May 19/00 4:34 am - Tour of Slovenia, Midi Libre, More Info on Eric's DQ, Mercury New Spons

Posted by Editoress on 05/19/00
 

Tour of Slovenia

National team coach/manager Jacques Landry has sent in a series of updates from the Canadian men's team project at the Tour of Slovenia (they have not been near internet access for a few days).

Stage 1 (Wednesday, May 17th) Catez to Radenci 188kms

After almost 2 hours of easy riding in the beautiful Slovenian scenery the pack started picking up speed, not worried about the lone Dutch rider clocked at 5 minutes. The accelaration in tempo almost happened at the same time Mike Barry and a few other pack members stopped to change wheels due to a bad road section.

At around mid race small groups were starting to form and going up the road and getting caught. With about 70 kms to go a group of 11, with Sylvain Beauchamp present , would get a 50 second lead. At first there was no worries because almost all were represented, including a Mapei teammate Dario Cioni. 15 kms later it was the Coast team, from Germany that decided to take the race on and tow back the break.

Once the group was brought back another one took off with Brian Walton and later Sylvain would join on to complete a 20 man break with all the strong teams present. In the last hill at 5 kms from the finish the break was cut into 4 smaller groups. Sylvain managed to stay in the second group to finish 5th and as for Brian, he made it into the following group to finish 10th.

Amidst a bit of bad luck, the team rode a good stage and is looking good for the rest of the race.

Stage 2 (Thursday, May 18th) Radenci to Beltinci 162km

Well another hot day on the saddle for the Canadians. After a first part of the race in rollers and the KIA Swiss team keeping things together by doing a slight tempo, groups started going up the road after around 70kms. In this 1st real break of the day was Mark Walters taking off with 5 other riders. His efforts would prove to be in vain cause the break was soon reeled back by the KIA team. 2

20 kms later another break would take off with three riders; Cioni (Mapei), Thorsten (Coast) and Kelly (Our guy). Their break would eventually get up to 3 minutes after 143 kms of racing. Behind, the pack was just tempoing to keep the gap at a minimum. But there was also a lot of movement in the chase group and a crash occurred with Mike Barry getting caught behind it and losing time in the end.

Meanwhile, in the break, the three dudes started playing cat and mouse with 10 to go as Paul was trying to mark Cioni. But behind the pack was closing in fast and in no time, with 3 to go the pack had swallowed all but Cioni who managed to stay away and take the stage.

With 1 kms to go, it was agreed that what ever happened the Canucks would try and give Charles Dionne a good lead out to give him experience. It worked to an extent where Charles finished 8th. He could have finished better but the timing was just a bit off.

So GC remains basically the same except for Mike having another bad luck day and losing more time.

Stage 3 (Friday, May 19th) Slovenska Bistrica to Ljubljana 161 km

The first real hard day would prove to be plagued with a bit of bad luck, good riding and bad weather.

Because of the weather it was clear that there it would be no easy start. From the word go or whatever they said, it was a high paced race.

With only about 30 kms done a two man break took off with a KRKA rider and a Slovenian under the watchful eye of tempoing KIA team. At the foot of the first climb going up to 900 m the two had 7 minutes and in the climb was where all started breaking up and the gap started closing.

Halfway up Barry, Walter, Kelly and Dionne drifted from the now thinning out pack. The only two left at the helm were Beauchamp and Walton. The two would crest with the chase group.

In the dangerous, windy and wet descent, I was astonished to find Mike on the side of the road waiting for a wheel change that I couldn't get to fast enough because of some /%$?$& commissaire. His bad luck continues!!!

At the foot of the first descent, the pack had made up 3 minutes and were quickly heading for the steep final ascension going up to 666m (Yes hell !!!). With nobody of the 12 chasers, all were giving a hand pulling. Sylvain and Brian were enjoying the ride so to speak. After the chase had crested and made it to the bottom the only two KIA rider (leader included) were dropped on account of a double whammy crash and the rest of the chase continued with about ten guys only 2 minutes from the 2 lead riders still holding strong.

With 2 to go, Brian tried to launch a flyer but was brought back by a KRKA dude and so the a chase group would finish with about 2 minutes down on the two lead riders.

Meanwhile, at the back, the other Canadians coasted in at about 12 minutes down and as for Paul, he was pulled from the race after waiting 15 minutes for a wheel from the broom wagon and late being told that he was outside the time limit. Neutral service did a boo boo!!!

As I'm writing this, the results are not yet out but I estimate that Sylvain is now in 4th while Brian moves upto 7th. Not bad!!!

Tomorrow is a doozy as the pack finishes up at 1906m (Not feet !!!).


Midi Libre, France

Stage 4 - Laguiole ITT 26.1 km

1 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Festina-Lotus 37:16
2 Jonathan Vaughters (USA) Credit Agricole at 0:35
3 Unai Extebarria (Ven) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:38
4 Steffen Kjaergaard (Nor) Us Postal Service 0:46
5 Giuseppe Guerini (Ita) Team Deutsche Telekom-Ard 0:48
6 Georg Totschnig (Aut) Team Deutsche Telekom-Ard 0:55
7 Levy Leipheimer (USA) US Postal Service 1:01
8 David Delrieu (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance-Decathlon 1:04
9 Bobby Julich (USA) Credit Agricole 1:08
10 Mikel Pradera Rodriguez (Esp) Euskaltel-Euskadi 1:10

66 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Team Deutsche Telekom-Ard 3:18

GC

1 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Festina-Lotus 15:27:57
2 Unai Extebarria (Ven) Euskaltel-Euskadi at 0:38
3 Jonathan Vaughters (USA) Credit Agricole 0:45
4 Bobby Julich (USA) Credit Agricole 1:10
5 Levy Leipheimer (USA) US Postal Service 1:11
6 Laurent Lefevre (Fra) Cofidis 1:30
7 Didier Rous (Fra) Bonjour-Tourpargel 1:45
8 Steffen Kjaergaard (Nor) Us Postal Service 1:51
9 David Delrieu (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance-Décathlon 1:54
10 Georg Totschnig (Aut) Team Deutsche Telekom-Ard 2:00


56 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Team Deutsche Telekom-Ard 4:59


Cervelo Responds To Wohlberg DQ

Cervelo has spoken only briefly with both Eric and Shaklee mechanic Jim O'Brien. Apparently, what occurred was that prior to the start of the race, a UCI official told Eric that his rear wheel was too close to his frame. This was Eric's first ride on his P3 (he had been riding the P2 model since the 1996 Olympiad) and it was definitely unintentional on his part. Eric then moved the rear wheel back in the dropouts so that a business card could be passed between the frame and rear tire. The official then indicated that the bike now was in compliance. Apparently, after Eric set the fastest time of the day, the commissaires had a change of heart and decided that the new setup was suddenly still not legal.

I would like to stress that the Cervelo P3 is a fully UCI legal frame. In fact, at least a half-dozen U.S. riders were on Cervelo P3's at Tour LeFleur including 6th in the men's race and 4th in the women's race. Additionally, the Cervelo P3 has been raced recently in other UCI races, including the Gila Tour and Tour De L'Aude. Hundreds of hours were spent at Cervelo to ensure that the P3 would be compliant with the Y2K UCI equipment regulations. The UCI approval is available on our website www.cervelo.com.

The P3 has adjustable rear dropouts so that the proximity of the tire to the frame can be adjusted to account for factors such as varying tire sizes (i.e a 19mm vs. a 23mm) and varying regulations (i.e. the UCI has a relevant regulation whereas Ironman does not).

The equipment regulation in question is Rule 1.3.024: "A fairing shall be defined as the use or adaptation of a component of the bicycle in such a fashion that it encloses a moving part of the bicycle such as the wheels or the chainset. Therefore it should be possible to pass a rigid card (like a credit card) between the fixed structure and the moving part."

Obviously, this is vague rule being that there are no actual specific dimensions of what constitutes a 'rigid card' other than that it could be 'like a credit card'. Thus, the interpretation of this rule is fairly subjective. It appears that in the case of Eric's Tour LeFleur he was subjected to the whims of those officiating the event.

It is a disappointing interpretation of the rule for all involved. However, it still does not negate the fact that Eric had yet another a superb ride, beating the top U.S. cyclists with a dominant result at their own Nationals. If his wheel were another millimetre back it would have changed the outcome but it would not have changed his placing. The stronger the competition, the more likely he is to come out on top. His palmares prove that.

Dave Anthony
Cervelo Cycles


When is Mercury Not Mercury?

Atlanta - May 18, 2000 - Manheim Auctions Announces Multi-Year Sponsorship of Mercury Cycling Team.

The Mercury Cycling Team will be known as the Manheim Auctions Cycling Team while racing outside of North America for the remainder of 2000 racing season. "The partnership with Manheim Auctions is going to help our program reach the next level" said team director John Wordin. "We are excited about our partnership with Manheim Auctions which has a major presence in the United States and is growing rapidly in the United Kingdom, France and Australia. As an emerging international cycling team, our affiliation with Manheim is a great fit," stated Wordin.

Manheim Auctions is committed to the Mercury Cycling Team and helping achieve the goal of the team racing in the Tour de France. Manheim Auctions is hoping to leverage their existing and all future business relationships in making Mercury's Tour bid possible. The existing goals of the team will remain the same.

"Our immediate goal is to win the USPRO Road race in Philadelphia and have our riders make the Olympic team"

John Bailey, managing director for Manheim Europe added "This team has made a significant impact on the European cycling community this year and we are excited about our sponsorship. It will be a good promotion of the Manheim Auctions name throughout Europe."

The Manheim Auctions Cycling team will debut at the Tour of Luxembourg, June 8-11 and will then travel to the Tour of Switzerland, June 13-22.