N.Z. NOT INCLUDED

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31143, 20 August 1966, Page 17

N.Z. NOT INCLUDED

Changes For Cycle Tour (N.Z.P.. 4. -Reuter—Copyright) PARIS. Australia may be one of many nations invited to take part in a “new look” Tour de France cycle race next year. But New Zealand, at present, has not been mentioned as a possible contestant. Organisers of the tour, the world’s longest and toughest cycling race, announced yesterday that it will revert next year to being an international event, with competing national teams. In 1960 the tour was split into two races run over almost identical routes: a race for commercially-backed professional teams not representing countries, and the Tour de I’Avenir over a slightly shorter distance for national teams of amateurs. The organisers said they would invite 12 to 15 national teams for the 1967 race, in which amateurs and professionals would compete side by side. Countries certain to be invited, said the organisers, were France, Belgium. Italy, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland. and Britain. Other countries which might also be invited were the Soviet Union, nations of North and South America, Australia. Japan, Poland, Czechoslovakia. Jugoslavia. Rumania, and the Scandinavian countries.