May 14/97 8:06 am - Masochist, Correction, NB News, Canada Cup, Letter From Italy and More!

Posted by Editor on 05/14/97
 

Masochists Wanted

I am seeking a teammate to ride in this years Race across America. It will be a team effort with two riders riding 2900 miles in 8 or so days, pedalling mountain bikes. Essentially anyone who is willing and able to pedal two hundred miles a day (in 12 hours), for eight consecutive days, should contact me.

Crew members are also required. Sponsors welcome too!

Any one interested please contact me, Perry, at 800 700 0788 or primal@ido.net.


Whoops!

The other day we posted some news about upcoming events in Manitoba. "Great! says Jeff Malcovish of the Manitoba Cycling Association - "Just one little problem: our area code is 204, not 203!" Sorry about that Jeff.


New Brunswick News (thanks to Dave Macfarlane)

Here's some news from New Brunswick. Our 97 race season is just getting underway. A late, wet, cool spring has given us some sloppy rides. After a winter's worth of riding the rollers, any riding weather looks good. Other news items before I tack on the schedule: Trevor Porter from Fredericton, N.B. a top finisher in last year's Canada Cup downhill circuit has signed again with Marin. After running in the first couple of Velo NB cross country races, Trevor will be ready to hit the hills for the start of the National circuit. Peter Wedge, a fellow New Brunswicker with a successful road background is giving the MTB circuit a go this year. I see after some early races, that he is ranked in the UCI listings. I will try to update news on other NB'ers on the provincial and national scenes as the season progresses.

1997 Velo N.B. MTB Series
Sunday, May18 - Centennial Park - Moncton Registration 8:00 - 9:00 am
Pre- Registration
Sat. May 17, 3:00 - 5:00 pm at Eastern Sports, 343 St. George St.

Contacts:

Peter McKinley 506-857-4884 (days)
Jeff Currie 506-855-5384 (evenings)

Sponsored by: Eastern Sports and the City of Moncton


Canada Cup

It is less than 2 weeks until the the start of the Canada Cup national mountain bike series. The series begins in London, Ontario, organized by Jeff Cook of All Seasons Sports. We will have a downloadable entry form up in the next day or so, but you can get further information about the race at the WOW Mountain Bike site: www.globalserve.net/~wowmtb


Letter From Italy

Buongiorno,

Finally after all the problems I have been having over the past month (including last weeks stomach inflammation), I finally got to race once again!

I must tell you... What a relief it is to be back racing, because when your not.... You start to doubt yourself (something that I didn't want to happen).

Sooo... The race was about 15km from Perguia (Province of Umbria), which is about 60km south of Sansepolcro (my residence). It was an extremely beautiful place, with really old churches and a beautiful country side filled with mountains and wild tulips! It was about 30C when I started racing, which is considerably hot since two days prior it was only 10C with continuos freezing cold rain.

The race course... 124km in 6 small laps of 13.5km of which was considerably FLAT, then finish off with 2 extended laps which had a considerably HARD 4km climb ranging from 8-20% in some places, and a 90km/h decent!

The plan for this race (which was explained prior by Aldo), was to take it easy and just use it for training. I was not to do any attacks and just sit in the peloton for the majority of the race... Woah..

This was extremely hard for me to do (mentally), but I managed just to sit in the front of the pack (20-25 or so), and chill. There were plenty of attacks and such, but none succeeded due to the flat characteristics of the first part of the course.

After completing 85km and been in the saddle for over 2 hours, here thus came the climbs! Man this was tough! I managed to stay in front group (which latter became the winning break), for about 3/4 of the climb, then my stomach started to act up. I started burping (caused by my still active stomach inflamation), like a mad man, so I obviously had to slow down since this didn't make me feel to great... I still managed to finished the climb in fourth position then on by the time I reached the bottom of the climb I was joined by another 3-4 riders.

These other riders didn't want to do ANYTHING to even keep a tempo going. Aldo later told me that there was some type of arrangement made about the race, so I didn't bother doing anything. Our small group later swelled to about 20 by the time we hit the last climb once again.

This time, I just climbed in the group and didn't really push to the max (yet in the 23 cog), because of strict orders from Aldo. Before the climb I though of attacking and catching the break (of 3), but then though it wasn't worth killing myself (Aldo again)...

Anyways.. The break stayed away by about half a minute, I finished in the group (placing 12th). I could have made a better sprint, but I was pushed into a car, so I decided not to kill myself for a sprint for fourth place. ;)

Conclusion: This is great! I felt really good in the race, even though with little hard training, and no real racing of a while, yet I was some what competitive. :) Aldo latter told me, that if I didn't have the stomach problem that I would have had won today's race, but says wait another 15 days then I'll be "Competitif". :)

Random jot... When I was climbing up the first climb in fourth, the TV camera man was shouting "Allez Gluzman!" That was cool! :)

Hopefully from now on, I will be set in form for the rest of season (with minor setbacks). So my progression should start on the upwards lift... If you catch my drift? :)

Well that's all "per oggi" (for today).

David Gluzman


Tour of Asturias, Spain

Stage 1, Aviles-Aviles, 5.8 km ITT

1. Abraham Olano (Spa) Banesto 5.8km in 7:20
2. Fernando Escartin (Spa) Kelme Costa Blanca at 0:06
3. Francisco Benitez (Spa) Kelme Costa Blanca 0:11
4. Toni Rominger (Swi) Cofidis 0:12
5. Cesar Solaun (Spa) Euskadi 0:13
6. Daniel Clavero (Spa) Cafes Toscaf 0:15
7. Bo Hamburger (Den) TVM s.t.
8. Rafael Diaz (Spa) ONCE s.t.
9. Sergei Smetanin (Rus) Cafes Toscaf 0:16
10. Michael Andersson (Swe) TVM 0:17


Tour de l‚Aude, France

Stage 4, Port-Lauragais 136 km

1. Samokhvalova (Rus) 3:59:20
2. Hohlfel (Ger) at 0:37
3. Paulitz (Ger)
4. Brunen (Ned)
5. Boebnenkova (Rus) all s.t.

GC

1. Marsal (Fra) 14:28:22
2. Boebnenkova at 0:06
3. Kurreck (USA) s.t.
4. Ilavska (Slv) 0:07
5. Brunel (Fra) s.t.


Peace Race, Czech Republic

Stage 5, Paczkow-Rybnik, 161 km

1. Jacek Mickiewicz (Pol) Mroz 3:54:01
2. Andre Korff (Ger)
3. Steffen Wesemann (Ger) Telekom
4. Marcin Gebka (Pol)
5. Frantisek Trkal (Cze)
6. Jens Voigt (Ger) ZVVZ Giant-AIS
7. Vassili Zaika (Ukr) Vosschemie
8. Pavel Chamidulin (Rus) Lada
9. Chann McRae (USA) Saturn
10. Petr Herman (Cze) all s.t.

GC

1. Jacek Mickiewicz (Pol) Mroz 21:53:50
2. Steffen Wesemann (Ger) Telekom at 0:31
3. Raimundas Rumsas (Lit) Mroz 1:00
4. Frantisek Trkal (Cze) 1:03
5. Mario Kummer (Ger) Telekom 1:05
6. Robert Radosz (Pol) 1:06
7. Jan Valach (Slv) s.t.
8. Chann McRae (USA) Saturn 1:08
9. Christian Henn (Ger) Telekom s.t.
10. Milan Dvorscik (Slv) s.t.