News for March 15

UCI points at March 3

> 1. Laurent Jalabert 3099
> 2. Miguel Indurain 1870
> 3. Tony Rominger 1719
> 4. Alex Zulle 1120
> 5. Johan Museeuw 1060
> 6. Abraham Olano 892
> 7. Claudio Chiappucci 813
> 8. Francesco Casagrande 777
> 9. Andrei Tchmil 751
> 10. Michele Bartoli 731

I have been asked why there has been a "bouleversement" at the top of 
the table. Probably because the ranking system has changed. The ranking 
now only takes account of the previous year's race placings not _two_ 
years. Other new points. _All_ elite riders (that means you!) can earn 
points. So go out and get some! Have something to brag to your pals 
about! There is also now an official ranking by nation. This is needed 
because of the rules for qualifying for the worlds road race previously 
posted by me: basically -- the top-10 nations can put in 12 riders, the 
five next nations eight riders, the rest of the field being made up by 
individuals in descending order of their individual UCI classification 
up to a maximum of 200 riders. Here are a few more individual placings, plus a 
national one, plus an updated team one. NB: the team ranking remain as 
of Jan 15 for the season as far as race qualification goes. The 
following are as of March 3:

11. Maurizio Fondriest 701
12. Lance Armstrong 675
13. Rolf Sorensen 660
14. Evgeni Berzin 659
15. Francesco Frattini 652
16. Richard Virenque 645
17. Mauro Gianetti 598
18. Pascal Richard 587
19. Wilfried Nelissen 571
20. Beat Zberg 546

Team:

 1. ONCE 6020
 2. Mapei-GB 5882
 3. MG-Technogym 4021
 4. Gewiss-Playbus 3770
 5. Banesto 3052
 6. Rabobank 2871
 7. Motorola 2748
 8. Saeco 2709
 9. Carrera 2559
10. Festina 2436

Nations:

 1. Italy 6086
 2. Switzerland 6022
 3. France 5347
 4. Spain 4965
 5. Belgium 3865
 6. Russia 2985
 7. Netherlands 2360
 8. Germany 2355
 9. Denmark 2010
10. Ukraine 1332
11. USA 1332
12. Colombia 1067
13. Great Britain 1040
14. Australia 924
15. Poland 629
16. Portugal 600
17. Slovakia 426***
18. Uzbekistan 259
19. Latvia 253
20. Austria 226
(34 nations classified)
***I presume most, if not all, of these are Jan Svorada's. In which 
case they should now be attributed to the Czech Republic!