Streaker at the Tour
Wearing only a hat and a pair of sunglasses, a man leaped onto the Champs Elysees
Sunday as riders completed the Tour de France.
The unidentified man sprinted up the side of the boulevard as competitors
raced past him heading for the finish line.
Two policeman jumped over the crowd barrier in front of the streaker,
forcing him back into the crowd about 200 yards before
the end of the race.
The 21st stage of the 2,455-mile race traditionally finishes on the
Champs Elysees with cyclists sprinting up the cobblestone
street towards the Arc de Triomphe.
That controversial sprint in Stage 19
Following the Voskamp-Heppner drama at the end of Stage 19, the
Dutch TV presentator Herbert Dijkstra said: 'How can you sprint in a straight
line after three weeks of the Tour de France. I can tell you that the jury can't
even walk in a straight line when they arrive in the hotel late in the
night."
European MTB Championships, Silkeborg, Denmark
1. Lennie Kristensen (Den) 2:43.54
2. Luca Bramati (Ita) + 0.29
3. Beat Wabel (Swi) + 1.40
4. Alessandro Fontana (Ita) + 1.57
5. Rune Hydahl (Nor) + 2.58
6. Peter van den Abeele (Bel) + 5.04
7. Alessandro Checuz (Ita) + 5.11
8. Henrik Djernis (Den) + 6.05
9. Christophe Dupouey (Fra) + 6.29
10. Filip Meirheaghe (Bel) + 6.54
20. Marcel Gerritsen (Ned)
26. Jan Weevers(Ned)
Contract for Ullrich
German textile-factory S. Olivier (Shirt Sponsor of the Borussia Dortmund soccer team)
wants to sign Jan Ullrich to sign for marketing purposes for the next three years.
They want to offer Ullrich around 1 million DM per year.
Pantani to claim damages
An Italian judge has given Marco Pantani the right to claim more than $A6 million
from the police. Pantani hit a jeep, which the police allowed to come on the parcours,
during the Milan-Turin classic in October 1995. The accident meant that Pantani
was unable to ride for 20 months.
GP Villafranca de Ordizia
1 Lefevre (Fra) 167 km in 4h19'51
2 Bessy (Fr)
3 Mancebo (Spa)
4 Verbrugghe (Bel)
5 Solaun (Spa)
6 Unai Osa (Spa)
Three days of Harderwijk - Elite and Neo-amateurs
Stage 1 - 80 km
1 Jan de Leeuw (Ermelo) 1.54.00
2 Bennie van Leijen (Wageningen)
3 Arjen Vinke (Elburg) 0.06
4 Heerko Gorter (Vierhouten)
5 Rene Kroes (Hattem)
6 Rick van der Kroon (Nigtevecht)
7 Jonker (Hoorn) 0.48
8 Schoots (Tiel)
9 Bovendorp (Oldebroek)
10 Van den Berg (Nijkerk)
US Criterium Titles at Denver
For Immediate Release, July 26, 1997
Contact: Frank Stanley, USCF Communications Manager, (719) 578-4581
DENVER, Colo. -- Karen Bliss Livingston and David Smith each won national
titles at the Fresca National Criterium Championships Saturday in Civic
Center Park in Denver.
The championship races capped the first of two days of top-level amateur and
professional racing at the Mike Nields Weekend.
Livingston (Saturn), 34, of Gainesville, Fla., won her third national
criterium title and seven national championship overall by out-sprinting
Maureen Kaila (Shaklee), of Oakland, Calif. The pair broke away from the
field with six laps remaining in the one-hour race. Livingston, considered
one of the nation’s premier sprinters, left Kaila behind as they raced past
the Denver Public Library and Denver Art Museum about 200 meters to go in the
final lap for the victory.
“This has been a good season for me,” Livingston said. “It makes me want to
keep on racing.”
Last month, Livingston posted two victories against an international field
at the Hewlett-Packard International Women’s Challenge in Idaho.
It was the best finish ever for Kaila at a senior national championship.
Kaila, a dual American and El Salvadoran citizen who raced for the latter
country in the 1996 Olympic Games, was impressed by the field.
“The women are riding so well, so fast these days,” she said. “It is nice to
be in a field that is so deep. It is a lot different than when I first
started riding.”
Karen Dunne (Chippers-Vitamin Cottage), Colorado Springs, Colo., won the
field sprint for third place.
While Livingston added to her impressive career record, men’s winner Smith
was a definite surprise. Smith (Start to Finish-Full Sail Ale), San Jose,
Calif., won his first national title in a extremely tight sprint win over
Breakaway-CRCA teammates Billy Innes, Flushing, N.Y., and Kevin Monahan,
Northampton, Mass.
Smith came from behind as the group of five lead riders sprinted out of the
final turn. The 33-year-old, who works as a purchaser for a construction
firm, headed down the left edge of Bannock Street, nipping Innes and Monahan
at the line in a photo finish.
“I was gaining on them,” Smith said. “When I crossed the line, I saw a
little frustration on their faces.”
Smith bridged to the original group of five leaders with 40 minutes
remaining in the 90-minute race. When he saw his partners in the lead group,
he encountered one of the interesting twists to the amateur men’s race at the
Fresca National Criterium Championships.
“I’d never seen any of them before,” Smith said. “I don’t think they’d seen
me before.”
Innes was second in the photo finish sprint, followed by Monahan.
“I think it was four inches,” Innes said. “It broke my heart.”
In other action, Coors Classic veteran Mark Southard (SCVC-Trek), 35, of
Boulder, Colo., topped a strong field full of current American professionals
to win the men’s Pro/1/2 race, which preceded the championship events.
The action continues Sunday with the Mike Nields Bannock Criterium. The
women’s category 1/2/3 race starts at 3:15 p.m., followed by the Pro/1 men’s
race at 4:30 p.m. Both events are part of the U.S. National Racing Calendars.
FRESCA NATIONAL CRITERIUM CHAMPIONSHIPS, U.S. 1.4, July 26, Denver, Colo.
Women, 60 minutes
1. KAREN BLISS LIVINGSTON (SATURN), Gainesville, Fla.; 2. Maureen Kaila
(Shaklee), Oakland, Calif.; 3. Karen Dunne (Chippers), Colorado Springs,
Colo.; 4. Julie Young (Saturn), Auburn, Calif.; 5. Alura Emery (Davis Bike
Club), Davis, Calif.; 6. Kendra Wenzel (Saeco-Timex), McKenzie Bridge, Ore.;
7. Nicole Freedman (Shaklee), Stanford, Calif.; 8. Aleka Skouras (24 Hr
Fitness-GT), Davis, Calif.; 9. Laura VanGilder (Navigators), n.a.; 10. Kim
Shipman (J.A.N.E. Cosmetics), Encinitas, Calif.
Amateur Men, 90 minutes
1. DAVID SMITH (Start to Finish-Full Sail Ale), San Jose, Calif.; 2. Billy
Innes (CRCA-Breakaway), Flushing, N.Y.; 3. Kevin Monahan (CRCA-Breakaway),
Northampton, Mass.; 4. Brad Pauly (Oil Me-Klein), Boulder, Colo.; 5. Karl
Kiester (Cody-Schwab), Denver, Colo.; 6. Sean Bragstad (Start to Finish-Full
Sail Ale), Boulder, Colo.; 7. Kirk O’Bee (Mrs. T’s-Lexus), Ada, Mich.; 8.
Scott Romero (Team El Paso), Gallup, N.M.; 9. Jason Snow (CRCA-Breakaway),
Buzzards Bay, Mich.; 10. James Haswell (SCVC-Trek), Boulder, Colo.
Polish King of the Mountains Championship
July 26th
Dzierzoniow-Bielawa, 149 kms:
1. Zbigniew Piatek PEKAES 3.56.46
2. Cezary Zamana Mroz 0.33
3. Radoslaw Romanik PEKAES 0.33
4. Mariusz Bilewski PEKAES 2.13
5. Grzegorz Wajs Legia 2.13
6. Piotr Przydzial Joko 2.13
I reported this initially as the MTB Championships. That was wrong.
It not the MTB ch'ship but MOUNTAIN ROAD
Championship of Poland, which means competition for the "King of the
mountains" or best climber of that country. There's an old custom of the
Polish cyclisme to organize such separate championship apart from the
"normal" open race.
Thanks to piotr cegielski
GP Roger De Vlaeminck
A race for elite without contract and Ludovic Capelle (Bel) won.
The Bottom Line Of The Tour
There's nothing like winnings to sum up how the teams are doing in the Tour.
ONCE's poor showing is perhaps the most striking in the list below. As of the end
of stage 16, Jan Ullrich's TELEKOM team had amassed 749,950 French francs (approx US$121,500)
and of course had much bigger winnings in sight come Sunday, but Festina were
close behind on FF537,850. Then came GAN -- FF454,500; Mercatone Uno -- 322,600; Saeco
FF203,750; TVM -- FF157,650; Batik -- FF146,900; Mapei-GB -- FF141,750;
Cofidis -- FF117,800; Casino -- FF109,700; La Francaise des Jeux -- FF100,900; MG
Technogym -- FF89,000; Kelme -- FF78,500; Lotto -- FF69,400; Banesto -- FF67,400;
Rabobank -- FF59,450; BigMat Auber 93 -- FF55,200; US Postal -- FF50,100; ONCE --
FF42,250; Polti -- FF35,600; Mutuelle de Seine-et-Marne -- FF34,250; Roslotto -- FF28,300.
Channel 4 TV reports that the Tour organizers have annnounced that all teams
that get into Paris with six or more riders will receive a special prize of
FF10,000.
Frankly, I Do Give A Damn
I've spent a lot of time worrying about whether Belgian rider F.
Vandebroucke spells his name Frank or Franck, writes Roger Thomas --
sources vary on this though one would
expect a francophone Belgian to choose Franck. Out of the blue L'Equipe has
given a definitive answer in its Tour de France briefs. "The forename of Frank
Vandenbroucke," it reports, "is properly written with a 'k' and without a 'c',
the result of a mistake made by an official in the register the day that
[FVB's] father registered his son's name."
Urs Zimmerman: The Truth At Last?
Urs Zimmerman, L'Equipe reports, is currently writing a book "whose theme is
autobiographical and metaphysical". Will the metaphysics tell us why Urs
dropped out of sight after finishing third in the 1986 Tour de France?
Even Briefer Briefs:
BJARNE RIIS is said to be keen not only to ride the Vuelta a Espana in
September, but to ride it with the objective of winning, contrary to the advice of his
trainer, Luigi Cecchini.
Hard on the news that ALEX ZULLE will definitely ride for Festina in 1998
comes the rumour that French team La Francaise des Jeux is showing an interest in
Batik Del Monte's EVGENI BERZIN. And Italian climber LEONARDO PIEPOLI (Ceramiche Refin)
is said to be in advanced negotiations with new Spanish team Vitalicio.
|