Tour Break for Linda McCartney
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"Tour too early" Julian Clark
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As cycling gears up for the Tour de France, the Linda McCartney Foods Cycling
Team are departing on their summer holidays.
"The Tour de France 2001 has always been this team's objective, and that's
still the case," explained team manager Sean Yates. "I have always felt that
two major tours for a team at our stage of development would be too much for
one season. When we accepted the invitation to the Giro d'Italia, we ruled
out any chance of riding the Tour at the same time."
"The Tour of Italy went so well for us, that people began asking us about the
Tour, but I still think it's too early," added general manager Julian Clark.
"We've never tried to run before we can walk at this team, and though it was
tempting to jump in, we decided to stick to the original game plan. It's
served us well up to now."
Selection for the Tour de France is a notoriously difficult business, and the
team are by no means guaranteed a spot in 2001, but that will be the goal.
"If we continue the way we've been going, we'll be there," said Sean. His
summer promises to be a busy one in any case, as Pippa gave birth to their
third late on Tuesday night - a bouncing 7lb baby girl to keep their two boys
company.
The team celebrated the end of their stellar first half of the season with a
big get-together at the Linda McCartney Foods HQ in Norfolk. All the staff
were there with the exception of David McKenzie and Matt De Canio, trapped in
Toulouse by the air traffic controllers' strike. The team were treated to a
tour of the multi-million pound meat-free plant, and were amazed by mixture
of high-tech machinery and old fashioned care that goes into every Linda
McCartney pie, banger and lasagne. Biggest hit of the day was the tasting
section, where chef Norman Brockwell cooked up some tasty morsels to ensure
that none of the lads suffered from "hunger knock" later in the day!
Best surprise of the week came for Max Sciandri, Matt Stephens and your
trusty press officer when they visited Oakley's UK headquarters in
Letchworth. Thoroughly spoilt with a monstrous pub lunch, where Big Mat's
Jeremy Hunt joined the party, they were led goggle-eyed round a tour of
Jaguar's Formula One plant in Milton Keynes. The array of titanium, aluminium
and carbon fibre parts that go into Eddie Irvine's race car were meticulously
explained and demonstrated. Would you believe that it takes six months to
make a carbon fibre brake pad?
Hands were shaken, goodbyes were said and planes were caught to all corners
of Europe, as the summer break begins. For the riders, the next port of call
is the Tour of Denmark, an important target for the team, beginning on the
1st of August. For the management however, July promises to be the busiest
month of the year, as plans for next season are made and negotiations
thrashed out. "The aim is to build on what we have already achieved by
keeping the majority of the squad together, but bringing in some more big
names to sharpen our edge for the big races," said Julian Clark.
For the riders, summer means the Tour de France on TV. Sean will be backing
his old friend Lance Armstrong to take his second victory, but the race
promises to be an open affair, with all the big favourites running into form
at the right time. British hopes will lie with debutante David Millar, with
Chris Boardman omitted by his Credit Agricole team. Follow the action every
day from Saturday on Channel 4 and Eurosport.
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