News for June 11, 1997

Giro Aftermath

GOTTI - After the party at San Pellegrino, Ivan Gotti will travel tomorrow to ride the circuito di Campi Bisenzio (Fi); Thursday the Saeco Champion will dispute the criterium di Firenze. His debut at an international event will be at the Giro dell'Appennino. In two weeks will dispute the Italian Championship, programmed for June 29th at Larciano (Pistoia). Then he will leave for the Tour de France, which starts at Rouen, in Britany, on July 5th and finishes at the Champ de Elisses on July 27th. Gotti has ridden the Tour only once in 1995 with Team Gewiss-Playbus: when he wore the Yellow Jersey for two days and finished fifth overall, highest placed Italian. With Gotti's success at the Giro he has jumped in the UCI Rankings from 90th to 27th position.

TONKOV - In terms of Ivan Gotti's rival, Pavel Tonkov will not ride the Tour de France. Tomorrow Mapei-GB's Russian will ride the Giro dell'Appennino, to then fly to Spain to participate at La Vuelta a Catalunya. Then he will go to Russian for the National Championship, programmed for June 29th in St. Petersburgh. Then Tonkov will have a period of rest and will return at the end of July: his objectives for the second part of the season will be la Vuelta & the World Championships. At the new UCI Rankings, Tonkov jumps from 14th to 11th position, with (1038) the same points as Olano.

Pantani

Top Italian rider Marco Pantani, who was forced out of the Giro d'Italia after a high-speed crash, will be fit to race in the forthcoming Tour de France. Pantani was among the injured when a group of riders hit a cat during a rapid descent on the Giro's eighth stage on May 24. He made his comeback in a criterium here on Monday night.

Pantani, who was back in the saddle last week, said: "My first real training session was on Sunday -- four hours in the hills up around my home. The leg injury has healed up, there's hardly any pain. "My morale is a bit low," the climbing specialist admitted, "but I think that's only to be expected. "I'll be training all this week, and then I'll ride the Tour of Switzerland, and I'll also do the Tour (de France) -- obviously unless anything else stops me." Dubbed the 'Little Elephant' for his shaved head and protruding ears, Pantani made his mark on the pro scene in 1994 -- finishing second in the Tour of Italy and third in the Tour de France. He won two stages on the Tour de France in 1995 and was third in the world Championships before suffering a badly broken leg in October, 1995 when he was hit by a car while riding in the Milan-Turin race.

Olano in form

When he was 20 years old, Abrham Olano meausres 1.83 meters (6 feet tall) and weighed 86 kilos (189 Lbs). Now at 27, he weighs 73 kilos (160.9 Lbs). Olano, who has always been catalogued as a time trialist, can now face with the best the major climbs. His physical aspect is subject of commentary in the peloton. "Abraham will ride the Tour like a motorcycle. Just look at how skinny he is". Swiss Laurent Dufaux was telling a reporter of the same nationality, while Olano passed by them on the way to sign on. One can say that he has never been as slim as now, something that also happened to Miguel Indurain at a certain point in his career. But Olano doesn't like to be always compared with the Navarran. "He had his methods and I have mine. He is Indurain and I am Olano. As a person is something that has to remain clear. As a rider, taking into account his palmares, sure I would like to be like him".

Olano is satisfied with the way things are going. "I do everything, thinking about the Tour. And I think that we are in the right path. The team is also coming along which is great. Half of the team will be new for the Tour, when compared with last year. They are all a year older, are more mature and full of illusions". Although Banesto needs to shed two more men, there is already a pre-selection. Olano will be the leader, with two solid riders next to him, one a climber and one a rolleur. The first are Santi Blanco, Jimenez, Peqa & Beltran. The second, Orlando Rodrigues, Marino Alonso, Jose Luis Arrieta, Casero, Armand de las Cuevas & Prudencio Indurain. The toss outs will be from this last group. Santi Blanco, who will ride the Tour for the first time says that everyday his discovering something new: "we were at the Pirenees and at the Alpe d'Huez. This one and the Tourmalet seemed to me like very tough climbs. Also Envalira: which has 24km and that is an hour of climbing".

Banesto Dates

Banesto has confirmed today that Abraham Olano will not participate at la Vuelta a Catalunya or the Route du Sud, so he next serious commitment will be the Spanish National Championship on June 29. The lineup for Banesto for these races will be as follows:

Vuelta a Catalunya (06/19 to 06/26): Marino Alonso, Vicente Aparicio, Manuel Beltran, Angel Luis Casero, Armand de las Cuevas, Ramon Gonzalez Arrieta, Orlando Gomes & Jose Ramon Uriarte.

Route du Sud (06/21 to 06/24): Jose Luis Arrieta, Jose Vicente Garcia Acosta, Jeremy Hunt, Prudencio Indurain, Carmelo Miranda, Aitor Osa, Unai Osa & Miguel Angel Peqa.

Spanish National Championship (06/29): Marino Alonso, Vicente Aparicio, Jose Luis Arrieta, Manuel Beltran, Santiago Blanco, Angel Luis Casero, Jose Vicente Garcia Acosta, Ramon Gonzalez Arrieta, Prudencio Indurain, Jose Maria Jimenez, Carmelo Miranda, Abraham Olano, Aitor Osa, Unai Osa, Miguel Angel Pena & Jose Ramon Uriarte.

Rominger and Escartin

Cyclists Fernando Escartin (Kelme-Costa Blanca) & Toni Rominger (Cofidis) coincided today on the roads of the Pirenees during their training for the coming Tour de France. Escartin and his old team leader at Mapei-GB, Rominger, did their daily training today together, although they didn't ride on French roads, since the only climbed the easier climb of Cotefablo, which starts at Escartin's native city. Rominger has been concentrating in the last days on the French Zone, where some of the decisive stages will ocurr, with his final preparation in a year without distinguished results. Fernando, after his excellent performance at the Classique des Alpes where he finished fifth, is getting ready to ride la Volta a Catalunya and the Spanish Championship, where he will compete before the Tour de France.