Owens to race with new team based in Tuscany

CYCLING/News Round-up: National MTB cross-country champion Tarja Owens is set to continue road racing within the professional peloton this season. Owens, who competed with the Michela Fanini team in 2001 and became the first Irish rider to start the women's Tour of Italy, has been asked to compete with the new twoKtwo set-up.

The team, to be based in Tuscany, is a spin-off from her team last year. Filippo Michelotti, who managed Michela Fanini, is behind the new squad which is presently finalising its list of sponsors.

According to Owens, she will have a similar programme to last year. After a two-week training camp in Gran Canaria, she is to fly to Italy on February 19th and will begin racing on March 10th in the GP Citta di Castenaso.

A number of UCI ranked internati onal races then follow, with the team aiming to secure a slot in the Tour of Italy.

She also intends riding many of the big off-road contests next year. "The team management are extremely supportive of the idea, and are approaching the sponsors about getting further support for me travelling to these MTB events," she says.

Owens will be one of a number of Ireland's international riders in attendance at this weekend's ICF/Cycling Ireland training and coaching seminar at the Dromintine Conference Centre in Newry.

Irish professionals Ciaran Power and David McCann, plus former world number one Sean Kelly are among those due to give talks during the three-day seminar. There will also be training spins tomorrow morning and on Sunday.

•Italian judicial authorities are considering whether to exhume the body of racing legend Fausto Coppi, who died in 1960. The news follows recent reports in the newspaper Corriere dello Sport which suggested that Coppi did not die of malaria, as previously believed, but was poisoned while in the African country of Burkina Faso.

According to the report, the double Tour de France winner was murdered by Africans using a slow-acting herbal poison, following the unrelated death of a native rider in a cycling race. Coppi's family are among those who strongly dismiss the story, but Italian magistrates have nevertheless opened an inquiry into the allegation .

FIXTURE: Friday-Sunday: ICF/Cycling Ireland coaching weekend, Newry. For more information, contact Padraig Marrey at 087-7992857 or Cara Finnegan at 01-8551522.