Second edition news for October 12, 2000World's newsMore Holden
After winning the Elite women's Time Trial championship in Plouay yesterday, US rider Mari Holden rounded off a very successful past two weeks, adding to her Olympic silver medal in Sydney. That result gave her the number one seeding for the women's time trial, ahead of local favourite Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli. "I was surprised by starting last. I thought Longo would be the final rider. When I got to France, I felt no pressure, but there was a little bit of pressure when I found out I was the final rider. My goal was to ride my best and anything I get here would be icing on the cake. My goal for the year was the Olympics," said Holden afterwards. "After the Olympics, I was unsure if I wanted to go to worlds and when I did well in Sydney, I said, 'Maybe I should stop there.' But, when I got home, I spoke with my coach (Dean Golich) and we decided to race for one more week. You never know what can happen, and everyone competing would be tired following the Olympics." Holden flew from Sydney to Colorado Springs on October 1, following her Olympic medal performance, and she arrived in France on October 7 after a brief stay in Colorado Springs. "The course started out flat and meandering roads. I felt good for first 10 kilometers or so and then hit the first climb and just tried to keep it rolling through the climb. I knew Longo would be stronger at end with the final climb, so I had to have an advantage going into the final climb. "I did not know any split times throughout the race. I never use radio, and I knew I was going well from reaction of fans. I thought I could get a medal if I got rode well. " Medal table after day 2
Gold Silver Bronze Total
Russia 1 1 - 2
France 1 1 - 2
Poland 1 - 1 2
USA 1 - - 1
Australia - 1 1 2
Switzerland - 1 - 1
Netherlands - - 1 1
Lithuania - - 1 1
Tchmil favouriteBelgian hopes on Sunday rest with grizzled veteran, Andrei Tchmil who is certainly amongst the favourites for the men's road race. Tchmil missed out on winning last Sunday's Paris-Tours after he was outgunned by Mapei in the finale, but his second place was a good confidence booster for him. Afterwards he returned home to Lake Garda, Italy and he will take the trip back to France this Thursday evening. He is no stranger to Plouay however, winning the GP Ouest France in 1994, and considers the circuit good for a "bruiser" like him. He has made no secret of his ambitions to win the World Championship this year, and had to put his plans of a second consecutive World Cup victory a little to one side. Last year, he said that his efforts in Paris-Tours cost him vital strength in the World's, but this year he didn't have to go quite as deep. "I feel much better - Paris-Tours gave me a lot of hope for the World title," he said. He also considers the Belgian team to be well balanced, "José De Cauwer is a good coach. Better than the Italian coach. He selected his team very late, so the Italian riders had to go deep in Lucca last week. So, they will be tired at the start in Plouay, they don't understand how the World Championships work. Also, Fusi let the best man for this parcours and this weather stay at home: Andrea Tafi."
The Belgian preparationNational coach, José De Cauwer believes that the ideal preparation for the World Championships is to do a small stage race like the Giro di Lucca or the Hessen Rundfahrt, supplemented with extra training kilometres. He feels that Andrei Tchmil, Rik Verbrugghe, Chris Peers and Nico Mattan should all do well on Sunday after this preparation. On the other hand, Dave Bruylandts, Michel Van Haecke and Peter Van Petegem took a different approach. The first two trained in Belgium while Van Petegem had bad luck in Paris-Tours, so he missed the final move, although he did win the sprint in his group for 13th. "Bruylandts and Van Haecke haven't had an ideal preparation, but so what?," said De Cauwer. "Moser once won Milan-San Remo without one race in his legs."
Polish updateIn today's elite Men's ITT, Poland will be represented by Piotr Przydzial and Piotr Chmielewski, while dual Polish champion Piotr Wadecki will save himself for road race. In the remaining events, Poland have entered the following riders, with commentary by Daniel Marszalek: Junior Women Magdalena Sadlecka A useful squad with a medal possibility for Sadlecka. U23 Michal Olejnik This is a strong team. Szmyd is great climber; Wyrzykowski and Mroz
allrounders with some speed in the final metres. Ironically, the Polish
U-23 champion Okrucinski seems to be weakest of them, but who knows
in this lottery. Lukasz Bodnar This is probably the strongest squad in the World's for this age category. Apart from ITT medalists Mazur and Bodnar, there is Janiaczyk (3rd in World rankings). Elite Women Bogumila Matusiak The only chance for good place is Matusiak. She beat the other girls
by 8-9 minutes during the Polish championships (most of them are 19
years old, and they formed strong team in Verona at the Junior World's).
So while Matusiak can make the top 20, the others are here to gain some
experience. Piotr Wadecki (Mroz-Supradyn Witaminy) Zbigniew Spruch and Piotr Wadecki are the top 10 contenders, with a possibility of a medal depending on how things pan out out Sunday. Memory Card movesAccording to the Danish daily Politiken, Team Memory Card announced today that the team has a new sponsor, the international IT corporation Computer Sciences Corporation, CSC. CSC and Memory Card Technology will provide the economic foundation for the ambitious Danish team, which as of January 2001 1 will be known as Team CSC/MemoryCard. Neither CSC nor Bjarne Riis, the team leader, wish to go into details concerning the size of the sponsorship. But word in Danish cycling circles is that there is talk of 10-12 million Kr. per year - roughly $US 1.5 million. At the same press conference it was also announced that Alex Pedersen has ultimately decided to continue with the team as directeur sportif. "I am happy that Alex is staying. The riders respect him and he is a good directeur sportif," Bjarne Riis said to the Danish press. CSC had a clause added to the contract whereby it can be instantaneously terminated in the event of 'systematic doping' by the team's riders. CSC is originally an American company, established in 1959. One of the world's leading consultant and IT corporations, they boast 60.000 employees worldwide and annual income of $10 billion. In addition to Alex Pedersen, Riis has also employed Johnny Weltz and Christian Andersen as directeur sportif, and now will be on the lookout for new soigneurs and mechanics. The team plans to head into the new year with a team of 19-20 riders. There are contracts with 14 riders so far. Riis is still looking for a big hitter, but he admits that time is running out. There have been a number of rumors, among which Peter van Petegem, Frank Høj and Lars Michaelsen have often been named. "There are a lot of contacts, but nothing is concrete yet," Riis says Jesper Skibby will also be continuing with the team, though his role has yet to be determined. Riis indicates, that his primary role will be in connection with sponsor arrangements and events. Riis explains, "We will use Jesper for the things that he is good at." Concerning his own role, Riis makes it clear that he will be centrally involved in the team. "I can help plan the training. I know that some of the riders' training hasn't been sufficiently structured. We have to be one step ahead of the others in that connection." Riis has also encouraged some of the riders to move abroad. "Just look at a rider like Rolf Sørensen. If he had not lived in Italy he would not have developed the abilities he has to climb" Riis said, and would not deny that some of the team's future activities will be in Italy, where Riis himself resides. "We [the directeur sportif] will meet in Italy the week after the World Championships. That is when we will plan the future strategy for the team," Riis stated. Courtesy of Jon Jay Neufeld
More Blijlevens/LottoLotto's manager, Christophe Sercu explains how they contracted Jeroen Blijlevens from Polti, "Thanks to co-sponsor, Adecco Nederland, we were able to offer a contract to him. He will complete our team with his sprinter qualities which will be good for our team in the Giro and the Tour de France." Four more Germans positiveAfter Andreas Kappes and Dirk Müller, Germany now has four more doping cases. One of them is the track rider Solveig Rudick (22) who used nandrolone during the German championships in July in Hamburg. The other three are amateurs: Robert Boek, Tobias Krug and Dennis Sandig. Team selection for Tour 2001According to Gazet van Antwerpen, the Tour de France organisers will work more than ever with wild card entries. Only a few teams are 100% sure about a start. Firstly, the three teams that contain the winners of the Grand Tour (US Postal - TdF, Mercatone Uno - Giro and Kelme - Vuelta). Secondly, the three teams that won the team classifications in the the Big Three, and finally the top three teams in the UCI rankings at the end of this season. Does this mean that Kelme can enter three teams?
New race for 2001Next year there will be a new stage race, the Paris-Corrèze from September 28-30. It is, according to promoter Laurent Fignon an "international stage race over three days, just before the World Championships." Anna Wilson's hour attemptNext Wednesday (October 18) will see Australian cyclist, Anna Wilson attempt a new women's hour record on UCI approved equipment for the test, i.e. spoked wheels, drop handlebars, and a triangular frame. The attempt will take place at 10.30am on Melbourne's new Vodafone Arena, and will be attended by a representative from the UCI, as well as media, promoters, guests and other members of the Australian Olympic track cycling team including Shane Kelly, Garry Niewand, Michelle Ferris and Lyndelle Higginson. Apart from being a world champion cyclist, Anna is also an accomplished pianist and holds a degree in law. Cyclists International (CI) are presenting this major event in conjunction with the release of its new indoor track-racing fixture - at the Vodafone Arena. The first event is the prestigious Melbourne Cup on Wheels on Saturday November 25. Also, in two years time the World Junior track championships will be held at the velodrome after a successful bid by Cycle Sport Victoria. The Vodafone Arena will be open for training (for licensed riders) this coming Saturday and Sunday (October 14-15) between 1 and 5 pm, as well as between 5 and 8pm on Monday and Tuesday (October 16-17). Paralympics: Urschel's hard road to successBy Jessica Aldred, cyclingnews.com correspondent
Losing your sight at 21, only to become profoundly deaf seven years later, may not be a conventional path to Olympic glory. But 35 year-old Kathy Urschel has refused to let either disability get in the way of her pursuit of a Paralympic Gold. An Atlanta Paralympic Silver medallist, Kathy plans to be a fierce competitor for the Australian team at the Paralympics, participating in the tandem cycling and currently completing a tough training schedule in preparation for Sydney. Kathy's campaign has been helped considerably by Australian cochlear implants firm Cochlear, who fitted her with the Nucleus 22 implant a few years ago. Cochlear's Nucleus technology enables Kathy's tandem cycling pilot at the front of the bike to issue racing commands through a microphone wired to Kathy's external electronic speech processor. The processor sends the commands to Kathy's internal implant, which allows her to hear by electrically stimulating her hearing nerve. But the lead up to the Games has not been a safe and easy ride for Kathy. Last year she suffered a serious road accident while training, leaving her with head injuries and broken bones. "I landed on my head which would normally damage most hearing devices, but fortunately the Nucleus has a titanium case and was well protected," Kathy said. During her hospitalisation, Kathy's immobility resulted in blood clots forming in the arteries of her legs. This led to a stroke and doctors told her she would never walk again. But two weeks and four days after the accident, Kathy had her foot back on the pedal. "I wouldn't believe the doctors when they said I wouldn't ride again," she said. "Before the accident I was beating World Cup champions. I have always remained focussed, and with the help of my friends, family and physiotherapist I got back on my bike." Kathy's enthusiasm, strength and vigour for cycling have helped her get back into the race and clock up some impressive times during recent training sessions in Colorado. "Paralympian tandem cyclists wish to be recognised as elite athletes, and our training program is comparable to that of our Olympic colleagues," Kathy said. Her fellow team members have supported her throughout her rehabilitation and provided much of the encouragement she needed to continue. Kathy's parents, Jane and Richard will also be coming to Sydney to cheer on their daughter at the Dunc Gray Velodrome, where she and her partner Karla Bland will be racing for gold.
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