Latest Edition Cycling News for March 4, 2005Edited by Jeff Jones and Les Clarke Ag2r director arrestedOne of the directors of the Ag2r team, Laurent Biondi, has been arrested in his house in Grenoble on Wednesday, suspected of being involved in a large Franco-Belgian drug trafficking ring. According to an article in L'Equipe, Biondi will be transferred to Bordeaux on Monday where he will be heard by the judge in charge of the investigation. Another person, not involved in professional cycling, was also arrested and will appear in Bordeaux. The investigation started in January and has so far involved 18 people, eight of whom are still in custody. Besides Biondi, former pro Laurent Roux and his brother Fabien have been arrested and are being held separately in southwestern France. The latter two are suspected to be at the centre of the drug ring. Bruyneel talks about threats to ArmstrongDiscovery Channel team manager Johan Bruyneel revealed on Wednesday's De Laatste Show (Belgium) that Lance Armstrong received two death threats during the 2004 Tour de France. "No-one knows this, but in the mountain time trial to L'Alpe d'Huez, an armed security guard next to me in the following car," said Bruyneel. "And there were also agents in front of Armstrong. We were terrified that day." Armstrong to visit Casartelli monument againDuring this year's Tour, Lance Armstrong will, together with members of the Tour organisation, pay a visit to the Fabio Casartelli monument on the Col du Portet d'Aspet. That will take place on the second rest day, when Armstrong will fly in via helicopter. It will be followed by a memorial service in Pau, attended by family and friends of Casartelli. It will be almost exactly 10 years ago that Casartelli met his death when he crashed while descending the mountain during the 1995 Tour de France. Casartelli was a former teammate of Armstrong's in Motorola, and his death had a big affect on the American. More teams for Paris-NiceWith the "race to the sun" kicking off on Sunday, March 6 in Issy-Les-Moulineaux, more teams have confirmed their lineups for the first ProTour event ever. Lampre-Caffita is starting with Gilberto Simoni as team captain, and the team indicated that he would be riding for overall classification. "I enjoy this race, it's an important race for me as it also starts the long awaited Pro Tour," said Simoni. "It's important for me to know my actual form for racing in these conditions with one week long stage racing. If I am feeling good then I will try for a stage win or for some other results. I would not mind having the same condition and results as I had in 2003." For Simoni it will be his second time in Paris-Nice. In 2003 he finished behind Vinokourov in the mountain stage up Mont Faron, and also finished 11th in the overall classification. Lampre-Caffita: Alessandro Ballan, Salvatore Commesso, Gerrit Glomser, David Loosli, Evgeni Petrov, Gilberto Simoni, Daniele Righi, Patxi Vila Fassa Bortolo: Paolo Bossoni, Fabian Cancellara, Mauro Facci, Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni, Dario Frigo, Volodimir Gustov, Andrej Hauptman, Kim Kirchen. Illes Balears: Daniel Becke, Jonathan González, David Navas, Aitor Osa, Vicente Reynés, Toni Tauler, Alejandro Valverde, Xabier Zandio. Team Gerolsteiner: Andrea Moletta, Davide Rebellin, Ronny Scholz, Marco Serpellini, Marcel Strauss, Georg Totschnig, Beat Zberg, Thomas Ziegler.
Live coverageCyclingnews will be covering the 63rd Paris-Nice live, starting 14:30 local time (CET)/08:30 (USA East)/05:30 (USA West)/00:30 (Australia East) each day. Hoffman remains in hospitalDutchman Tristan Hoffman (CSC) is still in Gent's UZ hospital after breaking his left shin bone in two places and suffering concussion from a crash in last Saturday's Omloop Het Volk. Hoffman told ANP on Thursday that he had to undergo a few more tests, particularly because there was a danger of infection due to the fact that it was an open break. However, if he is given the all clear, he will be able to leave today (Friday). An interview with Tim JohnsonBoy from bean town joins Bean TeamAfter a year in Europe that didn't go quite as well as he'd hoped, Tim Johnson is back in the USA with the Georgia-based Jittery Joe's team. As he tells Cyclingnews' Mark Zalewski, he's hoping to apply what he learned in Europe to his new role as mentor and team leader.
This time last year, Boston native Tim Johnson looked to be setting out on a very promising career in the European peloton. The only American on the up-and-coming Spanish Saunier Duval team, Johnson was being groomed for possible GC contention. However, his year did not go as well as planned. Even with some positive results at a few races, the stress of life across the pond and the extreme level of competition there combined to make life rather difficult for Johnson. As the season wore on, he decided he needed to be in the US, and began to talk to a few teams. At the same time, Micah Rice was looking for an experienced GC rider to take a leadership role on the quickly expanding Jittery Joe's/Kalahari team. After dozens of calls and emails, the two came to an agreement, and all seems to be going very well for everyone involved. Cyclingnews: You've made a lot of life changes recently. Was your off season equally as affected by these life changes? Tim Johnson: The off-season was awesome. It's the first time I've had a solid break. I got off my bike at T-Mobile [San Francisco GP] last year and left it in the bag for a while. I decided I wanted to change some things. I had almost six weeks off and started to ride my bike again because I wanted to. Slowly came back into shape as opposed to last year when I never got out of form and came into the really hard racing. So this year I purposely tried to take a break and then get going again to get ready for this year. But it was awesome because Lyne and I got to spend time together. We're at home for actual weeks in a row - in the same bed! Click here for the full interview Paris-Roubaix course changed againThere has been another change to the parcours of this year's Paris-Roubaix, which will already be without the Wallers-Arenberg and Wallers (Pont-Gibus) sectors of pavé. According to a report in La Voix du Nord, the proposed new route via a sector of pavé at Avesnes-le-Sec has to be changed, as a large business (Sevelnord) is commencing expansion work which will block the end of this sector. The organisers have instead found a new way to link the zones between Solesmes and Haveluy. That will involve going through Escarmain (1,500 m), Vertain (1,900 m), Capelle (1,000 m), Aulnoye-les-Valenciennes (2,600 m), Famars (1,200 m), Quérénaing (1,400 + 2,500 m), Monchaux-sur-Ecaillon and Haveluy. The remainder of the course is unchanged. The total distance of pavé sectors this year is 54.7 km. Race director Jean-François Pescheux was quoted by the newspaper as saying, "We are concentrating on 9.3 km of pavé within a distance of less than 13 km. This zone will be the heart of the race. At the finish, the riders will be 80 km from the velodrome." Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen to go aheadDespite the continued snowy weather this week in Belgium, the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen (March 4-6) will go ahead as planned. "On Thursday everything was free of snow," said organiser Eric Mortelé to Het Nieuwsblad. "Even the two sticking points, the Varentstraat and the Kemmelberg, were no problem. If it snows again, then it can still go wrong and we will have to intervene. But I have a few spotters who will keep me up to date the whole time." The stages are as follows: Stage 1 - March 4: Kortrijk - Bellegem, 159 km Recycling.co.uk/MG Xpower/Litespeed trains in Sardinia
Recycling.co.uk/MG Xpower/Litespeed's ten man squad took off to the sunny climes of Sardinia for their pre-season training camp in association with team sponsor www.activepeoplecycling.co.uk. Sardinia provided an ideal location for the team to prepare for their first season as a UCI Continental Professional road and track squad, and although some of the team have been involved with various track and road races already, it was the first time they were able to train together officially as a squad. Expert knowledge of local roads was the domain of Active People Cycling's Jamie Fixter, making sure riders' training plans went to schedule; they were able to cover long hilly stretches or more specific speed endurance sessions on flat, smooth and traffic free roads, such is the variety of the squad's racing programmes. Just like teams such as T-Mobile, who recently trained in Mallorca, the Recycling.co.uk/MG Xpower/Litespeed team enjoyed the conditions to kickstart business in 2005.
In preparation for the Track World Championships, which are only a matter of weeks away, pursuiters Manning, Newton and Hayles were able to avoid the bad weather in the UK and get some quality miles in their legs. After returning from Sardinia all riders will be engaged in a busy racing programme - Rob Hayles, Chris Newton, Russ & Dean Downing rode at Revolution 8, and the complete team is due to ride the Eddie Soens Memorial race at Aintree on March 5, followed by one group travelling to South Africa for a 5 day stage race and another squad taking on the domestic opposition at the Mersey Roads two-day. 10 riders for Park City Cycling AcademyThe Park City Cycling Academy in Utah, USA has accepted 10 riders to join the Academy for the 2005 season, with limited spaces still available. PCCA is a developmental program housed in a 16 room facility in Park City, Utah, that provides a foundation for young riders to move to the mountains of the west and race fully supported in a professional team environment at some of the largest races in the western United States, including the US Nationals which starts 1 km from the Academy. The Academy provides housing, uniforms, entry fees, educational seminars, full race day support, race travel and lodging, summer job placement assistance and training with professional cyclists. Current 2005 roster Todd Hageman* *Mentors More information: www.parkcitycycling.com Los Gatos Bicycle Racing Club 2005Los Gatos Bicycle Racing Club (LGBRC) has announced its sponsor list and roster for 2005. LGBRC-Team Easton/Specialized has captured championships from juniors to masters level, year after year, with a racing calendar that includes local, state, regional, national and even world championship competitions. The award-winning LGBRC-Team Easton/Specialized enters the 2005 campaign with a core of focused and talented riders, backed by a group of first-class sponsors, including title sponsors Specialized and Easton.
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