Second edition news for January 6, 2000

VDB meets his maker

By Tim Maloney, cyclingnews.com correspondent

Thursday afternoon at 3pm CET should be interesting at Cofidis HQ in Wasquehal, France, when Franky Vandenbroucke has a tete-a-tete meeting scheduled with Francis Migraine, Directeur General of the booming credit-by- telephone firm. VDB will supposedly apologize to Migrane for his confused efforts to break his contract with Cofidis. Both parties are in a pickle - VDB has made a major fool of himself trying to break his contract, while Migraine realizes that his expensive team and his investment in cycling is based around Vandenbroucke. As reported yesterday in cyclingnews, without the super talented Belgian as leader, Cofidis' cycling squad is almost kaput. VDB is expected to make am ends with Migrane and honor his contract, which runs through 2000.

Specialized to supply Festina

Courtesy of Lance Bohlen

Putting an end to months of speculation by the cycling press on three continents, Specialized Founder and Chairman Mike Sinyard announced today that his company will supply the Festina cycling team with a broad range of products, from bicycles and helmets to bottles and cages, computers, and Body Geometry saddles for the 2000 and 2001 racing seasons.

The announcement comes after a highly successful year by their MTB racing team, Mt Dew/Specialized, who won a World Championship and finished second overall in the 1999 World Cup rankings. Festina will ride customized S-Works M4 handbuilt road frames, with new technologies being utilised to create a superlight edition, a time trial version, and a "secret weapon" to be unveiled after the Tour de France has begun, pending UCI approval of course.

Festina's revamped 25 rider team spans seven countries - Germany, Australia, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, and the USA, with one of the youngest average ages in the peloton. Stars include German sprinter Marcel Wüst, French time-trial specialist Christophe Moreau, and Spanish standouts Angel Casero and David Plaza. Casero and Moreau will be the main GC riders for the team. Other notables include the freshly-signed young American, David Clinger, a rider marked by many as a rising star in the European peloton.

The team's provisional 2000 schedule includes all major tours including the Giro, Vuelta and Tour, as well as all the World Cup events. Festina also intends riding the Sea Otter Classic and First Union series (formerly Core States)/US PRO Championship in the USA.

Sciandri in the sun

Courtesy of Nathan Rand

Following the popular trend amongst several Euro pros, a certain ex-La Francaise des Jeux rider was seen out training in Malibu, California recently. The helmetless goatee clad cyclist was riding a yellow Principia bike, newly acquired from his Linda McCartney team, clearly in pursuit of a tan before the season hits.

Schwinn-Toyota 2000

The Schwinn-Toyota mountain bike team have announned their lineup for this year, with the return of Dave Cullinan, Elke Brutsaert, Shaums March and Jeff Lenosky.

They will be joined by U.S. dual slalom champion, Leigh Donovan, as well as her partner and mechanic Craig Glaspell.

Armstrong denys doping (again)

Lance Armstrong is seeking to quell the doubts once again that his win in the Tour de France last year was achieved cleanly. The American cyclist will do this in a fairly modest fashion, by broadcasting an ad during the Superbowl on January 30. The commercial has already been aired during the "Sugar Bowl", the college version of the Super Bowl. It shows Armstrong being blood tested, in the wind tunnel, training, all with his voice in the background, ending with, "what am I on? I'm on my bike 6 hours a day, busting my ass, what are you on?"

His recovery from testicular cancer to win the world's greatest cycling event will undoubtably go down as one of the great comebacks in life and sport. However, as he never tired of telling the press, he had nothing to prove by winning the Tour on drugs after surviving cancer.