World Championships news for October 9, 2000Ullrich out of World'sJan Ullrich has had to forgo his World Time Trial title defence after a fall in today's Paris-Tours sent him to hospital with a split lip. Doctors have told him to rest for at least three days in order to avoid infection and with the time trial scheduled for Thursday, October 12, his lead up was not ideal. Similarly, Sunday's 264 kilometre road race would have seen him without the necessary fine tuning in his legs to contest a World Championship and the team withdrew him from the race. Ullrich's fall came with just 20 kilometres to go in the classic, which was held under wet conditions. Coming round a corner, he could not avoid a group of fallen riders in front of him and he came down after hitting a traffic island. His split lip required 6 stitches Ullrich will fly to Freiburg hospital on Monday for further treatment.
Italian updateSome more news from the Italian U23 Azzurri squad. Federico Berta was withdrawn from the team because he was "not able to participate in sporting activities" after some tests were done by the Italian Olympic Committee. His replacement will be Italian Champion Nicola Gavazzi (Resine Ragnoli), son of the '80s professional sprinter Pierino. The second reserve for the Elite Men's Team is Gabriele Missaglia (Lampre). Courtesy of Alessandro Gretter
SwedenBy Tomas Nilsson, cyclingnews.com correspondent Sweden at last gets a chance to participate in the World's with a full team (well, eight riders anyway), but the selection is a disappointment. For various reasons only five riders will start, and Michael Andersson's participation in the ITT as well as the road race is also in question. His last place in the Sydney ITT due to blood poisoning some weeks before the Olympics was of concern, but if he recovers, the parcours of the World's ITT will suit him much more than that of the Olympic race. Martin Rittsel, Memorycard, has been out of form for the latter part of the season while Michel Lafis has finished his career after eight years as a well respected domestique. Magnus Bäckstedt doesn't feel very good either. Other available riders have not been considered to be good enough to fill the remaining three spots on the team. The women's team, not qualified for the Olympics, holds some promise. Susanne Ljungskog and her Farm Frites teammate Madeleine Lindberg, as well as Lolland Falster's Jenny Algelid have had a fine season with Ljungskog. Look out for the U-23 team consisting of four team Crescent riders topped by Stefan Adamsson (2nd in Paris-Tours Espoirs today) with Mälarenergi's Kristoffer Ingeby completing the line up. Elite Men Road race: Michael Andersson
(Mercatone Uno) Time Trial: Michael Andersson (Mercatone Uno) Elite Women Road Race: Jenny Algelid (Team
Lolland Falster) Time Trial: Jenny Algelid (Team
Lolland Falster) U23 Men Road Race: Stefan Adamsson
(Team Crescent) Time Trial: Petter Renäng (Team Crescent) Junior Men Road Race: Alexander Gustavsson
(Åstorps CK) Time Trial: Alexander Gustavsson
(Åstorps CK) DenmarkThere will be no Danish representation in the men's ITT after Michael Sandstöd's poor performance in Sydney. Michael Blaudzun is not able to participate. Elite men Road Race: Rolf Sørensen
(Rabobank) Elite Women Time Trial Lisbeth Simper (Team Lolland Falster) U23 Men Road race (Five starters): Michael Reihs Junior Men Road Race: Hans Henrik Jørgensen Junior Women Time Trial: Mette Fischer Andreasen Dutch womenDutch coach Jean-Paul van Poppel has selected Yvonne Brunen for the road race in Plouay after Elsbeth Vink cancelled her start. Elite Women Road race Chantal Beltman
Time Trial Marielle van Scheppingen
Anna goes for the hourAfter the re-setting of all World records by the UCI to those obtained on a conventional bike with spoked wheels, the women's hour record is now closer to 43 kilometres than 48. Australian Anna Wilson will attempt to break it on the new velodrome in Melbourne (another Ron Webb construction) on October 18 for the media launch. Wilson will therefore not be contesting the World Championships in Plouay. Van Moorsel not given 100% supportDespite winning three golds and one silver medal in Sydney, and being the most successful women's rider (in terms of number of victories) this season, Leontien Van Moorsel has not been given rave reviews by all of her homeland. In what seems to be almost a case of sour grapes (or 'tall poppy syndrome' as we call it in Australia), Dutch paper De Limburger published an article about Leontien entitled "Big Sportswoman, bad teammate". The article gives Dutch champion, Mirjam Melchers a lot of credit for Van Moorsel's win, after she helped keep the bunch together to set it up for a sprint. Leontien herself gave Melchers a big hug and part of her prize money afterwards, and said that she couldn't have done it without Melchers' or Beltman's help. However, she is one of the many stars who will not be contesting the World Championships in Plouay on October 14 and will not be able to return the favour to Melchers. De Limburger: "Leontien's head is empty. Too empty to start in France next week. Is this the new Leontien, the Leontien after anorexia? The new Leontien is a winning Leontien. This season more than 30 victories. That's because of the commercial teams in women's cycling - this branch is booming." "In the commercial world you have to win, and the winner has to be a 'topper', a well known leader. Jan Raas prefers that Michael Boogerd wins the Amstel Gold Race instead of a teammate like Aart Vierhouten or Jan Boven. So Michael Zijlaard (team manager and husband) prefers Leontien van Moorsel as the winner instead of Anouska van der Zee or Esther van de Helm. After the gold medal(s) in Sydney, Leontien can demand higher start money and she will get a lot of attractive commercial offers." "It's a pity that such an empty head has no place for good fellowship," concludes the article. Imagine if someone published something like that about "our Cathy".
Gonzalez de Galdeano's reactionAfter he tested positive to Nandrolone in the GP Llodio, Spanish rider Alvaro Gonzalez de Galdeano found himself out of the Spanish World's team as well as facing a minimum 6 month ban and in danger of losing his contract with ONCE for next year. However, he maintained a positive outlook, as the concentration of Nandrolone was not high, "the word 'doping' scares me but I have the confidence to say that I am not guilty. If there is a sanction, then it means that you are guilty but the UCI at the moment must be in favour of the sportsman," he told a Basque radio station. He and his Vitalicio team are claiming that energy bars that they obtained from the US were contaminated with the steroid. "The results of the analyses showed that there were minimal amounts present. There are levels in that product and the truth is that we have slightly exceeded them," added Gonzalez. Gonzalez' Czech teammate, Jan Hruska is also fighting a similar case with the Czech Federation. |