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The Week That Was...
By Ian Melvin
Nov 21, 2005, 17:06

Forbes.com last week announced Lance Armstrong’s record-breaking seven straight Tour de France victories to be the second greatest sporting achievement of our time. Armstrong was beaten into second place by Roger Bannister, who broke the four-minute mile in 1954.

"In truth, there is no clear-cut number-one choice. You could make a reasonable case for a dozen different achievements,” said Bob Costas, a journalist on the Forbes.com panel whose role it was to select the top twenty sporting event of our time before the sites editors and readers voted to rank them.

In third place came Jesse Owens who broke four world records in 70 minutes at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.

With 2006 just weeks away, one of the now traditional season openers, the Tour de Langkawi, may be cancelled. Despite Telekom Malaysia announcing its continued support of the race, several teams claim to have still not received their prize money from this year’s event. According to UCI events, this prohibits next year’s event from taking place.

One of the biggest losers are the South African Barloworld team. Having won the race overall this year with 26 year-old Ryan Cox, the team also finished first in the Mountains competition, Team competition and won the testing stage to Genting Highlands.

Other teams reportedly still missing money includes Selle-Italia Colombia, Navigators and Wismilak.

Having endured several high profile doping scandals in the past 18 months, Swiss team Phonak have also been blighted throughout 2005 with a black mailer threatening to reveal further cases if team manager, Urs Freuler, didn’t pay him 20,000 Swiss Francs.

The guilty party was caught in a police operating at the ‘hand-over’ which had been arranged at Zurich Airport. While not releasing the man’s identity, he has been sentenced to 12 months behind bars. It is believed that the 49 year-old previously raced alongside Freuler as an amateur cyclist.

As we have recently reported, rumours have abated within Germany about a new clause within the contract of Jan Ullrich over his weight for the 2006 season. While T-Mobile continue to deny its existence, Hamburger Abendblatt reports that the clause has been set with an upper threshold of 79kg. Should Ullrich return to the pre-season at a weight above this, he is reported to lose financial bonuses.

The newspaper printed the following table, listing the dates of Ullrich's season start, his weight at that first race, and his subsequent placing in the Tour de France:

Year  First Race                           Weight TdF placement

1997  March 22, Milan-San Remo    75 kg  1

1998  April 6, Basque Country          80 kg  2

1999  March 17, Volta a Portugal     80 kg  DNS

2000  March 10, Tirenno-Adriatico  79 kg  2

2001  April 16, Rund um Köln         77 kg  2

2002  May 22, Bayern Tour             74 kg  DNS

2003  April 11, Sarthe                      73 kg  2

2004  Feb. 29, Clasica Almeria        82 kg  4

2005  April 5, Sarthe                        79 kg  3

Winner of the 2001 Vuelta a España, Juan Angel Casero, has last week finished his career after announcing his retirement earlier this year. His final race was the 16th edition of the Criterium Internacional de Ciclismo de la Comunidad Valenciana.

Casero also wore the Spanish National Champions jersey for two years in 1998 and ‘99.

For twenty years now, the US national road championships has been held on the final weekend of June in the city of Philadelphia. In a move that surprised many, USA Cycling last week announced that has changed for 2006. A National Road and Time Trial Championship will now be held in Greenville, South Carolina on the 31^st August for the Time Trial and 2^nd September for the Road Race.

After the contract with Threshold Sports - the organiser for the championships in Philadelphia - ran out and negotiations faltered, USA Cycling opted to review all new applications. The Greenville bid proved victorious thanks to its interesting change of format.

A race date of late summer means that it clashes with no major Tour, a problem which for many years has restricted the willingness of some of the country’s top professional riders to return to challenge for the jersey.

In another move away from tradition, it will now tow the line that all other national championships adhere to, of only allowing US riders to compete in the race. Previously overseas competitors have been able to race for the over-all victory, a situation that has almost created a race within a race in some editions. USA Cycling believe that the sport within the country is now strong enough to no longer require the support of the European riders.

While for many the changes made would appear to be positive, USA Cycling have just taken away from American fans the opportunity of being able to watch some of the leading European professionals, live in their own backyard. For most, it will be back to OLN for re-runs of the Tour and other events until a national stage race is re-founded and the elite of the sport brought back to their shores.

As always, send your thoughts and comments to me at ian@roadcycling.com. On the other hand, how about discussing things further with our other readers. Post your comments in our forums.

Till next week

Ian

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