News for September 8 1995

News from the Pro Peleton

Jan Raas, whose deal with Novell ends shortly, has secured a new sponsor
for, apparently, the next 5 years. No official announcement has been made
yet but it would appear that the sponsor is a Dutch bank, Rabobank. The
first signing to this new team is ONCE's Erik Breukink, on a one-year
contract.

Piotr Ugrumov has apparently rejected playing a support role to Miguel
Indurain at Banesto for next year and has signed to Moreno Argentin's ZG
Mobili team. He will share team leadership duties with Maurizio Fondriest
and, maybe, Giorgio Furlan, who is expected to sign in the next few days.
Following the collapse of the La Francaise des Jeux team, Bjarne Riis no
longer has a team for next season and Banesto are expected to turn their
attention towards the Dane.

Max Sciandri is the second big name reported to be leaving MG-Technogym.
Gianni Bugno has already declared his intention to leave and Sciandri made
his intentions clear following the arrival of Michele Bartoli on next
season's roster. Following his stage win in the Tour and victory in the
Leeds Classic, there is likely to be a number of teams prepared to sign
Sciandri.

Tony Rominger will, apparently, ride the individual pursuit at the World
Track Championships in Colombia. Whether he will then ride the ITT and road
events is unclear. He is currently preparing for the Worlds at altitude in
Switzerland. There is a rumour that if he does well in the pursuit he will
ride the event at next year's Olympics.

Cyrille Guimard is rumoured to have persuaded the Belgian supermarket chain
La Redoute to sponsor his team next year. No official announcement has been
made yet though.

Motorola's annual end of season clearout seems imminent. The American team
are rumoured to have signed Laurent Madouas and Bruno Thibout from
Castorama and Edwig Van Hooyodonck from Novell but no news has yet filtered
through as to who will be allowed to leave.

Vincente Aparicio, who was thought to be signing with Kelme next season, is
attracting the attention of Manalo Saiz, ONCE's team manager. Saiz has come
under some criticism for the number of foreigner stars he has on his team,
so a promising Spanish rider like Aparicio would be a welcome addition.