News for February 26, 2000

VDB and Museeuw favourites for Het Volk

The Belgian Frank Vandenbroucke (Cofidis) and Johan Museeuw (Mapei) will be the marked men in this year's Belgian season opener, Het Volk starting in Gent today. Last year's winner, Vandenbroucke has showed some early season form in the Spanish races, and will surely be the man to watch at the finish in Lokeren. The 204 km race takes in 11 climbs (both cobbled and non) and 16 paved sections, and it is almost a given that a Belgian will win. In the last 54 editions, Belgians have won 47.

In good shape too, is Jo Planckaert, also of the Cofidis squad, as well as Phillippe Gaumont - both these two with VDB might well form the strongest team in the finale of the race. Then there is last year's Ronde van Vlaanderen winner, Peter van Petegem of the Farm Frites team who is also in good shape this time - he has won Het Volk twice. Andrei Tchmil, the 37 year-old veteran of the Lotto-Adecco squad will have one of his last attempts at the race, but he has the Ronde in his sights this year.

The race will be updated live on cyclingnews, so you won't miss a thing.

Bartoli returns home

The Vuelta a Comunidad Valenciana has seen the withdrawal of several top riders so far, with Pantani and Armstrong abandoning in the last couple of stages. So too did Ruta del Sol stage 2 winner, Michele Bartoli who returned home after stage three of this race after experiencing difficulties with his knee.

The stage that saw World Champion, Oscar Freire win, was too tough for the former world number one, Bartoli and he stopped after 145 km. "The pain in my knee was getting worse and it became unbearable," said Bartoli. "I will go to the doctor when I get home to decide what to to. We will probably have to try and work out some of the calcification, and I will try and stretch it out more. I want to do the Tirrenio-Adriatico, but more importantly the Northern classics."

Saiz and Echávarri on Spanish revival

Manolo Saiz (ONCE) and Jose Miguel Echávarri (Banesto) are two key men in Spanish cycling, being the managers of the two best Spanish squads. They get on with each other, despite their rivalry in the cycling arena, and they are looking to lead Spain into the future.

Talking to Spanish newspaper, El Pais, Saiz and Echávarri believe that cycling must maintain its competitive edge, to keep abreast of the other sports and not to be restricted by federation rules.

Saiz says that "we are looking for quality. We are going to continue having stages of 200 kilometers, races of 290 kilometers and also stages of 100 kilometers. To make it spectacular, it is not necessary to trim the kilometers, but the organisers are more inventive with their routes. Modernity will happen through the cyclists, who need to be lightened of their burdens, through the teams, who must diversify their riders, and through the federations (UCI etc.) and the organisers who are doing things like moving the World Championships from October to September."

Echávarri supports this, stating that "we would like to see all the good riders in these races, so that in most of them we can see the Sampras vs. Agassi of cycling." Whereas before, the best riders would take "refuge" in their country's big national events, now we should see more of a globalisation of cycling. This is in line with the European unification, and cycling should avoid the problems of the European soccer league, because it has only 20 teams.

The new Council of Professional Cycling (CCP) is designed to achieve this, and both Saiz and Echávarri think that it is an important step. "The CCP of the UCI will not satisfy everybody, but it is a first step, I do not know if it's a good one, and I do not know if it's the best one, but it is clear that professional cycling must command itself," said Saiz. He adds that the great cyclists should realise their responsibility to the general public, and take part in a variety of races around Europe and abroad. He cites the example of Miguel Indurain, who was loath to ride the Vuelta, his home tour, much to the dismay of many of his Spanish fans.

Both feel that it is possible to reduce the length of the major tours, without watering them down, as the riders make the race. It is also quite plain that cycling must become less dependent on television to generate income, as this tends to skew the coverage and the nature of racing. The public are certainly enthralled by watching it, but it will be a challenging task to turn this into a more even economic distribution. The race organisers need to make more cash, so that the teams and the riders do.

In terms of the evenness of competition, the two believe that the current setup is OK, despite the obvious disadvantages that second and third division teams face when competing against first division squads in races big or small. A stricter set of regulations may prevent this unevenness - big teams overpowering the small ones in small races. However, it is part of the nature of the sport to have "David and Goliath" battles in the big races, and it gives the smaller teams a chance for greater sponsor exposure if they are successful. Again, it is mainly tied with television coverage.

How is cycling coping with the fallout of 1998? Saiz says to El Pais that "it was a catalytic element, but this restlessness we have been having for quite some time. Our credibility is our own responsibility, and we must transmit this through to the mass media, who in turn show it to the general public."

"I believe that cycling, with all the problems that we've had, is like the rest of society. All the journalists are not honest, all the banks are not honest, and all the lotteries are not honest," he adds, neatly summing up society into three boxes.

Echávarri is of the opinion that cycling is not the most "suspicious" of sports, but it is one which has the best medical controls. "The cyclists are lucky - they are under constant control from day to day, from when they awake until when they sleep. Those that know it are the doctors and they, in conjunction with the directors and riders must maintain the controls," he says.

Obviously, the current testing methods have to be changed, or we will continue to see court cases involving cyclists arguing about what their natural hematocrits are. The new EPO test, which should be finished before the end of this season, will certainly help this as it will be a far more reliable determination of artificial EPO use than the "50 %" rule. The UCI and all the national federations will surely embrace it, as it will save a huge amount of time, money, and bad press.

With just a hint of nationalism, both Saiz and Echávarri believe that currently, Spanish cycling is the cleanest and healthiest, because they believe in "the pursuit, the training and sacrifice of cycling. The Spanish riders last longest in the peloton because of this."

Echávarri maintains that France, with all its controls, has neglected the fundamentals - the education of the riders to be healthy rather than just to win. Spain, he states, has been doing this for the past decade, and the other countries are only now following suit.

Ludwig joins Telekom

The Deutsche Telekom team, that regularly employs people from its own ranks to other roles when they have retired from racing has done it again. This time it is former champion cyclist, Olaf Ludwig who has been signed for the public relations position in the team. Ludwig rode for Telekom between 1993 and 1996, and was the vice-president of the German Cycling Federation for the past three years. He will also manage the junior Telekom squad.

Ludwig was arguably one of the key figures for the rebirth of bicycle racing in Germany, with his successes both on and off the road paving the way for Jan Ullrich's Tour triumph in 1997. He has had to make some sacrifices in his new role, as he will not be able to have influence in the World Championships team selection, or involve himself with the Tour of Germany or the Hamburg world cup. He will start his role on April 1, in time for most of the spring classics.

ZVVZ in trouble

The former co-sponsor of Australia's defunct professional team, led by Heiko Salzwedel, has run into financial problems of their own, according to a report in the "Prague Post". The ZVVZ engineering firm, located in the town of Milevsko employs over 1,300 people, and exports to 20 countries.

The company had nearly $US 700,000 in profits last year, and certainly looks to be a success on the surface. However, they have run into a problem because one of their orders involves sending cooling equipment to Iran for a nuclear power plant. The Western nations, in particular the USA do not support this of course, citing fears of another war in the Gulf.

The Czech government therefore voted to stop the order, making the US happy, but causing a $30 million in ZVVZ's turnover - half their yearly earnings. It is doubtful whether this will be made up from more orders from the West, and the company will be forced to lay off a large number of employees. ZVVZ faces renationalisation by the government (it is currently private), if more orders can't be found to fill the shortfall.

This may have implications for the division II, Wüstenrot-ZVVZ team, who are a Czech based team with one Australian (Alan Iacuone) and two Canadians (Matt Anand and Cszelaw Lukascewicz) on board. Hopefully they won't go the same way as Heiko's squad.

Espoir nationals to New York

USA cycling have announced that this year's espoir (U-23) national road championships will be held in Staten Island, New York. The individual time trial will be held on June 16, while the road race is scheduled for June 18.

Aussie events

Two Australian events in different disciplines will see some top class cyclists in competition this weekend. On the road, there is the inaugural Canberra - Cooma cycle classic, which will see Australian Olympic cyclist and Timex team member, Tracey Gaudry up against several top women's teams who are here preparing for the Tour de Snowy next week, and the Canberra World Cup on March 12. Although several members of the team arrived in Sydney only yesterday morning, they still managed to make it down to Coogee Beach for a photo shoot, before dashing off to Canberra to try and prepare for the first stage of the event today.

The men's race will see many of Australia's top domestic riders compete for a stake of the $10,000 prizemoney. Over 200 riders are expected to start the event which involves a road stage today, and a criterium tomorrow morning in Cooma. The road race will be hard, as it is all uphill, and typically into a headwind.

In other parts of the country - Adelaide and Perth to be specific will be held two rounds of the Qantas Cup, Australia's premier track series. Riders such as Gary Neiwand, Darryn Hill, Jobie Dajka and Ben Kersten will do battle this evening at the Adelaide Superdrome and tomorrow at the Midvale Speed Dome in Perth, for rounds two and three of the series.

Watt well out

Australian cyclist Kathy Watt made an attempt last night at Perth's Midvale Speed Dome to go under the Olympic qualifying time of 3:38 set for the 3,000m pursuit. However, she posted a time well outside this, clocking 3:47, but will try again on Sunday evening.