May 22/04 10:04 am - Madrid World Cup report

Posted by Editoress on 05/22/04
 

Madrid World Cup

World Cup coverage sponsored by Vélirium 2004 and ORYX

The big news today is that world champion Sabine Spitz will not be racing in Madrid. According to her team manager Ralf Schaeuble, Spitz became ill a couple of days ago, and developed a fever. Spitz also needs one more qualification to make the German Olympic squad (she recently won the German championship to meet the first part of the German process), so this will put more pressure on her for future races. She is expected to be back racing by Houffalize next week.

Today (Saturday) it rained all morning during training, making the course extremely greasy, and some of the steeper climbs unridable, according to Rocky Mountain team manager Lesley Tomlinson, who was out training with her star rider Alison Sydor. The rain stopped in the early afternoon, and the sun came out, so if it stays this way (the forecast is for good weather), then things should dry up fairly well for tomorrow. We will not know how many laps until after the manager's meeting in about 90 minutes.

In other rider news - Ryder Hesjedal (Subaru-Gary Fisher) has been sick for the last couple of weeks, but will race.

Registration closed earlier today, and final start lists are now out. The men have a huge field of 187 riders. The plan not to have a qualification race today was obviously not a good one... For the women, there are 82 riders listed (including Spitz).

In the Junior and Masters races today, there was one Canadian competitor - Steve Cote, who finished second in the Masters 30+ category.