News for October 10, 2000World's newsThe World Championships start today in Plouay with the junior women's and U23 men's individual time trials, running through the next six days until the elite men's road race on Sunday, October 15. Start lists are still being finalised, although the junior women's and U23 men's TT lists are now available.
Zülle outAfter his fairly poor 33rd place of 37 finishers in the Sydney TT and lack of recovery from the flight home, Alex Zülle has withdrawn from the Swiss team for Plouay. His compatriot Sven Montgomery has also pulled out suffering from a cold. Their substitutes are Pierre Bourquenoud (Phonak) and Felice Puttini (Alessio), the latter having just won the Giro del Mendrisiotto. Zulle's place in the time trial will be taken by Swiss TT champion, Patrick Calcagni (Vini Caldirola).
USAThe United States team for the World's has been finalised and it contains several Olympians, including the entire women's squad from Sydney. The elite men will have four competitors in the road race: Antonio Cruz, who will fly back from Australia where he is competing in the Sun Tour, Chann McRae (2nd in the International Hessen Rundfarht), Danny Pate and US Champion, Fred Rodriguez. For the time trial, Tyler Hamilton will be the sole rider. Joining Nicole Freedman, Karen Kurreck and Mari Holden in the women's squad are Dede Demet-Barry (Saturn), Lara Ruthven and Kim Smith (Timex). It will be tough for Holden to repeat her Olympic silver medal winning performance over the markedly different course in Plouay, but she will certainly make the best use of her form at the moment. In the road race, Karen Kurreck and Dede Demet, along with Holden, have the best chances on the hilly parcours. Elite Men Road Race Antonio Cruz (Saturn) Time Trial Tyler Hamilton (US Postal) Elite Women Road Race Dede Demet Barry (Saturn) Time Trial Dede Demet Barry (Saturn) U23 Men Road Race Brad Buccambuso (Nutrafig) Time Trial David Zabriskie (7UP Colorado Cyclist) Junior Men Road Race Rashaan Bahati (Mercury) Time Trial Patrick McCarthy Junior Women Road Race Megan Elliott (Team Zerowait-SBBC) Time Trial Lauren Franges (Tri-State Velo) Cadel reflectsCompeting in the Olympic Games (or any major event) on your home territory can be both good and bad. On one hand, you have the familiarity with the course and environment as well as greater support from friends, fans and so on to push you to greater heights. On the other, it can be difficult to focus when the course is so familiar and most of the crowd believe that there is no way you can lose. Australian Cadel Evans finished 7th in the Men's Cross Country event in Sydney, won by Frenchman Miguel Martinez from Belgian Filip Mierhaege and Swiss Christoph Sauser. A little disappointing for the 1999 and 1998 World Cup winner who had Sydney in his sights this year. He took some time out of his fairly calm post-Olympic schedule to answer a few questions regarding the race and other matters. CN: Do you think that 7th in the XC event was an accurate reflection of your condition on the day? CE: Well, it must have been, that is all I could manage on the day. CN: If you could have done something different in your preparation, what would it be? CE: Possibly, I could have made some changes to the last week or so, but without going through with these steps it is impossible to say that I could have made any improvements. CN: I imagine that "not breaking my collarbone twice" may be high on that list - but how much did it really affect you? CE: Again it is hard to say, human physiology is such an unpredictable thing. But I am fairly certain that I would have been better off at the World's with some more races in my legs. And maybe a better result there would have helped my confidence going into the Olympics. I still had some good results this year with two World Cup victories, but for me, my year did not have many other periods of particularly good form as I normally have. CN: Do you think some of the medallists trained specifically for the Olympics with no regard for performances in other events? Was that part of your plan? CE: They all certainly rose to the occasion on the day. Miguel is very unique in that he can hold a high level and lift it for a couple of big ones throughout the year. Filip comes into his own one or two days a year. Sauser, I am not so sure, what he was really aiming for this year. My plan was to come up for the Olympics, but with the World Cup finals. It did not work out as well as I had hoped. CN: Martinez has been in good form (Worlds, etc.), but Pezzo did very little - does this puzzle you? CE: Yes! CN: In fact, Pezzo raised many eyebrows among experienced watchers. What did you think of her performance and preparation? CE: She was obviously the best on the day of the Olympics. I am not sure what she does for her training, I would be interested to know though. CN: Any more thoughts on hitting the road scene? Will you do any road races with Saeco again this year? CE: TBA! CN: Has or did Shayne Bannan ask you to represent Australia in Plouay later this month? CE: I was asked if I was interested in being part of the pool of riders for selection. I am only interested in going to the Worlds if I have the appropriate (long) training and racing in my legs.
Team newsVDB for half price?Philippe Rimbaud, general manager of Bonjour, confirmed he had a call from Frank Vandenbroucke's manager (the SEM company) last week. SEM offered VDB for Euro 450,000 instead the Euro 900,000 that had been asked until now (and that was the same as his salary in 2000). "Knowing how much he makes this year, he is cheap for 2001. Our team leader Jean-René Bernaudeau likes the class of Frank. But there are negative things too. He will not bring too many UCI points, because he lost a lot of points this season (at the moment VDB is 89th with 519.5 points)," said Rimbaud. "Also, he is a nobody at the moment. So he has to start from zero and he needs a sport director who can handle him. Bernaudeau can do that, but I doubt whether he prefers to do that for a whole year. We haven't given an answer yet to SEM because first of all we want to concentrate on Laurent Jalabert," he added. Other news
Big Mat are aiming to strengthen their lineup for 2001. They have already signed Patrick Jonker (US Postal) and Stéphane Heulot (FdJ), and have extended Jay Sweet's contract. In addition, Cyril Saugrain and Franck Pencolé (Credit Agricole) will join the team. Tönissteiner will have Bert De Waele and Gordon McCauley riding for them next year. McCauley is at the moment a stagiaire with Palmans and is reported to be learning a lot and riding well. Mapei will lose Giuliano Figueras to Panaria next season, and Gianni Faresin to Liquigas. Other Italians Fabio Malberti (Amica Chips) and Ramon Bianchi will also join the team. Meanwhile, Mirko Celestino (Polti) has signed a two year contract with Saeco-Valli&Valli.
November 15 deadline for urine samplesThe urine samples that were frozen after the Tour de France for retrospective analysis using the French developed EPO test, will be destroyed after November 15 if the IOC does not give its approval to the test. Although the urine test was used for EPO detection during the Olympic Games, it was only valid in conjunction with the "on model" version of the Australian developed blood test. As stand alone tests, neither the Australian "on model" or the French test have been granted approval by the IOC. In addition, the "off" model version of the Australian test that detects EPO use several weeks after the last injection, was not approved. This meant that during the Olympics, a positive EPO test would only result if an athlete had taken it 1-3 days before, although abnormal blood test results were recorded. The UCI own the Tour de France urine tests, and they are currently stored at the national Laboratory of Châtenay-Malabry.
Tour 2001The official complete route of the Tour de France 2001 is to be unveiled on October 26, however some things will remain the same. 20 teams of nine riders will start in the world's hardest bike race, in line with Jean-Marie Leblanc's attempt to reduce the number of falls in the race. In 1998 there were 22 teams, in 1999 there were 21, and this year there were 20. The Tour de France 2001 starts July 7 with a 8 km prologue in Dunkirk.
MTB World's in Switzerland 2003The UCI have officially awarded the World Mountainbike Championships to Lugano, Swizterland, beating the French town of Les Gets for the hosting rights. Under the direction of ex-professional, Rocco Cattaneo, Lugano hosted the World Road Championships four years ago. In addition, in 1997 the MTB Cross Country and Downhill World's were held in Château d'Oex. Courtesy of Willi Felix, Swiss velopages |