Tour de France News for May 25, 2003 Edited by Jeff Jones and Tim Maloney Elite honours 100th Anniversary of Tour De France Elite occasion Photo: © CN Friday night was a special occasion at Elite, the Italian bicycle accessory firm in Fontaniva, near Padova. Elite is the official water bottle supplier to the Tour De France and to honour the upcoming centenary of Le Grande Boucle, company president Amerigo Sartore organized "Serata d'Elite". On the occasion that the Giro d'Italia stage finished in nearby Marostica, Elite president Amerigo Sartore invited numerous cycling personalities and media to company HQ. Guest of honour was Tour De France race director Jean Marie LeBlanc, as well as UCI President Hein Verbruggen. Always a charming public speaker, LeBlanc thanked Elite for their continuing collaboration with the Tour, which uses 80,000 Elite bottles for every Tour De France. Jean Marie told the audience of the time when he went to see Paris-Brussels as a young boy in the early '50's. As a rider raced by, he threw out an old time aluminum water bottle with a cork stopper, which LeBlanc grabbed. That was the moment that inspired LeBlanc to ask Sartore to create a special commemorative water bottle in aluminum with a cork stopper for this year's Tour De France centenary. Tafi not in Tour By Ole Ryborg Danish Team CSC is almost ready to chose its team for this year's Tour de France. Team director and former Tour winner Bjarne Riis told Danish newspaper BT that he is almost sure about eight of the nine places. One thing that is certain is that the team's Italian star, Andrea Tafi, will not be riding the Tour. "On our Tour team there is no room for riders who primarily ride the Tour to get in form for the autumn season. Tafi was allowed to do that at Mapei but not with us," Riis said. According to Riis the main goal for the CSC participation in the millennium tour is to get at least one of the two team captains, Tyler Hamilton and Carlos Sastre, in the top five. "Of course I would like riders that could win a stage, but the overall goal is to back up Tyler and Carlos and to ride a good team time trial," Riis told BT. According to Riis, Tafi is not the only prominent member of the team that will miss this year's Tour. Another is Danish champion, Michael Sandstød. It is almost sure that he will not get ready for the Tour after an injury that has kept him out for most of the spring season. "It would take a miracle to get him ready," Riis said. Sandstød was supposed to be a key rider in the team time trial, and according to Riis the team selection will only be able to include two riders who are not strong in that discipline. "And only one if we are supposed to win it," added Riis. Besides Hamilton and Sastre, BT concludes after talking to Riis, that they are expected to be backed up by Danish riders Michael Blaudzun, Jacob Piil and Nicki Sørensen, together with Italian Andrea Peron and French rider Nicolas Jalabert. Finally it is expected that CSC newcomer, Peter Luttenberger, will ride the Tour if he is deemed fit. That leaves one place that is not yet decided, but which could likely be filled by Belgian rider Paul van Hyfte. As another sign that Team CSC this year is focussing completely on the general classification is that Tyler Hamilton and Carlos Sastre are spending this week in the Pyrenees, together with sports director Johnny Weltz. "We are doing all the stages from the beginning to the end," Weltz told BT. "The tour will be settled in the Pyrenees this year. No doubt about that, so we have to prepare for what is coming." Hamilton and Sastre are not planning special training in the Alps since these stages will be covered by their participation in the Dauphiné Libéré. (All rights reserved/Copyright Knapp Communications Pty Limited 2003)

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