Where are the Italians?Column by Peter van Leeuwen in the regional daily Amersfoortse Courant/Holland:When a Germin wins Milano-San Remo, a Danish rider the Tour of Vlaanderen and an unknown Frenchman Paris-Roubaix the question is simple: what happened with superior power of the Italians? This is especially so, when you start making the link between the controls on EPO (like the Belgian television did two weeks ago) and the fall in performance of the Italian teams who dominated the spring in 1996. After the Tour of Vlaanderen the BRTN said that the Mapei-team was no longer in the frontline in the pre season. Was there a relation between this and with the blood controls? From that moment nobody from the Mapei-team will talk to the BRTN cycling journalists, at least for a few days. The war on EPO seems to have worked. Many times in the past there has been a connection suggested between EPO and the Italian power in the recent years. And since the blood controls you can see riders like Peter van Petegem and Jo Planckaert in the front line of the races. And do you remember Paris-Roubaix in 1996? With the Mapei-team on the first three places? There are even Dutch riders in the front of races this year. Last year the Italians scored 6 places on the podium in 3 World Cup races this year 3. Last year there were 8 Italians with the first 20 riders in Paris-Roubaix now 4. And in the Tour of Vlaanderen this year 4 (in stead of 9 as in 1996). You can't prove anything but it is a fair amount of evidence to reflect on. LanceLance Armstrong, winner of Fleche Wallone in 1996, followed the race from the flagship of Jean-Marie Leblanc yesterday, director of the the Societi du Tour de France. The Texan, still convalescent after the operations to remove cancer of the testicles, then trained for about fifty kilometers and stayed for supper with Eddy Merckx. Today Armstrong will go back to Texas.GuidoFabrizio Guidi was operated on yesterday morning at Pisa to fix his right clavicle, which he fractured on Sunday at Roubaix. The compound fracture of the clavicle was held by the application of three nails. In a couple of days, the Scrigno-Gaerne rider will return home. |