News for March 22, 2000

Pantani: What now?

After his latest announcement that he does not want to return to racing just yet, Marco Pantani is risking missing out on some important race miles at this point in the season. In his letter, he stated that he had too many internal stresses to face competition just yet, and will start at an indefinite point in the future. He has been out of racing since February 23 when he retired from the Tour of Valencia.

Dr Emilio Magni who has been looking after Il Pirata of late, said late yesterday that he was in a "severe state of stress", and could not participate in any competition. This prompted a large reaction from his team management and the media, and Pantani eventually issued his 17 line statement yesterday . Team director, Felice Gimondi told La Gazzetta dello Sport afterwards that "it is useless to insist that he races - if he needs time then he must be calm for a little. He must be left in peace in order to make a decision. We'll wait for him," he said.

Pantani has only done 337 km of racing this season, and his Giro 2000 is already under a lot of pressure. Prior to his start in the Tour of Valencia, he'd had nearly nine months off racing after his Giro '99 incident. He was to have done the Clasica Almeria, Vuelta Murcia, possibly Milan San Remo, and the Settimana Ciclista Internazionale, starting tomorrow. He is entered in the GP Miguel Indurain (April 1) and the Tour of the Basque Country (April 3 - 7), but these are very much in doubt.

Hincapie's San Remo

US Postal Service's George Hincapie was amongst the front runners in Saturday's Milan San Remo before suffering misfortune at a critical time - right at the bottom of the Poggio with just 10 kilometers of frenzied racing to go.

According to team reports, Hincapie was clipped by another rider at the base of the climb, destroying his front wheel. "His front wheel was broken and he had to stop," said team director Johan Bruyneel. "There were no cars behind the lead group because the gap (over the next group of riders) was small. Even if there was someone to change his wheel right away, the race was over for him."

Although he did receive a wheel change, he missed getting onto the lead group (unlike Baldato!) and his race was finished. He was very disappointed, as the sprint at the end could have seen him on the podium. However, he was pleased overall with his form, especially with more classics to come. Will this year be the one where George wins Paris-Roubaix?

He should have good support from teammate Viatcheslav Ekimov who was in the front group until the Poggio. Frankie Andreu was riding well also, until he crashed at 202 km, chasing back on only to break his front wheel in a large hole descending the Cipressa.

Lance Armstrong, who finished at 4:35 is reputed to be in good sprits and is physically in better shape than at this time last year. He is currently competing in the Catalan Week where he is not far off finishing in the lead group.

Scott Sunderland update

Courtesy of Sabine Sunderland

A quick note to start the week with. Scott has done his first 100 kilometers since the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne crash yesterday. He rode over to my parents, who live at the Belgian coast now. He said he enjoyed the ride a lot and I bet he's happy about not having the knee all wrapped up any more. The wound has closed up to a patch with a 3cm diameter now but it still looks pretty nasty. He still has bandages on some other spots too, but they don't really bother him that much any more. So now, it's just a case of getting back into shape, with the help of frequent treatments by a kinetherapist-osteopath.

A pity he lost three weeks of racing, especially with the team doing fantastic work! Walter Planckaert hopes Scott will be back in the swing of things by Liege-Bastogne-Liege and I can tell you, Scott will work very hard to get there too. There are plenty of nice races on for the coming two months and Scott is looking forward to making up for lost opportunities. If the weather stays dry this week - he still can't train in the rain, as the doctor does not want to get any dirt in the wound - Scott will be doing some heavy training rides in the next coming days.

Thanks for all the kind e-mails, cards and calls, they all helped to keep the chin up!

Former Festina doctor talks doping

Belgian doctor Eric Rijckaert, who was implicated in the "Festina affair" of 1998 talked recently about that event, which set in motion several major investigations into drug taking within the peloton. In the Belgian weekly "Humo", Rijckaert asked people to reconsider his case, and he has even been the subject of a book: "The Festina affair: The right of reply from Dr Eric Rijckaert," by Hans Vandeweghe.

Rijckaert takes a slightly different approach from soigneur Willy Voet, although he still believes that there was widespread drug use in professional cycling. He blames the deaths by heart attacks in the late eighties on anabolic steroids and cortisone, rather than EPO use for example. However, the underlying cause is the same.

He also believes that drug use is still widespread, although more sophisticated - a combination of IGF1 (Human growth hormone precursor), EPO, and other products to ensure that riders make it through events like the Tour de France. "Can a normal person ride for 20 days in three weeks, with the equivalent of a marathon each day," he asks. The same story.

Mapei doctor, Yvan Vanmol who looks after Tom Steels and Johan Museeuw, said in "Het Laatse Nieuws" that "total control is an illusion. How can you ban a product that will help riders, but is undetectable [for the moment]?" The control issue relates to the fact that team doctors do not know their riders every move. Responsibility shifts ever so easily.

Bruylandts in doubt

After he was not allowed to start in today's Setmana Catalana stage 2 due to being over 50%, Belgian Farm Frites rider Dave Bruylandts will have to undergo at least 15 days rest before he is allowed to compete again. However, his team have announced that they will carry out their own tests and if these give the same result, he will lose his contract.

Australian selector resigns

Long time president of the NSW cycling federation and current head of the Australian board of selectors, Alex Fulcher, has announced his resignation. Fulcher made a bid to become the next president of Cycling Australia at the annual general meeting held yesterday, but failed after Mike Victor was elected. Queenslander Victor is the father of national women's coach, James Victor.

Ray Godkin, the current head of CA will finish his presidency in November and spoke of Victor as a worthy successor. However, he also attempted to persuade Fulcher from resigning saying that he "would be welcomed back if he changed his mind."

Current national coaching director Ron Bonham, will replace Fulcher as the head of selectors. He will work with Charlie Walsh in Gary Sutton in this role.

Henninger Turm has fewer top teams

The German semi-classic "Rund um den Henninger Turm", scheduled for May 1 will have a reduced list of division one teams, according to German press agency, DPA. Only 12 first division teams (of 25 in total) will start, including Telekom, Saeco and Mapei. It is likely that Milan San Remo winner, Erik Zabel will be there, however the remainder of the teams and starters for the 206 km event have yet to be confirmed.

Lausberg forced to rest...

German kilo time triallist, Sören Lausberg, has been forced to stop training for six weeks due to an achilles tendon injury. Whilst training with the German track team in Mallorca, Lausberg had to be flown home for surgery after he strained it.

A dual world 1 km champion, Lausberg was a member of Germany's Olympic Sprint team, which came third at last year's World's in Berlin. He was also involved in the recent tragic death of National Coach, Robert Lange, as the two were out training when the latter was struck by a car in Mallorca.

As does McGee

Australian rider, Bradley McGee is also reported to be suffering from tendonitis - this time in the knee. He started in Saturday's Milan San Remo but was forced to abandon due to knee problems. This is a blow for McGee, as he had been riding quite well in Paris-Nice, leading up to the classic. It is not known when he'll be back, but he will probably miss the upcoming Criterium International and the three days of De Panne.

Korff on the mend

As does Festina's Andre Korff, who was the last member of the team's "walking wounded" (including Angel Casero, Fabian Jeker, Angel Sainz de la Maza, who are all back on the bike). Korff had minor arthroscopic knee surgery in January and was expected to only miss ten days on the bike. However, the morning of the day that he was due to start training again he awoke to find that his knee was badly infected. The infection worsened and his knee opened up, so he had to wait for his knee to heal again. It did, but too quickly. He is due for another operation to clean out the infection and is expected to return to training in the next 2 weeks.