COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Jan. 10, 2000) - USA Cycling, the national governing body for the sport of cycling in the United States, announced its 2000 Olympic Long Team Monday. The Olympic Long Team is comprised of athletes who have met the respective disciplines' qualifying procedures. More athletes can be added to the 2000 Olympic Long Team by meeting certain qualifying criteria.

The 2000 U.S. Olympic Cycling Team will be announced later this summer.

"This outstanding group of athletes has taken a big step towards competing at the Olympic Games in September. There are still opportunities in 2000 for other athletes to be nominated to the Olympic Long Team and we expect to see some more names added to this prestigious group. We will be able to only take 26 athletes for 40 possible start positions at the Olympic Games so final nomination is going to be difficult," said Sean Petty, USA Cycling Director of Athlete Performance.

USA Cycling qualified 26 of a possible 28 athlete spots for 40 (out of a possible 43) start positions.

The road cycling squad is comprised of 10 cyclists, including 1999 Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong (Austin, Texas). Armstrong finished the 1999 campaign ranked seventh in the world and became just the second American to win the Tour de France. U.S. Postal Service teammates George Hincapie (Charlotte, N.C.), Tyler Hamilton (Boulder, Colo.), Dylan Casey (Mountain View, Calif.) and Marty Jemison (Park City, Utah) also qualified for the long team.

Former U.S. Postal member Jonathan Vaughters (Boulder, Colo.), who will ride for French team Credit Agricole in 2000, and Chann McRae (Austin, Texas) of the Mapei team, who placed fifth at the World Championships in the road race and fifth in the individual time trial during the Tour of Spain, also earned spots on the long team.

Hincapie won the First Union Classic, placed fourth at Paris-Roubaix and recorded four top-10 World Cup finishes. He finished the year ranked 10th in the World Cup rankings. Hamilton won the Tour of Denmark and placed 13th at the Tour de France. Casey placed third at the Tour of Holland. Jemison was the top U.S. rider at the First Union USPRO Championships (fifth), and Vaughters won the Route de Sud (France) and an individual time trial stage in that event.

Armstrong, Hamilton, McRae and Vaughters qualified for the road race and individual time trial, while Casey, Hincapie and Jemison qualified in the road race.

Karen Dunne (Colorado Springs, Colo.) won the gold medal at the 1999 Pan American Games (road race) and finished second in the First Union Liberty Classic. Elizabeth Emery (Albuquerque, N.M.) won the individual time trial at the Pan Am Games, and was the top American at the World Road Cycling Championships in the time trial. Mari Holden (Colorado Springs, Colo.) won national  championship titles in the road race and individual time trial and the time trial at Tour de Snowy, in addition to being the top-ranked American in the UCI rankings. Karen Kurreck (Los Altos, Calif.) finished third in the time trial at the Tour de Snowy

Dunne qualified in the road race, while Emery and Kurreck earned spots in the individual time trial. Holden qualified for both the individual time trial and road race.

The mountain bike long team consists of Alison Dunlap (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Ruthie Matthes (Durango, Colo.), Shari Kain (Cupertino, Calif.), Steve Larsen (Ashland, Ore.) and Travis Brown (Boulder, Colo.).

A '96 road cycling Olympian, Dunlap earned a gold medal at the '99 Pan American Games. Her fourth overall in the '99 World Cup series was boosted by her race win at the series opener in Napa, Calif. She was the top American woman (eighth) at the 2000 Olympic test event, and fourth at the '99 World Mountain Bike Championships, and is currently ranked second in the world. Matthes, who competed off-road since 1990, returned to the World Cup scene full time in '99 and finished 12th overall. At the '99 World Mountain Bike Championships, Matthes finished 12th after flatting in the first lap. In '99, Kain made her comeback to mountain biking after two back surgeries. She was 18th at the World Mountain Bike Championships. Out of the six national championship series races, Kain never finished lower than 13th.

Larsen captured the gold medal at the Pan Am Games in Canada. En route to claiming the 1999 short-track cross-country national championship title, Larsen earned two national championship series race wins. Brown earned his first national title in '99, claiming the cross-country national championship title. He took one national championship series race win and never finished lower than sixth at any of the six national races.

1996 Olympic silver medalist Marty Nothstein (Trexlertown, Pa.) headlines the USA Cycling Olympic Long Team for track cycling. Nothstein won the three gold medals at the Pan American Games (match sprint, Keirin and Olympic Sprint), and earned two top-six finishes at the World Track Cycling Championships. Marcelo Arrue (Woodland Hills, Calif.) also qualified in the same three events. The Pan Am winning team pursuit squad of Derek Bouchard-Hall (Palo Alto, Calif.), Mariano Friedick (Brentwood, Calif.), Tommy Mulkey (Winterville, Ga.), Mike Tillman (Santa Monica, Calif.) and Adam Laurent (Shell Beach, Calif.) earned spots on the Olympic Long Team.

Friedick, who also qualified in the individual pursuit, and Laurent were members of the 1996 Olympic squad.

Christian Vande Velde (Boulder, Colo.) captured a World Cup crown in the individual pursuit and like Friedick, also qualified in the team pursuit and individual pursuit. Casey won the individual pursuit at the Pan American Games and is the only cyclist on of both the Olympic Long Team for road and track cycling.

Jame Carney (Durango, Colo.) qualified in the points race following his World Cup rankings (fourth), while Johnny Bairos (Redlands, Calif.) was a member of the Pan Am gold medal Olympic Sprint squad.

Erin Veenstra (Colorado Springs, Colo.) captured two gold medals at the Pan Am Games (points race, individual pursuit) is the top female track cyclist for the United States. She also captured a World Cup event in 1999 and finished sixth at the world championships in the points race. Tanya Lindenmuth (Trexlertown, Pa.) collected national titles in match sprint and 500m-time trial. Lindenmuth, Becky Quinn (Quakertown, Pa.) and Jennie Reed (Kirkland, Wash.) each qualified in the match sprint.

There are 18 medal cycling events at the 2000 Olympic Games, including a dozen medal events in track cycling, which is four more than the 1996 Olympics. USA Cycling qualified for all but the Madison, which will make its debut in Sydney. There are four road cycling events and two mountain biking events slated for Australia.

2000 USA CYCLING OLYMPIC LONG TEAM MEMBERS

Road (four medal events)

Name, Event, Residence

*^Lance Armstrong - Road Race, Individual Time Trial Austin, Texas

*Dylan Casey - Road Race, Mountain View, Calif.

*Karen Dunne - Road Race, Colorado Springs, Colo.

*Elizabeth Emery - Individual Time Trial, Albuquerque, N.M.

Tyler Hamilton - Road Race, Individual Time Trial, Boulder, Colo.

*^George Hincapie - Road Race, Charlotte, N.C.

*Mari Holden - Road Race, Individual Time Trial, Colorado Springs, Colo.

#Marty Jemison - Road Race, Park City, Utah

*Karen Kurreck - Individual Time Trial, Los Altos, Calif.

*Chann McRae - Road Race, Individual Time Trial, Austin, Texas

Jonathan Vaughters - Road Race, Individual Time Trial, Boulder, Colo.

Mountain Biking (2 medal events)

Name - Event, Residence

#Travis Brown - Cross-country, Boulder, Colo.

*^Alison Dunlap - Cross-country, Colorado Springs, Colo.

&Shari Kain - Cross-country, Cupertino, Calif.

&Steve Larsen - Cross-country, Ashland, Ore.

*Ruthie Matthes - Cross-country, Durango, Colo.

Track (12 medal events)

Name - Events, Residence

*Marcelo Arrue - Match Sprint, Keirin, Olympic Sprint, Woodland Hills, Calif.

#Johnny Bairos - Olympic Sprint, Redlands, Calif.

*Derek Bouchard-Hall - Team Pursuit, Palo Alto, Calif.

*^Jame Carney - Points Race, Durango, Colo.

#Dylan Casey - Individual Pursuit, Mountain View, Calif.

*^Mariano Friedick - Team Pursuit, Individual Pursuit, Brentwood, Calif.

*^Adam Laurent - Team Pursuit, Shell Beach, Calif.

#Tanya Lindenmuth - Match Sprint, Trexlertown, Pa.

*Tommy Mulkey - Team Pursuit, Winterville, Ga.

*^Marty Nothstein - Match Sprint, Keirin, Olympic Sprint, Trexlertown, Pa.

#Becky Quinn - Match Sprint, Quakertown, Pa.

#Jennie Reed - Match Sprint, Kirkland, Wash.

#Mike Tillman - Team Pursuit, Santa Monica, Calif.

*Christian Vande Velde - Individual Pursuit, Team Pursuit, Boulder, Colo.

*Erin Veenstra - Points Race, Individual Pursuit, Colorado Springs, Colo.

^ - Past Olympic team member

* - Automatic qualifiers who met the USA Cycling Olympic Long Team nomination criteria.

# - Due to a delay in final approval between USA Cycling Board of Directors and the U.S. Olympic Committee, it was agreed that USA Cycling would use discretionary picks to nominate athletes to the long team who would have qualified by the May 10 qualifying standards that were approved by the USA Cycling Selection Committee and the USA Cycling Board of Directors.