News for June 16, 2000

UCI decides on June 22

A decision on whether the new French developed EPO urine test will be used in the Tour de France this year, will be made by the UCI on June 22 according to an official UCI announcement. A team of three experts, Jordi Segura (Spain), Peter Hemmerbach (Norway) and Bjoern Ekblom (Sweden) will independently evaluate the test before it can be accepted. This is one of the three conditions set by the UCI when news of the test first came to light. The first one was that the test be published in an international scientific journal (it was done so in last week's edition of Nature). The second is that 220 samples be tested in a double blind fashion before June 20, and this is in progress. The final condition is the assessment of the independent experts, and this will conclude on June 22.

UCI president, Hein Verbruggen is looking forward to having such a test ready, saying that "suspicion will decrease, and we will have the cleanest Tour possible."

Quaranta on track

Although well known for his exploits in road sprints, Italian Ivan Quaranta (Mobilvetta) also represents his country on the track. This weekend in Mexico City, Quaranta will lead 10 of his countrymen to the World Cup track meet (June 16-18). Quaranta is aiming to be one of the four Italians selected in the track team for Sydney, and this meet will be an important one.

Adriann Baffi, Andrea Collinelli, Mauro Trentini, Benetton, Marco Villa, Ivan Quaranta, and sprinters Chiappa, Mei, Gentile and Scafetta (women) will comprise this World Cup team.

Quaranta will concentrate solely on the track from now until September, leaving road commitments aside until after that time. He started life as a track sprinter, and was quite successful, winning a world title in Athens in 1992. He may be used in the team pursuit however, given his endurance and speed. Italian track coach, Sandro Callari has also considered another sprinter, Mario Cipollini for the pursuit, although he has not yet decided - Trentini and Collinelli (the current champion) are the other two options in this event.

How's Bartoli?

The former world number one is racing in the Tour de Suisse at the moment, testing his knee again before the Italian National Championships on June 25, and the Tour de France a week later. Reports say that he is doing well, since he returned to competition in the Tour of Germany last month. He finished 63rd today in the tougher stage 3, with its 17% cobbled climb, 8 kilometres from the finish in Fribourg.

He has learned a lot from his injury that kept him out of competition for so long. He now no longer complains about getting sick or a sore throat which he used to be famous for. His return this year was delayed after Gent-Wevelgem, when he could not utilise the full force of his knee and he took another break to get things 100%. His love of cycling kept him going during his rehabilitation, and he was doing up to 4 hours of gym work and exercises to get back into shape. There was a 30% power differential between each leg, and this was corrected after some diligent work. He used the talents of Belgian physiotherapist, Lieven Maesschalk and Mapei's Yvan Van Mol, who were partly responsible for Johan Museeuw's recovery from his crash of two years ago.

When Bartoli and the doctors were satisfied with the evenness in his pedal stroke, he commenced training in earnest. He started with rides of an hour long, but quickly built up to 5 hours by late May, and found that he'd not lost too much condition. On his "test" ride up Monte Serra, he was scarcely a minute outside his best although he didn't have the race condition yet. Then came the Tour of Germany, where he performed very well on the toughest stage, finishing second to Udo Bölts. His main objective now is the Italian Championship, so that he can ride the Tour de France in the tricolore jersey.

Dunkirk syringes clean

At the beginning of May near the finish the Four Days of Dunkirk in France, a big fuss was made regarding the discovery of a bag of syringes in a dustbin outside one of the team hotels in Capelle-la-Grande. The syringes were suspected of containing illegal doping products, and were sent for analysis. However, it was recently revealed that there were no illegal substances in the syringes, merely vitamins and analgesics.

New name & president for AssoGruppi

Association of Italian teams, the AssoGruppi has changed its name and president, after an extraordinary general meeting yesterday. Their new name will be the Lega Gruppi Ciclismo Professionistico (LGCP), and their new president is Franco Polti, patron of the squad of the same name.

Other key members of the board are representatives from some of the sponsors: Paolo Dal Lago (Liquigas), Emanuele Galbusera (Lampre) and Giorgio Squinzi (Mapei). Team directors will be represented by three more on the council: Claudio Corti (Saeco-Valli&Valli), Giancarlo Ferretti (Fassa Bortolo) and Bruno Reverberi (Panaria-Gaerne), while Moreno Argentin will be the director of the association.

Royal Flying Doctor Service charity ride

The Australian Royal Flying Doctor Service is a charity organisation dedicated to helping the sick in hard to reach parts of the continent. As most of Australia is desert, dotted with small communities, the service is invaluable and has saved many lives since its formation earlier this century.

The Queensland branch of the service is undertaking a charity ride from Cooktown to Cape York beginning June 26, called "Cycle 2000". Five University of Queensland students will ride 850 kilometres over two weeks in FNQ (Far North Queensland). Joanne Westwood, Karen Joyce, Jaymie Cross, Rachel Korman, and Steven Arnold will make up the team of cross country mountain bikers who will ride the distance. If there are any sponsors or supporters who would like to donate funds to their ride and the RFDS, please contact Leigh Holohan (+61 +7 3860 1119) or Karen Joyce (0413 131 182 (m)).