is to win the Vuelta for the third time. However, he is enjoying his time in the golden jersey, "I think that it is something very nice for me to maintain the leadership of the Vuelta a España. I am very satisfied," he said after today's finish in Valdepeñas. He added that he would like to keep it tomorrow, but it would depend on whether his closest rivals chose to contest the sprint or not. Following the form of the past two days, that seems unlikely.
More commentsToday's stage was, at 198.4 kilometres, the longest of the entire Vuelta and made for some lacklustre racing in the heat. The Fuenlabrada team were the bad luck story of the day, with three of their riders suffering from food poisoning and another three having to nurse them to the finish, almost half an hour behind. Juan Antonio Flecha was one of those afflicted, and said he "could hardly hold himself up on the bike" at the end. Kelme's Roberto Heras and Vitalicio's Alvaro Gonzalez de Galdeano commented that the stage was hard enough but at least the pace wasn't furious until the finish. Contrast that to the Tour, when there seems to be only one pace in the first week, and that's flat out. However, the Vuelta will get tough in a short while, with the first mountain finish on stage 5 to Xorret del Catí.
Vuelta too much for Sydney?A leading contender in this year's Vuelta is Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (Vitalicio) who is currently 6th overall at 28 seconds. He is the team's leader and is looking forward to the mountain stages, where he hopes to take time out of Zülle and co. in quest for glory. He commented to European Press after today's stage that many of the riders will not be going to their limits if they wish to to well in the Olympic Road Race and Time Trial in Sydney. He is not on the Spanish Olympic team, and neither is his brother so we can expect some fireworks from them in the following weeks. However, favourites such as Jan Ullrich, Alex Zülle and Abraham Olano are all members of their respective Olympic teams, and this could change the tactics of this race. Galdeano has not ruled out Ullrich as a contender for the Vuelta, but did comment that he looked a little "overdone" in the first stage where he finished 20th. Zülle on the other hand was holding nothing back and may have his priorities set differently to the German.
Death in the VueltaSpaniard Angel Sanchez Zaragoza was killed before today's stage in Montoro when his vehicle left the road. Zaragoza, a former cyclist and a worker involved in rubbish removal on the race was travelling in his pick-up truck on the roads near the start of the stage. At approximately 11:00 am, he lost control of his car when negotiating a curve and went off into the three metre deep left embankment. He was crushed by his car and died instantly. The organisers of the Vuelta held a minute's silence before the stage.
EPO test given final approvalThe International Olympic Committee (IOC) have given their final stamp of approval for the combined blood-urine test that will be used to detect EPO in the Olympic Games in Sydney. Both tests received clearance from the IOC medical committee earlier this month to be used in Sydney, but a juridical panel was also required to approve it. They did so on Monday, opening the way for the test to be used on athletes in Sydney. The combined test has been developed by the AIS/ASDTL/AGAL in Australia and the laboratory of Châtenay-Malabry in France with international collaboration. The effectiveness of the tests has been reported in these pages previously - the cheaper blood test will be used as a screen, while the shorter acting urine test will only be utilised if any athletes are "positive" to the blood test. For an athlete to be disqualified for doping, both the blood and the urine test are required to be positive. The IOC plans 300 tests for EPO commencing September 2 and these will be conducted in the athletes' village in Sydney prior to the opening ceremony on September 15. Given this the IOC and SOCOG (the Sydney Olympic organising committee) should be pleased to call these Games the cleanest ever. However, the results of the blood tests alone would make interesting reading.
More on Armstrong/GP Eddy MerckxAfter his win in Sunday's GP Eddy Merckx, Lance Armstrong and teammate Slava Ekimov congratulated each other with three high fives and a clap kiss. Normally, the GP Eddy Merckx is a race with differences of seconds, but this time the two had more than 2 minutes. Second placed Chris Boardman said afterwards, "I've been a pro for eight years and this was the third time somebody caught me in a time trial. So it was a great show by Lance and Slava." Organiser Eddy Merckx commented that "I know Lance very well, he is a friend. I was glad he wanted to start here. But when he arrived on Saturday I knew he wanted more, he wanted to win. And that gave me much more pleasure. Sunday morning he was already on the parcours around 9:00, he was highly motivated. And they proved that with the time they rode." Armstrong credited his Russian companion as well, "Ekimov was the ideal partner to ride a perfect race. And I wanted to ride a perfect race, as a tribute to Eddy Merckx. He has given me advice so many times on how to ride difficult races and how to manage in certain Tour stages. With the support of Ekimov I could achieve this result. I really needed him, because I feel that after the Tour I stayed too long off the bike. It's amazing to see how fast your body shuts down, how fast you lose your condition."
Boardman's last hourBritish cyclist, Chris Boardman wants to leave cycling this year on a high note by breaking the World hour record in October at Manchester, the place where he set the current mark of 56.375 kilometres. However, he doesn't expect that he'll reach that distance, as he will be riding on a conventional bike (drop bars, no discs, diamond frame) a la Eddy Merckx, The current record for that type of machine is held by the great Eddy Merckx, who set it back in 1972 before the obsession with new machinery (and positions) took over. The UCI have agreed to set the mark back to this level, with Boardman's 56+ km distance being called the "absolute hour record". The distance to beat is 49.431 kilometres and Boardman will attempt it on October 27. It will be the last race in his career and is scheduled for the middle of the World Track Championships in Manchester.
Dekker restsDue to his 'third ball', Erik Dekker will take some rest in the coming week. He has had to pull out of his scheduled start in the the Delta Ronde van Midden-Zeeland next Saturday, and he doesn't yet know what effect it will have on his Olympics. His only race before the Olympics will be the GP Fourmies in France. "It is like half a ping-pong ball. On Sunday it opened up - that can be good, but painful too."
Marcel Wüst updateThe recovery is going slowly but surely for German Marcel Wüst, who is currently in Cologne hospital recovering for a third operation and it is anticipated that he'll be out within 10-12 days. He sent in the following update on his condition: Hello friends, I'm still in hospital and recovering from my 3rd operation. After getting my eye fixed twice the doctor put my broken bones around my eye back in place. It was a very long and difficult operation, which took 6 hrs. I look nearly brand new, but the pain shows me there must be still something. There will be another operation in December, before we go on vacation to OZ. Thanks for all the support and nice mails over the last couple of weeks. I will keep you updated Marcel If you wish to send in messages of support for Marcel, please address them to cyclingnews@knapp.com.au Russian Road/MTB teamAfter they finalised their track team, the Russian federation announced their teams for the road and MTB competitions in Sydney. There were no real surprises in the MTB team, with Alla Epifanova and Pavel Tcherkassov being the women's and men's competitors respectively. These two have been dominant on the US circuit, and also performed well at World Cup level. The road team is extremely experienced, with Ekimov, Tonkov, Ivanov and Konyshev all very capable riders. They will be joined by young Russian time trial champion, Eugeny Petrov who will be riding in that event. The women's team will have Zulfia Zabirova and Svetlana Bubnenkova riding both the road race and time trial, while Olga Sljusareva will just contest the road. Mountain Bike Alla Epifanova (Volvo Cannonade) Road Viatcheslav Ekimov (US Postal Service - TT, RR) Olga Sljusareva (Acca Due O - RR) Chiotti to Frischknecht - the official handing overAlthough former World MTB champion, Jerome Chiotti handed his jersey and medal to Swiss rider, Thomas Frischknecht a number of weeks ago, the UCI will hold a formal ceremony for the winners this coming Sunday. The awards will be made in Lausanne as part of the 100 year anniversary celebrations of the UCI: Frischknecht will receive the gold medal, Rune Hoydahl (Nor) the silver and Jubert Pallhuber (Ita) the bronze. Chiotti won the World's in 1996 in Cairns, Australia but since admitted to using EPO and volunteered his medal and jersey to Frischknecht before the UCI officially took the title from him. |