News for October 1, 1997


Transfers and Contracts

- Just finishing off the Bo Hamburger rumours: It's a fact: Bo has signed a one-year contract with Casino! (Thanks Kim)

- Jesper Skibby wants to talk with TVM about a transfer to the new Danish team, Jack and Jones. He even wants to pay money to TVM because to buy his contract out. He also does not want to race an international schedule next year so the move to the smaller team suits him.

UCI Rankings as at September 28

 1 JALABERT, Laurent 		      1,980
 2 ULLRICH, Jan 		      1,610
 3 ZUELLE, Alex 		      1,517
 4 TONKOV, Pavel 		      1,411
 5 BARTOLI, Michele 		      1,317
 6 MUSEEUW, Johan 		      1,310
 7 VIRENQUE, Richard 		      1,297
 8 TAFI, Andrea 		      1,216
 9 ZABEL, Erik 			      1,139
10 CASAGRANDE, Francesco 	      1,129
11 OLANO MANZANO, Abraham 	      1,088
12 ESCARTIN COTI, Fernando	      1,048
13 EKIMOV, Vjatceslav 		      1,026
14 REBELLIN, Davide 		 	985
15 TCHMIL, Andrei 			985
16 ZBERG, Beat 				946
17 GIANETTI, Mauro 			918
18 BOARDMAN, Christopher 		898
19 RIIS, Bjarne 			816
20 DUFAUX, Laurent 			808
21 CIPOLLINI, Mario 			769
22 NARDELLO, Daniele 			754
23 ELLI, Alberto 			753
24 GOTTI, Ivan 				748
25 CAMENZIND, Oskar 			706
26 PANTANI, Marco 			665
27 SVORADA, Jan 			664
28 SORENSEN, Rolf 			662
29 GONTCHENKOV, Alexandre 		655
30 PETITO, Roberto 			652
31 DOMINGUEZ DOMINGUEZ Juan Carlos 	637
32 BORTOLAMI, Gianluca			622
33 JIMENEZ SASTRE, José Maria		616
34 STEELS, Tom 				595
35 HERVE, Pascal 			565
36 FERRIGATO, Andrea 			562
37 BÖLTS, Udo 				548
38 VANDENBROUCKE, Frank 		543
39 ZARRABEITIA URANGA, Mikel 		517
40 BOOGERD, Michael 			512
41 LEBLANC, Luc 			508
42 BLIJLEVENS, Jeroen 			502
43 CLAVERO SEBASTIAN, Daniel 		499
44 GUIDI, Fabrizio 			496
45 MINALI, Nicola 			495
46 MICHAELSEN, Lars 			494
47 VASSEUR, Cédric 			493
48 ROUX, Laurent 			473
49 VAN BON, Leon 			471
50 MONCASSIN, Frédéric 			466

Dutch Selection for the Worlds

Max van Heeswijk (winner of the last stage in the Vuelta) has been selected for the Dutch team by Gerrie Knetemann at the World Championship on the road on October 12 in San Sebastian.

The selection is: Leon van Bon, Michael Boogerd, Erik Breukink, Erik Dekker, Max van Heeswijk, Danny Nelissen, Aart Vierhouten, Koos Moerenhout (all Rabo), Bart Voskamp, Steven de Jongh, Servais Knaven and Tristan Hoffman (all TVM).

Erik Breukink and Erik Dekker will also start in the individual time trial.

'Open de Nations de cyclisme' in Paris

The French team won the this event again at the Sports Palace Bercy, with Germany coming second and Italy third. It was the seventh edition of the 'Open de Nations de cyclisme' with France winning the event six times.

A friend from Denmark, Henrik Falk watched the event and sent this report.

"The three days track racing (8 nations with 8 riders each) arranged by Societe de Tour de Franse in Bercy (Paris) was a great race with lots of excitement.

Germany had a big lead before the last night, but with two events to go the French team overtook them, and with a superior Florian Rosseau winning the final event (Tour de Lance 250 meter) the home crowd went crazy.

But it almost went wrong, just 10 meters after finishing the Tour de Lance, Florian's sadle fell off. He was not seriously injured. His time was 12.775 more than 70 km/hour.

Their also was a big battle for 4 place. Denmark almost lost it because of a terrible last event, but thanks to Florian`s brilliant riding, the Aussies and the U.S. team could not beat Denmark.

Final standings:

 1. France        	173
 2. Germany       	166
 3. Italy         	153
 4. Denmark          	107
 5. USA              	106
 6. Australia         	104
 7. Espoirs (France) 	 70
 8. Spain             	 54

Fritz Schaer dead

The former pro-rider Fritz Schaer (71) died in Matzingen/Switzerland. In 1950, he was the first Swiss rider in the pink yersey in the Giro. In 1952 he won the green yersey in the Tour de France. And in 1954 he was second (behind Louison Bobet) in the World Championship on the road in Solingen.

Gerrit de Vries turns to skates

Gerrit de Vries (30) has turned down an offer from the Polti Team for another year. The "master knight" of Luc Leblanc has decided to retire from cycling. He will start selling bicycles in Steenwijk. And he has found a new sport: marathon speed-skating.