Miguel Indurain announced today he will not ride in this year's Tour d'Italia. "We've drawn up a calendar to tackle the Tour (of France) in the best possible conditions," said Indurain. After the Tour, Indurain will announce his intentions for the Tour of Spain, the Worlds, and the Hour.
10 April 1995
The route of the 47th edition of the Dauphine Libere was presented in Paris Monday (10 April 95). A chance to see how Big Mig's doing on the big climbs, and Leblanc is also down to ride.
4 June Prologue at Evian (6.7 kms)
5 June Stage 1: Evian--Montalieu Vallee Bleue (227 kms)
6 June Stage 2: Charbonnieres--Guilherand Granges (173 kms)
7 June Stage 3: time trial at Tain L'Hermitage (36.5 kms)
8 June Stage 4: Guilherand Granges--Carpentras. Includes ascent of Mont
Ventoux (183 kms)
9 June Stage 5: Avignon--Gap, including ascents of the Col de Perty and
the Col de Foureyssasse
10 June Stage 6: Briancon--summit of Vaujany, including climbs of the
Galibier and La Croix-de-Fer (143 kms)
11 June Stage 7: Vaujany--Chambery (159 kms)
12 April 95 Franco Ballerini (Italy) will compete for part of the $250,000 purse in this year's Tour DuPont, the United State's premier cycling event. Joining Ballerini on the world's number one-ranked Mapei-GB team will be teammates Gianluca Bortolami and Adriano Baffi. Last year's winner Viatcheslav Ekimov (Russia), Lance Armstrong (U.S.) and Andrea Peron (Italy), second and third respectively, will also race.
Retired champion Greg LeMond, the 1992 race winner, will serve as a U.S. television commentator during the Tour DuPont.
The 7th annual Tour DuPont, a 12-day 1,813 kilometers/1,130 miles stage race, starts 26 April 95 in Wilmington, DE, and continues through Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Post Liege-Bastogne-Liege News
Fans of Laurent Jalabert who'd like him to win every race this season shouldn't weep too profusely into their beer over his defeat in Liege. By my calculation he's won something else: Le Weekend Ardennais. This competition, which combines results in Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege (in the event of a tie the L-B-L performance takes precedence) was run officially from 1950 to 1964 (when the races were run on succesive days) and then dropped. It was revived in 1993, when Maurizio Fondriest won it. Evgeni Berzin won in 1994. Taking 1st =1, 2nd = 2 etc, JaJa just pips Mauro Gianetti to the prize.
Le Weekend Ardennais:
1. Jalabert (1st FW, 4th L-B-L) = 5pts 2. Gianetti (5th FW, 1st L-B-L)= 6pts 3. Francesco Casagrande (4th FW, 5th L-B-L) 9pts 4. Fondriest (2nd FW, 11th L-B-L) 13pts26 April 95
In a first of its kind move, the USCF is said to be considering a $1 million dollar bonus purse for an American gold medal in the Olympic road race. The purse would be split among cyclists training for and filling the five U.S.A. Olympic team spots.
With professional cyclists able to participate in the Olympics for the first time, the financial incentive is hoped to attract the likes of Lance Armstrong. Armstrong has previously stated he has little interest in the Olympic race.
Chris Carmichael (national team director), who's considering the plan in conjunction with Sean Petty (managing director of USPro), did not specify from where the money would come or the exact distribution of the purse.
Victories
Catherine Marsal (France) broke the women's world one-hour record today, covering 28.267 miles at the Bordeaux velodrome, improving the previous best of 27.811 set by Jeannie Longo (France) in Mexico in October, 1989.