News for January 5, 2000

Tour Down Under teams arrive

The first major stage race of the 2000 calendar, the 2.3 Tour Down Under (Jan 18-23) has already seen the arrival of several European teams. New first division Danish team, Memory Card-Jack & Jones decided they needed a couple of weeks in the sun to get used to the conditions and flew in on January 3.

The Danish team will be headed by veteran Jesper Skibby, who finished second to Stuart O'Grady last year and will be top contenders for the event this year. They will not have their Sun Tour stage winner, Nicolai Bo Larsen present, but will have several other strong riders in their lineup. They will also be seeking to defend their team title that they won last year.

The other team to take advantage of the sun is the Deutsche Telekom Team, headed by Eric Zabel. Ranked fifth in the end-of-season UCI world standings after scoring 32 wins last year, the German team will be one of the the major teams to beat in the race.

Zabel, 29, who had 10 victories in 1999 also made cycling history when he won the Tour de France’s green jersey for the fourth time after fending off Australia’s Stuart O’Grady.

Zabel will be Telekom’s big hope at the Tour Down Under where he’ll be trying to match or better his two stage wins last year. He will join Kai Hundertmark and Steffen Wesemann, who have been training in Australia since the 4th of December. Other members of the team are: Rolf Aldag, Jan Schaffrath, Gian Matteo Fagnini and Alexandre Vinokourov.

Finally, Polti have named their squad to compete in the tour, although they have not yet arrived in Adelaide yet. Gianluigi Stanga's squad will be composed of: Fabio Sacchi, Enrico Cassani, Mirko Crepaldi, Michele Colleoni, Rossano Brasi, Pascal Hervè, Bart Voskamp and Rafael Perez Mateos.

Riis stays at home

Danish Telekom rider, Bjarne Riis will not be accompanying Zabel in Australia, or even Jan Ullrich in Mallorca. His contract with the team, which ran out on December 31 last year, is still not yet clarified according to team director Walter Godefroot. The Dane is still suffering from a shoulder injury which he sustained in his fall in the passed year. He has not raced since the Tour de Suisse, 1999.

Sörensen out for over a month

Danish rider Rolf Sörensen, who broke his collarbone over a week ago, will be out of competition for over a month, putting his early season plans on hold. The cyclist visited Eemland Hospital in Amersfoort (the Netherlands) on Tuesday for examination of the broken collarbone.

He will be allowed to train on a hometrainer and within 2 weeks he can start training on the road. He will be able to resume competition withing 5 or 6 weeks.

Lisboa Benfica squad

Courtesy of Rui Pinto

The Portuguese Team Sport Lisboa e Benfica squad for 2000 is as follows:

Directeur Sportif: Antonio Bras
Assistent Directeur Sportif: Armindo Lucio

Current riders:

Quintino Rodrigues(Por)
Rui Roque (Por)
Hugo Lucio (Por)
Jorge Silva (Por)
Alberto Amaral (Por)
Luis Sarreira (Por)
Melchor Mauri (Esp)
Oscar Lopez Uriarte (Esp)
José Antonio Garrido (Esp)
Daniel Bayes (Esp)
Fabio Quercioli (Ita)
Joona Laukka (Fin)

New Signings:

Serguei Smetanine (Rus, Vitalicio/Seguros)
Giuseppe Di Fresco (Ita, Selle/Italia)
Marco Madrucci (Ita, neo)

Left the team:

Paulo Ferreira (Por, Barbot/Gondomar)
David Plaza (Esp, Festina)