News for June 6, 200083rd Giro d'Italia: how the tables turned
Last year, the situation at the finish was markedly different. The whole race had been put in shock by Marco Pantani's exclusion on the second last stage due to a high hematocrit. He and his Mercatone Uno teammates immediately decided to boycott the final stage, and this year's winner Stefano Garzelli was one of Pantani's main supporters on that occasion. The occasion in Milan this year was almost the opposite, as Garzelli triumphed on Pantani's and the Mercatone Uno team's shoulders. For the 26 year old, this was his biggest win since the Tour de Suisse in 1998, and showed that Mercatone is more than a one man team when it comes to stage races. It was an exciting Giro this year, and the parcours helped keep the suspense right up until the last day. Although it was tailor made for climbers, with just one long flat time trial, the specialists still managed to perform well in the mountain TT on stage 20. Francesco Casagrande's 25 second lead was never going to be enough to ensure his safety, especially as he had been soundly beaten in the first time trial into Bibione (stage 9). He really needed to take some more time out of Garzelli in the two stages prior to the TT as he did in stage 8, but this did not occur. In fact he even showed a little weakness in stage 18, being gapped towards the end although recovering to finish with the leaders. Garzelli won that stage, and gained a valuable psychological bonus, along with a few seconds. He had to hang on for dear life though in stage 19, as teammate Pantani was jumping up the road at will. Unfortunately Casagrande couldn't take full advantage of this, and had to be content with finishing 4th, just in front of Garzelli. The time trial was tough for Casagrande as well - he experienced problems with his sciatic nerve in his left leg, and it took him a third of the course to find his rhythm. In that time, he had already lost the jersey to Garzelli, but he continued to fall behind in the latter stages. Garzelli's 1.52 advantage was more than he need to seal the pink jersey. In the other competitions, Russian veteran Dmitri Konyshev (Fassa Bortolo) rode an excellent race to win the cyclamen points jersey, finishing 40 points clear of La Francaise des Jeux's Fabrizio Guidi. The latter won the blue intergiro jersey and stage 16, with second place going to Konyshev. Konyshev also won the Bilboa trophy for most combative rider, over Francesco Casagrande. The mountains competition (green jersey) changed hands from early leader Karsten Kroon (Rabobank) to Jose Jaime "Chepe" Gonzalez (Aguardiente-Selle Italia) who nearly held it until the end. The 1999 winner of the crown was narrowly beaten on a countback by Casagrande after they both finished on 71 points. Casagrande also won the Liquigas trophy competition. Finally, the best team in terms of overall time was Mapei-Quick Step (from Vitalicio Seguros), while the teams points competition was won by Fassa Bortolo. The other stories of the Giro, from Mario's homage to the Pope, to Angel Vicioso's disqualification in stage 15, to Linda McCartney's fantastic efforts in spite of big setbacks, to the refusal of the Italian teams to attend podium ceremonies on occasion, all made for a fascinating (and exhausting) race. The Tour de France awaits...
Tour next for PantaniSince June 1999, Marco Pantani has been out of competition for the majority of the 1999 and 2000 seasons. His entry into the 2000 Giro was at the last minute, surprising many who thought he may have finished his career. Not only did he enter it, he managed to finish as well as play a key role in Garzelli's success. He even took second place in the final mountain stage 19, and may have won, had the lead group not allowed the Mapei chasers to hook back on. In finishing the Giro, admittedly an hour behind, but still in 28th spot, Pantani showed the rest of the peloton that he is ready once more to tackle the Tour de France. Again with the goal of winning it as he did in 1998. This year, his competition looks to be tougher than ever, with most of the favourites staying out of trouble so far. Lance Armstrong is motivated and in form, Fernando Escartin is riding well, Alex Zülle is not far off, Jose Maria Jimenez can still climb and Haimar Zubeldia has hit some good form in the Dauphiné. Abraham Olano is lighter this year, and may be a force in the Tour after winning several big early season stage races. The question marks remain over Jan Ullrich and Frank Vandenbroucke. The former experienced back pain preventing him from competing in the Classique des Alpes, and has still some kilos to get rid of. The latter DNF'd in the GP Wallonie and is not in great shape at the moment, but who knows what to expect from VDB?
McEwen and Van Petegem unsureLast year's winner of the final stage of the Tour de France, Robbie McEwen (Farm Frites), is not sure whether he'll start this year. Having had a lacklustre performance in the Giro, where he was excluded after stage 14, McEwen's team manager, Teun Van Vliet has given him one more chance. He will ride the Postgirot Tour of Sweden on June 14 before the team makes its final decision. In addition, star classics rider Peter Van Petegem will have to show that he is in form in the Tour of Catalonia from June 15-22. The Farm Frites riders nominated for the Tour at the moment include Servais Knaven, Jans Koerts, Geert van Bondt, Andreas Klier and Serguei Ivanov.
González de Galdeano doubtful about VitalicioVitalicio Seguros rider, Igor González de Galdeano has spoken out about his team's sponsorship for next year after the conclusion of the Giro d'Italia. Igor did not ride the Giro (his brother Alvaro did, and won a stage), and he expressed doubts that the team would continue into 2001, despite the fact that they won 4 stages. "I believe that the decision will not depend on the results of the Giro, because in the past three years we have always obtained great results," he said to European Press. "For a team such as ours to win four stages and to win the first 'maglia' of the Giro is the most that can be expected from us, except perhaps to win the Giro." "Javier (Mínguez, directeur sportif) is quite calm. I think that he has some opening. Now, we are all calm. The panic will begin after the Tour, where everyone begins to move," he added. Although Igor said that he would have liked to have ridden the Giro, Mínguez has him down to do the Vuelta and wants him rested.
US National series rankingsMercury head the field in the men's rankings, thanks to Gord Fraser and Henk Vogels' efforts in the first half of the season, combined with Scott Moninger and Chris Horner. They are clearly the leading team, with Saturn in second place, and Shaklee close by in third. Diarist John Lieswyn is well up there with a solid performance in the First Union series, and he lies in third place in front of newly crowned US Pro champion, Fred Rodriguez. In the women's ranks, Tina Mayolo-Pic of Autotrader.com maintained her overall lead, although Petra Rossner of Saturn gained a big boost from her win in the Liberty Classic World Cup. She is closely followed by the ever consistent Mari Holden of Timex. In the teams rankings, Autotrader have managed to overhaul Saturn as the number one women's team. Rankings as of June 4, 2000 1 Gord Fraser (Can) Mercury 803 pts 2 Henk Vogels (Aus) Mercury 783 3 John Lieswyn (USA) Shaklee 730 4 Fred Rodriguez (USA) Mapei Quick Step 648 5 Trent Klasna (USA) Saturn 640 6 Antonio Cruz (USA) Saturn 537 7 Eddy Gragus (USA) Jelly Belly 479 8 Scott Moninger (USA) Mercury 447 9 Chris Horner (USA) Mercury 438 10 George Hincapie (USA) U.S. Postal Service 364 11 Adham Sbeih (USA) Navigators 336 12 Nicolaj Bo Larsen (Den) Memorycard-Jack&Jones 327 13 Vasily Davidenko (Rus) Navigators 321 14 Mark McCormack (USA) Saturn 316 15 Clark Sheehan (USA) 7-Up-Colorado Cyclist 305 16 Piotr Wadecki (Pol) MROZ-Supradyn 290 17 Eric Wohlberg (Can) Shaklee 287 18 Graeme Miller (NZl) Shaklee 265 19 Allessandro Guerra( Ita) Saeco-Valli & Valli 252 20 Steven Cate (USA) Mercy Fitness Cycling 245 Men's Team Rankings 1 Mercury 2,681 pts 2 Saturn 1,787 3 Shaklee 1,717 4 U.S. Postal Service 927 5 Navigators 910 6 7-Up/Colorado Cyclist 872 7 Mapei-Quick Step 708 8 MROZ-Supradyn 705 9 Jelly Belly 694 10 Memory Card-Jack&Jones 662 Women's Rankings 1 Tina Mayolo-Pic (USA) autotrader.com 849 pts 2 Petra Rossner (Ger) Saturn 713 3 Mari Holden (USA) Timex 622 4 Nicole Reinhart (USA) Saturn 454 5 Pam Schuster (USA) autotrader.com 420 6 Katrina Berger (USA) Charles Schwab 378 7 Lyne Bessette (USA) Saturn 327 8 Dede Demet Barry (USA) Saturn 278 9 Karen Dunne (USA) Elita 276 10 Alison Dunlap (USA) Team GT 257 11 Nicole Freedman (USA) Charles Schwab 252 12 Diana Ziliute (Ltu) Acca Due O-Lorena 240 13 Laura Van Gilder (USA) Charles Schwab 239 14 Andrea Ratkovic (USA) autotrader.com 237 15 Elizabeth Emery (USA) Charles Schwab 233 16 Kimberly Bruckner (USA) autotrader.com 223 17 Vera Hohlfield (Ger) Acca Due O-Lorena 200 18 Julie Hanson (USA) Saturn 196 19 Marie Holjer (Swe) Charles Schwab 189 20 Kim Smith (USA) Timex 180 Women's Team Rankings 1 Saturn 1,968 pts 2 autotrader.com 1,825 3 Charles Schwab 1,248 4 Timex 874 5 Elita 763 6 Great Britain Natl Team 440 7 Acca Due O-Lorena 440 8 Alto Velo 314 9 Dutch National Team 293 10 Procter & Gamble 279 Mexican cyclist dies25 year old Mexican cyclist Fernando Avila was killed by a car on Sunday whilst training in Mexico City. Avila was one of the country's qualified riders for the Olympic Games in Sydney and was riding with 10 others when the accident occurred. According to reports, a black Volkswagen hit his back wheel and he fell to the pavement. He died of head injuries later.
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