News for May 22, 2000

Giro d'Italia news

The great escape

A total of 164 kilometres away by himself, and a maximum advantage of 12.05 at one point, Australian David McKenzie pulled off a remarkable victory in stage 7. Normally known as a sprinter, McKenzie is not to be underestimated in a break and he demonstrated that clearly on Saturday on the road to Teramo. Eddy Mazzoleni tried but failed to catch the Linda McCartney rider, who has helped the considerable popularity of the team in Italy. Cipo's 30th? What about the Veggo's 1st?

So said many of the major Italian newspapers the day after he won the stage, although maybe not quite in those terms. The man himself, Paul McCartney rang up the team from the US to congratulate McKenzie personally, reportedly very happy with the team's first win in Italy.

McKenzie was in tears on the podium, saying that it was "a dream come true for me. I've watched races like the Tour of Italy and the Tour de France on TV in Melbourne since I was 8 or 9 years old. I couldn't even hope to come to a race like this, but I've won a stage. It hasn't sunk in yet."

He suffered a lot on the final climb, with 37 kilometres to go, but came good in the urging of assistant team director, Keith Lambert. And of course a bit to eat. The vegetarian aspect of the Linda McCartney's plan has fascinated many traditionalists, who believe that meat eating is the only way to go for an athlete. McKenzie certainly answered his critics, saying that "you can't dismiss something until you've tried it."

It can be done, so long as sufficient attention is paid to iron and protein intake, and it helps if you have a couple of good Italian cooks on board. It happened again today, with Max Sciandri's second place in stage 8 after nearly an eight hour effort. They're on song.

Douma nearly...

So long was McKenzie's escape, that second placed Vladimir Douma (Ceramica Panaria-Gaerne) thought he'd won the stage as he threw up his arms less than a minute later. He won the bunch sprint from Konyshev, Martinello and Trenti but found later to his disappointment that there was a certain red haired Australian in front of him.

Giro: A third of the field tested

Before the start of stage 7 on Saturday, 51 riders in the Giro were blood tested by the UCI - almost a third of the entire field. Six teams: Mercatone Uno, Vitalicio Seguros, Amica Chips, Liquigas, Saeco and La Francaise des Jeux had their riders tested, including of course former Tour de France winner, Marco Pantani.

All of the cyclists were declared healthy by the UCI after the tests were carried out and were able to start stage seven.

Armstrong update

After his crash a couple of weeks ago in the Pyreneean mountains, Lance Armstrong was forced to change his preparatory plans for the Tour de France. He was scheduled to ride the Midi Libre, but his injuries kept him from doing this and he took some more time to recuperate. At the request of our readers, and in cooperation with Chris Brewer at lancearmstrong.com, cyclingnews is able to provide the following update on Armstrong's condition.

Q: Promise - for the last time - how's the health? From the crash, and life in general - how do you feel, and what percent performance are you ready to race at now?

LA - The health is great. I've not really had any significant side-effects from the crash besides a sore neck... I suspect I'm at about 90% right now. Of course that's a hard number to pinpoint and doesn't mean much until you test yourself in a race, but in training and testing I'm at about 90%.

Q: How do you assess your Tour de France preparation following this "slight delay"?

LA - It was actually a good thing in that perhaps my fitness was getting a little ahead for mid-May. Sometimes you have to be like the Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan, and slow things down a bit! So my crash was the equivalent to a 50 basis point rate hike...

Q: Do you view Dauphine Libere as more of a tune up ride, or is time to check and see what's under the hood in a race setting?

LA - Both, but the efforts that I do make in DL will be selected very carefully. I'm not going there to win, bottom line.

Q: Do you still see Ullrich as your main TdF rival, with reports of him still not in racing form, or are there other riders now more prominent?

LA - Oh, what can I say? He's a huge talent but he loses it a bit in the winter. We'll see in July...I suspect he'll be ready, however the list of favorites is long. Ullrich, Pantani, Olano, Jalabert, Boogerd, Escartin, Zulle, Virenque, Dufaux, so on and so forth...

Is six weeks enough for Ullrich?

It's been said before, and he has come through with the goods. Telekom's Jan Ullrich was forced to abandon the Midi Libre on the last stage after trying to help his colleague, Georg Totschnig take the overall win. However, Ullrich was in no position to do this, losing too much in the first few uphill kilometres, eventually abandoning the stage.

The previous day, he lost nearly 32 minutes on the "Queen Stage" that involved several mountains, though none as high as he will encounter in the Tour. On a couple of occasions, he was forced to put his foot down on some of the very steep and narrow climbs.

66th in the time trial was not impressive either, and it seems as though he has a way to go before he reaches the level of Pantani, who is doing comparatively a lot better in the Giro. Ullrich said though that he was "content" with his first race back, "with the exception of the time trial."

"The form is there, and he trained well in the Schwarzwald," said team doctor, Lothar Heinrich. "His weight is the biggest obstacle, but he will not go on a crash diet, or he will risk losing too much power."

He starts the tour in 40 days, and is at "roughly" 74 kilograms. Ullrich says himself that he needs to lose a few pounds, but this may be understating things. This week, he will return to the Schwarzwald to train, before taking the start in the Tour of Germany on May 26 (Friday). In this race, he will target the time trial on May 31 as his first real test.

Heulot breaks

Stéphane Heulot (Francaise des Jeux), who was racing in the Midi Libre on the weekend, fractured his humerus in the last stage which may put his Tour de France in jeopardy. After 20 kilometres of the stage, on the descent of the Côte de Mondardier, Heulot fell, trying to avoid earlier crash victims, Alexandre Vinokourov and Aitor Kintana. In getting round them, he hit a motorcycle cameraman and fell heavily.

He will go to hospital today to determine the extent of the injury, and whether it will keep him out of competition long enough to stop him riding the Tour. This was just a series of mishaps for the team this week, who have had Yvon Ledanios, Jimmy Casper and Daniel Schnider all involved in similar incidents whilst racing the Giro.

Another not so lucky was Franck Bouyer (Bonjour) who hit a car 20 kilometres from the finish and dislocated his shoulder.