May 2/03 7:37 am - Track Worlds Moves, Espoirs in Europe Report, Blizzard Bike Club Report

Posted by Editoress on 05/2/03
 

UCI Moves Track Worlds
with files from Australia Cycling

The UCI has announced that the 2003 Track Cycling World Championships will be moved from China. The Championships had been scheduled to take place between July 30 and August 3rd in Shenzhen in the country's south but the impact of the SARS outbreak has prompted a change of venue.

UCI Vice President, Ray Godkin, said the sport's ruling body will announce within the next week the new venue and dates although he has confirmed the Senior Championships will take place prior to the Junior Track Cycling World Championships scheduled to begin on August 20th in Moscow.

"The decision was made in consultation with the Chinese and they accept and understand the reasons why the Championships must be moved," said Mr Godkin. "Certainly we will be looking to China to host a future senior Championships, possibly in 2007, but not necessarily in Shenzhen.

"It's more likely that if the 2007 senior World Championships go to China they would go to Beijing and act as a test event for the 2008 Olympic Games."

But Mr Godkin says the Chinese have spent 45 million dollars to build a velodrome in Shenzhen for the World Championships and he hopes they might consider hosting the Junior World Titles in 2005, when the road and track disciplines will both be contested at the same Championships for the first time.

"The Shenzhen venue has a great 13km road circuit adjacent to the velodrome and would be ideal for the combined junior World Championships in 2005," said Mr Godkin.


Canadian Espoir European Project Update

Hard week at the office for the boys in blue and red. This year‚s Ruban Granitier Breton proved to be a hard one due to the combination of hard courses, bad weather and stiff competition with Saeco, Rabobank and Quickstep.

The stage race started with a 5 km technical prologue under the rain in Cesson-Sévigné. None of our guys really took any risks as starting a stage race with road rash is not ideal. So all finished with mid pack times. The prologue win went to Muravyev, the Kazak from Quickstep.

The following day set the stage for a hard tour as a break of 2 went up the road in a galeforce head wind. The break would take up to 6 minutes before hitting the finishing circuit where under the hard work of Quickstep to bring down the gap to 3 minutes. Muravyev attacked the pack to finish the 1min 30 down on the 2 breakaway riders. On the Canuck side not much to say aside from a crash from Warren that injured his left elbow but not too much harm done.

The next stage from Pluvigner to Theix was not much to talk about aside from the fact that breaks went up the road with no Canadians in, but it all came back together for a pack sprint won by a Saeco rider.

Theix to La Turballe was another hard stage due to the wind. Once again no Canadians were getting in the breaks but luck was once again on their side as ABX Go-Pass was not represented in the 15 man break and so all would come back before the finishing circuit. This stage was also marked as an unlucky one for Ryan (Roth) who after flatting at a bad time could not reintegrate the peloton and was forced to abandon because of the 12% time cut. Almost at the same time (Dominique) Rollin suffered a front puncture but was able to come back thanks to the help of Cameron (Evans) and Ian (Condron).

The next day stage from Plescop to Lannion, the team tactics were to change. Because none were able get into breaks they would initiate a break. The tactic would work in the beginning as François (Parisien) and Cam initiated a 15-man break that would never get more than a minute but forced a hard pace with the first 2 hours had a 47km-h average. Towards mid race François, not a 100% during this race, got shelled in a hard climb and was soon caught and dropped from the remainder of the pack. For his part Cam and the rest of the break would get caught by a now small pack. The pace would let up for about half an hour after 2 1/2 hours of racing before lighting it up again. When the pace picked up again Cam was not well positioned and ended losing contact. In the end the stage would go to Muravyev who was back in the overall lead of a badly damaged pack.

Having lost Rollin due to bad leg cramps the day before the team was now down to 4 riders, as was the average of most teams. Unfortunately, not having done the hardest stage yet things were gloomy for a lot of teams as the bad weather continued to be an issue. In any case, the stage started with a fast pace in the head wind with Parisien trying to go up the road with 6 riders. However, Parisien‚s efforts would prove to in vain and the hills would eventually get to him and he quickly saw himself in front of the broom wagon. The stage Lannion to Doardenez would go to a Saeco rider finishing strong on a hard finishing circuit.

With Muravyev in the leaders jersey by 32 seconds and the apparent ease that he has on the bike it was apparent that he will win the stage race.

The last stage from Guégon to Fougère (203kms) would prove to be one where Quickstep controlled the pace almost from the beginning to the end. With the first day of relatively favourable weather conditions the organizer could breathe a bit easier knowing that most starters of stage would finish.

A break went up the road with 6 riders and would stay at 3 minutes all day until the hard finishing circuit where attacks from the breaks were launched. In the end the GC would go to Muravyev, who through this race was preparing the Tour of Slovenia!

For the remaining 3 Canadians they all finished the stage race fairly well and learned a fair bit on positioning and attrition. Perfect for the up coming Tour of Holland.

Until then it‚s rest time and the Tarbes-Sauveterre on the 8th and Tour du Perigord on the 11th.

Jacques Landry
National Development Coach


Blizzard Bike Club Fort St. John, BC, May 1
Courtesy Pat Ferris

A red-hot Mike Hientzman stopped the competition cold, Thursday night, at the Baldonnel time trial under very cool and snowy conditions. Mike's time of 29:13 was over a minute faster than second place Richard Howes. Pat Ferris was third at 30:44.

Ed Fornelli was 4th at 31:55, David Ferris 32:45, Erik Snucins 32:52, Gary Hilderman 33:03, Stephen Ferris 33:23 and Rod Lewis and Tammy Howes tied for 9th at 34:00.

Gord Harris won the 8 km with 14:52 and Jarrod Bell second at 19:14.

Coming up: Challenge Cup #1 from Humpty's, Sunday, at 10:00 am. This is the first of four Challenge Cup events over 2003 for the Grande Prairie Wheelers and the host and reigning champion Blizzard Bike Club.