News for January 25, 2000

Pantani: The natural or what?

By Tim Maloney, cyclingnews.com correspondent

Marco Pantani is still wrestling with his psychological scars from last June 5th...the day he was 86'ed from the '99 Giro d'Italia for high haematocrit. Since then, Pantani has been hounded by Italian legal authorities to testify in a variety of sports doping cases, but finally il Pirata has been able to lay out a winter training program to prepare for the 2000 season.

A recent article in Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport outlined Pantani's "naive" approach to training. Naive in that the 30 year old from Cesenatico does not follow current wisdom in training; he does not use a heart rate monitor nor a SRM Powermeter. In fact, Pantani obtained a SRM last year, but never even mounted it on his bike. Some top riders might say sacrilege, but ever since Pantani was an up and coming amateur, he has been known for his unorthodox, old style training.

In November, Pantani started up his initial preparation for 2000 with 2-3 hour rides 3 times a week, but only easy outings and always on the flats. He also played a bit of soccer with friends and some gym work to get back his muscle tone.

As December rolled around, Marco continued to ride with more frequency and joined his Mercatone Uno-Albacom teammates for a ski outing in Madonna di Campiglo, but bad weather there and at home in Cesenatico on the Adriatic coast limited his riding a bit. The gym work tapers off, and after New Year's, Pantani headed to the Canary Islands for some more intense training.

Despite heavy winds and a touch of food poisoning in the Canary's, Pantani packed in the kilometers on the warm Spanish isles to build his base for the season. The long base sessions, or "fondo" continue to add up through January and February and Pantani is scheduled to make his season debut at the Ruta del Sol in Spain from 22 to 26 February.

Pantani says he does not follow any specific daily program; he does not like the cold and usually only rides a maximum of 3 hours when the weather is bad. When he goes out training, he uses the weather as a guide as to his program. He uses a lower, more agile gear on the flats, but when he hits the climbs, he prefers to use a bigger gear to build strength.

Pantani trains more by instinct where he hopes to feel his condition evolving more than follow a specific training program. When he does want to test himself, he heads back into the hinterlands behind Rimini near his home and goes hard on Monte Fumaiolo - a 7km climb with an average gradient of 7%. But he never times himself and prefers to judge his conditions more by how he feels than any technical means. Sometimes, to build resistance, Pantani will do a long, tough training ride and not drink to build his resistance to thirst.

Some observers believe that Pantani is just bluffing, but cyclingnews has confirmed with good sources that Pantani actually does train as he related in his article, and he is so naturally talented that he doesn't need to follow such a rigid program. Evidently Marco just rides himself into shape via his primary way to challenge himself: go hard on over the top of the climbs.

As the 2000 season progresses, Pantani will focus on two main objectives; getting his revenge at the Giro d'Italia and if all goes well, looking for a spoiler role in the Tour De France in the Armstrong-Ullrich battle to come. And Marco goes hard over enough climbs, a trip to the Tour De France podium may be his ultimate comeback in 2000.

McEwen update

The charges against Farm Frites rider, Robbie McEwen, were no more than a "misunderstanding" according to his team manager, Teun Van Vliet. The cyclist had been charged with assaulting a maid in the Hilton Hotel and indecent behaviour toward her after an alleged incident on Saturday morning, January 22.

However, McEwen's lawyer, Mr Stephen Ey and the police prosecutor, Sr Sgt. Harry Hills had met briefly in court and came to an agreement whereby the charges were dropped. It was not certain whether he had reached a settlement with the maid, and no further comments were offered by the parties concerned.

His team manger, Teun Van Vliet told the press that he didn't think there was any problem. "It's just a big rumor and big problem and everyone blew the whole thing up," he said. He believed that the incident did not take away from McEwen's final stage victory in the Tour Down Under on Sunday.

Telekom unites

Half of the German Telekom team have already had their first taste of racing this year with the Tour Down Under. The team enjoyed some success, with Zabel winning one stage and coming second in another, and Steffen Wesemann getting third overall. The other, "Ullrich" half of the team have been busy training in Mallorca in preparation for the Rappoert Tour in South Africa.

The team will briefly reunite in Berlin on Thursday for their official team presentation. However, Zabel will have little time to take it easy, as he will be at Freiburg University medical hospital on the previous day for a compulsory medical test, before flying to Berlin afterwards. After this Zabel will travel to Mallorca in readiness for his first event on February 6.

However, the season of 35-year old Danish rider, Bjarne Riis will not start yet. He still is having problems with his elbow injury, that happened last June in the Tour de Suisse. He may therefore start in a potential job as a team advisor sooner rather than later. Team spokesman Jürgen Kindervater described him as "the father of our success, and could become our advisor in the future. This would be of particular value for the boys in our team."

Riis has support from Jan Ullrich, who has a common bond with the Dane due to his own knee injury last year. "If this terminates his career, he could surely still help us," he said.

Another potential ex-Telekom rider, Jens Heppner is also suffering from and injury from last year. The 35 year-old is now preparing for his second comeback. Twelve years ago, as an East German amateur, the doctors found a heart disease that forced him to take a year off the bike. Last year he had a severe fall when being hit by a car on a training ride in June. His vertebrae was hurt, and doctors first diagnosed paralyzation, but things were not that bad, although they were bad enough.

The fall had given Heppner epilepsy and he suffered from dizziness and short black outs. Once again it was time to hang up the wheels. However, now while Telekom trains on Mallorca, the 35 year old Tour stage winner is riding with the team again. He takes pills for his epilepsy but can ride the bike as well as ever: "There is a 90 percent chance that I might recover completely, but it could take a couple of years. But if I feel any symptoms during a race I will stop immediately. Then I could introduce myself into another area at Telekom to continue to work," said Heppner on Mallorca.

Jalabert for the Tour?

World number one, Laurent Jalabert has not ruled out participating in this year's Tour de France, according to a report from the ONCE training camp. Neither Jalabert or Olano (who has just turned 30) will be riding the Giro, and the Frenchman thinks that this year might be one of his last chances to win his "home" event.

Last year he was denied to ride in France when he refused to undergo the medical examinations decided by the French cycling Union. This year UCI has adopted the French idea in a modified form so there was little point in staying away from France for Jalabert.

Russian team highs and lows

Courtesy of Liam Collins

The Russian Winter Track Championships were run last week. The big news was the winning time in the team pursuit. It was won in 4.03.7 by the team that won the bronze at last years World's. The temperature outside the stadium was minus 16c (it would have been cold inside the stadium at about 8c - 10c). The Russians are delighted, understandably so under the circumstances, and believe they have a real chance of winning Gold at the Olympics.

The Russian team for this weekend's World cyclocross championships may not make it due to two problems, one being the $250,000 currently owed to the UCI in relation to the collapse of Roslotto, the other being a problem getting visa's.

Skibby OK

Danish veteran Jesper Skibby is reported to be in good shape after his fall during the last stage of the Tour Down Under, where he hit his knee on one of the barriers. Skibby is doing his last season with the Danish Memory Card Jack&Jones team at age 36.