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Matthew Wilson was at a loss for words when, after seven of the most challenging days in his sporting life, it was finally announced he was the winner of the 2007 Jayco Herald Sun Tour. "I don't know what to say... It's the best feeling... I've only had a few victories in my career, and they're all special for different reasons, but this one goes down as probably the best," said the Unibet pro, overjoyed with his victory but also relieved a turbulent week was finally over. From the first stage to the last, won by Astana's Aaron Kemps from a three-man breakaway that

The unseasonably hot weather that has afflicted the East Coast cyclocross season continued at the first Verge MAC event of 2007, Delaware’s UCI C1 Granogue ‘Cross. But it did not keep Tim Johnson and Kerry Barnholt from winning their first-ever Granogue titles by huge margins, and taking home the unique pink-flamingo trophies and a lot of cash.

It’s no secret that cycling is near and dear to the heart of Belgium. No other nation equals this tiny European country’s passion for two-wheeled pursuits, and no other race taps into that love affair like the Tour of Flanders. The annual spring-classic romp around the rolling hills and cobbled roads of northwest Belgium is one of the hardest and most prestigious one-day races on the ProTour calendar. The race is so revered there’s even a museum dedicated to the people and events that have helped shape its 91-year history. The two-story, multi-room display resides in a nondescript,

Save for a botched national-anthem selection during the podium ceremony, Sunday was a perfect day for rising cyclocross star Zdenek Stybar. The first-year pro from the Czech Republic launched a bold attack early in the second of 11 laps at the World Cup opener in Kalmthout, Belgium, and held his lead all the way to the finish. It was the second major victory for the 21-year-old Fidea rider, who also won the under-23 race at the 2006 world championships. Belgian Sven Nys (Rabobank) was a distant second, 33 seconds back of Stybar, with Frenchman Francis Mourey (Française de Jeux) winning a

Johnson takes his first Granouge 'cross victory

Wilson wins the overall

Kemps collects the final stage

That's Johan Bruyneel crawling out of a ditch

A caravan car of yesteryear

The café display

They occasionally fell down back then, too

De Koppenberg's stats

Eddy's piece of the rock

Jerseys then and now

A map of Flanders chaos

The museum sits along the race route

It takes a lot of pasta to win the Ronde

A relic of the past

The Flanders wall of fame

What it's really all about

Stybar rippin' it through the sand

Page got caught in traffic

Stybar on the run

The women's podium

Stybar takes the win

With just one stage to go, Matthew Wilson of Unibet.com is poised to take the biggest victory of his career in the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, riding what may well have been a race-saving, race-winning time trial Saturday in Melbourne. Though the margin is small: a superlative performance against the clock saw Steve Morabito the fastest rider around the short but testing 8.6 kilometer course, his time of 11:32 moving the Astana all-rounder within three seconds of Wilson by the day's end. Right now, however, the yellow jersey appears to have all the confidence in the world in what has been a

A day after the ProTour season finished up at Italy’s Giro di Lombardia, the 2007-08 cyclocross World Cup gets underway Sunday in Kalmthout, Belgium. Junior and under-23 races take up the morning schedule, with the elite women rolling out at 1:30 p.m. and the men following at 3. Among the Americans taking the startline in the day’s final race will be reigning world championship silver medalist Jonathan Page. The New Englander will be making his big time debut in the predominantly yellow jersey of his new Sunweb-Pro Job team. After several years struggling to make ends meet, Page’s

Wilson was the picture of concentration as he readied to defend his jersey

The in-form Steve Morabito (Astana) in the start house, before went on to win his second stage.

Stuart O'Grady (Jayco) did the entire course without a recon - and still finished with the fifth best time of the day.

Cunego easily beats Ricco to the line.

That silver medal has helped Page get back on his feet in many ways.

The Page clan-Jonathan, Cori, Milo and Emma

The new team

Evans takes the ProTour title to cap off an impressive season

October at Lake Como. Can you top that?

Fränk Schleck ran into trouble in the run to the finish.

Cunego played his cards right.

Dear Readers,
Welcome to this week's edition of The Prologue, VeloNews.com's summary of the latest news from the world of competitive cycling.

Chris Eatough (Trek-Volkswagen) and Jari Kirkland (Boulder Performance Network) took convincing victories in the solo categories at the 2007 EAS 24-Hours of Moab. Over 1300 riders competed in the country’s largest 24-hour cross-country mountain-bike race, which celebrated its 13th anniversary. For Eatough, the six-time world 24-hour Solo champion, 2007 marked his first time racing at Moab. The Maryland native had previously bypassed the Moab race in favor of the 24-Hours of Adrenaline world championships. But with that race held this year at California’s Laguna Seca speedway, Eatough opted

It’s mid-October and while the Tour of Lombardy is this weekend, the domestic racing season is over. It’s the time of year when battle-weary riders rest their tired legs, reconnect with family and friends, quit shaving their legs and maybe even put on a few pounds. It’s a time that’s supposed to be relaxing, a short counter-balance to a long and stressful race season that now runs from February’s Amgen Tour of California through September’s USA Crits finals in Las Vegas. Health Net-Maxxis rider Kirk O’Bee has been spending time with his 5-year-old son Samuel, riding him to kindergarten and

It appears to be a case of expect the unexpected at the Jayco Herald Sun Tour. Friday in Wangaratta, a town a stone's throw away from Glenrowan, home of great Australian outlaw Ned Kelly, early race leader Matt Wilson and his Unibet.com team piled on the pressure on a short transitional stage through the north-eastern Victorian countryside. By the day's end and with two stages remaining, the 30-year-old found himself back at the top of the leader-board. The finale was equally exciting, with a breakaway group of three fighting out the finish. Two DFL-Cyclingnews riders, Cameron

While two-time defending world champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step-Innergetic) is heavily favored to score his third consecutive Tour of Lombardy victory on Saturday, the venerable 242km fall classic is not the only title in play. The 2007 ProTour series is also up for grabs because the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) this week handed longtime ProTour leader Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas) a three-month suspension for his implication in the 2004 Oil for Drugs scandal, which caused the UCI to drop him from the standings. These developments put the consistent Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) into the

You have to appreciate the matter-of-fact frankness of Sven Nys. With the 2007-2008 cyclocross World Cup set to commence Sunday in Kalmthout, the Belgian has set a simple but lofty season-long goal. “It is nothing special, I just want to be the best rider of season,” said the Rabobank rider during an exclusive interview with VeloNews at his modest two-story home in Baal. “That is my goal every year. I don’t have one important race. For me every race is important. That’s how people know me – I am good from the first race to the last and I try to win every time.” Of course even the

Pete Lopinto is one of several talented riders now looking for work.

O'Bee hopes the Stars-n-Stripes jersey will catch the eye of some directors out there.

Stetina wants to race in Europe, but may opt to ride in the U.S. for '08.

The consumate support rider, Stefano Barberi still managed to claim the KOM jersey at Mt. Hood.

Cooke says his time in Europe was a tough - but valuable - learning experience.

Wilson is happy to be back in the jersey, but not thrilled about how he got there

Jennings triumphs over Herzig to win the fifth stage.

Van Leijen led the group of favorites home, but never expected to face what would ensue, penalised 20 seconds for drafting and losing the lead.

Bettini has won here for the past two years, with last year's race serving as an emotional homage to his recently deceased brother.

Lake Como serves as one of the world's most beautiful venues.

The hills eventually take a heavy toll on tired legs.

Nys and his '05 rainbow

World Cup trophies to spare

Nys's non-ghost-written autobiogrpahy has sold 15,000 copies

At home with Sven

Hardman trophies

Dear Bob,I have a question about getting harassed by police here in the NewYork/New Jersey area, and wanted to ask what you would do in that situation.First incident, I am waiting at a light, it turns green, and as I proceedthrough the intersection, I drop my chain. No cars coming from the rightside (which would be right on red anyhow), and I have the green. I stoptwo feet from the curb to put my chain back on, I am there for literallytwo seconds when I hear barked behind me, "are you going to get out ofthe road or am I going to have to give you a ticket," by a police officer. I said,

The 2007 Jayco Herald Sun Tour is looking every bit the nail-biter it was last year. At the close of play Thursday, the top five riders on general classification are separated by half a minute. Matthew Wilson of Unibet may have lost his golden tunic his race is far from over, with just eight seconds between him and new race leader, Joost Van Leijen of the Dutch national team. However, on the 116.5 kilometer fourth stage to Falls Creek, Astana's Steve Morabito was the man of the moment. Into a block headwind and 10km from the line, the 24-year-old boldly attacked a lead group that was

Giro d’Italia champion Danilo Di Luca, banned this week for three months for alleged links to controversial Italian doctor Carlo Santuccione, has been disqualified from the ProTour series. The UCI made the ruling late Thursday in a decision that will push Cadel Evans into the overall series lead going into the ProTour finale at the Giro di Lombardia on Saturday in Italy. Di Luca, 31, was slapped with a three-month ban Tuesday by the Italian Olympic Committee for alleged contact with Santuccione, the controversial doctor at the center of the “Oil for Drugs” doping investigation dating back

The UCI continues its hard line against dopers with plans to roll out a “biological passport” for all ProTour riders in 2008 that will provide a snapshot of blood indicators. All riders will undergo a battery of urine and blood tests to determine naturally occurring levels of hemotacrit, hemoglobin and other biological indicators that can be used as a reference for each rider. “What is means is that the rider becomes his own reference point,” UCI anti-doping coordinator Anne Gripper told Eurosport. “We look for variations in a rider’s individual profile to determine whether there may be

Life in the big city

Di Luca after assuming the ProTour lead following Fleche Wallonne

Morabito wins the stage.

The day's early break, driven by Scott Zwizanski of Bissell-SRAM.

New race leader, Joost Van Leijen of the Dutch National Team

Aussie cycling hero Stuart O'Grady (Jayco Australian National Team) just keeps getting better every day.

Osteoporosis prevention and treatment has long focused mainly on women. It is true that men build larger and stronger bones early in life and are less likely to develop this disease, which is characterized by less dense, brittle bone mass more susceptible to fracture. Yet according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, two million men currently have osteoporosis and another 12 million with low bone mass are at risk. Clearly a focus on prevention is also important for men, and osteoporosis is likely underdiagnosed in this gender and certainly not as extensively studied. There are many steps

Jason McCartney isn’t done with Europe yet. The 34-year-old Iowan has penned a two-year deal with Team CSC that will keep him on cycling’s biggest stages through the 2009 season. The contract news comes after a successful fall campaign that saw McCartney win a stage at the Vuelta a España in a dramatic attacking victory that finally put his name in the headlines after working diligently in the background for others. The victory came just in time as Discovery Channel was folding at the end of this season and riders were scrambling to find jobs. McCartney was linked to a move to the new-look

Wednesday in Beechworth, Astana's Aaron Kemps timed an uphill dash for cash to perfection, overcoming a technical, bumpy ride to the finish and taking advantage of a late recapture to assert his authority as the in-form sprinter of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour. For those vying for overall honors four days from now, the 139.5-kilometer third stage ended without incident, as race leader Matthew Wilson of Unibet.com maintained his 17-second advantage over teammate Baden Cooke, with SouthAustralia.com-AIS young gun Simon Clarke a further five seconds back. Whether Wilson, diagnosed with

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,

Athletes aren’t the only ones thinking about picking up and moving on as the season winds down. USA Cycling is reportedly among a number of national governing bodies contemplating a change in venue if the U.S. Olympic Committee decides to demolish the building they share at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. USA Cycling is house-hunting in Colorado Springs, but also finds itself being courted by Ogden, Utah, according to a local newspaper. "The reality is that the one of the two buildings we currently occupy, along with several other national governing bodies and USOC

The French anti-doping agency (AFLD) on Wednesday said it intends to pursue doping charges against Floyd Landis, purportedly to close a legal loophole which could allow him to compete in the Tour de France while technically banned. Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title for doping and suspended for two years by the UCI from any competitions the governing body sanctions. But the situation could arise whereby Landis could compete again if the Tour de France took place outside of the auspices of the UCI, a real possibility given that the Tour is currently battling with the

There are countless ways to end a season. The most direct is wrapping up the last big race of the year followed by a huge night out. The opposite end of the spectrum is filled with the crazies that decide they’d like to keep it rolling with track or cyclocross and never really end it at all. Ouch. Six of us on Slipstream this year decided to go for the moderation method and head south of the border for the 2nd Vuelta Chihuahua, starting in Ciudad Juarez and finishing in Chihuahua city, seven days later. While a couple of the boys kept it rolling pretty well after Missouri, a few of us took

The Feedzone with Monique Ryan: Building better bones