BRITS WITH THE BIG BOYS

THE British squad returned from the Hessen-Rundfahrt on Monday, their toughest race yet and one that provided excellent preparation for the World Track Championships.

With teams the calibre of Telekom, CSC-Tiscali and Saeco riding the race was always likely to be a controlled affair and so it proved as many stages resulted in bunch sprints.

The highlights for the British team were two top 10 results: Chris Newton finished eighth on stage three and Tim Buckle seventh in the stage 4b 30.5-kilometre time trial.

Newton's eighth place was the result of good sprinting, followed by Russell Downing in 12th and Tom Southam in 15th. Buckle rode an impressive time trial around Viernheim to finish 1-56 behind overall winner Uwe Peschel (Gerolsteiner) and just 30 seconds down on former Vuelta winner Alex Zulle (Coast).

Downing proved his worth on his first major stage race with the British track squad as he took 10th place on Sunday's final stage that finished on a one-kilometre climb.

Any ambitions of a high overall finish for the British team were lost on stage 4a when a group of 33 riders gained 30 minutes on the field with no British riders present. The only British rider who failed to finish was Bryan Steel who got caught up in a crash on the third day.

Endurance coach Simon Jones confirmed that the injury was not serious and should not affect Steels place in the squad for the team pursuit.

Stage 3 - September 6: Hanau - Bensheim, 191 km

1 Danilo Hondo (Ger) Team Telekom 4.29.40
2 Steffen Radochla (Ger) Team Coast
3 Werner Riebenbauer (Aut) Team Nürnberger Versicherung
4 Julian Dean (NZl) Team CSC Tiscali
5 Enrico Poitschke (Ger) Team Wiesenhof
6 Christian Wegmann (Ger) Saeco-Longoni Sport
7 Sebastian Siedler (Ger) German National Track Team
8 Chris Newton (GBr) British National Team
9 Timo Scholz (Ger) Team Wiesenhof
10 Luke Roberts (Aus) Team Comnet-Senges

Stage 4b - September 7: Viernheim - Viernheim ITT, 30.5 km

1 Uwe Peschel (Ger) Gerolsteiner 35.23.00
2 Torsten Schmidt (Ger) Gerolsteiner 1.05.88
3 Torsten Hiekmann (Ger) Team Telekom 1.07.44
4 Thomas Liese (Ger) Team Nürnberger Versicherung 1.16.07
5 Alex Zülle (Swi) Team Coast 1.26.74
6 Danilo Hondo (Ger) Team Telekom 1.33.67
7 Tim Buckle (GBr) British National Team 1.56.98
8 Martin Rittsel (Swe) Team CSC Tiscali 2.05.70
9 Timo Scholz (Ger) Team Wiesenhof 2.10.48
10 Luke Roberts (Aus) Team Comnet-Senges 2.16.45
11 Jorgen Bo Petersen (Den) EDS-fakta 2.22.23
12 Chris Newton (GBr) British National Team 2.25.96
13 Lubor Tesar (Cze) Team Nürnberger Versicherung 2.26.24
14 Erwin Thijs (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 2.26.51
15 Heiko Szonn (Ger) Team Cologne 2.28.75
16 Jens Lehmann (Ger) German National Track Team 2.32.01
17 Raphael Schweda (Ger) Team Coast 2.35.94
18 Olaf Pollack (Ger) Gerolsteiner 2.42.61
19 Rafael Nuritdinov (Uzb) Team Colpack-Astro 2.44.82
20 Patrick Riedesser (Aut) Austrian National Team 2.46.53
21 Stephen Cummings (GBr) British National Team 2.46.55
22 Didier Rous (Fra) Bonjour 2.49.28

Final general classification

1 Uwe Peschel (Ger) Gerolsteiner 19.44.13
2 Torsten Schmidt (Ger) Gerolsteiner 1.03
3 Torsten Hiekmann (Ger) Team Telekom 1.08
4 Thomas Liese (Ger) Team Nürnberger Versicherung 1.16
5 Martin Rittsel (Swe) Team CSC Tiscali 2.06
6 Timo Scholz (Ger) Team Wiesenhof 2.11
7 Jorgen Bo Petersen (Den) EDS-fakta 2.23
8 Erwin Thijs (Bel) Palmans-Collstrop 2.27
9 Heiko Szonn (Ger) Team Cologne 2.29
10 Rafael Nuritdinov (Uzb) Team Colpack-Astro 2.45
11 Matthias Buxhofer (Aut) Austrian National Team 2.47
12 Bjornar Vestol (Nor) EDS-fakta 2.53
13 Marcus Ljungqvist (Swe) EDS-fakta 2.58
14 Stephan Schreck (Ger) Team Telekom 3.06
15 Steffen Radochla (Ger) Team Coast 3.14
16 Jörg Ludewig (Ger) Saeco-Longoni Sport 3.32
17 Charles Guilbert (Fra) Bonjour 3.40
18 Björn Glasner (Ger) Team Cologne 3.49
19 André Korff (Ger) Team Coast 3.52
20 Mauro Gianetti (Swi) Team Coast 4.33

35 Danilo Hondo (Ger) Team Telekom 30.29
36 Alex Zülle (Swi) Team Coast 30.50
62 Chris Newton (GBr) British National Team 37.33