News for March 4, 2000

VDB favourite

The 67th edition of the Paris - Nice Hors category stage race starts today, with a 7.9 km individual time trial at Bois de Vincennes. The "race to the sun", organised now by Frenchman , Laurent Fignon, will see an interesting battle, as many of the big names (Jalabert, Boogerd, Zulle, Armstrong, Pantani) will not be there.

Although Belgian Frank Vandenbroucke is probably the star billing, the enigmatic Cofidis rider "is only at 80 percent" according to his director Alain Deloeil. He has still not had success this year, despite the best efforts of his team at last weekend's Het Volk and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.

Marc Madiot, a keen watcher of the Belgian camp says: "He is well, it is certain. But is he as strong as it is said? It will quickly become clear..."

The race will also be the objective for prologue specialist, Chris Boardman, riding for Credit Agricole. The 7.9 km course favours him, and he would love to win another in his final year as a pro.

The race is designed to be balanced, favouring attacking riders and strong (but not overly so) climbers. The only traditional sprinters stage is from Nevers to Belleville (203.7 km), but the other seven stages should see a mixture of results.

There will be a record twenty 8 man teams starting, with eight of these teams being French. Richard Virenque of Polti will try and make his mark, along with Julich, O'Grady and Vaughters of Credit Agricole. Telekom's Vinokourov may produce a strong ride, but he has not shown it yet. It will certainly be a different type of race this year.

Jan is cruising

Despite being over 23 minutes down, in 92nd place in the Tour of Murcia at the moment, German Jan Ullrich is not particularly worried, and neither is his team management. "Jan is calm and unconcerned at the moment, it is a good result and part of the plan," said his personal manager, Wolfgang Strohband who is accompanying him in Southern Spain.

He finished in the bunch today in 47th place, and is definitely using the race as training, although he may have a dig in the upcoming Tirrenio-Adriatico next week. He plans to ride in the Milan - San Remo to help Zabel, and will have to have a semblance of reasonable condition in order to do so. However, he is in better shape than Marco Pantani, who did not start due to back problems, and Oscar Freire, who retired for a similar reason.

Another Telekom rider, Udo Bölts has gone home as well. He was suffering from a stomach and an intestinal infection, but is already a lot better for having left the race. Team spokesman, Matthias Schumann, said that "it is still planned that he will start Paris-Nice on Sunday."

Aitken doubtful

One of the main favourites for tonight's Australian Madison championships in Melbourne, Brett Aitken, will probably pull out due to illness, according to AAP. He has had gastric problems and was barely able to stand yesterday at his Adelaide home.

He was set to partner Gene Bates, and along with Stephen Pate, were considered the main attractions for the event. One of these two riders is set to partner Scott McGrory at the Olympics in September, where the madison will be held for the first time.

"Last night was quite terrible, then when I woke up this morning I struggled to stand up,'' said Aitken, too AAP. "I've been really keen to compete tomorrow, I had (what) I believed was a good partner - Gene Bates is a young guy, but a good rider. At this stage, unless there's a major turnaround, it's not going to happen for me.''

He will wait until today, before making a final decision. His partner, Bates will ride with Bay Series B grade winner, Tim Bennett from Bendigo if Aitken is unable to.

Aitken has just returned from a training camp in Mexico, where he has been for the past month with other members of the AIS. He reported that it was a good camp - he has not been since 1996 - but he was fairly tired upon returning home.

He does plan on riding next weekend at the Bendigo Madison, as part of his lead up to the Australian titles starting March 22.