News for September 11, 2000

55th Vuelta a España news

Casero vs. Heras

Heras in gold
Photo: © AFP

Today's stage 14 to Lagos de Covadonga finally saw the balance shift in Kelme's favour, with Roberto Heras taking the golden jersey by a few fractions of a second from Festina's Angel Casero. It was not unexpected after Heras rode away from Casero on the steep final climb, but he did not manage to take as much time out of the Festina rider as he would have liked. Casero lost his 1'15 buffer, and with three more mountain stages to come will probably lose a few more minutes. The final time trial in Madrid could become quite important depending on how the next stages pan out.

Tomorrow's stage to El Angliru is the one that everyone has been anticipating, with varying degrees of fear. Heras considers it to be the critical stage, "El Angliru is much harder. I do not know how much time I need to take from Casero in order to start the final time trial in Madrid with confidence," he commented after today's stage.

Heras said that he would have preferred to take a little more out today, but suffered after the 15 percent section at Huesera. From then on, he and Casero were equal. Even by the finish, the organisers presented the jersey to Casero before they counted the smaller fractions.

On his behalf, Casero maintained that he still has the same plan for winning the Vuelta. "It will be a hard finish, and I have to lose a minimum amount of time. I know that in time trials I have the advantage of Roberto Heras," he said.

"We continue to have the same options. From the start in Malaga I have always said that I've come for a podium finish," said Casero. "On the climb to El Angliru, it will be necessary to keep the team together and lose the least possible time before the time trial in Madrid, which will suit me."

"Today was a very hard climb of 12 kilometres, Heras is a climber and it was expected that he would attack. I will not lose my cool."

Zintchenko: It means a lot

Russian Andrei Zintchenko has been in the wilderness this year with second division Portuguese team, LA Pecol. A former member of Vitalicio Seguros, Zintchenko won three stages in the Vuelta in 1998 but didn't kick on in 1999 and was dropped by the team. He joined LA-Pecol this year and has not yet won a race until today. The win in Covadonga was an important morale booster for the 28 year old Russian who has had some good but not outstanding results this year.

"It is a victory that means a lot to me, because all through the season I have been getting some very good results, seconds and thirds, but was not able to break that barrier with a win. Finally it has arrived and, in addition, in the Vuelta at Lagos de Covadonga, surely a classic stage in cycling," he told Spanish EFE after the win.

"On the ascent I was not feeling that good, but when I saw that I could make it because of the time gaps, I got myself going and I put the bad feeling aside in order to arrive at the finish. It is a great victory and I am very satisfied," he added.

"The two rest days have allowed me to recover quite well and for that reason I had the confidence to attack when I saw a group go earlier in the stage. The gap that we obtained and the speed at which we arrived at Covadonga made me try the solo attack and although I suffered more than I thought, in the end it was worth the trouble." he finished.

A "rest" before El Angliru

Stage 15 of the Vuelta goes from Cangas de Onís to Gijón, 164 kilometres. It is in mountainous terrain, although the biggest climb (Puerto de Arnicio, km 48) is only rated as category 2. There is one other category 2 and one category 3 climb en route to Gijón, the last stop before the dreaded Angliru stage tomorrow. Stage 15 will certainly not offer the riders any real recovery, but the main protagonists should remain close together before the attacks begin in earnest tomorrow. However, Kelme may use the opportunity to put more pressure on Angel Casero and the rest of the field, or the sprinters teams may do some work to try and gain a rare bunch finish.

Freire postpones

Oscar Freire (Mapei) had intended on taking the start in today's GP Fourmies in France, where he might well have played a part in getting Mapei a win. As it happened, they were beaten by three escapees in the closing kilometres despite making the deciding break with all their strong men.

Freire wanted to use it as part of his final build up to the Olympic road race on September 27, but has been forced to rest for a few more days due to pharyngitis (a throat infection). Mapei's Dr Max Testa (who bears an uncanny resemblance to a certain cyclingnews publisher...) examined Freire shortly after he attended a ceremony in Torrelavega where a plaque was unveiled in his honour. Dr Testa found that Freire was suffering from a sore throat, general tiredness and muscle pains and diagnosed him with pharyngitis.

After missing Fourmies, Freire will have to rest for 4-5 days before competing again. His next and final pre-Olympic appointment is the Giro del Lazio in Italy on September 16.

Danish World's team reduced

By Tomas Nilsson, cyclingnews.com correspondent

Denmark will only have ten riders on their team in the World Championships road race. The Danish cycling federation, DCU, thinks that no more than ten riders actually can ride a good race at Plouay.

However the Danish national coach Jørgen Marcussen is questioning the decision, "It is strange to send only ten when we are entitled to twelve. The World's is the most important race for the federation and when we are entitled to twelve riders on the team we should also send a full dozen. I cannot understand the argument. Out of twelve we will certainly have two without a chance to win, but they can take part in the tactics and also help the others on the team," he told Danish TV station TV2.

According to president Peder Pedersen and managing director Jesper Worre it is not a question of economy, "We have the money, but we think that our chances won't be any less with ten on the team. We are going for a top result and after having studied several riders' programmes for the rest of the season, we came to this decision," said Pedersen who also claims that several riders support his decision.

Worre points out that in Valkenburg two years ago, most Danish riders abandoned, "Some of them should never have started. And last year it was Rolf Sørensen that saved the day by riding far better than expected. Chances won't be less with ten rides and you cannot get in form for the World's by racing at home in Denmark."