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Although defending champion Roberto Heras is no longer part of the Kelme-Costa Blanca team, the boys in green and white still have a line up that can seriously push for a podium spot, or perhaps the overall classification if Oscar Sevilla is in the right kind of condition. Sevilla was the best young rider in this year's Tour de France, finishing just in front of his teammate Santiago Botero. Kelme also came away with the team's classification, a testament to their climbing prowess and their strong time trialists.
The Vuelta team contains six riders who raced in the Tour: Oscar Sevilla, Santiago Botero, Felix Cárdenas, Toni Tauler, José Ángel Vidal and José Enrique Gutiérrez. They are joined by Francisco Cabello, José Javier Gómez and Angel Vicioso. The team philosophy is the same, according to director Vicente Belda: "We will try to consolidate our position within the international peloton as the most competitive team of the moment, working to offer a sporting spectacle in the high mountains, through sacrifice and giving, that is the weapon of Kelme throughout life."
The more tangible goals are to put Sevilla and Botero on the podium.
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Domo's Richard Virenque is looking forward to the Vuelta España, which starts tomorrow in Salamanca. Despite having seven days of racing in his legs since starting on August 15, Virenque hopes that he will regain his racing form during the three week race.
In a pre-race interview, Virenque said that "The objective is to find my form and my condition to be able to take part in the World Championships. As it is while racing that one becomes a good rider, I need to race."
"I will see from day to day what I can do. If I can win a stage and to be in front...I remains to be seen how the legs will go, but it is impossible to make forecasts. In the Vuelta a Burgos I was not lagging behind, but I was missing a lot to go for the wins."
Virenque admitted that "it was a pity" that he was so under prepared, as the profile of the Vuelta certainly suits him. "It is exceptional to see a rider starting a grand Tour without being prepared."
The toughest stage in the Vuelta this year looks to be the 11th, from Alp to Andorra (Estació de Pal), which contains two category 2 climbs, three category 1 and a special category climb to finish, all in just 154 kilometres. The stage also features the highest point in the Vuelta, the Port d' Envalira (2410 m), an 11 kilometre climb averaging 5.5 percent. It will be known as the 'Cima Alberto Fernández' of this edition of the Vuelta, similar to the Giro's Cima Coppi and the Tour's Souvenir Jacques Goddet.
The mountain time trial from Ordino to Arcalis (Stage 12) that follows is short, at 17.1 kilometres, but quite severe. The main part of the climb averages 7 percent, and finishes at an altitude of 2,210 metres.
Stage 15 also promises to be a killer. Although the notorious climb to El Angliru is not present this year, the organisers found a new climb, the Alto de Aitana, which serves as the stage finish. The riders will climb for over 20 kilometres from 290 metres up to 1,510 metres, with the final 6 kilometres averaging around 8.5 percent, some of it on unpaved roads.
All in all, the Vuelta has seven mountain top finishes, and we should certainly expect to see a climber atop the podium in Madrid.
All 189 riders will be allowed to start in the Vuelta tomorrow, after compulsory hematocrit testing revealed that everyone was under the 50 percent limit set by the UCI. Medical tests were taken on Thursday morning, under the supervision of the UCI. They also formed part of the biological medical follow up that is carried out several times per year.
Vuelta main page
Start list
Stage list
Map
The second last round of the women's World Cup will be fought out in Switzerland on Sunday, with the Grand Prix de Suisse Cycliste Féminin. Held over six laps of a challenging 21.5 kilometre parcours around Oberembrach (129 km total), the race will be crucial in determining who will be World Cup champion in 2001.
Two years ago, Anna Millward (Wilson) clinched the World Cup in this same race, sensationally beating German Hanka Kupfernagel in a sprint finish, to give her the Cup by just seven points. This year, Millward goes into the final two rounds with a 51 point buffer over Dutchwoman Mirjam Melchers, both of whom pulled out of the Holland Ladies Tour which finished today in order to prepare for Sunday.
Other contenders will also be present in Switzerland, including Susanne Ljungskog (Vlaanderen-T-Interim), Zinaida Stahurskaia (GAS Sport) and Olga Slioussareva (Carpe Diem), winner of round 7, the Trophée International in France.
Millward is certainly in form at the moment, and is a favourite to win the event should it come to a sprint finish. Failing that, all she needs to do is stay ahead of Melchers to maintain her position as World Cup leader, and that will not be an easy task.
Defending women's cross country champion, Margarita Fullana (Spa), has withdrawn from the World Championships in Vail, Colorado, that start this weekend. Fullana released a statement which gave the reason as "extreme tiredness as a consequence of a viral infection." She will rest for at least two months.
There will be no replacement for Fullana in the individual event, but Janet Puigros will ride in her place in the team relay next Wednesday.
By John Alsedek
With less than 48 hours remaining until the start of the inaugural San Francisco Grand Prix, a collection of pre-race favourites and other luminaries met with the media at a pre-race press conference.
Held at the luxurious Hotel Clift, it was attended by the likes of Mayor Willie Brown, Threshold Sports' Dave Chauner, Thom Weisel of Thomas Weisel Partners, and BMC Software's Debra Tummins. However, the star of the show was unquestionably U.S. cycling's prodigal son, three-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, who alternately held the fifty-plus media representatives in attendance spellbound or made them laugh.
The press conference began with brief introductions from Chauner, John Kelly of the U.S. Postal Service, and Mayor Brown, who compared Armstrong's appearance in San Francisco to "bringing Babe Ruth back - it's just that interesting!" The mayor then went on to speak about the race itself: "The eyes of the world are going to be on San Francisco for five hours on Sunday. It's going to be great weather for a great race in one of the great cities of the world. I'm really looking forward to San Francisco having this race, year in and year out."
In attendance were Armstrong, Derek Bouchard-Hall of the Mercury Cycling Team, Tim Johnson of the Saturn Cycling Team, and local hero Fred Rodriguez, who rides for the Belgian team Domo-Farm Frites. Before answering questions, Armstrong presented Mayor Brown with one of his 2001 Tour de France yellow jerseys - an appropriate gift, considering Weisel's earlier observation that Mayor Brown "not only knew that Lance had won the Tour, but he even knew by how many minutes and seconds!" Then the questions began.
Focused almost exclusively on Armstrong, the questions ranged from observations on the course ("It'll probably be a race of attrition"), his goals for the race ("my form isn't quite where I'd like it to be - the team shouldn't just focus on me"), his feelings about his battle with testicular cancer ("In a sense, it's the best thing that could have happened to me"), and even about his early racing career, which began in Northern California ("the Tour of the Unknown Coast was one of the coolest races I ever did- there were these trees big enough to drive a car through!").
Throughout, Armstrong showed a level of composure far greater than when he'd last raced in the U.S. over three years ago.
But it wasn't just a one-man show, as the other athletes got involved as well. Fred Rodriguez, the current U.S. PRO National Road Champion, commented on racing so close to his hometown of Emeryville, CA: "It's great. I've been looking forward to this race all season long. I think it's a great event for the city, for the sport...and for me!"
His opinion on the grueling Fillmore Street Climb was somewhat more guarded: "Um, I actually saw it on the way to get coffee this morning.."
Saturn rider Tim Johnson was asked to compare the San Francisco course to another American classic, the First Union USPRO Championship in Philadelphia: "It's harder for sure. The winner will be someone who can both climb and go the distance - for guys like me who have raced shorter domestic events most of the season, that's a major concern."
And Derek Bouchard-Hall, representing the Mercury Cycling Team, was pragmatic about his own chances: "I can climb okay, but this really isn't my sort of race. However, I like the chances of some of our other guys for sure. But no matter how it shakes out, it's going to be an amazing race."
The San Francisco Grand Prix is the third event in the BMC Software Series. 858 police and over 500 volunteers will be in place along the 16 km circuit, which traverses the San Francisco area. The race begins at 9:02 AM on Sunday, and will be covered live in its entirety by ABC Channel 7 and Cyclingnews.com.
The Saturn Cycling Team is looking to finish the 2001 season on a high, with several team members leading national and international points standings. The first obstacle is this weekend, as both men's and women's teams will race on Saturday, September in the San Rafael Cycling Classic, which will offer a $10,000 purse for each division. The ladies will race for one hour on the 2.4 km circuit, starting at 12:30 p.m. PDT. The men will follow at 2:00 p.m. in a 90-minute race.
The following day, the men will compete in the inaugural San Francisco Grand Prix, which will pit the best teams in the nation against each other in a 210 km event - 10 laps of a 16.4 km circuit followed by five laps on a 8.9 km finishing loop, all in the heart of historic San Francisco.
Trent Klasna has been leading the National Racing Calendar (NRC) and Pro Cycling Tour (PCT) standings throughout the season. Each links key American races through a points system. Now it's crunch time for Klasna and the team - which holds the NRC team title as well - to hold onto those leads.
"We'd like to keep all of that," said Jim Copeland, men's team director for the Saturn Cycling Team. "To do so, it's going to take a team effort, just as it has taken a team effort ever since the first race of the season."
"Now that we're starting to get down to the wire, it's absolutely critical that the team be unified in the goal, which is number one to win the bike race and number two maintaining the lead."
In the NRC standings, Klasna holds a 1293 to 754 lead over his closest challenger, Scott Moninger (Mercury), and this could only be overcome if Moninger wins all remaining races, and Klasna scores no points.
In the PCT standings, Klasna holds a 405-264 margin over Vassili Davidenko, and it's for Davidenko to take the lead in the next four races. "One of Trent's goals is to mark Davidenko and make sure that if he's having a bad day he at least covers Davidenko," said Copeland.
In addition to Klasna, the team will be looking to Tim Johnson, who just won the Mt. Washington Hill Climb; Harm Jansen, winner of the professional criterium championship in Chicago; Michael Barry, a strong climber who was fourth in the grueling Saturn Cycling Classic, and Søren Petersen, who can also excel on a course with a lot of climbing such as what he will face Sunday.
"It's the time of year and the kind of race that you can have a surprise winner - someone who has had a quiet season but has had a good block of training and everybody else is a little bit down," said Copeland.
On the women's side, a squad of five - Kim Davidge, Anke Erlank, Clara Hughes, Suzanne Sonye and Ina Teutenberg - will be looking for an opportunity to show off their sprinting skills. All but Hughes have had victories this season, with Teutenberg racking up 11 wins this year. Hughes, winner of two bronze medals in cycling at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, has been focusing on making a trip to the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics as a member of the Canadian speed skating team.
Even though they are busy racing in the Vuelta España and the Italian races Coppa Placci and Giro di Romagna this weekend, the Saeco Macchine per Caffe’ team will also be racing in the USA at the GP of San Francisco (Sept 9) and the BMC Software Tour in Houston, Texas (Sept 16).
For the San Francisco race the Saeco team will include Oscar Cavagnis, Brad Davidson, Nicola Gavazzi, Armin Meier, Justin Spinelli and Italian stagiaire Luca Barla who comes from the Saeco feeder team. For the race in Houston Mario Cipollini and Mario Scirea will join their teammates to make a dream team for an eventual sprint finish.
The Mapei-Quick Step team is presenting itself to the following races:
September 8: 51st Coppa Placci, Italy
Riders: Paolo Bettini, Davide Bramati, Allan Davis, Paolo Lanfranchi, Daniele Nardello, Luca Scinto, Pavel Zerzan, Frederik Willems. DS: Fabbri Fabrizio
September 9: 76th Giro di Romagna, Italy
Riders: Paolo Bettini, Davide Bramati, Stijn Devolder, Paolo Fornaciari, Paolo Lanfranchi, Daniele Nardello, Luca Scinto, Patrik Sinkewitz. DS: Fabrizio Fabbri
September 9: G.P. Eddy Merckx, Belgium
Riders: Fabian Cancellara, Michael Rogers. DS: Eric Vanderaerden
Individual time trial
Juniors: Mette Fischer Andreasen (Svendborg CC)
Elite: Lisbeth Simper (Team Lolland-Falster)
Road Race
Juniors: Mette Fischer Andreasen (Svendborg CC)
Elite: Lisbeth Simper (Team Lolland-Falster), Lotte Schmidt (Randers CK)
National coach Peter Pieters has selected the Dutch team to contest the World Track Championships in Antwerp (September 26-30).
Individual Pursuit
Leontien van Moorsel
Anouska v.d.Zee
Robert Slippens
Team Pursuit
John den Braber Wilco Zuijderwijk
Peter Schep
Lennart v.Drimmelen
Jens Mouris
Points Race
Leontien van Moorsel
Wilco Zuijderwijk
John den Braber
Madison
Robert Slippens
Danny Stam
Keirin
Theo Bos
Teun Mulder (possible)
Olympic sprint
Teun Mulder
Martin Benjamin
Sebastiaan Baanders
Theo Bos
500 m Time Trial
Yvonne Hijgenaar
The GB team for the World Track Championships in Antwerp (September 26-30) has been announced.
Sprint
Julie Forrester
Chris Hoy
Craig MacLean
Jason Queally
Endurance Riders
Paul Manning
Chris Newton
Bradley Wiggins
Steve Cummings
Emma Davies
Sara Symington
Yvonne McGregor
Paul Manning has done well to recover from a recent collision with a car and takes his place amongst the endurance men. Also in the same group is Stephen Cummings, who has made remarkable progress as a track rider this year. Still only 20 years old, the former National Junior Road Champion has impressed on both road and track and looks set to make his World Track Championship debut.
Another debutante in Antwerp will be Sara Symington, who was better known as a road rider before the track nationals last month, where she recorded the fastest time of the championships in the Women's Individual Pursuit. In Antwerp, Britain will have three riders in this event, having qualified two places plus an additional place for Yvonne McGregor as defending champion. Two places have been qualified in the Men's Individual Pursuit, thanks to Bradley Wiggins' win in the European Championships.
This Saturday (September 8) sees the first ever joint RTTC and British Cycling National Time Trial Championships, on a circuit near Barrow upon Soar in Leicestershire. A huge field of almost 220 riders will contest the event.
The Juniors get things going with the first rider off just after 1pm. Keiran Page and Adam Duggleby the hot favourites for the Junior title. A big field of 85 Masters gets rolling at 1.30pm with Ian Hallam amongst the favourites. Ian is off at 2.45pm. An encouraging field of 26 Espoirs starts at 2.57pm: a couple of riders to watch out for are former WCPP Road rider Dan Bridges (off at 3.15) and National Under-23 champion James Shaw who starts a minute later.
The first of 23 women riders starts at 3.28pm with favourites Ceris Gilfillan, Liz Milne and Yvonne McGregor off at two minute intervals between 3.49 and 3.51. Defending champion Natasha Maes is off at 3.55. The Senior men boast a field of 59 riders, with the first off at 3.56pm. Amongst the favourites will be Julian Winn (starting 4.17), but most attention will be focussed on the duel between Stuart Dangerfield (off at 5.01pm) and Michael Hutchinson (5.05pm). Dangerfield has had a superb season against the clock and has tended to get the better of Hutchinson in their meetings. They are both class acts and it would be a major surprise if one or the other was not crowned champion at the end of the race.
The ten-mile circuit will be ridden twice by the women and three times by the men. The start/finish is on a short stretch of road linking two roundabouts, to the NE of the village of Barrow upon Soar. The course will be ridden in an anti-clockwise direction. From the southern roundabout, the Circuit heads NE along a minor road and turns sharp left at Six Hills, just before the A46 and follows the A676 to Burton on the Wolds. In the village it then takes a left onto minor roads and back to the start/finish. With a 250ft difference in height between lowest and highest points on the course, it should produce some interesting racing.
Spectators are asked to follow the usual precautions when parking their cars - get them off the road and stay clear of the start/finish area - and to avoid driving on the roads through the small village of Walton on the Wolds, in the centre of the course, which are unable to cope with extra traffic.
Prizes will be handed out at 6.20pm at the race HQ, Humphrey Perkins School, Cotes Road, Barrow-on-Soar.
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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