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Basso's relationship with CSC soured after his ejection from the Tour

This past weekend, Colorado's Front Range hosted rounds three and four of the 2006 Crank Brothers U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross, the first time national-caliber ’cross had visited the state since the 2000 SuperCup kicked off in Boulder. More than 100 men and 50 women contested the elite races, including virtually all of the top U.S. ’crossers. And with all this talent descending into VeloNews territory, most of the staff had a chance to report on some aspect of the events. Today, we'll highlight some of the top riders' equipment. While elite racers showed up with two or even

Former professional Philippe Gaumont claimed he won only one race "cleanly" in his career during testimony given at a French court on Tuesday. Gaumont is cooperating with investigators in trial of 10 Cofidis team riders and staff, who are facing doping charges. The Cofidis doping scandal erupted in 2004 when one of the team's young Polish riders was caught at an airport with vials of erythropoietin (EPO). That arrest led to a serious police investigation in which a number of the team's riders, including Britain's David Millar, became ensnared. Millar, who is now back cycling

Todd Wells brought his GTs in the trunk of his Audi

Notice the left hand brake lever.

Talk about a crazy position, look at the drop from the seat to handle bars.

The Orbea iGorre has plenty of mud clearance; you can also see FSA’s red ceramic BB

Primus Mootry built Katie Compton two new bikes in three days.

The tread of Tufo’s Flexus tire flanked by red carbon specific fibrex cork pads.

Lyne Bessette’s Thorne

Thorne’s rear triangle provides plenty of clearance for the Dugast Rhino tire.

Georgia Gould’s Orbea iGorre

Shimano’s BR-R550 looks very clean, the Maxxis Raze tread is made of siped square and rectangular blocks.

Former Cofidis pro Philippe Gaumont heads to court on Tuesday

Gaumont takes a break during Tuesday's testimony

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.Loves that dirty girlTo Mr. O'Grady,What a brilliant way to sum up cyclo-cross (see "Friday'sFoaming Rant: A dirty girl"). Patrick you're my new foundhero! My cycling days seem to mirror that of Mr. O'Grady's, but insteadof going to watch, I'm now in charge of

Schneider, Foland take Georgia raceJed Schneider (Alan Factory) and Kim Foland (Travel Girl) won round four of the Georgia Cross Series in Monroe. The course at at Criswell Park was primarily flat with some fast pavement sections, off-camber turns and plenty of headwinds. Schneider took an early lead only to bobble in one of the off-camber sections and be overhauled by the charging field. But he escaped once again, establishing a gap over an eight-man chase and holding on for the victory ahead of series leader Michael Cummings (KHS-Cycleyouth). The Travel Girl team dominated the women’s

British cyclist David Millar and nine others, including six current or former Cofidis riders, went on trial Monday for their alleged role in a doping scandal. The seven cyclists are charged with "acquiring and possessing banned substances." The other three defendants — a mechanic, a pharmacist and a former Cofidis soigneur — are accused of encouraging the riders to use drugs and supplying them with performance-enhancing drugs. The trial, in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, is expected to last a week. The defendants each face up to five years in prison and fines of 75,000 euros if

The world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit. Try, if you can, to belong to the first class. There’s far less competition.— Dwight Morrow, 1873-1931, in a letter to his son I caught a glimpse of the Vomit Comet on Sunday while driving out of town, bound for the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross stop in Boulder. A few more dents, all the shortcuts in that Earl Scheib paint job looking like a Tijuana facelift, squatting a little lower on her springs. And why not? The old girl had 23 years of service and nearly 300,000 on the odometer when I finally caved and sold

Schneider en route to victory

Burns burning it up

Millar comes to court on Monday

The defendants (l-r) Robert Sassone, David Millar, Mederic Clain and (bottom) Philippe Gaumont, Massimiliano Lelli and Marek Rutkiewicz.

The fabled Vomit Comet (left) with its cousin, the White Tornado

Fun with course design

We can't all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by.— Will Rogers You know you’re not in Colorado Springs any more when you see an Adopt-a-Highway sign reading, "NORML for Boulder." We don’t want to know what’s normal for Boulder. Not after the whole Ted Haggard thing. We have our own problems. The NORML sign was just west of the Weld County border, near the intersection of St. Vrain Greenway and Irony. I made a mental note and kept driving, looking for something called Xilinx and the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross. The Xilinx Cup, day one of a

New York (AFP) - Lance Armstrong is not used to coming second, let alone 856th, but after completing his first New York Marathon Sunday, the cycling legend said the foot race was the toughest physical challenge he'd ever faced. The seven-time Tour de France champion finished just seconds shy of the three hours he had set himself, crossing the finishing line in the city's Central Park in 2:59:36, some 49 minutes behind winner Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil. "That was without a doubt the hardest physical thing I've ever done," an exhausted Armstrong said after pounding the

Hector Leonardo Paez (Full Dynamix) easily held off a concerted effort by local Costa Rican teams in the final day of La Ruta de los Conquistadors to win the overall title. Locals managed to salvage a modicum of pride when second-placed GC rider Andrei Amador (BCR-Pizza Hut) broke away in the final kilometers to win the final stage. Marga Fedyna (bungalowboys.com) took her third consecutive stage win to dominate the women's competition. The 122 kilometer final stage is the longest, but generally slopes downhill to the finish at the Caribbean beach resort of Playa Bonita after an

Katie Compton (Spike-Primus Mootry) had to dig a little deeper in Sunday’s Boulder Cup to shell a gritty Lyne Bessette (Cyclocrossworld.com), intent on avenging her loss on Saturday at Longmont’s Xilinx Cup. Team Kona repeated its victory of the previous day, too. But it was not the white-clad U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross series leader, Ryan Trebon, crossing the line first at Boulder’s Harlow Platts Park — it was teammate Barry Wicks, collecting his first win in the 2006 USGP. After simply riding away from the field on Saturday, U.S. national champion Compton was clearly the woman to beat

Katie Compton: Cylon agent

Treefarm's speed turned sand into glass. Really. Go look, if you don't believe me

Don't let the 'S' fool you. This is Chris Horner, not Superman

Being part of L.A.'s entourage was tougher than usual this Sunday

The hardest physical thing I've ever done

Recovered. Armstrong gets his finisher's medal

Compton and Bessette slug it out

Wells and Trebon made it a two-man race . . . for a while

Trebon on the prod

And another two-man race develops between Johnson and Wells . . . but who's that coming up behind?

Bessette gave it all she had

The Operación Puerto doping investigation looks to be running into rocky legal waters and could end without anyone facing charges at all. According to legal sources quoted in the Spanish daily El Mundo, judges overseeing the case are considering dropping charges if more evidence isn’t forthcoming. Spanish authorities rocked cycling in May when they uncovered an alleged blood doping ring involving some of the sport’s biggest names, including Giro d’Italia champion Ivan Basso, 1997 Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich and more than 50 others. The raids found large quantities of steroids, EPO,

One can forgive the thick crowds at the third round of the Crank Brothers U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross if they were hoping for more competitive battles in the elite men’s and women’s races Saturday at the Xilinx Cup in Longmont, Colorado. Instead, spectators bore witness to a pair of dominating performances by two of the strongest Americans perhaps to ever race cyclo-cross. The day’s winners, series leader Ryan Trebon (Kona) and U.S. women’s national champion Katie Compton (Spike-Primus Mootry), took wins in similar fashion, riding away from their respective fields early to finish alone by

Michigan’s favorite fat-tire export Kelli Emmett (Ford Cycling) stormed to a second consecutive win at the Iceman Cometh Challenge, a popular mountain-bike season closer in frigid northern Michigan on Sunday. Making it an all-Michigan affair was pro men’s winner Mike Simonson (Bell’s Brewery-Quiring Cycles), a 26-year-old from Oxford, a suburb of Detroit, who held off two former winners from Wisconsin: Tristan Schouten (Trek-Volkswagen) and Brian Matter (PCW-Hyundai), who finished second and third respectively. Snow flurries fell throughout the morning’s amateur races, but by the time the

Jeremiah Bishop (Trek-VW) made an attempt to put pressure on race leader Hector Leonardo Paez (Full Dynamix) on the second day of La Ruta de los Conquistadors, but went down hard on the final descent, ending his chances of winning the overall title. While Bishop did finish the stage in second place to Paez, he was immediately rushed to hospital with a broken nose and at least two broken teeth. According to Paez, "I was being careful, he was going faster. Descending is not really my best skill, so I am always more careful. When I passed him (Bishop), he was surrounded by people ... I looked

Vinokourov was one of the most noteworthy victims of Puerto: Never charged, not even mentioned, but forced to pull out of the Tour de France.

Tree-Farm scampers away from the rest of the field.

Racers wind their way through Michgan's northwoods during the 2006 Iceman Cometh mountain bike race Saturday November 4, 2006 in Traverse City Michigan.

Ford Cycling racer Kelli Emmett celebrates on the podium after winning the 2006 Iceman Cometh

Bells Beer racer Mike Simonson of Oxford, Michigan, celebrates as he crosses the line

The expert class starts

Fans staked out spots all along the route

Compton started on her own and stayed there

Bessette found herself in a distasteful Luna sandwich

It was a numbers game

And Compton would not be caught

Wells and Johnson chased, to no avail

Trebon rips it through the trees

Wells clears the logs

Johnson works the treeline

The men's podium

Before the fall: Bishop (r) trails Paez and Amador.

Fedyna continues to dominate the women's field

Oceanside, California -- November, 2006 -- SponsorHouse, the largest online community of athletes and brands in motorsports, action sports and cycling, today announced the launch of its completely redesigned technology platform. Since 2001, SponsorHouse has been revolutionizing the way athletes and sponsors connect and interact. By allowing athletes to post profiles highlighting their accomplishments and sponsorship needs, SponsorHouse streamlines the matching process. Sponsors are able to sort and view 80,000 profiles in their quest for amateur and professional athletes to represent

Adventure race designer Dean Payne, creator of the successful Sea2Summitadventure race series, has created a new multi-day mountain-bike stagerace in Canada for 2007. The seven-stage race, titled SEVEN, will sendtwo-person teams from Victoria, British Columbia, up the Sunshine Coastand finally to Whistler, home of Canada’s largest ski resort.The entire course is around 500 km, and will send riders on three ferryboat rides, over zip lines and countless climbs in Canada's rugged Coastal Range. The race begins July 1, 2007.The course was designed by Canadian Olympian Andreas Hestler, who

NEW INDOOR VELODROME TO BE BUILT NEAR PHILADELPHIAFirst Indoor Cycling Track for East Coast and Second in USA Gets LocalSupportEAGLEVILLE, PA November 3, 2006: Lower Providence TownshipManager, Joseph C. Dunbar, along with investors and project developers,announced today that the first indoor velodrome and events center on theEast Coast will be located on a 14 acre site not far from Valley ForgeNational Park just outside of Philadelphia.The 2,500 seat arena and world class velodrome will be capable of hostinghigh level national and international competition and will provide a muchneeded year

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.Interbike v. Bio: A look back and aheadEditor:I feel compelled to respond to Enrique Paulo's letter today regarding the BIO and Interbike trade shows (see Wednesday’s Mailbag, "Can you say BIO?"). My PR consultant says I should keep my yap shut, but I'm not smart enough to listen

Verge series resumes SaturdayRounds three and four of the 2006 Verge New England Championship Cyclo-Cross Series are slated this weekend with the Chainbiter 8.0 on Saturday in Farmington, Connecticut, and the 16th annual Cycle-Smart International Sunday in Northampton, Massachusetts. Saturday’s Chainbiter takes place in Farmington’s Winding Trails Park, while Sunday’s Cycle-Smart International uses the two-tiered Look Park course. "We’re on target for record fields this weekend," said Cycle-Smart International organizer Adam Myerson. "This will be our 16th edition and it’s come to be

National-level cyclo-cross racing returns to Colorado’s Front Range this weekend as the second round of the Crank Brothers U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross lands in Longmont and Boulder, 30 minutes north of Denver. Round 3 of the USGP, the Xilinx Cup, will be held Saturday in Longmont, with round 4, the Boulder Cup, slated Sunday in the talent-rich racing community of Boulder. This weekend marks the first national-level cyclo-cross event held in Boulder, home of VeloNews, since the November 2000 round of the former SuperCup, when then-national champion Marc Gullickson defeated Tim Johnson.

Scott Addict - Official Team Bike Team Saunier Duval Prodir 2007 Already in the development stage we lived up to and exceeded the high expectations and needs of the Saunier Duval Prodir team. For riders like Gilberto Simoni and Leonardo Piepoli it’s indispensable to be able to rely on a light and rigid bike, which is still comfortable and agile in riding. Two years ago we and our engineers joined together and continued the development of the established CR1 carbon technology. The result was to set yet another milestone in the Scott hi-end bike range. Staying true to the CR1 Innovation and

It’s still the same old story,A fight for love and glory,A case of do or die!The world will always welcome loversAs time goes by. — "As Time Goes By," Herman Hupfeld This isn’t much of a rant; it’s more of a rave. I love cyclo-cross. When I stumbled into this sport back in the 1980s, my first love was road racing. But she was too classically pretty and refined to pay much attention to the likes of me. I followed her around like a retarded puppy, but she hardly knew I was alive, barring one sidelong glance at the state road championships in New Mexico back in 1991. All the jocks were crazy

Playa Jacó, Costa Rica.- Colombian Leonardo Paez (Full Dynamix)won the first stage of the 14th edition of La Ruta de los Conquistadoreslater this morning at 6:00:25. Paez crossed the finish line 15 minutesahead from the second place, Jeremiah Bishop (Volkswagen-Trek). Today’sroute departed from the Pacific Coast into Carara National Park, towardsthe heart of Costa Rica. After arriving, Paez explained he had some problemsclimbing and decided to walk several paths of the race, instead of fightingit. This is the first time Paez does La Ruta. “I thought it would be tough,but not this

National champ Todd Wells (GT) leads Danish champ Joachim Parbo in last weekend's Boulder Cyclocross race

Press Release - Scott and SRAM team up to equip Saunier Duval

The last time O'Grady and cyclo-cross were seen together

ProTour champion Alejandro Valverde is enjoying a vacation this week in the Caribbean island of Curacao, but he’s already thinking about the 2007 season. Valverde will take another two weeks’ break before getting back into serious training to prepare for the upcoming year where he hopes to confirm the success of his breakout season. “I had a great season this year despite the disappointment at the Tour. I was the most consistent all year long and I was able to win some big races,” Valverde told VeloNews. “My season next year will be the same as this year, except that maybe I won’t race the

I haven’t raced in my home state of Colorado for more than a month, so it was nice to not have the weekend hassles of traffic, parking, shuttle buses, security checks, disgruntled airline employees, crappy airport food, rental cars and long drives to races. This time, it was just down the road. Unfortunately, I had some heavy – and unrelated – work to do before race day. As a bike shop owner in Colorado, one thing I couldn’t avoid this past weekend was VeloSwap. VeloSwap is a massive annual swap meet for all things related to cycling. If you are looking for a deal on a new bike, a

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (November 1, 2006) - California Giant Berry Farmshas been named presenting sponsor of the 2006 USA Cycling National Cyclo-CrossChampionships being held Dec. 15-17 at Roger Williams Park in Providence."This entire committee is devoted to the promotion of an active, healthylifestyle," said Lyle Fulkerson, operations director. "To have a sponsorsuch as California Giant Strawberries is a perfect fit.

Austin International to be included in new USA Cycling ProfessionalTourThe inaugural event has also received a 1.1 ranking from InternationalCycling Union(Lebanon, NJ) – November 2, 2006 – g4 Productions, LLC, organizersof the Austin International scheduled for June 2007, announced that theinaugural event will be included in USA Cycling’s new Professional Tourand has received a 1.1 license from the International Cycling Union (UCI).“We are very proud that the Austin International has received a 1.1from the UCI. It is rare for a first year event to receive such a highranking but we have put a

Lance Armstrong trades pedal power for pavement-pounding Sunday in the New York Marathon, but the seven-time Tour de France winner holds no illusions about winning his debut at the distance. The 35-year-old American has not run beyond 16 miles at a time in practice but is confident he can finish the 26.2-mile journey in about three hours. "I have been able to average six-minute miles for 10 miles but they say the 20-mile mark is just halfway," Armstrong told USA Today. "I have no delusions of grandeur about my finish. It's too late for any crazy marathon training. It's just too

One might think that after a long summer of racing mountain bikes in the U.S. and abroad, Adam Craig would be ready for a little down time. You’d also figure a three-day race with a Mount Everest’s worth of climbing wouldn’t be something the average cross-country pro would be up for.