News for June 20, 2000

Mario Cipollini definitely out

Mario Cipollini
Photo: © AFP

The Tour de France 2000 will officially be without super sprinter Mario Cipollini, according to an announcement made by his Saeco team on Monday. Contributing factors include his ongoing asthma problems combined with the injuries he sustained in a fall a couple of weeks ago. The latter was the catalyst for his withdrawal, as he broke two ribs and required 30 stitches to his face.

Last year, Mario won four stages of the Tour in succession, the only rider in the post-war period to do so. This year he has not been his usual self, although he managed a stage win in the Giro as well as a couple in the Tour of Romandie (including his 150th). 33 year old Cipollini has not been able to train properly for the past two weeks after his accident, and with less than two weeks to go until the Tour he decided not to start.

Instead, he intends on regaining form and fitness in August when the Vuelta a España starts on the 26th.

German Championships

This year's German National Championships will be held in Heppenheim on a 14.8 kilometre hilly circuit near the Odenwald forest. The winner of the Elite race on Sunday will have to earn it, as each lap involves several steep climbs approaching 20%. 14 laps, plus a finishing circuit of 1.5 kilometres add up to 208.7 kilometres for the race, and it is expected that only a fraction of the field will finish.

Although Telekom will start as favourites, with several riders capable of performing well on the course, the other German teams have their chance as well. Veteran Jens Zemke (Nürnberger) is one of these, as he excels on climbs. He has trained on and assessed the course, believing it to be very selective due to the tough ascents. In his opinion, less than 30 will finish - but he hopes to be among the top 5. He will be without teammate Dirk Baldinger though, who is still recovering from injury. Reports say that he is training but not ready for competition until the end of July.

Other candidates for the titles include Gerolsteiner, with Olaf Pollack, Michael Rich and Tobias Steinhauser their top riders. Hohenfelder-Concorde might be in with a shot, although Corey Sweet, Peter Rogers and Nick Gates are not eligible to win the German Championship!

Virenque back again

This year's Tour will see French climber, Richard Virenque (Polti) try and win the polka-dot jersey for a record equaling 6th time. Only two other riders, Belgium's Lucien Van Impe and Spain's Federico Bahamontes have managed the feat, and Virenque is the only rider in the current peloton capable of doing so. Despite the fact that he has had ambitions on the yellow jersey in the past, he has not been able to achieve that goal, largely due to his average time trialling skills. Instead, and he has been criticised often for this, he goes for the mountain points above all else.

In fact, the only time in the past six years when he hasn't won the polka-dot jersey was when he and his team were ejected from the Tour in 1998 after a certain soigneur was found with a bootload of EPO at the French border. The investigation into that is still going on, and is scheduled for hearing this October. Virenque remains one of the few members of the 1998 Festina team not to have confessed to using drugs although he almost retired at the end of 1998 due to the pressure.

His fans would have none of it though, and he was persuaded to rejoin the peloton with Polti, where he has been ever since. He is still adored by many French cycling fans who are looking for champions (Laurent who?) and remember his donation of a large sum of money toward the Rwandan crisis in 1997. His comeback in 1999 was not looked upon kindly by Tour director, Jean-Marie Leblanc who said that he was "not welcome in the Tour". However, this was not found to be strictly legal and Virenque was allowed to start, going on to win his 5th polka dot jersey.

Recently, he's shown a little form, finishing 5th in the first mountain stage of the Tour de Suisse (Ulrichen-Ulrichen). Is he the climber he once was? We shall see during the Tour whether there are any others wishing to challenge him for his red and white crown.

Steels stays with Mapei

Belgian sprinter, Tom Steels will stay with Mapei until the end of his contract at the close of the 2001 season. Mapei will not allow him to follow Patrick Lefevere. "A contract is a contract," said Steels. "But it will be strange to function without the well known faces around you. And it's a pity that I won't be joining Johan Museeuw and Wilfried Peeters in their last year."

Bart Leysen will stay as well, as Mapei want to keep a Belgian element in their team.

Aebersold to leave Rabobank

By Tomas Nilsson, cyclingnews.com corespondent

Swiss Niki Aebersold is on his way from Rabobank. He had an excellent season in 1998 riding for the Post Swiss Team as Swiss champion as well as being involved in the final drama at the World's. He rode well in the Vuelta and was contracted by Rabobank with Markus Zberg. The latter's older brother Beat was already riding with the team. However, while Markus Zberg's career developed, and he will probably stay on the team, Aebersold's went into stagnation.

Where to next for Aebersold? Possibly back to a smaller Swiss team where he would be more at home, or maybe even the new Belgian team of Patrick Lefevre.

In other team news, Spanish (well Basque) team Euskaltel-Euskadi has contracted the regional U 23 double champion Iñaki Isasi of Olarra - Ercoreca for next year. Mikel Artetxe and Mikel Pradera are rumoured to be leaving the team.

Ávila to host stage finish

The 19th stage of this year's Vuelta a España (August 26 - September 17) will conclude in the walled city of Ávila, it was announced by Unipublic today. The stage will be held on September 15, running for 130 kilometres between Salamanca and Ávila, predominantly flat. The city will also host the start of the following stage, from Ávila to Alto de Abantos (125 km).

The cost of hosting stage starts and finishes is not insignificant: the council of Ávila will have to fork out 12.7 million pesetas ($US 71,000) for the honour. However, the anticipated tourist influx should cover this in the form of increased business.