News for July 20, 2000

Ivanov allowed to start again

One of the three riders to be excluded from the Tour de France due to a high hematocrit, Serguei Ivanov, is allowed to start racing again. He has served his 2-week mandatory health suspension, and his latest blood test revealed that he was under the 50% limit.

Although his team (Farm Frites) said that they would fire him, he is still under contract and is able to race for them. The lawyers of Farm Frites are reportedly working on a solution for firing him, but they have to overcome his contract. The official word from the team is that "the team management is still busy with the winding up of this affair."

Watt, Dawson, Wooldridge not in

With the official announcement of the Australian Olympic team to be made public later today, the reactions have already started from those who have been informed they've missed out. It could turn out to be a repetition of the 1996 scenario, when Kathy Watt was left out of the team and spent much of the year in court, eventually winning the right to compete.

Watt has been told this year that she's not a part of the final three member women's squad, which is likely to comprise Alayna Burns, Michelle Ferris and Lyndelle Higginson. The main competition has been between Burns and Watt this year, as the other two are better medal prospects in their sprint events. Watt, who became the Australian Champion in March this year will launch an immediate appeal after hearing the news.

In addition to her Australian title, she is also the number four ranked pursuit cyclist in the World this year behind Marion Clignet. Her partner, coach and manager, Carey Hall could not believe it, but does not know the reason she had been left out. There was no ride-off or selection race, so presumably Burns was chosen on the basis that she had ridden a faster time this year. Both Watt and Burns went under the 3.38.00 pre-qualifying time before the Nationals, but neither has cracked the 3.35.00 nominated by Cycling Australia in their selection criteria. However, Cycling Australia has also said that if no-one manages 3.35.00, then a decision may be made on who has the faster time.

Hall was also disappointed at the lack of consistency in the selection rules, as several of the riders in the men's track team, Brad McGee, Stuart O'Grady and Michael Rogers, had not ridden their respective qualifying times at all this year. This meant that riders such as Brent Dawson and Steven Wooldridge were left out, despite riding the team pursuit for Australia in a number of races this year.

Carey Hall and Kathy Watt's approach this year has been to race in the Track World Cups, however this has not been a stunning success after Watt was ill for the first two rounds. In Moscow (round 1), she placed 6th in the pursuit; in Cali she was not allowed to compete formally as there was only one rider per country. The spot went to Burns in order to give her some real competition and to qualify an extra rider for the World's; whilst in Mexico (round 3), she finished second in 3.41.377. Burns only rode in the Cali World Cup, finishing third in the pursuit (3.36.233) and winning the points race. Neither Burns nor Watt rode in Turin last weekend.

We haven't heard the last of this one.

Reduction in 16th Sachsen Tour teams

The UCI class 2.5 Sachsen-Tour International in Germany commences the day after the Tour de France finishes on July 24, running until July 30. A 2.5 event may be ridden by both professional as well as amateur teams, and the division one squads of Mapei, Telekom and Farm Frites were some of those down to start. However, their late withdrawal means that promoter Wolfgang Friedemann will have to look elsewhere, and maybe form a few composite teams. There will now be no division one squads in the 1,049 km event.

The winner of last year's race, Jörn Reuss (Nürnberger) will take the start and is aiming at his third success in the event. He is one who is happy that the purple clad Telekom boys are not going to be there to spoil the fun. However, he will have to deal with the likes of Edouard Gritsoun, the Russian from Gerolsteiner and a member of the 'St. Petersburg Quartet' that rode 4.01 for 4,000 m in the Russian Track Championships recently. Uwe Ampler (Bunte Berte Leipzig) was also keen to give the Sachsen Tour a go, but he is suffering from a knee injury that has kept him out of competition for most of the season. After coming back from a drug suspension in May, this is a bitter blow for Ampler, 35 and may mean the end of his career. Ironically, his positive test was in this race last year.

Pan-American Championships

The Pan-Am Championships are scheduled to commence next week (July 23-27) in Bucaramanga, Colombia. It is an important track cycling competition that enables American cyclists to earn additional start positions for the World Track Championships in Manchester, Great Britain from October 25-29.

The US team will consist of five members: reigning national collegiate champion Nathan Rogut, past junior national champions Josh Weir, Giddeon Massie and Michael Luther, and Tammy Thomas. The latter won the 500-metre time trial at the U.S. Olympic Trials, and has finished among the top four at the past two national track cycling championships.