December 2000 |
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2000 Season Review: (By Shane Stokes Dec 29) It has, in one sense, been a good year for Irish cycling. Political squabbles and dwindling numbers dominated headlines towards the end of the season, but in terms of international results 2000 was an encouraging time. The year began on a high note with the return of Irish riders to the pro peloton after a long absence. Two cyclists made their debuts, with Ciaran Power riding well in races such as the Tour of Langkawi and the Tirreno Adriatico where he finished a fine 11th on the final stage. Power then went on to scale greater heights when he became the first Irishman to finish a Grand Tour in seven years, completing the three week Giro d’Italia and sprinting home 5th and 6th on stages. The Waterford cyclist also rode well toward the end of the year, placing 7th in the Brussels Izegem race and riding well in the Herald Sun Tour. <Read more on this Report by Shane Stokes Here> St Stephen's Day: Eagle Cycling Club - Two-up guess your-time trial, Batterstown, <See Pictures Here> FIXTURES:
Jan 7th: Sligo CC is holding a 10 mile time trial on
the 7th of January, starting in Rosses Point 5 mile from Sligo town. First rider
is off at 1 pm. All categories catered for with good prize money. Any queries
contact Desi at 07 177353 or dvfoley@eircom.net
Irish Squad News: (By Shane Stokes) For Irish riders who will compete in the green jersey of Ireland in 2001, a restructured season seems likely. The Irish Cycling Federation is considering a later-than-usual start for teams racing abroad. "It is unlikely that squads will be going to the Tours of Langkawi, Greece and Rhodes as in previous years," says ICF PRO Ciaran McKenna. "We feel guys were getting to the end-of-season races - in particular the world championships - a bit worn out, so the feeling is the first trip abroad will be in mid April. We are just trying something new to see if it will help get better results over the whole season." Also on the cards is a change in the selection process and management of such teams, as the ICF intends to appoint four squad managers in the next few weeks. The workload previously handled by the national team director will be split between them. Advertisements for the honorary positions to oversee senior and junior/women road riders and crosscountry and downhill mountain-bike racers will be made shortly <Details Here>, while the track racing area will be addressed later on.
SWINAND WINS CHRISTMAS HAMPER RACE: (By Shane Stokes Dec 17) American rider Greg Swinand was the surprise winner of today’s Christmas Hamper cycling race in Carrick On Suir. The former international competitor was one of the driving forces in a strong elite group which overcame a 9 minute handicap to dispute the final result. Although former world no 1 Sean Kelly was at the head of affairs towards the end of the 30 mile race, hopes that he would add to his rack of victories in the event were dashed when the Carrick man eased back on a slippery finishing circuit, where Tom Hughes of Stamullen forged ahead in search of the honours. Hughes was himself overhauled by Swinand, who proved fastest in the final half mile to cross the line two seconds clear and take his biggest win since moving to Ireland this summer. ‘It was a hard race’, said Swinand afterwards. ‘The cold and wet took a lot out of everybody but luckily everyone set a good tempo to bring back the guys who had been given a handicap at the start. We were closing them down all the way, then myself and Paul Griffen jumped across on the last big lap. The rest of the scratch group came up to us, but I was able to get away on the finishing circuit and then got by Tom Hughes just before the finish.’ ‘It is great to win the race’, he said with a smile. ‘Since I moved to Ireland I have taken a couple of league races but this is the first proper win. I have a wife and family at home in Wicklow and am a full time economic consultant, so I don’t know if I will have time to do races such as the FBD Milk Ras. But it is still great to win races like this.’ Results: 1, Greg Swinand (Usher IRC) 30 miles in 1 hour 22 mins; 2, T. Hughes (Stamullen) at 2 secs; 3, P. Griffin (Dan Morrissey) at 4 secs; 4, R. Clarke (Clarke Contracts) same time; 5, M. Gannon (Omagh) at 6 secs; 6, M. O’Loughlin (Cidona Carrick) same time <More Reports by Shane Stokes Here> TOUR DE FRANCE: (Dec 13) 2-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong has vowed to boycott next year's race over the ongoing French judicial probe into his US Postal team. Armstrong said he was sick and tired of the accusations levelled at him and his team-mates and would give next year's Tour a miss if there was no let up. Yesterday, former winner Marco Pantani was sentenced to 3 months in jail after traces of EPO were found in a blood sample. Pantani is appealing against the sentence. FESTINA DRUGS TRIAL CONCLUDED: Major figures in French cycling were handed sentences of varying degrees today as the trial into the Festina doping affair during the 1998 Tour de France was concluded. However, Festina's star French rider Richard Virenque, who admitted in October after months of denials that he had taken banned drugs, was cleared of any wrongdoing. Willy Voet, Virenque's former physio was handed a 10-month suspended sentence and a 30,000 francs fine. Bruno Roussel, the former chief of Virenque's team Festina, was handed a 1-year suspended sentence with a 50,000 francs fine. WINTER;
A TIME FOR DISTRACTIONS AND ATTRACTIONS: (By Gerard Cromwell (Dec 14)
The
preparation and training carried out in the winter is the foundation upon which
the success of your season depends, or so the story goes. But winter time has
it’s distractions. Long, dark nights and cold days are more conducive to
staying in bed or going out partying than getting up early and going for a four
hour training spin.
FBD MILK RAS STAGE WINNER TURNS PRO: (By Gerard Cromwell Dec 4) Stage one winner of this years FBD Milk Ras, Belgian Tjarco Cuppens will ride in the colours of the professional Flanders-Prefetex squad next season, after a successful trial as a stagiare for the team towards the end of this season. 23 year old Cuppens took the first stage into Longford this year, ahead of eventual overall winner Julian Winn of Wales. The young Belgian had mixed fortunes on this years Ras, winning stage one , wearing the green jersey of points winner for two days and breaking a front tooth on day four when he crashed into a road sign.The Flanders - Prefetex squad will be in the second division and will have 12 riders. On a more sombre note, Athlone's Morgan Fox has been dropped from the new-look Tonnisteiner squad for next season. After a good start to the year, where he took part in the Het-Volk and Liege-Bastogne-Liege classics, a bout of glandular fever put paid to his end of season ambitions. With the big re-shuffle in the pro teams in Belgium, Fox is hoping to attract the attentions of another squad for 2001. McCann ranked Number one amateur in France: (Dec 4) (WWW.VELOMANIA.NET) Irish Champion David Mc Cann is the winner of the FFC Elite 2 classification. The Perpignan rider was ahead of the first two of the Vélomania classificaton, Frédéric Delalande and Stéphane Petilleau. In the Women, Jeannie Longo led Séverine Desbouys and Géraldine Loewenguth.
IRISH CYCLO-CROSS CHAMPIONSHIP: LURGAN (By JIM TRAYNOR Dec 2) Robin Seymour (Helly Hansen) successfully defended his Irish cyclo-cross title in Apollo CRT promotion at Lurgan Park. The 29-year-old Wicklow rider confirmed his status as the greatest Irish off-road rider of all time with his tenth Irish cyclo-cross title in a row. He has also won seven Irish Mountainbike cross-country championships and one downhill title. For the first three laps of the eight-lap event it looked as if Banbridge CC's Don Travers would give him a run for his money as he swapped the lead position with Seymour with Alastair Martin (Ards CC) only a few seconds back in third place. However on lap four Seymour made a ferious attack and opened up a 35 second lead in one lap. <See Pictures Here> From then on the only real interest was in the fight for the silver as Martin started to close on the Banbridge rider. At the bell Seymour led Travers by 1.08 with Martin now only 7 seconds back. However the Ards man fell on the final circuit and finished third 1.37 behind Seymour with Travers taking the silver at 1.16. Banbridge CC took the team medals for the first time Roger Aiken and Gareth Rodgers making up their trio. Defending champions Apollo with second with Ards CC third. Irish cyclo-cross championship, Lurgan Park, 11m.: 1, Robin Seymour (Helly Hansen) 50.01; 2, D. Travers (Banbridge CC) at 1.16; 3, A. Martin (Ards CC) at 1.37; 4, A. McDonald (Apollo CRT) at 4.14; 5, R. Lamont (Newry Whs.) at 4.50; 6, R. Aiken (Banbridge CC) at 5.46; 7, C. Brady (unatt.) at 6.18; 8, K. Byrne (IMBRC) at 6.42; 9, D. GIll (unatt.) at 6.55; 10, M. McCorry (Apollo CRT) at 7.20. First Lady: Tarja Owens (Helly Hansen). Team: Banbridge CC: D. Travers, R. Aiken, G. Rodgers 22 pts; 2, Apollo CRT 28; 3, Ards CC 29. Geraldine Gill Ranked 13th in France: (By Harry James Dec 2) The final points tally in the French National Classification for female category riders saw Geraldine GILL jump 18 places over her 1999 ranking to finish 13th overall. Obviously handicapped from a lack of International selections, which contribute points to the UCI based system, Geraldine's position is somewhat distorted in reality. As anticipated the Irish girl is the best placed Breton in the female rider's classification, some 8 places higher than the only other Elite category rider, French Olympic selection Alexandra Le Henaff. IRISH UCI RANKINGS FOR 2000: (By Gerard Cromwell Dec 2) Francesco Casagrande (Vini-Caldirola) heads the list of U.C.I road rankings for 2000 with 2,467pts. The tatooed Italian, who lost out in this years Giro D'Italia to Stefano Garzelli (Mercatone Uno) only in the final mountain time trial is on his way to the Italian Fassa Bartolo squad next season. In second place with 2,181 pts is Telekom's Erik Zabel, the winner of this years World Cup, with 2000 World Road Race Champion Romans Vainsteins in third with 2,099 pts. After a pretty successful season on the road , Irish riders managed to score well ,with no less than eighteen riders on the list. Waterford man and Linda McCartney pro, Ciaran Power leads the line up in 463rd place with 91pts. National Road Race Champion, David McCann is next (joint 546th), with 69 pts, just 3pts ahead of 2000 FBD Milk Ras winner, Welshman Julian Winn. Brian Kenneally (Carrick Cidona) is next (joint 867th), with 26pts, with Mayo Wheelers , Italian based hitman, Dave O'Loughlin next at 943rd , with 22pts.
The rest of the Irish are as follows. All places are joint places -meaning one or more other riders have the same number of U.C.I points.
Italy lead the rankings with 12,887pts, Spain are second with 9,533pts, and Germany third with 8,222pts. Ireland are just below the top 30 cut off for automatic qualification for international events in 35th place with 282 points, but with the FBD Milk Ras going on the U.C.I calendar next year, Irish riders should get a chance to change that. |
