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The peloton motors along

The chase split the bunch into echelons

Here comes Nerac.com . . .

. . . and there they go

Jame Carney rides for and coaches Nerac.com

He must be doing something right . . . that's his team in the pretty jerseys

Quist flew around the track in the kilo . . .

. . . and then he flew around the infield in celebration

And Conzelman gets the stars and stripes in the sprint

It was all a matter of timing, and Denis Menchov knew he had timed it right when he looked over his shoulder near the finish line of the fifth stage of the Vuelta a España on Wednesday and saw that Alejandro Valverde wasn't with him. Menchov (Illes Balears-Banesto), was not in the minority at the start in Zaragoza when he pegged the Kelme rider as the day's favorite. "This course suits a rider like Valverde," Menchov said of the 186km haul to Morella. It wasn't the wind-blown flats that opened up the stage, or the seemingly endless run of tough, but un-rated, climbs that peaked out with

Olympic bronze medalist Bobby Julich could be joining compatriot Fred Rodriguez at the new Belgian super-team Davitamon-Lotto in 2005. The Belgian newspaper Het Niewsblad reported that Julich is close to inking a deal with the team and the 32-year-old Coloradan’s name was linked to the team in a press release by new bike sponsor Ridley Damocles. Julich did not reply to an e-mail query Tuesday from VeloNews but his current team, Team CSC, said there was no contract yet for Julich to stay with the Danish team. In 2004, Julich enjoyed his finest season since finishing third in the 1998 Tour de

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If depth is the true measure of a country’s cycling strength, then Canada certainly deserves the nod as one of the world’s best. Despite fielding a team that included just one world’s team relay veteran, the Canadians powered to a 24-second win over Switzerland in the opening event of the 2004 world mountain bike championships at Les Gets, France on Wednesday. It was the third relay victory in four years for Canada, which also took the world’s title at Vail in 2001 and Kaprun in 2002. “We know we have good depth,” said Geoff Kabush, who rode the opening leg of the four-lap race, giving

Dear Lennard,I just installed a new Wippermann 10-spd chain on an otherwise Campy Record group. All the components are one year old. I'm trying to eliminate an annoying "tinging" that I'm getting when climbing hard out of the saddle or sprinting. No success with the "tinging" but I introduced a new problem ... the new chain jumps and skips and won't stay engaged in the larger cogs. Have I worn out the rear cogs? I'm now thinking that the "tinging" noise may be coming from the engagement of the chain with the chainrings (30-42-52 ); the old Campy chain engages the rear cogset okay, but perhaps

Menchov countered a late-race move by Gonzales and Joaquin Rodriguez (Saunier Duval) to win the stage

Stage 5

The Canadians celebrate.

Team Canada.

Gagne delivered the win.

Bisaro held the line.

Botero calls it quits

. . . which devolved into the smaller O'Grady break

Beltran is the latest in a series of Postals to wear the golden jersey

Cruz takes a turn in the first big break . . .

With the O'Grady group absorbed, the race fell to climbers like Cunego, Piepoli and Menchov

And Menchov was on time, on target

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Winds were the star of the fourth stage of the 59th Vuelta a España, all but smothering the action in the 167.5km stage from Soria to Zaragoza. Heavy cross- and headwinds made escape all but impossible. Several tried in vain, but the stage finally came down a mass sprint with Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) taking his second win in three days. And the day wasn’t without mishaps. Several riders hit the deck, including Olympic time trial champion Tyler Hamilton (Phonak), who crossed the line with a bloodied right knee and hip. Zaragoza equals wind Wind is always a protagonist in

Fresh off winning Tuesday’s rainy stage into Soria in the 59th Vuelta a España, Alejandro Valverde said he will leave the troubled Valenciana-Kelme team if it’s not included in next year’s UCI Pro Tour. “I still don’t know what I am doing. I still have three years of contract with Valenciana-Kelme and in principal I have to continue with them,” Valverde told the Spanish daily AS. “The team has asked for a racing license to be in the Pro Tour but it appears it’s not sure they’re going to get it. And if I am going to be among the best then it’s obvious that I have to go.” Several teams have

World championship events can seem a bit anticlimactic in Olympic years, but when it comes to mountain biking that’s hardly the case. Only one of the three fat-tire disciplines was contested in Athens. And with just 80 mountain bikers involved in the Olympic Games, this year’s world’s remained the focus for most pros. That means it’s time to deliver, as the 2004 world mountain bike championships get set to kick off in Les Gets, France on Wednesday. Racing begins with the cross-country team relay, where four riders from each country (elite man, elite woman, U23 man, junior man) take a lap of

Juan Jose Haedo of Colavita Olive Oil took the overall title at the World Children's Cycling Classic in Georgia over Labor Day weekend, while U.S. Postal Service's George Hincapie won the weekend's final event, the U.S. 100K road race in Marietta.

Bobby Lea (T.E.A.M. Fuji) and Annette Hanson (Team Rubicon) won national individual-pursuit titles on Tuesday during the USCF Elite Track National Championships at the Superdrome in Frisco, Texas. Defending champ Lea, of Taneytown, Maryland, and Hanson, of Kirkland, Washington, each posted the fastest times in the morning’s qualification rounds. Lea went on to beat Kenny Williams (First Rate Mortgage) of Kirkland in the evening’s finals. Tucson’s Curtis Gunn (Veloworx Racing) won the bronze from Boulder’s Colby Pearce (TIAA-CREF-5280). In the women’s pursuit, Hanson defeated North

Petacchi takes a narrow win at the line

Tyler found it hard going in today's stage

The main break of the day fought to a three-minute lead in the wind

A second break late in the race never got out of eyeshot

Joachim got to play both star and water-carrier today

Lea races to gold in the men's individual pursuit

... as does Hanson in the women's pursuit

Nothstein collects a keirin crown

... and Mirabella collects an overdue Olympic bronze and laurel wreath, woven personally by the mayor of Frisco, Texas

There’s never a dull moment in the Vuelta a España. Well, not if you slept through the first 100km of Monday’s soggy 157.1km third stage from Burgos to Soria. For the first half of the stage it seemed the peloton was on siesta as a four-man breakaway that included U.S. Postal Service foot soldier Benoit Joachim chalked up a lead of nearly 10 minutes. But the bunch awakened from its slumber when it got a sniff of the finish line and the lead quickly dwindled against headwinds and heavy pressure from T-Mobile, Valenciana-Kelme and Cofidis – but not before Joachim gobbled up all three

Passing around the Vuelta a España leader’s jersey wasn’t necessarily in the plan for U.S. Postal Service, but Floyd Landis was more than happy to pass the lead to teammate Max Van Heeswijk in Sunday’s second stage. Van Heeswijk chased time bonuses during the longest stage of the 2004 Vuelta and earned a six-second bonus to slip into the lead. Postal’s Benoit Joachim was third in the intermediate sprint to grab a two-second time bonus and moved ahead of Landis into second overall. “It wasn’t part of the plan that I would take the lead,” Van Heeswijk said on the Vuelta’s official race page.

Some riders would have packed it in after having struggled the way Anna Milkowski (Rona) did for the first three days of Vermont’s Green Mountain Stage Race. The first-year pro suffered through every stage, losing time to the leaders she knew she should be riding with. On Monday, however, the former schoolteacher from Maine soloed off the front with three laps remaining to win the Burlington criterium, the fourth and final stage of the 2004 Green Mountain Stage Race. “I entered the race with absolutely nothing to lose because I was very far down [on GC] and I really wanted to race hard and

Valverde wins a soggy sprint

Joachim leads the break

The peloton was in nap mode until the break reached nearly 10 minutes

Van Heeswijk in gold

Valverde came from fourth wheel to take the sprint

But Joachim got the jersey

After three days of suffering, Milkowski takes a dig – and wins

Moore, meanwhile, wrapped up the overall

Dionne and McCormack duel in Burlington

Following Saturday’s team time trial to kick start the 59th Vuelta a España, the peloton hit the road Sunday with the 207km second stage, the longest of the three-week romp across Spain. With a largely flat course across the treeless expanse of northern Spain, two factors proved to be decisive in the Vuelta’s first road stage: the wind and Fassa Bortolo’s silver train. Both were protagonists, with heavy crosswinds buffeting the peloton in the second half of the stage before the bunch came in for a mass gallop. Alessandro Petacchi was back to his old tricks, winning his eighth career Vuelta

Floyd Landis was the center of attention Sunday morning in the Vuelta a España start village as the U.S. Postal Service rider proudly showed off his leader’s jersey. It’s the first time an American has worn the Vuelta’s leader’s jersey and the first time for Landis to wear a European race leader’s jersey since the Tour de l’Avenir in 1999. Landis won the Volta a Algarve in Portugal in February but took the lead in the final stage, not giving him much time to enjoy the spotlight. “I didn’t sleep in the jersey, but it’s nice to have it,” Landis joked to VeloNews before Sunday’s second stage

Anne-Marie Miller is old enough to know better, but the 49-year-old Verizon Wireless-Wheelworks rider still thought a solo breakaway in Sunday’s Mad River Road Race might be worth a shot. The third and most demanding day of the 2004 Green Mountain Stage Race, which started and finished in Waitsfield, took the elite women’s field up two major climbs in the Green Mountains, with the finishing ascent of the insidious Appalachian Gap the nail in many riders’ coffins. Miller knew she couldn’t climb with the leaders and instead chose to hit the base of the App’ Gap climb with nearly four minutes

By the morning of day three, with the Eurobike show in Friedrichshafen, Germany, only half over – the show opens its doors to the public for a day after three business-only days – the consensus was already firm: This was one of the best bike shows in years. Some of that good cheer is a spillover from the general heartiness in the industry. Through June, 2004 was on track to be a banner year, with bikes of all kinds selling well at all prices. Sales went suddenly soft in July and August, in Europe and the U.S., but the slowdown in spending affected all discretionary purchases, not just bikes,

Mit der golden and silver people yet.

Petacchi finds his legs

Landis and the team weren't playing defense today

Tamkink and Serrano built a big lead only to lose it to the pursuit

Then Van Goolen had a go

But no one could hop the Fassa freight train except Petacchi

'Mad Max' in gold

The peloton ambles along on the Vuelta's longest day

Old enough to know better, Miller did it anyway