Tour de France News for May 28, 2003 Edited by John Stevenson Sinyard vows to fight on The founder and president of Specialized, Mike Sinyard, has said in an open letter to the cycling community that "we are absolutely not giving up" in the bid to have the organisers of the Tour de France extend an invitation to Mario Cipollini and team to race in this year's centenary edition of the Grand Tour. Specialized is the supplier of bicycles to Domina Vacanze-Elitron, the team of Cipollini, the reigning world road champion and king of the road sprinters. Last Monday, the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), organisers of the Tour and other major cycling events, stunned the global cycling community when it did not extend one of the four remaining wildcard invitations to the team (see Tour Wild Cards announced and Tour selection leaves Cipollini in the cold ). At a press conference in Paris last Monday, the ASO named French teams Ag2r-Prevoyance, Brioches La Boulangère and Jean Delatour and Spanish squad Euskaltel-Euskadi to fill the remaining places, making a total of 21 teams who will race in this year's Tour. Later in the week, ASO subsequently announced it would invite a 22nd team to the Tour, but this was the hastily re-financed team of former TdF winner Jan Ullrich, now known as Team Bianchi. Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc said there is only a '10 percent chance' that ASO would invite a 23rd team, as the organisers cited the logistical problems of accommodating another team and its staff on the 21-stage Tour through France. However, Specialized remains undaunted. "In fact, we're doing everything we can to encourage Mr LeBlanc (director of the TdF) to offer a hypothetical 23rd team slot to Domina Vacanze-Elitron and bring world champion Mario Cipollini to the Tour start line in Paris on July 5," Sinyard said. "In coordination with Mario's team and with sponsor Domina Vacanze, we also encourage the rest of the cycling community to make its feelings known, forcefully yet respectfully, through more letters, faxes and posts to online polls and discussion groups," he said. A global survey of cyclists conducted by Cyclingnews showed vast support for the Italian sprinter's team. The survey of over 3,000 cyclists in 67 countries showed that 89.4 percent believed Cipollini's team should have been offered one of the four wildcards last Monday, with cyclists preferring to exclude Jean Delatour (69.8 percent), Brioches La Boulangère (21.3), Euskaltel-Euskadi (3.7), Ag2r-Prévoyance (1.8) and some 3.4 percent were undecided. Similarly, the same number of people (89.4 percent) also believed a 22nd team should be invited to ride in the Tour. However, the selection of that 22nd spot was not so clear cut. The survey showed that 51.2 percent want to see Cipollini and Domina Vacanze, with 37.7 percent preferring to see Jan Ullrich and Team Bianchi. Beyond those two teams, there was support for the rapidly emerging Milaneza squad (5.5), while Phonak scored 4.5 percent of the votes and 1.1 percent were undecided. No Tour for Van Petegem The winner of Paris-Roubaix and the Ronde van Vlaanderen, Peter Van Petegem (Lotto-Domo), will not be riding the Tour de France for his team. Van Petegem is not a Tour rider, his best place being third in stage 15 in 1996. He is currently the leader of the World Cup, and intends to concentrate his efforts on the second half of the World Cup season. Simoni challenges Armstrong Gilberto Simoni has thrown down a gauntlet to four-time Tour de France winner: ride the Giro. Speaking at the rest day press conference, Simoni would not be drawn on his post-Giro objectives except to say of the Tour de France, "of course, I will be there." Simoni added that, "I think Armstrong has never found a true adversary in the cols of the Tour." But Simoni did have a challenge for the US Postal champion: "He should come to the Giro, at least once!" With five stages of the Giro still to go, Simoni says he is comfortable to defend the pink jersey. "Until now I have always attacked," he said. "Now it is up to someone else to take the initiative." With a lead of just 1 minute 58 seconds over Stefano Garzelli, Simoni knows he can't risk complacency, however. "But I am not underestimating anyone," he added. "I have never done that and will not start to do it now." Pantani ponders switch to Bianchi Marco Pantani Photo: © Sirotti Boosted by his on-going respectable performance in the Giro d'Italia, where he's currently tenth on GC, Marco Pantani is so keen to ride this year's Tour de France, he's prepared to temporarily jump ship to Jan Ullrich's Bianchi team, according to a report from the BBC. At a Giro rest day press conference, Pantani told reporters, "I'd love to ride the Tour de France again. It would be an honour for me and I'd like to see what I can do against Lance Armstrong." But of course there's the small problem that Pantani's Mercatone Uno team, currently languishing two-thirds of the way down Division II, hasn't been invited, as Pantani recognizes. "The only way of riding is by joining another team. I've never had any problems with Jan Ullrich, I've close ties with Bianchi and my current team is not against the move. I could ride the Tour with Bianchi." Pantani went on to say that he would meet with his sponsors after the Giro to see if such a move was possible. "I'm always looking for the motivation to keep racing and the Tour would be perfect. It would also show I'm serious about racing again which should get Armstrong worried," he said. "Last year I didn't deserve a place because I wasn't riding well but this year things are different - I'm competitive and would be a threat to Armstrong." (All rights reserved/Copyright Knapp Communications Pty Limited 2003)

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