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Not a bad first stab at a major tour, eh?

Zabriskie has been the center of attention all week

Zabriskie tops the podium

McCartney rides to a strong third-place finish

Friedman surprised many with his ride

Vanulden rounds out the top five

Not really a Continental

Really a Continental: The new Speed King cyclo-cross

The new GP4000 tubular

EuroBike Day 2: Germany's Haus Brands

Schwalbe’s ProTour ready Ultremo, its performance can only be described by combining the words ultimate and extreme.

Racing Ralph is now a triple compound tire and available in a 700x35c ‘cross version.

Gore’s Matthias Zaggle in the award winning Xenon jacket

Merida’s FLX

Storck's CD0.9...

... and the CD1.0 for the sprinters

Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) pipped two Germans in a tight sprint to end an otherwise long trudge across the sun-baked plains of northern Spain in Thursday’s 177km sixth stage from Zamora to León. The Norwegian came around big German André Greipel (T-Mobile) in the final 75 meters and held off another German, Erik Zabel (Milram), to sneak to his first victory in the 2006 Vuelta a España after three second places earlier this week. "It’s true I’ve had a problem to win a stage here, but I think it cost me a little when I got the leader’s jersey. You always think about trying to defend a

Belgian cyclist Christophe Brandt, who suffered multiple injuries in a high speed crash on Tuesday, was brought out of a medically induced coma after showing signs of improvement on Thursday. The 29-year-old Davitamon team rider was due to stay in a coma for two days as doctors assessed his injuries following the accident on the Sels to Merxem Cup race. But in a statement his team reported: "After doctors examined him and saw an improvement in the condition of his lungs they decided to bring Christophe out of the coma earlier than planned. He is now awake and has been speaking with his

Tyler Hamilton’s bid to return to racing this fall appears to be riddled with roadblocks, with both his hopes of competing in the world championships next month and his desire to sign with a ProTour team seemingly doomed. According to officials at USA Cycling, the 35-year-old will not be allowed to compete as a member of the nine-man U.S. national team at the Salzburg world road cycling championships next month, just two days after his two-year racing ban ends. “Tyler has not met any of the automatic selection criteria for worlds and, per the selection procedures, he did not petition for a

Filippo Pozzato (Quick Step-Innergetic) won the rain-soaked third stage of the Tour of Britain from Bradford to Sheffield on Thursday. The Italian rider crossed the finish line 32 seconds ahead of Michael Rogers (T-Mobile), with defending champion Nick Nuyens (Quick Step-Innergetic) third. Road race world champion Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic) crashed late in the stage and finished well off the pace. Overnight leader Matt Goss of SA.com dropped out of contention after suffering a knee injury. The Australian rider was replaced in the overall lead by Denmark's Martin Pedersen (CSC),

There was quiet jubilation at the Discovery Channel camp ahead of Thursday’s sixth stage, with three riders in the top 10 overall and Janez Brajkovic nearly pulling off a surprise up Wednesday’s summit finish at La Covatilla. "It was great to be up there with Di Luca," Brajkovic told VeloNews.com Thursday morning. "I had great legs and Johan (Bruyneel) told me to follow the attacks if I could. I could stay with Di Luca without any problem, but he was able to beat me in the sprint. I am here at this Vuelta to gain experience and learn about big tours for the future. Right now I doubt that I

American cycling will mark a major turning point Sunday when the first winner of an all-American professional road championship is crowned in Greenville, South Carolina. After 21 years of awarding the USPRO stars-and-stripes jersey to the first American across the line – no matter how many foreigner riders finished ahead of him - USA Cycling decided last year to get in line with top cycling nations and hold an American-only national championship, citing a matured U.S. peloton that has grown to more than 160 professionals. Rights to host the event, which until this year has always been

Thursday marked the opening of the Eurobike trade show for the 15th consecutive year The show takes place in Friedrichshafen a small village on the banks of Lake Constance in southern Germany, the home of the once-great Zeppelin airships. There has been a quiet grumble over the past few years about the state of the cycling industry in Europe and the rest of the world; that it has been stale or even in some cases faltering. One couldn’t know it by the volume of exhibitors at Eurobike. Even more assuring was the amount of time and capital exhibitors were putting into their displays. The

Hushovd finally gets his stage win

Most suggest Hamilton's only real option is to race in the U.S. for the duration of his career.

The doomed solo of the day

Kaisen and Franzoi have a short-lived go

Di Luca says he doesn't want this nifty jersey. Really.

It doesn't get much closer than this

Brajkovic was delighted to be in the mix on Wednesday

Danielson, escorted by Michael Barry, says he had a rude awakening on Wednesday

The road race

The time trial

All-American field gathers in Greenville for national championships

Chorus (front) and Record Cranks (rear)

Hutchinson Fusion Road Tubeless

Hutchinson on a Shimano WH-7801-SL wheel

It's show time! The doors open at EuroBike

Deda Newton 31.8 bar

Look 595 Ultra

Look 595, rear dropout assembly

Look’s integrated E-Post

Giro’s Indie shoes

Giro’s AfterSport

Shimano’s new PD-7810 SPD-SL

Pro’s team disc wheels

Rotwild’s R R2

Focus Cross Team

Wow

Danilo Di Luca poured a season of bitterness into his pedals to score a sweet victory atop a big pile of granite in western Spain to take the overall lead in the Vuelta a España Wednesday. The defending ProTour champion attacked with just under 3km to go in the 177km four-climb fifth stage from Plasencia to the Vuelta’s first summit finish at La Covatilla to win for the first time this season and surge into the overall lead. “I came to this Vuelta to win a stage and that came sooner than expected. I will not fight for the overall victory in this race. I am at this Vuelta to get into top

Frank Vandenbroucke has signed a contract with the second-tier professional Italian outfit Acqua Sapone, according to press reports Wednesday in Brussels. Vandenbroucke, a former winner of the tough Liège-Bastogne-Liège one-day classic, is reported to have signed a deal until 2007. The 31-year-old Belgian, notorious for his run-ins with the cycling authorities over issues of doping and more recently, depression, will thus join his ninth professional team. He was recently sacked by another Continental level team, Unibet, after he failed to reach targets they had set him as part of his move

Australian Matthew Goss (SA.com) took the yellow jersey after the second stage of the Tour of Britain from Blackpool to Liverpool, won by Britain's Roger Hammond on Wednesday. The 32-year-old won the stage from Holland's Aart Vierhouten, while Russell Downing (DFL) was third. Road race world champion Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic) was 16th. In the overall standings, Goss was two seconds ahead of first stage winner Martin Pedersen (CSC) after picking up time bonuses from intermediate sprints. Spaniard Luis Pasamontes (Unibet.com) was in third place and only eight seconds

When a blue Discovery Channel jersey streaked out to follow Danilo Di Luca up the La Covatilla climb, even the Spanish TV announcers got it wrong, thinking it was either Tom Danielson or Triki Beltrán. It was neither. Discovery had another, lesser-known option on the final climb Wednesday: Janez Brajkovic, a 115-pound, 22-year-old Slovenian who has been pulling surprises ever since beating the favored Thomas Dekker in the U-23 world time trial championships in 2004. On Wednesday, he almost delivered an even bigger stunner. “Janez was impressive today, and even though I knew he was strong,

At the start today I had flashbacks as we had ridden the same stage and started in the same spot in 2004. It was a vicious day in the heat and our team was pummeled by Liberty Seguros; in fact they throttled the entire peloton. Today, thankfully, was a little different. From the start, riders attacked relentlessly until we hit the first slopes of the first climb – the Puerto del Piornal – thirty kilometers into the race. On a mountain day a good chunk of the peloton - the sprinters and those not vying for the stage or the overall - try to get into the breakaway as the ride up front is

On the eve of the 15th edition of Germany’s Eurobike trade show, Scott USA took over the famed Graf Zeppelin Haus in downtown Friedrichshafen to unveil two new models for the upcoming 2007 season, both focused on setting new lightweight and engineering standards in a very competitive marketplace. The Addict road frame, soon to be Saunier Duval’s new ProTour race machine, tips the scale at just 790 grams (56cm), while the original prototype Spark full-suspension mountain frame, now used by Thomas Frischknecht on the World Cup circuit, weighs in at 1700 grams (with rear shock). Scott claims

Di Luca celebrates his victory

Sastre and Valverde found themselves under pressure

Di Luca had trouble shaking the young Discovery rider.

The young lieutenant stayed with his boss until he got the go ahead to chase.

The day's early break had some climbing power on board

Disco' slotted a couple of riders into the break

Marchante on the attack: A little too early?

Landaluze gives it a shot.

Sastre and Valverde remain favorites for the overall title.

Long climbs, hot day... and no rain in Spain.

Di Luca and friends

The rail-thin Janez Brajkovic, who makes Andy Hampsten look like Orson Welles

Chief engineer Peter Denk with the new Scott Spark

A possible ProTour Team bike? The Addict in yellow, with a SRAM Force group, claimed weight – 6.3 kilos.

Carbon front derailleur hanger

Shock and linkage

Asymmetric direct chainstay

Integrated seat mast

With the heart of a warrior and the squeaky voice of a teen-ager, Erik Zabel proved he still has a few victories left in his 36-year-old legs. The German veteran profited from a strong setup from the Milram train to score his first grand-tour victory since the 2003 Vuelta, relegating the younger generation to the runner-up status to which he has lately become so accustomed. FullResults "Today I am very happy because the whole team worked for me and it’s good to see the train is working better and better," said Zabel after notching just his second win of the season. "I am very happy with

Giro d'Italia champion Ivan Basso, who was excluded from the Tour de France after being implicated in a Spanish doping investigation, denied using banned substances Tuesday in his first appearance before Italian anti-doping authorities. "It is clear that I have never engaged in doping," Basso said at the end of a two-hour hearing before a panel of the Italian Olympic Committee. The hearing was adjourned to Sept. 12, when a decision on whether to refer the case to the Italian cycling federation is expected, said Massimo Martelli, Basso's lawyer. The federation could try him or

Fred Rodriguez will race the world championships next month in Salzburg after what he hopes will be a successful and crash-free Vuelta a España. The Davitamon-Lotto sprinter is racing his second Vuelta, looking to help Robbie McEwen win a stage and then try something for himself in the second half. "I will be doing the world’s and then going back for the Vegas (Interbike) show and returning to Europe for Paris-Tours to help Robbie [McEwen]," Rodriguez told VeloNews.com after Monday’s third stage. "It’s important for me to be in Vegas for the work I do with my foundation and with my coffee

Martin Pedersen (CSC) took the yellow jersey with a dramatic sprint-finish victory in the first stage of the Tour of Britain on Tuesday. The Danish rider was part of a three-man breakaway with Australian Mathew Goss (SA.com) and Luis Pasamontes (Unibet.com) and the trio engaged in a thrilling battle for first place in the 162km stage from Glasgow Green to Castle Douglas. Pedersen eventually finished two seconds ahead of Goss, while Spaniard Pasamontes was five seconds off the lead in third place. Defending champ Nick Nuyens (Quick Step-Innergetic) finished 15th in a large peloton that also

In the grooveDear Lennard,I use the Fulcrum Racing 1 wheels with a Shimano drive train, thoughI have a titanium (11-25) cassette made by Cycle Dynamics. The freehubbody is grooved by each of the cogs (see attached photo). My bikeshop says this is a normal consequence of using a cassette with individualcogs. I don't buy it. I think it is the result of the softer material (aluminum)used in this free hub body. My other wheels, with steel free hub bodies,are not grooved. My drive train makes a periodic, soft noise that I havenot been able to eliminate, and I fear it may be related to the

Today we spent another day in the extreme, oppressive heat, although at least today’s stage was 100km shorter than yesterday's so we didn't wilt as badly or go through quite as many bottles. The heat is affecting the whole peloton and it’s all any one was talking about today: Their feet were sore from swelling in their shoes; their lungs were sore from breathing in the hot air; their mouths were dry; they were sunburned; they had headaches; or they were just plain uncomfortable. To keep cool during the race we unzip our jerseys and leave them blowing in the wind. We loosen our

Zabel outkicks Hushovd and Nazon