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Marion Clignet
-Anna Wilson
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Olympic news for September 26
Weather update
Yesterday's damp weather looks like continuing today for the women's road race, although it is not (quite) raining at the moment. Temperatures are hovering around 15 Celsius with a maximum of 19 predicted and the possibility of rain. For tomorrow's men's race, the forecast is for rain clearing, with warmer temperatures up to 24 Celsius The wind is from the south at the moment, meaning a tailwind sprint. However, it is only 9 kilometres per hour and will probably not make a difference.
Live coverage on cyclingnews.com will start from 10:00am Sydney time.
Italians rate the road course
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Marco Pantani did three laps of the course yesterday, while the rest of the Italian team (Di Luca, Casagrande, Bettini and Bartoli) did four. The opinion of the unshaven Pantani, who was looking very much like a pirate, was that it was a "tricky circuit, with many dangerous corners, and reductions in speed. You must be able to handle your bike."
Danilo di Luca and Paolo Bettini commented that it was a "technical circuit, and after 240 kilometres we don't know how it will go." Casagrande said that the Bronte climb will only make a difference towards the end."
Boardman rates the TT course
Former world champion in the time trial discipline, Chris Boardman (GBr), has not given his stamp of approval to the time trial course. The 15.6 kilometre course is run over three laps and contains at least 20 serious corners per lap. The course is a modified version of the road course, and does not go down to Bronte but spends more time wending its way through Centennial Park.
According to Reuters, Boardman said that "The Olympic time trial needs more than this. It's not ideal and I hate it with a passion. There are a lot of lumps and a lot of turns which will suit the road racers in the time trial."
Boardman thinks Lance Armstrong and Laurent Jalabert will be his main rivals.
Klöden to ride TT
German Olympic coach, Mario Kummer, has chosen the second rider on the team to ride the individual time trial on Saturday. 25 year old Andreas Klöden will line up with Jan Ullrich in the 46.8 kilometre event as part of the 41 rider field.
There was some speculation that Jens Voigt would be the one to ride the event, however Klöden was chosen last Sunday. His last race was the Vuelta a Espańa where he abandoned after stage 14.
The German team are considered medal favourites in all of the road disciplines, with Jan Ullrich and Hanka Kupfernagel in the men's and women's TT, and Erik Zabel and any one of Kupfernagel, Teutenberg, or Rossner in the road races.
Five Italians tested
Five of the eight riders in the Italian men's and women's road teams were tested by the World Anti Drug Agency (WADA) as part of the anti-doping control for the road events. Francesco Casagrande, Michele Bartoli, Paolo Bettini, Valeria Cappellotto and Roberta Bonanomi were asked to give blood and urine samples in Sydney yesterday. Those that were not tested were Danilo Di Luca, Marco Pantani and Alessandra Cappellotto. All the tests came out clean.
A total of 30 athletes were tested out of the 200 plus competitors, and the Italians were a little concerned that they were being singled out. For example, Belgium had none of its riders tested, while the US had two (one male and one female). The testing criteria were not revealed by the IOC.