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Team Telekom is likely to be concenrating all its efforts on winning the yellow jersey for Jan Ullrich in the upcoming Tour de France, leaving top sprinter Erik Zabel to fend for himself in the points competition. The key man in contention is Zabel's trusty leadout, Gian Matteo Fagnini, unless Jan Ullrich was practicing during the Giro for the leadout job.
Rudy Pevenage, Walter Godefroot, Jan Ullrich and Erik Zabel will meet to discuss the list next week, and it is likely to be decided on Friday, June 29. So far, Zabel has managed with a minamilist approach, as he can, like Mario Cipollini, position himself well when there are no teammates around. He can also climb, which is valuable for picking up points in the hilly, but non-mountainous stages.
This time, Zabel says that "I would like to win a stage...with Fagnini, I have more confidence and can race a lot more calmly."
In terms of wins, Zabel is having a better season this year with 15 under his belt so far. He is less well placed on the World Cup standings, but he does want that 6th green jersey.
Along with Jan Ullrich and Erik Zabel, other favourites for the Telekom team are Alexandre Vinokurov, Steffen Wesemann, Kevin Livingston, Giuseppe Guerini, Andreas Klöden, Gian Matteo Fagnini, with Rolf Aldag, Jens Heppner and Udo Bölts the next in line. There are a total of 9 places.
Interviewed after his Tour de Suisse stage win, Erik Zabel said that he would "not be surprised" if there are similar raids during the Tour de France "as a reaction to the incidents in the Giro."
"After the doping scandals in the Tour in 1998, such things still happen, which is rather sad. Now we all must suffer from it...I understand the actions of some of my professional colleagues. What disturbs me however about this business in Italy is the unprofessional methods of the public prosecutor's office."
"It has to be determined quickly: which means are forbidden and which are allowed. I find it bad that of the published 86 people involved in the Italian case, one of them was Jan Ullrich, even though he he only took asthma medication."
The first of the 86 people implicated in the Giro d'Italia raids will be heard next week by Florence prosecutor, Luigi Bocciolini, who said he had been "preoccupied with other business" to do anything to date. Bocciolini is awaiting the results of the analyses of the seized substances, and will be questioning the riders and team personnel to determine whether they have violated the Italian "sporting fraud" law which was used to convict Marco Pantani earlier this year.
Bocciolini specialises in criminal law, but also carries out inquiries into doping. He was interviewed today by Sportal, before the hearings start next week, and commented that "We know when the investigations start, but never when they will finish."
He expressed his surprise at the "cyclists' public astonishment from our intervention. Doping in Italian sport has been spoken about for years and an action such as ours shouldn't have surprised anybody. I believe that this means that the riders were ignored for too long by justice."
"I agree with what's said that the operation was spectacular, but I refuse to acknowledge that we wanted to make it spectacular. You must understand that for a search to be effective, it must be carried out in a simultaneous fashion on the 20 teams which took part in the Giro d'Italia, and this inevitably means a significant mobilisation of police officers. How is it possible not to proceed with surprise in this type of operation?"
Bocciolini explained where the investigation is up to at the moment: "The first phase consisted of sorting the seized products and material from San Remo. In one portion, we found products that were clearly doping according to the list drawn up by the Strasbourg Convention. The other portion of the substances were not immediately identifiable, because they were unlabelled or didn't have any packaging, so we had to get them analysed to determine their chemical nature and their source, which we suppose to be illicit in the majority of cases."
"We will start our interrogations next week and they will proceed during July. I intend to question all 86 people, including 64 riders. The preliminary investigation should be finished by the end of September."
When questioned about the justification of calling up riders who were merely on asthma medication, Bocciolini replied that "we don't register someone without serious reason. If the number sums to 86, it means that there were 86 searches with a positive [doping substance found] result."
He noted that there was a "statistically high proportion of riders who suffer from a pathological condition," in particular asthma which is "a priori incompatible with the practice of the sport of cycling at a high level."
There is also the large discrepancy between the number of riders caught by UCI methods (only Pascal Herve and Ricardo Forconi during the Giro) and the number implicated in this investigation.
Bocciolini responded to this by saying that a number of teams had their own "miniature laboratories" for carrying out blood analyses in order to "control their hematocrit levels and to lower them if necessary. The significance of the controls is therefore relative."
The rumours about various "new" blood products RSR-13, modified bovine haemoglobin and Hemassist can not be confirmed yet, however "we found substances that are new on the pharmaceutical level which do not obviously appear in the official list of prohibited products. We are looking further into their chemical composition. In all cases, they are products whose action is can be clearly defined as doping."
"Most of the time, the products have come from hospitals and we are inquiring into that subject." Bocciolini couldn't confirm whether there was any Mafia involvement or not.
There are nine teams on the list of those investigated due to take part in the Tour. The French federation may approach the Italian authorities in order to obtain a copy of the procedural acts of the preliminary investigation. In turn, the FFC may pass this on to the Sociètè du Tour de France who can take action if they wish. The events of next week will therefore be extremely important for those teams wanting to keep their place in the Tour.
The organisers of the Vuelta a España have named their preliminary team selections for the race that starts on September 8. Six Spanish teams: Euskaltel-Euskadi, iBanesto.com, Jazztel Costa de Almería, Kelme-Costa Blanca, ONCE Eroski and Relax Fuenlabrada have been named along with twelve other foreign teams: Domo-Farm Frites, Cofidis, Festina, Team Coast, Telekom, Lampre-Daikin, Mapei-Quick Step, Mercatone Uno, Saeco, Rabobank, Mercury and US Postal.
The final two teams will be selected from Maia-MSS, CSC-WorldOnline, Panaria and Alessio in July.
The race organisers also indicated that they will be collaborating with Spanish sporting authorities and the UCI in the detection and stamping out of doping. They reserve the right to exclude any teams prior to the race if found breaking the rules in this respect.
The last stage race before the Tour is the four day Route du Sud in France. It is classed 2.3 by the UCI, considerably lower than either the Tour de Suisse or the Volta a Catalunya. Although most of the Tour teams are riding in those two events, a few remain to contest the Route du Sud.
The following teams will contest the race, which begins in Carcasonne on June 23: Banesto, Jean Delatour, Lotto, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Kelme-Costa Blanca, Française des Jeux, Cofidis, AG2R Prévoyance, Crédit Agricole, Fassa-Bortolo, Bonjour, Big Mat Auber, Festina, Rabobank, Mercury-Viatel, and CSC-Worldonline.
Notable riders include Dauphiné Libére winner, Christophe Moreau, Jean Delatour's Laurent Brochard and Laurent Roux, Rabobank's Michael Boogerd and Erik Dekker, Mercury's Peter Van Petegem and Euskaltel's David Etxebarria.
The race includes a 17 kilometre time trial in Castres on June 24, and also features a mountain top finish on the Plateau de Beille on June 26 on the final day.
No, he has not left US Postal. Rather, 27 year old George Hincapie has signed with Sotox Sports Management. He joins Frankie Andreu, Dylan Casey, Christian VandeVelde, Jonathan Vaughters and triathletes Nicole and Tim DeBoom on the Sotox team.
Hincapie is one of America's top one day racers, winning Gent-Wevelgem and placing fourth in Paris-Roubaix this season. He also recently finished third in the USPRO championships behind Fred Rodriguez and Trent Klasna, (he was USPRO champion in 1998). In two weeks time, Hincapie will be riding with the Postal team to try and win Lance Armstrong his third Tour de France.
President of Sotox Sports Management, Clay young said of Hincapie's signing that "We have a goal to enhance the image that George has created by strategically promoting him and cycling."
Sotox will aim too look after the marketing, legal and contractual side of Hincapie's career.
Despite the doping scandal surrounding former Fassa Bortolo rider Dario Frigo, and rumours that the team would lose its main sponsor, Giancarlo Feretti's team will continue to exist in the cycling world. The team issued a strongly worded press release reaffirming their rules that any rider found to be in possession of or testing positive to doping substances will be dismissed.
Additionally, "Fassa Bortolo want to highlight its decisiveness in the fight against doping and firmly reaffirm its determination to go on with cycling competition. The team is strongly willing to keep on challenging in the international field for a long time."
"The claim that the Team is to quit the cycling world is TOTALLY FALSE, though the disloyalty of one member of the team might rock the faith in this specialty sport."
The French minister for Youth and Sports, Marie-George Buffet, has expressed her concern at the threat of the European Union to withdraw from the World Anti-Doping Association. The European Union will have a heavy input - 47 percent from 2002 onwards - into the fincancing of WADA, and this was heavily debated at a recent summit in South Africa.
"Any withdrawal of the Commission would have heavy consequences," said Mrs. Buffet. "I believe that we should not weaken the World Anti-doping Agency at the time when it is set up and affirms its role".
The EU threat to withdraw comes because it would not hold the equivalent influence in the decision making as it would in fincancing the WADA. "To become the reference point in the fight against doping, the WADA, the international authority which establishes the universal anti-doping code, needs Europe, and Europe must be represented in its correct place," added Mrs. Buffet.
Major Races and Events
September 7-29, 2002: Vuelta
a España (GT) - Preview, stage list
May 11-June 2, 2002: Giro
d'Italia (GT) - Preview, stage list, photos
July 6-28, 2002: Tour
de France (GT) - Full preview & official route details
December 8: Superprestige
Rd 5 (Cat. 1) - Erwin Vervecken
November 29-December 4: Six
Days of Noumea (6D) - Sassone/Neuville victorious
November 26-December 1: Six
Days of Zurich (6D) - Day
6 - McGrory/Gilmore/Schnider win
December 1: Melbourne
Cup on Wheels (IM) - Scott Moller, Keirin,
Sprint, Support
races
December 2: Cyclo-cross
World Cup #2 (CDM) - Sven Nijs again
November 24-December 3: Juegos
Deportivos Centroamericanos (JR) - Final results
December 8-9: Frankfurter
Rad-Cross (Cat. 2) - Alex Mudroch, UK
National Trophy Series #4 (Cat. 3) - Roger Hammond, Grote
Prijs Industrie Bosduin - Kalmthout (Cat. 1) - Bart Wellens, Int.
Radquer Obergösgen (Cat. 2) - Björn Rondelez, Trofeo
Mamma e Papa Guerciotti (Cat. 3) - Enrico Franzoi, Premio
Egondo (Cat 3) - David Seco, Irish
cyclo-cross championships - Robin Seymour
Results: local racing
Australia - CycleWest
Promotions Omnium Series #2, Eastern
Suburbs Summer Criterium Series, Carnegie
Caulfield Tuesday criterium, Southern
Cross Junior Track Open & Madison Cup, Manly
Warringah CC, George
Town Track Carnival, Carnegie
Caulfield CC, Randwick
Botany CC, Gold
Coast CATS CC, Caesar's
Illawarra CC, Caesar's
Illawarra (track)
Denmark - Danish
cyclo-cross Post Cup #3
Italy - Gran
Premio Città di Bassano
Luxembourg - GP
De Kopstal
New Zealand - Cyco
Criterium series
Spain - Elorrio
cyclo-cross
USA - Georgia
Cross Series Championship, Chimborazo
Grand Prix cyclo-cross, Boulder
Cross Rd 6, New
Mexico State Cyclo-x Champs, Sorrento
Cyclo-x & California State Champ's, Boulder
Cross Rd 5, Verge
New England series, Northampton
CC Cyclo-cross Championships, Chris
Cross International CycloCross
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