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Vladimir Efimkin managed to hold on to third place on GC.

The clothes make the man and Absalon likes this outfit just fine, thank you.

Kalentieva finally broke loose from her Chinese pursuer.

It’s no secret why Steve Peat’s smiling mug is prominently featured in the official logo for the 2007 UCI world mountain-bike championships in Fort William, Scotland. As his country’s undisputed mountain-bike hero, “Peaty” draws huge crowds whenever he straps on a race number in the U.K. And for Great Britain’s first crack at hosting mountain-bike racing’s biggest annual event, organizers are banking that tens of thousands will journey into the Scottish Highlands to watch Peaty and the rest of the gravity gang do their thing. Early ticket sales have organizers predicting 30,000 spectators

Steve Peat's presence at the opening ceremony parade attracted a crowd

Aussie Sam Hill knows how to win at Fort William

American Brian Lopes is North America's best shot at gold in the men's four cross

Dear Readers,

Welcome to this week's edition of The Prologue, the weekly summary of news from the world of professional cycling by your friends at VeloNews.com.

Perhaps Oscar Freire has a sixth sense. After winning three out of the first six stages at the Vuelta a España, the Rabobank sprinter had his crash radar up and decided to take himself out of Friday’s sprint into Zaragoza. Sure enough. There was a nasty spill with about 30km to go that took down American Christian Vande Velde (CSC) when the peloton was roaring at 65kph to erase the day’s main breakaway.

Spaniard Margarita Fullana and Austrian Michael Weiss have been declared "unfit to compete" in the 2007 UCI World mountain-bike championships in Fort William, Scotland, after failing pre-race medical blood screenings. Both cross-country racers are slated to leave the event after their national teams learned of the results. Weiss, a 26-year-old on the Team Bikin’ Cyprus professional mountain-bike team, recorded a high red blood cell count during a test carried on Thursday, September 6. The UCI tested teams from Austria, Belgium, South Africa, Denmark and Sweden, and Weiss was the only rider

Evans believes in Vuelta chancesCadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) was the big question mark coming into this year’s Vuelta a España. Would the Tour de France runner-up come to Spain intent on winning the Vuelta or was he here instead to prepare for the world championships? Evans admitted he didn’t even know the answer to that question until Tuesday’s climbing stage at Lagos de Covadonga. Despite having the Spanish Armada and Russian émigré Denis Menchov ganging up on him, Evans held tough and enters Saturday’s decisive time trial as the heavy favorite to ride into contention for overall

Hours after Jakob Fuglsang crossed the finish line to win the men’s U23 cross-country world championship, the 22-year-old from Denmark still sported an ear-to-ear grin. The expression showed Fuglsang’s joy at taking his first-ever world title, and his surprise of finally toppling Switzerland’s Nino Schurter. “I cannot describe how happy I am right now,” Fuglsang said at a post-race press conference. “We have battled a lot the last few years, but I told myself that it was not impossible to beat him.” Toppling Schurter was a stiff task, given the young Swiss’ track record. Schurter

Zabel didn't find out he'd won until he got to the team bus.

Euskaltel's Sanchez was one of many riders taken out in the crash near the finish.

Another warm day on the road.

The day's break ended predictably

Discovery's McCartney

Efimkin will have to dig deep to keep the jersey after Saturday's time trial

Fuglsang

Schurter sped off early, but was finally beat on the final lap

Fuglsang (center) looked mighty pleased on the podium while Schurter (left) couldn't hide his dissapointment.

American Sam Schultz scored his best-ever finish as a U23

I love it when a plan comes together!Col. John "Hannibal" SmithThe A-Team We don't have the strongest team out there, but we made the most outof every member of the team on Tuesday. In the process we squeezed outevery possible second from the opposition.Carlos is looking good and he is more secure with the team by the daywhich makes him calm and relaxed and that makes us calm......and on andon.Placing three of us in the break sounds better than it really is, giventhat there were 38 of us! But two of us climb quite well and we used thatto launch Carlos up the Covadonga: Me for the middle

Oscar Freire (Rabobank) is slipperier than a fish in the fast-moving waters of the bunch sprints at the Vuelta a España. For the better part of Thursday’s 184.3km sixth stage across Spain’s Rioja wine country, Freire was jabbering with friends at the back of the peloton, flitting around as if killing time before getting down to the business end of the stage.

In 2006 the Swiss trio of Mathias Flückiger, Martin Fanger and Pascal Meyer swept the junior podium at the world championships in Rotorua, New Zealand. All three graduated to the U23 ranks for 2007, however Switzerland retained its gold medal, thanks to the powerful riding of Thomas Litscher The 19-year-old climbed away from Poland’s Piotr Brzozka on the second of four laps to take the title. Crossing the line third was Great Britain’s David Fletcher, who gave the host country its first medal of the games. With the win, Litscher added the junior world title to his Junior European

It’s going to take more than a nasty crash to keep Christian Vande Velde from finishing this year’s Vuelta a España. The 31-year-old American is racing what’s his last major European race in a Team CSC jersey before switching to the up-and-coming Slipstream squad for the 2008 season and he wants to go out on a winning note. “I didn’t want to stop the race. The truth is, I felt horrible and I’m still pretty beat up. I still don’t feel great,” Vande Velde told VeloNews. “I want to go out with CSC on a good note. I hope to feel better in the coming days.” Vande Velde crashed twice in the

Freire gets win No. 3 on this year's Vuelta

Switzerland's Litscher took the win

And they're off!

Fletcher's bronze marks the first podium spot for the host country this year.

Freire and Bettini chatting away

Backstedt leads the break on a descent

Fun with heat and wind

A different viewpoint

Quick Step chases

But Freire got the win

And Efimkin keeps the jersey

Vande Velde is looking forward to joining Slipstream for 2008

With a few short weeks before the 2007 world championship road race, Oscar Freire (Rabobank) looks almost unbeatable in the sprint as he aims for his fourth rainbow jersey in Stuttgart on September 30. [nid:40358]The three-time world champ scored his second win in five days in Wednesday’s 157.4km fifth stage at the Vuelta a España with an explosive sprint that left the rest in the peloton shaking their heads in disbelief.

Bjarne Riis’s self-imposed exile is over and the controversial Dane returned to his spot behind the wheel of the CSC team car following weeks of seclusion in the wake of his admission that he doped on the way to his 1996 Tour de France victory. It’s Riis’s first race appearance since deciding to skip the 2007 Tour following a dramatic confession that he used the banned blood booster EPO and other illegal performance-enhancing drugs during his racing career. “I considered leaving the sport. It was a very difficult period for me, but I took my responsibility,” Riis said outside the Team CSC

In 2006 the Chinese duo of Ren Chengyuan and Ying Liu shocked the women’s cross-country crowd by dominating the U23 women’s field in their first-ever world championship race, held in Rotorua, New Zealand. In 2007 the duo came into the U23 championship race in Fort William, Scotland as marked women, however the result was nearly the same. While Chengyuan crossed the line first in 2006, it was Liu who took top honors and the rainbow stripes this year. Chengyuan held the advantage over Liu at the midway point, but Liu took the lead for good on the third of four laps. Chengyuan suffered a

Officials from the Spanish cycling federation say there is no new evidence that Alejandro Valverde worked with alleged Puerto ringleader Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes and will not prevent him from starting next month’s world championships Last week, the UCI said a review of 6000 pages of evidence found in the Operación Puerto files revealed that Valverde was linked to the alleged doping ring and insisted that the Spanish cycling federation open an inquiry against the defending ProTour champion. Spanish officials said this week that after a review of documents forwarded by the UCI that there’s no

Freire beats two stage winners on his way to his second win of this Vuelta.

Riis spokewith VeloNews outside the CSC bus this morning

Chengyuan (left) took the title in 2006, but this year it was Liu's turn

China, Ukraine take U23, Junior women’s XC titles

Alla Boyko chased hard on the final lap

Skarnitzlova, Boyko and Bresset

Can he keep this up throughout September? A lot of sprinters are hoping he can't.

Efimkin stays in the leader's jersey for another day

The Vuelta left the Asturias region Wednesday

Rabobank worked hard to ensure Freire had a shot at a sprint... and to keep Menchov in the mix.

Near the start in Cangas de Onís

Down by two riders, Discovery is staking some of its hopes on Brajkovic

Kroon gets off the front on the penultimate climb.

Efimkin's Caisse d'Epargne team seemed content with that mix.

Gomez Marchante gives chase, but was reeled in.

Mountain-bike racing’s collective attention will turn to the wooded hillsides around Fort William, Scotland on Saturday, September 8, as history could be in the making. Should Frenchman Julien Absalon emerge from those woods having vanquished the world’s best, he will become the first man ever to earn four world cross-country titles. With wins in 2004, ’05 and ’06, Absalon currently stands tied with Henrik Djernis of Denmark, who took his three world titles from 1992-94. After taking his third straight world title on a climber’s track in Rotorua, New Zealand, in 2006, Absalon earned the

Absalon is beginning to like the color scheme

Hermida says riding the way he does is in his blood.

Sauser wants to be able to answer 'Who can beat Julien?' with 'Me.'

Kalentieva comes in as the favorite

I don't know if it is Carlos, the team or just the Vuelta, but we have stayed at some very nice hotels. Last night we stayed in the middle of Oviedo. Oviedo is the capital of Austurias, one of the nicest provinces of Spain. So we arrived at AC hotel in Oviedo after a hard stage and a one hour plus transfer. Karsten had been knocked out in the back of the bus for past 30 minutes as we pulled into the hotel. As we stumbled through the modern lobby and crammed into the elevator, Karsten, still half sleeping proceeded to spill half his lemonade on a business man, his silk suit and 1000 euro

Gerolsteiner team boss Hans-Michael Holczer says he was left in tears after the German mineral water company announced it would not extend its sponsorship. Gerolsteiner will not sponsor the team past the end of the 2008 season, and riders such as German Stefan Schumacher and Italian Davide Rebellin will be left without a team. The German mineral water supplier has sponsored the ProTour team since 1998, but with several high-profile doping scandals involving riders from other teams tarnishing the sport's image, the German company decided to call it a day. "There were tears in my eyes,"

[nid:40341]Good thing Vladimir Efimkin's twin brother, Alexander, isn't at the Vuelta a España. Just moments after surprising the favorites on the Vuelta's hardest climb to surge into the overall leader's jersey, the 25-year-old Caisse d'Epargne rider was beating the drum of Alexander, who rides on rival Barloworld. "My brother is the one who you will be hearing about in the coming years," said Efimkin, who soloed to victory in Tuesday's epic climb to Lagos de Covadonga. "He trains harder than me, he's a better climber than me.

German cycling team T-Mobile has been rocked by a new doping scandal after Italian rider Lorenzo Bernucci was sacked on Tuesday for failing a drugs test. Bernucci, 27, tested positive for the banned appetite suppressant Sibutramine on August 15 during the Tour of Germany. "We do not know if this was an attempt at performance enhancement or just poor judgment," said team general manager Bob Stapleton. "But we know it is unacceptable that riders take any medication without the approval of the team doctor. It's a clear violation of our code of conduct and we have acted on that

Using powerhouses Florian Vogel and Nino Schurter as bookends for Petra Henzi and Thomas Litscher, Switzerland won the team relay on Tuesday as the 2007 UCI world mountain-bike championships kicked off in Fort William, Scotland. The American team of Georgia Gould, Ethan Gilmour, Sam Schultz and Adam Craig fought from dead last to third, scoring the country’s first medal in the nine-year history of the event. The championships opened under a misty Scottish fog that rolled into the Highlands from the east, soaking everything in its wake, including the 7.5km Witch’s Trail cross-country course.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEPREPARE FOR CYCLOCROSS SEASON WITH SIMON BURNEY'S UPDATED BOOK, CYCLOCROSSTRAINING AND TECHNIQUENew Edition Updates and Expands the Only Cyclocross Book on the MarketBoulder, CO, USA - September 4, 2007 - Just in time for the beginningof cyclocross season, VeloPress has published the third edition of SimonBurney's book, Cyclocross Training and Technique. The book is availablenow at VeloGear.com and in North American bookstores and bike shops. CyclocrossTraining and Technique, 3rd Ed. fully updates and expands the bookto explore every aspect of this increasingly

The Ridley Factory Team has annnounced its final roster and sponsor lineup for the 2007-08 cyclo-cross season. The team, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, will be composed of elite riders who will contest the major U.S. cyclo-cross events — including the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross series, Vegas Cross and the U.S. national cyclo-cross championships —and elite team leaders who will head grassroots development programs nationwide. Several members also plan to race in Europe in preparation for the 2008 UCI cyclo-cross world championships in Treviso, Italy. “Our mission continues to be

Tuesday's ride.

And if you think Efimkin is good, wait 'til you see his brother

The Swiss squad

Schurter burning up the track

The U.S. team

Efiimkin manages a one-handed salute as he takes the stage and the lead