News for March 29, 2000

Hinault: Godefroot responds

Telekom's sports director, Walter Godefroot, sharply repelled the criticism against Jan Ullrich and other cyclists. Bernard Hinault, five times Tour de France winner said in an interview yesterday that "he [Ullrich] has worked unprofessionally this winter" claiming that it is the winter's work, not the summer's, that win the races for you. Hinault also criticised Ullrich and other riders for focussing on the Tour, although Hinault himself works for the Tour de France organisation.

Godefroot, on the other hand has other ideas: "Hinault is no longer up to date. And besides, everyone cannot have the same mentality as he had," he said on Tuesday . He added that it's logical that "Hinault (in the interest of the organiser) would like to see Jan Ullrich in all his employer's races. This is no longer possible, however."

With respect to the almost standard question in a cycling guessing game, Jan Ullrich's current weight: "We know ourselves that Jan weighs too much, but his balance for the last four years, one Tour victory and twice second, a Vuelta victory and a World Championships confirms his methods," said Godefroot.

Meanwhile Ullrich's team mate Georg Totschnig was quoted in an Austrian newspaper having said that Ullrich had ten kilograms of overweight. The climber Totschning says that he was misquoted and has protested in a letter to the editor.

Jan Ullrich himself takes the weight discussion calmly during his training camp at Badenweiler in the Black Forest. "I ride 200 km per day," he says and "admits" around four kilos overweight. "This time of the year there is no reason for sorrow," he told German radsport-news.com. His next race will be the Circuit de la Sarthe starting April 4.

Olano "blames" non existing kilograms

While we're on the weight subject, Abraham Olano has had a very good season opening with three victories in important stage races: Vuelta Comunidad Valenciana (2.3), Tirreno-Adriatico (HC) and now the Criterium International (2.2).

He has pointed out that he was some four or five kilograms lighter than usual: "I did not used to be that concerned by my weight and I only thought about it before the big events. But this year (team manager) Manolo Saiz ordered me to go on a diet before the winter break," he told Reuters. Olano has been training in the Sierra Nevada at 3,000 meters and has covered 14,000 kilometers so far this season and says that he, with a few kilos less, feels "more comfortable" in the climbs.

Abraham Olano, World Champion already in 1995, was touted to take over Miguel Indurain's crown but did not manage to develop when his time came. Lack of climbing power has been his problem. A somewhat lighter problem this year.

Kelme not worried about ONCE

Vicente Belda, team director of Kelme said today that he thinks ONCE's current run of success (seven stage races this year) will come to an end, and his team will start to score more victories. In his first year as director of Kelme, Belda has a tough battle to reomve his rival team from the victory headlines. According to him, "their energies have a limit".

Belda predicts that ONCE will not be as strong in the Tour or the Giro, and will probably take some comfort in the fact that ONCE are unlikely Giro starters. The team director, Manolo Saiz said on Spanish Televesion that they would prefer to concentrate on the Tour and the Vuelta this year, because there was too small a gap between the finish of the Giro and the start of the Tour. However, they have yet to confirm their decision.

Is this Kelme's chance to have Escartin win the Giro? Quite possibly, although the seventh UCI ranked team is after wins in "smaller" races as well, in order to boost their profile. "I wish to get the most out of my riders, although sometimes we do not win, like in the Setmana," he commented.

They will focus on the Tour (who is this guy Hinault and what does he know?), as that is their big selling point. The classics have always been ignored largely by Kelme, however with Oscar Freire showing that a Spaniard can (almost) win a classic, they may change their focus a little. Maybe not the Mapei 1-2-3 style, but at least a podium spot.

He speaks of Olano's recent successes in a positive light, despite the fact that he is on the rival team. A Tour winner for Spain would be good for Spanish cycling. Fernando Escartín is Belda's choice for this achievement of course, and he will prepare by riding the Bicicleta Vasca and the Vuelta Asturias. The trick is timing his form for the Tour and Vuelta, Belda concludes.

Casero finally back

Festina's injured star, Angel Casero has sorted out his plans for the future, after having many months off due to an achilles tendon injury. He says that he will ride the Circuit de la Sarthe, on April 4, before the Tour of Aragon and then Romandie.

"I am training well. Until now, I have been unable to do anything specific because of the injury, but lately I have managed some more specific training be ready for the races," he said.

Although he is the first to admit that he will not be in race condition for a while, the fifth placed rider in last year's Tour de France says he will be back. That event remains high on his priorities for the year, followed by the Vuelta and the World's.

In fact, Casero believes he can improve on fifth in the Tour if he has no mishaps in the first week, and a little luck. He too, spoke highly of the current Spanish successes of Olano, Freire and Dominguez. "In general the Spanish riders are fighting and that is what matters. I hope that in the Tour we give it everything," he said.

Kristensen in team conflict

By Tomas Nilsson, cyclingnews.com correspondent

The Danish former European MTB Champion and winner of MTB Tour de France, Lennie Kristensen is aiming for the Olympics, and a new Danish MTB team has been formed to help him. But there is a little problem. The team forgot to ask Kristensen's road team, second division Team Fakta.

According to Fakta spokesmen, Lennie Kristensen has not signed any contract with Team Xerox Partner Viborg, the MTB team that is supposed to take him to the Olympic Games in Sydney. The people behind Team Xerox Partner Viborg have contacted Kristensen, but he has not given any definite answer. Fakta has allowed Kristensen to ride the MTB World Cup races that fits their plans, under certain conditions, among them that he rides in the Team Fakta jersey.

Team Xerox Partner Viborg has signed, apart from Lennie Kristensen, Michael Grønbæk, Christian Poulsen, Klaus Nielsen, Thomas Dam, John Madsen and Michael Gladney. The MTB team's ambitions are to take part in some World Cup races and major championships.

Lennie Kristensen has had a quite good season's opening on the road, wearing the leader's jersey in Tour de Normandie recently, and the KOM jersey for several days in Tour de Langkawi.

Sunderland for the Ronde

Courtesy of Sabine Sunderland

So, we're on summer time now (daylight savings) but unfortunately there is not much of spring to be seen, let alone summer. Ok, the trees are budding and some are even flowering, but underneath a steel grey sky, the view is not really uplifting! Now and then the sun tries to break through and sometimes even promises well, for a couple of hours. But that's it for this week, so the weather forcaster said this morning.

Temperatures? A chilly 8°C max the coming days.. am I glad I am not a professional cyclist! Scott and Robbie (McEwen) have been training together the last week - both trying hard to get back into shape. Robbie has been out with a flu and as you know, Scott is trying to get over his latest injuries. Rather them than me, going from cold shower to cold shower for hours, enough to drive you insane. I often think about them as I run from here to there underneath my umbrella.

We were talking about Scott's injuries and set-backs the other day. (We normally try to avoid talking about it at home) Scott and I have known each other for almost 7 years, we met somewhere in April '93... Scott had a strong start to the season, with really nice results. That spring he was having some trouble after a serious crash in Spain. He got blood-poisoning after race-medics cleaned the wound in his left leg with contaminated water. The leg swelled up and felt extremely hot for weeks. Later that year, Scott was diagnosed with Hep B. During the 3 month incubation Scott had struggled with fatigue and loss of power, he was wondering what on earth was happening to him. We were sort of relieved to find out what the cause was. It took him about a year to get over the infection. He signed for Lotto at the end of '94.

In '95, he was operated on his right knee, had a hell of a time recuperating from that. Becoming a dad early '96 gave him another incentive and he rode a strong season, in service of Tchmil. In '97, he started well but crashed early in the season, hurt his wrist which gave him heaps of trouble racing. Luckily, that cleared too and he rode an impressive series of races afterwards.

In '98, well, the Amstel Gold accident, I don't have to explain that one I think... Then came '99, a year of immense hard work trying to get back in the peloton, rewarded with a nice win in Spain (Vuelta a Castilla-Leon) and a strong ride in the Commonwealth Bank Classic.

A great start to the new millenium with a third (2nd Australian) at the Open National Championships. Then, end of February, a nasty tumble in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. Now, we look at that one as the closure of 7 years of bad luck in racing. It has to be that way as we can only expect and hope that the next 7 years be good ones. 7 hard ones, 7 easy ones, isn't that the way it goes? Anyway, we really do want to close of that chapter now and get on with it.

Scott's morale is good and he is training hard, is focused and does all the right things, with the osteopath and the doctors keeping an eye on him. The spirits were lifted even more the other day as Walter Planckaert called to ask how Scott would feel about starting competition again in Tour of Flanders. I could hear the hesitation but also the thrill in Scott's voice.

Of course it will only be to give the team a hand and place Hendrick Van Dijck, or one of the other Palmans guys on the right spot in the peloton before the final starts. Scott has always been a great domestique: in contrast to many others, he does not mind at all riding for team mates to help them get a win. Even though now he is the team leader in Palmans, he will do the job of the "working horse" (as we call the domestique) well. Scott has proven to many that he has a great insight in the one-day races, so Walter reckons the team can't go without him there.

Planckaert was panicking a bit last week, when Scott said he would not be ready for 3 days of De Panne. He told the Belgian journalists that the team would not start in Liege-Bastogne-Liege without Scott. After hearing things were looking better, Walter is now hoping to get Scott into racing-shape by letting him ride at least the first 120 kms in Flanders.

So, for those following the race the next weekend, watch for Scott during the first hours as he will, more than likely, turn home to shower after the peloton leaves the Flemish Ardennes (where we live). A warm shower here at home and then to the finish line (20kms away) in Meerbeke to see the guys come in. That's the plan for now. We'll let you know if orders change.