News for July 14, 2000

Mapei comings and goings

Italian team Mapei-Quick Step are undergoing a little 'restructuring' in 2001, losing several of their top riders to Domo, signing a new team manager or two, three new stagiaires (Michael Rogers, Pavel Zerzan, Fabian Cancellara), and moving more towards their Italian roots. The decision to leave by long time team manager, Patrick Lefevere caused the biggest shakeup, and it might be sooner rather than later.

A report in Belgian newspaper, De Standaard, states that Lefevere will leave Mapei at the end of the Tour de France, as he believes that the combination of running the number 1 cycling team in the world and building a new (top-10 or so) cycling team is becoming too hard. He had said earlier this year that he would continue until the end of the season, but during the Tour, serving two masters was becoming too difficult, so he'll just concentrate on forming the new Domo team from now on.

His wife will still run Mapei's administration, hoping that the Italian personal can take it over as soon as possible. He will occasionally give some advice to Mapei when necessary, but most of his time will go to the further buildup of the Domo team for next year.

That buildup is going quite well. He has talked to Peter Van Petegem, who's training in Sankt-Moritz in Switzerland at the moment. They haven't reached an agreement yet, but as soon as Van Petegem returns, they'll negotiate again.

He still has to find a second sponsor though. He already has Domo as his main sponsor and Latexco as the third sponsor (Latexco may become second sponsor, if he doesn't find one), but he'll need a second sponsor if he wants to get the budget he's aiming at (about $US 5.2 million), which is about the half of what he had to work with this year.

Courtesy of Joris Vertstappen

Team news

Rabobank's Maarten den Bakker has signed for another year with his home team. Stalwart Belgian division II team, Collstrop, will continue next year with Marc Streel, Geert Omloop, Hans de Meester and Tony Bracke. Meanwhile, Palmans-Ideal may lose Hendrik van Dijck to the Lotto-Adecco squad, although this is in the negotiation phase only. Finally, Belgian rider Björn Rondelez will start next year with division II Spar-OKI

Despite their non-start in this year's Tour de France, French team Jean-Delatour will persevere next season, with Samuel Plouhinec confirming his place. In Portuguese third division team news, Barbot-Torrie has signed Australian Luke Weir and Antonio E. Perez (Spa), while Cantanhede is bringing on board neo's Francisco J. Castillo Gago (Spa), David Garcia Da Penha (Spa) and Benoit Volery (Swi). Gresco-Tavira has confirmed Ruben Martin Garcia.

Courtesy of Cycling4all

Gorospe rids Euskaltel of Pradera

Julian Gorospe, sports director of second division Euskaltel Euskadi, will not renew the contract with Mikel Pradera. The rider wanted a salary unacceptable to Gorospe who said that Pradera didn't want to negotiate a new contract. The sports director thinks Pradera was made a good offer but the rider wanted more. The rider himself says that he has a number of offers to consider. Otherwise Gorospe is satisfied with the contract renewals so far for the team that is second in division II behind Crédit Agricole after an excellent early season.

IOC "reminds" Danes

The International Olympic Committee have reminded the Danish Olympic Committee via a letter that Denmark must follow the Olympic rules. The IOC gives no background to the reminder but it is obvious that the affair with cyclist Claus Michael Möller is behind it. Möller was banned by his national federation for a longer time than stated by the International Cycling Union.

Zabel and Klöden to Denmark

Erik Zabel and Andreas Klöden are on the Telekom team for Tour of Denmark in early August. The others are Rolf Aldag, Gian Matteo Fagnini, Ralf Grabsch, Danilo Hondo, Jan Schaffrath and Stephan Schreck.

US Olympic teams announcement dates

The decision on who will comprise the USA's Olympic Mountain Bike team will be made tomorrow, July 14 (US time). The final team will be made up of three women and two men from the following candidates: Travis Brown, David "Tinker" Juarez, Steve Larsen, Alison Dunlap, Shari Kain, Ruthie Matthes, and Ann Trombley.

On the road, the three member women's team is due to be revealed on July 19, with two other athletes to join automatic qualifier, Nicole Freedman. The decision on the five member men's team will be taken after the Tour de France, on August 1. Four names will have to be finalised, after Antonio Cruz automatically qualified himself at the US Olympic trials in May.

The track team has already been announced last week, and some of its members will be competing in this weekend's World Track Cup round 4 in Turin, Italy (July 14-16). Erin Veenstra-Mirabella and Jame Carney who are Olympic team nominees, will join Basil Milsal in the Italian leg of the World Cup. After the World Cups in Moscow, Cali, Colombia and Mexico City, the United States ranks fourth in the team standings behind France, Australia and Italy.