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Andreu - seen here at Paris-Nice in 2000 - said his brush with EPO use was limited, but wanted to come clean to help the sport.

A sweet, if slightly soggy victory

Vinokourov is now in second on GC, but that 1:42 might be a tough hurdle.

The climb up the Calar Alto is among Europe's great climbs.

Danielson is riding back into form - and the top-10

On the way to the Atlantic

Will there be a La Ruta repeat

Bishop was 5th in 2005

Coast-to-coast racing

Cuesta drives hard for Sastre... but they couldn't shed Valverde.

Then, Sastre tried on his own...

...and again.

Stage 1 profile

Stage 2 profile

Stage 3 profile

CSC turns up the heat

Martinez is closing in on the climber's jersey.

.. but there was no interest in seeing an early break get anywhere.

Landaluze works to bridge the gap...

Big win for Euskaltel's new guy.

Discovery Channel scored an important milestone last week when Egoi Martinez won the 11th stage into Burgos. With Janez Brajkovic’s run in the Vuelta’s gold jersey, the team has won a stage and held the leader’s jersey in all three of this year’s grand tours. That’s motivating stuff for a team that long grew accustomed to wearing the leader’s jerseys at the end of the season’s grand tours. Times have certainly changed for Discovery Channel following the retirement of seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong. Discovery Channel boss Johan Bruyneel is far from nostalgic, however.

Tour de France winner Floyd Landis blames his positive doping test on the French laboratory that examined his sample, according to a story in a Pennsylvania newspaper published Sunday. In a story posted on the website of the Intelligencer of suburban Philadelphia, Landis confirmed plans to ask Monday that the result be thrown out because of "contradictions" between his "A" and "B" samples. "On Monday we'll submit a request for the case to be dropped because, based on the 'A' and the 'B' sample, there are too many contradictions for the two to be the same sample," Landis

USA Cycling has announced the elite teams that will represent the United States at the 2006 UCI Road World Championships September 19-24 in Salzburg, Austria. In the elite men’s division, the United States qualified the maximum nine riders in the road race and will field a team consisting of six UCI ProTour veterans and three domestic-based pros. ProTour riders Chris Horner (Bend, Ore./Davitamon-Lotto) Fred Rodriguez (Emeryville, Calif./Davitamon-Lotto), Christian VandeVelde (Boulder, Colo./CSC), Tyler Farrar (Wenatchee, Wash./Cofidis), Patrick McCarty (Allen, Texas/Phonak), and Guido Trenti

There are six days to go in the Vuelta – five if you don't count the last stage into Madrid, which is essentially a parade. Nonetheless, on today's rest day we are still resting, napping and lounging around with our legs up, as the three days ahead of us are some of the hardest of the twenty one we will have raced. Yesterday, the stage was controlled, the peloton lethargic in the strong headwind, and the final outcome one we could have all predicted: a sprint finish. The day was, however, a long one as the race started early so that we could fit in an afternoon plane and bus transfer

American Jill Kintner (GT) had the 2006 four-cross World Cup title sewed up before she even set foot in Schladming, Austria, for the finals. It was a good thing — a nasty crash at the Jeep King of the Mountains finals in Beaver Creek, Colorado, left the 24-year old two-time world champ with a shredded shoulder. The injury kept Kintner out of the race, but allowed her to do some reporting for VeloNews.com.—Editor The dream team did it again, as Sam Hill and Sabrina Jonnier (Monster-Iron Horse) took wins Sunday at the final round of World Cup downhill racing in Schladming, Austria. Jonnier

Bruyneel is overseeing some big changes at Discovery.

Brajkovic could be the new star of the future.

View from the Bench: Injured Kintner covers World Cup gravity finals

Sunday’s mostly downhill 182km run from Spain’s central plateau to the sunny Mediterranean coast went according to script, with a brave breakaway falling short and German ace Robert Forster winning a frenetic mass sprint. The Gerolsteiner rider outkicked Stuart O’Grady (CSC) to take the first mass gallop in a week while Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) retained his 48-second grip on the overall leader’s jersey. “It was very dangerous,” said Forster, who won the final stage of the Giro d’Italia this year. “I thought that Petacchi would make the sprint and that is why we tried to get

Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi has pulled out of the Vuelta a Espana with a broken finger after punching the Lampre team bus following a row with Danilo Napolitano, organizers said late Sunday. Petacchi believed Napolitano, who finished third in Sunday's 15th stage, had blocked him on the final run-in. After fruitless complaints to race officials, Petacchi continued the dispute with the Lampre team, ultimately punching the side of the rival team's bus and breaking his finger in the process. Sunday marked the first time Petacchi seriously contested a stage finish since he left

Förster snags the win

Rodriguez crossed ninth, Horner 21st

Garcia's solo was doomed

Valverde and the other favorites can smell the finish line

Carlstrom and Garcia enjoying their moment in the sun

The long and winding road

There was plenty of celebrating going in Cuenca, with Saunier Duval-Prodir toasting David Millar’s remarkable comeback victory in Saturday’s time trial and Caisse d’Epargne quietly putting the champagne on ice after Alejandro Valverde widened his overall lead with just a week to go in the Vuelta a España. Millar exorcized two years worth of doping demons with each pedal stroke Saturday to win for the first time since his the end of racing ban while Valverde tightened his grip on the gold jersey on a day when many expected the Spaniard to cede terrain. Millar beat CSC’s Fabian Cancellara by

Unlike past Vuelta time trials, which tend to be run on courses that don’t attract spectators and are mainly on highways, the 33 kilometer Time trial today was somewhat technical, varied in terrain and scenic for both the television spectators and those at the side of the road. The course was technical as we had to climb two kilometers on a cobbled road, and then descend to the finish on a road that was fast with a few tight corners. This morning my roommate, Jani Brajkovic, got up at nine to preview the course with Tom, Gusev and Stijn. The rest of us had the morning to sleep in and have a

Navigators second-year pro Shawne Milne closed out the North American UCI season in style, taking a close victory in Souderton, Pennsylvania’s Univest Grand Prix. Milne came around breakaway companion Fausto Munoz (Tecos-Alderfer Auction) in the steep uphill sprint to the line following an arrow-straight, screaming downhill.

The 2006 World Cup cross-country series finished up in Schladming, Austria, Saturday.Taking the win in the women’s race was Canadian Marie-HélènePrémont (Rocky Mountain-Business Objects), who took the fourth WorldCup win of her career and her second of 2006. The victory bumped her up tofinish second place in the overall, behind world champion Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesja of Norway (Multivan Merida). The 4.9 kilometer circuit consisted of about one-fifth asphalt, andran through the town, including through the local brewery, Schladminger.The women raced seven laps of the circuit. After the first

Is Millar coming close to his old form?

By a hair: Cancellara was but a fraction of a second back.

Danielson improved his GC position by a bit

Kashechkin lost ground to Valverde

Valverde held his own and then some

Sastre held on to third on GC

Floyd Landis’s solo Stage 17 victory at the Tour de France at Morzine-Avoriazeasily ranked as one of the most mythic comebacks in the history of cycling.This stage win and Floyd’s subsequent Tour de France victory confirmedthe vibrancy of American cycling après Lance.Of course, all that changed when Floyd’s positive test for testosteronewas revealed. Now the elation turned to horrendous disappointment and disbelief.The issue of Floyd’s Tour win is hardly a closed book; Floyd may well stillprevail and I hope that he does.Regardless of the outcome, though, the damage has been done to the

Move over, Paolo Savoldelli. Euskaltel’s Samuel Sánchez is ready to give the Italian – nicknamed “the Falcon” for his fearless runs down Europe’s steepest mountain roads - a run for his money as road racing’s king of the downhill. Sánchez put down a kamikaze attack with 5km to go on a harrowing descent off the Cat. 3 Alto de Castillo to claim victory in Friday’s hilly 180km 13th stage thanks to fearless descending skills. “If you don’t take risks, you won’t win,” Sánchez said after just holding off a lead group of 30 riders from the busted up peloton. “I’ve always been good in the

It’s been a season of close calls and falls for Fred Rodriguez. The three-time U.S. champion has piled up a armload of seconds and thirds as well as gotten caught up in his fair share of pile ups this season, including one that sent him tumbling out of the Tour de France. Rodriguez, who celebrated his 33rd birthday on Sunday, is back in action at the Vuelta a España where he’s looking for a stage victory to save what he’s called a “sour season.” The Californian came into the Vuelta to help teammate Robbie McEwen to hunt for a stage victory in the first week. The Aussie sprinter missed the

French anti-doping chief Pierre Bordry has branded the number of cyclists taking authorized doping products on the Tour de France as “suspicious.” Bordry said in comments to be published in Saturday's edition of Le Monde newspaper that 12 of the 13 cyclists who tested positive for banned substances at this year's Tour had a "Therapeutic Use Exemption" (TUE) to permit their use of otherwise-banned substances. Most commonly, riders have prescriptions for Salbutamol and other asthma drugs, which are banned because the drugs improve a user's ability to breathe. World Anti-doping

German prosecutors charged Friday that former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich has been taking banned substances since 2003. Ullrich was sacked by his T-Mobile team and kicked off the Tour this year after being implicated in a doping probe launched in Spain. In July, German officials took up the investigation, which linked Ullrich to tainted Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, and now they seem convinced that Ullrich, who continues to protest his innocence, is guilty. "Since 2003 unauthorized products were bought by Ullrich," said a spokesperson for Bonn prosecutors. "These are not

Floyd Landis’s attorney Howard Jacobs said Wednesday that he intends to request the dismissal of the doping case against client based on “inconsistencies in the testing protocol and methodology” used to show that the 2006 Tour de France was positive for testosterone. Jacobs said he will file a formal request with USADA on Monday, September 11 asking that the anti-doping agency drop the allegations against Landis and cease further disciplinary action. In a press release issued Friday, Jacobs’s office noted that upon “review of 370 pages of documentation provided by the LNDD laboratory at

Frenchman Stephane Auge of Cofidis claimed the 192km fifth stage of the ProTour's Tour of Poland from Legnica to Jelenia Gora on Friday.Auge edged out fellow escapee American AaronOlson (Saunier Duval) with Max van Heeswijk (Discovery)  leadinghome the peloton 21 seconds back.Italian Daniele Bennati held on to the leader's yellow jersey after finishing sixth.Auge broke away from the peloton after just 12km and was soon joined by Olson. The pair gradually increased their advantage to over 14 minutes before the peloton put on a serious chase, but the pair just held off the pursuit

The stage to Cuenca is a Vuelta classic as the finish is challenging, picturesque and always provides and exciting finale with a cobbled climb, a fast descent and a slightly uphill sprint to the line. The last two stages have been fast, uncomfortably fast, and the peloton has spent much of the races lined out in single file. The attacks in the first hour are relentless as everybody still wants to get into the breakaway that makes it to the finish. Yesterday’s break made it, so why not again today? In my last diary I think I mentioned that the 12th stage to Guadalajara would be flat and a

'If you don't take risks, you don't win,' says today's winner.

Coming into Cuenca.

Boogerd and crew tried to make a go of it...

Valverde tightened his grip a bit on Friday

The biggies were not about to be left behind

..until the peloton decided it was time to chase

Quick Step leads the chase

Milram in pursuit

Luca Paolini left his role as Paolo Bettini’s sidekick at Quick Step-Innergetic last season to sign a big-money contract with Liquigas to become a team leader. Save for a win at the GP Citta di Camaiori, the glory has been sparse. But on Thursday the 29-year-old Italian attacked early out of a 11-man breakaway featuring none other than Bettini to claim a victory in a major stage race for the first time in his career. "It’s great to finally win in a big tour," Paolini said after holding off an attack with 4km to go in Thursday’s hilly 12th stage. "I’ve been trying to win with many attacks in

More than 50 cyclists implicated in Operación Puerto could be hauled before a Spanish court to give testimony, if the prosecution gets its way. Prosecutors have asked a Spanish judge to call riders connected to an alleged blood-doping ring headed up by Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes to give testimony, Spanish daily El País reported Thursday. Riders would be required to take an oath to tell the truth in court or face possible perjury charges. Otherwise, riders implicated in the Puerto case are not facing any legal sanctions in Spain because the nation has no anti-doping laws. More than 50

Dear Bob,I don't remember if you've covered this question. This has come up a number of times in our club lately. Is it legal to ride across an intersection in the crosswalk? Are you considered a pedestrian or bicyclist if you are hit by a vehicle while riding your bicycle across an intersection in the crosswalk? Tucson, Arizona, has a number of crosswalks, with their own crossing lights, that are situated in the middle of the blocks and some in our club claim that you must walk across rather than ride across. Quite a few people have been killed in these crosswalks by vehicles not

Paolini had time to sit up and celebrate

The Horner move

The break that stuck

Astana presses the chase

Valverde enjoys another golden moment

Rolling along the Spanish roads

Paolini salutes

Don’t expect to see Paolo Bettini in Madrid. The Quick Step-Innergetic rider told VeloNews in a rest-day interview Monday he’s planning an early Vuelta exit to put the finishing touches on his preparations for the Salzburg world championships later this month. “I will probably leave around the stage near Granada,” Bettini said, referring to stage 17. “The (Italian) team is arriving in Salzburg on Sunday and I need to go home at least one day to see my wife, or she’ll kill me!” Such is the life of one of cycling’s superstars as he prepares for what’s the last major race that the 32-year-old

Discovery Channel doesn’t have the Lance Armstrong guarantee anymore, so the squad has to find satisfaction in more modest goals. The team no longer rules the Tour de France like it did seven Julys in a row, but a gutsy solo victory by Egoi Martinez in Wednesday’s 11th stage of the Vuelta a España delivered the team a unique accomplishment in the first year of the post-Armstrong era - stage victories and stints in leader’s jerseys in all three grand tours. “This victory was important for the team,” said Martinez, who shot away from a pair of riders with 12km to go. “Even without Armstrong,

Frayed nerves and frustration poured out of Carlos Sastre at the finish line of Tuesday’s hilly 10th stage, opening up raw wounds between Team CSC and Caisse d’Epargne dating back to the 2006 Tour de France. An exasperated Sastre – third overall at 44 seconds back – couldn’t believe that it was left up to his Team CSC troops to lead the chase to trim the nine-minute difference a 15-man breakaway held midway through Tuesday’s stage. "Caisse d’Epargne wants to win the Vuelta without working," Sastre told reporters. "We were the ones who had to prevent Karpets and Paulinho from getting back

Italian Fabrizio Guidi handed Phonak what could be one of its final victories after winning the third stage of the Tour of Poland and seizing the overall lead on Wednesday. After 225.5 km of racing from Gdansk to Torun in the north of the country the Italian took possession of the leader's jersey after holding off compatriot Daniele Bennati and Spaniard Koldo Fernandez. Swiss outfit Phonak announced it would pull out of the sport shortly after American Floyd Landis tested positive for a skewed testosterone-epitestosterone ratio after winning the Tour de France in July. Meanwhile, New

Transitional stages are ideal for the opportunist as there is a good chance a breakaway will get away and make it to the line as the sprinters’ teams are not interested in chasing as the course is too hard for their sprinter, and it is interest of the overall leader’s team to let the break go as it makes it easier on them to control the race. Today, we had another transitional day, like yesterday’s stage, and we all knew the break would succeed and make it to Burgos ahead of the peloton. Egoi Martinez, our fervent Basque teammate, was the opportunist today, and took advantage of his

Attack, attack and attack again. Martinez just kept trying.

After a lengthy sorting out, the break was composed of 13 acceptable escapees...