News for December 2, 2000UCI want destruction of urine samplesFrench Sports ministry says 'non!' By Jeff Jones Despite an earlier assurance that they would not, the international governing body for cycling (UCI) have again stated their desire to destroy the frozen urine samples that were taken during the Tour de France. In a recent letter to French Sports Minister Marie-George Buffet, UCI President Hein Verbruggen requested the samples' destruction, given that the IOC had not yet validated the stand alone EPO urine test, and that Verbruggen had doubts about how long they could be frozen for. He was met with a stern and fast "no" from all parties, in particular Marie-George Buffet. A spokesman for the department, Christian Garcia said today that "We remain in a firm position. These samples will not be destroyed. The regulations of the UCI are not law. Here, the French law applies and no other. We are not testing the samples in order to hand out penalties; we are analysing them for scientific reasons." He added that he was "surprised" at the UCI's "eagerness" to want to destroy the samples, and that he believed that they were taking a backward step. "It is ambiguous because everyone says that the Tour 2000 was clean," said Mr Garcia. It seems highly probable therefore that whatever the outcome of the analyses, the results of the 2000 Tour de France will stand as is, and there will be no penalties handed out by the UCI (or even names) if any of the samples somehow do give a positive result for EPO. For the UCI to request the samples' destruction raises suspicions of a cover up (of course!), although Mr Verbruggen gave his reasons. Even analysing them for scientific purposes, with the aim of mapping EPO use in the Tour, would still serve to feed suspicions if the names were released. No one would be declared "positive" but careers and reputations could still be damaged. According to the director of the French Anti-Doping Laboratory, Jacques de Ceaurriz, the frozen samples have not deteriorated. "We would not have committed ourselves to testing unless we had taken precautions. We have experience in testing the life of these samples and can say that they are still valid," he said to AP. "The interest is to draw up a map of the Tour de France, to gain an objective view of the use of EPO in the Tour rather than just rumours, while respecting the anonymity of the samples," said Mr de Ceaurriz. "This information of a unilateral desire to destroy the samples astonishes me, because there will soon be a meeting between the Ministry of Sport and the Council of Prevention and Fight Against Doping." Prior to this, a UCI delegation will come to Paris on Monday, December 4 for a meeting with the Minister. The current status of the EPO test is that the IOC have validated it only as a dual blood-urine test developed in Australian and French laboratories. During the Olympics, the blood test was used to screen for EPO use, while the urine test was (in theory) used to confirm a positive test, although it was often carried out in the first instance. No tests resulted in an athlete being declared positive, either because Sydney's Games was the cleanest yet or because no-one was stupid enough to inject EPO two days before they were likely to be tested. It is possible that by April 2001 the IOC will validate the urine test as a stand alone procedure, given the extra expense of testing blood samples. One problem is that only a few IOC accredited labs are able to carry out the dual analyses, so there are often extra transportation costs involved. If it is eventually validated by the IOC (and the UCI), the stand alone urine test should be effective during the early part of the season, especially 3-4 weeks before a major tour, the minimum length of time it takes for EPO to work. Another important step forward would be for the 'off-model' version of the blood test to be validated as a stand alone test. This can detect EPO use for approximately 4 weeks, therefore having a far greater cost effectiveness than the urine test. However, this wasn't even validated for the Olympics and will require more lobbying to the relevant sports governing bodies.
New monument to CasartelliFabio Casartelli, the 1992 Olympic road race champion who succumbed to fatal head injuries after a crash in the 1995 Tour de France, is to be honoured on Sunday with the unveiling of a statue in his home town of Albese, near Lake Como, Italy.The unveiling will be attended by Casartelli's family, including his widow Annalise, son Marco and his parents, along with many significant Italian cyclists: Francisco Moser, Fiorenzo Magni, Antonella Bellutti, Alessandra Cappellotto, David Rebellin and Telekom professional Alberto Elli. Elli will auction a Telekom jersey signed by Ullrich and Zabel, with the proceeds going to humanitarian causes. The sculpture is the work of Bruno Luzzani, who also created the existing monument to Casartelli, 'Volo di Luce' that stands on the descent of the Portet d'Aspet where Casartelli fell.
Gerolsteiner won't take part in "Tour de France hysteria"In an interview with German website, Radsport-news.com, Stephan Goebel, marketing director of mineral water manufacturer Gerolstein, said the Tour was not a short-term aim for the team, and also discussed policy on doping, the team's increased budget and emphasised that the team had dropped 'team' from its name and was now known simply as 'Gerolsteiner'. Gerolsteiner is currently in Stuttgart for its first team meeting in preparation for the 2001 season. Asked whether the Tour de France was a goal for the division II team, Goebel said that Gerolsteiner was not taking part in "Tour hysteria". "We wouldn't have anything against it, and perhaps it will happen in a few years, but we are concentrating on, for example, the Tour de Suisse and the Tour de l'Avenir. In football, not everyone plays in the champions league." On the inevitable subject of doping, Goebel said team policy was that any rider found doping would be instantly dismissed from the team, but he felt the publicity around doping had not harmed the value of cycling to his company. "So far, for us, there have been no negative effects. Cycle racing is presently in a clearing up phase and it's clear that gossip is not good for the sport. I am convinced that our riders are clean," he said. Goebel added that the company had the right to terminate its contract in the event of many team riders being caught doping, but he could not imagine such a mass doping scenario. "Also, EPO is not exactly cheap," he added. Goebel said that his company was extremely happy with the sponsorship situation, and that mineral water and cycling was a perfect marketing match. Gerolsteiner had doubled its budget for the team for 2001 and the new contract would run until the end of 2002. While it was premature to talk about a commitment beyond that, Goebel said the company's market research showed that consumers reacted favourably to the link with cycling, and that cycle racing in general was on an upward trend in Germany. Asked if he could make one change to international cycle racing, Goebel said he'd abolish the GS-I and GS-II designations (first and second division teams). "As a sponsor, you read your team described as 'the second class team Gerolsteiner' and you wince. The mainstream media does not understand this designation - why do we need it? You could easily just have a world team ranking from number one down. The top 16 or 20 teams would still qualify for the top races. This separation into first and second division is harmful for our sponsors."
Still no team for Virenque and HerveAlthough there will be nine French teams in division I and II next year, there appears to be no room left for Richard Virenque and Pascal Herve, who recently confessed to doping use during the Festina trial. The pair have yet to be sanctioned, and it is expected that the Swiss Federation will make a decision mid-December about Virenque's fate. In addition, the verdict of the Festina trial should be known by mid- to late December, although it is expected that Virenque will not receive a prison sentence for this. In division I, Festina and Cofidis are the only two sure teams, while division II will likely contain Bonjour, AG2R-Prevoyance, La Française des Jeux, Jean Delatour, Crédit Agricole, Bigmat-Auber 93 and St-Quentin Oktos.
Confirmations for The Team Formerly Known as MemorycardWhile Bjarne Riis has still to reveal the identity of TTFKAM's new sponsor, he has announced that Laurent's brother Nicolas Jalabert will certainly join the team, along with Olivier Asmaker and Raphael Jeune. Team Coast 2001The new German division I team, Coast-Wattenscheid have not got their new Colnago C40's yet, but are still ready to roll for the next season. They will meet for three weeks in Italy (December 4-21) for a training camp, then go to Mexico over Christmas for more training. The official team presentation will take place in Essen, Germany on February 1. Team Roster Stefan Adamsson (Swe)
US Postal initiates new signingsNew US Postal signings Roberto Heras, Chechu Rubiera, Víctor Hugo Peona and Stephan Barthe, will travel to Austin Texas next week to meet their new team-mates and begin riding and training with the squad.Although US Postal's first official get-together is not scheduled until the end of January in Alicante, US Postal's directeur sportif Johan Bruyneel wants to reunite his team early so that the new members can learn how the team works and make a start on their training.
Euskaltel starts trainingNew division I starter next season, Euskaltel-Euskadi, have already started training their new recruits, in particular top signing David Etxebarria (from ONCE) and neo-pro's Iñaki Isasi, Gorka González and Iñigo Landaluce. The four conducted a mini training camp around the Euskadi Foundation's School of Cycling in Derio this week. However, the full 25 man squad will not meet until January next year, when they will meet in Calpe, Alicante for their official presentation between January 20-25. Marsal goes to CanadaFormer Edil Savino rider, Catherine Marsal will not be joining her friend Séverine Desbouys in the Italian Gas Sport Team. Marsal will instead be joining the Canadian Inter-Sport team in 2001
Netherlands National championship datesDates have been announced for 2001's Dutch national championships, with the mountain bike, road and time trial events spaced at roughly six week intervals through the summer. The championships kick off in the dirt with the mountain bike event at Groesbeek on June 9 and 10. No venue has yet been announced for the road championships, but the date has been set for June 30 and July 1, and the national championship time trial will be in Dronten on August 15. Irish Cyclo Cross ChampionshipsThe Apollo Cycling Team will play host to the 2000 Irish Cyclo Cross Championships at Lurgan Park, County Armagh on Saturday December 2. Irish Pro Robin Seymour (Helly Hanson-Giant) attempts to take home his record 10th title in as many years, an astounding feat for the Dubliner who isn't yet 30 years old. Having ridden the MTB cross country at the Olympics in Sydney and finishing 3rd in a recent cyclo-cross event in America, Seymour is still in great shape and looks set to take the Irish Championship yet again unchallenged. His only worry is possibly Don Travers (Banbridge CC) who last week took the overall honours in the Northern Ireland Cyclo Cross Series, and is also in the best form of his life. Last year's 3rd place Aiden McDonald (Apollo CT) looks set to miss the race due to a back problem sustained from mountain biking during the Summer, leaving the way for some new faces in the top 5. Andy Layhe, also from Apollo CT hopes to do well. The former British Junior National Trophy winner and World Junior Championship rider, now living in Ireland hopes to recover some of his old form to make the top 5.
Cycle Instead Criterium Series, PerthThe 2000 Cycle Instead Criterium Series is a series of four races and one charity ride held in Perth, Western Australia over the coming week. Always a popular event, it can be considered the start of the Australian summer season, which includes races such as the Bay Series, Mt Buller Cup, Melbourne to Sorrento, Australian Open Championships, and the Tour Down Under, which finishes on January 21. It is expected that a field of approximately 70 riders will participate in the Perth Criterium series, including some top Australian and international riders. Olympic Gold Medallist and six day star, Brett Aitken is one of those, although he will not be able to make the first race this evening due to commitments in Zurich. Other riders include Australian criterium champion, Brent Dawson, Melbourne to Warrnambool winner, Hilton Clarke, UK expat Dan Smith, Australian road champion Jamie Drew, his Mercury teammate, Baden Cooke, Australian points race champion and best Aussie in the Bank Classic, Scott Suckling, Caravello powerhouse Steve Williams and the team's gun sprinter, Anthony Spurgeon, more local heroes Hilton McMurdo and Eddy Hollands, dual Bank Classic stage winner, Ben Brooks, and of course Stuart O'Grady whose palmares are vast. The first race in the series in the Colli Criterium Classic, held in the heart of the southern suburb of Armadale this evening (December 2) at 6:30 pm. It is always a great spectacle and is a great family day out as racing is preceded by many novelty events, arts and crafts stalls and then followed by a terrific fireworks display. Racing Schedule December 2: Colli Classic Cycle Instead Race, Armadale, 6.30pm Also see cyclingnews.com's race listing, and the official website. |