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In the shadow of the state Capitol, an enthused North Carolina crowd watched Frank Travieso (AEG-Toshiba-Jet Network) take one of the most uncompromising wins of his career at this year's Raleigh Downtown Criterium May 25. Running over a six-turn, L shaped course, the 3-year-old event took place on the front end of the Memorial Day weekend. A high pace did not discourage breakaway attempts, and eventually six men got away —Travieso, Tom Soloday (Kelly Benefit Strategies) John Delong (Alliance), local boys Rich Harper (Abercrombie & Fitch) and David Duncan (Time), and Jittery Joe's

The management of the Spanish team Euskaltel-Euskadi said on Tuesday they had dropped Aketza Pena from the squad based on a positive result from an April 24 test for nandrolone, taken after the first stage of the Tour of Trentino. A statement on the team’s official website said the UCI had informed the team of the result and that Pena was suspended effective immediately. Tests on the A sample found higher-than-permitted levels of nandrolone, a banned anabolic steroid often used by body builders to augment muscle mass, though no figure was mentioned.

Heading into stage 1 of the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic, Navigators Insurance rider Phil Zajicek had never heard of Devon Vigus. Neither had defending champion Nathan O’Neill of Health Net-Maxxis, nor Toyota-United veteran Burke Swindlehurst. But Vigus, who races for the amateur team California Giant Strawberries-Specialized, was the surprise winner of the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic’s 3-mile stage 1 time trial — the only rider to finish in under six minutes, with a time of 5:50. O’Neill finished second, 12 seconds back, with Priority Health-Bissell’s Ben Jacques-Maynes in third at 20 seconds

Garzelli gets his second stage.

Garzelli wins on a day that saw a slow and chilly start to the stage.

The long march

It's hard to get the legs moving when you need to get the blood flowing first.

Individual aspirations may have kept the chase from succeeding.

Some were undoubtedly hoping they could stay

Di Luca had little to fear but the cold.

Those final three climbs shook things up.

Garzelli on the move

Chechu and Co. couldn't close it down

Garzelli takes two, Di Luca safe as Zoncolan awaits

Vigus surprised the field with his victory

O'Neill, who took second, is glad he won't have to defend the jersey straight away

Jacques-Maynes, who finished third, suspects a timing error

Mactier en route to the women's win

Regional honch' Weldon slotted into second

Carroll rides into third

Trebon is out of the saddle and driving hard to the uphill finish

We should have known. Ever since the opening day of Giro in Sardegna, when the Liquigas leader shouted at his team-mate Enrico Gasparotto to peel off the front of the train so that he could take the first maglia rosa, we should have known Danilo Di Luca really wanted to win the race more than anyone. The events on that day were downplayed somewhat, with Di Luca saying: "I was not upset, it is important that we as a team win." But out of all the pre-race favorites - Gilberto Simoni, Damiano Cunego, Paolo Savoldelli, and Di Luca - it is the latter who has arguably the weakest team. Each

The next stage race on USA Cycling’s National Racing Calendar, the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic, kicks off Tuesday in Hood River, Oregon. Now in its fifth year and its third as an NRC event, the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic has quickly emerged as one of the top stage races in the U.S., drawing professional and amateurs from several different categories. But with the Commerce Bank Triple Crown series beginning in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, June 3, the final day of Mt. Hood, many teams are either splitting their squads or simply skipping the Oregon race. That’s not to say that the six-stage

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Di Luca's attack on the Tre Cime Di Lavaredo showed who is in charge at this Giro d'Italia.

The race's namesake provides a scenic backdrop

The new Wy’East Road Race replaces the Three Summits course, damaged by flooding

Riders enjoy a little of Oregon's 'liquid sunshine'

High up the savage slopes of the Tre Cime Di Lavaredo, 23-year-old young gun Riccardo Riccò came of age with a brilliant victory in the 15th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Sunday. In a show of strength, unity and sportsmanship, the Saunier Duval duo of Riccò and Leonardo Piepoli out-foxed and out-climbed all others on the queen stage of the race in the Italian Dolomites. With arms aloft, Riccò crossed the line just ahead of maglia verde Piepoli, followed by Ivan Parra (Cofidis), 10 seconds adrift, and Mexican Julio Pérez (Ceramica Panaria-Navigare), a further 32 seconds behind.

Russian rider Vladimir Karpets (Caisse d’Epargne) won the Volta a Catalunya Sunday in Madrid. Spaniard Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) won the seventh and final stage, a 119.3km ride from Lloret de Mar to Barcelona. Karpets, the 2004 winner of the Tour de France's white jersey for the best young rider, thus picks up his fourth victory of the season. "To win such an important race like the Volta a Catalunya is something significant in a rider's career,” said Karpets. "The team started perfectly well, by being the best in the team time trial. After that we were able to control the

More than 15,000 spectators from Germany, France, Switzerland and Belgium braved rain and mud to cheer on the stars of mountain biking at the second round of the World Cup on Sunday in Offenburg, Germany. Nestled in the southwest corner of Germany, next to Switzerland and France, Offenburg is a region of vineyards on the edge of the Black Forest. The cross-country World Cup was restarting after a month-long break, a respite that meant previous results were no clear indication of form. This indeed proved to be the case, with one leader's jersey changing hands, and neither of the

Australia's Bradley McGee will miss the Tour de France for a second year in a row because of an ongoing problem with the herniated disc in his back. McGee, who spectacularly won the prologue of the centenary Tour in 2003 with the slimmest of margins over Britain's David Millar, had been hoping to get back to the world's biggest race after missing it last year. But despite appearing to be on the road to recovery from his back problem, McGee said he has been "forced to face reality.” A statement on the 31-year-old Sydneysider's website explained: "It is time to face facts and

A lovely Sunday ride.

Saunier-Duval throws a one-two punch

Di Luca sends a message to Simoni

Bettini will not give up

Big Guns: Some serious climbing talent went off in pursuit of the original break

The quartet catches the big break... but the early escapees fade fast.

Di Luca leads the chase on the Passo di Giau.

Savoldelli gives chase

Ricco takes a stab

Mazzoleni now sits in second place on GC.

Some say Di Luca passed the big test and is set to win this Giro.

Kalentyeva rippin' it up

Absalon hit the front and stayed there

If Danilo Di Luca expects to ride into Milan a week from Sunday wearing the maglia rosa on the final stage of the Giro d’Italia he’s going to have to fight for it before that. Had there been any doubt about that, it was certainly erased during Saturday’s 192-kilometer ride from Cantu to Bergamo. In one of the most exciting stages in modern Giro history, Acqua & Sapone's Stefano Garzelli took the fourteenth stage in emphatic fashion Saturday in Bergamo, barely edging out Saunier Duval's Gilberto Simoni and world road champ Paolo Bettini of Quick Step-Innergetic.

Former Telekom soigneur Jeff d’Hont said he injected 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich with the banned blood booster erythropoietin (EPO), adding another element to a series of damaging revelations regarding Germany’s top pro cycling team. D'Hont, the former Telekom soigneur whose recent published memoirs led to a string of stunning confessions from former team riders, said in an interview published in Sunday's Bild magazine that he injected Ullrich with EPO. "I injected him once with EPO in the arm," said D'Hont. “It lasted around 10 seconds. It was as if I was injecting

Tina Pic gave the United States Cycling Team its ninth medal and sixth continental title with a victory in the elite women's road race at the 2007 Pan American Road and Track Championships on Saturday. Pic won the 72-kilometer road race to conclude competition for the American squad by outsprinting silver medalist Yumari Gonzales of Cuba and bronze medalist Gina Grain of Canada. Pic's victory gave the American women a sweep of the road events after Alison Powers won Friday's time trial. Given the relatively flat course and short distance of the road race, Pic was designated as

Fresh off a successful European road trip, the professional continental Navigators squad announced its return to domestic criterium racing with a dominant performance at Saturday’s Kelly Cup in Baltimore, Maryland. The team put six men in a 20-strong escape that formed with 15 laps of the 1-mile course remaining, and it was Aussie Hilton Clarke (Navigators) that struck the winning blow, soloing the final four laps to victory and nearly lapping the field in the process. Laura Van Gilder (Cheerwine) won the women’s event in tight field sprint over U.S. national criterium champion Theresa

Garzelli wins the stage, Simoni wins time

Di Luca dodges a bullet

Lake Como

Krauss tries to get a jump on the big hill

Rubiera and others give chase

Di Luca's not too worried...

but maybe he should be.

Garzelli's Giro is already a success

Simoni puts in an attack in Bergamo.

More climbing ahead on Sunday

Britta Bannenberg, the legal expert who launched a fraud charge against Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich last July, said on Friday revelations about practices in the Telekom team may lead to those charges being dropped. Bannenberg, a Criminology specialist, lodged a complaint in July 2006 against the 1997 Tour de France winner after packets of blood found in the offices of doping-scandal doctor Eufemiano Fuentes were linked to the German. But Bannenberg is having second thoughts after it emerged the use of EPO, the blood-booster agent, was rife within Telekom. Erythropoietin stimulates the

Till this 13 kilometer uphill race of truth, surprises have been few at this 90th Giro d'Italia. But Marzio Bruseghin's performance Friday was exactly that. With nowhere to hide on the slopes leading to the Santuario Di Oropa, 32 year-old Bruseghin defied the odds to win the thirteenth stage and stun everyone including himself with a superlative ride against the clock.

Bjarne Riis, winner of the 1996 Tour de France, admitted Friday that he had taken the banned blood-boosting drug EPO while competing for the German team Telekom. "I have taken banned substances, I have taken EPO. I bought it and took it myself," he said, Riis said at a press conference, adding that team doctors bore no responsibility for his actions. "It is ultimately the cyclists themselves who must take responsibility," he said. Riis said he took EPO from 1993 until 1998, including the 1996 season when he won the Tour de France. Asked if he was a worthy Tour de France winner, Riis

In an emotional press conference Friday, Bjarne Riis became the first racer to admit he took banned performance-enhancing products on his way to winning the Tour de France. Riis ended Miguel Indurain’s five-year streak in 1996 and admitted Friday he used the banned blood booster EPO, steroids and human growth hormones from 1993 to 1998. Riis, now owner and manager of Team CSC, verged on tears as he publicly recanted his drug use. The 43-year-old Dane said he always regretted using the banned substances. “It’s possible that I’m not a hero anymore,” he said. “I’m sorry if I’ve disappointed

The Italian Olympic Committee (Coni) has recommended a 21-month suspension for 2006 Giro d'Italia winner Ivan Basso for his involvement in the Operación Puerto blood-doping scandal, the ANSA news agency reported on Friday. Coni's anti-doping prosecutor Ettore Torri has asked the Italian cycling federation to hand out the suspension because of Basso's guilt in "using or attempting to use banned substances," according to the same source. The UCI's ethics rules would keep Basso from signing a contract with ProTour teams for an additional 21 months, but the grand tours do

Stage 13

Bruseghin powers in for a win

[nid:38705]Liquigas leader Danilo Di Luca has emerged unscathed and on top in the Giro's first big day in the mountains, taking the stage in Briançon and the maglia rosa to boot. Only five riders finished within 20 seconds of Di Luca, and only two-time Giro champion Gilberto Simoni was able to match him stroke for stroke on the savage slopes of the Col d'Izoard.

One of the top cyclists of the past 15 years, Erik Zabel of Germany, admitted on Thursday that he had taken the banned blood-boosting drug erythropoietin (EPO) while competing for German team Telekom in 1996. "I took EPO in 1996 but I stopped taking it after a week because of secondary effects," a visibly emotional Zabel told a press conference. "It was my only experience with doping in my whole career." The Telekom team was a major force in 1996, when one of its riders, Bjarne Riis of Denmark, won the Tour de France. Zabel, one of the world's leading sprinters, said he was unsure what

Greetings Bob,Coming from Germany and now cycling in Atlanta, mostly as a commuter, I havethe following question: Would you know of an insurance I could enroll in that covers two example situations:Aa car hits me and my bike - I am injured, the bike is damaged and the driver does not have insurance (does happen, yes ...).I cause an accident (my fault) and the car crashes into something - driver is hurt, car is damaged, I am fine.Any info would be very much appreciated - thank you very much!RegardsC. L.Georgia Dear C.L.,Your question could not be more timely! This Memorial Day weekend marks

Perhaps it was with no small measure of irony that Allan Davis – one of the nine riders kicked out of last year’s Tour de France for being implicated in the Operación Puerto blood doping ring – won stage three at the Volta a Catalunya on Wednesday one year to the day the scandal exploded on front pages across Europe. The investigation into the alleged blood doping ring has since paralyzed cycling and the sport is grappling on how to tread the confusing and treacherous legal waters spawned by the scandal. Despite the tough language coming out of the UCI that confirmed Puerto riders such as

Di Luca attacks on the Col D'Izoard.

DiLuca takes the win and the jersey, beating Simoni - who trails on GC by 2:34 - at the line..

Not an easy day on the Agnello

Piepoli drives an elite group

With two low-risk escapees ahead, Saunier kept tabs on anyone else that tried to get away.

Piepoli provided a lot of power

Di Luca charges off near the top of the Izoard.

Simoni tried a couple of digs on the lower slopes of the Izoard.