Contracts and Transfers- Team Ros Mary-Amica Chips has confirmed the signing of Claudio Chiappucci for the next season and the new Mayor of Varese, Aldo Fumagalli has nominated "il Diablo" as sport's counseller. Friday in Milano will take place the presentation of the new Team Ros Mary-Amica Chips, with Chiappucci as captain and Sandro Quintarelli as the "admiral".Dutch Drug Scandal - Part 16Sanders go inside for 6 monthsOn Wednesday in a Court Trial in Maastricht, the Geleen doctor Wim Sanders was jailed for 6 months for tax fraud, with 3 months conditional minimum. The doctor came into disrepute because in 1991, as the team doctor for PDM he was involved in illegal doping. The doping matters were actually separate from the tax fraud, but were revealed when the dosiers surrounding the latter were made public. Since the administration of the drug substances is not illegal, the Courts had no plans for Sanders to reveal the actual facts of those activities. The Court concludd further that a part of the evidence given by the FIOD (Tax Department) about Sanders in 1995, relating to the seized records and names amounted to an injustice. The FIOD is not able to give anyone the names of the patients because this would have been forbidden under the Medical legislatin. This also applies to the sellers of the drug Eprex and the declarations of Sander's assistants. The dosiers show that the doctor's fraud amounted to approximately 100,000 guilders for under-the-counter (black) drugs. USA Race UpdateThe First Union National Bank had sponsored a race in Atlanta, GA for the past several years; however, 1997 was the last outing and the possibility of finding another sponsor was rather bleak. Well, new a sponsor came forward (Outdoor Life Network) and the race will be held 26 April 1998 with $75,000 in prizes. The Outdoor Life Grand Prix will use the same downtown Atlanta course as the 1997 race.The CoreStates races will now be the First Union races (First Union has purchased CoreStates). Here is the lineup: First Union-Lancaster, PA, 2 June; Christiana Cup-Wilmington, DE, 3 June (men and women); First Union- Trenton, NJ, 4 June; First Union-Philadelphia, PA, 7 June (men and women). Thanks to Moe. Pantani and teamMarco Pantani and his teammates of Mercatone Uno-Bianchi will be meeting until Friday at the Hotel Monte del Re di Dozza Imolese. The 20 team riders (yesterday they signed Davide Dall'Olio), the only one missing will be Sergio Barbero, who got married on Saturday. Stefano Garzelli resumed training yesterday, the 24 year old team member of Mercatone Uno-Bianchi, who had a knee operation on November 22nd at the Poliambulatorio di Brescia by professor Terragnoli.A cyclist in Iceland?Rémi (lost) in Iceland says:Well, the description given by Tom (news dec. 11th) of the front tennis is right. This game played mainly in the Basque country and the southwest of France, is called in french: pelote basque. So let's say in good english (but how can I judge it, me, a poor frenchman?) that Prudencio Indurain was injured playing "Basque Pelote". By the way, I have been reading your news since I discovered your site, that means since february this year. And for an expatriate french guy (I am living in Iceland) who cannot purchase daily his favourite newspaper named L'Equipe, your web site represents a link with the real world, as in Iceland so few people even knows what riding means. |