Robert Chappatte diesRobert Chappatte (74) died in hospital in Paris on Monday. Robert stopted after a prof-career of ten years in 1955. Then he became radioreporter of the Tour de France. In 1957 he started as tv-reporter for France 2.Another old pro joins up with Van PoppelOn Tuesday, old pro Tom Cordes announced he had joined the Top team Tegeltoko. The road racer comes in as an elite (classy) rider in the team of Jean-Paul van Poppel. He shall ride in the Top Competition races (this is a classification in the Netherlands for the top elite (usually amateur) teams), for example, the Teleflextour and the Olympia's Tour.The 30 year old Cordes, who was born in Wilnis, has been a pro for 8 years. He rode for PDM, Amaya, Buckler and MX Honda. Cordes, ex-junior world champion and former world champion time trialler, rode the Tour of France and the Tour of Spain. He hoped to make a positive contribution to the winning philosophy of the new team. Rabo team announcedTeam manager Jan Raas of the Rabobank cycling team will start with 20 professional riders on the road this year. One more than a year ago. There are 4 new riders. Rass did not attend the presentation because he was taken ill.The racing team, under the sporting leadership of Theo de Rooy and Adri van Houwelingen, contains 5 nationalities. 14 Dutch, 2 Danes, 1 Belgian, 1 Austrian, 1 Latvian and 1 Australian. The new riders are Max van Heeswijk (Dutch from Motorola), Patrick Jonker (Australian, from ONCE), Jans Koerts (Dutch, Palmans) and Peter Luttenberger (Austrian, Carrera). The retained riders are Dutchmen Leon van Bon, Michael Boogerd, Jan Boven, Erik Breukink, Erik Dekker, Richard Groenendaal, Marcel Luppes, Koos Moerenhout, Danny Nelissen, Adri van der Poel and Aart Vierhouten, the Danes Michael Blaudzun and Rolf Sorensen, the Belgian Johan Bruyneel, the Latvian Arvis Piziks and the Australian Robbie McEwen. The riders who have left are Vjatsjeslav Ekimov (to US Postal/Rus), Edwig van Hooydonck (retired/Bel) and Henk Vogels (GAN/Australia). |