News for March 12, 2000Ullrich not quiteRudy Pevenage talks about an excess of 7 kilos, while his team mates say 22 pounds. Again: Jan Ullrich has had a bad winter. He wasn't living like a champion. In the Tirreno-Adriatico Ullrich is not available for camera teams. He has hidden himself. "I couldn't do it again. But I have time enough for my main goals: the Tour de France and the Olympics," he said. The plan was to do enough kilometers in the Tirreno as preparation for Milan-San Remo. But Erik Zabel will not count on Ullrich any more. He was able to follow the peloton in stage 2, but that was easy with an average of 35 km/h. Yesterday, with the climbs at the end, Ullrich arrived 13 minutes behind Jalabert. His nickname in the peloton is 'Mister Michelin'. Harsh, but fair? Laurent Jalabert: "When you live in the winter like Jan, you aren't a big champion. I said hello to him during a stage. He tried to answer, but he didn't have enough air..." Johan Museeuw: "I would be ashamed to come to the start with a body like Ullrich. Miguel Indurain always started with some excess weight, but he won Paris-Nice twice. Ullrich has to do a lot to lose all that fat."
Jeroen Blijlevens misses homeDutch sprinter, Jeroen Blijlevens (Polti) who is now residing in Italy, is missing some aspects of home: Chips (frites), the soccerteam NAC in Breda and a buyer for his house in Meerle in the Netherlands. "The chips! They are very strict about the food here in Italy. And
I miss my first victory. Our team hasn't won anything till now. But
I'm not nervous, it will come," he said. He also offers an opinion on team leader Stanga: "I don't want to
hurt Cees Priem, but Stanga worked with very big riders: Moser, Fignon,
Thurau, Bugno, and now Gotti."
The 37th edition of the Spanish Setmana Catalana (Catalan Week) will
start on Monday, March 20 running through to Friday, March 24. A five
day working week to be sure. The six stage race will run over 729 kilometers,
concluding with a road race and an individual time trial on the last
day. The time trial will be conducted on the mountain of Montjuich,
a well known climber's challenge.
Twenty teams will participate, seven of them Spanish and there are
some big names down to start this 2.1 category race. Lance Armstrong,
Jan Ullrich, Marco Pantani, Laurent Jalabert (last year's winner), Alex
Zülle, Michael Boogerd, Oscar Freire, Fernando Escartín, Jose Maria
Jiménez and Melchor Mauri are all on the start list.
Courtesy of Velomedia
The Post Swiss Team announced the arrival of new rider. 32-year-old
German rider Stephan Gottschling who began this season with the new
German GS II team IPM will sign with the Swiss outfit. IPM disintegrated
a few days ago due to a financial scandal, leaving its riders with nowhere
to go, as the season is well under way.
Gottschling's experience will be a good aid to the team's young riders,
according to team manager Kurt Buergi. Gottschling will have a role
as a team captain amongst the 13 riders in the team.
The management of Fuenlabrada, the team of the deceased Saul Morales,
has said that they will sue the organisers of the Tour of Argentinia.
They claim that the death of Morales was because there wasn't sufficient
traffic protection, so the truck was able to come onto the parcours.
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