News for July 27, 2000

HEW Cyclassics bigger than ever

The next round of the Men's Road World Cup, the 5th HEW Cyclassics (251 km) on August 6 will have the strongest starting field ever assembled in Germany, so said Christian Toetzke at the press conference in Hamburg.

Some names down to start include Erik Zabel, Jan Ullrich, Andrej Tchmil, Peter van Petegem, Erik Dekker, Johan Museeuw, Michael Boogerd, Michele Bartoli, Marcel Wüst, Tom Steels, Mario Cipollini and Jeroen Blijlevens.

Besides the division I teams, four wildcards were given to Team Gerolsteiner, Team Nürnberger, Team Cologne and Credit Agricole (Jens Voigt).

Italian Men's Olympic Road Team

Italian coach Antonio Fusi has selected his team for the road in Sydney: Marco Pantani, Michele Bartoli, Paolo Bettini, Danilo di Luca and Francesco Casagrande.

Pantani wasn't on the list before, because of his sporting fraud case, but after his two stage wins in the Tour, Fusi decided to put Pantani in the team.

Complete Canadian Olympic team

After the various national titles that were held this month, the entire Canadian Olympic team has been finalised. 14 athletes have been selected across the three disciplines: just two women for the track, four men and three women for the road, and three women and two men for the mountain bike squads respectively.

Track

Lori-Ann Muenzer
Tanya Dubnicoff

Road

Gord Fraser
Czeslaw Lukaszewicz
Brian Walton
Eric Wohlberg
Lyne Bessette
Clara Hughes
Genevieve Jeanson

Mountain Bike

Chrissy Redden
Lesley Tomlinson
Alison Sydor
Roland Green
Geoff Kabush

Tour 2001 rumours

* On July 10, the finish line will be in the centre of Liege in Belgium
* Another stage will be Seraing - Muur van Hoei/Mur de Huy, well known in the Waalse
Pijl/La Fleche Wallonie, where the riders have to do this climb three times with a maximum grade of 20%.
* After visiting the Ardennes, the team time trial will be in France
* There will only be one Alpine stage (l'Alpe d'Huez is a likely option)
* The hardest part of the Tour will be in the Pyreneees (3 stages)
* The individual time trial will take place near to Bordeaux

Tour to be harder?

Former Italian star and Mercatone Uno president, Felice Gimondi advised Jean-Marie Leblanc to make the first week of the Tour harder. "The sprinters need to have chances. This year in the first 10 days nothing happened. The deciding point of the Tour was in one stage (Hautacam)."

Vitalicio still looking

Javier Minguez' team Vitalicio Seguros is still searching for a new sponsor after the Spanish Life Insurance company decided to call it quits at the end of this year. The main team is currently racing in the Tour of Portugal, while other members are racing elsewhere in Spain. Time is running out for Minguez though, as this part of the year is when most riders sign new contracts. In between the races, the team leaders are meeting with prospective sponsors, most of whom are being tardy with their cash.

The team has been quite successful for the past three years, this year winning four stages in the Giro d'Italia. Their next big goal is the Vuelta a España starting on August 26, but Minguez would certainly like to secure a sponsor before then.

Fox at home with glandular fever

Rising Irish neo-pro, Morgan Fox (Tönissteiner), is currently recuperating from glandular fever, putting a dent in many of his hopes this year including an Olympic berth. Fox, a former Irish national champion, had the affliction in 1998 but suffered a relapse a few months ago. He first noticed something was wrong during a race in Germany, but in the Tour of Japan that followed he and his team decided to have some medical tests done. The result? Glandular fever, meaning he will be out until sometime in August.

In an interview with Shane Stokes of the Irish Times, Fox said that "I was riding well in some races this year, but the team couldn't understand why my hematocrit was so low. It was 38 or 39 a lot of the time, but fortunately I was still able to do some good rides." These included 24th place in the Venendaal-Venendaal event and a capable display in the mountainous Vuelta Asturias.

Reassuringly, Fox said that his Tönissteiner team have been very supportive. "They have told me to rest, that racing was totally out of the question until I get this out of my system. I am just taking it easy, using some homeopathic medicines to try to clear it. Gerard Bulens (Tonissteiner directeur sportif) has been great - he says that if I was riding well with that in my system, I should be flying when I get it sorted. So that makes sitting around at home, resting, a little bit easier. It is still really frustrating, though. I can't wait to get back on the bike."

Fox turned professional with Tönissteiner this year after proving himself on the Belgian amateur kermesse circuit in the past few years. Despite the disease, he still managed to ride consistently to top 10 places (or better) during that time. His Olympic hopes will have to be put on hold for another four years, but in the meantime the priority is to recover and extract something out of the latter half of the season.

Thanks to Shane Stokes, www.irishtimes.com