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Kroon and CSC at the front

Cunego and Guerini in the day's big break

Rabobank on defense

Piepoli has a dig

Menchov wins

Sastre thinks Menchov and Piepoli have aligned themselves against him

[nid:40410]Two years ago, Denis Menchov was declared victor of the Vuelta a España months after Roberto Heras tested positive for EPO and was eventually dethroned. The Rabobank rider never enjoyed his moment on the winner’s podium and remains bitter about the whole business. Flash forward to Sunday’s first of two decisive climbing stages across the Spanish Pyrénées, when the soft-spoken Russian followed the attacking Leonardo Piepoli to climb solidly into the leader’s jersey .

Australian Sam Hill and Frenchwoman Sabrina Jonnier successfully defended their world downhill titles on Sunday, each posting the fastest run down Fort William’s famously rocky, technical track. Hill squeaked by 2004-05 world champ Fabien Barel of France by a mere 0.84 second, while Jonnier enjoyed a wide 4.01-second advantage over Rachel Atherton of Great Britain. The famously damp Scottish Highlands served up plenty of rain and mist for the final day of the September 3-9 UCI world mountain-bike championships. The worst weather of the weeklong event pounded the Nevis range throughout the

Piepoli and Menchov both got something out of today's stage

Menchov: In yellow, but cautious

Piepoli is content to hunt stage wins

Overnight leader Devolder suffered a meltdown

Going up

Anton and Van Huffel in the escape

Menchov and Piepoli working to their mutual advantage

It was a bad day for Pereiro, who finally abandoned

The peloton

Nearly three minutes ahead of a confusion-laden finale, and after some 160 kilometers in the breakaway, Will Frischkorn (Slipstream-Chipotle) soloed to victory in the Univest Grand Prix in Souderton, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Frischkorn launched a perfect counter following teammate Tim Duggan’s probing attack with eight laps of the race’s 5-kilometer finishing circuit remaining. Duggan and Frischkorn accounted for half of a four-man break that entered the finishing loops together following a challenging 109-kilometer loop through the Montgomery County countryside. Together with Columbian

His image projected three stories high on a massive television screen, American Brian Lopes stood atop the podium Friday evening, arms raised in triumph, having just won the men’s four-cross world championship in Fort William, Scotland. Techno music deafened the 10,000-strong crowd gathered at the base of Fort William’s fast, winding track to watch the nighttime event take place under bright lights. A display of fireworks exploded overhead, and a smoke machine churned out thick clouds of white. The scene was a stark contrast to anything Lopes has seen in North America, where mountain-cross

Stijn Devolder (Discovery Channel) became stronger as the 52.2km individual time trial into Zaragoza unfolded to surge into the overall leader’s jersey Saturday at the Vuelta a España. His rivals are hoping that trend doesn’t continue going into a pair of decisive climbing stages in the Pyrénées, or this Vuelta might well be over.

Cycling's international governing body, the UCI, on Saturday upheld its earlier decision to exclude Spain’s Alejandro Valverde from the World Cycling Championships in Stuttgart at the end of the month. The announcement comes after the Spanish cycling federation openlydefied the UCI by registering Valverde for the championships. Valverde's participation at the event on September 25-30 had been up in the air because of growing suspicions over his alleged links to the Operación Puerto doping affair in Spain. Operación Puertoerupted in May 2006 after police raided the premises of

Frenchman Julien Absalon grabbed the 2007 world cross-country championship, and in doing so became the first man in the history of the discipline to win four elite world titles. The Swiss duo of Ralph Naf and Florian Vogel finished second and third, respectively. Absalon attacked a 10-man lead group containing rivals Jose Hermida (Spain) and Christoph Sauser (Switzerland) on the third long descent of the six-lap race and held his advantage to the end. “I had 15 seconds and decided I would try to go it alone and try to keep this jersey,” Absalon said. “That was the main goal of the season,

Wind. Friend, foe, annoyance and pain in the ass...literally. The last three days have been ridden in and around Zarragoza home of tumbleweed and wind. There isn't anything to stop the wind around here other than the occasional guard rail or rock. So everyone knows when they come in this area it is gonna be spectacular in some way, shape or form. So that is no doubt why the organizers always seem to map the race through this area, it certainly isn't because of the spectators. And of course it didn't disappoint. Spills, thrills and Zarragoza. It splits the field, causes tension

German TT champion Grabsch says he has world's in mind.

Devolder's third-place finish was the best of the GC contenders

Devolder takes over

Menchov expects a big fight for GC.

Backstedt rode an impressive race.

Evans finished in 11th at 2:20.

Gerolsteiner's Stefan Schumacher comes in sixth at 1:52

McCartney turned in a stellar performance for seventh, at 1:55.

Vladimir Efimkin managed to hold on to third place on GC.

The clothes make the man and Absalon likes this outfit just fine, thank you.

Kalentieva finally broke loose from her Chinese pursuer.

It’s no secret why Steve Peat’s smiling mug is prominently featured in the official logo for the 2007 UCI world mountain-bike championships in Fort William, Scotland. As his country’s undisputed mountain-bike hero, “Peaty” draws huge crowds whenever he straps on a race number in the U.K. And for Great Britain’s first crack at hosting mountain-bike racing’s biggest annual event, organizers are banking that tens of thousands will journey into the Scottish Highlands to watch Peaty and the rest of the gravity gang do their thing. Early ticket sales have organizers predicting 30,000 spectators

Steve Peat's presence at the opening ceremony parade attracted a crowd

Aussie Sam Hill knows how to win at Fort William

American Brian Lopes is North America's best shot at gold in the men's four cross

Dear Readers,

Welcome to this week's edition of The Prologue, the weekly summary of news from the world of professional cycling by your friends at VeloNews.com.

Perhaps Oscar Freire has a sixth sense. After winning three out of the first six stages at the Vuelta a España, the Rabobank sprinter had his crash radar up and decided to take himself out of Friday’s sprint into Zaragoza. Sure enough. There was a nasty spill with about 30km to go that took down American Christian Vande Velde (CSC) when the peloton was roaring at 65kph to erase the day’s main breakaway.

Spaniard Margarita Fullana and Austrian Michael Weiss have been declared "unfit to compete" in the 2007 UCI World mountain-bike championships in Fort William, Scotland, after failing pre-race medical blood screenings. Both cross-country racers are slated to leave the event after their national teams learned of the results. Weiss, a 26-year-old on the Team Bikin’ Cyprus professional mountain-bike team, recorded a high red blood cell count during a test carried on Thursday, September 6. The UCI tested teams from Austria, Belgium, South Africa, Denmark and Sweden, and Weiss was the only rider

Evans believes in Vuelta chancesCadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) was the big question mark coming into this year’s Vuelta a España. Would the Tour de France runner-up come to Spain intent on winning the Vuelta or was he here instead to prepare for the world championships? Evans admitted he didn’t even know the answer to that question until Tuesday’s climbing stage at Lagos de Covadonga. Despite having the Spanish Armada and Russian émigré Denis Menchov ganging up on him, Evans held tough and enters Saturday’s decisive time trial as the heavy favorite to ride into contention for overall

Hours after Jakob Fuglsang crossed the finish line to win the men’s U23 cross-country world championship, the 22-year-old from Denmark still sported an ear-to-ear grin. The expression showed Fuglsang’s joy at taking his first-ever world title, and his surprise of finally toppling Switzerland’s Nino Schurter. “I cannot describe how happy I am right now,” Fuglsang said at a post-race press conference. “We have battled a lot the last few years, but I told myself that it was not impossible to beat him.” Toppling Schurter was a stiff task, given the young Swiss’ track record. Schurter

Zabel didn't find out he'd won until he got to the team bus.

Euskaltel's Sanchez was one of many riders taken out in the crash near the finish.

Another warm day on the road.

The day's break ended predictably

Discovery's McCartney

Efimkin will have to dig deep to keep the jersey after Saturday's time trial

Fuglsang

Schurter sped off early, but was finally beat on the final lap

Fuglsang (center) looked mighty pleased on the podium while Schurter (left) couldn't hide his dissapointment.

American Sam Schultz scored his best-ever finish as a U23

I love it when a plan comes together!Col. John "Hannibal" SmithThe A-Team We don't have the strongest team out there, but we made the most outof every member of the team on Tuesday. In the process we squeezed outevery possible second from the opposition.Carlos is looking good and he is more secure with the team by the daywhich makes him calm and relaxed and that makes us calm......and on andon.Placing three of us in the break sounds better than it really is, giventhat there were 38 of us! But two of us climb quite well and we used thatto launch Carlos up the Covadonga: Me for the middle

Oscar Freire (Rabobank) is slipperier than a fish in the fast-moving waters of the bunch sprints at the Vuelta a España. For the better part of Thursday’s 184.3km sixth stage across Spain’s Rioja wine country, Freire was jabbering with friends at the back of the peloton, flitting around as if killing time before getting down to the business end of the stage.

In 2006 the Swiss trio of Mathias Flückiger, Martin Fanger and Pascal Meyer swept the junior podium at the world championships in Rotorua, New Zealand. All three graduated to the U23 ranks for 2007, however Switzerland retained its gold medal, thanks to the powerful riding of Thomas Litscher The 19-year-old climbed away from Poland’s Piotr Brzozka on the second of four laps to take the title. Crossing the line third was Great Britain’s David Fletcher, who gave the host country its first medal of the games. With the win, Litscher added the junior world title to his Junior European

It’s going to take more than a nasty crash to keep Christian Vande Velde from finishing this year’s Vuelta a España. The 31-year-old American is racing what’s his last major European race in a Team CSC jersey before switching to the up-and-coming Slipstream squad for the 2008 season and he wants to go out on a winning note. “I didn’t want to stop the race. The truth is, I felt horrible and I’m still pretty beat up. I still don’t feel great,” Vande Velde told VeloNews. “I want to go out with CSC on a good note. I hope to feel better in the coming days.” Vande Velde crashed twice in the

Freire gets win No. 3 on this year's Vuelta

Switzerland's Litscher took the win

And they're off!

Fletcher's bronze marks the first podium spot for the host country this year.

Freire and Bettini chatting away

Backstedt leads the break on a descent

Fun with heat and wind

A different viewpoint

Quick Step chases

But Freire got the win

And Efimkin keeps the jersey

Vande Velde is looking forward to joining Slipstream for 2008

With a few short weeks before the 2007 world championship road race, Oscar Freire (Rabobank) looks almost unbeatable in the sprint as he aims for his fourth rainbow jersey in Stuttgart on September 30. [nid:40358]The three-time world champ scored his second win in five days in Wednesday’s 157.4km fifth stage at the Vuelta a España with an explosive sprint that left the rest in the peloton shaking their heads in disbelief.

Bjarne Riis’s self-imposed exile is over and the controversial Dane returned to his spot behind the wheel of the CSC team car following weeks of seclusion in the wake of his admission that he doped on the way to his 1996 Tour de France victory. It’s Riis’s first race appearance since deciding to skip the 2007 Tour following a dramatic confession that he used the banned blood booster EPO and other illegal performance-enhancing drugs during his racing career. “I considered leaving the sport. It was a very difficult period for me, but I took my responsibility,” Riis said outside the Team CSC

In 2006 the Chinese duo of Ren Chengyuan and Ying Liu shocked the women’s cross-country crowd by dominating the U23 women’s field in their first-ever world championship race, held in Rotorua, New Zealand. In 2007 the duo came into the U23 championship race in Fort William, Scotland as marked women, however the result was nearly the same. While Chengyuan crossed the line first in 2006, it was Liu who took top honors and the rainbow stripes this year. Chengyuan held the advantage over Liu at the midway point, but Liu took the lead for good on the third of four laps. Chengyuan suffered a

Officials from the Spanish cycling federation say there is no new evidence that Alejandro Valverde worked with alleged Puerto ringleader Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes and will not prevent him from starting next month’s world championships Last week, the UCI said a review of 6000 pages of evidence found in the Operación Puerto files revealed that Valverde was linked to the alleged doping ring and insisted that the Spanish cycling federation open an inquiry against the defending ProTour champion. Spanish officials said this week that after a review of documents forwarded by the UCI that there’s no

Freire beats two stage winners on his way to his second win of this Vuelta.

Riis spokewith VeloNews outside the CSC bus this morning