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Grande Boucle
The Grande Boucle is underway again, and as strange as ever.
In Sunday's L'Equipe, Catherine Marsal wrote an article detailing the legal woes of the race over last few years, and the race almost didn't happen this year, due to rider complaints (too many transfers, etc.) and subsequent problems with the UCI. I knew that already, but she also described a more intrinsic problem, which is that the race is run by two organisations which don't get along. There is the organisation Team France Organisation (TFO), of the organiser Pierre Boue, and another one, Racing Club Organisation (RCO), which owns the dates of the race, whatever that means. This RCO has been run by Marianne Mezin since 1997, and things have been rocky ever since. Since Boue was firing his employees in seemingly random fashion, RCO took him to court, and I can't figure out what happened from the article, but the upshot is that RCO wasn't in the picture, and the race no longer had the dates for the race. Since TFO was no longer viable, Boue created a new company, Velo Feminin (they have a website), and asked to get dates fhave the for the race from the UCI and French Cycling Federation, who refused. He then went to court and manged to convince them that Mezin had been elected president of RCO under irregular circumstances, and Mezin had to resign. However TFO still had to pay RCO the 22,445 Euros owed for the prize money put up by RCO for the 2002 grande Boucle. This situation has still not been settled. The UCI and French Federation agreed that the club of the Midi-Pyrenees could temporarily have the dates of the race and this club also had to pay the prize money for the 2003 race, and make sure that UCI regulations are followed. There is an UCI observer present at the race. In the meantime, Boue is facing a debt of 300,000 Euros, and has had to make drastic cutbacks in the race. In particular, he says he had to replace three star hotels with Formule I hotels (the cheapest hotels, where you there is no front desk, you pay with a credit card, no restaurant, etc.), he only had money for one car per team on the ferry to Corsica, and meals have been replaced by meal vouchers honoured by some restaurants, usually the cheapest ones, these meal tickets are best known because that is what homeless people ask for when begging on the Paris Metro. Otherwise, more mystery surrounding the Grande Boucle. In particular, last year's "godmother", Cynthia Compain. She was listed as riding in the race on the velo feminin website, riding for the team Pruneau d'Agen, but is not listed in the Stage 1 and 2 results. In fact, there are 72 in the list of riders on the website, but only 66 riders listed as finishing stages 1 and 2, without any mention of people abandoning the race, or missing the time cut. Cynthia has also had her share of problems. She was riding for team Mazza, which was scheduled to ride in the race, but Mr. Mazza decided at the last minute that he didn't want his team to participate, and she had to find a new ride. Last Tuesday, someone at Vincennes asked her if she was riding, she said yes, but refused to state which team (4 days before the race!). Riding in the Grande Boucle is essential to her career, modeling career, that is, since that is the only race those people seem to understand. Her level is as bad as ever, she finished second to last in the French ITT championships, and that's supposed to be her strong point. She has a website now. -ilan |
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#2
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Grande Boucle
(Ilan Vardi) writes:
she finished second to last in the French ITT championships, and that's supposed to be her strong point. She has a website now. I knew there had been problems, but didn't realize the extent of them. But Cynthia - She's welcome in Davey's covered wagon any day: http://members.rogers.com/worlds2003/cynthia.gif And performance wise, I admired her guts finishing every stage last year in those attrocious conditions. I was surprized at times that she wasn't hors delai, but maybe The Lido being a sponsor of the event had something to do with that!! But in all fairness, her results are as good as some of the other non-star-quality riders in the Grande Boucle Feminin. Admittedly, Mama Italia (Canins) or Jeannie Longo, she ain't, but her performance last year made me a fan for life. But she hasn't done too badly: Championne de France UFOLEP Stage win Tour de Vendee 2nd - Ile de France Pursuite Championships 3rd - Ile de France ITT 25th - Tour du Haut Var Lanterne Rouge -la Grande Boucle F?minine 2002 But this year it's hard to tell what's happening. I got an e-mail a few days back from TFO pointing me to their website: http://velo-feminin.com And it isn't too bad as far as websites go. But I'm having to assume that Cynthia was DNS. The other five women on the Les Pruneaux d'Agen squad are listed in the results for stage 1, but Cynthia isn't amongst them. And it does seem that (assuming no abandons on stage 1) only 66 out of the anticipated women started. -- le vent a Dos Davey Crockett |
#3
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Grande Boucle
Davey Crockett wrote in message ...
(Ilan Vardi) writes: she finished second to last in the French ITT championships, and that's supposed to be her strong point. She has a website now. I knew there had been problems, but didn't realize the extent of them. But Cynthia - She's welcome in Davey's covered wagon any day: http://members.rogers.com/worlds2003/cynthia.gif Compare with her true appearance http://www.lix.polytechnique.fr/~ilan/cynthia2.gif And performance wise, I admired her guts finishing every stage last year in those attrocious conditions. I was surprized at times that she wasn't hors delai, but maybe The Lido being a sponsor of the event had something to do with that!! The reliable information is that she got help from the organisers, her being the "marraine" and her sponsor sponsoring of the race as well. I thought that this was limited to tows on the climbs, however, I had an opportunity to see her ride last week, and I started wondering whether she actually got lifts during the race. This because her bike handling skills are so weak - I am convinced she can't ride no hands and looked pretty shaky with one hand off the bars also when she rides at 24 kph alone at the flat Vincennes course, every time she passes a rider, she always looks left to see if anyone is coming, and this even though she does not have to change her line, not exactly the kind of confidence you would expect from someone about to ride in the biggest and fastest bike race in the world. Also, lifts are consistent with the fact that she had never done any real climbs before last year's Grande Boucle, so had never done any real descents, so the organisers might have been worried about her getting hurt of dying on the descents on the day in which it was pouring rain. But in all fairness, her results are as good as some of the other non-star-quality riders in the Grande Boucle Feminin. Eh, she was 6 hours back. Admittedly, Mama Italia (Canins) or Jeannie Longo, she ain't, but her performance last year made me a fan for life. She was preparing for the Grande Boucle by riding alone at 24 kph on the flat course at Vincennes. It seems difficult for me to believe that a novice rider would prepare for such a race riding alone, for numerous reasons. When I knew people preparing for Ore-Ida or any other big race, no one would ever let them ride alone in the weeks before the race, just so that they would find the necessary mileage less stressful. The fact that she can ride alone at a course she's been going to for 2 years is also a good indication that there is something seriously wrong. -ilan |
#4
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Grande Boucle
"Ilan Vardi" wrote in message om... The fact that she can ride alone at a course she's been going to for 2 years is also a good indication that there is something seriously wrong. I was about to protest that I can go to Vincennes and ride alone, but then I realized that this may not be as strong a bit of evidence as I might have hoped. |
#5
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Grande Boucle
"Robert Chung" wrote in message ...
"Ilan Vardi" wrote in message om... The fact that she can ride alone at a course she's been going to for 2 years is also a good indication that there is something seriously wrong. I was about to protest that I can go to Vincennes and ride alone, but then I realized that this may not be as strong a bit of evidence as I might have hoped. If you're going to do mass start races and if you're starting out and have almost zero knowledge of the sport (I don't think either of these alternatives applies to you) then it is essential that most of your training be done in group rides. Riding alone when you are a beginner magnifies bad habits. If you are a female, then it should be even easier to find any number of people to ride with, especially if you;ve been training on a closed 3 km circuit for 2 years. -ilan |
#6
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Grande Boucle
Championee de France UFOLEP? She couldn't be as weak as all that if she led
the points in the categorie feminine. Those gals aren't full-time but several are darn strong. "Davey Crockett" wrote in message ... (Ilan Vardi) writes: she finished second to last in the French ITT championships, and that's supposed to be her strong point. She has a website now. I knew there had been problems, but didn't realize the extent of them. But Cynthia - She's welcome in Davey's covered wagon any day: http://members.rogers.com/worlds2003/cynthia.gif And performance wise, I admired her guts finishing every stage last year in those attrocious conditions. I was surprized at times that she wasn't hors delai, but maybe The Lido being a sponsor of the event had something to do with that!! But in all fairness, her results are as good as some of the other non-star-quality riders in the Grande Boucle Feminin. Admittedly, Mama Italia (Canins) or Jeannie Longo, she ain't, but her performance last year made me a fan for life. But she hasn't done too badly: Championne de France UFOLEP Stage win Tour de Vendee 2nd - Ile de France Pursuite Championships 3rd - Ile de France ITT 25th - Tour du Haut Var Lanterne Rouge -la Grande Boucle F?minine 2002 But this year it's hard to tell what's happening. I got an e-mail a few days back from TFO pointing me to their website: http://velo-feminin.com And it isn't too bad as far as websites go. But I'm having to assume that Cynthia was DNS. The other five women on the Les Pruneaux d'Agen squad are listed in the results for stage 1, but Cynthia isn't amongst them. And it does seem that (assuming no abandons on stage 1) only 66 out of the anticipated women started. -- le vent a Dos Davey Crockett |
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