Jet Jongeling starts her Racing TeamJet Jongeling will start her own racing team with Ingrid Kelderhuis. The younger sister of Maria Jongeling, Jet was a member of the national team last season. She was not happy in the team of Piet Hoekstra."Jet actually wanted to stop bike racing" said team-manager Eric van der Weide. "Yet, she was really alive to the idea of working together with Ingrid. The sponsors were quickly found. So we have kept Jet in the sport." The 19 year-old Jongeling specialises in the time trial on the track. In 1995, she held the world junior point score championship. In the same year, she also won the Dutch time trial championship. This year she won bronze in these disciplines. Kelderhuis rode the last racing year in the team of Leontien van Moorsel. She came fifth in the Dutch Championship. She also rode in the service of the recently retired Monique Knol. Jongeling and Kelderhuis will have their first season in racing in the national programme. Van der Weide: "In the coming year we hope the team can be enlarged. We will now first look at what talent there is riding. With luck we will enlarge the team." Round the World on a bikeValeriy Mironenko, a Russian farm implement supplier, is traveling the world by bicycle.Mironenko hopes to visit most of the 34 cities where Olympic games have been held. This weekend, he stopped in St. Louis, which hosted the games in 1904. Mironenko, a native of Ryazan, 120 miles (190 kilometers) south of Moscow, pedaled off from his home July 27. So far, he has traveled about 11,000 miles (17,700 kilometers). St. Louis was city No. 23 on his list. He has visited Helsinki, Finland; Oslo, Norway; Berlin and Munich, Germany; Paris and Grenoble, France; Barcelona, Spain, and Montreal, among other cities. From the West Coast of the United States, he'll head through Central and South America, take a plane to Australia, and cycle on through Singapore, China, South Korea and Japan and back to Russia. His plan is to cover 27,000 miles (43,450 kilometers). He is trying to duplicate the feat of another Russian, Onicim Pancratov, who circled the globe by bike in 1911. Mironenko has to finish by Sept. 14, when he is due back in Ryazan for a celebration of the city's founding. Mironenko, 40, speaks some English. When asked what his wife and two children thought of his quest, a smile broke through his beard, and he replied: ``That I am small crazy.'' When communications break down, Mironenko relies on charm and a pocket-sized Russian-English dictionary. He often hooks up with Russian families along the way. In St. Louis, he stayed with Mark and Mila Grinberg, former residents of St. Petersburg, Russia. Said Mark Grinberg: ``After 23 years as an electrical engineer in Russia, I own a fish market here.'' Mironenko saved dlrs 11,000 from his job as a farm equipment supplier to finance his trip. The money will end before the journey does, and Mironenko is hoping for contributions from back home. ``The mayor of my city said he would support me _ but he's notthe mayor anymore,'' Mironenko said. ``I may have to get a guitar and start singing.'' |