News for April 22, 2001

Liege-Bastogne-Liege

Live coverage

Cyclingnews will provide live coverage of today's Doyenne of the Classics, due to start at 09:50 local time. Across the English-speaking world, that's:

Los Angeles  00:50
Denver       01:50
Chicago      02:50 
New York     03:50
London       08:50
Perth        15:50
Sydney       17:50

Our full Liege-Bastogne-Liege coverage starts here.

Start postponed

The start of Liege-Bastogne-Liege has been postponed by five minutes to accommodate a protest by workers from the Continental tyre factory in Herstal, Belgium. The worker are protesting the planned closure of the factory and loss of some 700 jobs.

The protest has been arranged with the organisers, and in a statement the workers' union thanked the race organisers for "understanding our message." The same factory closure inspired the protest that disrupted the Flèche Wallonne close to Charleroi and led to confrontation between riders and protesters.

The union statement denounced "the irresponsible and antisocial attitudes of multi-nationals" and criticised Continental "for not having allocated sufficient budget to find socially acceptable solutions."

Starters confirmed

Johan Museeuw, Andrei Tchmil and Peter Van Petegem.are all confirmed to start. However, Collstrop-Palmans is having problems with its selection. Roger Hammond, Christophe Detilloux, Vincent Cali and Karl Pauwels will definitely ride, and Thierry De Groote is probable, but the remaining four must come from: Oleg Pankov, who has flu; Marc Streel, who has been suffering back problems; Peter Wuyts, making a comeback after broken rib, and the Scheirlinckx brothers both of whom are ill.

Criquielion on the Redoute

The most feared part of the Liege-Bastogne-Liege route is côte de la Redoute, 2,400 meters of climbing with an average grade of 7.6 per cent as it ascends through the meadows out of the Amblève valley. This is the traditional crux of the race and Belgian former classics star Claude Criquielion—who placed second on two occasions but never won the Doyenne—remembers it fondly.

"It is a major obstacle that provides the circumstances for an attack if you have the necessary strength." he said in an interview with AFP. "At its base, it is essential to be in front. The road is long, narrow and difficult, with difference in gradient. It is hard to pace out your effort."

"When I was a rider, I took care not to go too hard in the first two or three hundred meters. Then I went on the attack."

La Redoute is a serious deterrent to specialist sprinters like Erik Zabel, who won't be racing.

LBL trivia

The proximity of Liege-Bastogne-Liege to the Flèche Wallone/Waalse Pijl makes links and comparisons inevitable. Only five riders have won both races in the same year:

1951 Ferdi Kübler
1952 Ferdi Kübler
1955 Stan Ockers
1972 Eddy Merckx
1991 Moreno Argentin

Of the 45 riders who have stood on the podium of Flèche Wallone/Waalse Pijl since 1986, ten of them have taken a podium place four days later:

Year   Rider         Flèche Wallonne     LBL
1987   Criquielion   second              third
1990   Leclercq      second              second
1991   Argentin      first               first
1991   Criquielion   second              second
1993   Fondriest     first               third
1994   Furlan        second              third
1994   Berzin        third               first
1996   Armstrong     first               second
1997   Jalabert      first               second
1999   Den Bakker    second              third

Commesso suspended

Salvatore Commesso (Saeco) has been suspended until mid-May by the disciplinary committee of the Italian Cycling Federation, after being found in possession of prohibited substances. The 1999 Italian champion has been suspended without pay for the last month by his team.

The official announcement of the suspension has not yet been made, but the news was released by the Saeco team on Saturday. A Saeco spokesman said it was unlikely Commesso would be able to start the Giro on May 19.

Ochoa out of intensive care

Spanish press reports have confirmed that the planned transfer of injured Kelme rider Javier Ochoa from intensive care to a regular room at the Cruces de Bilbao hospital took place on Friday. Ochoa is able to communicate in writing but is currently prevented from speaking by a tracheotomy. He has asked for news of his twin brother Ricardo and did not believe his family's assurance that he was in another room.

Ochoa is reported to have lost 20kg, and is only now able to eat. He is still unable to move his legs.

Ochoa was seriously injured February 15 when he and brother Ricardo were hit by a car while training. Ricardo was killed and Javier spent several weeks in a coma.

Sick and injured list

Oscar Mason (Marcatone-Uno), who sustained a severe fall in Veenendal-Veenendal has been diagnosed as having a broken collarbone. While the break is not complicated, it will be about ten days before Mason is able to train again.

Marco Pantani has pulled out of the Settimana Lombarda, failing to start Saturday's fourth stage because of the cough that has dogged his entire early season. His directeur sportif Giuseppe Martinelli said "It's a pain because Pantani is almost recovered, and there were encouraging signs on Friday's climb on the Selvino, but it is not worth the risk on the eve of the Giro. He will be better off training on familiar roads and in better weather."

Mirko Celestino will miss Liege-Bastogne-Liege because of the heavy flu that already caused him to abandon Flèche Wallonne. Saeco will be relying on Laurent Dufaux and Paolo Savoldelli in Celestino's absence.

Andre Tchmil has been given the green light by his team doctors to ride Liege-Bastogne-Liege despite being hit by a van during a training ride on Monday.

Cofidis trackies plan record attempts

The Cofidis team's track squad has selected La Paz, Bolivia for an assault on several world records in October. Arnaud Tournant will attempt to break the kilometer record of 1 min 0.148sec that he set on June 16, 2000 at Mexico City.

Laurent Gané and Mickaël Bourgain will go after Kurt Harnett's six-year-old 200m record of 9.865 seconds set on September 28 1995 in Bogota, Colombia.

The La Paz velodrome was selected by Cofidis rider Frédéric Magné who was dispatched to Bolivia and Colombia at the end of March in search of a venue.

Irish team announced for Milk Ras

Ireland's team for the FDB Milk Ras has been announced. Team leader David McCann of CCC-Chechmate will be the first Irish professional to take part in the race's 49 years. 1998 junior world champion Mark Scanlon will act as McCann's first lieutenant, and the remainder of the team will be French-based riders Morgan Fox (ASPTT Montpellier), Aidan Duff (23 La Creuse) and Tommy Evans (VC La Pomme).

Courtesy www.velomania.net

Perras to Ficonseils

Dominique Perras, formerly of the US Noble House team-that-never-quite-happened has signed for Swiss Division Three team Ficonseils. He replaces John Foster, who was let go by the team a few weeks ago.