News for July 25, 2000Latest UCI rankingsThe new set of rankings calculated by the UCI after the Tour de France reveal a few, but not drastic changes to the pecking order. Francesco Casagrande remains at the top, still riding on his strong Giro performance. Erik Zabel is now third, but only because of Jan Ullrich's second place in the Tour (last year he didn't ride it). Interestingly enough, despite winning the Tour, Lance Armstrong actually dropped from 4th to 6th place, although there wasn't much in it in terms of points. What is more surprising is that Andrei Tchmil actually overtook him (6th to 4th), despite not riding the Tour at all! Latvia's Romans Vainsteins had a solid performance to lift him to 5th (from 7th), and he remains the next best sprinter on the rankings behind Erik Zabel. Other big movers were Kelme's Roberto Heras (34th to 13th), Christophe Moreau (35th to 18th), Joseba Beloki (85th to 35th) and Erik Dekker (38th to 21st). Laurent Jalabert climbed back from 15th to 11th, while his teammate Abraham Olano dropped from 5th to 10th. In the teams rankings, the see-saw battle between Mapei and Telekom continues, with Telekom coming up trumps after the Tour. Ullrich's second, Elli's yellow, Zabel's green (and stage win) helped them over the top of Mapei who only(!) won four stages. General classification points (time in yellow etc.) tend to count for more in the UCI rankings. The biggest mover in the team stakes was wildcard Kelme-Costa Blanca who are now third, courtesy of their strong team performance in the Tour that earned them that prize. Banesto, Festina and US Postal also moved themselves considerably up the scale. There were no big in the other classifications (division II and III, nations), save for the fact that Germany has moved up into third ahead of Belgium, while Switerland has dropped back behind the Netherlands and France. The women's rankings (as of July 9), the top five remain the same, although Diana Ziliute has increased her lead over Anna Wilson. Spain's Joane Somarriba has moved up to 7th after her second successive Giro d'Italia Femminile win, and Leontien Ziljaard-Van Moorsel did likewise (14th to 9th) after a strong performance early on in the Giro. Men's Rankings, July 23, 2000 1 Francesco Casagrande (Ita) Vini Caldirola-Sidermec 2,468.00 pts 2 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Team Deutsche Telekom 2,126.75 3 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Deutsche Telekom 1,736.00 4 Andrei Tchmil (Bel) Lotto-Adecco 1,488.00 5 Romans Vainsteins (Lat) Vini Caldirola-Sidermec 1,479.00 6 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal Service 1,463.00 7 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step 1,455.00 8 Marcus Zberg (Swi) Rabobank 1,416.25 9 Michael Boogerd (Ned) Rabobank 1,337.25 10 Abraham Olano Manzano (Spa) O.N.C.E.-Deutsche Bank 1,312.75 11 Laurent Jalabert (Fra) O.N.C.E.-Deutsche Bank 1,304.75 12 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Liquigas-Pata 1,298.00 13 Roberto Heras Hernandez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 1,224.00 14 José Maria Jimenez Sastre (Spa) Banesto 1,193.00 15 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Mercatone Uno-Albacom 1,165.00 16 Johan Museeuw (Bel) Mapei-Quick Step 1,129.25 17 Igor Gonzalez Galdeano (Spa) Vitalicio Seguros 1,096.00 18 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Festina 1,094.00 19 Pavel Tonkov (Rus) Mapei-Quick Step 1,064.00 20 Dmitri Konyshev (Rus) Fassa Bortolo 1,061.00 21 Erik Dekker (Ned) Rabobank 1,058.00 Teams, Division I 1 Team Deutsche Telekom 6,766.25 pts 2 Mapei-Quick Step 6,599.45 3 Kelme-Costa Blanca 4,367.00 4 Banesto 3,979.00 5 Fassa Bortolo 3,964.00 6 O.N.C.E.-Deutsche Bank 3,902.75 7 Rabobank 3,770.75 8 Vini Caldirola-Sidermec 3,586.00 9 Lampre-Daikin 3,480.00 10 US Postal Service 3,356.20 11 Festina 2,999.00 12 Vitalicio Seguros 2,856.00 13 Farm Frites 2,742.00 14 Saeco-Valli & Valli 2,715.00 15 Cofidis 2,627.00 16 Mercatone Uno-Albacom 2,551.00 17 Memorycard-Jack & Jones 2,450.00 18 Lotto-Adecco 2,320.00 19 Team Polti 2,263.00 20 Liquigas-Pata 2,021.00 21 La Francaise Des Jeux 1,982.00 22 Ag2R Prevoyance 1,937.00 Teams, Division II 1 Euskaltel-Euskadi 2,333.00 pts 2 Credit Agricole 2,274.00 3 Cantina Tollo 1,841.00 4 Bonjour 1,292.00 5 Jean Delatour 1,175.00 6 Manheim Auctions-Mercury 1,158.00 7 Palmans-Ideal 968.00 8 Amica Chips-Tacconi Sport 851.00 9 Alessio 823.00 10 Team Gerolsteiner 786.00 Teams, Division III 1 De Nardi-Pasta Montegrappa 492.00 pts 2 Bosch Hausgeräte-Sport Kärnten 372.00 3 Team Shaklee 324.00 4 PSK Unit Expert 289.00 5 Team Hohenfelder-Concorde 219.00 Nations 1 Italy 12,345.35 pts 2 Spain 9,426.75 3 Germany 8,374.50 4 Belgium 7,982.75 5 Netherlands 6,321.60 6 France 6,236.75 7 Switzerland 5,307.50 8 U.S.A. 4,999.75 9 Russia 4,253.00 10 Denmark 3,567.85Women's rankings, July 9, 2000 1 Diana Ziliute (Ltu) Acca Due O-Lorena Camicie 917.00 pts 2 Anna Wilson (Aus) Saturn Cycling Team 742.00 3 Hanka Kupfernagel (Ger) Radteam Kupfernagel 571.67 4 Edita Pucinskaite (Ltu) Team Alfa Lum R.S.M. 416.00 5 Petra Rossner (Ger) Saturn Cycling Team 354.00 6 Mirjam Melchers (Ned) Dutch National Team 294.00 7 Joane Somarriba Arrola (Spa) Team Alfa Lum R.S.M. 279.00 8 Pia Sundstedt (Fin) Gas Sport Team 270.00 9 Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel (Ned) Farm Frites-Hartol 267.00 10 Tatiana Stiajkina (Ukr) Acca Due O-Lorena Camicie 264.00 11 Zoulfia Zabirova (Rus) Acca Due O-Lorena Camicie 212.00 12 Valentina Polkhanova (Rus) Edilsavino 199.00 13 Svetlana Boubnenkova (Rus) Edilsavino 195.00 14 Ina Teutenberg (Ger) German National Team 192.00 15 Tracey Gaudry (Aus) Timex 186.00 16 Geneviève Jeanson (Can) Canadian National Team 176.00 17 Daniela Veronesi (Smr) Team Alfa Lum R.S.M. 170.00 18 Vera Hohlfeld (Ger) Acca Due O-Lorena Camicie 168.00 19 Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli (Fra) French National Team 163.34 20 Elisabeth Vink (Ned) Dutch National Team 148.00 20 Fabiana Luperini (Ita) Gas Sport Team 148.00 Trade Teams: 1 Acca Due O-Lorena Camicie 1,561.00 pts 2 Saturn Cycling Team 1,241.00 3 Team Alfa Lum R.S.M. 970.00 4 Radteam Kupfernagel 683.01 5 GAS Sport Team 633.00 Nations: 1 Lithuania 1,547.00 pts 2 Germany 1,429.67 3 Australia 1,080.00 4 Netherlands 902.00 5 Russia 673.67 6 Italy 519.00 7 France 492.34 8 Canada 369.00 9 Norway 349.00 10 Switzerland 329.00 10 Ukraine 329.00 Boxmeer criterium"The day after" seems to have lost a lot of colour. In the past 20 years, at least one of the jersey winners has started in the Ronde van Boxmeer in the Netherlands. However, this year the audience had to come for riders such as Erik Dekker and Marco Pantani. In 1997, Tour winner Jan Ullrich started, in 1998 Erik Zabel (the green jersey) and in 1999 the Tour winner Lance Armstrong. He came with George Hincapie for NLG 75,000 (about $US 31,000), this year he asked for NLG 165,000. Last year 35,000 people came to Boxmeer, this year, in wet conditions, there were 25,000. Everybody who attends expects that the best Tour rider should win. "Normally the Tour winner wins here in Boxmeer, now Dekker can win," said the cycling fans gathered before the start. Organiser Ad Rijnen worked with a budget of NLG 320,000 guilders this year, 200,000 of which was for the cyclists. It's the first year that the Dutch organisers have to pay income tax for the riders, which adds 30 percent to the costs. Eric Dekker's start money was NLG 12,500 Guilders, but Marco Pantani needed NLG 67,500. However, there was a strike by air-traffic controllers so he nearly couldn't fly in. He had a delay of several hours but arrived in Brussels Airport early in the evening. He changed clothes in the car and with police assistance he arrived just in time for the start... Leon van Bon (winner of one Tour stage) canceled his start because his doctor advised him to take a few days rest. At the last moment the organiser contracted Robbie McEwen (Farm Frites) and Max van Heeswijk (Mapei). However, in coming years it will be nearly impossible to arrange a strong starting field. Some cycling fans expect that there will be less criteriums because the start money is growing so rapidly. "Until now we talked about 'Laps around the church', but they'd better can call it 'Laps around the bank'," said a cycling fan. Gerrie van Gerwen who contracts riders for the criteriums says that "It's a difficult period. This year it was extremely difficult to get riders. Very embarrassing. I expect there will be a difficult time, and the end for some criteriums." And who won? Erik Dekker of course.
Tour 2001 to LiegeNext year's Tour de France 2001 will not only visit Antwerp in Belgium, but the province of Liege/Luik as well. On Sunday, the governor of Luik, Mr Bolland, signed a contract with Tour boss Jean-Marie Leblanc. No decision has been made about which town will be the host town, but Huy and Seraing are candidates. These towns have both seen the Tour before, in the individual time trial from Huy to Seraing in 1995. In an interview today with L'Equipe, Leblanc re-expressed his desire to alter the teams in next year's Tour. Leblanc said that the number of riders would remain the same, i.e. 180, but that "we would like to discuss with the various professional groups to see if it would be possible to organize the Tour with teams of 8 riders. We would end up with 22 teams." Note that 8 x 22 = 176, but the decision is not final yet (as reported yesterday).
New rider for Linda McCartneyItalian Mirko Puglioli has joined the British Linda McCartney team for the remaining part of the season. Formerly of the no longer extant Amore e Vita team, Puglioli has had two years of professional experience and has shown some promise. The 26-year old from Pisa came 6th overall in the recent Circuit des Mines, and also had two wins last season. He was 20th in the Prutour of Britain, and a good 5th in last year's edition of what will be one of his first races in the yellow and blue jersey, the Coppa Agostoni. Team manager Sean Yates was happy with Mirko's acquisition, as he said "riders of this pedigree don't come on to the market very often at this stage of the season, so I'm very pleased to welcome him aboard." Mirko's first appearance with the rest of the team will be at their first Italian appointment in August, Tre Valle Varesine, on the 16th of August.
Fuji Xerox Cycle Classic 2001The Wellington Cycle Classic is to become the Fuji Xerox Cycle Classic after a major sponsorship deal was announced today. The classic, held early in the season was sponsored by Fuji-Xerox this year, but 2001 will see it having full naming rights. The race will be held from January 3-7 and will once again have UCI status (2.5) after it was dropped from the international calendar this year. The format will be similar - six stages over five days, for a total of 598 km. Teams have yet to be finalised but both Fuji-Xerox general manager, Evan Johnson and race promoter Jorge Sandoval are seeking a fully fledged international field. Sandoval was enthusiastic about the renewed sponsorship, saying that "it is very important because it gives us the backing we need and removes any uncertainty that may have existed over the race. We are able to now get on with the job of organising a world class cycling event and know that we have the full support of a dedicated and focused event partner." Race Route
Stage 1 - January 3: Hutt City Centre Criterium, 45 km Canadian MTB teamThe Canadian mountain bike team for the Olympics has been named after their national titles held last weekend. The men's and women's cross country championships were won by Chad Miles and Chrissy Redden respectively, with the latter qualifying herself in the women's Olympic team (along with Alison Sydor and Lesley Tomlinson). Although he won the men's race, Miles had not met the pre-set qualification criteria and the choice went to Geoff Kabush and Roland Green. Kabush came second in the nationals, while Green has won a silver medal at the World's, plus top four placings in three World Cups this year. |