A Day at the Races, Rabo Wins, Rough Roads, British Cycling Sponsor, Shanghai Bike Ban, Cape Epic Stage One, Skinny Tire Festival

A Day at the Races

Women’s Road World Cup Series - Round One: Geelong World Cup
Tiny Tornado Wood takes her 12th victory, Rossner second, Oki third. Report, results and World Cup rankings. Here.

19th Clásica de Almería (1.3)
Another 1-2 for a French team, with a Postie completing the podium! Updated with race report and full results. Here.

Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne
There's no week-end without victory for Rabobank: after their four triumphs of the past week-end, it was Steven de Jongh that gave the Dutch team something to celebrate this time. Here.

GP Lugano (1.3)
Bessy the best in the second race of the Swiss calendar in a sensational 1-2 for Cofidis. Updated with the latest on the race from the Navigators Insurance Cycling Team! Here.

Rabo Wins

Courtesy Rabobank.
With Steven De Jongh's win today at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, Rabobank is looking at a very nice set of early season palmares.

29-02 Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne - Steven de Jongh
22-02 Trofeo Luis Puig - Oscar Freire
21-02 Tour du Haut Var - Marc Lotz
13-02 World Cup Pursuit Moskow - Robert Hunter
6-02 General Classification Tour of Qatar - Robert Hunter
6-02 5th stage Tour of Qatar - Robert Hunter
4-02 3rd Stage Tour of Qatar - Robert Hunter
2-02 2nd stage Challenge Illes Balears - Oscar Freire
27-01 Six days of Berlin - Robert Bartko

Rough Roads

After taking a rib-bruising tumble at the Ruta del Sol earlier this month, Rabobank's Robbie Hunter is hoping to be ready for Paris-Nice, which starts next weekend. Luckily, the only race he had to miss due to the injury was the Omloop Het Volk which was cancelled yesterday due to dangerous conditions. A quick recovery to Robbie! (cyclingnews.co.za)

Major British Cycling Sponsor

The British Cycling Federation website has announced a partnership between the British Cycling Federation and a major UK brand, Persil.

Persil will contribute to sponsorship of the Go-Ride program, which is a nationwide network of clubs to introduce cycling in British schools, allowing the program to be free to all participating schools. Program hopes for 2004 are to get 20,000 children participating and 100 schools delivering the entry level program, which introduce schoolchildren to the various cycling disciplines and teach them basic skills. There are also school and national leagues where budding cyclists can post their times and compare to other riders. Read more about the Go-Ride program here.

The Persil sponsorship also enables British Cycling to receive matching funds grants from the government.

Persil will also sponsor a British all-star national team, Team Persil, as well as the Great Britain Talent team. The national team includes such British stars as Rob Hayles, Craig MacLean, Chris Newton and Chris Hoy. The talent team is composed of 200 young riders who receive coaching and support from British Cycling. 

Trek, which supplies bikes for the Great Britain Cycling Team and the Go-Ride program, will also supply bikes for Team Persil.

British Cycling's Chief Executive Peter King said, "Persil's sponsorship of British Cycling is wonderful news for the sport. Coming in the year of the Athens Olympics, it presents British Cycling with an excellent opportunity to raise the profile of the sport at grass-roots level through both the Go-Ride and Talent Team programmes. The excitement of the Olympics will inspire school children to get involved with cycling and Persil has given British Cycling's ability to respond to this demand a significant boost. The launch of Team Persil and the brand's involvement in the GB team further underline Persil’s level of commitment to the sport." For more information and to see photos of the presentation, please see British Cycling's report here.

Team Persil
Chris Newton
Rob Hayles
Paul Manning
Victoria Pendleton
Bryan Steel
Chris Hoy
Craig Maclean
Six under 23 Endurance Riders
Nick Craig (MTB champion)
Shanaze Reade (Britain's leading female BMX rider)

Shanghai Rescinds Bicycle Ban In Commercial Hub

Bike Industry Retailer--Bureaucrats in China's largest city are thinking twice about banning bicycles in its busy commercial downtown area.

The ban went into effect in January with the intention of reducing traffic congestion in Shanghai's downtown. Bicycles it seems were getting in the way of cars and trucks and slowing everyone down. However, Shanghai's residents have flouted the ban, disputing that bikes contribute more congestion than cars and trucks.

Over this past weekend, however, city officials announced plans for a downtown network of pathways for cyclists. While this is not a repeal of the ban, it does acknowledge that bicycle use is an important form of transport in downtown Shanghai.

Cape Epic Stage One

Silvio Wieltschnig and Andi Strobel win first stage - Visit The Cape Epic.

After 14 months of preparation, South Africa’s inaugural Magical and Untamed African Mountainbike Race took off this morning at 7:00 A.M. at the Waterfront in Knysna. 273 teams made up of two riders each started into what may become their challenge of a lifetime.

In the front start line, all the previous winners of renowned international stage races like the Australian Crocodile Trophy, the European adidas bike TransAlp Challenge, the TransRockies Challenge, and the Costa Rican La Ruta de los Conquistadores, as well as South Africa’s Greg Minnaar, reigning UCI World Champion Downhill, and Liam Killeen, reigning World Cup U23 Cross Country Champion, waited for the start siren together with about 550 riders from 24 countries. Most riders in the field, which consists of 13 Women, 36 Mixed, 77 Master and 147 Men teams, are amateur athletes of all ages. Eighty per cent originate from South Africa, 20 per cent have travelled across the globe to compete in The CAPE EPIC.

Imperial Logistics chief executive Terry Bantock, who had come out to watch the start, was impressed: “I have never seen anything like this. What an impressive set up. The whole event is run like a military operation – everything is so well planned and organised. And I am proud that Imperial Logistics is part of it. If I had the chance I would take a vacation at once and follow The CAPE EPIC for the next eight days.”

With 3,050 metres of elevation and a distance of 120 kilometres, The CAPE EPIC’s first stage was already the toughest of the entire epic challenge. In the morning All African Champion Mannie Heymans from Namibia, who is racing in a team with former TransAlp Champion Karl Platt from Germany (Team Focus/ Rocky Mountain), estimated that the top riders would need approximately five hours to complete the first stage. And the winners needed exactly 5 hours, 7 minutes and 49 seconds to ride through one of the most beautiful parts of the Western Cape and across the famous Outeniqua Mountains from Knysna to George.

Silvio Wieltschnig from Austria and Andi Strobel from Germany (team adidas Fiat Rotwild) were the first team to cross the finish line at Saasveld, the scenic training institution for the Department of Forestry. Both of them were very surprised to be the winners as Mannie and Karl had a lead of over two minutes for quite some time, but they missed the turn into Saasveld and thus finished fourth on their first day of The CAPE EPIC.

“I guess that was my special gift,” says Silvio Wieltschnig, whose birthday was today. And Andi adds, “This happened to us before at the TransRockies – fifty metres in front of the finish line we took a wrong turn and lost our first place.”

For Andi, who works as a teacher in Mittenwald Germany, South African Jacques Rossouw was the strongest rider of the day. “It was incredible how he pumped the flats, but then he and Shan fell behind in the longer ascents.” In the end, Team GT Africa with Jacques Rossouw and Shan Wilson had a gap of over eight minutes to Strobel/Wieltschnig. Their fellow countryman Richard Beswickand Ben-Melt Swanepoel (team Jeep/GT) came in third.

Saasveld – scenic setting for The CAPE EPIC race village

Nestled against the backdrop of the magnificent Outeniqua mountains, the gates of Saasveld were opened wide to welcome riders at the end of their first, demanding day of THE CAPE EPIC.

Surrounded by the tranquil, indigenous forests of the Southern Cape, Saasveld takes its name from the ancient castle in Holland, which was the original seat of the ancestors of the van Rheede van Oudtshoorn family. The buildings, dating back to 1932, are now restored to their former glory and the campus is used by students studying forestry management and nature conservation.

The immaculate grounds, golf course and gardens made for a perfect setting for the finish and The CAPE EPIC race village. Exhausted competitors meandered across the rolling lawns or cooled off in the pool after a hard day’s riding. When the competitors arrived in Saasveld, they were overwhelmed by the proportions of their camp.

A staff of 46 people of CAPE EPIC’s service provider USI had set up the 600 rider tents. The well organised crew required just three hours to set up the entire camp – per tent they needed on average three minutes. Two tents per team were pitched, positioned in twelve sections and marked with the respective start numbers. All rider bags were already lined up and waited to be picked up by their exhausted owners.

At the first daily stage awards which took place after a rich dinner served by Spier catering in the beautifully decorated Infotainment Tent, The CAPE EPIC participants celebrated the winners of the four categories and admired the unique zebra striped adidas leader jerseys.

Men
1. adidas Fiat Rotwild – Silvio Wieltschnig (AUT), Andi Strobel (GER) – 5.07.49
2. GT Africa – Jacques Rossouw (RSA), Shan Wilson (RSA) – 5.16.27
3. Jeep/ GT – Richard Beswick (RSA), Ben Melt-Swanepoel (RSA) – 5.18.56

Women
1. Yellow Jacket – Hannele Boyens (RSA), Sharon Laws (RSA) – 6.30.47
2. Cateye – Kenda Enduro Team – Louise Kobin (USA), Hillary Harrison (USA) – 6.42.35
3. Smith/Speedy – Yolande Speedy (RSA), Christi Smith (RSA) – 6.48.14

Mixed
1. Hai Bike/ Scott – Kirsten Rösel (GER), Robert Eder (GER) – 5.57.06
2.Cateye Enduro Team – Erik Warkentin (USA), Melissa Thomas (USA) – 6.09.23
3.Fiat/ Bianchi – Hannele Steyn Kotze (RSA), Johann 6.11.57

Master
1. Bowmans/ Giant - Frank Soll (RSA), Duncan English (RSA) – 5.55.12
2. Willie Engelbrecht – Bryan Strauss (RSA), Mc Franken (RSA) – 6.15.20
3. Swiss School Team.ch - Alex Brenn (SUI), Sandro Angelastri (SUI) – 6.16.18  

Skinny Tire Festival - Moab, Utah

The Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) Peloton Project member Mark Griffith is on a roll. Living in what is still considered the “Mt. Biking Mecca of the World”, he has split Moab, Utah’s personality in two. 

He has introduced hundreds to the little secret all of the locals know: to get to the radical, cool, breathtaking mt. bike trails you have to drive along radical, cool, breathtaking paved roads.  How did he manage such an impossible feat?  By organizing road cycling events in the hallowed land of slickrock. 

All events are to benefit the LAF (www.laf.org), and all have been radically successful.  The first Century Tour was organized last fall, blowing their projected two hundred riders for the first year away when they stopped accepting participants at six hundred.  This year's Skinny Tire Festival, to be held March 5-8th, is promising to reveal yet another astonishing secret; the world renowned landscape in Moab is unlike you’ll see anywhere else…and so is their television.  Television?  

To the delight of the hundred of riders who are about to discover the challenge, beauty and awe of road riding in Moab, the Moab Adventure Channel 21 (MAC-21) will be broadcasting programs from two filmmakers who understand this sport, the passion, the drive and the insanity it takes to be a professional cyclist. 

The Hard Road, by Jamie Paolinetti, will leave little room for curiosity if one has what it takes to be a pro.  This full-length feature movie will make you realize exactly how much you really love this sport, and then vicariously see where it would take you if you loved it a little bit more. 

For the second film, he has teamed up with fellow Peloton Project member Scott Coady for an epic screening of The Tour Baby!, the behind the scenes movie of Tour de France.  The full version of this will be held at a fund raising event, but exclusive “behind the scenes behind the scenes” footage will be motivating riders in their motel rooms morning and night.  Interviews with Scott and great Tour de France footage is among the surprises in store.

BarkingFrog Productions, who has donated broadcast time on MAC-21, will begin the endless spin of riding programs with their production of last year’s Century Tour.  The helmet cam footage of the long, dream like descent from the La Sal mountains is reason enough to revert back to your childhood days of sitting two feet from the television! 

The whole event will end far too quickly, but the buttes will live in the memory banks forever.  Yes, Mark Griffith is on a great roll, granting all roadies the wonderful gift of Moab.  If you happen to be one of the lucky few who attend this event, you’ll see he also has a great spin. 

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