News for November 1, 1997
From Germany
The East German city of Dresden wants to get the start of the Tour de
France in 2006. After a talk with the representative of the Tour de France
in Germany, Bernard Creff, city major Herbert Wagner said: "We want to have
the start in Dresden in 2006. This would fit well our celebration of the
city's 800th birthday. The Tour would be a great promotion for Dresden." As
Creff said, the final decision about the city that gets the Tour start
wouldn’t be taken before the beginning of 2005. But he thought that the
capital of Saxony would have good chances. In 1987, Creff got the start of
the Tour for Berlin which celebrated it’s 750th birthday that year. To get
a tour start, a city has to invest at least three million marks.
Brochard and his back
The new World
Champion, Frenchman Laurent Brochard, from Team
Festina, "has been progressing favorably with the
hernia of the disk", said today his sport director
Bruno Roussel, after Brochard underwent medical exams.
Brochard will continue with he slow therapy based on
stretching exercises in the water to develop the
abdominal muscles. The World Champion's program for
next year will be established in the coming weeks: "we
will go into details, but Laurent has agreed to
participate at the Tour de France and the World Cup".
Ullrich voted most popular sportsperson in Germany
Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich
is Germany's most popular sports personality,
according to a poll carried by weekly Der Spiegel.
Ullrich, who became the first German to win the Tour
last July, beat Olympic decathlon silver medallist
Frank Busemann and 1992 Oympic 5,000 metres champion
Dieter Baumann into second and third places
respectively. Steffi Graf came fourth, Michael
Schumacher 11th and Boris Becker 14th.
The Naked Runner has his day in court
A 30-year-old man who ran naked behind the
bunch in last July's Tour de France finish on the
Champs-Elysees told judges on Wednesday that he wanted
to disturb winner Jan Ullrich. ``We were wondering how
we could upset Ullrich and favour (second-placed
Frenchman) Richard Virenque,'' said Xavier Clement, an
actor who had been challenged by friends to carry out
the stunt. A Paris court fined him 2,000 francs ($334)
for the offence. His friends, in contrast, offered him
lunch in an expensive restaurant. ($ - 5.987 French
Francs)