kindly supplied by Nicolas Velilla
"It's incredible. Nothing ever happens on this type of circuit," said the president of the [MX-Onda] team. The non-technical circuit where the race was run led the majority of the riders to ride without helmets, much the same as many other races. Yesterday, in Montjuic, very few used their helmets. "Jose Antonio was one of those who most often wore a helmet, but because the course was flat and only had two curves, he decided not to wear one," said Maximino Perez. The father of the rider complained about the fatality and stated that his son's death was a workplace accident.
kindly supplied by David Garza
But there still appears to be some confusion. Spanish press reports that Olano is still awaiting Squinzi's decision before he will sign with Banesto.
"I trust in Squinzi's word, we have already spoken about this". When asked if he's ready to be the only leader at Banesto, in case that Indurain doesn't continue with the team, he says: "I hope that Miguel stays with Banesto, because I would like to help him win a sixth Tour. And if it can't be, let it be my first Tour".
Banesto's sport director, Eusebio Unzue, spoke in an interview about his confusion with the latest happenings with Banesto: Indurain's conversations with ONCE and the delay by Squinzi to give Olano his freedom so that he can sign with the team. "Officially I know nothing. I know that Jose Miguel Echavarri had an appointment on Saturday witn Mapei's boss in Milan, but that yesterday they saw each other again to say good bye. But Squinzi is the one that has to give the news. I don't know how or when he will do it. I hope that the notice of Olano's freedom is only hours away. I hope that Jose Miguel's visit helped to iron some wrinkles that needed clarifying''.
These wrinkles that Unzue is talking about are the two riders, who like Olano, have active contracts with Mapei next year: Mauleon and Pena, that according to the agreement witn Squinzi would remain with Banesto, including a masseur, Moises Toboso and a mechanic, Alejandro Torralbo. "In terms of other possibilities, the Italian cyclists Noe and Colonna, will be let go by Mapei, but right now I can't tell if we will keep them or not, the same with Arsenio and Beltran. We need to make an inventory of the riders that we have, we want between 18 and 20 riders for '97. And above all we want to know if Miguel wants to continue.
Unzue admits that the conversations between Indurain and ONCE, have not landed well in Banesto. "It is his right and we can't take it away, but it hasn't felt good. Lets say that it has caused surprise. I don't know up to what point the bank has gotten cold towards the team, they have always backed us up and I don't expect anything strange out of them. I can't say either is Miguel has received bad advise. What I do want is for him to make a decision among the three options that he has". Unzue assures that there is not distancing or negative feelings between Indurain and the management, what happens is that we are going through something that we had never experienced. It is not normal at this time of the season for things to still be in the air, but the decision that Miguel is going to take is very important. I think that his conversations with ONCE, or the ones that he's going to have with us (we are waiting to see when he wants to meet), will help him clarify his future. I don't think that his contact with ONCE means that he has decided to remain active".
Category A (8 laps of a 2.2 km circuit plus 600 finishing straight for 18.2 kms) 1. Groenendaal (Ho) 1:01:10 2. Herijgers (Be) 0:53 3. Willemsens (Be) 0:57 4. Bramati (It) 1:16 5. de Vos (Ho) 1:25 6. Pontoni (It) 2:00 7. Runkel (Sz) 2:27 8. Markwalder (Sz) 2:45 9. Simunek (Tsch) 3:05 10. Willemsens (Be) 3:43 11. Stari (Aut) 4:06 12. Blum (Sz) 4:30 13. Schdtti (Sz) 4:44 14. Blum (Sz) 4:57 15. B|sser (Sz) 5:24