News for February 1, 2000

The European season starts

G.P. d'Ouverture La Marseillaise

By Tomas Nilsson, cyclingnews.com correspondent

Tuesday, February 1 is the starting day for the European cycling season and traditionally the Grand Prix La Marseillaise is the first event at Gardanne north of Marseille, with the finish in Seyne-sur-Mer at the shore of the Mediterranean at Toulon. The distance is only 135.5 kms

Last year's winner, Frank Vandenbroucke (Cofidis) will try to defend his victory with Jo Planckaert (winner 1998) and last year's Etoile de Bessèges winner Daniel Lefevre on his team. They will have to work hard along the road, since sprinters like Jan Svorada, Lampre, Jaan Kirsipuu, AG2R Prévoyance, and young Jimmy Casper, Francaise des Jeux, are in the race. Svorada, who won the event in 1996, has Franco Ballerini on the team this time. French champion Francois Simon and Jean Cyril Robin would probably also like to take the first victory of 2000 for their new team Bonjour - Toupargel. The other new French team, Jean Delatour will also participate with the winner of 1997 Patrice Halgand.

Former world number one, Michele Bartoli (Mapei-Quick Step) from Italy is getting ready to race again after the knee injury he sustained on June 2 last year kept him away from competition for 8 months. He will line up tomorrow in the GP La Marseillaise as well.

Crédit Agricole will have Chris Boardman starting his last season, with promising Norwegian Thor Hushovd who had a convincing pro debut as a stagiaire in Paris-Bourges last fall. Other teams are Italian Alexia Alluminio with Nicola Minali, another good sprinter, Belgian Lotto and Collstrop, French Big Mat Auber with Thierry Bourguignon, 37 years, and also teams from Spain and Poland.

Etoile de Bessèges: A sprinters' stage race

The first European stage race of the season, Etoile de Bessèges, starts the day after and has basically the same field of twenty teams with eight riders in each. It goes from the Marseille area and ends in Bessèges some 200 kms north west of Marseille and is a mix of road stages and circuits and also has a team time trial.

Last year Cofidis' Daniel Lefèvre won and he might very well do it again if maitre Vandenbroucke is content with his race the day before. Even if the area offers a lot of climbs the short distances and easy roads picked usually means a lot of bunch sprints, the only lasting break last year was on the first stage, which Lefèvre won. It's an unwritten rule that the February races shouldn't be too tough on the riders.

Spanish opening

On Sunday, February 6, the Challenge Mallorca will start, consisting of 5 separate races until February 10. Michele Bartoli intends to race here, and it will be an important form getter for his early season classics campaign. He will have the support of some strong teammates in Andrea Tafi, Johan Museeuw, Tom Steels and World Champion, Oscar Freire (who has already won a MTB race this year in Naranco).

The Challenge Mallorca will also see the ONCE riders, Laurent Jalabert and Abraham Olano, Banesto's Alex Zülle and Leonardo Piepoli and Telekom's Eric Zabel. Not Jan Ullrich though, who has trained throughout the the month of January in Mallorca, and is looking for a change of scene. He is heading to the Rapport Tour in South Africa, which starts on February 11.

Thence to Italy

If Mario Cipollini is unable to start in the G.P.Estruschi on the 6th (due to license issuing problems from being part of a foreign team), he will contest the Tour of the Mediterranean, from February 9-13, where David Rebellin, the new leader of the Liquigas-Pata, Richard Virenque and Mirko Celestino, of Polti will also start. After the Tour of the Mediterranean, there will be the first UCI Italian race: the Laigueglia Trophy, where Poalo Savoldelli will ride.

Marco Pantani has decided to return in either the Ruta del Sol (Feb. 13-17) or the Tour of Valencia (Feb. 22-26). The latter race will see the likes of Ivan Gotti, Francisco Casagrande and Lance Armstrong take part. Armstrong intends to debut the day before in the Trofeo Luis Puig, after spending much of the early season training in California in Avila Beach. Next week, he will fly from the US to his house in Nice, France to get settled in again.

The season continues to build in March, with the Paris-Nice and the Tirrenio-Adriatico, before the first classic of the season, Milan San Remo, on March 18.

Team presentation: Alessio-Banca SGM

New Italian second division team, Alessio Banca SGM had their presentation in the elegant surrounds of the Villa Contarini di Piazzola. The team, directed by former Giro d'Italia winner, Franco Chioccioli and assisted by Bruno Cenghialta has 19 riders in its ranks. Alexandre Gontchenkov (Rus) and Nicola Miceli will lead the team, who are sponsored by a rim manufacturer (Alessio) and a bank (SGM). Alessio have pledged their support for 4 years.

The team will debut on February 6 in Donoratico, with the 5th GP Costa degli Etruschi.

Rogers close

Australian World espoir TT silver medallist, Michael Rogers, had an attempt yesterday at the Adelaide superdrome to try ride the Olympic qualifying time for the individual pursuit. Unfortunately, he was two seconds outside the time of 4.26.00, although it was still a personal best for the young Canberra cyclist.

Rogers, who is just 20 years old, will try again in March and is intent on being better prepared, track-wise. He had not ridden on the track for over two years prior to this, and was therefore happy with his ride.

Scanlon leaves

Courtesy of BritProNews

Former World Junior Champion Ireland's Mark Scanlon has left the Rabobank Espoirs team and will ride for French Elite 2 team VC Etupes this season after last year was ruined by injury.

Attention race organisers

As part of cyclingnews increasing service to its readers, we have recently added a means whereby race organisers (of non-UCI races) can enter the full details of their race online, which will then be available as a listings indexed by country, followed by a brief and more detailed description. This is intended to allow our readers to keep in touch with races that are on in their area.

The basic listing service will be free, and we are now asking potential race organisers to submit their details via our event form, and to provide us with any feedback before we go "live" with it. We anticipate this will be by the end of the first week in February.