May 25/01 3:46 am - Track World Cup #1, Interview From l'Aude, GP Beauce

Posted by Editor on 05/25/01
 

UCI Track World Cup #1 - Cali, Colombia

Team Coach/Manager Kurt Innes is sending in reports from the World Cup...

May 25, 2001

Friday AM, Session #1

Canadian rider Tyler Hansen had the honour of opening the first day of competition here in Cali at the UCI World Cup. Tyler, riding out of competition in the men's 200 Meter Time Trial, set a new personal best time with an 11.310. Steen Madsen, along with Lars Madsen, were our official competitors in the men's sprint event. Steen was our fastest qualifier, ending up in 18th position with a time of 10.994. Lars qualified 11.318, ending up 28th overall. The fastest qualifier (new track record) was Laurent Gane (FRA) narrowly beating Jens Fiedler (GER). Gane's time of 10.334 was barely ahead of Fiedler (10.334), showing the importance of using electronic timing down to the thousandth of a second! Steen rode against Jens Fiedler in the first round of the sprint, losing to the 4 time Olympic medallist in a very good and tactical ride. Steen's next ride was the repechage, in which he again rode a very good ride, just being edged out by Alwin McMath of G.Britian.

Lori-Ann Muenzer qualified 8th (12.001), then rode against Magili Faure (FRA) in the first round. Faure was victorious, sending Lori-Ann into the repechage round against Contreras (MEX) and Weichelt (GER). Lori-Ann was caught at the back going into the last lap and was unable to come around finishing 3rd. Lori-Ann will ride the 9-12 final tomorrow evening.

Our Canadian Endurance team received a big boost today with Alex Cloutier riding his way into the World Cup points for the first time. Alex competed in the men's 4000 Meter Individual Pursuit. Alex's time of 4:41.345 was 11 seconds under his personal best, good enough for 10th position overall. A great performance by Alex in his first World Cup as a solo athlete. Alex is no stranger to World Class performances, as he has piloted the Canadian visually impaired tandem to medals at the Sydney Olympic Paralympic games last summer.

Tonite Jim Fisher competes in the 1000 Meter time trial.

Racing resumes at 17h30 local time (Central time zone).

More news later,
Kurt Innes


Report from l'Aude

We spoke by telephone with Canadian team manager (and CCA Development Coach) Jacques Landry a short while ago. Jacques said that Lyne Bessette's successful move into the yellow leader's jersey today was the result of proper team work and planning.

"The next two days are really hard, so everyone was expecting that it would go easy today in the double stage. The second (60 km) stage today was still pretty hard, so we decided to jump the gun and get the jersey today.

The Alf Lums (of yellow jersey holder Edita Pucinskaite) have been riding really stupid for the last 3 days - chasing stuff which is way back - so we knew that they were getting tired.

Lyne and I went up the road (in the car, before the race) and found a good place to attack, 22 kilometres into the race, just after a Sprint. During the stage a group of 8 went up the road, including Judith Arndt (Germany - 3rd overall). They got a minute plus, and Pucinskaite was doing all the chasing, and our riders Sandy (Espeseth) and Sue (Palmer Komar) were putting pressure on her.

Lyne went according to our plan at 22k and bridged up in about 15 kilometres. The group dropped down to 4, but Lyne got the time she needed."

Jacques is pretty optimistic about Bessette's chances to keep the jersey. "Lyne is riding really well right now; I have rarely seen her with so much confidence. Now she has only two riders to worry about. Arndt was not as strong on the climbs as Lyne today, and Pucinskaite is 3:30 back, so we are in good shape."


GP Cycliste de Beauce Postes Canada

We spoke with Patrick Lajoie, the General Director of the GP Beauce, yesterday. He is very excited about the quality of the field for this year's event, and the list of entrants supports him:

Mapei - Daniele Nardello and David Garcia Canada will use Beauce for Tour prep.
Cantina Tollo
Mroz
Nurnberger
Mercury - Gord Fraser, Henk Vogel, Scott Moninger, Chris Horner
Saturn - Michael Barry, Eric Wohlberg, Trent Klasna, Harm Jansen
Navigators - Vassily Davidenko, Oleg Grishkine, Mark Walters
Ficonseils - Dominique Perras
7 Up/Colorado Cyclist - Charles Dionne

Canada will have a national squad (Svein Tuft, Cory Lange, Jacob Erker, Andrew Pinfold), the Sympatico.ca squad, Volkswagen Les Ailes, Oryx (with Bill Hurley) and Team Quebec (with Czeslaw Lukaszewicz).

The race runs from June 18th to 24th, with 7 stages. The biggest changes are the addition of a new 190 kilometre stage on June 20th around Lac Etchemin (the longest of the race), and the final stage will will now take place on a circuit within St Georges de Beauce. The race begins with a team time trial in Quebec City.

We will be providing live coverage and photos every day.