News for January 9

Jean-Paul van Poppel retires

33-year old Jean-Paul van Poppel has decided to retire from professional cycling. He has been unable to find new employment after his last team, Le Groupement, folded just before the Tour de France last year.

Van Poppel's speciality as sprinter was to win stages in big tours: nine stage wins in both the Tour and the Vuelta and four in the Giro. In the Tour de France 1987 he took the green points jersey all the way to Paris.

Collstrop Courts De Las Cuevas

Belgian team Collstrop is one of the teams interested in signing French rider Armand De Las Cuevas, ex-Castorama, who is presently without a team. De Las Cuevass UCI points total would help Collstrop towards qualification for a Tour de France ride.

Collstrop has recently signed Mexican rider Arturo Carbajal, a Ruta Mexico stage winner in 1995, and ex-Lotto rider Rudy Verdonck. Other recruits include French riders Benoit Salmon, Gilles Bouvard and Sebastian Medan. Its Less Than A Month Away The European season kicks off in customary style with the GP de La Marseillaise (a.k.a. GP d'Ouverture) on February 6 over a route of about 140km between Gardanne and Aubagne in the South of France. This is immediately followed up between 7 and 11

February in the same area by the Etoile de Besseges series of one-day races, each of between 140km and 150km with an overall classification covering the series: February 7, Nimes--Nimes (142km) February 8, Le Vigan--Le Vigan February 9, Les Fumades--Les Fumades February 10, GP de Joyeuse February 11, Besseges--Besseges

French Teams (Part 1) -- Agrigel-Departement de la Creuse

In the first of a series on French teams for the upcoming season, LEquipe discusses the new Agrigel La Creuse team which has been firmly launched with 16 riders and a budget of 11 million French francs (US$2.3 million). Initially expected to be heavily dependent on funding from the Middle Franconia region of Germany, which is twinned with the French departement of la Creuse, in the end the new team is very much a French-funded, French-run operation with a majority of French riders.

Middle Franconia will provide only 1 million Ffr of the budget and as a result three as yet unnamed German riders will join the team. The French frozen food company Agrigel (which supplemented ADR's sponsorship of Greg Lemond's winning team during the 1990 Tour) will provide 2.2 million Ffr, the departement of La Creuse 1 million Ffr, laboratoires Fenioux 500,000 Ffr and a large number of smaller French companies the balance.

Jean-Francois Bernard is to be paid by French insurance company UPE, as was the case with his last team, Chazal -- without this help Agrigel-La Creuse would not have been able to afford him.

The team will not have sufficient points to make the premier division of 22 teams that automatically qualify for World Cup events but as a home team will be entitled to ride Paris--Roubaix -- which team-member Jacky Durand is focusing his early season hopes on -- and Paris--Tours. The team is hopeful of selection as a wild-card team in the Tour de France on the strength of the good Tour performances of Durand, Thierry Marie and (in the more distant past) Bernard.

The team's season will be built around participation in the principal French stage races, notably Paris--Nice, the Quatre jours de Dunkerque, the GP du Midi Libre and the Criterium du Dauphine Libere.

HQ details: Association Creuse Sport Promotion, rue Alexandre-Guillon, 23000 Gueret, France

The officials: manager general, Jean-Claude Cluis; directeur-sportif, Marc Durant; assistant directeur-sportif, Gilles Mas; mechanics, Pascval Bernard, Patrick Janin; soigneurs, Louis-Francois Chalmel, Marcel Durand

The equipment: bikes, Vitus; clothing, Tinazzi; wheels, Zipp; pedals, Shimano; handlebars, Balleri; tyres, Michelin; Saddles, Selle Italia

The riders: Jean-Francois Bernard (Fr, 33 -- ex-Chazal), Pierangelo Bincoletti (It, 36 -- ex-individual pro), Jean-Pierre Bourgeot (Fr, 27 -- ex-Chazal), Franck Bouyer (Fr, 21 -- ex-Castorama), Jean-Claude Colotti (Fr, 34 -- ex-GAN), Stephane Conan (Fr, 24 -- neo- pro, ex-Bernard-Sports; Jacky Durand (Fr, 28 -- ex-Castorama), Herve Garel (Fr, 28 -- ex-Le Groupement), Thierry Laurent (Fr, 29, -- ex-Castorama), Denis Marie (Fr, 25 -- neo-pro, ex-ASPTT Paris), Thierry Marie (Fr, 32 -- ex-Castorama), Jean-Luc Masdupuy (Fr, 26 -- ex-Aki), Michel Vermote (Bel, 32 -- ex-Le Groupement), plus three German riders yet to be announced

Festina Abandons Australian Trip

The proposed racing trip to Australia for a large part of the Festina team this month has been abandoned in favour of a training camp in Richard Virenques home area.

Delphis Signs for Aki

Jean-Pierre Delphis, who began his pro career with Chazal, moving to Swiss team Univag last season, has signed for 1996 with Monaco-based Aki.

La Vie De Pou-Pou

French star of the 1960s and early 1970s Raymond Poulidor is in the course of making a film on his life and career. Dubbed the "Eternal Second" after taking the runner's up position in the 1964, 1965 and 1974 Tours de France, "Pou-Pou" celebrates his 60th birthday in April. The 52-minute film, directed by Jean-Pierre Beaurenaud, is due to be screened on French TVs channel Canal+ in June.