1. Bruno Risi-Kurt Betschart (Sch) 2. Silvio Martinello-Marco Villa (Ita) 3. Jens Veggerby-Jimmi Madsen (Den)
In total, 58 teams are listed, but the following is the only information I so far have available. I may be able to fill in the gaps next week Tuesday, when I shall have a full (or fullish) list of Division 1 and 2 team rosters.
1. Mapei-GB (Italy) 8336 2. ONCE (Spain) 7115 3. MG-Technogym (Italy) 6250 4. Gewiss (Italy) 6204 5. Banesto (Spain) 4063 6. Saeco (San Marino) 3780 7. Motorola (USA) 3650 8. Carrera (Italy) 3580 9. Rabobank (Netherlands) 3495 10. Panaria (Italy) 3251 11. Festina (Andorra) 3187 12. Telekom (Germany) 3065 13. Refin (Italy) 3000 14. Polti (Italy) 2910 15. TVM (Netherlands) 2887 16. Roslotto-ZG (Russia) 2670 17. Lotto (Belgium) 2424 18. GAN (France) 2261 19. San Marco (Italy) 2141 20. Kelme-Artiach (Spain) 1699 21. Aki-Gipiemme (Monaco) 1662 22. Brescialat (Italy) 1117
23. Mx Onde (Spain) 916 24. Glacial (Colombia) 881 25. Agrigel-La Creuse (France) 823 26. Collstrop (Belgium) 796 27. Casino -- Cest votre equipe (France) 685 28. Vlaanderen 2002 (Belgium) 599 29. ForceSud (France) 500 30. Saturn (USA) 384 ......... 36. Aubervilliers 93-Peugeot (France) 219 ......... 41 Mutuelle de Seine-et-Marne (France) 162 (58 teams classified)
By Mike Price
PARIS, - World Cup winner Luca Bramati of Italy chases a
cyclo-cross double in Sunday's world championship at
Montreuil-sous-Bois. His emergence this winter raises Italy's
hopes to a new peak in a sport traditionally dominated by
Belgians, Swiss, and Czechs.
Italy's last gold in top flight racing was 29 years ago when
Renato Longo won the professional crown, his fifth world title in
nine years.
They have also won three amateur championships, the last in 1992
when Daniele Pontoni extended his domestic domination
internationally.
Now Bramati has emerged from Pontoni's shadow and opened this
season with three straight victories in the World Cup series.
Their duelling throughout the winter saw Pontoni claim his eighth
Italian title ahead of Bramati who was seldom out of the first
three.
Switzerland's Dieter Runkel is the rider they have to beat over a
parkland course in Montreuil-sous-Bois, a suburb east of Paris. He
won the title on home ground in heavy going at Eschenbach, but the
Montreuil circuit is expected to be fast.
Home advantage may boost the French challenge but Dominique
Arnould's 1993 title was their first gold since 1967.
The persistency of Adri van der Poel cannot be overlooked in the
Netherlands line-up. He has won five silver medals, four of them
in the last eight years. Richard Groenendaal has taken over that
role, filling the runner-up spot in the last two years. Either he
or Wim de Vos could make the breakthrough for the Dutch.
The Czechs' main challenge rests with Jiri Pospisil, the 1995
European champion, or Radomir Simunek who in 1991 completed a
treble, adding the professional title to the amateur and junior
honours he had taken over 11 years.
Erwin Vervecken and 1994 No 1 Paul Herijgers are Belgium's best
prospects.
From Bill Henderson
Pontoni finally arrived in Montreuil after delaying his departure
to have an injured knee attended to.
He is apparently fit to ride now.
From Bill Henderson
By Bert Lauwers
TIELT, Belgium, - Toni Rominger plans to quit cycling at the end
of this year but has his sights set on a sumptuous farewell
present -- a first Tour de France victory, another world one-hour
record, or both. Now in the twilight of his 10-year professional
career, the 34-year-old Swiss is finally being allowed to focus
entirely on the Tour de France to try to break the five-year
stranglehold on the event by Spaniard Miguel Indurain.
"Even if I don't win, at least I will have taken the risk once
before retiring," Rominger said.
But he insists the desire to beat Indurain is not his main driving
force. "I just want to win the Tour," he said. "But if Indurain
finishes second it's worth even more."
Rominger felt he could have won the Tour de France in 1993 when he
was beaten into second place by Indurain. He dropped out with
fatigue-induced stomach problems in 1994 and finished a
disappointing eighth in 1995. "I know I can win the Tour de
France, I showed it in 1993," said Rominger, who has won 106 races
as a professional, including the Tour of Spain in 1992, 1993 and
1994 and the 1995 Tour of Italy. But time is fast running out and
Rominger says there will be just one more duel with Indurain.
To help fulfil his French Tour dream, his sponsors and team will
allow Rominger to skip the Tour of Italy in May despite his
victory there last year.
"I suffered too much last year (in the Tour of Italy)," he said.
"To ride a really good tour you have to be in top shape and be
very fresh. Otherwise you don't make it."
Rominger also wants to attack his own world one-hour record after
this year's world championships and try to win the gold medal in
the individual time trial at the Atlanta Olympics.
"I can combine the time trial with the Tour de France," he said.
But given the choice between an Olympic gold medal and a world
title, he would prefer the latter, he said.
Rominger set a one-hour record of 53.832 km in Bordeaux in October
1994 and increased it to 55.291 two weeks later.
"I'll try but will stop immediately if I see after the tests,
after three or four days, that I cannot beat it. It is useless to
ride just 54," he said.
"If I prepare better now, if I train on a bigger track, we should
be able to get further."
Rominger hinted that he could have a last-minute change of heart
at the end of this year and prolong his career after all. But his
plans for that extra year would clearly be less ambitious.
"If I do add another year I don't want to be a great (team)
leader," he said. "If I continue I'll do it to help young riders
get the opportunity to win one of the major tours."
From Bill Henderson
Riding the Saeco jersey this year will be Antonella Bellutti,
silver medallist at the (Womens) Worlds last year in the pursuit.
[Saeco is headquartered in San Marino, technically an independent
principality, to avoid UCI rules about the number of pro squads a
country can field. This is why you see the Monagasque and
Andorran squads as well. But make no mistake about the true
nationality of the teams. - Bill Henderson]
And the men:
CONFIRMED:
Cipollini,
Francesco Casagrande,
Biasci,
Borghi,
Calcaterra,
Canzonieri,
Donati,
Fagnini,
Fornaciari,
Lelli,
Martinello,
Roberto Petito,
Poli
Politano.
NEW ARRIVALS:
Furlan,
Cassani,
Scirea,
Di Basco,
Pascual (Spa),
Sanchez (Spa),
Dario Frigo (neoprofessionista),
Mazzoleni (neo),
Mori (neo),
Bischor (Svi, neo),
Mos (Svi, neo),
Rodriguez (Spa, neo).
TEAM MANAGER:
Franco Gini.
DIRETTORI SPORTIVI:
Antonio Salutini,
Franco Chioccioli, [Coppino - Remember?]
Olivano Locatelli,
Bruno Vicino.
BICICLETTE:
Moser.
From Bill Henderson
By Francois Thomazeau
PARIS, - Can Miguel Indurain achieve what nobody has done before
and win six Tours de France?
By winning his fifth consecutive Tour de France last July, the
Spaniard upstaged Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx and Bernard
Hinault, who also won the world's most prestigious cycling race
five times, but not in succession.
Even if he fails to win the Tour, Indurain could still make
history when the professionals take part in the Olympics for the
first time, 10 days after the French classic finishes.
Indurain, who has been on the road for the past 13 years, has
never been more under threat than this season, which begins next
week in the south of France.
Compatriot Abraham Olano, the road world champion, Frenchman
Laurent Jalabert, who became world number one last season, Swiss
duo Tony Rominger and Alex Zuelle and Russians Yevgeny Berzin and
Vladislav Bobrik all look capable of upsetting Indurain in the
most open cycling season for years. For Indurain, it may be above
all a matter of age.
The soft-spoken Spaniard will be 32 when the Tour, which should
favour climbers this year rather than time-trial specialists like
him, reaches the Pyrenees on July 16.
Of all the big names in cycling history, only Italian Fausto Coppi
won the sport's most demanding event at the age of 32. Hinault
gave up at 31, fellow Frenchmen Anquetil and Louison Bobet at 30,
Belgium's Merckx and American Greg LeMond at 29.
For the same reason, the veteran Rominger may find Tour glory
beyond him. The Swiss, runner-up to Indurain in 1993, will be 35
when the Tour reaches Paris on July 21. Only one man, Belgian
Firmin Lambot, was older when he won the race in 1922 at the age
of 36.
Rominger, the one-hour world record holder, plans to miss the Tour
of Italy, which he won last year in Indurain's absence, to
concentrate on the Tour de France. Indurain will again shun the
Italian race but may take part in the Tour of Spain.
It was in the Tour of Spain, the Vuelta, that Jalabert crowned a
perfect 1995 season and proved he was strong enough to win a big
tour. The Frenchman, who won Paris-Nice, the International
Criterium and the Milan-San Remo and Fleche Wallonne classics last
season, said he would focus on the Tour de France this year.
His fourth place in Paris last year turned him into the biggest
threat to Indurain's supremacy.
It will also be a crucial year for 26-year-old Olano. His victory
at the world road championship in Colombia last year may turn out
to have been too much too soon for the Spaniard, who was almost
unknown at the start of last season.
But his second place in the Vuelta showed he was a rider to take
into account in big tours as well. Zuelle, Berzin and Britain's
Chris Boardman have no time to waste in 1996. Second in the Tour
of Spain in 1993 and runner-up to Indurain in last year's Tour de
France, Zuelle must now prove he can go one step further. Berzin,
winner of the Giro d'Italia in 1994, had a low-key 1995 season.
But like compatriot Bobrik, widely regarded as cycling's next big
name, he may favour the Olympics, which have always been a special
event for the Russians.
Boardman, whose 1995 season ended in a crash in the Tour de France
prologue, must prove he has become more than an extraordinary
track rider. The season starts next Tuesday with the Grand Prix
d'Ouverture in Aubagne, near Marseille. The World Cup starts with
the Milan-San Remo classic on March 23.
World Cup winner Johan Museeuw of Belgium and Italian riders such
as Maurizio Fondriest, Claudio Chiappucci, Franco Ballerini,
Flavio Baldato and Mario Cipollini are expected to dominate the
early-season classics.
From Bill Henderson