News for March 26, 2000

Ullrich's manager goes full time

Jan Ullrich's manager Wolfgang Strohband has sold his used car business in Hamburg and will now concentrate full time on managing the German star cyclist, he said in an interview with German newspaper, Die Welt.

Strohband has been a cycling enthusiast and leader for the past three decades. As a soigneur for the German Olympic team he helped Gregor Braun, Klaus-Peter Thaler and Dieter Thurau, all to become professional stars. He also wanted to build a Bundesliga team in Hamburg but got no support from the town officials.

When the Berlin wall fell he got his chance. He contacted Peter Becker, one of the best trainers in East Germany who brought six young riders, among them Jan Ullrich, to Hamburg. The start was not without complications, the house the team was going to use was not ready when they arrived so Strohband put them up in Hotel Metropol owned by a friend for six weeks. Address: Reperbahn, the famous (or infamous) red light district of Hamburg. An interesting first contact with the joys of capitalism for the six teenagers.

On the roads the team was successful with Jan Ullrich's amateur World Champion title in Oslo 1993 as the climax. Strohband asked Eddy Merckx, Rudi Altig and Walter Godefroot (already leader of Telekom) what to do. Merckx thought he should become a pro immediately. Godefroot suggested one more amateur year before he was mature enough for the profesional world. Altig helped to evaluate a not too serious pro offer from Italy and so the deal was settled. "You will have him by 1st of January 1995," said Strohband to Godefroot. He also asked Godefroot if he could recommend a manager. "Manage him yourself. You are at home in cycling," was the answer.

The relationship with other riders on the team is essential, not only for "Ulli" (Strobands name for Jan Ullrich) but also for his manager. When he turns down various autograph writing sessions where the payment is too low (like 15,000 marks) he always suggests someone else on the team. When Ullrich won the tour he not only let the team mates have all the prize money in accordance with tradition, he also gave every rider a 3000 Mark watch from his personal sponsor Tag Uher. Strohband calls it "acting close to the team". Finally, when there were rumors in 1996 saying that Telekom was going to quit cycling, Strohband secretly met several team managers, not only on behalf of "Ulli" but also to secure the other riders a future.

Mercury off to a good start

Today's victory of Canadian Gord Fraser in stage one of the Criterium International saw US team Mercury ruffle more than a few feathers as they beat the Europeans at their own game - the led out bunch sprint. They had flown into France on Thursday evening, but were showing no signs of jet lag on Saturday although Jan Bratowksi was accidentally left behind at the airport.

They have been unstoppable in the US, and have had considerable success in the Tour de Langkawi. Chris Horner describes the team as "very motivated", and he will be certainly trying for a top position on Sunday.

Fraser has won a considerable number of races already this year, however his last big French victory was in the GP Midi-Libere in 1997, where he was with la Mutuelle de Seine-et-Marne. He said he was not surprised with his win, considering his team's hard work and will undoubtably feature on their winning list in the races to come.

Mercury are sponsored by car manufacturer Ford, who would like to capitalise on the Lance Armstrong phenomenon and bring the team into the first division next year. They will need to throw some more cash into the squad to orchestrate a complete Euro campaign, but with results like this, they may be quite willing. Mercury will race in the Route Adélie and the GP Rennes next weekend.

Cadel out of World Cup

By Tim Maloney, cyclingnews.com correspondent

In Friday night's World Cup Street Race Relay, Cadel Evans of Volvo-Cannondale crashed heavily, breaking his collarbone for the second time this season. Evans also crashed in the season opening "Tour Down Under" and has worked hard to come back and be ready for the opening for the 2000 World Cup Mountain Bike Season and the road to Sydney Olympics 2000.

Evans had recently won the "Iron Otter" award at the Sea Otter Classic: the prize that goes to the first rider in both mountain bike & road events at Sea Otter. He will likely be out 4-6 weeks and will miss the entire first half of the 2000 World Cup season. Some observers questioned the wisdom of the Volvo-Cannondale team management in allowing the just recovered and obviously in-form Evans to race in a promotional event that meant nothing to his World Cup chances.

Bruylandts considers

Palmans director, Walter Planckaert talked on Belgian TV on Friday night about his offer to Dave Bruylandts to join the squad for the upcoming season. Farm Frites could no longer have him, as they are trying to keep their image clean. According to Het Volk, the "beer drinking" Peter van Petegem, and the McEwen incident earlier this year have done enough for them not to tolerate any more mishaps.

Even though there is no proof that Bruylandts was using EPO, there is no possibility to work in harmony with the team anymore, and he had to go. Planckaert said that he would be willing to help Bruylandts out, but made it clear that he would not tolerate a repetition of this incident.

He has not signed a contract yet, and has asked for four days to think about it, but it is likely that he will put his name down next week.

In other news, Spar-Oki rider, Gianni Rivera, has been fired as well this week by his team. He received a UCI suspension last year, however his team decided to terminate his contract this week.

Giro d'Italia Femminile

The women's Tour of Italy (Giro Femminile) will have a Spanish start in the year 2000. Spanish news reports say that the Tour will start in Bilbao with a 4.85 km prologue (June 25), and travel to Gernika on stage 1, with the finalisation of the route to take place this coming Monday. Giro 1999 winner, Joanne Somarriba (Spa, Alfa Lum) will wear the first leader's jersey and will be present on Monday.

The entire route is 1,273 kilometres, and it will be have 16 stages. The highest point of the race will be on the eighth stage - the Moncenisio at 2,100 metres. Following this, stage nine (107 km) will have the last 28 kilometers uphill, climbing from 365 metres to 1,570 metres. The penultimate stage 12b is a 11.8 kilometer mountain time trial, from Cordignano to Bosco del Cansiglio at an average of 11 percent. This will surely make for an exciting finish to the tour.

Stages

Prologue - June 25: Pergine Valsugana, 4.850 km 
Stage 1 - June 26: Castello Tesino-Levico Terme, 95.7 km 
Stage 2 - June 27: Este-Este, 95 km 
Stage 3 - June 28: Cittadella-Valdobbiadene, 95 km 
Stage 4 - June 29: Motta Di Livenza-Treviso, 100 km 

Rest day - June 30

Stage 5 - July 1: Montefiorino-Fiorano ,109.6 km 
Stage 6a - July 2: Maranello-Sassuolo, 72 km 
Stage 6b - July 2: Formigine-Sassuolo, ITT, 19.4 km 
Stage 7 - July 3: Cocconato-Casale Monferrato, 90 km 
Stage 8 - July 4: Bardonecchia-Bardonecchia, 100 km 
Stage 9 - July 5: Verres-Champoluc, 107 km 
Stage 10 - July 6: Crema-Crema, 102.4 km 
Stage 11 - July 7: Trento-Monte Bondone, 102 km 
Stage 12a - July 8: Seren del Grappa-Cordignano, 81 km 
Stage 12b - July 8: Cordignano-Bosco del Cansiglio, mountain TT, 11.8 km 
Stage 13 - July 9: Abano Terme-Abano Terme, 92 km

Australian track Championships

Last night at the Dunc Gray velodrome saw another great evening's racing, as most of Australia's top trackies battled it out to be recognised for Olympic selection. Ironically, the biggest event of the evening - the women's 3000m individual pursuit turned out to be a little bit of an anticlimax, with Victoria's Kathy Watt taking out the title from NSW rider Alison Wright. Although pre-race favourite, Alayna Burns had qualified second fastest (behind Watt), she was still suffering from injuries and concussion sustained in a fall on Wednesday night, and was unfortunately not at her best. She lost to Alison Wright in the semi and took the bronze medal home for her time. This is not to take anything away from Watt's victory, who rode very smoothly to overcome Wright in a time of 3.42.789.

With the Australian long team to be named on Monday, it is likely that both Watt and Burns will be in the squad, with the final selection taking place later in the year. Watt's coach and partner, Carey Hall will meet with Cycling Australia today to try and agree on a preparation schedule that suits both parties.

In other events, the Men's keirin was a great battle between Gary Neiwand (Vic) and the NSW team of Ben and Josh Kersten, and Shaun Eadie. Neiwand's experience proved to be too much for the superior numbers of the NSW squad and he took out the title. He hopes to grab the keirin spot in front of Darryn Hill, who is actually racing the keirin circuit in Japan at the moment.

There was action aplenty in the junior U19 women's sprint and scratch races, with a fall in the sprint taking out both Kerrie and Anna Meares in the final race after the two were one apiece. Imagine what family life must be like. Both backed up to ride the scratch race, which was won by NSW rider Kate Bates in a very long sprint.

For full reporting and results, refer to the Australian Track Championships page, day 7. Today will be the final day of the Elite competition, starting at 1 pm at the Dunc Gray velodrome. There's plenty more racing including the men's Olympic sprint, the men's and women's points races, and the junior U19 women's pursuit, and men's keirin and scratch race.

Benfica still in trouble

Spanish sport management company, Sprint Gestión have demanded that the Benfica team pay them 12 million Pesetas ($US 70,000) for services they carried out for the team in 1998/1999. The Benfica team had employed them for consulting, training and medical programs for their cyclists but only payed them a sixth of what they owed, according to a report in newspaper "O Independente".

Benfica supposedly did not want to pay, as Sprint Gestión had not fulfilled their contract, which involved guaranteeing certain results. However, with the victory of David Plaza in the Tour of Portugal, Sprint Gestión claims they were justified in demanding payment, because their methods obviously worked.

Racketeering in Amore e Vita

In Italy, a magistrate in Lucca has demanded that two members of the Amore e Vita team - patron Ivano Fanini and directeur sportif Guiseppe Lanzoni be dismissed from their roles. The grounds are that they were involved in racketeering with a former masseur and mechanic of the team. They have been accused of falsifying declarations of payment to these employees.

The payment forgeries were allegedly made in 1998, after several riders complained that they were receiving less than the minumum wage, with the threat that they would be thrown out of the team. However, Fanini said that they made these claims because he fired them for doping.

Scanlon starts well in France

The Irishman Mark Scanlon, junior World Champion 1998, has had an excellent start of the season in the French amateur club CC Etupes. Last week he won the first stage of the Boucles de l'Essonne with most of the French, and some major foreign, amateur teams in the peloton. He is also very satisfied by the way he is received by his new club: "I am fully integrated in CC Etupes which is a super team. The organization and the environment in the club is great compared to Rabobank (Scanlons espoir team last year) where the riders are more individualists," he said to Velomania.

Mark Scanlon has clear ambitions for this year: The Olympic Games in Sydney: "Ireland is a small nation in cycling, my chances to be on the team are good," he said and also expressed hopes for a pro contract for next year.