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Giro finale
Photo ©: Bettini

Latest Cycling News for March 31, 2005

Edited by Anthony Tan

Cooke ready for Flanders

Nicole Cooke has made her intentions known for this Sunday's women's Tour of Flanders after winning the 7th Trofeo Alfredo Binda in Cittiglio, Italy, last Monday, March 28.

The race, held in the province of Varese, featured a 93 kilometre-long parcours, comprising 10 flat 6km laps before finishing with three 11km laps that included a short climb at the start of each lap. Unsurprisingly, the action didn't begin until the peloton came into the finishing circuits, with Cooke's Safi-Pasta Zara team-mates Guissepina Grazzi and Anna Zugno present in a break of eight riders on the first ascent.

Each time over the climb, however, the race regrouped, although by the final lap, the front group numbered around 20 riders, with Zungo doing plenty of work to keep Cooke up front. "Anna worked really hard to maintain the pace over the last four k after the final hill," Cooke recalled on her website, NicoleCooke.com. "There was a group of around 20 of us and I was fourth or fifth wheel coming into the final bend with 250m to go."

In the sprint finish, Cooke took the inside line to beat her former Ausra Gruodis-Safi team-mate of two seasons ago, Katia Longhin, by half a wheel, with Miho Oki (USC Chirio Forno D'Asolo) third. "I'm really happy to have won. It was a big day for the team and they worked really hard for me again today," said Cooke.

"It'll be different over the 'Muurs' in Flanders," she cautioned. "They've added an extra four of these tough climbs to make it 12 in all for the Tour of Flanders. I was able to see the course during a trip to Belgium last week, and the pavé will help to make it a real test too."

Discovery, Illes Balears for RVV

The Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team has just released their eight-man crew for Sunday's Ronde Van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders):

Lance Armstrong, Stijn Devolder, Viatscheslav Ekimov, George Hincapie, Leif Hoste, Roger Hammond, Benoit Joachim, and Hayden Roulston

Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne shall field the following line-up for the RVV:

Daniel Becke, Imanol Erviti, Isaac Gálvez, Chente García, Cayetano Julià, Iker Leonet, Mikel Pradera, Vicente Reynés
Director: J.L. Jaimerena

Weather report for the Ronde

According to the latest weather report for Sunday's Ronde Van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders), riders won't be needing their rain jackets, at least for most of the day. According to Belgian weather-woman Sabine Hagedoren, "Sunday will be a nice spring day with maximum of 19 degrees [Celsius]. The start in Bruges will take place underneath a beautiful open sky."

But because Belgian weather is so unpredictable, Hagedoren added the following disclaimer: "During the afternoon, more clouds will form and in the evening there is a risk of rain."

BBC's weather report also adds there will be a 16mph (25.7km/h) breeze blowing from the south, with moderate visibility and relative humidity of 69 percent.

PVP under the weather?

Speaking of the weather, pre-race favourite for the Tour of Flanders and winner in 1999 and 2003, Peter Van Petegem, was said to have been feeling under the weather, and decided not to start today's final double stage of the Driedaagse van De Panne.

"Peter is feeling a bit under the weather and has decided not to take risks with coming Sunday in mind," said Davitamon-Lotto PR-man Philip Demyttenaere. "He won't be starting in Thursday's last stage and the closing time-trial of the Three days de Panne."

However, the rider himself said later that he's feeling healthy and didn't start at the risk of jeopardising his chances for Sunday. Other riders that chose not to take to the start this morning's stage were Belgians Gorik Gardeyn, Koen Barbé, Glenn D'Hollander, Johan Verstrepen and Steven Caethoven, while Quick.Step's Tom Boonen said that the finish in the morning stage could have easily been the most dangerous one so far this year, and decided not to contest the final sprint because of that. Boonen will not ride the time-trial this afternoon.

Gusev a force in Spring

After making the top 10 in last Sunday's Brabantse Pijl, followed by a fourth place in Paris-Camembert on Tuesday, Team CSC's Vladimir Gusev has shown excellent form heading into April's Spring Classics.

"There were several attacks towards the end, but no one was able to catch [Laurent] Brochard," said sports director Alain Gallopin on the team's website, team-csc.com, following the race from Magnanville to Vimoutiers. "Gusev is really on form, and it looks as if he could peak for the cobblestone classics. Last year, he got some experience in riding the big one-day races, and I believe this year it's possible for him to be among the very best."

Liberty for GP Indurain, País Vasco & Clásica Primavera

Team Liberty Seguros-Würth DS Manolo Saiz has decided his team will take part in the 'Tríptico Vasco' series of races that includes the Gran Premio Miguel Indurain (April 2), Vuelta al País Vasco (Tour the Basque Country, April 4 - 8) and Clásica de Primavera (April 10).

The eight men selected for the Vuelta al País Vasco are: Alberto Contador, David Etxebarria, Koldo Gil, Roberto Heras, Isidro Nozal, Javier Ramirez Abeja, Marcos Serrano and Ángel Vicioso. For the GP Miguel Indurain and Clásica de Primavera, it will be the same team along with Daniel Navarro.

Although unwilling to name a leader for any of the events, Saiz said it is "a good team, with ambitions and with an aggressive mentality, but it is now necessary to demonstrate it on the road". At the same time, he indicated that the fact that the Vuelta al País Vasco is now part of the ProTour, it will change the style of racing: "It is a País Vasco full of questions, because we are accustomed to running it a certain way and now it is going to be done differently," he said.

"There are many teams and a lot of interest, which will make for a highly contested race. It will be a race tactically very open, with many riders, very narrow roads and without an team that dominates. It is necessary to see how this tactical game appears in race before speaking about leaders."

Gerolsteiner for GP Indurain

Named after the Spanish five-time Tour winner (1990-95) Miguel Indurain and conducted around his hometown of Pamplona, Gerolsteiner has chosen the following line-up for this Saturday's 189 kilometre-long Gran Premio Miguel Indurain:

Levi Leipheimer, Andrea Moletta, Volker Ordowski, Matthias Russ, Ronny Scholz, Marcel Strauss, Fabian Wegmann and Bert Zberg
Director: Reimund Dietzun

Phonak for Pais Vasco and Roubaix

The Swiss-registered Phonak team will be fielding the following riders at the Vuelta al País Vasco (April 4 - 8) and Paris - Roubaix (April 10).

Vuelta al País Vasco:

Niki Aebersold, Nicolas Jalabert, Alexandre Moos, Victor Hugo Peña, Miguel Angel Perdiguero, Oscar Pereiro, Johann Tschopp, Steve Zampieri
Team management: Juan Fernandez, Jacques Michaud

Paris - Roubaix:

Aurélien Clerc, Martin Elmiger, Bert Grabsch, Fabrizio Guidi, Robert Hunter, Nicolas Jalabert, Uros Murn, Gregory Rast Team management: John Lelangue, Jacques Michaud, René Savary

Sydney Thousand close to being reborn

By John Stevenson

Could bike racing return to the SCG?
Photo ©: John Scott
Click for larger image

Sydney race promoter John Scott is getting closer to his dream or resurrecting the Sydney 1000 Thousand track carnival - and it's even possible that it might one day return to the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).

Last held in the 1980s, the Sydney Thousand gets its name from the £1000 prize purse offered in the original event in 1903, when bike racing was big enough to attract 54,000 people to watch, and the venue was the SCG because nowhere else was large enough to accommodate the huge demand.

Scott has been working for the last several weeks on lining up sponsors from the bike industry to support the resurrection of the Sydney Thousand. He was also responsible for reviving the race in 1976, when it was held at Camperdown Velodrome for an eight year run. A date some time in November has been penciled in for the event, and Scott hopes to have at least a $10,000 purse but says, "I'm shooting for $20,000."

All that's now needed is the money, and Scott seems confident it will come. "Negotiations are well advanced with sponsors from the bike industry," Scott told Cyclingnews. "The bike industry hasn't been able to see the value in supporting road and track racing - we're trying to show them that value."

And Scott's thinking further ahead than November. He's fond of jokingly quoting Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" comment, and his dream is to bring the Sydney Thousand back to the Sydney Cricket Ground, a venue that is to Sydney what Wrigley Field is to Chicago or Wembley Stadium to London. There was a time when many Australian sports ground had concrete track round the perimeter, and examples still exist in Tasmania where the tracks used for the Christmas carnivals run round grounds used for Australian rules football among other sports. A concrete or tarmac track replacing the hallowed turf of the SCG is not going to happen, but a temporary banked wooden track is possible, says Scott.

The SCG authorities are not opposed to the idea in principal, he says, but the stumbling block would, as always, be money. A temporary track would cost about $120,000 to build and dismantle.

Nevertheless, Scott believes a well-promoted carnival at the SCG could attract 15-20,000 spectators. "People from the eastern suburbs don't want to travel out to the [Dunc Grey Velodrome]" he says, citing a widely-held belief that the location of Sydney's Olympic velodrome in the city's Western suburbs deters people from attending track events there. But hold a high-quality race close to home and, to quote another famous line about dreams, if you build it they will come.

Great new prizes added to Spring Classics Fantasy Game

With the Tour of Flanders only days away, the field is starting to take shape and now is the time to register your team for the 2005 Spring Classics Fantasy Game. We've also added some great new prizes to the roster, including 2005 Carnac M5 Carbon shoes from Sinclair Imports and extra-useful tools from Park Tool.

A pair of 2005 model Carnac M5 Carbon road shoes courtesy of the USA distributor, Sinclair Imports, will go to a player in the 2005 Spring Classics Fantasy Game. Just like the shoes that will be used by Discovery team's George Hincapie, these are the top of the line 2005 model shoes from legendary French maker Carnac, and feature the brand-new MFC5 carbon sole from Carnac which now uses a simple, three-hole cleat attachment pattern and no need for pedal adaptors or inserts.

Carnac has also abandoned its use of kangaroo leather for the upper and is now using the state-of-the-art Giardhini micro-fibre upper. Famous for their comfort, the new Carnac shoes feature a three-strap adjustment with the new SMC2 buckle providing snug adjustment at the top of the shoe. The M5 Carbon weighs in at a feathery 285 grams per shoe.

Park Tool's IB-2 multi-tool
Photo ©: Cyclingnews
Click for larger image
Specialized's Decibel
Photo ©: Specialized
Click for larger image
Specialized Roubaix Pro
Click for larger image

Cyclingnews has combined with our long-time and valued tech sponsor, Park Tool, to provide a specially engraved version of its ultra-handy IB-2 multi-tool for the top 10 players in the Spring Classics Fantasy Game.

The IB-2 has a central aluminium spine that carries a range of tools, with a 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8mm hex keys plus a flat-blade screwdriver, as well as another three sizes of hex key (1.5, 2 and 2.5mm) and a T25 Torx, the size commonly used to mount rotors in mountain bike disc brakes. Weight is 108 grams for the IB-2. And as a special for the Spring Classics, the IB-2 will come with the Cyclingnews logo engraved on one of the faces.

Reviewed on Cyclingnews in June last year, Anthony Tan described the IB-2 as "A perfect tool while on the bike - simple, light and well-designed."

These prizes are in addition to the grand prize of a Specialized Roubaix bicycle, fitted with a Dura-Ace 10-speed groupset, a bicycle that's likely to be ridden in the Paris-Roubaix by members of the Gerolsteiner squad.

There is also a set of Zipp 404 wheels. Now with dimples for even better aerodynamics, the US$1,600 404 is the slippery workhorse of Zipp's aero wheel range. These are Zipp's most popular wheels, and for good reason: they're light (1292g per pair for the tubular version), fast and tough enough for criteriums and sprinters, as well as their obvious time trial and road racing applications. So what's with the new dimples? They improve air flow over the wheel, reducing the power needed to cut through the air by 1 to 3 watts.

In addition, for the first six of the Spring Classic races you can win one Specialized's 2005 Decibel Helmet, painted in official team colours. For the hottest days, the most intense efforts, and the toughest climbs, you need the Decibel. Designed with input from their world-class athletes, it's the clear choice for anyone who's after the coolest lid on the planet.

So register now in time for the Ronde this weekend - visit: fantasy.cyclingnews.com

Good luck!

The Fantasy Cyclingnews Team

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