Polti and IndurainGianluigi Stanga, team manager for Team Polti, has been working on Miguel Indurain. First by sending a fax last week. After that the telephone call by Stanga to Indurain's house (but the Spanish Champion was out training) and then Indurain himslef calling Stanga's house."I will decide next week if I will continue racing or not", has said Indurain. Next week, the sponsor Franco Polti and Stanga will fly to Spain to meet with the Navarran. Meaning that Indurain is taking into consideration the proposal from the Italian team. ONCE relaxed about MigManolo Saiz ONCE's sport director said yesterday that he doesn't live "close to the phone in case there's a call from Miguel Indurain. We are tranquil and training, like every season and if he gets in contact with us then we will speak about details. But we haven't set a date or have any appointments with the Navarran. When he calls us it will be fine, even if he does it right before the Vuelta a Andalucia. Our structure allows us to admit Indurain without it causing any problems with the team".ONCE's plans for 1997 don't vary much from previous seasons: a meeting just south of Andalucia with the main riders (Jalabert, Zulle, Mauri) plus the only new signing, Javier Mauleon (who has signed for two years. After that a new meeting in Mallorca a few days before the Challenge. The whole team will meet there. The riders not with the team for '97 will be Stephens, Joncker and Mariano Rojas who regretfully died. In terms of Colombian Oliverio Rincon, he will have a strange preparation. He will ride with a Colombian team until the month of May when he will join ONCE for the important races. "We are training like every year", concluded Saiz. Batik-Del Monte presentsThe program for the new Batik-Del Monte was announced at the Ca' Bianca, a Milanese theatre which is a meeting place for Jazz music lovers. We are talking about the group that was sponsored by Gewiss-Playbus, which has passsed under the banner of the food company.The 1997 team will be built around Eugenio Berzin, winner in 1994 at Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Giro d'Italia and Gabriele Colombo, who won at Sanremo and Nicola Minali, sprinter of the best quality. Together with the previous three riders Bombini has confirmed Bertoletti, Brignoli, Brognara, Cenghialta, Cerioli, Frattini, Odriozola Mugarza, Tartaggia and Volpi. New signees include Luca Colombo, Meier, Pierobon and neopros Spezialetti, Stocco and Toffaroli. Leaving from the team will be Bottaro, Fina, Gotti, Perona, Santaromita, Bobrik, Scopsi and Zanini. With a total of 18 riders the team will concentrate in the World Cup and the three main stage races: Giro, Tour and Vuelta. Bonn, 11 dic (EFE).- Twent six year old German cyclist Juergen Werner has been signed by Italian Team Refin for next season. Werner rode with "Team Deutsche Telekom". UCI introduces a new ranking systemUCI Establishes new ranking system - Dec. 11 - The UCI is establishing a new ranking system for Division 1 of the pro peloton. According to the new system, the top 16 teams in the ranking will automatically qualify for the Tour de France, compared to 18 teams which qualified this year. The Tour's additional six teams will be selected for the Tour after the Giro d'Italia and Dauphine Libere. The 10 World Cup events will be contested by riders from the first 22 teams in Division 1. One additional change within the ranking system is that a transferred rider's points now go to his new team and also to his old team, if the team retains 50 percent of its riders from the previous year. |