News for September 12, 200055th Vuelta a España news
González de Galdeano gets one
Giro d'Italia winner, Alvaro González de Galdeano (Vitalicio Seguros) scored another stage win in a major tour today, with the 'transition' stage from Cangas de Onís to Gijón. The mountains today were not nearly as fierce as yesterday or tomorrow, and the older brother of Igor took advantage of the neutrality to put himself in the winning break. It was Vitalicio's first win of the Vuelta and Alvaro was away for approximately half the stage with his companions. He was no threat to the overall, only moving up to 76th at nearly 1'14 behind, and the break was allowed by Kelme and Festina to gain five minutes. Cantina Tollo's Massimiliano Gentili profited most from the time gain, moving himself up to 13th overall at 6'42. Other than that, the leader board remains as Roberto Heras, Angel Casero and Igor González de Galdeano, with ONCE's Santos Gonzalez in fourth and Pavel Tonkov the eternal fifth.
Tomorrow...The stage everybody has been waiting for after its painful debut in 1999: Oviedo to El Angliru, 168 kilometres. The first 80 is quite flat, before the climbs start with the category 3 Alto de Patrun and continue with the category 2 Alto de Santo Emilliano (km 95), the category 1 Alto de la Colladiella (km 119) and the category 1 Alto de el Cordial (km 147). These are merely softeners for the main event, the 11 kilometre Alto de l'Angliru which ascends nearly 1300 metres in that distance (11.5%). It's maximum grade is 17.2% and will certainly produce an extreme finish. Depending on scheduling, cyclingnews.com will be covering the stage live starting at either 1300 or 1500 hours, European Summer Time.
UCI rankings: Ullrich close to losing number oneBy Jeff Jones, online editor Although the Vuelta a España is still being run, the UCI have updated their road rankings as of September 10. The end of the Vuelta will see another change, but at the moment it can be seen that Jan Ullrich's time at the top is limited. Francesco Casagrande is within 15 points of the lead, and after Ullrich will lose so many for not defending his Vuelta title, the Italian will once again be on top. Ullrich should be able to keep second position, and may even improve again if he rides outstandingly for the rest of the year. The top 10 were shuffled round a little, with Romans Vainsteins losing number 4 spot to Lance Armstrong, Paolo Bettini moving up to seventh, and Erik Dekker cracking the top 10. Other big movers on the list include Paris-Brussels winner Max Van Heeswijk (179th to 88th), Fabrizio Guidi (96th to 59th), Michele Bartoli (91st to 49th) and Gorazd Stangelj (112th to 79th). Team rankings remained steady at the very top, with Mapei/Telekom still first and second. However, Kelme have temporarily lost their third spot to Vini Caldirola, while Rabobank have moved from 8th to 4th. If Kelme win the Vuelta with Heras, they'll push themselves back, and the other Spanish teams should do likewise. The women's rankings have Diana Ziliute and Anna Wilson 1-2, with the biggest mover in the top 10 being Finland's Pia Sundstedt (9th to 6th). She will go into the Sydney road race as one of the outside favourites after her performances this year. In the women's teams, the powerful Acca Due O-Lorena Camicie squad maintain the top spot, with Alfa Lum R.S.M. moving up to second in front of Saturn after their winning performance in the women's Tour de France. Lithuania remains the number one nation, but the Netherlands has surpassed Australia and Germany to move up to number two. UCI Rankings as of September 10, 2000 1 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Deutsche Telekom-ARD 2,407.75 pts 2 Francesco Casagrande (Ita) Vini Caldirola-Sidermec 2,393.00 3 Erik Zabel (Ger) Deutsche Telekom-ARD 1,807.00 4 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal Service 1,589.00 5 Romans Vainsteins (Lat) Vini Caldirola-Sidermec 1,509.00 6 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Liquigas-Pata 1,435.00 7 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Mapei-Quick Step 1,422.00 8 Andrei Tchmil (Bel) Lotto-Adecco 1,338.00 9 Markus Zberg (Swi) Rabobank 1,318.25 10 Erik Dekker (Ned) Rabobank 1,243.00 11 Laurent Jalabert (Fra) O.N.C.E.-Deutsche Bank 1,210.75 12 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Mapei-Quick Step 1,210.00 13 Roberto Heras Hernandez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 1,195.00 14 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Mercatone Uno-Albacom 1,192.00 15 Michael Boogerd (Ned) Rabobank 1,187.25 16 Igor Gonzalez Galdeano Aranzabal (Spa) Vitalicio Seguros 1,102.00 17 José Maria Jimenez Sastre (Spa) Banesto 1,097.00 18 Leonardo Piepoli (Ita) Banesto 1,057.00 19 Pavel Tonkov (Rus) Mapei-Quick Step 1,042.00 20 Dmitri Konyshev (Rus) Fassa Bortolo 1,000.00 Teams: Division I 1 Mapei-Quick Step 8,541.45 pts 2 Team Deutsche Telekom 7,617.25 3 Vini Caldirola-Sidermec 5,297.00 4 Rabobank 5,239.75 5 Kelme-Costa Blanca 5,096.00 6 Fassa Bortolo 5,079.00 7 Banesto 4,772.00 8 Lampre-Daikin 4,690.00 9 O.N.C.E.-Deutsche Bank 4,551.75 10 US Postal Service 3,916.20 Division II 1 Credit Agricole 2,813.00 pts 2 Euskaltel-Euskadi 2,497.00 3 Cantina Tollo 2,034.00 4 Bonjour 1,693.00 5 Jean Delatour 1,537.00 6 Palmans-Ideal 1,512.00 7 Amica Chips-Tacconi Sport 1,480.00 8 Manheim Auctions-Mercury 1,378.00 9 Team Gerolsteiner 1,081.00 10 Alessio 978.00 Division III 1 Bosch Hausgeräte-Sport Kärnten 391.00 pts 2 PSK Unit Expert 336.00 3 Team Shaklee 332.00 4 Kia-Villiger Suisse 230.00 5 Stabil Steiermark 187.00 Nations: 1 Italy 12,093.35 pts 2 Spain 9,231.75 3 Germany 8,453.00 4 Belgium 7,863.50 5 Netherlands 6,492.10 6 France 6,395.75 7 Switzerland 5,221.75 8 U.S.A. 4,826.15 9 Russia 4,101.00 10 Denmark 3,860.85 Women 1 Diana Ziliute (Ltu) Acca Due O-Lorena Camicie 711.00 2 Anna Wilson (Aus) Saturn Cycling Team 662.00 3 Hanka Kupfernagel (Ger) Radteam Kupfernagel 436.67 4 Edita Pucinskaite (Ltu) Team Alfa Lum R.S.M. 415.50 5 Joane Somarriba Arrola (Spa) Team Alfa Lum R.S.M. 409.00 6 Pia Sundstedt (Fin) Gas Sport Team 358.00 7 Mirjam Melchers (Ned) Dutch National Team 341.50 8 Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel (Ned) Farm Frites-Hartol 310.00 9 Tatiana Stiajkina (Ukr) Acca Due O-Lorena Camicie 287.50 10 Zoulfia Zabirova (Rus) Acca Due O-Lorena Camicie 282.50 Teams: 1 Acca Due O - Lorena Camicie 1,414.00 pts 2 Team Alfa Lum R.S.M. 1,109.00 3 Saturn Cycling Team 997.00 4 Gas Sport Team 851.00 5 Team Farm Frites - Hartol 608.00 Nations: 1 Lithuania 1,436.5 2 Netherlands 999.67 3 Germany 986.17 4 Australia 983.00 5 Russia 772.50 6 Italy 671.00 7 France 589.34 8 Ukraine 455.50 9 Spain 448.00 10 Finland 398.00 Armstrong updateWill he, won't he? That's the question being asked by many fans in regard to Armstrong's plans for Sydney. Armstrong injured his C7 vertebrae (in the base of his neck) after a training accident in Nice two weeks ago. While it wasn't thought to be serious at first apart from a mangled bike, a subsequent MRI scan revealed the fracture and his participation in the time trial in Sydney was placed in doubt. According to his personal website, Lancearmstrong.com, he is still intending on making the trip and is slowly healing. "My neck is still fairly tight, especially in the night and the mornings. It seems to have affected the other areas around the C7 as well, like the shoulder and right arm... but I've been able to train effectively though it all and was able to test out the TT position on the TT bike last Thursday - seemed OK. Bottom line is that it's getting better everyday. Aside from the neck injury, my legs feel very good. I'm cautiously optimistic about my chances in Sydney.... but my biggest concern is that flight to Australia - 24 hours!" The GP des Nations time trial on September 16 is still on his program before he makes the trip out.
Tonkov to MercuryItalian newsagency, ANSA reports that Russian Pavel Tonkov (Mapei) will become Mercury's 21st rider next year. The winner of the Giro d'Italia in 1996 has reportedly signed a contract for two years despite having negotiations with Domo-Farm Frites.
Big US weekendWith Saturday's Univest Grand Prix in Souderton, PA and Sunday's BMC Software Tour of Arlington in Massachusetts, September 16-17 promises to be a big weekend for US cycling. Already, many teams and riders have been named for both events, as the road racers and criterium specialists battle it out over the weekend. The Univest event will see current teen sensation, Peter Mazur return home again to front up against the rest along with the Kissena team that features last year's winner, Alex Lavallee from Canada. Polish national Mazur lives in Ontario, Canada and is currently leading the UCI Junior world rankings after performing strongly all year. Other teen stars in Souderton include Jon Retseck and Sarah Uhl, both of whom have had excellent 2000 seasons. In Arlington, Massachusetts, two cyclists who will be heavily marked are Saturn's Nicole Reinhart and Mercury's Gord Fraser. Both have a chance at the magic $250,000 bonus offered by BMC for the winners of all four events throughout the season. In addition, they are both sprinters and will rely heavily on their teams to keep it all together for the final run in. Even having a teammate win is not good enough - it's gotta be Reinhart and Fraser or no 250K. In the men's field, the McCormack clan will be trying their hardest to stop Fraser. Frank and Mark McCormack are natives of Plymouth, MA, and members of the Saturn Cycling Team, and their younger brother Shawn will also be there for the CCB/Volkswagen team. Shawn's team will send eight riders to Arlington, and is a Massachusetts based top amateur team founded in 1978. New cyclingnews section: Technical features
Cyclingnews readers may have noticed a nice looking Colnago C40 on the front page today in place of our usual Vuelta shot, repeated here for your benefit. No, it is not one of us showing off their best Sunday bike, rather it was one of the many machines on display at the Eurobike 2000 Trade Show in Friedrichshafen, Germany last week. Although the show is not open to the public, cyclingnews.com correspondent Tim Maloney was there to check out what was on offer. His report is the first in a new cyclingnews.com section dealing with technical features and new products. Those who enjoy keeping up to date with the latest developments in this area of cycling will have plenty to look forward to in future with some interesting features planned.
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