Tour de France News for May 29, 2003 Edited by Jeff Jones and John Stevenson Domina Vacanze still hopeful He may have had to quit the Giro after a crash, but Mario Cipollini still has not given up hope of riding this year's Tour de France. Antonio Salutini, the manager of Cipollini's Domina Vacanze team, said yesterday that the team still expected a last-minute invitation to the Tour, according to the BBC. "We are waiting for a call from Leblanc at any time after he recently gave us some hopes of starting in the Tour," Salutini said. Tour organizer Jean-Marie Leblanc has previously said that logistical consideration, including finding sufficient hotel accommodation are a problem for the addition of a 23rd team to the Tour. Cipollini's team is sponsored by a holiday company and has countered that finding hotels will not be a problem. Salutini added that Cipollini would be ready to start in July if the team is invited. SBS Tour doco In the run-up to this year's centenary Tour de France, Australian broadcaster SBS is to screen a three-part documentary series celebrating the Tour's centenary and examining the race's relationship over the years with the cinema and television media. Today's Tour is a vast media event, with TV coverage all over the world - an evolutionary development from the race's original aim, to provide stories for Henri Desgrange's newspaper 'l'Auto'. But even in its early days the Tour organizers had an eye on the moving media too, with coverage of the Tour provided by cinema newsreels. The series, narrated by SBS cycling journalist Mike Tomalaris, looks at the development of this relationship between the Tour and the media through the 20th century. The first program in the series will be broadcast at 7.30pm on Tuesday June 24. UCI hosts Tour exhibition The UCI's World Cycling Centre at Aigle Switzerland will host an exhibition celebrating the Tour de France from June 6 to 3August 31 2003. "Tour de France: the biggest stadium in the world" will be opened with a preview on June 6 attended by Jean-Marie Leblanc, Director General of the Tour de France, and Hein Verbruggen, President of the UCI. (All rights reserved/Copyright Knapp Communications Pty Limited 2003)

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