Tour de France News for May 12, 2004 Edited by John Stevenson New record for Mayo In his win at the Subida del Naranco yesterday, Iban Mayo established a new record for the race's final ascent, with a time of 12 minutes 7 seconds for the 5.2 km. The previous record was held by Santi Blanco in the time of 12 minutes 9 seconds. Botero back to Europe Former world time trial champion Santiago Botero (T-Mobile) will return to European racing this month at the Tour of Bavaria (Bayern-Rundfahrt, May 19-23) after a brief stint training in Spain. Botero, who has spent the first few months of the season training in Colombia, is targeting the Tour de France and the Athens Olympics as his main goals for the 2004 season. After the Bavarian tour, Botero is expected to ride the Tour of Germany (May 31 - June 6) and the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré (June 6 - 13) presumably dropping out of the former to start the latter. Botero will represent Colombia in the time trial at the Olympics. T-Mobile injuries continue T-Mobile's crash-and-injury woes continue, according to the team's website. After Paolo Savoldelli broke his arm in Rund um Köln, the next to go was Sergej Jakowlew. He crashed near the end of the third stage of the Peace race, cutting his right wrist badly. He was stitched back together but couldn't continue the next day. Worse luck has struck mountain specialist Giuseppe Guerini. While on a training ride in his native Italy, a pedestrian ran into him, knocked him from his bike, and fled. Other passersby helped Guerini and called an ambulance, but were unable to stop or locate the man who knocked him down. The first diagnosis: a broken jaw and nose. It is unclear whether he will be able to ride the Tour of Switzerland next month, where he finished an outstanding second overall last year. After this episode, and the famous crash with the photographing fan on Alpe d'Huez in the 1999 Tour de France, Guerini should now be very wary of people in the street. Courtesy of Susan Westemeyer Previous News     Next News (All rights reserved/Copyright Knapp Communications Pty Limited 2004)

Recently on Cyclingnews.com Mont Ventoux Photo ©: Sirotti