Latest Cycling News for May 23, 2005

Edited by Jeff Jones

An interview with Sue Haywood

Search for Transcendence

Out front in '05
Photo ©: Rob O'Dea

Sue Haywood is one of America's most experienced mountain bikers; with a pro career that started a little later in life she's still learning and striving for that perfect rhythm and the perfect race. Cyclingnews' Steve Medcroft caught up with Sue to discuss her development as a rider, the Olympics and that search for transcendence.

With two races in the books in the 2005 U.S. NORBA mountain bike series, West Virginian Susan Haywood (Trek/VW) has a clean grip on first place. She stood on the podium at both the Texas opener and the Arizona follow-up and with an almost three-month gap until the next NORBA, Haywood has plenty of time to rest, recover, train and peak for the remainder of the series, making her a favourite the rest of the way.

The fact that she is the leader of the series is a testament to Haywood's persistence and determination to make a career out of mountain biking. Since her first race on a Trek Antelope in the early nineties, to her two short-track national championships and her third place in the 2004 XC national championship race, Haywood has developed slowly into her role as one America's leading mountain bikers. In fact, if you had looked at her career throughout the last fifteen years, you probably wouldn't have predicted this kind of success. For seven years after that first race she was no more than a serious amateur. When she did make the transition to the pro ranks, she struggled, saying she underestimated how tough pro racing was - thinking that because she could ride nasty, technical terrain, she'd be able to succeed.

But Haywood wasn't discouraged, and her dedication to the sport culminated in 2004 when, after a year-long battle for UCI world-ranking points, she was named the lone US women's Olympic mountain bike representative. Anyone who followed mountain biking knows what happened next: Haywood was relegated in arbitration by Mary McConneloug, who contested the nomination due to what she felt (and was able to prove to the arbiters) was inconsistency in the way USA Cycling counted the UCI points used to make the nomination. To Haywood, it was a blow. She had just raced in ten countries, earned a third place in the world rankings and won the Olympic nomination by one point but ended up being named the alternate rider instead.

But again, Haywood has not given up and is being rewarded with even greater success. To catch up on the history that brought her to and through that tough year, we talked to Haywood by phone at her home in Davis, West Virginia. Haywood had just come in from spending the afternoon working in her garden.

Cyclingnews: The opening races of the U.S. domestic mountain bike season are over and you have a gap before it picks up again; do you get to spend some time at home between races?

Sue Haywood: A little bit. I'm here in West Virginia now. Today was the day to get into the beehives and check them out.

CN: Bee hives? How many do you have?

SH: I had three but one died off over the winter so now I have two. But I may get a couple more this spring.

CN: What exactly do you get out of having beehives?

SH: (laughs) Not too much. Just get honey from them. It's a little hobby, you know. I have the suit and everything: although today when I was messing with them I didn't put the suit on - I didn't think they'd be interested in me because they were out getting pollen - and I got stung like thirty times.

Click here for the full interview

Dierckxsens out of Tour of Belgium

The final season of Ludo Dierckxsens (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) hasn't been a great one, with sickness and crashes preventing him from reaching top form. After the Tour de Picardie, he became sick and spent several days off the bike. He doesn't consider himself to be fit enough for the Tour of Belgium this week, but hopes to be back for the Tour de Luxembourg in early June.

Landbouwkrediet-Colnago for Tour of Belgium: Bert De Waele, Nico Sijmens, Maxime Monfort, Jurgen Van Loocke, James Van Landschoot, Geert Verheyen, Johan Verstrepen, Jurgen Van De Walle. Reserve: Thierry De Groote. Directors: Claude Criquielion and Claude Van Coillie.

Quick Step-Innergetic to Tour of Belgium

The Quick.Step-Innergetic team will be in action in its "home" Tour of Belgium this week with the following riders: Tom Boonen, Wilfried Cretskens, Dimitri De Fauw, Kevin Hulsmans, Servais Knaven, José Antonio Pecharroman, Sebastien Rosseler, Guido Trenti. Director: Wilfried Peeters.

Mark French appeal finishes

Australian cyclist Mark French has just completed a three day hearing during which he has appealed his two year ban for doping, according to an AAP report. French was also banned from the Australian Olympic team for life after he admitted to injecting testicomp while at the AIS in 2003. He was also implicated in, but never admitted to, taking equine growth hormone, a substance that was found in a home made sharps bucket in his room in the AIS.

The French affair was one of the biggest ever sports drug controversies in Australia, and it reached the parliamentary level. In his defence, French named several other Australian cyclists, whom he said were also injecting substances in his room. But after a detailed investigation into the affair, all other cyclists were cleared.

It's expected to take at least two weeks for a decision to be made with regard to French's appeal.

Neiwand accused of stalking

Former top Australian track rider Gary Neiwand has been accused of breaching a restraining order preventing him from seeing his ex-wife Catherine, but has been released on $10,000 bail after a hearing in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald. The 38 year-old allegedly hid in Catherine's backyard on March 19, in breach of the order, and urinated in a glass of champagne that she was drinking. He also allegedly threatened to "rip her arms off", yelled abuse at her while she was picking up her children, and threatened a friend of hers, Andrew Knight after breaking into Catherine's home on March 22.

The restraining order was put in place in 2002, and Gary Neiwand's lawyer said that the alleged breaches were made within a one month period, and there were no others. One week ago, Neiwand was granted partial custody to see his two children, and the court's magistrate Robert Tuppen said that this should reduce the chances of further breaches to the order. In granting bail to Neiwand, judge Tuppen ordered him to reappear in court on June 2.

Neiwand's case has similarities to that of Stephen Pate, another ex-top Australian track sprinter, who was arrested several times for breaching a restraining order against his ex-wife.

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