Gianluca Bortolami back on bikeYesterday he went out again on a bicycle. Three quarters of an hour were enough to put a stop to a black stage in his career. Gianluca Bortolami was operated on Thursday at the clinic of professor Simonetto, to eliminate the rod that has been in his arm since June because of a right arm fracture of the ulna.Gianluca Bortolami had won the World Cup in 1994 and the last time he shined was last season with his second place at Paris-Roubaix. The rest doesn't count. "Stop, restart, stop: I want to erase '95 and '96 - continues Bortolami, 28 years old -. Problems, bad luck, forget it, end it. The great satisfaction has been the birth of his son, Alessandro, who now is 4 months old. I was dead tired of training, but when I saw his smile, I was reborn". 1997 will be Bortolami's first year in a foreign team. The Milanese has left Mapei-GB for the French Team, Festina-Lotus, where he will ride next to Virenque and Dufaux. And yet, Bortolami is not part of the list of riders that have gone to foreign teams with hopes of being recalled for more money: he has signed for two years, with a third year option. Bortolami entered under contract with Bruno Roussel, d.s. for Festina. Rabobank also approached him: "but the Dutch have a different way of life, they are colder, more detached". He will be the team leader at the Classics, although almost certainly he will be absent at the Giro, he will attend the Tour to help Virenque and Dufaux. "I'm going to start training on the road to start with a good base of kilometers and also some gym work, working on abdominal to regain muscular mobility. This is a team that guarantees me to be the leader at one day races, in the World Cup, which will be my objective for the season. Italians riding for Foreign Teams in 1997* BAFFI Adriano, 34 from Mapei-GB to US Postal * BORTOLAMI Gianluca, from Mapei-GB to Festina Lotus * FONDRIEST Maurizio, 31 from Roslotto-Zg to Cofidis * ELLI Alberto, 32 from MG-Technogym to Petit Casino * LOMBARDI Giovanni, 27 from Team Polti to Telekom * MASSI Rodolfo, 31 from Refin-Mobilvetta to Petit Casino * PERON Andrea, 25 from Motorola to Francais des Jeux * POLI Eros, 33 from Saeco to Gan * REBELLIN Davide, 25 from Team Polti to Francais des Jeux * REBELLIN Simone, 26 from Polti to Francais des Jeux * SALIGARI Marco, 31 from Mg-Technogym to Petit Casino * SCIANDRI Max, 29 from Motorola to Francais des Jeux * VANZELLA Flavio, 32 from Motorola to Francais des Jeux Pantani victoriusMarco Pantani has returned to victory, even if it was only in a criterium for charity. The climber won at the team time trial at the two routes of Carpi, a race to benefit the people that were affected by the earthquake that occured at the provinces of Modena and Reggio Emilia. About 20 professionals participated at the 3 Km. time trial.Italian team newsIl Diablo and Zaina will be the team captains for the new Asics team directed by Boifava - After 12 seasons, Claudio Chiappucci's jersey will not have for '97 the name Carrera. The casual clothing company's place has been taken over by Asics, a company that produces sports equipment and which will be the new sponsor for the team led by Davide Boifava.The group which has renewed itself after the divorce by Pantani, will be managed by Boifava and Sandro Quintarelli, with the following riders: Chiappucci, Zaina, Simeoni, Chiesa, Schiavina, Baronti, Noe, Shefer (Kaz), Bellini, Molinari and the neo pros: O. Pozzi, Bonetti, Bongioni and Turicchia. First meeting of Team SaecoThe team guided by Antonio Salutini - which has Italy's National Champion Mario Cipollini, Francesco Casagrande and new acquisition Ivan Gotti have met at Porretta Terme for the first of three meetings. One day to meet with all the Saeco representatives in Europe and to elaborate their winter programs.They also wanted to have a good look at the new bicycles which they will use next year provided by new bicycle sponsor, Cannondale. Also for their medical visits and to look at their 1997 calendar. Their debut will be in February in France at the Etoile de Besseges. At this mini-meetings 23 riders were presented, which were all present except Martinello, expected today and Ukranian Kokorine still undecided between Saeco and Roslotto. Changes for TelekomThe German Telephone Company "Telekom" has retired from the group of sponsors of the German Cycling Federation (BDR) to concentrate their efforts in the Pro team that carries their name, lead by the Tour de France champion, Bjarne Riis. Telekom's communication manager, Jorgen Kindervater, justified the decision because of sport and economic motives. Unhappy with the results achieved by the riders from the BDR this last season, they will concentrate their efforts in "Team Telekom", said Kindervater. In addition, "the costs of the professional team have increased considerably"."Team Telekom" will have a lineup of 16 riders next season, two less than in 1996, but the budget has increased from less than five million to more than seven million dollars, due to the wave of wins by the team directed by Walter Godefroot, which in the last season achieved 50 victories. Kindervater confirmed the hiring of Olympic Champion Olaf Ludwig as advisor. Ludwig raced his last race last October and will retire from the sport definitely in January of '97, after participating in a series of Six Day Races. ONCE newsManolo Saiz, sport director for Team ONCE, already gave orders to his riders to begin training. The '97 season is already planned in his head, although he prefers for the riders to have a month of training to exchange ideas with them and design the finally design the '97 season concretely."I don't have any news from Indurain. We are acting without taking into account the possibility of signing him. If there is such an occasion he needs to speak with Banesto first, then we would see how much it would cost and how he would fit in the team machinery. In terms of the first aspect, the money, at first ONCE would hire him. To get a co-sponsor to reach a certain figure? Well that is an idea that we haven't considered. Actually the tendency would be the opposite, that is to clean up the jersey and only leave the words ONCE and our logo. That doesn't mean that we would not accept some type of co-sponsor, but it would have to be an attractive offer and with guarantees", explains Manolo Saiz. Saiz doesn't like speculations or hypothesis. "We are proud of out team, we have the two top riders in the World Rankings as team leaders and we will not get obsessed with including Indurain in our team. If he comes with us we will be very proud. Miguel has always being respectful with us and we will do the same with him. The decision is his". In case that Indurain would go to ONCE he would barely coincide at races with Zulle and Jalabert. "And if they coincide nothing will happen. Because our two leaders start the season strongly, right at the time when Indurain barely performs. When he starts to increase his performance, in mid-May or the beginning of June, Zulle and Jalabert stop competing for six weeks. In full form they will only coincide at the Tour and Vuelta or at least in one of the two. The option of riding the Giro is left out. Only Indurain's signing could change their mind about the Giro. When Manolo Saiz and Pablo Anton, team manager, met with Miguel Indurain they didn't speak of money or contract length, according to them. Anton emphasized that "we didn't speak of one or two years, it is understood that it would be one year so that he could close his career with a golden season". The activity at the team office is the same as other years at around this date. To negotiate material and equipment contracts with suppliers and to start controlling the first few training kilometers of the riders. On this occasion the offers have accumulated and some of the five team suppliers of Look frames, Mavic wheels, Hutchinson tubulars, Etxeondo and Mito for clothing, could change. "We have received some very good offers from Italy and we are thinking about them. You have to take into account that in Italy what a company spends in sports can be directly deducted from their taxes. That is the key why Italy has 16 professional cycling teams and we have so few", assures Anton.
And what about Prudencio'Pruden' continues to meditate about his future. Banesto has made him an offer and he says that he has other offers from Spanish teams. At ONCE there are no plans of signing him, even if Miguel ends up wearing the yellow uniform for '97. Prudencio himself commented yesterday that "I have started to train lightly, not much because it has rained. If Miguel will train on the 1st with me? Well he hasn't said a thing. And if he does it wouldn't mean a thing. Even if he leaves cycling, he will never leave the bicycle".Riis on IndurainBjarne Riis is convinced that Miguel Indurain will retire from cycling, but admitted that he has dreams of beating him again. "I think that he will not return to racing again. And if he continues I would be happy, because I have dreams of beating him again", said the last winner of the Tour.Riis showed himself to be convinced that he can win the next Tour. "Nobody can beat me. The win this year has given me a lot of confidence, because now I know that I can win the Tour. That makes things easier for next year. In addition next year's route suits me well", said the Dane. Riis would once again count with Jan Ullrich, second at the Tour-96 and Erik Zabel, winner of the Green Jersey. Telekom has been reinforced with Georg Totschnig, Giovanni Lombardi and Franck Corvers. Ullrich said that he was truly happy that Telekom renewed the Danes's contract. "I will continue at his service. I'm not prepared yet to win the Tour", Zabel has already mentioned that he will push to be team captain. "As far as I know there is not clause in Rijs' contract that specifies who will be the team leader. Amongst some riders there is a personal friendship and others simply have common interests. I have never had problems with Rijs, because we are two different type of cyclists. But one has to keep into account that differences don't occur when there have been successes", indicated Erik Zabel. |