News for June 7, 2000UCI RankingsThe latest UCI standings have been released, as of June 4, 2000. The dust has settle after the Giro d'Italia, the First Union series, and the junior Peace Race. Grand Tours tend to have a big impact on rankings and this can be seen in the men's results. Francesco Casagrande took a huge leap in the standings after spending so much time in the pink jersey, as well as winning the mountains jersey and he is now top of the list on 2799 points. Former world number one, Laurent Jalabert is now second, and quite close to teammate Abraham Olano who is 100 points behind. Jalabert did not ride the Giro this year, hence he loses all his points from coming 4th last year. The other big mover was of course Stefano Garzelli, who went from 142nd to 17th courtesy of his Giro win. Similarly, Dimitri Konyshev climbed from 31st to 17th after his strong performance. Casagrande may well hold his position after the Tour de France, depending on who wins, and how long they can spend in the jersey. His team Vini Caldirola, and Konyshev's Fassa Bortolo have moved up to fifth and third respectively, although they're still not in the same league as Mapei and Telekom. The latter team held the number one spot briefly towards the end of May, but Mapei rode consistently well in the Giro, as well has winning races all around the globe as usual and are now at the top again. Fred Rodriguez' performance in the US First Union series helped considerably, capped by his US Title on Sunday. In the division II rankings, Credit Agricole are being challenged by Euskaltel-Euskadi and the fight is going strong between the two in the Dauphine Libere. In the nations rankings, Germany have overtaken France, and Australia has jumped back from 16th to 13th, by virtue of Henk Vogels' win in the USPro championships, Brad McGee and Dave McKenzie's fine Giro performances, and Stuart O'Grady's yellow in the Midi Libre. Diana Ziliute has confirmed herself as the World Number one through an absolutely consistent performance so far this year. Placing and winning in nearly all the major women's races, she now heads Anna Wilson by 103 points. In third is German Hanka Kupfernagel who is performing well, but not racing in as many races as Ziliute. Ziliute's powerful Acca Due O-Lorena Camicie team is top of the teams, followed by Saturn 300 points behind. Finally, the junior rankings (based on 12 races throughout the year) have been updated after the Junior Peace Race, won by Piotr Mazur of Poland. Or Peter Mazur of Canada, riding for the Kissena Cycling team when he's at home. He heads compatriot Blazej Janiaczyk by 13 points, with Marcel Sieberg from Germany in third. The U-23 rankings will be updated after the Thuringen Rundfahrt, currently in progress. Rankings as of June 4, 2000Elite Men 1 Francesco Casagrande (Ita) Vini Caldirola-Sidermec 2,799.00 pts 2 Erik Zabel (Ger) Deutsche Telekom-ARD 1,693.00 3 Abraham Olano Manzano (Spa) O.N.C.E.-Deutsche Bank 1,594.75 4 Andrei Tchmil (Bel) Lotto-Adecco 1,488.00 5 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal Service 1,485.00 6 Laurent Jalabert (Fra) O.N.C.E.-Deutsche Bank 1,410.75 7 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Deutsche Telekom-ARD 1,403.00 8 Romans Vainsteins (Lat) Vini Caldirola-Sidermec 1,377.00 9 Markus Zberg (Swi) Rabobank 1,342.00 10 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step 1,339.00 11 Michael Boogerd (Ned) Rabobank 1,288.00 12 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Liquigas-Pata 1,283.00 13 Dmitri Konyshev (Rus) Fassa Bortolo 1,221.00 14 Jann Kirsipuu (Est) Ag2r Prévoyance-Décathlon 1,138.00 15 Laurent Dufaux (Swi) Saeco-Valli & Valli 1,132.00 16 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Lampre-Daikin 1,127.00 17 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Mercatone Uno-Albacom 1,115.00 18 Pavel Tonkov (Rus) Mapei-Quick Step 1,104.00 19 Igor Gonzalez Galdeano Aranzabal (Spa) Vitalicio Seguros 1,096.00 20 Johan Museeuw (Bel) Mapei-Quick Step 1,076.50 Teams, Division I 1 Mapei-Quick Step 5,188.00 pts 2 Team Deutsche Telekom 4,516.00 3 Fassa Bortolo 3,071.00 4 O.N.C.E.-Deutsche Bank 3,018.75 5 Vini Caldirola-Sidermec 3,013.00 6 Lampre-Daikin 2,925.00 7 Rabobank 2,824.00 8 Vitalicio Seguros 2,627.00 9 Kelme-Costa Blanca 2,461.00 10 Banesto 2,385.00 11 Farm Frites 2,306.00 12 Saeco-Valli & Valli 2,159.00 13 Memorycard-Jack & Jones 2,088.00 14 Cofidis, Le Credit Par Telephone 2,084.00 15 Mercatone Uno-Albacom 1,996.00 16 Liquigas-Pata 1,865.00 17 Festina 1,650.00 18 Lotto-Adecco 1,637.00 19 Ag2R Prevoyance 1,597.00 20 La Francaise Des Jeux 1,471.00 21 US Postal Service 1,315.00 22 Team Polti 1,279.00 Teams, Division II 1 Credit Agricole 1,831.00 pts 2 Euskaltel-Euskadi 1,814.00 3 Cantina Tollo 1,671.00 4 Mercury Cycling Team 1,056.00 5 Jean Delatour 950.00 6 Palmans-Ideal 916.00 7 Bonjour 903.00 8 Alessio 786.00 9 Team Gerolsteiner 631.00 10 Amica Chips-Tacconi Sport 630.00 Nations 1 Italy 12,656.00 2 Spain 9,432.75 3 Belgium 7,848.50 4 Germany 7,282.50 5 France 6,402.25 6 Switzerland 6,188.00 7 Netherlands 5,496.50 8 U.S.A. 4,955.00 9 Russia 4,462.00 10 Denmark 3,518.00Elite Women 1 Diana Ziliute (Ltu) Acca Due O-Lorena Camicie 780 pts 2 Anna Wilson (Aus) Saturn Cycling Team 677 3 Hanka Kupfernagel (Ger) Radteam Kupfernagel 545 4 Edita Pucinskaite (Ltu) Team Alfa Lum R.S.M. 410 5 Petra Rossner (Ger) Saturn Cycling Team 390 6 Zoulfia Zabirova (Rus) Acca Due O-Lorena Camicie 313 7 Mirjam Melchers (Ned) Dutch National Team 279 8 Pia Sundstedt (Fin) Gas Sport Team 276 9 Tatiana Stiajkina (Ukr) Acca Due O-Lorena Camicie 272 10 Joane Somarriba Arrola (Spa) Team Alfa Lum R.S.M. 247 11 Tracey Gaudry (Aus) Timex Women's Professional Cycling Team 232 12 Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli (Fra) French National Team 212 13 Judith Arndt (Ger) German National Team 211 14 Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel (Ned) Team Farm Frites-Hartol 195 15 Daniela Veronesi (Smr) Team Alfa Lum R.S.M. 182 16 Ina Teutenberg (Ger) German National Team 180 17 Mari Holden (USA) Timex Women's Professional Cycling Team 179 18 Geneviève Jeanson (Can) Canadian National Team 176 19 Valentina Polkhanova (Rus) Edilsavino 172 20 Heidi Van De Vijver (Bel) Vlaanderen 2002-Ladies Team 155 Teams ranking: 1 Acca Due O - Lorena Camicie 1517 pts 2 Saturn Cycling Team 1225 3 Team Alfa Lum R.S.M. 922 4 Radteam Kupfernagel 651 5 Gas Sport Team 556 6 Team Farm Frites - Hartol 448 7 Timex Women's Professional Cycling Team 439 8 Edilsavino 425 9 Vlaanderen 2002 - Ladies Team 325 10 Master Team - Carpe Diem 218 11 Autotrader.Com Cycling Team 84 12 Team Nürnberger 76 13 Team Elita 75 14 S.C. Michela Fanini Record Rox 66 15 Team Lolland - Falster 23 16 Team Aliverti - Immobiliare Luca 8 17 La Rosa Dei Venti 4 Nations ranking: 1 Germany 1478 pts 2 Lithuania 1422 3 Australia 1047 4 Netherlands 805 5 Russia 707 6 France 514 7 Canada 435 8 Italy 393 9 Norway 340 10 Ukraine 337Junior Men 1 Peter Mazur (Pol) 118 2 Blazej Janiaczyk (Pol) 105 3 Marcel Sieberg (Ger) 70 4 Lukasz Bodnar (Pol) 35 4 Pavel Broutt (Rus) 35 6 Tomasz Dajewski (Pol) 30 6 Aleksander Kvachuk (Ukr) 30 6 Kenny Van Hummel (Ned) 30 9 Jacek Dwurznik (Pol) 25 9 Wojciech Dybel (Pol) 25 9 Martin Hebök (Cze) 25 12 Denys Kostyuk (Ukr) 23 13 Uladzamir Autka (Blr) 20 13 Michal Kesl (Cze) 20 13 Kor Steenbergen (Ned) 20 16 Caspar Austa (Est) 18 16 Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu) 18 18 Johannes Kaiser (Ger) 16 18 Franticek Raboo (Cze) 16 20 Peter Möhlmann (Ned) 14 20 Dustin Rademacher (USA) 14
Casagrande sneaks inSome of those extra UCI points earned by Francesco Casagrande came from him winning the mountains jersey in the Giro. This was the subject of some controversy though, as he only claimed it from Chepe Gonzalez (Aguardiente-Selle Italia) on the final time trial from Briancon to Sestrieres. Climbing points are awarded in such time trials by measuring the time taken between two points (red lines) on the course. This was done through time transponders fitted to the bikes, and measured on the final climb (where Casagrande actually rode quite well). However, only 23 of the 141 had these transponders fitted, including Gonzalez who was a little slower than Casagrande. So, if Casagrande had not set the quickest time up the mountain, then he wouldn't have gained the maximum 15 points. Chepe would have still been behind him, but presumably would have lost less points to Casagrande. The final result: Casagrande wouldn't have dead-heated with Chepe on points (71 each) and given the jersey on a countback. Now, according to the Giro officials who were also using "conventional" visual timing on the final climb, Casagrande was in fact 11th fastest. This would have put him out of the points altogether! In a TV interview afterwards, the Giro officials said that they offered to call the KOM a dead heat between the two but Vini Caldirola and Casagrande said "no". So Casa keeps the Green, Chepe goes home with some bruises, the Italians are happy and the Colombians not.
Pantani back in courtJust days after his team's success in the Giro and now looking to the Tour, Marco Pantani has had to return to court in Italy to face charges of sporting fraud. This related to his alleged high hematocrit level (over 60%) measured after his accident in Milan Turin, 1995. Before the Giro had even started, this case in Forli was one of the main reasons for Pantani's absence from competition. His lawyers had asked for it to be thrown out but in a surprising move, judge Stefano Celli asked him to stand trial following the Giro. His lawyer, Gaetano Insolera once again appealed for the trial not to go ahead, but to no avail. Pantani will now have to answer questions in between preparing for the Tour de France, commencing in less than 4 weeks time. Farm Frites for LuxembourgThis UCI Class 2.2 race will be an important race for Robbie McEwen if he is to gain selection in the Farm Frites team for the Tour de France. It's only four days long though, and may not suit the sprinters talents. The rest of the team for the race is Geert van Bondt, Peter van Petegem, Serguei Ivanov, Servais Knaven, Jans Koerts, Glenn Magnusson, and Andreas Klier. Tour of Luxembourg stages
Stage 1 - June 8: Luxembourg-Dippach, 181 km Total 693 km 40th TDK Nevada City Bicycle ClassicThe longest running cycling event on the West Coast and the 2nd oldest race in the US returns to Nevada City for its 40th Year Anniversary on June 24-25, 2000. The TDK Nevada City Classic, which started in 1961, is a criterium race on a 1-mile circuit through the quaint town of Nevada City, located off Highway 49 in the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 500 participants are expected, and 10 times this number in spectators, including a guest appearance by local legend Greg LeMond, three-time winner of the Tour de France and two-times world champion. On Saturday June 24th there will be a 100 or 54 kilometre fun ride through the Sierra Nevada Foothills sponsored by Sierra Express Bicycle Club (check in 6:30-8 am at the Tour of Nevada Bike Shop). On Sunday, there will be a chance to ride with Greg Lemond once again through the foothills of Nevada City for 32 kilometres. Later on Sunday, the racing happens with men's, master's, junior's and women's circuit races. This is no flat sprint around the block either, as each 1 mile (1.6 km) lap involves 300 feet (92 m) of climbing. In the 40 lap men's race, this equates to 12,000 feet which will probably hurt. Favourites for this year's elite events include current national series leader, Scott Moninger (Mercury) and Tracey Gaudry (Timex). |