News for February 7, 2000

Pantani loses a battle

Marco Pantani, currently under investigation with regard to his high hematocrit in last year's Giro, amongst other races, lost one of his arguments yesterday. Pantani and his lawyer had claimed that his blood was tampered with, and that the high hematocrit was not his real level. However, a re-analysis ordered by prosecutor Bruno Giardina showed that the blood was indeed his, and was not manipulated. The full results of the test will be known next week.

French back in form

The French riders, who complained long and hard last season that they were the victims of "two levels of cycling" are showing some early season form this year. After Gilles Maignan and Stephane Berges successes in the Tour Down Under, there was Emmanuel Magnien and Jean-Patrick Nazon who won two stages of the Etoile de Besseges. Not bad going at all.

The French have been at the forefront of the anti-doping movement in the last two years, and are hoping that these successes show that the other countries are following suit. 1999 was a bad year for them in terms of results, as they went without a stage win in the Tour, as well as no World Cup victories. This was in addition to the first round of health tests ordered by the FFC, which showed most of the French peloton had dangerously high iron levels.

Somarriba does well in Euskadi six

The Six Hours of Euskadi, won yesterday by Spanish world champions, Isaac Gálvez and Juan Llaneras, also staged an exhibition 3000 m pursuit race between Joane Somarriba (Spa, Alfa Lum) and Diana Ziliute (Lit). Somarriba was the winner of last year's Giro d'Italia and was up against 1999 Le Grand Boucle Feminin winner, Diana Ziliute. She was up to the task, beating Ziliute by nearly two seconds as she rode the 3 km in 3.55.54.

She was very happy to win, since "the Lithuanian is very superior in track, and is used to this type of competition". And she added: "But thanks to the public I have had more supporters than her. The public has taken to me in full and this has been fundamental," she said.

Today, she heads to Italy to do some one day races in preparation for the first round of the World Cup, in Canberra, Australia on March 12.

Castelli passes away

Armando Castelli, famous in the cycling clothing industry, passed away last Friday. He was responsible for clothing many Italian greats, including Coppi, Bobet, Magni, and Anquetil. He was in the business for over 50 years.

Hohenfelder-Concorde news

The German GS III team with a strong Australian component, Hohenfelder-Concorde are getting ready for the season, and will have their official presentation on March 11. The completely new 10 man lineup has three Aussies in its ranks - Nick Gates, Peter Rogers, and Corey Sweet. The team is directed by ex-Telekom rider, Markus Schleicher, who directed the now-defunct Olympia/Die Continentale team last year.

They have some success so far this year in South Africa, with German Rafael Chyla defending his win last year in the "Action Cycles Crown", in Port Elizabeth, as well as winning the sprints competition.

Team Roster

Director: Markus Schleicher
Manager: Ole Ternes

Daniel Aeschlimann (Swi)
James Canevet (Fra)
Rafael Chyla (Ger)
Nick Gates (Aus)
Roman Jördens (Ger)
Alexander Nienaber (Ger)
Daniel Potthoff (Ger)
Peter Rogers (Aus)
Corey Sweet (Aus)
Christian van Dartel (Ger)

Festina does it tough

The past week has been a hard one for the Festina team, as they start their season 2000 campaign. Last week, they suffered a theft of 11 custom team bikes at the Etoiles de Besseges stage race, as well as seeing their co-captain, Christophe Moreau, crash out with a broken collarbone. However, they had some consolation in the final stage, when Andy Flickinger placed third in the sprint.

In the first stage of the Mallorca challenge, their top sprinter, Marcel Wust showed some early season form with a fifth place, behind World Champion, Oscar Freire (Mapei), Eric Zabel (Telekom) and Freire's teammates Paolo Bettini and Stefano Zanini.

Swiss Cyclocross rankings

Beat Wabel is the no 1 ranked Swiss cyclocrosser this season, according to national rankings. Here are all Swiss riders on the list published by Swiss Cycling News:

1 Beat Wabel, GS K2 Pro Flex                786 pts
2 Dieter Runkel, GS Saeco-Wheeler           510
3 Thomas Frischknecht, Team Ritchey         492
4 Roland Schätti, GS Mephisto Romers        476
5 Jan Ramsauer, Toms Bike Center            274
6 Alexandre Moos                            183
7 Beat Blum, GS Saeco-Wheeler               167
8 Matthias Kern, GS Fumo-Weidmann           105
9 Michi Baumgartner, GS Hittnau Luongo Haba  75
10 Thomas Steiger, GS Flatera Uster          70
11 David Rusch, Team Ritchey                 49
12 Beat Morf, MTB Cycletech SAP              47
13 Patrick Blum, GS Saeco-Wheeler            44
14 Samuel Steffen, GS Luongo VC Bützberg     39
15 Stefan Bünter, GS Diamond Back            26
16 Christian Trafelet, GS Mephisto Romers    20
17 Roger Zweifel, GS Athleticum-Alpina       18
18 David Chassot, VC Annemasse-Tesag         15
19 Martin Bichsel, GC Saeco                  14
20 Philipp Kessler, Univega Descente         14
21 Sascha von Arx, GS Nordwest               10
22 Aurélien Clerc,                           10
23 Stephan Gremaud, Team Genève               9
24 Thomas Strebel, Koller Proclient-Kuhn      1 

Special announcement

Many of you may have noticed the extra news item that we have been running for the last few days, asking race organisers and club officials to submit their race details via our race listing form. So far, we have received a great deal of interest in this and have spent some time in addressing user suggestions before we officially launch it. We feel that it is ready in its current form, however we plan to introduce an enhanced listing soon. There are nearly 40 races listed already, from Australia, to Finland to the United States.

The service, which is free to both organisers and riders, is aimed at all races without UCI status i.e. club, state, or even national events. All of the major disciplines are covered - road, track, mountain bike and cyclocross racing. The races are indexed by country, and then in chronological order as a brief listing. Each of the brief titles is hyperlinked to obtain the full race details. The idea is that wherever you are, or wherever you're going, you can find a race on in your area via this online calendar.

This listing service is not intended as a primary race promotion tool, and we have other options if you are interested in promoting your race on cyclingnews. Please try out the service, and tell your club secretary or friendly race organiser about it as we feel it will become an invaluable tool for cyclists around the globe.