News for July 4, 2000

Mapei up to four Belgians next year

Team Mapei would be delighted with their success so far in the Tour de France, despite the loss of several of their top Belgian riders to Domo next year. Solid sprinter, Tom Steels will have his Belgian groupies as well, as Wim Feys (formerly Palmans) will sign, along with Bart Leysen and Kevin Hulsmans. Although there are just four riders, there may be more to come.

Team Domo are also with three Belgians, one Dutchman and two Eastern Europeans (Museeuw, Peeters, Van Heeswijk, Hoste, Wadecki and Konecny), and Patrick Lefevere is looking to sign Axel Merckx shortly. He's also having discussions with Steve de Wolf (currently Cofidis) and Wilfried Cretskens (Vlaanderen 2002), and they could be on a good ticket. In addition, he would like Peter van Petegem's signature, although the latter is torn between Domo and Cees Priem's new team.

The international man of mystery, Frank Vandenbroucke, will decide in September about his future. This means that he won't be with Domo, as Lefevere wants to finalise things now. In addition, he doubts whether he has enough money to pay what VDB is asking.

Thanks to Joris Verstappen for the information

Barcelona misses out

Although it was originally intended to be part of this year's Vuelta a Espaņa, popular city Barcelona has been excluded after a disagreement over the parcours. There was to be an individual time trial (stage 9) of 38 km in Barcelona on September 3, however the city council wanted it to be shortened to just 13 kilometres, in order to give the climbers more of a chance in the race. The race organisers, Unipublic did not want this, despite the fact that there are two other time trials in the race - stage 1 (12 km) and the final stage (36 km).

A major problem with changing the parcours was the rescheduling of TV broadcasts. The television stations pay big money to cover the stage, and did not want to mess around with their programming. In spite of this disagreement, the Barcelona City Council still said that they were interested in working with the race in future. However, they probably will not be hosting a time trial.

Van Moorsel out of the Giro

Number one Dutch rider, Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel (Farm Frites-Hartol) had a stunning first week of the Giro d'Italia Femminile. However, she withdrew after yesterday's stage in order to avoid the climbs. This was a planned move according to her coach and husband, Michael Zijlaard.

"Because of the Olympics she doesn't have to ride on her reserves," he said. "Next week the real mountains start. She doesn't need those climbs."

On Sunday, Van Moorsel became 6th in the time trial. "It was a good training run for Sydney," said Van Moorsel, who had previously indicated that she might not ride the Games TT. "I'm very satisfied with this Giro. We hoped for one stage win; but it became three and four jerseys. That's great."

Whistler gets a World Cup

The town of Whistler in British Columbia have successfully managed to bid for a World Cup mountain bike event for the next two years. Canada is a popular place on the MTB circuit, with two rounds being held this year in Mont Sainte Anne, Quebec, and Canmore, Alberta. The date set for the Whistler event next year is July 8-9.

The World Cup involves three disciplines - Cross Country, Dual Slalom and Downhill racing, and these will all be present in the Whistler weekend. They are one of only three locations to be given the "triple" event. The organisers of the event are Team Management Inc., who submitted the bid in autumn last year, to have it ratified early this year and officially released last week.

It is hoped that the 10-15,000 spectators to visit Whistler will provide a very significant boost to the economy. 400 athletes from 40 countries are also expected to compete against the likes of locals Chad Miles, Sylvie Allen, Canadian Downhill Champion Daamian Skelton, Chad Onyschuk and Ted Tempany.

Mercury suffer a few setbacks

Despite continuing to dominate the US National Series races, the Mercury team have recently lost a few of their top riders. Some temporarily, some permanently... Chris Pic was a casualty of the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic held over the weekend, crashing in stage 3 and breaking his collarbone. He will be out for four weeks. Meanwhile, sprinter John Peters is still in hospital with pneumonia, although he is expected to be released today. As mentioned yesterday, the team have sacked German Jan Bratkowski after he broke the team's disciplinary code.

Will such a penalty be applied to Fitchburg winner, Henk Vogels? The Australian was reported for his use of 'colourful' language after winning stage 2. He was presumably carried away with the spirit of the moment and received a fine for his efforts, before maintaining his lead for the next two stages.

Scanlon out

Irish rider and 1998 Junior World Champion, Mark Scanlon (CC Etupes) has broken his elbow in a crash in France and will be out of action for approximately 6 weeks, meaning that he will miss the European Under 23 road race in August.