Road and Track Bicycle Racing News

Monday, November 29, 2004

Three might challenge his supremacy

According to Eddy Merckx the three men that might prove most dangerous to Lance Armstrong's attempt 
to win a seventh Tour de France, should he decide to race in the 2005 Tour will be Italian Damiano 
Cunego, Spaniard Alejandro Valverde and the Russian Vladimir Karpets. 

Currently, however, Armstrong is downplaying the possibility of a ride in the 2005 Tour.

Source : SixDay Staff       Top

Commencal Bikes Coming To North America
Mon Nov 29 08:58:17 2004 -0500

Frames are also available.

Commencal mountain bikes, raced by the likes of multi-time world champion Anne-Caroline Chausson and 2004 
Olympic cross-country gold medalist Miguel Martinez, will be in U.S. and Canadian retailers' stores early 
next year.

Kempter Marketing of Dorval, Quebec, is Commencal's exclusive North American distributor and is taking orders 
from retailers now for delivery in February.

The company introduced the line this year at Interbike and at Canada's Expocycle. The bikes' suspension systems, 
designed by company founder Max Commencal in conjunction with BOS Engineering, attracted show-goers' attention, 
said Paul Harris, Kempter's president. 

"People were very interested to see a different type of design out there. A lot of people who came by were 
observant enough to notice the actual suspension configuration and recognized it as the bike that Anne Caroline 
was riding," Harris said. 

Commencal, headquartered in Andorra on the French and Spanish border, is riding its high-profile champions' 
successes into new markets and expects to find a high degree of interest among racers.

"After its great success in the French market, Commencal is really expanding internationally, both in Europe 
and elsewhere. For example, they just this fall introduced in Britain, which is a great market for mountain 
biking," Harris said.

Commencal has a limited North American release for 2005, but plans to bring in the full line, including road 
models, in 2006.

Based on retailers' response so far, Harris said the five most popular models here appear to be the Supreme DH, 
with a suggested retail of $6,499 Canadian, $5,399 U.S.; the Meta 6.3, $2,999 Canadian, $2,499 U.S.; 
the Meta 5.3, $2,949 Canadian, $2,499 U.S.; the Absolute Al, $1,589 Canadian, $1,349 U.S.; and the 
Absolute Cromo, $1,099 Canadian, $999 U.S.

Frames are also available.

Kempter can be reached at (514) 633-8113 and info@kmi.ca. The French-language web site is www.commencal.net; 
the English web site is www.commencal.co.uk. Kempter is constructing a North American web site that should be 
available in December.

Source : Bicycle Retailer       Top

Vandenbroucke sentenced to Community Service
Mon Nov 29 08:30:57 2004 -0500

I do not want to make an example of Frank Vandenbroucke : Judge

Frank Vandenbroucke was sentenced today to Community Service for possession of Doping Products.

The Judge said he did not specifically want to make an example of Vandenbroucke and was treating him exactly 
the same as he would treat any other defendant.

The affair dates back to February 27, 2002, the evening before the Het Volk Circuit race when a search of 
the former Liège-Bastogne-Liège champion's home at Lebbeke turned up several doping products including EPO 
and morphine.

Source : SixDay Staff       Top

Yates : Tainted Victory
Mon Nov 29 06:24:03 2004 -0500

Drugs cheat told: get off your bike!

By GREG FORD

Geoff Burndred was forced to swallow the bitter pill of seeing Jeremy Yates' name dry on a $2000 winner's 
cheque yesterday.

Burndred's mates said the money should have been his.

Yates won the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge despite being banned for two years by Belgian cycle authorities 
this week for having abnormally high levels of testosterone. He was able to race because his ban doesn't 
start until this Thursday.

Burndred, "on a mission" to beat the drugs cheat, said second had never tasted so sour.

"I was disgusted he even turned up. I don't know how he can take the humiliation. If I was him I would have 
stayed at home," Burndred said

"Some of the guys said I should have gone over the line with my hands raised in the air like I had won, even 
though he beat me. That shows you what everyone thought."

Yates won the 160km race comfortably after breaking away from the leading pack of a race which attracted more 
than 10,000 entries.

"It's a race I've always loved but never been fit enough to win," he said.

But of the suspension issue, he said the case had been hanging over him since March and "the last 24 hours 
had been more of a relief than anything".

Yates said he had put his registration in for the event and Cycling New Zealand said he was entitled to race.

The 22-year-old's career has been marked by controversy.

He was crowned World junior road champion in 2000 and went to Athens with the New Zealand cycling team in 
August, where he failed to finish the road race.

But in 2002 he and brother Matthew were banned from national selection for 18 months for abusing a race 
official in Australia.

Burndred's mission to beat Yates was partly fuelled by a desire to bury ghosts of a failed bid to make it 
as a professional on circuits in Europe and the United States.

He said faced with the reality he would have to take drugs to compete on both tours he packed his bags and 
came home.

Burndred took up a building apprenticeship and the Morrinsville rider was only recently convinced to resume 
cycling by his boss, former top cyclist Jack Swart.

"There was a lot of cheating going on and that's why a lot of guys give it up. I didn't want to go down that 
road so I gave it up. It was hard because there had been a lot of hard work gone into it. So, yeah, the 
significance of today wasn't lost on me."

Burndred is not the only cyclist not impressed with Yates. Top Kiwi race rider Julian Dean and Yates were due 
to join forces in elite European team Credit Agricole next year.

"This was a great opportunity for him and he's now blown it," Dean said.

He said Yates, was young enough to revive his career when his ban expires. But it would be an uphill battle as 
cycling was on a mission to drive out cheats after a raft of breaches were detected in recent years.

Dean doubted cheating had penetrated New Zealand cycling to the extent it has in Europe. 

Source : Sunday Star (NZ)       Top

Ghent Six Day - Wrap Up
Mon Nov 29 04:56:32 2004 -0500

Final Night Drama

There is a lot of stomach flu this year it seems in the Pro Cycling peloton. Anyway, before racing started 
Sunday night Franco Marvulli withdrew citing stomach problems as the reason.

Kurt Betschart had had saddle boil problems for some days and finally withdrew before the Sunday night 
racing began.

These two withdrawals left Alexander Aeschbach and Bruno Risi in need of a partner and in fact they were 
paired up as a team by the organizer, Patick Sercu.

Then in the Derny event, local Home Turf rider, Matthew Gilmore, was afflicted with stomach problems too and had 
to leave the track several times. He started the final Hunt but with only a half hour to race had to withdraw. 
This must have been a terrible disappointment for both Gilmore and his partner Robert Bartko who had started the 
final night's racing with realistic expectations of winning the event.

SixDay is still unsure of exactly what happened to the Gilmore-Bartko pair ranking wise. They are listed as 
having finished the event 84 laps in arrears according to one source. Another source has Bartko riding a few 
farewell laps to salute the crowd before retiring. In the final analysis, it really doesn't matter much anyway.

With a flair for understatement, director Patrick Sercu termed the Final Night situation as "problematic". But
Slippens-Stam were indeed worthy winners and acknowledged as such by the crowd and young Iljo Keisse seems to 
be fulfilling his promise with a fine second place finish.

Standings after Night Six
           1 Robert Slippens  - Danny Stam (NED),             396 Points 
Down  2 laps:
           2 Iljo Keisse (BEL) - Andreas Beikirch (GER),      335 Points 
Down  4 laps:
           3 Gerd Dörich - Andreas Kappes (GER),              240 Points 
           4 Bruno Risi - Alexander Aeschbach (SUI),          226 Points 
Down 10 laps:
           5 Marco Villa (ITA) - Franz Stocher (AUT),         143 Points 
Down 14 laps:
           6 Lars Teutenberg (GER) - Luke Roberts AUS),       241 Points 
Down 15 laps:
           7 Matthé Pronk - Wouter van Mechelen (BEL),        324 Points 
Down 30 laps: 
           8 Jimmi Madsen (DEN) - Robert Hayles (GBR),        109 Points 
Down 37 laps: 
           9 Martin Liska - Jozef Zabka (SVK),                110 Points 
Down 46 laps: 
          10 Jean-Pierre van Zyl (RSA) - Steven De Neef (BEL),216 Points 
Down 73 laps: 
          11 Russel Downing - Dean Downing (GBR),              30 Points 
Scratched:
         DNF Franco Marvulli
         DNF Kurt Betschart
         DNF Matthew Gilmore
         DNF Robert Bartko

Source : SixDay Staff       Top

Happy Birthday - Men
Mon Nov 29 03:58:37 2004 -0500

Giulio Bresci (1921) Italy - Died August 8, 1998.
3rd 1947 Giro d'Italia  (1st Fausto Coppi; 2nd Gino Bartali - both Italian)

Urs Zimmermann (1959) Switzerland
3rd 1986 Tour de France (1st Greg Lemond, USA; 2nd Bernard Hinault, France)
3rd 1988 Giro d'Italia  (1st Andy Hampsten, USA 2nd Erik Breukink, Holland)

Source : Six Day staff        Top

Men Only
Mon Nov 29 03:40:29 2004 -0500

Here's Italy's, Stefano Zanini

Source : Six Day staff; Photo Courtesy : Cyclisme féminin (French)       Top

Ladies Only
Mon Nov 29 03:29:12 2004 -0500

Here's where Canada's Lori-Ann Muenzer shows off her Olympic Gold


Here's Lori-Ann : 




Source : Six Day staff        Top

Happy Birthday - Women
Mon Nov 29 03:09:04 2004 -0500

Sorry, none today

But Guess who this woman is - Email your Answer (Answer tomorrow)




And yesterday's Mystery Woman was Lyne Bessette from Canada





Source : Six Day staff        Top

Today's Menu
Mon Nov 29 02:56:31 2004 -0500

Monday, November 29, 2004 Main Events: 

MEN: 
Stage Races      : None

Single Day races : None

Six Day, Track   : None
           
WOMEN :  
Stage Races      : None
       
Single Day races : None

Source : UCI       Top

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