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The goal for each day is to get some rest.

Ciolek makes it two in a row

Juan Mauricio Soler (Barloworld) still had enough gas in the tank after winning the polka-dot jersey at the Tour de France to claw his way to victory in the grueling stage at the Lagunas de Neila on Wednesday and slip into the overall leader’s jersey at the Vuelta a Burgos. The Colombian climber dropped the favorites on the final ramps of the always-decisive climbing stage in the five-day race in northern Spain. He soloed across the line 17 seconds ahead of Carlos Castaño (Karpin-Galicia) and José Ángel Gómez Marchante (Saunier Duval-Prodir), with pre-race favorite Alejandro Valverde

The Belgian-Swedish Unibet.com team will cease operations at the end of the season, Belgian TV network Sporza reported on Wednesday. “We knew it was coming,” general manager Koen Terryn told Sporza. “Unfortunately, we need to tell our riders that they have to look for new teams next year.” While it had successfully obtained a ProTour license at the onset of the 2007 season, Unibet.com soon became the focal point of an ongoing power struggle between the sport’s governing body and the organizers of the three grand tours, the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. In

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,

T-Mobile speedster Gerald Ciolek won the sixth stage of the Tour of Germany after a sprint finish through the foothills of the Austrian Alps into Kufstein on Wednesday. The 20-year-old German was the first home after covering the largely flat route from 175km from Laegenfeld in three hours, 57mins and 40 seconds as CSC's Jens Voigt retained the yellow jersey. Ciolek had to work hard to hold off a challenge from the chasing pack including strong finishers such as Italians Danilo Napolitano, Paolo Bettini and German Erik Zabel which pushed him hard to the line. "I waited until the last

Voigt did the jersey proud on Tuesday.

Even Unibet's effort to circumvent the whole betting issue didn't work.

Ciolek held off some of the best.

Alberto Contador is on vacation this week, but he’ll probably be spending more time than he would like working the phone after last week’s news that his Discovery Channel team is disbanding at the end of the season. The standing Tour de France champion is without a secure future – not to mention most of the other riders and staff on the Discovery Channel payroll. Where Contador could likely end up depends on what kind of reception his new manager, Tony Rominger, receives from prospective ProTour teams. Doubts over Contador’s alleged links to the Operación Puerto investigation could

What say we give tire rolling resistance a rest this week?First, I wanted to tell you a little about the party we threw on August5 for the 25th anniversary of Zinn Cycles. Such a milestone does not comealong too often, and it was very interesting putting together the memorabiliacollected over a quarter of a century for the party. While it became brutally clear that the people who tell me and my wifethat we look the same as we did in college are stretching the truth, afar more interesting thing was to see how bikes have changed since 1982.I hope this doesn’t bore you (if so, skip to the

Caisse d'Epargne’s David Lopez Garcia won the fifth stage of the Tour of Germany between Sonthofen and the 2671-meter hors categorie mountain-top finish on top of Austria’s Rettenbachferner climb. Lopez Garcia took the win, but CSC’s Jens Voigt rode impressively to retain his grip on the overall race lead. The Spaniard moved out of a strong lead group some three kilometers from the finish and resisted a strong effort by defending champion Voigt to cross the line at 2670 meters altitude alone after 157.6km of racing. Voigt, wearing the yellow jersey since Saturday, finished just 12

Contador faced Puerto questions last week.

More than bikes, Zinn Cycles produced a lot of friends and tons of memories...

It was the '80s.

One of VeloNews's younger editors checks out a vintage MTB.

Technical Q&A with Lennard Zinn - Happy Anniversary!

Lopez Garcia handles the toughest climb of the Tour with style.

Voigt was inspired by the jersey.

Zinn Cycles isn't the only thing 25 years older. Both the company and its owner seem to be doing just fine.

Alejandro Valverde headlines this week’s Vuelta a Burgos starting Tuesday in northern Spain in a race that’s replete with Vuelta a España favorites. The likes of Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and José Ángel Gómez Marchante (Saunier Duval-Prodir) are using the five-day stage race as a trampoline for the Vuelta podium, but Valverde is skipping the Spanish grand tour to prepare especially for the world championships. Valverde disappointed Vuelta organizers last week when he said he would be skipping the September 1 start in Vigo, leaving the Spanish tour bereft of its 2006 podium

Valverde will skip the Vuelta a España to concentrate on world's, but the Vuelta a Burgos fits into his plan.

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,

Lampre’s Damiano Cunego enjoyed his first stage win at the Tour of Germany Monday, grabbing victory on the fourth stage as the tour entered the foothills of the Alps. The 25-year-old Cunego claimed victory on the 183.8km route between Singen and Sonthofen, which featured two rated climbs – the Category 3 Linden berg and the Cat. 2 climb up the 1420-meter-tall Riedbergpass. had two climbs, winning in a time of 4:28:06. Cunego, who moved ahead of the main field on the day’s final climb, stayed away with an elite group. The Lampre rider finished in a time of 4:28:06, narrowly edging out

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. This last round of photos offered up a nice selection, but Andy Berry’s “El Diablo in London” caught our eye. We’ve known the irrepressible Didi Senft for years and we consider him to be a real asset to cycling. For one thing, cycling fans can tell fans of nearly any other sport “our crazy superfan is cooler than your crazy superfan.” Andy, please drop us a note at Rosters@InsideInc.comto work out the details and we’ll

Cunego gets his first win at the Deutschland Tour.

El Diablo in London.

Swiss cyclists Christoph Sauser (Specialized) and Petra Henzi (Fischer-BMC) took the 2007 UCI marathon cross-country world championshipson Sunday in Verveirs, Belgium. The rolling 105km course sent riders on a fire-road and single-track tour of Belgium’s Ardennes forest. Sauser, a three-time World Cup cross-country champ, rode at the front with defending marathon champ Ralph Naf of Switzerland for the opening 80km. With 25km remaining, Naf suffered a chain malfunction and let Sauser slip away. While he eventually remounted his rig and gave chase, an untimely puncture knocked Naf out of the

World championship silver medalist Erik Zabel (Milram) won the third stage on the Tour of Germany Sunday in Offenburg while defending champion Jens Voigt (CSC) retained the yellow jersey. Zabel, 37, proved quickest over the 181.8km course between Pforzheim through the stunning Black Forest to Offenburg to claim the 13th tour win of his career. Zabel sealed the victory in a tight sprint, winning in a time of 4 hours, 49 minutes and 25 seconds to finish just ahead of Spaniard Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Caisse d'Epargne) and Australian Bradley McGee (Française des Jeux). Defending champion

Zberg opens Tour de l’Ain with winSwiss national champion Beat Zberg (Gerolsteiner) soloed to victory on Sunday in the first stage of the Tour de l’Ain, a 154km run between Montluel and Hauteville. Zberg takes the yellow leader’s jersey going into Monday’s second stage, a 159.5km leg from Lagnieu to Bellignat. Tour de l’AinStage 11. Beat Zberg (Swi), Gerolsteiner, 154km in 3:24:502. Niels Brouzes (F), Auber 93, at 0:063. Giovanni Visconti (I), Quick Step-Innergetic, same time4. Joahnn Tschopp (Swi), Bouygues Telecom, s.t.5. Bauke Mollema (Nl), RB3, s.t.6. Stijn Devolder (B), Discovery

Health Net-Maxxis rider Nathan O’Neill kept up his winning ways over the weekend at the Alexian Brothers Tour of Elk Grove, held outside of Chicago. The Australian time-trial specialist took the overall at the two-day, three-stage event as he has done many times this season, by winning the race against the clock and defending his lead over the two remaining stages. The event, now in its second-year with a prize purse totaling $152,000, changed its format from a one-day criterium to include a 4.5-mile prologue and an 80km circuit race held on Saturday, August 11, and a 110km criterium over a

Katerina Nash and Geoff Kabush used last-lap surges to claim the men’s and women’s short-track races at the 2007 National Mountain Bike Series finals on Sunday in Snowmass, Colorado. In doing so, both athletes narrowly wrapped up the short-track series overall. Nash, a former Olympic Nordic skier and current Czech national cross-country champion, came into the NMBS finals nursing a slight lead on Luna teammate Georgia Gould. The two traded short-track wins throughout the 2007 season, with Gould taking the first and third rounds and Nash grabbing the second, fourth and fifth. With riders

Sauser wins

Zabel wins

Dominguez nails the final stage

Nash makes a final charge to the line.

Kabush went head-to-head with JHK,

The appeals committee of the Italian Cycling Federation has asked that the case of cyclist Alessandro Petacchi, who tested positive for Salbutamol during the Giro d’Italia, should be heard before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The FCI cleared the 33-year-old sprint ace of doping last month claiming that human error was to blame for his positive test for Salbutamol, a medication primarily used to treat asthma, in May, which resulted in his Milram team barring him from the Tour de France. He has since returned to competition.Petacchi has a Therapeutic Use Exemption for the drug,

The 2007 National Mountain Bike Series concludes this weekend at Snowmass Resort near Aspen, Colorado. The high-altitude mountain recreation area, which tops out at just over 12,000 feet, will treat cross-country and gravity racers alike to their thinnest air of the season. The weekend will include the full schedule of NMBS events, with cross-country and mountain-cross being held on Saturday, August 11, and short track, downhill and Super D rounding out the weekend on August 12. Many eyes will undoubtedly be focused on Coloradan Georgia Gould of the Luna women’s mountain-bike team this

Defending champion Jens Voigt was pleased to be in the Tour of Germany's yellow jersey after his CSC team won Saturday's team time trial in Bretten. The Danish team was the fastest over the Tour's second-stage around the 42.2km course in the south-west German town of Bretten, winning in a time of 51mins 40.61 seconds. "The time trial went well for us," said Voigt, 35, who has now won four stages on the Tour in his career. "It shows how important every second is and we made a good start on Friday. "I am really pleased to get the yellow jersey, I will try and keep it for as long

Five-time Leadville Trail 100 mountain-bike race winner Dave Wiens was first across the line again on Saturday, but Floyd Landis — despite a bloody crash early on — finished right behind him in second. Wiens completed the out-and-back course in 6:58:46, bettering last year's finish of 7 hours and 13 minutes, with Landis crossing less than two minutes behind him. Mike Kloser was third, some 10 minutes off the pace. Landis, riding on a surgically repaired hip, told The Associated Press that he crashed about an hour into the race. At the finish he sported scrapes on elbows and forearms,

Capping a season that saw her spring to the top of American women’s cross-country racing, Georgia Gould won the sixth and final round of the 2007 National Mountain Bike Series on Sunday in Snowmass, Colorado. In doing so, the Coloradan became only the second woman in series history to sweep the series. Mountain biking great Juli Furtado, owner of 26 NORBA cross-country wins, swept the old NORBA series in 1993. Gould already had the overall locked up heading into the Snowmass finals. Still, the 27-year-old admitted the buzz surrounding her potentially flawless season brought some extra

It looks like Petacchi is going to be fighting this for a while.

CSC powers to victory

Gould sweeps the series

Kabush: Hey, a win's a win

The top two. Landis finished less than two minutes down on Weins

Tour de France winner Alberto Contador publicly declared he’s a clean rider in the face of increasing suspicions about his alleged links to the Operación Puerto blood-doping ring. On Friday, Contador took the extraordinary step of making a public statement to try to counter growing media antagonism in the wake of his impressive Tour victory. Contador declined to take questions from reporters. “I have never doped and I have never participated in an act of doping,” said Contador, reading from his prepared statement Friday. “I won the Tour clean. I cannot understand the attacks against me by

With the September 1 start of the Vuelta a España just three weeks away, the Spanish race is spending 180,000 euros to try to make the 2007 edition the cleanest version ever. And following the devastating news of the blood doping positive of last year’s third-place podium man Andrey Kashechkin, race organizers are raising new questions on whether they want to see the team of defending champion Alexandre Vinokourov at the start in Vigo. “The facts will determine the participation of the team. We’ve spoken with the team directors and they’ve told us they will take measures,” Vuelta race

Despite one of the sport’s most impressive win records, the U.S.-based Discovery Channel team has failed in efforts to secure a new title sponsor and will cease operations at the end of the season. Tailwind Sports, the parent company of the team, announced Friday that the program will end with the 2007 cycling season. Tailwind officials were apparently unable to parlay a series of eight Tour de France victories over nine years into a satisfactory sponsorship arrangement. “Tailwind has had an amazing 10 years of success with U.S. Postal and more recently Discovery Channel as its title

German cyclist Robert Förster was delighted to give his Gerolsteiner team a winning start to the Tour of Germany when he won the opening stage in Saarbrücken Friday. The 29-year-old Förster won the 183.7km stage in a time of 4:24:16, finishing a field sprint ahead of Danilo Napolitano (Lampre-Fondital) and Milram’s Erik Zabel. Förster will wear the yellow jersey for Saturday's 42.2kms team time trial in Bretten. "This is an important win for us as a team," said Foerster after picking up his first stage win of the German tour. "Everything ran smoothly, the team rode strongly to help me.

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,

Even winning the Tour de France couldn’t help Discovery Channel in its search to find a replacement title sponsor for beyond the 2007 season. Less than two weeks after Alberto Contador won the team’s eighth Tour in nine years, officials from Tailwind Sports officially threw in the towel in their hunt to procure a new sponsor. They blamed a laundry list of cycling’s ills for their failure to convince a sponsor to pony up an estimated $15 million per year to underwrite the ProTour team’s annual budget. “We couldn’t in good conscience ask someone to spend the sort of money that it would

"Maybe I ain't funny no more, you know? Like, maybe I ain't angry at nothin', for real, in my heart. I'm just not mad about it. I don't get it. You mother(bleep)ers want to kill yourselves, that's your business. Just don't do it on my porch." — Richard Pryor, “Live on the Sunset Strip” Cycling’s been good to me. When I first started working for VeloNews back in the late Eighties, I thought I had finally fused profession with passion. Two years later, when I quit newspapering for the tenuous career of a free-lancer, I was certain of it. Cover the occasional bike

Contador has launched an effort to protect his reputation.

Tour winner Alberto Contador was fending off doping allegations in Madrid, as Discovery was folding up its tent in Austin.

Hincapie visits with T-Mobile manager Bob Stapleton at this year's Tour of California.

Förster gets the win

Kurt Vonnegut's picture of cycling

For the past year and a half, mountain-bike icon Tom Ritchey has aimed his time and energy at Project Rwanda. Alongside a growing number of volunteers, Ritchey has undertaken an ambitious plan to help revitalize the central African nation’s economy and public image through the use of the bicycle. Ritchey's involvement with the project centers on designing affordable bicycles to help Rwandan coffee growers distribute their crop. Boyer's job is to establish and develop a team of elite Rwandan cyclists. With a group of reporters, tourists and cyclists in tow, both men will travel to

Tom Ritchey

Ready to ride in Rwanada

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the latest edition of The Prologue, the weekly summary of the news from the world of competitive cycling by your friends at VeloNews.com.

The professional peloton is in post-Tour mode and turning its collective attention to the rest of the season and there's still plenty going on out there.

Geman telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom will remain as the title sponsor of the T-Mobile cycling team until 2010, spokesman Christian Frommert said Thursday. “We remain committed to cycling until 2010,” declared Frommert at a press conference in Saarbrücken ahead of Friday’s start of the Tour of Germany. “Since the end of the Tour de France, we had a series of in-house discussions and met with the team, the German cycling federation and television networks,” Frommert explained. “After a lot of consideration, we concluded that to leave cycling at a time this sport is in crisis would

Linus Gerdemann, who held the yellow jersey for a day on this year's Tour de France, is hoping to win this year's Tour of Germany and restore some pride to German cycling, battered by a succession of doping problems. Having won a stage in this year's Tour de France, the 24-year-old is full of confidence for his home country's event which starts in Saarbrücken on Friday and runs till the following Saturday. "I have felt good since the end of the Tour and I think I can do something special here," said the T-Mobile rider. The reputation of cycling in Germany has been badly

American Taylor Phinney (TIAA-CREF-5280) rode to a world time trial title on Thursday with a victory in the race against the clock at the 2007 UCI Junior Road and Track World Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Phinney clocked a time of 37 minutes, 28.10 seconds over the 28-kilometer course to beat silver medalist John Degenkolb of Germany by 24 seconds. Nikita Novikov of Russia was third, 30 seconds off the pace of Phinney. Phinney’s world championship was the second medal for the U.S. National Team on Thursday after Californian Jerika Hutchinson won the bronze medal in the

Manager Bob Stapleton will continue to lead the T-Mobile program.

Frommert fields questions at a Thursday press conference in Saarbrücken.

Gerdemann took the yellow jersey.

Gerdemann on stage 7 of the Tour de France.

Taylor Phinney, the new world junior TT champion

Bobby Julich will take aim for the U.S. national championships next month to earn the Stars ‘n’ Stripes jersey for what will likely be his final year as a pro. The 35-year-old said he’s close to penning a one-year contract extension that will keep him in a Team CSC jersey through the 2008 season. And he’d love nothing better than to win the national title, which has eluded him in his otherwise successful 15-year pro career. “I’d like to try to win a national jersey finally. Either the time trial or the road race, I don’t care. I’d take anything,” Julich said. “It would be fun to have the

Bobby Julich will take aim for the U.S. national championships next month to earn the Stars ‘n’ Stripes jersey for what will likely be his final year as a pro. The 35-year-old said he’s close to penning a one-year contract extension that will keep him in a Team CSC jersey through the 2008 season. And he’d love nothing better than to win the national title, which has eluded him in his otherwise successful 15-year pro career. “I’d like to try to win a national jersey finally. Either the time trial or the road race, I don’t care. I’d take anything,” Julich said. “It would be fun to have the

Tour de France winner Alberto Contador has scheduled a press event this Friday in Spain, but says he will decline to answer reporters’ questions after he reads a prepared statement. Contador issued a release Wednesday notifying media of his plans to read a statement at the offices of Spain’s national sports council – the Consejo Superior de Deportes - in Madrid. Contador will be accompanied by Discovery Channel team director Johann Bruyneel. Since winning the 2007 Tour de France, Contador has been the subject of heightened scrutiny regarding his possible involvement with Eufemio Fuentes,

The Astana cycling team announced Wednesday that Kazakh Andrey Kashechkin tested positive for homologous blood doping following an out-of-competition test in Belek, Turkey on August 1. Kashechkin was suspended by the team pending the outcome of his B sample, should he request that the follow-up test be conducted. Kashechkin's teammate, Alexander Vinokourov was suspended following his own positive for homologous blood doping - the use of a donor's red blood cells to enhance endurance - during the Tour de France. "The positive test by Kasheckin is another blow to the credibility of

Barloworld’s Ryan Cox died on August 1st from complications related to his recent surgery to treat a condition known as iliac artery endofibrosis. Since the death of the 28-year-old cyclist, I’ve received several questions about the problem that led to his surgery and the complications that ultimately took his life. Iliac artery endofibrosis is surprisingly common among elite cyclists and speedskaters. Indeed, two of the men on the Colavita-Sutter Home squad have undergone this same procedure within the last year: Charles Dionne and Hayden Godfrey. Both, thankfully, have had successful

Julich wants to end his career in a slightly different kit.

Ask the Doctor: Ryan Cox and iliac artery endofibrosis