News for October 11

UCI Classifications

Abraham Olano's victory in the Worlds road race takes him up to 8th place
in the UCI classifications from 14th. The post-Worlds standings are as
follows:
  1. Jalabert   3197
  2. Rominger   2397
  3. Indurain  	2338
  4. Museeuw	1416
  5. Zulle	1366
  6. Berzin     1265
  7. Chiappucci 1225
  8. Olano      1080
  9. Casagrane  1066
 10. Richard    1042
 11. Tchmil      951
 12. Virenque	 947
 13. Fondriest   931
 14. Armstrong   839
 15. Ekimov      815

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When Its Signing Time Down South

The new French pro team managed by Michel Theze based in the South of
France with as yet unnamed sponsors has signed three new riders for the
1996 season: Christophe Capelle (ex-GAN), Dominique Arnould (ex- Le
Groupement) and Anthony Morin (ex-Aubervilliers). Jean-Jacques Henry
(ex-Festina) and Michel Zanoli (ex-Asfra) have already been recruited to
the team.
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Atlanta Aspirants

The following nations have qualified to send teams to the Olympic Games
road races in Atlanta, Georgia, next year, on the basis of their
performances in the World Championship amateur races:

Mens (five riders each for the road race, one or two for the time trial):
Netherlands, Italy, Ecuador, Colombia, Denmark, Great Britain, Venezuela,
Switzerland, Latvia, Portugal, France, Moldavia, Sweden, Guatemala,
Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Germany, Mexico, Russia, Poland,
Australia, Cuba, Brazil, USA, Lithuania, Canada, Belgium, Slovenia,
Austria, Spain, Finland, Estonia.

Women (three riders each for the road race, one or two for the time trial):
France, Lithuania, Switzerland, Italy, Colombia, Canada, Russia, Australia,
New Zealand, Austria, USA, Great Britain , Spain, Finland, Norway.

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Another Day, Another Detour

Yesterday (9 October 95), as Abraham Olano and the rest of the Spanish
Worlds team took a plane for Madrid, Miguel Indurain set off for a gentle
training ride between Paipa and Tunja, 43km on the small ring, before going
by car to Bogota. There tomorrow he will undertake tests on the velodrome
with a view to a record attempt. "If the results are good," said his
doctor, Sabino Padilla, "he will attack the hour record. But he's very thin
and pretty fatigued. If I have the slightest doubt about his condition,
there's no question of sending him to the abbatoir. Thursday morning or
later, we shall see. And it's not impossible that Thursday evening we'll
get the first plane for Madrid and forget the record." And that, suggests
L'Equipe, would probably be forever.

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Indurain and the Hour

L'Equipe reckons that the remaining doubts surrounding Miguel Indurain's
making a record attempt in Bogota are dissipating. "All the efforts and all
the sacrifices of the last 50 days weren't made only to become world
champion but also to take the hour record," said Jose- Miguel Echavarri.
"Now, if his form suggests he'll get past 55.291kph that's good. But if on
Thursday [12 October, when Indurain is to carry out tests on the Bogota
track] he hasn't completely recuperated, we'll go home."

Yesterday Indurain publicly presented the new version of his record attempt
bike "Espada II". Again a monobloc carbon-fibre structure, the frame weighs
in at 1.970kg, 6 gms heavier than the first version. Unlike the first
version, on which Indurain broke the record at Bordeaux, this bike is
designed to allow him to maintain his usual road time trial position, which
aims at gains in power at the expense of a little loss of aerodynamic
efficiency. The main change is in the gearing -- Indurain has been using an
enormous 63-tooth chainwheel allied with a 14-tooth sprocket (9.36 metres).
Rominger, by comparison, used 60x14 (9.02) for his last attempt. If
Indurain can maintain 101 revs per minute, he could surpass Rominger's
record by 1.4 to 1.5km with this gearing.

Two imponderables surround the attempt. First, weather conditions in Bogota
are poor at the moment, with periodic violent storms. The second is
Indurain's weight. "I'm thinner than I was at the end of the Tour de
France," he said, "and during an hour effort I risk being a bit short of
power. Since arriving in Colombia I've taken only breakfast, lunch and an
evening meal. On the evening after the road race I weighed only 77.5kg."
Paying attention to detail, from tomorrow on, assuming the results of the
tests don't send Indurain home, the Spanish team cook is going to try to
build him up with a protein and fat-enriched diet.

Tomorrow's test are likely to take place between 8.30 and 9 in the morning
when the wind is usually almost non-existent in the southern part of Bogota
where the stadium is situated. He's expected to do a series of full-effort
rides for five-, ten-, then fifteen-minute stretches with tests being taken
for lactic acid.

The rumour in the team is that if all goes well the attempt will be made at
the weekend, more likely on Sunday than Saturday, since that will give him
an extra day's recuperation.

Then it will be the turn of Jeannie Longo, who is staying in the same hotel
as Indurain.