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Edited by Jeff Jones
After he was cleared last Friday of taking the banned substance EPO, Spanish cyclist Juan Llaneras is looking for justice. At a press conference today at the Spanish Olympic Committee, the five time World Champion and Olympic Champion said that he was "looking at legal action on all levels."
Llaneras was controlled "non-negative" for EPO during the World Track Championships in Antwerp in September, where he won a silver medal. However, his "B" sample did not return a value that was over the limit for EPO, and the UCI closed the case last week.
"I lived in true martyrdom," said Llaneras. "I was innocent and I had to prove this innocence. The damage, it is not just the money, it is the blows that were made to my honour, to my family, to my son."
According to his lawyer Andreu Garriga, he wants to institute legal proceedings against all the companies that had "dirtied his name".
"There was a false positive," said Garriga. "Either the urine was not his, or it was his and it had deteriorated, or the analysis was done badly, or even the method is not reliable."
Llaneras also commented on the difference of the UCI test (urine only) compared with that used in last year's Sydney Olympics (double blood test + urine). "A group of IOC experts judged [the urine test] to be insufficient to establish a positive result. I don't understand how the UCI can introduce a test without the necessary scientific and legal rigour."
He added that he would be "happy to help other people who had false positives to prove their innocence, but I would not like people who do not deserve it to use my case for them. I am for controls, if it is necessary to have other tests, new controls, or double controls, blood, urine, DNA, hair... then they should be done. And at the finish, the only thing that prevails is the nobility and honour of the sportsman."
With not even a day off following the Six Days of Gent, won by Matthew Gilmore and Scott McGrory, the six day scene heads to Switzerland for the 49th running of the "Zürcher Sechstagerennen". The race starts on November 26 and finishes on Saturday, December 1 and features all the top Six Day teams. There are a few interesting additions to the start list as can be seen below.
Gent winners McGrory/Gilmore will be there, joined by road pro Daniel Schnider (Francaise des Jeux) to make a three man team. In fact, each one of the 16 teams in Zurich is comprised of two regular track riders and an "extra" rider, usually a well known Swiss road pro. Note the presence of off-roaders Thomas Frischknecht and Beat Wabel, as well as the retired Russian, Evgeni Berzin. These additional riders normally compete in their own competition, with their points being added to the team's total.
Professionals 1 Marty Nothstein (USA)/James Carney (USA)/Markus Joho (Swi) 2 Frank Kowatschitsch (Ger)/Franz Stocher (Aut)/Massimo Strazzer (Ita) 3 Etienne De Wilde (Bel)/Lars Teutenberg (Ger)/Evgeni Berzin (Rus) 4 Scott McGrory (Aus)/Matthew Gilmore (Bel)/Daniel Schnider (Swi) 5 Giovanni Lombardi (Ita)/Marco Villa (Ita)/Fabian Cancellara (Ita) 6 Dany Stam (Ned)/Robert Slippens (Ned)/Lukas Zumsteg (Swi) 7 Frank Corvers (Ger)/Jimmy Hansen (Den)/Marcel Strauss (Swi) 8 Bruno Risi (Swi)/Kurt Betschart (Swi)/Markus Zberg (Swi) 9 Gerd Dörich (Ger)/Mario Vonhof (Ger)/Bert Grabsch (Ger) 10 Erik Weispfennig (Ger)/Stefan Steinweg (Ger)/Roland Müller (Swi) 11 Adriano Baffi (Ita)/Christian Weber (Swi)/Roger Beuchat (Swi) 12 Jimmi Madsen (Den)/Andreas Beikirch (Ger)/Niki Aebersold (Swi) 13 Alex Aeschbach (Swi)/Franco Marvulli (Swi)/Martin Elmiger (Swi) 14 Silvio Martinello (Ita)/Andy Kappes (Ger)/Thomas Frischknecht (Swi) 15 M. Kammermann (Swi)/Lorenzo Lapage (Bel)/Christian Heule (Swi) 16 Patrik Fäh (Swi)/Patrik Kraus (Swi)/Beat Wabel (Swi) Amateurs 1 Iljo Keisse (Bel)/Jürgen Van Loocke (Bel) 2 Patrizio Frigeri (Ger)/Karsten Wörner (Ger) 3 Maurice Friedemann (Ger)/Florian Owen (Ger) 4 Stefan Löffler (Ger)/Jan Ott (Ger) 5 Stefan Mittelhammer (Ger)/Karsten Lange (Ger) 6 Oliver Mattmann (Swi)/Ralph Zimmermann (Swi) 7 Stefan Schär (Swi)/Sergio Schudel (Swi) 8 Michael Müller (Swi)/Tobias Baumgartner (Swi) 9 Laurent Arn (Swi)/Marco VonKänel (Swi) 10 Walter Tresch (Swi)/Martial Heer (Swi) 11 Vincent Bionda (Swi)/Stéphane Rouiller (Swi) 12 Benjamin Baumgartner (Swi)/PeterCyrill Schindler (Swi) 13 Kevin Jaeggi (Swi)/Stefan Peterer (Swi) 14 Mario Wagner (Swi)/Marco Hartmann (Swi) 15 René Schibli (Swi)/Daniel Temperli (Swi) 16 Reto Küng (Swi)/Kay Wörner (Swi) Stayers 1 Carsten Podlesch (Ned) behind Bruno Walrave (Ned) 2 Peter Jörg (Swi) behind Robert Buchmann (Swi) 3 Hanskurt Brand (Swi) behind René Aebi (Swi) 4 Sabino Cannone (Ita) behind Dieter Durst (Ger) 5 Jan Ramsauer (Swi) behind Jos De Bakker (Bel) 6 Ruedi Keller (Swi) behind Peter Steiger (Swi) 7 Stefan Klare (Ger) behind Christian Dippel (Ger) 8 Felice Puttini (Swi) behind Roberto Puttini (Swi)
Frank Vandenbroucke is hoping to sign a contract with the Domo-Farm Frites team by the end of this week, according to Belgian news sources. A meeting will be held on Wednesday between VDB, his management agency SEM, and Domo team manager Patrick Lefevere. The contract, if it is signed, would be for one year.
In the meantime, Lefevere is still looking for an extra sponsor for the team, with Qatar being a possibility, as well as other sponsors.
It seems certain that Lotto-Adecco will not sign Vandenbroucke, with team manager Christophe Sercu saying that "We are entirely not interested. The National Lottery has not forgotten how Frank left after his debut with us. Furthermore, there is the unanswered question of how much sporting value VDB is."
Lotto-Adecco still does not know whether it will have Danish rider Tayeb Braikia on board next season. Braikia will be with the team at its training camp in December, but he does not know whether he will be able to resume at the level he was before his crash early this year.
Just a couple of days after announcing that he would leave mountain biking (at least temporarily), Bas van Dooren has found a road contract with BankGiroLoterij-Batavus. Team manager Arend Scheppink knew Van Dooren well from his amateur years. "He later evolved into a strong rider in mountain biking," said Scheppink, who now has 13 riders in his squad.
By Jean-Francois Quenet
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25 year old Seth Pelusi of the United States is returning to Elite 2 as he signed for Nantes 44, an up and coming team in the first division of French amateur cycling which includes 12 clubs. Pelusi rode professionally for Flanders-Prefetex in Belgium in 2001, after two seasons working as a super domestique for Saturn.
He actually tried to turn professional in France, riding for US St-Herblain in 1998. He was a very promising U23 rider and was a stagiaire with Mercury that year for the Tour de l'Avenir. He got married in France, to Alexandra, whose father is a famous local speaker for bike races in the Nantes area, so he'll be able to ride for Nantes 44 as a Frenchman.
"I'm very motivated by this new challenge and I'm convinced the support will be at least as good as in a Belgian second division pro team," Pelusi said.
He's joining an organisation that is known for his good relationships with pro teams. Nantes 44 leader in 2001, Ukrainian Youri Krivtsov will be a neo-pro with Jean Delatour next year, British rider Jamie Alberts got a stagiaire position with Française des Jeux and another Englishman, Robin Sharman, who did well at the U23 World's (26th), is now a target for several directeur sportifs.
Spanish women's team Junkers-Noja has lost its main sponsor after Junkers chose not to continue, citing the economic conditions in the wake of the September 11 attacks on New York as the reason. Junkers is an aviation company and these have been particularly hard hit after the attacks.
The team enjoyed some success in its first year, with Judith Arndt's third place overall in the Tour de France, along with second place in the teams classification and Maribel Moreno winning the best young rider award. In the Spanish championships, Dori Ruano won both the road race and time trial, also finishing third in the individual time trial at the World Road Championships and fourth in the track World's. The team won the Copa de España and the Spanish federation's team ranking.
Team director Juan José Peñalosa is now looking for a sponsor to fill the hole, with some success so far. The Cantabrian tourist city of Noja and Acqua San Benedetto have both confirmed that they will stay with the team for 2002, meaning that the team will certainly exist. Whether it will race at the international or the national level will depend on whether a another sponsor is found.
Courtesy of Ciclismo en Espana
Scarcely two weeks after the Northern Alliance took command of Kabul, a bicycle race has been organised there. The 40 kilometre race took place between Kabul and Charikar, via the valley of Panchir, with a field of 20 riders. It was the first bicycle race in five years in the capital, and was held in honour of commander Ahmed Shah Masood, former head of the forces of the Northern Alliance, who was assassinated last September.
"When the Taliban were controlling things, we did not have the right to practise the sport (in public), it was very difficult," said Afghan Olympic Committee member Mahmoud Azani to Reuters Television. "Now, with our freedom, we can organise this race."
An Italian study has shown that riding a bike three times a week can be as good as taking Viagra to improve sexual function for men with weak heart muscles. The study was conducted by Dr. Romualdo Belardinelli, director of the Lancisi Heart Institute in Ancona, Italy and reported his findings at an American Heart Association conference in Anaheim, California. An article in Monday's Sydney Morning Herald summarised them.
Belardinelli examined men with chronic heart failure, whose hearts were unable to pump enough blood to feed their bodies. Normally, nitrate drugs are prescribed to help the blood flow more easily in such cases, as they release nitric oxide which helps to widen blood vessels.
Viagra prolongs nitric oxide signalling, which ultimately assists in obtaining an erection. However, the combination of Viagra and nitrates can lead to problems with sudden drops in blood pressure. Thus, Viagra is generally not prescribed to heart failure patients.
Dr. Belardinelli proposed that regular aerobic exercise can offset this, by increasing sexual performance as well as improving heart function. He monitored 59 men, 30 of whom he had cycle three times per week at moderate intensity, while the remaining 29 acted as a control group.
The cyclists reported improvements in their sex lives during the eight week program. This was assessed by a questionnaire given to the men, with a similar one given to their sexual partners to ensure that truthful answers were given. It was also found that the exercising men improved their ability to use oxygen, with a better blood flow in the brachial artery (shoulder-elbow) observed.
Widening of the blood vessels was proposed by the researchers as one reason for the improvements, but others believe that there could be many more. Whether this is applicable to the professional peloton is obviously a subject for the next study to be carried out by Dr. Belardinelli.
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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