News for June 2

French teams -- first the good news...

"It's (almost) official", notes L'Equipe, sardonically. Sardonically because, I suppose, France has suffered a series of unhappy chapters on the bike-team front, with Le Groupement last year and ForceSud (see below) on a similar downhill route this year. What's almost official is the news that there will be a new Division 1 team from France in 1987.

It's to be called Cofidis, sponsored by a ready-prepared food company of that name whose headquarters is at Wasquehal (near Roubaix) in the Nord of France. The company, which is a subsidiary of major mail-order company Trois Suisses (La Redoute's main rival in France) is directed by one Francois Migraine [no headache jokes, please] the father of a former track rider, who has budgeted French francs 35 million (approx US$6.8 million) for the team's first season. Laurent Fignon was approached to be directeur sportif but refused and the job looks likely to be offered to ex-Castorama directeur sportif Cyrille Guimard, whose task will be to get together riders that will qualify the team for top-22 status.

And the bad news...

We left ForceSud with team boss Gilles Gallais last weekend promising confirmation by Tuesday (May 28) of a new sponsor who would support the team for three seasons. L'Equipe phoned him Tuesday evening and he told the paper with what they described as "frantic optimism" that "it's only a question of hours", adding: "Believe me, this contretemps is entirely outside my control." Gallais said the new sponsor would add its name to the ForceSud jersey for this season and then take most of the space in 1997. "ForceSud will therefore change its name in 1997," Gallais said. The riders were no more convinced by this than were cynical Parisian journalists. Things had picked up a bit -- two of the four months' salaries owed to them had been paid.

But another door was slammed in the faces of riders who -- one thinks in particular of Christophe Capelle, with his Criterium International stage win -- have made serious efforts to put their team in the limelight when Dauphine Libere organizer Thierry Cazeneuve announced that ForceSud was being scratched from the list of teams in the race which starts tomorrow (June 2).

Earlier in the day Cazeneuve had faxed UCI president Hein Verbruggen pointing out the problems of giving places in races to teams that have not been paying their riders regularly. "This state of affairs, unacceptable because it's illegal, has led me to refuse [ForceSud] participation in the Dauphine Libere," he wrote, adding: "This decision has been taken after careful consideration, the first thing to be thought about being who, in the case of an accident, would be responsible for a rider who hadn't been paid, and who would therefore not be covered by social security."

By Friday's issue, L'Equipe was headlining its update on the team "ForceSud at the end of the road" pointing out in the standfirst that (today's) Classique des Alpes might well be the rapidly disintegrating team's last race. As things stood at the end of the week, Gallais had still not been able to confirm new sponsorship, and was he able to do so, he might find himself with no riders with sufficient confidence in him to continue with the team.

Christophe Bassons left to join Festina a month ago, and Dominique Arnould signed a contract with Agrigel-La Creuse on Thursday. Christophe Capelle and Thierry Bourguignon had been approached with promises of contracts by Collstrop directeur sportif Willy Teirlinck, which he seems to have thought might help him in his quest for a ride for his team in the Tour de France, but this proposal seems to have gone off the boil. Capelle, come what may, has said he will seek to be relieved of his contractual obligations to Gallais and Thierry Bourguignon is said now to be awaiting a favourable response in Italy. Young neo-pros like Anthony Morin, Xavier Jan and Christophe Rinero are still looking. Over to you M. Guimard?