Newton for Geneva

CHRIS Newton, winner this season of the Thwaites Tour of Lancashire, is set to join a French amateur team next year. The place with a club near Geneva has been set up by GAN's new trainer, Denis Roux. In his role as Canadian national coach, Roux has also put them in touch with Canadian Michael Barry, who finished eighth in the world under-23 championship on Saturday.

Initially GAN were to set up Newton with a place in a club in Northern France where their trainer Francis Van Londersele could keep an eye on him. But Van Londersele left GAN for Cyrille Guimard's new Cofidis set-up and was replaced by Roux, who finished 10th in the 1988 Tour riding for Toshiba-Look.

' Denis will look after Chris's training and will supervise him with a view to his becoming a stagiere with GAN towards the end of next season,' said Newton's manager at North Wirral Veto-Kodak-Adidas, John Herety.