News for December 17, 1997


Preliminary Team's Ranking for 1998

Regular contributor, Wim van Rossum has compiled with a lot of help from other sources a preliminary team's ranking for 1998. He said that the list is incomplete for many reasons, not the least being the lack of information of the American, Columbian and Portugese teams. Furthermore he used the rider's UCI rankings as at October 31, 1997.

A = Points of the best riders
B = Points of all riders
C = Number of riders in the team
 				  	A	      B          C

 1. ( 1)         Mapei-Bricobi         7097         9020         25
 2. ( 4)         Festina-Lotus         6674         8277         24
 3. ( 3)         Team Telekom          5893         6469         17
 4. ( 2)         O.N.C.E.              4957         5462         21
 5. ( 6)         Rabobank              4660         5258         20
 6. ( 9)         Banesto               3657         4393         21
 7. (12)         Casino                3598         4455         22
 8. ( 7)         T.V.M.                3591         4536         22
 9. (10)         GAN (Cred. Agricole)  3375         3596         18
10. ( 5)         Saeco                 3327         3795         21
11. ( 8)         La Française des Yeux 3196         3709         22
12. (15)         Lotto-Isoglas         3115         3741         21
13. (22)         Cofidis               3065         3605         20
14. (20)         Team Polti            3034         3257         20
15. (21)         Asics-CGA             2854         2959         19
16. (new)        Seguros Vitalicio     2732         2939         22
17. (11)         Mercatone Uno         2639         3053         19
18. (16)         US Postal Service     2530         2623         15
19. (29)         Cantina Tollo         2408         2537         20
20. (13)         Kelme-Costa Blanca    2404         2476         20
21. (new)        Ballan                1916         1969         14
22. (18)         Brescialat-Liquigas   1685         1735         16

23. (19)         Scrigno-Gaerne        1680         1680         18
24. (new)        Riso Scott MG         1353         1390         17
25. (34)         Big Mat-Auber'93      1290         1363         16
26. (38)         Ros Mary-Amica Chips  1245         1245         12
27. (30)         Mroz                  1026         1072         20
28. (new)        Jack & Jones           997          997         11
29. (28)         Saturn                 975          990         11
30. (31)         Flavia Telekom (Col)   937          937         10
31. (27)         Amore & Vita           825          825         13
32. (40)         Palmans-Lystex         779          784         14
33. (24)         Estepona-Toscaf        766          773         18
34. (33)         Post Swiss Team        720          729         16
35. (35)         Euskatel               599          674         19
36. (45)         Mutuelle Seine&Marne   526          531         12
37. (47)         Gerolsteiner-Psv Köln  496          496          9
38. (41)         Kross-Sella Italia     485          489         19
39. (25)         Vini Caldirola Aki     478          478         14
40. (43)         Continentale Olympia   475          475         11
??. (36)         Team Nürnberg          465          473         13
??. (53)         Agro-Adler             368          380         13
??. (36)         Vlaanderen 2002        343          362         16
??. (39)         Tönissteiner-Vossch.   288          288         10
??. (new)        Bottecchia-Northwave   255          255         14
??. (51)         Cedico                 247          247         11
??. (new)        New French Team        206          207         14
??. (new)        Acceptcard (Denmark)   167          167         10
??. (60)         Ipso-Euroclean         149          149         12
??. (58)         Krka-Sintofarm         146          146         14

To qualify for the World Cup you have to be in the first 22 teams. Brescialat and Scrigno are thus borderline cases. For the Tour de France, the first 16 teams as at June 1, 1998 + 4 teams given wild cards will participate. Also smaller teams can race certain World Cup races within their own country.

Who is writing for Cycle Sport

UK's cycle sport now includes four regular rider columns: Super Mario's, one from Lance Armstrong, one from Boardman and a monthly perspective from Britain's David Millar. For 1998, Cipo and Lance have been added and el diablo has been sent to the boonies.