News for May 2, 2000The big tours are happeningBesides the Giro d'Italia, which is just 11 days away, May is a big month for Tours. Today sees the commencement of the Hors Categorie Tour of Romandie in Switzerland and the 2.1 category 4 days [actually 6] of Dunkirk in France. Both run from May 2-7, but are markedly different in terrain. The 54th Tour de Romandie The Swiss race which begins in Locarno with a 6.5 kilometre prologue time trial is certainly the hillier of the two, and it's likely that last year's winner, Laurent Jalabert (ONCE) will do battle with Saeco's Laurent Dufaux (winner 1998, 3rd in the GP Gippingen on Sunday). This race features highly on each of their goals for the year, whilst others are using it as preparation. Paolo Savoldelli, Dufaux's Saeco teammate, will be one of these as he aims for another podium finish in the Giro this year. Likewise, Francesco Casagrande (Vini Caldirola), Ivan Gotti (Team Polti) and Pavel Tonkov (Mapei) will be riding, but saving themselves. "I just want to test myself on Saturday in the Mountain stage to Leysin. To go for the General Classification would cost me too much energy," said Casagrande. Laurent Jalabert actually lives in Geneva, so he knows the race course well and he won't be riding the Giro. Expect a good performance from the French born-Swiss based powerhouse. Both Jalabert and Dufaux will contest the Tour de France this year, so can afford to dig a little deeper this week. After this race, JaJa will take a two week break before building up for the Tour again. The 16 teams to contest the race: O.N.C.E.-Deutsche Bank, Cantina Tollo, Cofidis, Fassa Bortolo, Festina, La Francaise Des Jeux, Kelme Costa Blanca, Lampre Daikin, Linda McCartney, Mapei-Quick Step, Phonak Hearing Systems, Team Polti, Post Swiss Team, Rabobank, Saeco-Valli & Valli, and Vini Caldirola-Sidermec. The stages: Prologue - May 2: Locarno - Locarno, 6.5 km The 46th six days of Dunkirk Running in conjuction with the Tour of Romandie, the now incorrectly titled Four Days of Dunkirk will see 21 teams take part in this year's edition. Although generally considered a flatlanders race, the 5th stage will see riders tackle the various monts and bergs of Flanders for 188 kilometres between Lillers and Westouter. The race jumps between Belgium and France throughout its 7 stages. A new stage is also planned this year - an 11.3 kilometre time trial in stage 6 (Grande-Synthe) which will most likely be the decider as it is the penultimate stage. Other than that, the sprinters should have a good time this year: Jaan Kirsipuu (Ag2r), Jay Sweet and Jeremy Hunt (Big Mat), Jimmy Casper (FdJ), Tom Steels (Mapei) and Jo Planckaert (Cofidis). For the overall, Andrei Tchmil (Lotto) is a big chance, along with Mapei's Johan Museeuw and Credit Agricole's Chris Boardman. The stages: Stage 1 - May 2: Dunkirk - Oostende, 172.2 km
Armstrong on trackThe US Postal rider has been fairly quiet this spring, but in the last week Lance Armstrong has seen a big boost in his results - and confidence - as he prepares for the Big One in July. With a second placing in the Paris-Camembert last Tuesday and a fourth in Sunday's GP Gippingen, Armstrong is finding his legs at the right time. In Sunday's race, he admitted he was cramping towards the end and certainly wasn't the strongest rider in the break. However, he was happy to be there and felt good. Especially as the riders that beat him: Garzelli, Dufaux and Wesemann are either in top form or aiming to be so in the coming weeks. Armstrong has a little while to go. "He looks very strong, both on the bicycle and in the mind. You can see it in his face that he is full of confidence," said Dirk Demol, assistant US Postal team director after the race. He was back up by director Johan Bruyneel: "It's good to know that if he has a good day, you can see it in the results as well. You can feel good and know you are good, but you have to have results sometimes to prove that." Armstrong himself was happy as well: "Things are perfect," he said. "Neither race (Gippingen and Paris-Camembert) are as big as Amstel (the World Cup event) but I feel that I am in better shape now than I was last year. I have been going at it pretty hard since January, with three solid months of racing and training. Now, I have two more months to go (before the start of the Tour de France) of hard training and I will be where I need to be." The Postal team (without Armstrong) will do the Four Days of Dunkirk starting today with Dylan Casey, Marty Jemison, Benoit Joachim, Steffen Kjaergaard, Levi Leipheimer, Kirk O'Bee, Stive Vermaut and Cedric Vasseur, the latter who is quite motivated as it's near his home town of Lille.
Zabel off to the AppleErik Zabel, who finished in the peloton in the Henninger Turm, will go on a two week American holiday to New York: "Some shopping, some promotion and some rest," is the programme according to the German star himself. He will rejoin battle again in the Tour of Bavaria on May 17.
UCI category for Derny race?Harry Mater, the organiser of Amsterdam RAI Dernyrace, wants to start a campaign to get UCI-points for this dernyrace. He lost them last year because the riders are invited individually but points out that this is the case also with time trials and pair races like GP des Nations and the GP Eddy Merckx. "I will send a letter to the Conseille Professionel of the UCI with signatures of all starting cyclists. They support me and Silvio Martinello offered to involve his friend Francesco Moser, the chairman of the union of professional riders, in this case," said Mater after Sunday's race, won by Peter van Petegem ahead of Michael Boogerd.
Ampler backUwe Ampler, age 35, came back to racing today riding for the amateur team Bunte Berte Leipzig in the GP Weltour. Grzesiek Kaczmarzyk from Poland reports that after his 9 month absence for doping, the Ex-World Champion abandoned the race at the halfway point. Ampler's next goal is the Peace Race, starting on Friday. He has won this race four times in the past (and his father Klaus once). In his preparations for his comeback, he hit a pedestrian the other day and had to go to hospital to get his bruises cared for. The fate of the pedestrian is unknown. Perry Stone: Chasing the sunThe days should seem a little longer now Perry has started to cycle in the opposite direction to the earths rotation and will be heading Westward directly into the Sun for most of the next five to six days. To date the weather in Queensland has been simply perfect with Perry always managing to be one day ahead of the inclement conditions that had been close on his wheels for the past couple of days. He has upped the daily kilometreage now, with the crew reporting distances of 500 and 460 kilometres for the past couple of days, demonstrating Perry's love for the heat. Last night a fatal accident occurred involving Perry, he's doing just fine but the rabbit was D.O.A. It wasn't a life lost in vain, as the crew were quick on the scene to harvest the fresh road kill to take what Mother Nature and Perry provided. At least it has to be better and fresher than Road House food. At the moment, Perry should have crossed the Queensland/Northern Territory Border before heading to Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory and the city that Perry commenced his first record breaking lap around Australia in 1999. Entering Darwin is bound to be a very nostalgic moment for Perry since it marks the beginning and end of the toughest yet most rewarding solo cycling journey he's ever undertaken. Now that the coldest part of the route is all over and his final destination, Perth is getting nearer by the hour, Perry and his crew's morales are starting to soar. As they get closer we can expect the pace to quicken even more. Perry Stone reports courtesy of David Lewis |