News for February 10, 2000

Italian suspensions

The Italian Cycling Union has decided to suspend three high profile team directors, as a result of the current investigation into doping in Italian cycling. Emanuele Bombini (Riso Scotti), Primo Franchini (Refin) and Orlando Maini (Refin) will be suspended for 6 months, it was announced today by the CONI anti-drug commission.

Jalabert happy

World number one, Laurent Jalabert is optimistic about the future of professional cycling. In an interview with the French newspaper, L'Humanité, the ONCE rider said that cycling is enjoying good health, and recovering from the low of 1998. "Many sports are protected from these sort of facts [doping], but it is not necessary to watch in your neighbour's house. I believe that today it is not right to point all the blame at the cyclists. I am satisfied by the turn of the events, I believe that this is a good way to go. Mainly, it is necessary to preserve the integrity of the riders," he said.

"There have been many people, especially at the top level, many people who have taken advantage of the situation to work on improving the image of cycling and to make better policy," said the Frenchman, who wants to participate in the next Tour de France.

Jalabert has explained that its absence in the last edition of the Tour was based on ONCE policy: "There were two team selections made last year that were independent of my desire, which meant that I did not race in France." He will race in the Tour Mediterranean, the Tirreno-Adriatico, the Classic des Alps and the Dauphiné Libere.

Russia appeals to IOC

The Russian cycling federation is currently undergoing a funding problem, as a result of failing to have the money to pay for cyclists salaries when the professional team, Roslotto collapsed. The UCI suspended the federation, meaning that they will not be allowed to send their riders to the Olympic Games (or any other international races) this year.

This has been rather worrisome to the federation chief, Andrei Zakharov, who said today that he would ask IOC president, Juan Antonio Samaranch to put in a few good words for them. The president will arrive tomorrow in Moscow for three days to talk things over.

"He carries a great deal of weight in all international sports and his influence with the president of the International Cycling Union (UCI) Hein Verbruggen is our last hope," said Zakharov to Reuters newsagency.

"The problem is that our federation just doesn't have the money. Besides, we're not responsible for this whole mess in the first place as our federation leadership has changed three times since Roslotto was disbanded," he said.

"In any case, I don't think the athletes, who trained all their lives so they could compete in the Olympics, should be held responsible. If they (UCI) want, they can punish us, the federation officials, not the athletes."

Godefroot criticizes UCI

Telekom's team director, Walter Godefroot has criticised the UCI's time scheduling of the three big Tours. In an interview on Belgian television, he said: "I imagine that the Tour de France remains our soccer world championship, and the Vuelta and the Giro have the status of European Championships."

However, the proximity of the three means that the top riders will find it hard to compete in all (as well as the World's and the Olmypics). One of the reasons why Telekom has not sent a team to the Giro for years. which does with Telekom for years without the Giro.

Ullrich in big deal

Jan Ullrich is highly motivated this year, and is keen to pursue his career on all fronts, not just the racing. The 26 year-old has a merchandising contract involving towels, leisure jackets and a Jan Ullrich bicycle collection. The product range will cover 20 itemsin all, to be finalised within the next month.

"We expect to make two to three million Deutschmarks ($US 1 Million) in the first year of this venture," explained manager Wolfgang Strohband. Together with several partners, they have created the Jan Ullrich Merchandising society. The final contracts were signed at the ISPO International Sport Fair in Munich recently. "All the licensing is in order," said the manager.

They intend that the merchandising will be of good quality, so that Ullrich's name will not suffer, which can be a problem in cases of sportspeople selling their image.

Tirreno-Adriatico teams

Due to popular demand, the organsiers of the Tirreno-Adriatico (starts March 8), have decided to allow four more teams to participate in the race. The event is the traditional lead up to the first of the World Cup races, the Milan - San Remo on March 18. The additional four teams take the total up to 20, being: Amica Chips-Tacconi Sport (Ita), Cantina Tollo (Ita), Credit Agricole (Fra) and the Linda McCartney Racing Team (Gbr).