News for December 26, 1997

More Aussie riders than Cycling Australia Admits

On Thursday, I published a press release from Cycling Australia which read, in part, as:

The Amore & Vita deal provides an outstanding opportunity for White and Rogers. The team program in the past has included such races as the Giro d'Italia and Tour of Spain and will once again revolve around Europe's major cycling races, providing them with the opportunity to race against the World's leading cyclists. These signing's have now boosted the number of Australian signing's to Professional European teams to 11. The pair will be joining Neil Stephens (Festina), Henk Vogels (GAN), Stuart O'Grady (GAN), Marcel Gono (GAN), Jay Sweet (Big Mat), Scott Sunderland (Palmans), Robbie McEwen (Rabobank), Patrick Jonkers (Rabobank), and Bradley McGee (La Francais De Jeux).

Well, we have discovered a few more Aussies that have been ignored in this release.

  1. Scott McGrory, Die Continentale-Olympia Dortmund (Germany), (born 22-12-69), Professional since 1994, UCI ranking 178, 16 victories, former AIS Track Scholarship holder training under AIS Track Coach Charlie Walsh.
  2. Jason Phillips, PSV Team Köln (Germany), (born 20-11-69), Professional since 1993, UCI ranking 1364, former AIS Road Scholarship holder training under AIS Road Coach Heiko Salzwedel.
  3. David McKenzie, Kross-Montanari (Colombia/Italy), (born 06-08-74), Neo-professional in 1997, UCI ranking 780.
  4. Matthew Gilmore, RDM-Asfra (Belgium), (born 11-09-72), Professional since 1994, UCI ranking 1028, 3 victories.
  5. Matthew Allan, RDM-Asfra (Belgium), (born 05-12-74), Neo-professional in 1997.
  6. Allan Iacuone, Team Unknown (Spain), former AIS Road Scholarship holder working with Heiko Salzwedel.
Thanks to Stefaan Degryse's great team site at http://cyclist.simplenet.com/teams.html, Kriss Verreth and Heiko Salzwedel.

Unofficial Team Rankings Update

Wim van Rossum has again worked on input from many to come up with his "un-official and preliminary" Team Rankings for 1998, which are based on the UCI-points as of December 31, 1997. Evidently the UCI has been getting concerned with the publication of various unofficial lists like this. We publish them here with the clear statement contained in the heading. If any team boss is stupid enough to ring up the UCI and complain about their ranking well.....I am not responsible and nor is Wim. Get real.

The rankings are based on the "facts and rumours" as they have been generated from different sources. The composition of some of them is uncertain and Wim has virtually no information about team in Colombia, Portugal and the US.

The UCI has also indicated that they will calculating their team rankings using the best 8 riders per team and will publish the official list at the end of January 1998.

The following rankings use the points of the best 8 riders per team as at December 31, 1997. The other colums are the points of all known signings and the number of riders in the team. 

 1. ( 1)  Mapei-Bricobi             6335   9026   25
 2. ( 4)  Festina-Lotus             5950   8279   24
 3. ( 3)  Team Deutsche Telekom     5545   6469   17
 4. ( 2)  O.N.C.E.                  4651   5462   21
 5. ( 6)  Rabobank                  4249   5258   20
 6. ( 9)  Banesto                   3392   4398   22
 7. (12)  Casino                    3290   4455   22
 8. (10)  GAN (Credit Agricole)     3157   3576   18
 9. ( 5)  Saeco                     3115   3781   21
10. ( 7)  T.V.M.                    3076   4431   22
11. (15)  Lotto-Isoglas             2898   3741   21
12. ( 8)  La Française des Jeux     2897   3709   22
13. (20)  Team Polti                2878   3241   19
14. (22)  Cofidis                   2855   3605   24
15. (21)  Asics  CGA                2811   3107   20
16. (new) Seguros Vitalicio         2611   2939   22
17. (16)  US Postal Service         2384   2598   15
18. (11)  Mercatone Uno-Bianchi     2363   3055   19
19. (13)  Kelme-Costa Blanca        2297   2476   20
20. (28)  Cantina Tollo             2127   2537   20
21. (new) Ballan                    1833   1969   14
22. (18)  Brescialat-Liquigaz       1567   1741   16
23. (19)  Scrigno-Gaerne            1547   1565   17
24. (38)  Ros Mary-Amica            1319   1387   13
25. (new) Riso Scotti-MG            1310   1428   17
26. (33)  Big Mat-Auber'93          1190   1363   16
27. (new) Jack & Jones               986    997   11
28. (29)  Mroz                       946   1012   20
29. (27)  Amore&Vita-ForzAcore       937    942   14

??. (30)  Flavia Telekom             927    937   10
??. (31)  Saturn                     873    905   11
??. (39)  Palmans-Lystex             774    784   14
??. (32)  Post Swiss Team            698    733   17
??. (41)  Kross-Sella Italia         580    645   22
??. (new) Vini Caldirola-Aki         570    595   15
??. (34)  Euskatel-Euskadi           530    693   20
??. (44)  Mutuelle Seine&Marne       506    531   12
??. (46)  Gerolsteiner-Psv Köln      496    496    9
??. (42)  Continetale Olympia        493    495   11
??. (24)  Estepona-Toscaf            481    488   18
??. (43)  Team Nürnberg              418    473   13
??. (53)  Agro-Adler                 355    381   13
??. (35)  Vlaanderen 2002            307    342   16
??. (40)  Tönissteiner-Vosschemie    261    261   11
??. (new) Bottecchia-Northwave       255    255   14
??. (49)  Collstrop                  234    234   12
??. (new) Outdoor Life-Fuji-etc (VS) 214    214   10

Wielerrevue (June 1997) reports that the 1998 First Division will consist of the first 16 teams as at December 31, 1997 (based on the "old" teams) plus the next six teams of the ranking as at 15th January 1998 (based on the new teams).

That means the teams of: Mapei-GB; O.N.C.E.; Team Deutsche Telekom; Festina-Lotus; Saeco; Rabobank; T.V.M.; La Française des Jeux; Banesto; GAN; Mercatone Uno; Casino; Kelme-Costa Blanca; MG-Technogym; Lotto-Mobistar and US Postal Service.

The next six teams on the Preliminary list for 1998 are: Team Polti; Cofidis; Asics-CGA; Seguros Vitalicio; Cantina Tollo and Ballan. As the team of MG-Technogym has disappeared, it is possible that the team of Brescialat-Liquigaz will also belong to the 1st Division.

Spinergy

After creating havoc about Cinelli bars, I now turn my attention to Spinergy wheels. Has anyone got any substance on the rumours that they are about to be banned? I can't get onto Cycling Australia until next week and several people are suggesting that a UCI announcement is imminent.

Top Racing in Adelaide - Boxing Day

Three local riders who now race on the European circuit will be competing in front of their home crowds on Boxing Day in the traditional Holdfast Bay Criterium at Adelphi Tce, Glenelg, which is a beach suburb of Adelaide. Stuart O’Grady will be defending the title he won last year with strong challenges likely from the other two South Australian "stars", Patrick Jonker and Jay Sweet. The elite race begins just before midday.

South Australia is "Australian Rules Football mad", having two teams in the national AFL competition, the Port Adelaide Power and the Adelaide Crows (last year's national premiers). So it is no surprise that a couple of bike riders in GAN and Rabobank jerseys out training would be unlikely to raise any eyes. But on the international stage, O'Grady and Jonker are very well known indeed. Both have ridden the Tour de France and both are solid riders for top level teams.

J22-year old Jay Sweet, formerly with the now defunct Heiko Salzwedel squad Giant-AIS, has signed with the French equipe BigMat Auber and hopes to quickly use his sprinting skills to become as well known as his fellow South Aussies.

The number of Australian bike riders in the European peloton has risen steadily over the last few years with team managers looking for more riders. Sweet is reported in a recent Adelaide Advertiser article written by Tanya Denver as saying: "They see us as hard working. We come from a country where cycling isn't a major sport, we work so hard to get to Europe and we live away from home for so long they see how much we want to succeed and they know we are hard characters."

Patrick Jonker, after a top 1996 season (11th in the Tour de France), had a poor 1997 season, his first with Rabobank after ONCE. He concurred with Sweet (in Denver's article): "They like Australian aggressiveness, not riding conservatively. The Europeans play it like a chess game whereas the Australians go in do or die. The sponsors either want you in the top ten or they want you to win a stage. I think for me I’m not going to put everything toward a general classification on the Tour because the chance to win a stage is far greater. You can finish 150th and win a stage and get more recognition that you can by placing high in the tour. It is only in the inner circles where they realise it’s a far better performance than winning a stage. To be in the top 10 you have to be awesome."

On the sport becoming "mondialised" rather than being Eurocentric, Jonker told Tanya Denver: "It’s starting to turn around. You think about the days when Phil Anderson would have gone over there, he wouldn’t have spoken French and for a whole year you could be left out of things with your teammates. It’s good for teenagers coming through. They can see when they get into the sport the sky’s the limit. I’d say pedal your heart out for a while and there will be time to go finishing afterwards."

O'Grady first achieved recognition at the Olympic and Commonwealth games on the track. But in 1997 he showed he is a very good road rider with some tough showings in the classics - like Paris-Roubaix.

Anyone know anything?

A reader would like to know about Laszlo Bodrogi the Espoirs TT 2nd place finisher at the Worlds.

Over to you all.