February 8/98 12:09 pm - New Stuff, Inspiring Story, Rankings

Posted by Editor on 02/8/98
 

New at CC Online

We are still filling up the new website - the latest stuff to go up is the Dealers list (where you can buy Canadian Cyclist) and a Survey. We would appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to complete the survey - it will help give us an idea of how to improve this website.


Inspiring Story

You may not be aware that a significant proportion of Canada‚s cycling industry is based in Quebec, and much of it in the regions affected most severely by the recent ice storms. One of those hurt the most was Bell Sports Canada (Giro and Bell helmets, Rock Shox, Finishline, etc.). They are located in Granby, Quebec - the so-called Œblack hole‚ where ice damage was very extensive. The story of their response to the storm is inspiring.

Their power went down on January 7th and the company was told by Hydro Quebec that it would not be restored that week. At the end of the week they were given the bad news that it would be weeks before electrical service would be back up. However, it turned out that, in one of the vagaries of the storm, two of the employees shared a house few miles away in Bromont - where the power was still on. The company moved some desktop computers to this Bromont residence, and managed to get a generator to run their telephone lines for the order desk. So during each day they would handwrite orders, at the end of the day the orders would be entered into the computers in Bromont, printed out and couriered to the company‚s warehouse in Calgary, Alberta, where they were picked, packed and shipped to customers. Once they got things running, delivery time was only a day behind usual. Meanwhile, a 250 megawatt generator (pulled by a tractor trailer) was located in Drummondville, Quebec and brought in a week later to restore full power.

So far so good - a nice story of a company responding efficiently to setbacks, right? Well, this is where it gets inspiring. Once the warehouse had heated up (which took a couple of days), Bell Sports decided to make it available to their employees as a place to stay (since they were also without power in their homes). However, by this point everyone had made arrangements and had places to stay. Fine, the company said: „we‚ll provide you with regular hot meals‰. By the time power was restored (Saturday, January 31st) the company had served 2700 meals!

It gets better: Bell Sports‚ hourly employees were starting to get into financial difficulties, what with the prolonged, unexpected layoff (right after Christmas, no less). Bell Sports‚ parent company in the U.S. raised $8,000, Bell Sports sales reps another $700, and the Calgary warehouse more. Bell Sports Canada matched the donations, thus raising approximately $20,000 for the company‚s hourly wage earners. Kudos to this effort of business efficiency and compassion.


Etoile de Besseges, France

Stage 4 - Grand Prix de la Ville D'Aramon, 139 kms

1. Steven De Jongh (Netherlands) TVM 3:21:52
2. Jo Planckaert (Bel) Lotto
3. Jean-Patrick Nazon (Fra) Francaise des Jeux
4. Jann Kirsipuu (Est) Casino
5. Tom Desmet (Bel) Collstrop all s.t.

GC

1. Planckaert 13:23:00
2. Alberto Elli (Ita) Casino at 0:04
3. Servais Knaven (Ned) TVM 0:09
4. Philippe Gaumont (Fra) Cofidis 0:11
5. Enrico Cassani (Ita) Polti 0:14


UCI Cyclo-Cross Rankings (post-Worlds)

Canada Elite Champion Peter Wedge is the top North American in the rankings! American Mark McCormack is in 50th place with 130 points.

1 GROENENDAAL, Richard NED 2210 points
2 VAN DER POEL, Adrie NED 1689
3 DE CLERCQ, Mario BEL 1164
4 PONTONI, Daniele ITA 1129
5 RUNKEL, Dieter SUI 869
6 JANSSENS, Marc BEL 805
7 SIMUNEK, Radomir CZE 769
8 VERVECKEN, Erwin BEL 757
9 WABEL, Beat SUI 749
10 NIJS, Sven BEL 595
11 DE BIE, Danny BEL 574
12 POSPISIL, Jiri CZE 547
13 VAN SANTVLIET, Peter BEL 520
14 WELLENS, Bart BEL 455
15 HERIJGERS, Paul BEL 430
16 WILLEMSENS, Peter BEL 359
17 DE VOS, Wim NED 347
18 SCHÄTTI, Roland SUI 342
19 DJERNIS, Henrik DEN 308
20 MAGNIEN, Emmanuel FRA 297

Canadians

47 WEDGE, Peter CAN 135
71 HALL, Josh CAN 100
115 PINFOLD, Andrew CAN 50
115 SPADACCINI, Paul CAN 50
141 ASSEER, Rudi CAN 40
141 HANSEN, Christian CAN 40
168 HANSEN, Matthew CAN 35
168 RUSHTON, Ed CAN 35
196 HANSEN, Jeff CAN 30
196 KUNCEWICZ, Rafel CAN 30
217 DAVIES, Warren CAN 25
217 SOCHACKI, Jack CAN 25
243 VARHESSE, Antoine CAN 20
272 MACGREGOR, Gary CAN 15
305 CROUTCH, Andrew CAN 10
345 COCKBURN, Heath CAN 5


UCI Road Rankings (as of February 5th)

1 JALABERT, Laurent FRA ONC 2,353.00 points
2 ULLRICH, Jan GER TEL 1,610.00
3 BARTOLI, Michele ITA ASI 1,430.00
4 ZUELLE, Alex SUI FES 1,417.00
5 TONKOV, Pavel RUS MAP 1,403.00
6 TCHMIL, Andrei UKR LOT 1,236.00
7 ZABEL, Erik GER TEL 1,134.00
8 CASAGRANDE, Francesco ITA COF 1,102.00
8 MUSEEUW, Johan BEL MAP 1,102.00
10 OLANO MANZANO, Abraham ESP BAN 1,043.00
11 TAFI, Andrea ITA MAP 1,042.50
12 ESCARTIN COTI, Fernando ESP KEL 1,023.00
13 ZBERG, Beat SUI RAB 977
14 VIRENQUE, Richard FRA FES 954
15 EKIMOV, Vjatceslav RUS USP 935
16 REBELLIN, Davide ITA PLT 928
17 DUFAUX, Laurent SUI FES 858
18 BOARDMAN, Christopher GBR GAN 830
19 SORENSEN, Rolf DEN RAB 812
20 RIIS, Bjarne DEN TEL 776
21 CIPOLLINI, Mario ITA SAE 769
22 GOTTI, Ivan ITA SAE 748
23 BORTOLAMI, Gianluca ITA FES 739
24 ELLI, Alberto ITA CSO 716
24 SVORADA, Jan CZE MAP 716

Canadians

259 LUKASCEWICZ, Cszelaw CAN MRO 126
291 ANAND, Mat CAN 107
344 WOHLBERG, Eric CAN 90
398 WALTON, Brian CAN 70
487 FRASER, Gordon CAN 51
671 BARRY, Michael CAN 28
861 ROVER, Steve CAN MUT 15
934 LANDRY, Jacques CAN 12
1048 BERGERON, Fabien CAN 9
1078 HIBBARD, Mark CAN 8
1132 COJAN, Yannick CAN 7
1201 LAVALLEE, Alexandre CAN 5
1201 RANDELL, Andrew CAN 5
1270 BELZILE, Guillaume CAN 4
1339 NEPVEU, Michel CAN 3
1378 MAGGIACOMO, Daniel CAN 2
1419 PERRAS, Dominique CAN 1