News for March 1, 2000
Morales' deathThe death of Fuenlabrada rider, Saúl Morales yesterday has shocked Spanish cycling. The rider was involved in a collision with a truck after 20 kilometers of stage 7 of the Tour of Argentina. According to witnesses, the police controlling the race had told the driver of the truck to move to the side of the road as the cyclists were coming the other way. However, the truck only waited until the main group had passed, and not the stragglers behind the race, including Morales, and Carsten Gottschalk (Ger, Agro Adler Brandenburg). The truck collided with Morales, who then hit Gottschalk who suffered a broken collarbone. Morales was pronounced dead upon arrival at the Cesar Aguilar hospital in Caucete, San Juan suffering multiple heart attacks, head and thorax injuries. The riders rode the rest of the stage 7 in mourning, but will not resume the race until stage 9 with the individual time trial. All prize money from stages 6 and 7 will be donated to the Morales family. The Fuenlabrada team withdrew immediately and will return to Madrid today. They will not ride the Tour of Murcia as planned. After having three riders die in four years on the roads (Morales, Manuel Sanroma in 1999, and Jose Antonio Espinosa in 1996), the team has been deeply affected by the incident. Team director, José Perez said that: "The team is shattered. Saúl was with us for 11 years, first as an amateur and then as professional. Germán Nieto and Nácor Burgos were his good friends and could not believe it when I told them in the dining room." "We did not know how to react," said Nieto. "Some of us were so affected that they left the team hotel to come to terms with it." The directors of the Mapei, Kelme and ONCE teams expressed their sympathies also, pronouncing what a good and hard working rider Morales was, and how much potential he had. They called for race organisers to be more careful so as to avoid such accidents. Alvaro Pino (Kelme) added that: "The thing is, that the cyclists come off worst. Although you can say that we took too many risks and it is dangerous, this does not help the problem," also giving his condolences to the Morales family. Rider safety is a big concern of team directors, and they called for the organisers to better plan their races and the roads that they would use. "It is important to have different races during the season [like the Tour of Argentina], but we must also teach the organisers the importance of having suitable safety measures," said José Miguel Echávarri, Banesto's team director.
Drew joins MercuryAustralian cyclist, Jamie Drew has officially signed for the US division II team, Mercury. He had started a contract with Italian team Aguardiente Nectar this year, but was not satisfied with the amount of racing he was scheduled to do. The Australian Champion, has been a consistent rider for many years on the domestic scene, winning some of Australia's most presigious races such as the Grafton-Inverell, Melbourne-Warrnambool and the Melbourne-Sorrento. He also won stage 2 of the Tour de Langkawi this year. He will make his debut this weekend at the Visalia Cycling Classic in the USA, followed by the category 2.4 Sea Otter Classic on March 16-18. Major wins 2000 1999 1997 1995
Surgery saves Norwegian Tour ticket?By Tomas Nilsson, cyclingnews.com correspondent US Postie Steffen Kjaergaard will have shoulder surgery done in Valencia, Spain, within a week. The 26 year old Norwegian crashed during Trofeo Luis Puig on February 20 and dislocated his shoulder. The decision was taken during the Tour of Valencia last week. It is no serious injury but manager Johan Bruyneel thinks that it's best to have it done now, so that Kjaergaard can be in good shape for the Tour de France. The Norwegian is one of twelve riders on the team preliminary appointed for the Tour squad. "But the condition is that I have this surgery. I can't ride the Tour with my shoulder in this condition. If I would be among the nine that ride the Tour, I have to count on one or two falls and the team cannot afford having me spending an extra ten or fifteen minutes to get my shoulder in place," reports Kjaergaard to his Norwegian site Norcycling. Kjaergaard will be able to start training just a few days after the operation but will not count on competition until April. The shoulder problems actually started while he was sleeping a few nights before the Norwegian Championships last summer and the shoulder has been disloacted in several falls. The US Postal team is scheduled to ride the Hors Categorie stage race, Paris-Nice starting March 5. "Our goal will be to win one stage," said Bruyneel. The team has eight riders down to start: Frankie Andreu, Lance Armstrong, Julian Dean, Viatcheslav Ekimov, George Hincapie, Benoit Joachim, Christian Vande Velde and Cedric Vasseur. Back home, the team is aiming to defend its title at the Redlands Bicycle Classic, starting March 7. They will send a five man team to the event, which they have won for the past four years: Dylan Casey, David George, Marty Jemison, Levi Leipheimer and Kirk O'Bee
Armstrong and Jalabert at Tour rehearsalThe 52nd Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, traditional rehearsal for the Tour, will be both beautiful and hard, says organizer Thierry Cazeneuve. The race starts June 4th in Grenoble and ends in Sallanches, June 11. The third day will be the hardest with three major climbs: Col d'Allos (2240m), Col de Vars (2109 m) and the Col d'Izoard (2360 m). Two days later Mont Ventoux is on the menu. Lance Armstrong (U.S. Postal) and Laurent Jalabert (ONCE) are amongst those scheduled to ride. Eight French teams are contracted and among the foreign teams are Banesto, ONCE and Kelme. More details will be unveiled in the beginning of April.
Road contract for Danish track aceBy Tomas Nilsson, cyclingnews.com correspondent Danish indoor six day ace Jimmi Madsen has signed with the amateur group Team Bornholm for the coming road season. Madsen are among the top ranked indoor trackies and rode for Acceptcard on the road last year and Acceptcard was also his personal sponsor on the track. However, since the team folded Madsen has had difficulties getting a new contract. His last road season was not impressive enough, with some top ten results in national races. Team Bornholm is managed by former Acceptcard sports director Fritz Mogensen and has now seven riders under contract.
Fagnini plans"I will lead Erik to the victory at san Remo", promises Telekom's new lead out man, Gian-Matteo Fagnini, and reveals in an interview with German website Sport1 that he has wanted to go to Telekom for quite a while. Fagnini is considered to be the peloton's foremost lead out man, and has prepared the sprints for Mario Cipollini for some years. "Telekom is one of the best teams in the world and I needed some new challenges and new goals." Fagnini changes team but will have the same role, as lead out man. Why not a star role? "It is enough for me to come to Telekom, when I got the chance. I could have gone to a smaller team where everyone rode for me but I would rather be on the big team." About his personal ambitions, Fagnini is looking forward to the World Championships that he hopes to be qualified for. The main goals are otherwise to help Erik Zabel win the Milan-San Remo and another green jersey in the tour. He will of course miss the Giro, the highlight of the season for any Italian, but respects the management's program for the season and he has no problems being in the shade of Zabel and Jan Ullrich. "In Saeco everything was focused on Cipollini. I'm used to it." So what about Cipollini's future without Fagnini? "He will keep on winning, even though I've helped him to many victories. He is still the best sprinter in the world but I'm waiting to see how his new aid-de-camps work. Watt gets closerDavid Marsh, of the "West Australian" reports that Kathy Watt is getting closer to the Olympic qualifying time of 3:38 for the 3,000 m individual pursuit. In four days, starting Friday, February 25, she has clocked 3:47.75, 3:44.10 (February 27) and 3:41.80 (February 28) at the Midvale Speed Dome in Perth. She intends on having another try on Friday, March 3. |