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Your hostesses, the Pedal Queens

Rodeo queen Patricia Peck, a local pediatric dentist, organized the kid's bike rodeo and won the costume contest, scoring a pair of Shimano heat-molding shoes

Veteran New Mexico racer Jennifer Buntz rides to a top-five finish in the slow race

Okay, it's not exactly the North Shore, but it's still fun

Mike Elmer said the Bike-a-GoGo was a great way to promote his touring company, Gran Fondo

A future Pedal Queen tackles the bicycle rodeo

The Lions of Flanders are a fixture at a 'cross race, no matter where it's held.

You have to pay to watch the pro's play.

The snack shack features...

...Belgium’s deep-fried delicacy

Pick your allegiance...

...but be tolerant of other views.

It was a packed house.

The world champ and the rest of the Fidea powerhouse

An early exit from the women's race.

The big race.

Vervecken alone off the back.

Wellens and Nys battle it out in the sand.

Stybar's girlfriend, Ine, was excited to get some flowers

Stybar's other ride. The Czech gets to race on home turf this coming weekend.

McQuaid said the new 'passport' will bring new rigor to testing.

Pound says cycling is heading in the right direction.

Bobby Julich wants another crack at an Olympic medal and has penned a deal to continue with Team CSC through the 2008 season. The veteran all-rounder signed a one-year contract extension with the Danish team, his home since the 2004 season. “I signed after the Tour of Germany for one more year,” Julich told VeloNews in an e-mail. “After missing the Tour de France, I found my morale and really enjoyed helping the team. I am extremely proud to be on the best team in the world for the third year in a row.” Despite missing the 2007 Tour this year after a nasty stomach bug zapped him, Julich

Our latest reader-submitted Photo Gallery is now ready for your viewing pleasure. Of course, a new gallery also means the naming of the winner of our most recent contest. It’s fall and after a long season of racing, it’s time to go out on a quite ride through a beautiful corner of the world. Geln Johannesson’s “Fall Mountain Ride” has us wanting to step away from the keyboard and hit the hills for that peaceful trip through the woods. Please drop us a note at Rosters@InsideInc.comto work out the details and we’ll send you a copy of our new Coors Classic DVD. Meanwhile, go ahead and

The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company,

The Spanish cycling federation on Monday cleared Spanish cyclist Iban Mayo, who tested positive for doping during the 2007 Tour de France, after a second test proved negative, his lawyer and the federation said. The federation informed Mayo "that the B sample had come out negative and for this reason it had ended" its inquiry, Mayo's lawyer, Jose Rodriguez, told AFP. The cycling federation confirmed the news and said there had been a mistake with the first sample. Mayo, a specialist climber, tested positive for blood-booster EPO during the Tour on July 24 and could have been suspended

Julich has his eye on another Olympic medal

Fall Mountain Ride

Neither Lyne Bessette (cyclocrossworld.com) nor Greg Reain (Ride withRendal/Colnago/Time) were able to defend their titles at the Canadian Cyclocross Nationals Sunday in Kamloops, British Columbia, despite riding from the front in their respective races. Instead, Mike Garrigan (Jetpower/Epic Ride) took his first ever national title, while Wendy Simms (Kona-Yourkey.com) returned to the top step of the podium for the first time since back-to-back victories in '03 - '04. With very little elevation change to work with, the organizers went for a tight and twisty circuit. The circuit was

Simms celebrates her return to the Canadian championship.

Matthew Wilson was at a loss for words when, after seven of the most challenging days in his sporting life, it was finally announced he was the winner of the 2007 Jayco Herald Sun Tour. "I don't know what to say... It's the best feeling... I've only had a few victories in my career, and they're all special for different reasons, but this one goes down as probably the best," said the Unibet pro, overjoyed with his victory but also relieved a turbulent week was finally over. From the first stage to the last, won by Astana's Aaron Kemps from a three-man breakaway that

The unseasonably hot weather that has afflicted the East Coast cyclocross season continued at the first Verge MAC event of 2007, Delaware’s UCI C1 Granogue ‘Cross. But it did not keep Tim Johnson and Kerry Barnholt from winning their first-ever Granogue titles by huge margins, and taking home the unique pink-flamingo trophies and a lot of cash.

It’s no secret that cycling is near and dear to the heart of Belgium. No other nation equals this tiny European country’s passion for two-wheeled pursuits, and no other race taps into that love affair like the Tour of Flanders. The annual spring-classic romp around the rolling hills and cobbled roads of northwest Belgium is one of the hardest and most prestigious one-day races on the ProTour calendar. The race is so revered there’s even a museum dedicated to the people and events that have helped shape its 91-year history. The two-story, multi-room display resides in a nondescript,

Save for a botched national-anthem selection during the podium ceremony, Sunday was a perfect day for rising cyclocross star Zdenek Stybar. The first-year pro from the Czech Republic launched a bold attack early in the second of 11 laps at the World Cup opener in Kalmthout, Belgium, and held his lead all the way to the finish. It was the second major victory for the 21-year-old Fidea rider, who also won the under-23 race at the 2006 world championships. Belgian Sven Nys (Rabobank) was a distant second, 33 seconds back of Stybar, with Frenchman Francis Mourey (Française de Jeux) winning a

Johnson takes his first Granouge 'cross victory

Wilson wins the overall

Kemps collects the final stage

That's Johan Bruyneel crawling out of a ditch

A caravan car of yesteryear

The café display

They occasionally fell down back then, too

De Koppenberg's stats

Eddy's piece of the rock

Jerseys then and now

A map of Flanders chaos

The museum sits along the race route

It takes a lot of pasta to win the Ronde

A relic of the past

The Flanders wall of fame

What it's really all about

Stybar rippin' it through the sand

Page got caught in traffic

Stybar on the run

The women's podium

Stybar takes the win

With just one stage to go, Matthew Wilson of Unibet.com is poised to take the biggest victory of his career in the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, riding what may well have been a race-saving, race-winning time trial Saturday in Melbourne. Though the margin is small: a superlative performance against the clock saw Steve Morabito the fastest rider around the short but testing 8.6 kilometer course, his time of 11:32 moving the Astana all-rounder within three seconds of Wilson by the day's end. Right now, however, the yellow jersey appears to have all the confidence in the world in what has been a

A day after the ProTour season finished up at Italy’s Giro di Lombardia, the 2007-08 cyclocross World Cup gets underway Sunday in Kalmthout, Belgium. Junior and under-23 races take up the morning schedule, with the elite women rolling out at 1:30 p.m. and the men following at 3. Among the Americans taking the startline in the day’s final race will be reigning world championship silver medalist Jonathan Page. The New Englander will be making his big time debut in the predominantly yellow jersey of his new Sunweb-Pro Job team. After several years struggling to make ends meet, Page’s

Wilson was the picture of concentration as he readied to defend his jersey

The in-form Steve Morabito (Astana) in the start house, before went on to win his second stage.

Stuart O'Grady (Jayco) did the entire course without a recon - and still finished with the fifth best time of the day.

Cunego easily beats Ricco to the line.

That silver medal has helped Page get back on his feet in many ways.

The Page clan-Jonathan, Cori, Milo and Emma

The new team

Evans takes the ProTour title to cap off an impressive season

October at Lake Como. Can you top that?

Fränk Schleck ran into trouble in the run to the finish.

Cunego played his cards right.

Dear Readers,
Welcome to this week's edition of The Prologue, VeloNews.com's summary of the latest news from the world of competitive cycling.

Chris Eatough (Trek-Volkswagen) and Jari Kirkland (Boulder Performance Network) took convincing victories in the solo categories at the 2007 EAS 24-Hours of Moab. Over 1300 riders competed in the country’s largest 24-hour cross-country mountain-bike race, which celebrated its 13th anniversary. For Eatough, the six-time world 24-hour Solo champion, 2007 marked his first time racing at Moab. The Maryland native had previously bypassed the Moab race in favor of the 24-Hours of Adrenaline world championships. But with that race held this year at California’s Laguna Seca speedway, Eatough opted

It’s mid-October and while the Tour of Lombardy is this weekend, the domestic racing season is over. It’s the time of year when battle-weary riders rest their tired legs, reconnect with family and friends, quit shaving their legs and maybe even put on a few pounds. It’s a time that’s supposed to be relaxing, a short counter-balance to a long and stressful race season that now runs from February’s Amgen Tour of California through September’s USA Crits finals in Las Vegas. Health Net-Maxxis rider Kirk O’Bee has been spending time with his 5-year-old son Samuel, riding him to kindergarten and

It appears to be a case of expect the unexpected at the Jayco Herald Sun Tour. Friday in Wangaratta, a town a stone's throw away from Glenrowan, home of great Australian outlaw Ned Kelly, early race leader Matt Wilson and his Unibet.com team piled on the pressure on a short transitional stage through the north-eastern Victorian countryside. By the day's end and with two stages remaining, the 30-year-old found himself back at the top of the leader-board. The finale was equally exciting, with a breakaway group of three fighting out the finish. Two DFL-Cyclingnews riders, Cameron

While two-time defending world champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step-Innergetic) is heavily favored to score his third consecutive Tour of Lombardy victory on Saturday, the venerable 242km fall classic is not the only title in play. The 2007 ProTour series is also up for grabs because the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) this week handed longtime ProTour leader Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas) a three-month suspension for his implication in the 2004 Oil for Drugs scandal, which caused the UCI to drop him from the standings. These developments put the consistent Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) into the

You have to appreciate the matter-of-fact frankness of Sven Nys. With the 2007-2008 cyclocross World Cup set to commence Sunday in Kalmthout, the Belgian has set a simple but lofty season-long goal. “It is nothing special, I just want to be the best rider of season,” said the Rabobank rider during an exclusive interview with VeloNews at his modest two-story home in Baal. “That is my goal every year. I don’t have one important race. For me every race is important. That’s how people know me – I am good from the first race to the last and I try to win every time.” Of course even the

Pete Lopinto is one of several talented riders now looking for work.

O'Bee hopes the Stars-n-Stripes jersey will catch the eye of some directors out there.

Stetina wants to race in Europe, but may opt to ride in the U.S. for '08.

The consumate support rider, Stefano Barberi still managed to claim the KOM jersey at Mt. Hood.