First Edition News for March 23, 2003Edited by Chris Henry Pozzato tries to stay humbleTipped as a possible winner of Milan-San Remo at the tender age of 21, the recent winner of Tirreno-Adriatico, Filippo Pozzato (Fassa Bortolo), remains humble about his immediate future in the sport. In his second season as a professional, 'Pippo' Pozzato already has 18 wins to his credit, but isn't rushing to count himself among the favourites for World Cup events. "There are a lot of young riders who are going well, but I'm keeping my feet on the ground," Pozzato commented. "I haven't yet ridden a World Cup race, and I still have a lot to learn." The young Italian was prepared to work for team leader Alessandro Petacchi in Saturday's World Cup opener, but no doubt holds ambitions of his own for the coming years. "In the future, I hope to win. Win a lot. I dream of two races: Milan-San Remo and the world championships." Dierckxsens out of GP Rudy DhaenensBelgian Ludo Dierckxsens (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) will not race Sunday's GP Rudy Dhaenens, suffering still from a viral infection that has plagued his early season. The team's star sprinter, Tom Steels, will be on the start line, having decided to skip Milan-San Remo. Courtesy:velo-club.net Tour de NormandieThe 23rd edition of the Tour de Normandie begins Monday, March 24 with a prologue in Mondeville, France. Twenty three teams will contest the race, which typically fields a mixture of regional teams and espoir divisions of larger trade teams. This year's course features six road stages in addition to the opening day's prologue of 5.6km. After covering a total distance of 1,063 km, the race wraps up Sunday, March 30 in Caen, the ducal seat of William the Conquerer. StagesPrologue - March 24: Mondeville ITT, 5.6 km TeamsAntarte-Rota dos Moveis Archer GP kicks off UK premier calendarBy Gerry McManus
The season long, ten-race British Cycling Premier series commences on Sunday 30th March with the Archer Grand Prix in Buckinghamshire. The 48th edition of the race is only one of four UCI ranked events run in the UK. The 118-mile event features an international field with representatives from ten overseas nations. New Zealander Gordon McCauley, winner of the previous two editions, is absent from the start sheet and the race is expected to be more open then it has been in previous years. The reformed and renamed Life Repair RT/Litespeed/Cycling Plus cycling team will again feature strongly in the race as they try to make another claim to the overall series title won by John Tanner in the old Compensation Group RT colours last year. The squad is strengthened in numbers this season to add support to trio of Tanner, Mark Lovatt and Kevin Dawson. For the first time in many years there will not be an Irish team chasing valuable UCI ranking points. A clash in the Irish calendar sees the Des Hanlon Memorial race in Carlow on the same day and it is the first race that has been chosen as a national squad selection event. It leaves Northern Ireland's Ryan Conor (Ballymena RC/Scott Rooftiles) and Irish professional David O'Loughlin (Ofoto-Lombardi) as disadvantaged individuals in the 100 strong race field. O'Loughlin has already showed early season form by dominating the Carrig Challenge Cup in Carrick on Suir and the Newbridge Credit Union G.P on consecutive days last weekend. Local rider Colin Roshier (Team Quest - The Bike Shop) will be looking for a podium spot this year having been fourth in 2002 and has made a good start to the year by winning the prestigious Jock Wadley Memorial race in March in his usual fearless style. Team mate Chris Doel will be making his debut in the premier series as a first year senior following his sixth place in last years national junior series and a warm weather training session in Australia. There are a number of world championship and Commonwealth games medallists in the field. World points champion Chris Newton will be riding for his domestic sponsor Corima RT and scratch race silver medallist Tony Gibb rides with the GB team. This is the first major outing for the GB squad on home soil after their winter training camp in Melbourne and early season racing in France. Ironically the team only features one true roadman in 21-year-old Tom Southam who is the only non-track rider left on British Cycling's world-class performance plan. British national road race champion Julian Winn is first reserve if he is not required on the European continent with the Fakta professional team. The Welsh neo-pro has had a tough induction into the professional peloton riding the Tour of Langkawi and the Paris Nice and will certainly be looking put the quality mileage to good use on his return to Great Britain. International teams include Team Down Under from Australia, Marco Polo from Holland and Team Hand-in-Hand from Belgium. Although little is known about the teams, none of them are expected to have traveled great distances without a race winning ambition. The most interesting race entry is perhaps that of season ex-professional Malcolm Elliott, making his comeback to professional cycling after retiring in 1997. The race starts from Hazlemere at 11am. Spectators will be treated to the attacking action at the two major climbs at Longdown Hill and Great Missenden on the big twenty-mile circuit. After three circuits, the race moves to the five mile rolling finishing circuit, making the ascent to Penn Street seven times before finishing on the uphill drag up to Winchmore Hill. Full 2003 Premier Race CalendarMarch 30: Archer Grand Prix, Buckinghamshire Team Endurasport.com-Principia keeps busyFollowing a strong showing in the Giro del Lago Maggiore last weekend, Team Endurasport.com-Principia continues its continental season in Switzerland this weekend, followed by the Archer International Grand Prix in the UK. Saturday finds the team's Italian-based contingent in Dottingen, Switzerland on the German/Swiss border near Basel for the GP Stausen, an open event on one of the few flat courses in the country. On Sunday the team will contest the Stausee Rundfahrt (UCI 1.3), a hilly 175km race. The regular Italian-based riders will be joined in Switzerland by UK-based Greg Sandy, whose current good form for the squad continued at the weekend with double sprint victories in Hampshire and Devon. John Ibbotson, Dan Lloyd and Lee Vertongen will follow Sandy back to the UK, where Team Endurasport.com-Principia will field its strongest team of the early season for the Archer International Grand Prix on March 30th. Bruce Sunderland's 240km birthday ride for cancer researchBy Leanne Michael, Inverell Times
Many people choose to celebrate their birthdays in a relaxed party atmosphere, but for veteran Inverell cyclist and lung cancer survivor Bruce Sunderland (father of Team fakta professional Scott), a 240km ride to Narrabri in the Australian bush awaits him next month. It's all to do with raising money for the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, where he underwent surgery to remove a lung tumour. Bruce celebrates his 70th birthday on April 22 and has decided to ride to his former hometown all in the name of charity. Bruce will be joined by local Mike Lubke who has been training with Bruce. Mike is also on the road to recovery after suffering a heart attack last year. He has been training with Bruce not only for the charity ride but for the Trans Tasman Games this weekend in Newcastle. "I consider myself lucky to be alive after having an operation for lung cancer last year," Bruce said. "Lucky for me the tumour was benign, but some people are not that fortunate and I feel like I am raising money for a worthy cause." The money will be donated to the cancer research unit in Brisbane. "You don't realise how many people suffer from cancer and a lot of money is needed to continue research,'' Bruce added. He is aiming to raise AUS$5,000 for research from the ride and said early interest has been very encouraging. "You find a lot of people from this region are patients at the hospital," he explained. "I rode to Ashford and back on Wednesday (130km) and got some donations from locals there." Bruce believes he is very fortunate and continually remains active bike riding. Following his operation in June last year, he was pretty ill for a while but remained determined to return to cycling gradually building up distance over time. "It went from five to 10km and now I'm doing around 350km each week,'' he said. He hopes to complete the 240km ride in about ten hours. Bruce is the longest serving member of the Inverell Amateur Wheelers (37 years) and continues to enjoy his cycling and watching Scott, a Belgium-based professional, ride overseas for Team fakta. Former Inverell man Jack Griffin, now residing in Port Macquarie, celebrated his birthday last year in the same style when he raised money for the Victor Chang Heart Research Foundation. Bruce has received support from the Moree Triathlon and Cycling Clubs through Bob Williams. Donations and sponsorship can be sent to: Ride for Cancer Research Velo Bella for 2003Velo Bella, an all female cycling team based out of Monterey, California, has announced its 2003 team roster. The team includes all levels of cyclists from first time racers to seasoned pro's competing in road, mountain bike, track and cyclo-cross events across the country. The road team is anchored by former Olympian and 2002 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, Susy Pryde. Other notable riders include Kathy Lenno, current cyclo-cross national champion (women 30-34), and Shelly Whisenhant, silver medallist at the UCI Masters MTB World's. The team includes 12 elite and 50 amateur members. Broadmark Capital Cycling TeamThe Broadmark Capital Cycling Team has announced its new elite team roster for 2003. After developing five riders into professionals over the past two seasons, elite amateur Broadmark Capital squad is now in a true rebuilding year. As Team Director Ethan Meginnes explained, "We had dreams of jumping to Division 3 status last year. With all of the new professional teams, and the slumping economy, we are surprisingly glad to continue as one of the true development teams in the nation". The team, however, is still talent-driven and as young as ever with only one rider older then twenty-three. More cycling on SBS TelevisionSBS Television is reconfirming its position as Australia's cycling network. SBS, a veteran of eleven years of Tour de France coverage, has recently entered into an historic broadcasting partnership with Cycling Australia. The network will televise several spring classics, Australian and World Cup track cycling, and the Tour de France. This year, SBS will provide live coverage of seven Tour stages (a first for Australian television), and will complement its daily race coverage with a magazine program called Cycling Central. Ofoto-Lombardi Sports ready for debutComing on the heels of a intensely focused two week training camp in the beautiful Napa Valley, the Ofoto-Lombardi Sports Professional Cycling Team makes its official season debut this weekend at the McLane Pacific Grand Prix, a Nation Racing Calendar (NRC) event, in Merced, California. The team will field a full squad for the events and looks to its new sprinters Jon Erdelyi and Keith Horowitz for success in the criterium event. The event will also act as an official debut for other new riders on the team, including ex-Junior cyclo-cross world champion Roman Peters, Andy Bajadali, and Saul Raisin. At McLane, the team will be without its road captain Erik Saunders, who is competing for the USA in the UCI World Cup Track event in Mexico. Saunders will be competing in the points race. The McLane weekend will be the first of many specific upcoming races for the team in an effort to build up for the Sea Otter Classic and the Tour of Georgia. The next event team's calendar will be the Solano Grand Prix in Fairfield, California, an NRC event, from March 27-30. Cannondale auctions bicycle and motorsports divisionsCannondale has announced the results of Thursday's separate auctions of its bicycle and motorsports divisions. The auctions for the assets of both divisions were conducted at the company’s Bethel, Connecticut headquarters. Cannondale filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on January 29th, 2003. Both the bicycle and motorsport divisions are to be purchased by Pegasus, Cannondale's largest secured creditor, subject to the approval of the bankruptcy court. The terms of the winning bids were not disclosed. Pegasus had committed in late January to working with current management and operating the bicycle business, although the company has indicated that it does not intend to operate the motorsports division. Cannondale's founder Joe Montgomery was pleased with the outcome of the auction. "This is a huge step toward successfully realizing our three key objectives: ensuring a quick emergence from chapter 11, restoring focus and adding resources to the bike division so it can continue to thrive and prosper, and preserving our employees’ jobs in Connecticut and Pennsylvania," Montgomery said in a written statement. Earlier this month workers returned to Cannondale's Bedford, Pennsylvania factory to resume production of bicycles and cycling accessories, ending a temporary work furlough. It is expected that Cannondale will officially emerge from chapter 11 within the next several weeks, following court approval of the auction and the subsequent closing of the sale. (All rights reserved/Copyright Knapp Communications Pty Limited 2003) |
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