News for June 14, 2000New Zealand Olympic teamThe New Zealand Olympic Committee named their entire Olympic team yesterday, 19 athletes spread across the three disciplines of road, track and mountain biking. The Sydney Olympics begin on September 15 and run through until September 30. The track team will be lead by Sarah Ulmer and Anthony "weapon" Peden, who has finally realised his dream of riding the Olympic Games. Peden won a silver medal in the Keirin event at last year's World's, and will line up in that event in Sydney as well as the sprint. Ulmer, a bronze medallist at last year's World's will compete in the women's points race and individual pursuit. The men's team pursuit will comprise Gary Anderson, Lee Vertongen, Tim Carswell, Greg Henderson, and Brendon Cameron. While only four can compete in the event, five athletes were selected to ensure at least one back up rider. One of these riders will fill New Zealand's spot in the individual pursuit and this decision will be made closer to the Games. New Zealand champion Matthew Sinton has been given the nod in the men's Kilo and will act as support to Peden in the Keirin. Fiona Ramage has been selected in the women's 500m and sprint. 1998 Commonwealth Games champion Glen Thomson completes the track squad having been selected in the men's points race. Thomson finished third in this event at the recent World Cup in Cali, Colombia. The men's Road squad includes three riders who compete professionally in Europe. French based rider Chris Jenner, Julian Dean (Spain) and Belgian based Scott Guyton will be joined in the four man squad by USA based Glen Mitchell. A big surprise is the omission of Graeme Miller, who rides for US squad Shaklee. Miller also missed the selection in 1996, and was not considered to be good enough to support the other riders for a top 30 finish. Susy Pryde, who won a silver medal in the women's Road race at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur will join Jacinta Coleman and Rosalind Reekie-May in the women's Road race. Pryde has also been named as one of two New Zealand representatives in the Mountain Biking event. She will join Dunedin's Kashi Leuchs, who won a bronze medal in the under 23 cross country race in the most recent round of the world mountain biking championships in Spain last weekend. The New Zealand Olympic Cycling Team is: Track Anthony Peden (Wanganui) Men's Keirin, Sprint Gary Anderson (Wanganui) Team Pursuit Matthew Sinton (Auckland) Men's Kilo Glen Thomson (Dunedin) Men's Points Race Sarah Ulmer (Auckland) Women's Points Race Fiona Ramage (Christchurch) Women's 500m Road Chris Jenner (France) Men's Road race Susy Pryde (Auckland/USA) Women's Road race Mountain Bike Susy Pryde (Auckland/USA) Women Kashi Leuchs (USA) Men Dauphiné clean?While the Tour de France is trying to do as much as possible to ensure that its riders are clean, it is apparently not the case for the Dauphiné Libére. The international teams association (AICGP), led by Manolo Saiz, protested after the race that there were no drug control doctors at the end of certain stages. He said in an AICGP communiqué to the Minister for Youth and Sport that it was inexplicable, given the current image situation. Postgirot Tour of SwedenThe 5 day Postgirot Tour of Sweden commences today (June 14) in Vårgårda with a split stage (3 km prologue and a 131 km road race), and finishes on June 18. This year, the race has been upgraded a category to UCI Class 2.3, attracting a large, good quality field. The Mapei and Deutsche Telekom teams are sending squads, and a total of 31 teams applied to race, but only 20 were allowable, demonstrating the popularity of the event. Other teams include Rabobank, Memory Card-Jack & Jones, Farm Frites, Ag2r, Ceramica-Panaria Gaerne, and Fakta to name a few. Cyclingnews.com correspondent Tomas Nilsson is on his way to Vårgårda today and, circumstances permitting, he will be able to provide readers with live updates of the 3 km prologue, commencing 0945 CET (Central European Time). This corresponds to 1745 Australian EST, 0045 in the Western US, and 0345 in the Eastern US. Well, some people are awake at that hour.
Sørensen wanted too muchRolf Sørensen will leave the Rabobank team end of this season. He signed with Jan Raas' team in 1996 and one year later, one day before the Ronde van Vlaanderen 1997, re-signed for three more years. Rabobank isn't interested in the Dane anymore. His financial claims are too high in relation to his results, according to Rabobank sources.
Fullana aims for SydneyRecent dual gold medallist at the World Mountain Biking Championships in Spain, Marga Fullana (Subaru/Specialized) has made her ambitions clear for the rest of the year. Her main aim is the Olympic Mountain Bike Race in Sydney, and she believes she can win a medal there. The cyclist from Palma, Mallorca returns home this week to a reception by her local authorities in Sant Llorence des Cardessar. She was reportedly a little upset by the absence at the World's of any dignitaries from Mallorca.
Another German coming?Store the name Marcus Burghard up in you memory. At age 16 he won the German Drei Etappenfahrt der Junioren with a 20 seconds margin to Belgian Jürgen Van den Broeck and 24 to Coen de Cort, of the Netherlands. Burghard also won the sprinter's jersey while German Martin Schmid won the mountains classification. Burghard crossed the line first on stage one but was declassified to twelfth. Kenny van Hummel (Ned) won instead. On Sunday's short TT climb the Latvian Oleg Melehs won five seconds ahead of Burghard, while the afternoon's road race ended in a mass sprint at the Darmstadt velodrome with Dutchman Martin Maaskant first. The final stage, through the Taunus hills to Rüsselheim then went to Burghard who also became German Junior TT Champion some days ago.
US team to MexicoThis weekend (June 16-18) marks the third round of the track World Cup, to be held in the high altitude velodrome of Mexico City. The US team will comprise 12 riders, headed by Marty Nothstein and Jame Carney. Carney will compete in the points race, and be teamed with Basil Milsal (Oakland, Calif.) in the Madison. Adham Sbeih (Granite Bay, Calif.) will compete in the men's individual pursuit, while Megan Troxell (Menlo Park, Calif.) will ride in the women's points race and individual pursuit. Nothstein will compete in the match sprint and Keirin, while Marcelo Arrue (Woodland Hills, Calif.), Johnny Bairos (Redlands, Calif.) and Jonas Carney (Pacifico, Calif.) will compete in the Olympic Sprint. In addition, Tanya Lindenmuth (Trexlertown, Pa.), Jennie Reed (Kirkland, Wash.), Tammy Thomas (Yazoo City, Miss.) and Chris Witty (Park City, Utah) will compete in the women's sprint events. 2000 U.S. Olympic sprint coach Des Dickie will accompany the team to Mexico City. The U.S. Olympic track cycling team will be announced in early July. USA Cycling will send 14 track cyclists (11 male, three females) to Sydney. The Olympic cycling competition will be September 16-21 at the Dunc Grey Velodrome. Longsjo Classic & Grace JonesThis year's Fitchburg Longsjo Classic, held in Massachusetts USA from June 29-July 2, is a four day multi-category event, and part of the USPro Cycling Tour. It is the 41st year that the race has been run, named after Arthur Longsjo, the first athlete to be a member of both the Winter and Summer US Olympic Teams in the same year (1956). This year, the race will be held in honour of Grace Shepherd Jones (1931-1999) who was one of the best known racing administrators in Massachusetts in the 70's and 80's. However, she suffered from Alzheimer's disease, beginning in the late '80s, eventually leading to her death in 1999. In addition to the Longsjo Classic, a two day Grace Jones memorial ride will be held on August 26-27 (the Memory Ride) to help raise funds for the Alzheimer's Association, a non-profit organisation.
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