News reports today suggest that 1997 Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich has decided to retire from professional cycling at the age of 33.  Announcing his decision at a press conference today it appears Jan has got fed up with the press surrounding his career and has called it a day.  He will however stay within the sport taking on a management role within Austrian outfit, Team Volksbank.

Ulrich said, “I could ride again immediately, I could get a license, I am fit, as fit as last year and could immediately have a team. I have seven offers, including ProTour teams.  It has taken months until I was sure what I wanted, what would make me happy. Today, I want to officially announce that I will stay involved in cycling, but not as an active rider”.  He went on to claim, “I have never cheated,” but he didn’t address the issue of doping and whether or not he was ever involved with Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes, though in past occasions he has always denied any involvement with Fuentes.

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If you thought the professional side of our sport was already killing itself with all the drug scandals over the past year or two then you ain’t seen nothing yet.  You think the first priority for the sport would be to get back into the media for the right reasons but they continue to shoot themselves in the foot.  The problem this time surrounds the Paris-Nice race and the involvement of the Pro-Tour teams.  The UCI is at loggerheads with the big event organisers ASO and it’s continued to throw one of the most popular races with the fans on the calendar into doubt all winter long.  It’s the last thing this sport needs and we certainly don’t want a split to take us down the road of such sports like boxing with more than one federation running different events.

Here’s the latest:

AIGLE, Switzerland (AP) — The international cycling federation banned all ProTour teams from competing in next month’s Paris-Nice race.

The UCI said Thursday it had sent letters to all 20 ProTour teams reminding them that Paris-Nice is now a national event and under ProTour rules teams are forbidden from competing in the event scheduled for March 11-18.

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Report by Andy Potts 

The fourth and final round of XMTB’s Winter XC League took place at a sunny Castle Park in Bangor on Sunday, with a brilliant days racing providing a fitting climax to the series. The entry once again included Ireland’s number one DH rider Ben Reid and Ireland’s number one moto cross star Gordon Crockard, but it was Belfast rider Glenn Kinning who took a scintillating final round win.

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Round 3 - Sun, 4th Feb @ Moneyscalp (ChainReactionCycles.com)
Round 4 - Sun, 18th Feb @ Cloon (Epic)

Sunday 4th February 2007 sees the return of the CRC Winter series to Moneyscalp forest outside Newcastle. With the success of the first two rounds with approx 160 riders attending both events, a large crowd and a great race is expected.

Please note: Winter league round 3 is a one day event and takes place only on Sunday. On Saturday 3rd a motorcycle trials event is taking place in Moneyscalp and during this time the trials riders have right of way in the forest including parking etc. The trials club have agreed not to use our downhill track for any of their sections. Please respect them during their event.

Another issue with numbers is parking. Riders please be aware of where you are parking and are asked to not park or block people’s driveways. Failure to do so may result in access to the forest being denied for future events.

The following is a summary of the race categories for 2007 and will hopefully give riders an indication of which category they should be competing in.

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