Second Edition News for May 11

Belgians for Atlanta

Belgium has already announced its men's road team for the Atlanta Olympics. Johan Museeuw will have the support of four Mapei-GB team-mates -- Tom Steels, Franck Vandenbroucke and Wilfried Peeters. Johan Bruyneel (Rabobank) has been selected to ride the time trial.

Nelissen Goes Home

Wilfried Nelissen was discharged from hospital on Monday evening (May 6). Despite the strong doubts of his wife, Nelissen (26) says he is determined to try to get fit enough to race again. It will be a long process. The surgeon who operated on him in Gent university hospital is very cautious in his prognosis of how long this may take.

"At the best," the doctor said, "he'll be able to get on a bike again at the beginning of next year; at the worst it could take two years."

The Lotto sprinter will be attending a clinic at Hoensbroek near Maastricht in the Netherlands which has built a reputation for rehabilitating Dutch soccer players with leg and knee injuries.

Team Polti Offers Itself As EPO-Test Guinea Pig

With biochemists working with the UCI unable so far to isolate EPO from urine samples, a new approach is being pursued which would involve blood samples being compared with urine samples. Until now all the teams that UCI president Hein Verbruggen has approached have refused to cooperate with experiments to try out this analysis technique. However Team Polti has come forward and agreed that blood samples can be taken from its riders, starting in the Tour de Romandie currently being run.

This is said to have been as a result of a personal demand from Polti rider Mauro Gianetti. Team trainer Giosue Zenoni says: "We're absolutely certain they won't find anything amiss in our team, but if by collaborating we can contribute to exposing cheating, I'm all for it."

A Canadian drugs-detection specialist has arrived in Ferrara to work with Prof Francesco Conconi on the comparative method which it may be possible to institute in time for the Tour de France.

Motorola pull out of Cycling Sponsorship

Motorola will no longer sponsor the a team in pro cycling. This was a announced in a setting where the number one rider, Lance Armstrong, continued to lead America's biggest cycling race, the Tour Du Pont.

The 24-year-old Armstrong is the defending Tour DuPont champion, the 1993 world road champion and a two-time Tour de France stage winner.

Motorola, who provide wireless communications, entered pro cycling sponsorship in 1991. The Motorola team with 16 riders on the roster is the only American team to qualify for the top tour of the season, the Tour de France.

Director Sportif, Jim Ochowisz, not surprised by the withdrawal, said that "Cycling sponsorships don't last forever. It's been a good relationship." Ochowicz is now negotiating with several American companies and plans to nnounce a new deal for the squad with a new sponsor during the Tour de France in July.

He said "For well over a year, Motorola has been renewing its overall global marketing, advertising and public relations mission,"

Martin Campiche, a Motorola representative, said that "Our marketing priorities are changing, but our high respect for Jim Ochowicz and his team will never change."