Ivan Quaranta Joins Lance Armstrong And 70 Elite Pros For A Race On The Streets Of Manhattan In New York City Cycling Championship Presented By BMC Software
July, 29 2002
New York – July 29, 2002 – “The Leopard,” Ivan Quaranta, one of the fastest cycling sprinters in the world, will compete against 4-time Tour de France Champion Lance Armstrong and 2000 Olympic Gold Medalist Marty Nothstein as they race through the streets of Lower Manhattan in the inaugural New York City Cycling Championship Presented by BMC Software, Threshold Sports announced today. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center is the official charity of the August 4th event.
Quaranta, 27, from Crema, Italy, races for Team Index -Alexia, and is nicknamed “The Leopard” for his lightning fast finishes. Before sustaining an injury in early 2002, Quaranta had 5 professional road wins in 2001, including two stage wins in the Giro d’Italia and had 6 professional road wins in 2000. Quaranta won the 1992 Jr. World Sprint Championship title in Athens, Greece and turned pro in 1997.
Armstrong and his U.S. Postal Service team, will compete against top-rated American and international cycling teams just one week after the 2002 Tour de France, this Sunday, August 4th.
Nothstein, Match Sprint Olympic Champion at the 2000 Sydney Games, is known as a track and sprinting specialist with unrivaled finishing speed. Nothstein joined the Navigators Pro Cycling team and has refocused his energy on road and criterium racing -- an unimaginably challenging transition.
The 100-kilometer professional cycling race will feature 60 - 70 top professional cyclists racing through Manhattan’s financial district with the Start/Finish Line at Wall & Water Streets. Working with the New York City Police Department, the Department of Transportation, the NYC Sports Commission and the Alliance for Downtown New York, Threshold Sports has designed a one-mile course through Lower Manhattan streets, which will be challenging to the cyclists and viewer friendly for spectators. The race will be one of ten official events on the 2002 Pro Cycling Tour and one of only two U.S. races in which Armstrong will compete this season. The event will also feature a pro women’s race.
The event is managed by Threshold Sports, awarded Best Race Organizer of 2001 by VeloNews, and sanctioned by USA Cycling. Threshold Sports is a sports marketing and event management company that focuses on the commercial development of the sport of cycling and organizes elite professional bicycle races in North America. For more information, visit www.procyclingtour.com.
BMC Software, Inc. [NYSE: BMC], is the leading provider of enterprise management solutions. Through its Assuring Business Availability® approach, BMC Software delivers control over infrastructure management costs, control of market advantage and differentiation via service management, and growth of business value with solutions for business optimization. BMC Software is a member of the S&P 500, with fiscal year 2001 revenues exceeding $1.5 billion and offices worldwide. For more information, please visit the BMC Software Web site at www.bmc.com.