Latest Cycling News for May 20, 2005

Edited by Jeff Jones

Pre-stage 12 comments

Cyclingnews' John Trevorrow was at the start of the 12th stage of the Giro d'Italia in Alleghe where he assessed the riders' feelings about the stage, which starts with the very tough climb of San Pellegrino.

Nick Gates (Davitamon-Lotto)

"I'm not too good actually. I'm a bit chesty and just feel s***house. It's just a matter of staying with Robbie today - I've got him psyched to stay with Petacchi. It's such a steep climb that the gaps could be a bit big and people might go on with it. But I'm a bit worried about this chesty feeling.

"We looked at the severity of this climb and decided we need a 25 or 26 on [at the back]. But we also need 11 cogs at the finish, so we're aiming to do wheel changes at the top."

Henk Vogels (Davitamon-Lotto)

You looked a bit tired yesterday? "Yeah, I had to dig really deep, but I've had a really good night's sleep. I feel OK this morning. I've gotta get up that first berg, and try to stay there for so we can be there at the end.

"If they race full gas up the San Pellegrino, maybe there's no coming back, so if they try and ride regolati, we're in with a chance."

Matt White (Cofidis)

"I had a good night's sleep; we were in a nice little hotel up in the mountains, nice fresh air. It'll be a good one today."

For the climb, White said, "We've got the 25s on. It's 17 percent in places - some have said 20. It really could blow to pieces up here. Ideally we'd just like to ride up nice and easy, but that ain't gonna happen. It's supposed to be the last day for the sprinters, but I got a feeling it'll be a breakaway day today.

"Zabel is climbing the best of all the sprinters. If he's in a group clear of all the others, T-Mobile could get on the front and try to hold the gap. It'll probably be Robbie, Cookie and Stuey's last day too, so this is their last chance for a while."

Stuart O'Grady (Cofidis)

"They're always pretty nasty, but yeah, I got through it OK."

Have you considered doing a few more days in the mountains for your Tour preparation? "Nah, the bags are packed. I can feel a bit of a bug coming on. It's called the mountain bug."

Baden Cooke (Francaise des Jeux)

Cooke has been suffering from his crash in the first week, but he was able to get through stage 11 intact. "They worked on me and got me right. I give myself a bit of a chance today. Hopefully we'll get over this 'thing' this morning and we'll have a good crack at it."

Cooke said he went out of alignment after his personal physio went home, and it "just killed my breathing. The day Robbie won, I couldn't even sprint...I got someone to whack me into place the night after and yesterday I was fine. I'm up for it today."

Brad Wiggins (Credit Agricole)

How was your first day in the mountains? "They're hard, but I was comfortable in the gruppetto. I don't think that was the case with everyone - a lot of the Aussies were suffering. I didn't try to get into the next group up, because it doesn't make much difference if you finish 20 or 30 minutes down.

"I'm confident I can finish this Giro. I'd like to really do something in the latter part of the Giro."

Russell Van Hout (Colombia-Selle Italia)

"I got through it, and had a good night's sleep. I do feel a lot better today. There's only that one hill at the start. I just have to stay in the gruppetto, get to the finish, and get this day out of the way. It's going to be a big weekend, so I'm just going to hopefully get through that, then I can have some more breakaways and get out there next week."

Trent Wilson (Colombia-Selle Italia)

"Today, my plan is to have a few coffees in the village so I can get over that first one. Once we get over the first one, I reckon it'll come back together. I'm more worried about tomorrow. I've got a bit more confidence after yesterday. But you never know in these grand tours. One day you're feeling good, one day you can hardly feel your legs."

Shayne Bannan (Australian head coach)

How have you seen the Australian performance so far in the Giro? "It was pretty special, but besides Robbie's three stage wins and Brett's prologue win, the fact that there are twelve Aussies here shows the quality of Australian riders, plus many others who have yet to appear in grand tours this year like Cadel Evans, Michael Rogers, Allan Davis and so on. You turn on the TV and the commentators are talking about this being the Italians versus the Australians. That's pretty satisfying, isn't it?"

Fothen hangs tough in the Dolomites

Gerolsteiner's 23 year old talent Markus Fothen managed to hold onto his top 10 GC ranking after the first real mountainous stage of the Giro d'Italia yesterday. Fothen finished 21st in the stage at 3'57 behind Savoldelli, and is now in 10th overall at 6'10.

"It was a huge experience for me today," said Fothen after what he described as the "first real Alpine stage of my life. I'm taking it from day to day now. At my age, the 'man with the hammer' always comes."

Fothen suffered on the second last climb of the day, the Passo Duran "with the steepness of the 'hill', but at the end of the climb, I came back again...It was really hard today, and 10th place is a great reward for the hard work."

Gerolsteiner's Sven Krauss managed to keep his lead in the Intergiro competition after placing third in the sprint. Things weren't as good for Sven Montgomery, who was ill and finished in the gruppetto. "Monty complained this morning [Thursday] of a sore throat. We don't know yet whether he can keep going tomorrow," said Gerolsteiner's DS Christian Henn.

Coucke impressed

Omega Pharma boss Marc Coucke, sponsor of Davitamon-Lotto, has given the team lavish praise in his column on the Davitamon-Lotto website. Star sprinter Robbie McEwen's three stage wins have been quite noticeable of course, but there are a few other riders who have caught Coucke's attention. "Then came the mountains, and again there were a lot of orange shirts to be seen at the front," wrote Coucke. "When we negotiated our co-operation with co-sponsor Brustor at the end of 2004, we offered them publicity on the back of the shorts. We argued that this would offer enormous visibility during the mountain stages. They wondered if the riders would still be in the picture. I feel that Brustor is happy about following our suggestion...

"Especially the achievement of Wim Van Huffel today [Thursday] is noteworthy. Before the season I had asked all team directors which young rider would progress most, and Herman [Frison] surprised me with the prediction: Van Huffel.

"We are already thinking about next year. The code-word is continuity; never change etc... Wim De Vocht's contract was opened up, and next week we hope to get things settled with Nico. Nico wants a two-year contract, and since he has had us cheering this spring, we will try and realize his wishes within the budgetary possibilities, because Nico deserves that. In 2006 we are going to try and reinforce the team, but there won't be any big names joining us, we want to keep enough room for the youth to present themselves even more."

Davitamon-Lotto's sports director Herman Frison knew for two years that Van Huffel has had the talent. Frison, currently with his riders at the Giro, told the Belgian VUM papers that he's anticipating a bright future for Van Huffel:

"I saw him in the Tour de L'Avenir, riding for the Vlaanderen team. It's not a coincidence that Wim was the first rider to sign for the new team Davitamon-Lotto. We believe in him. Particularly because this is his first big tour. Everything is new to him. Wim's 6th place today was great, but he has to keep both feet on the ground. He still needs to work a bit on the time-trialling, but his 58th spot last Sunday wasn't that bad. Today's is a fantastic result, but Wim's not there yet. Let me put it this way: Van Huffel can start to realize that a nice future is calling.

"With [Johan] Vansummeren, although he's still young, we have another promising element." concluded Frison.

Caffeine to be restricted again?

The World Anti-Doping Agency is considering returning caffeine to sport's list of restricted performance-enhancing substances. The move comes after a storm of publicity in Australia around national rugby team captain George Gregan, who has said he uses caffeine tablets to give him a boost during games.

But WADA president Dick Pound says that the negative publicity around the use of caffeine in Australian sport is not why it's considering restricting caffeine use.

"The interesting thing in this debate is not that a lot of Australian players and athletes have come out saying they have taken caffeine," he told the Sydney Morning Herald, "but that the [Australian Institute of Sport] says it is performance enhancing." Pound added that the AIS has research to back up its claims and has published literature on how to use it most effectively.

"Having heard this, [we] will take another look at it."

However, caffeine has always been considered to be a performance-enhancing substance, and when WADA decided to remove caffeine and the stimulant pseudoephedrine from the banned list at the end of 2003 many coaches and sports scientists were disturbed. Kevin Tabotta, now Cycling Australia High Performance Manager, said at the time, "I can't see why they've done it. It would have been better to maintain the drugs at the current levels. As a coach of young riders I can say that in spite of whatever a doping body thinks or says, these products are banned because they're performance-enhancing - end of story."

WADA takes into account three things when deciding to restrict use of a substance or method by sportspeople: whether it is performance-enhancing, whether it represents a risk to the health of the athlete and whether it is against the spirit of sport. Two of those criteria must be met for a substance to be banned. Realistically, it seems that a banned substance must be both performance-enhancing and a health risk if WADA is not to get into undergraduate philosophical arguments about what constitutes "the spirit of sport".

Caffeine, of course, is the stimulant contained in coffee, tea and soft drinks such as Coca-Cola. As such it's one of the world's most used drugs, and until the beginning of 2004 its use was restricted in cycling, as in most sports. A moderate quantity - the equivalent of drinking a few cups of coffee - was permitted, but beyond a certain limit riders were considered to be doping. Sanctions, however, were typically light, not least because athletes would invariably claim they'd had one dopia espresso too many before the race.

When caffeine was removed from the banned list WADA published no explanation for the decision on its website, despite a comment in the minutes of a June 18 2002 meeting of its HMR Committee that explanation of decisions about removing substances from the list was essential.

Dick Pound is now implying that caffeine was removed from the banned list because it was not thought to be performance-enhancing. But in late 2003, Dr Dave Martin, a senior sport physiologist with the Australian Institute of Sport told Cyclingnews that a Dutch study had indicated that caffeine and pseudoephedrine could enhance performance.

The AIS' guidelines to caffeine use were published in 2004, and it seems unbelievable that it was not aware of research referred to by the AIS when WADA decided to lift the restrictions on caffeine in late 2003.

The AIS guidelines suggest use of relatively small amounts of caffeine, 70-150mg, rather than the traditional larger doses, and advise that there is no evidence of increasing dose causing increased performance benefits. That's the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee (40-110mg for brewed coffee) or a 600ml bottle of Coca-Cola (78mg). "Evidence of specific health problems is equivocal," says the AIS, but "long-term intake of large amounts of caffeine (>500 mg per day) are generally discouraged by health authorities."

Since January 1 2004, caffeine has been on a list of substances whose use WADA is "monitoring" - apparently by reading the newspapers. The current lack of restriction on caffeine will be reviewed in September and the earliest a change would come into force would be January 2006.

Strong field in Ster Elektrotoer

Taking place in mid-June, the Dutch 2.1 categorised stage race Ster Elektrotoer has attracted a strong field, with a minimum of six ProTour teams at the start. The race will begin in Schijndel on Wednesday, June 15, and finish in Eindhoven on Saturday, June 18, one day before the new ProTour Team Time Trial in Eindhoven. Rabobank, Team CSC and Quick Step-Innergetic will be among the top teams, and the organisers already have a guarantee that last year's winner Nick Nuyens will be present.

As has been seen this season, the ProTour has made the top races stronger at the expense of the lower ranked races. For example, the Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt and the Tour of Belgium have only been able to attract one or two ProTour teams. "We have decided not to grumble with the teams that will be at the start of the Ster Elektrotoer," said race director Jan Livius. "With six ProTour teams we're well off, and also the rest of the field is more than decent. Last year, we also had a strong field and we won't be much below that this year. The cooperation with the ProTour Team Time Trial in Eindhoven has borne fruit."

The race will feature five stages, but the overall distance has been reduced. It starts with a short, 124 km stage between Schijndel and Nuth, followed by an 11 km individual time trial in Nuth in the evening. The third stage will be ridden through the hills of South Limburg from Sittard/Geleen to Valkenburg over 181 km, and that will be followed by a stage through the Belgian Ardennes from Verviers to La Gileppe, over 189 km. The final stage from Buchten to Eindhoven is a flat, 135 kilometres.

The stages

Stage 1 - June 15: Schijndel-Nuth/Schimmert, 124 km
Stage 2 - June 15: Nuth-Nuth ITT, 11 km
Stage 3 - June 16: Sittard/Geleen-Valkenburg, 181 km
Stage 4 - June 17: Verviers-La Gileppe, 189 km
Stage 5 - June 18: Buchten-Eindhoven, 135 km

Rabobank for upcoming races

Tour of Belgium (May 25-29, 2.1): Mathew Hayman, Ronald Mutsaars, Jan Boven, Niels Scheuneman, Jukka Vastaranta, Maarten den Bakker, Marc Wauters

Tour De Luxembourg (June 2-5, PT): Niels Scheuneman, Jukka Vastaranta, Ronald Mutsaars, Jan Boven, Remmert Wielinga, Marc Wauters, Karsten Kroon, Mathew Hayman

Critérium Du Dauphiné Libéré (June 5-12, PT): Denis Menchov, Michael Boogerd, Erik Dekker, Pieter Weening, Gerben Löwik, Joost Posthuma, Bram de Groot, Pedro Horrillo Muñoz

Tour De Suisse (June 11-19, PT): Oscar Freire, Alexandr Kolobnev, Karsten Kroon, Grischa Niermann, Maarten den Bakker, Thorwald Veneberg (+ 2 riders)

Ster Elektrotoer (June 15-18, 2.1): Jukka Vastaranta, Niels Scheuneman, Ronald Mutsaars, Rory Sutherland, Steven de Jongh, Roy Sentjens, Theo Eltink (+ rider)

Team Time Trial (June 19, PT): Six riders chosen from: Erik Dekker, Thomas Dekker, Joost Posthuma, Gerben Löwik, Bram de Groot, Marc Wauters, Pieter Weening, Pedro Horrillo Muñoz

Noord-Nederland Tour (June 22, 1.1): Jan Boven, Steven de Jongh, Mathew Hayman, Ronald Mutsaars, Niels Scheuneman, Pieter Weening, Roy Sentjens, Theo Eltink

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