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Denmark, International GP Ebeltoft, Criterium 84 kms:1. Giovanni Lombardi (Ger) Deutsche Telekom 1.58.42 2. Bostjan Mervar (Slo) Telecom Slovenija 0.04 3. Dennis Rasmussen (Den) Team Chicky World 4. Brian Holm (Den) (Acceptcard Pro Cycling 5. Brian Dalgaard (Den) Spar-RDM 6. Danny Jonassen (Den) Rabobank .. 12. Rolf Sørensen (Den) Rabobank 0.04 Tour du Danube (Belgrado-Boedapest-Bratislava), May 19-23, UCI 2.6:Stage 1, Belgrade, 40 kms: 1. Fabio Carino (Ita) 2. Kadjec (Cze) 3. Sander Olijve (Ned) OWC-Löwik-Axa Stage 2, Backl Petrovac - Subotica, 170 kms: 1. Sander Olijve (Ned) OWC-Löwik-Axa 4.03.42 2. Liska (Slo) 3. Stefaan van Duyse (Ned) Wielerteam Beveren Stage 3, Subotica - Budapest, 203 kms: 1 Rob Froeling (Ned) 4.53.50 2 Gersso (Ita) 3 Sosenka (Cze) Final GC: 1. Rob Froeling (Ned) 10.49.50 2. Gersso (Ita) 0.06 3. Sosenka (Cze) 0.09 MapeiMapei sign for another 3 years. The new 3-year contract by Mapei is good news for Patrick Lefevere. Now he can keep Frank Vandenbroucke. The winner of Paris-Nice and Gent-Wevelgem had a good offer by Cofidis, but Vandenbroucke will now not leave Mapei if he can get a 3-year contract. When Johan Museeuw makes his comeback to the peloton, he will also sign another contract to stay with Mapei. Fellow Belgian, sprinter Tom Steels also wants to sign a new contract with Mapei.Ardens Drieluik, Belgium, Cat 2.6Stage 1, Maastricht-Hamoir, May 22: 1 Ivan Basso (Ita) Elite 2 Davy Daniels (Bel) Elite 3 Erwin Bollen (Bel) Elite 4 Dimitri Fofonov (Bel) Elite 5 Dave Bruylandts (Bel) Elite 6 Rudy Verdonck (Bel) Elite 7 Danny In 't Ven (Bel) Elite 8 Arne Daelemans (Bel) Elite 9 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Riso Scotti 10 Jurgen Van Roosbroeck (Bel) Elite Tour de France 2000 to start in Germany?Jean-Marie Leblanc, organisor of the Tour, said in an interview with the Daily Saarbruecker Zeitung that the Tour may start in Germany in 2000. Candidates for the start are Frankfurt, Aachen, Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Trier and Sarrebrueck/St-Wendel.It isn't the first time Germany is guest of the Tour. In 1965 Koln was used then Frankfurt in 1980, and in 1987 Berlin. Problems with Ullrich?The medical staff of Telekom is worried about Ullrich. They think he may encounter some problems in the Tour de France after his intensive training in the last months. To lose weight he has trained with Dirk Baldinger and Jens Heppner over the last 3 weeks and they have been doing more than 200 kilometers every day. His first race, the GP of Wallonie, was the start of his preparation to the Tour on July 11 in Dublin. At 76 kilos, Jan Ullrich is still 2 kilos from the weight he had at the start of the 1997 Tour.In comparison with last year:
However Ullrich doesn't seem to care about the media scrutiny. He said: "The German media has more problems with my weight than I do." Lance Armstrong wins 56 k CriteriumThe United States Postal Service's Lance Armstrong raced to his first victory since recovering from testicular cancer Friday night by taking the Sprint 56K Criterium in Austin, TexasArmstrong, the hometown favorite of the huge crowd lining Sixth Street in downtown Austin, sprinted away from his two breakaway companions - Saturn's Chann McRae and Navigators' Todd Littlehales - in the final lap of the 56-lap event. The three riders broke clear from the field with approximately 15 laps to go. Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service teammate, Frankie Andreu, attempted a solo bridge to the lead trio in the final stages of the race and settled for fourth place. Saturday, Armstrong will lead close to 4,000 cyclists, including former Tour de France champions Miguel Indurain and Greg LeMond and Classics king Sean Kelly, on the Ride for the Roses, a charity cycling event benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation for Cancer Research. Following the events in Austin, Armstrong and Andreu will join five teammates - Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Christian Vande Velde, Marty Jemison and Anton Villatoro - for the First Union Festival of Cycling in the Philadelphia area for races on June 2, 3 and 4 prior to the First Union U.S. Pro Championship in Philadelphia on June 7. Also in Austin Friday night, the U.S. Postal Service Masters Cycling Team's Glen Winkel benefited from perfect teamwork from Larry Nolan and Peter Allen in the final three laps to win the Masters 35+ race. Local coverage of Lance's winThis was from Saturday's Austin American Statesman and was written by Suzanne Halliburton.Lance Armstrong crossed the finish line and celebrated his victory in the Sprint 56K Criterium on Friday night in a most familiar way. He leaned back on the seat of his bicycle and pumped his fists in jubilation, just like he did when he won a world championship, his consecutive Tour du Pont titles and his stages of the Tour de France. This victory carried more emotion. It was his first win since he was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer 20 months ago. And it came in front of thousands of fans who lined up five deep along Sixth Street and gave him a thunderous ovation as he crossed the finish line. "This has been a long time coming,'' he said. "When you're about to cross the finish line and you hear thousands of fans just errupt. It's hard to explain what I was feeling. I know if you could bottle it up and sell it, you'd make a lot of money.'' The 88 riders who competed in the final pro race late Friday didn't hand Armstrong the race. He was forced to fight his way for the championship and the $10,000 first prize. In fact, he didn't clinch the victory until he sprinted past Todd Littlehales with about 50 yards from the finish line. Chann McRae, a transplanted Austinite who grew up with Armstrong in Plano, finished a close third. Armstrong's win capped a festive night in Austin's famed entertainment district. The 1-kilometer course was lit up like a football field and rock music blared from giant speakers set up along the route. People started pouring out of bars at about 7 p.m. to watch the first of five races that didn't stop until almost midnight. At first it was a novelty, seeing professional cyclists take over a downtown street typically reserved for the top party in Austin. It would have been an unlikely site anywhere in the United States, considering that Americans have yet to truly embrace this sport that is so popular in Europe. Several legendary European cyclists were impressed by the almost carefree attitudes displayed by the fans and the racers. "It's something totally different from what we have in Europe,'' Miguel Indurain said through an interpreter. Indurain, a winner of five Tour de Frances is treated like a rock star in Europe and especially in his home country of Spain. "Races in Europe don't have this kind of festival,'' Indurain said. "Everyone is more concerned with competition. Here they are racing for a good cause.'' Friday's final race was competitive. Armstrong, McRae and Littlehall broke away from the pack with 11 laps remaining. Until then, Armstrong had stayed in about 10th place. He said he expected someone in the pack to ride to the top three, but that never materialized. Frankie Andreu, Armstrong's only U.S. Postal teammate in the field, stayed far back in fourth to slow down any challengers. "The first half of the race, I really felt out of place,'' Armstrong said. "It's been years since I've done a criterium, and I've never done one in the dark.'' Before he competed, Armstrong was as relaxed as the fans who toasted and cheered him. He and Andreu, sat in a VIP tent off of Sixth and Trinity and chatted with fans. Armstrong even took time to bottle feed a friend's new-born. "I didn't know what to expect,'' Armstrong said of the turnout. "This is great.'' Andreu agreed. "The way people have turned out, this is already one of the biggest races in America. It's great that so many people came out to support Lance.'' The festivities continue this morning at 9 with the Ride for the Roses, a charity ride of 25-, 50-and 100-miles through Southwest Travis County. Indurain and fellow cycling greats Greg LeMond and Sean Kelly will make the ride. About 4,000 participants are expected. Kathy Watt wins Time Trial in SloveniaKathy Watt has won the time trial in Slovenia by 37 seconds. No further details.Adam Laurent in USA Track World Cup TeamAdam Laurent of The Navigators Cycling Team will be participating in rounds one and two of the 1998 UCI Track World Cup. Adam has been selected to represent the United States in the Team Pursuit event. The 11 member squad will be competing in all of the Olympic and World Championship events in Cali, Columbia May 22-24 and May 28-30 in Victoria, BC, Canada. Adam has represented the United States in many Olympic and World Championship events and is currently the National Champion in the Team Pursuit, Points Race and Madison Race events.In UCI World Track Cup events, an individual can qualify his or her nation for starting positions in the World Championships, based on performance criteria. Delay in High Tech Australian BikeThis article was written by David Wesolowski (Adelaide Messenger Newspaper, May 20 1998)A Northern Adelaide effort to build high tech bikes for the Sydney 2000 Olympics is going nowhere fast, the AIS has revealed. AIS cycling technician Bryan Hayes last week laid the blame squarely with the UCI. He said the UCI, the world cycling governing body, was holding up the project by failing to set design specifications for new bikes. "The (project) schedule has been blown out of the water", Mr Hayes admitted. "We've been hamstrung for eight months - we're treading water." The aim was to build 32 track bikes for the Australian Olympic cycling team - possibly (by a contractor) at Salisbury's Defence, Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) or at the State Sports Park at Gepps Cross. The bikes must be commercially available 12 month before the Olympics to be eligible to enter the competition. DSTO based company Pope Group have volunteered their time to work on the prestigious AIS project. "They're working on it for free. They're doing it for the kudos," Mr Hayes said. However, the production team has been relegated to fiddling with designs on paper due to uncertainty over specifications - such as the width of the handlebars. "They (UCI) are going around in circles, "Mr Hayes claimed. "We're waiting. It's been extremely frustrating". Mr Hayes added that until the final plans were accepted by the UCI the projects would not be able to attract funding - which was expected to come from a "variety of sources". He said the details of the project - such as the construction site, the materials used and the costs - would only be known after the UCI made it's ruling. Darwin CC, Cafe Bella Cup, Round 3, May 24:Round Three was a 63.5 kms road race from Adelaide River Showground to Daly River road and return.
Juniors (20kms) 1. Brendan Mouatt 42.03.47 2. Larry Snell 42.15.01 3. Corey Heath 43.44.85 4. Lillie Hardie Burstow 48.21.38 Junior Standings after 3 rounds 1. Larry Snell 240 2. Brendan Mouatt 200 3. Lillie Hardie 160 3. Corey Heath 50 4. Ross Sinclair 40 5. Nicky Sinclair 36 Open 1. David Clark 1.47.41 2. Owen Pike 1.47.47 3. Dave Wilkinson 1.49.52 4. Dwayne Thompson 1.51.15 5. Alistair Hartley 1.51.15 6. Anthony Cooper 1.54.29 7. Andrew Hall 1.59.24 Open Standings after 3 rounds 1. David Clarke 170 2. Dwayne Thompson 140 3. Alistair Hartley 136 4. Anthony Cooper 102 5. Peter Verhagen 100 6. Owen Pike 100 7. David Wilkinson 90 8. Gordon Atkinson 40 9. Justin Miller 36 10. Andrew Hall 28 Veterans 1. Sean Catley 1.52.38 2. Tony Pettit 1.52.50 3. Martin Hardie 1.52.50 4. Charlie Fryc 1.52.50 5. Bob Pettit 2.01.27 6. Paul Bubb 2.02.32 7. Dal Hartley 2.18.40 Veteran Standings after 3 rounds 1. Sean Catley 200 2. Martin Hardie 190 3. Tony Pettit 140 4. Charlie Fryc 90 5. Paul Bubb 72 6. Bob Pettit 72 7. Barry Densley 70 8. Dal Hartley 58 9. Graham Franklin 26 Women 1. Jyette Tile 2.20.36 Women's 1. Margaret McLachlan 100 2. Jytte Tiley 100 3. Katrina Skellern 70 |