News for March 11, 1997

Blood Tests begin in Paris

A six-strong medical team from a Lausanne-based medicine institute carried out the tests which involved taking four millilitres of blood from racers' arms.

Four riders from each of the five teams were selected at random early Sunday morning for the tests, requested by the riders themselves in January.

Among those chosen Sunday were Laurent Jalabert and his brother Nicolas, Russia's Yevgeny Berzin and French champion Stephane Heulot.

Laurent Jalabert said he favoured the pre-race testing although he questioned the procedure.

"It's not ideal to be woken up early on the day of the race at the venue itself. There is room for improvements, but I'm just here to race."

Compatriot Richard Virenque backed the new practice in principle and said he believed other sports should follow cycling's example.

UCI officials refused to provide specific details of the testing procedure, but revealed the results had been known within the hour.

The tests, which come in addition to the usual post-race check, are designed to determine use of banned stimulants such as EPO (erythropoietine).

Ricard out of Paris-Nice

Swiss Olympic road cycling champion Pascal Richard, who missed the Paris-Nice meeting with injury, has a pelvic fracture, his team's sporting director Vincent Lavenu said Sunday.

"I doubt if he will compete in the Tirreno-Adriatico starting Wednesday. It's better he gets completely better before racing again," Lavenu said of the 32-year-old Richard, who fell badly in last month's Mediterranean Tour.

Zanini out of Paris-Nice

Stafano Zanini didn't start in Paris-Nice because of chicken-pox. Teamleader Lefevere hopes that Zanini is fit enough to start in Tirreno-Adriatico next week on Wednesday. If not Zanini will miss Milano-San Remo too.

Ronde van Groningen, Elite and Neo-amateurs:

 1. Hermes (Liempde) 		150 km in 3.10.58
 2. Vroeling (Deurninge)
 3. Venenberg (Wormer)
 4. Wolfkamp (Raalte)
 5. Vinke (Kampen)
 6. Tissingh (Groningen)
 7. Veen (Westerlee)
 8. Karen (Heerenveen)
 9. Vegt (Kolham)
10. Van Berkel (Rosmalen)

Rond om Straelen, Germany

Elites without Contract:

 1. Theus 		150 km in 3.57.52
 2. McGoury (Ger)
 3. Vink (Amersfoort)

Neo-amateurs: 

 1. Van Dartel (Breda) 	112 km in 2.19.53
 2. Hermans (Amsterdam)
 3. Koppers (Den Haag)

Women: 

 1. Debboudt (Bel) 	60 km in 1.29.11
 2. Muller (Ger)
 3. Mansveld (Gasselternijveen)

TVM-team for Tirreno-Adriatico and Milano-San Remo:

Team leader Cees Priem selected:

 Michael Andersson
 Bo Hamburger
 Lars Michaelsen
 Jesper Skibby
 Laurent Roux
 Peter van Petegem
 Maarten den Bakker
 Tristan Hoffman

Russian cyclist believed killed in Colombia

A body believed to be that of a Russian cyclist who disappeared while pedalling his way across Latin American was unearthed on Friday in a notoriously violent corner of northwest Colombia, authorities said.

Spokesmen for the army and prosecutor's office in the banana-growing region Uraba, near Colombia's border with Panama, said testimony from local townspeople had convinced them that the decomposed corpse, dug up in an area known as Lomas Aisladas, was that of 43-year-old cyclist Vasili Lujkine.

Lujkine was on a transcontinental bicycle tour, reportedly sponsored by Russia's Olympic Committee, when he disappeared in February of last year. His ultimate destination was to have been the summer Olympics in Atlanta.

Russian embassy spokesmen could not be reached for comment. But authorities said Lujkine, whose passport and other personal identity papers were found on a leftist Revolutionary Armed forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel killed in combat in Uraba in March of last year, appeared to have fallen victim to the area's rampant political bloodshed.

Guerrillas and extreme rightists have been fighting for control over lucrative drug and arms smuggling routes through Uraba, which is located on the Caribbean coast, for more than a decade.

Two European backpackers, a German and an Austrian, were killed Tuesday when soldiers stormed a camp near the Panama border where they were being held hostage by FARC rebels.

The victims had entered Colombia on foot from Panama, by way of the remote Darien Gap, in early February to visit the Los Katios nature reserve.