Classic's A Showdown On Two Wheels
Illawarra Mercury
Monday October 13, 1997
The 1997 Commonwealth Bank Cycle Classic is shaping as a classic showdown with many of the teams confident of victory.
The Classic gets underway on Saturday at Hurstville with a 30km criterium, which will give little indication as to who will be wearing the yellow jersey at the completion of nine days' racing 1115km later in Canberra.
The Giant AIS team are pumped up for a big effort with last year's winner, Nick Gates, confident that one of the Giant Bicycle team members will be wearing the coveted yellow jersey on the final day.
Jay Sweet, star of the Giant AIS team, is hopeful of adding more stage wins to his credit this year after several great victories last year.
Former Casino Canberra rider Peter Rogers also will be making his presence in the number one Aussie team along with Marcel Gono.
The driving force behind Gates' win, Matt White, is hopeful of a big performance.
Gates and the whole Australian team rode magnificently to claim a memorable win last year but it may prove even more difficult than ever on this occasion.
The Giant team will be marked more closely and it may be the ideal opportunity for several other Australian teams to steal a march on the race.
A total of 14 teams have been finalised for nine tough days of racing with the race boasting an exceptional array of international tour cyclists who have won major international events.
The Bosch German team can arguably state that they deserve the tag of race favourites with a great line up of proven stars.
Previous winners of the race, Thomas Liese and Mike Weissmann, have the ability to win again while world championship representatives Jens Zemke and Stefan Gottschling will be travelling direct from the world championships in Spain.
The DuPont English team are certainly the strongest contingent since John Tanner's victory in 1995. Tanner is back in the team this year and is one of the form riders in the English league.
In 1995, Tanner dead-heated with countryman Chris Lillywhite, who will race for the DuPont team again this year.
Jeremy Hunt, the talented Banesto rider, is back in the English team and will be a big threat for overall victory.
Hunt has been in sensational form this year and was a multiple stage winner in the Tour de l'Avenir, one of the big late season tours in Europe.
"We have returned to win the Commonwealth Bank Classic for the second occasion in three years," DuPont team manager, Shane Sutton, said yesterday.
"We are convinced that the competition will be tough but we have a team in which any rider can claim the yellow jersey."
Dan Smith and Julian Winn, the additional two cyclists with the DuPont team, have also starred for England with Winn having won four races this season. Smith is the current leader of the British league.
The Polish team has a sensational line up headed by former world and Olympic Games gold medallist Uwe Ampler and the current Polish champion Piotr Wadecki.
Julian Dean heads the Coca-Cola New Zealand team while the Websdale Printing Dutch team have settled on a team of climbers instead of a team of sprinters as in previous years.
"The riders we have assembled from Holland for this year's tour are the best tour riders we have," said former Dutch champion and winner of five stages of the Classic, Bob Rasenberg.
"John van den Akker has an impressive list of major results including second in the recent Olympia Tour. Wim van de Meulenhof is also a good climber and will figure prominently in the tough stages."
Kazakstan will be returning to race for Bates Bikes.
Winners of the event in 1990 through the talent of Vladimir Golushko, Kazakstan have not raced the event for the past three years and will be keen to show their talent again this year.
The Kazakstan team also won most of the major championships in the recent Asian Games with Andrei Mizourov winning the road championship.
Andrei Kivilev, the 1994 Asian Champion, is an excellent climber and won the King of the Mountain title in this year's Hessen Tour in Germany.
Alex Nadobenko, the powerful rider from Kazakstan and former KOM winner of the Bank Classic , will be racing for the Ansett Australia team who look a major threat.
Nadobenko has won countless events and will team with world duathlon champion Jonathan Hall, Paul Williams, Bergium professional star Franky Van Haessenbrouke and German World Cup star Heiko Szonn.
Wollongong's Hall has been in sensational form recently and finished a tremendous eighth in the world championship time trial in Spain last week.
Laurent Jalabert (France) was the winner ahead of Serguei Gontchar (Ukraine), Chris Boardman (Great Britain), Tony Rominger (Switzerland), Uwe Peschel (Germany), Melchior Mauri (Spain) and Erik Breukink (Holland).
Zenon Jaskula (Poland) was ninth, Juan Carlos Dominguez (Spain) 10th and Alex Zulle (Switzerland) 11th.
Hall will lay claim to being one of the most versatile athletes in the world if he can place well in the road titles.
Van Haessenbrouke won two stages in last year's Classic and is convinced that overall victory is not far from his grasp.
The Belgium champion has been one of the stars in Europe this season and he seems certain to be able to achieve some great results.
He won the final stage in Canberra last year despite a fall during the event.
The NSW Sport & Recreation team, under the leadership of State coach Gary Sutton, are also certain to be a tough team to beat. NSW road champion, Steve Williams, will lead the team and his Italian experience should help him to another top placing.
* * * The Dapto Duathlon will be held next Sunday beginning at Dapto High School at 10am.
Cyclists are still required for the 30km cycle leg and those interested should contact Garry Doughty on 71 5533. Nutra Life Illawarra Cycle Club held their first Sunday morning race last Sunday with a good field turning out for the 8.30 start.
Australian representative Steve Wooldrige, from the St George club, won A grade ahead of Ben Kersten and Neil Williams.
Ride of the day went to Bethany McCarthy in C grade who, although finishing out of the placings, has shown enormous improvement over the past few weeks.
© 1997 Illawarra Mercury