News for August 6, 2000HEW Cyclassics CupThe sixth round of the World Cup, the HEW Cyclassics Cup, Hamburg looks to be tailor made for Telekom's Erik Zabel to keep his lead in the series, which he leads by 165 points from Andrei Tchmil. Telekom have nominated a strong team of domestiques in addition to Jan Ullrich to help Zabel achieve his goal. Aldag, Elli, Heppner, Schaffrath, Hondo and of course Fagnini will be the ones called upon to score more points for Zabel. Zabel even admitted to being a little more confident for this race, "My chances of gaining a third win in the World Cup are higher in Hamburg than in any of the other remaining races," he told the press. Should it come down to a mass sprint, then riders such as Tom Steels, Jeroen Blijlevens, Marcel Wüst, Markus Zberg, Dario Pieri, Romans Vainsteins or even Jaan Kirsipuu (despite winning today's final stage in Denmark) will all be in with a good chance against Zabel. However, even "flat" World Cups tend to be ridden hard enough to shed the sprinters as many riders put themselves on the line for a day of glory. There are plenty of riders in the field who will be trying for this. The action commences 11:45 Central European Summer Time and you will be able to follow all the action live on cyclingnews.
Mínguez has found a sponsorAlthough the contract has not been signed yet, Vitalicio's Javier Minguez told Spanish press today that he has finalised a sponsor for next year. Both Minguez and Jesus Cerro do not want to reveal the identity of the "multinational company", but they are confident that the negotiations are sufficiently advanced for the deal to be sealed. Minguez said that he will tell his riders who the sponsor is before the Vuelta later this month. The proposed budget is 1 billion pesetas ($US 6.1 million) in order to keep the level of competitiveness that Vitalicio have had in the past few years. Their aim is the first division, and this costs money to buy riders with sufficient points. First division teams are assured starts in the World Cups and have the best chance to start in the Grand Tours. Although a team such as Vitalicio might be successful, this does not mean its future is assured with its sponsors. Often after a few years, they decide that they have received enough exposure through cycling and wish to move on. Exceptions to this are companies like Kelme who have been involved for over 20 years. Minguez has a good deal of loyalty from his riders, many of whom have been offered good contracts for next year. Igor González de Galdeano is one of these - he received an offer from Banesto, but declined to wait and see what Minguez has. As mentioned, the decision will be announced before the Vuelta, a race that Galdeano finished second in last year, and has high hopes for a podium finish this year. Pucinskaite, Somarriba and Luperini favouritesThe women's Tour de France (La Grand Boucle Feminine) commences today with a 7 kilometres prologue team time trial in Milan, Italy. The two week event is the second such national tour for women after the Giro d'Italia in June. The winner of the 1998 editions, Edita Pucinskaite (Alfa Lum) is looking for another victory come August 20. Her teammate, Joane Somarriba recently won the Giro but Edita was not far behind in fourth, after playing a support role to the Spaniard. It will not be easy of course, with the strong Italian GAS team headed by Fabiana Luperini, and Pia Sundstedt looking to challenge. Acca Due O, Edilsavino as well as national Teams from the Netherlands, Australia, USA, Germany, and France all have strong lineups. However, some will not be willing to go all out with the Olympics looming and will be using it as training. The toughest day will probably be August 12 with the stage finishing on top of the Tourmalet in the Pyrenees. In addition, there are subsequent stages on the Massif Central and in the Alps before the riders finish in Paris on August 20. The stages Stage 1a - August 6: Milan, 7 km TTT Sunderland's appeal unsuccessfulAustralia's Scott Sunderland had his Olympic chances completely disappear on Friday after his appeal to be considered for the men's road team was rejected by the Cycling Australia Independent Appeals Tribunal. A disappointed, but not surprised Sunderland said in an open letter to the Australian media that the appeal "was a matter of professional pride, not a way to actually gain selection." "I knew beforehand, even if my appeal was successful, the tribunal could only advise the selectors to review the team respecting the selection criteria. I also was aware of the fact, that, if this was the case, the selectors more than likely would have re-selected their initial team. Such is their right." The three member panel was made up of Geoff Strang (former AIS high performance manager), Deborah Healey (Chair) and Kevin Nichols. The selection committee is comprised of Shayne Bannan (based in Italy), Alex Fulcher and Dave Sanders (both based in Australia). During the hearing, Sunderland gave evidence via telephone from his home in Belgium in between racing commitments. The appeal was actually based on technical grounds, as there are no grounds for an appeal based on discrimination or merit. "The only grounds of appeal were that the Nomination Criteria had not been followed." (Clause 7.1 of the athletes agreement). The technical aspect that Sunderland was appealing was the fact that there was no climber in the team "...the two remaining places must include a sprinter, a hill climber and domestiques". To refresh: the Australian men's road team consists of Nathan O'Neill (TT), Stuart O'Grady, Henk Vogels, Robbie McEwen and Matthew White, with Dave McKenzie and Jamie Drew named as reserves. The team named above does not include a climber, with six of the seven being sprinters or sprinter/rouleurs, and one time trialist (O'Neill). Vogels and White were nominated as fulfilling roles as team climbers. Sunderland is a proven climber (KOM in last year's Bank Classic) and a proven domestique, as well as being the most experience Australian professional in Europe. At last year's World Championships in Verona, he was the last Australian in contention in a very tough race. While the Olympic road course is probably not quite as hard on paper as the World's, there are several aspects of it that suit climbers, especially the technical descent/ascent of Macpherson St/Bronte Rd to be done 13 times. For this reason, other strong cycling countries (Italy, France, USA, Spain, and Germany) have all selected at least one climber, sometimes more than one. Italy, with their preselection of Bartoli, Pantani, Casagrande, Bettini and Di Luca (although Tafi might take Di Luca's spot) have not gone for the heavyweights! However, these aspects were dismissed or not considered by the tribunal, and the sprinters will stay. Getting over the mountains in the Grand Tours does not a climber make (with no disrespect to the others abilities). A one day race tends to be raced differently to a flat stage of a tour and with only five members per team, a chase/sprint leadout will be hard to maintain. That is not to dismiss the chances of Vogels, O'Grady or McEwen but some strong teamwork will be necessary, and Sunderland is well known and respected in Europe for this. September 27 will decide things one way or the other. Despite his non-selection, Sunderland remains positive for the future, concluding his letter "Despite my disappointment over this, I am now focusing fully on the job I have been doing successfully for so many years now and that is to bring wins to my team by ensuring the best rider in the team is properly supported."
De Meulenaere retiresThe famous Belgian cycling guru, Noël De Meulenaere (62) is retiring after a career lasting 27 years. He started in 1973 and was renowned for finding sponsors (most of the time from the Beaulieu Group, where he is the right hand of the founder De Clercq) to form cycling teams, e.g. Palmans, Quick-Step (Mapei). It is said he is retiring because of the coming of the DOMO team, but he denies that. Otxoa honouredKelme's Javier Otxoa has been honored in his hometown of Berango after coming home from a successful Tour de France. He finished second in the mountains classification as well as winning the epic stage to Hautacam, before taking the GP Villafranca Ordizia a week later. The "Hero of Hautacam", as he is known back home has now got a rock after him, the "Otxoa Rock" in Berango. He celebrated the occasion with many family members, relatives, friends and fans and related his glory moments of the Tour. On the Hautacam stage, the intention was to pave the way for attacks by his other teammates, "but when the gap got out to 15 minutes, we thought we had a chance. When I maintained the advantage at the top of the Aubisque and the bottom of Hautacam, I saw that the win was possible. Although 25 year old Otxoa had several offers from other teams next year, he reiterated that he was very happy with Kelme and is looking to sign a contract with them for next year quite soon. He will look forward to an early finish to this season, riding in the Vuelta a Burgos and the Subida a Urkiola next week. Team news: Lampre boostsIn an attempt to strengthen their Classics lineup, Italian team Lampre-Daikin will add to Frenchmen next year: Jacky Durand (Lotto) and Yvon Ledanois (Francaise des Jeux) are two riders who will transfer. In other team news, the new manager of Mapei-Quick Step is now Alvaro Crespi who takes over Patrick Lefevere's job. In addition, Farm Frites have now appointed Eric Van Lancker and Walter Verlee as assistant sporting directors. New riders have been confirmed for the following teams by the UCI: Kiwi Bryce Shapley (Flanders-Prefetex); Australian Russel van Hout to Jamie Drew's old Aguardiente Nectar team; Spaniard Pablo Fernández Perez will join Fuenlabrada; German Enrico Nicolai will go to Agro-Adler, who lose Matthias Jandt, German Jan Bratkowski (ex-Mercury) is now riding for Team Coast; Cologne is losing Jörg Scherf and Dirk Schumann (both German); Alexia-Allumino have signed Italian Christian Auriemma and Ukrainian Vasyl Yakovlev; Polish Mroz-Supradyn have got Pavel Niedzwiecki; Boavista is losing Lithuanian Arturas Trumpauskas, while Barbot-Torrie and Cantanhede are losing José F. Santos Oliviera (Por) and Stefano Panetta (Ita) respectively. Thanks to cycling4all for the information Stangelj suspended for two weeksFormer Slovenian national champion, Gorazd Stangelj has officially been stripped of his title after he was found to have taken ephedrine. He will be given a suspension for two weeks, but it is not yet known whether he will be left out of the Olympic team, as he is one of the country's strongest riders.
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