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It should come as no surprise to find out that the course for this weekend’s UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Hooglede, Belgium, is going to be muddy. Just how muddy is the big question. Located between the towns of Hooglede and Gits in southwestern Flanders, the 2007 world’s course is not new. It was the site of a World Cup mud-fest in 2006, with this year’s elite men’s favorite, Sven Nys, winning ahead of Erwin Vervecken. The soupy mud made for long laps — more than 10 minutes for the elite men. And while this year’s lap may be a bit shorter distance-wise, the mud will be heavier and

Applications for inclusion on the 2007 Alison Dunlap Junior Olympic Mountain Bike (ADJOMTB) Race Series are now available to race promoters in PDF format by clicking here. Entering its eighth year, the series was created by USA Cycling to provide racing opportunities for aspiring junior mountain bike athletes across the country. In 2003, world and national champion off-road cyclist Alison Dunlap endorsed the program and has since helped the series reach new levels. In 2007, USA Cycling hopes to add more events to the calendar by continuing to foster relationships with race promoters that

Patrick Lefévère, the manager of the Quick Step cycling team, launched a passionate defense of his squad on Friday after it was made the target of doping accusations by a Belgian newspaper. Lefévère said he would seek damages against the daily newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, which made the allegations, and which quoted an anonymous rider as saying that a doping culture was allowed to flourish because the team had an informant at the UCI who tipped them off when tests were to be carried out. "The riders don't just take doping products (EPO, growth hormones), but also drugs like ecstasy,

Elite menHe’s Belgian, he’s the current king of ’cross, and he’s the massive favorite to win Sunday’s elite men’s title at the 2007 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Hooglede-Gits, Belgium. All that being said, Sven Nys is a long way from pulling on the rainbow jersey Sunday afternoon. Apart from the course-related challenges, for which Nys is perhaps better suited than any other rider, a cadre of hungry Belgian countrymen and a few interlopers will be doing their utmost to keep him off the top step of the podium. Nys has chalked up an impressive season in 2006-07, winning two-dozen

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Mark Scanlon brings some ProTour horsepower to Toyota-United

Close friends Chris Wherry and Henk Helmethead Vogels will ride as co-captains.

Harm Jansen, Ivan Dominguez and Kirk Willett discuss the 2007 season.

The team cars feature Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive

Ivan Stevic proudly sports his new Serbian national champion's jersey, the second of his career.

The man, the myth, the Moocher

This is what a Belgian 'crosser calls 'fun'

More of the same

Don't like mud? How about sand?

The backside climb

The corner preceding the bridge staircase

Under the bridge

One sketchy dropoff

And another, the third on this course

The view from on high

Can Nys add to his rainbow collection on Sunday?

Juan José Haedo is busy packing his bags as he prepares for his big European adventure with Team CSC, but first he has a detour through the United States and some old haunting grounds at the Tour of California. The Argentine ace, who turns 26 on Friday, will be traveling to California for a two-week training camp with his new Team CSC teammates before making his team debut at the Tour of California, where he won two races last year to attract the attention of several European teams to his aggressive, fearless sprinting style. “It’s a big step to take, to come from racing in the USA to

Erwin Vervecken radiates calm as he goes about the business of final preparation for the defense of his world cyclo-cross title. A tall genial man with an overwhelming sense of ease both on and off the bike, Vervecken wore the rainbow stripes for the second time in his career in 2006-07. While his year in the jersey in 2001-02 saw the Belgian win a fair number of big events, including the Belgian GVA Series, this season has been more modest, with Vervecken having the privilege of spraying the winner’s champagne only twice, despite frequent appearances in the top three. Vervecken has taken

Tour de France runner-up Oscar Pereiro is among a group of 10 riders cleared of doping charges, the president of France’s anti-doping agency, Pierre Bordry, announced Thursday. The cases were thrown after it was confirmed the riders had official medical clearances to use certain banned substances. Records leaked to the media last week indicate Pereiro had tested positive for salbutamol, a banned substance often prescribed for asthma sufferers, after the 14th and 16th stages of last year's Tour. Pereiro quickly responded that he that he had been issued a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE)

The ProTour-level Quick Step-Innergetic squad is battling to defend its reputation after a Belgian newspaper alleged that the team structured an elaborate internal doping system, which is being protected by an informant at the sport's world ruling body. The damaging claims have been made in Belgian paper Het Latste Nieuws, which this week launched a salvo at the team, its former star rider Johan Museeuw and the current team manager Patrick Lefévère. Museeuw, the former world champion — known as the 'Lion of Flanders' — surprised many observers on Tuesday by confessing to

Following a year when far too many of cycling’s biggest stars were entangled in doping controversies, the sport’s first major drug-stained newsflash of 2007 centers on influential Belgian team boss Patrick Lefévère. In a series of articles published this week in the Belgian daily Het Laatse Nieuws, the Quick Step manager stands accused of three decades worth of involvement in illegal doping. The Brussels-based newspaper claimed that Lefévère used drugs during his own racing days in the 1970s, and has since overseen their use as team director of the once-mighty Mapei outfit, and then his

Haedo - here winning the finale of the 2006 Tour of California - says time spent in the U.S. is like going to 'racing school.'

Haedo's new look. He will be CSC's only pure sprinter this season.

Vervecken has moved into the role as 'cross's veteran.

Alessandro Petacchi hopes a return to form at the Tour of Qatar will help him erase a disappointing 2006 campaign that saw him riddled with injuries. The Milram sprinter will bring his full train to the desert race (January 28 to February 2) with ambitions of snagging a victory and boosting his confidence ahead of what the “gentleman sprinter" hopes will be a comeback season. “I want to regain the sensations I had at the beginning of last year. I’ve had a good training block and I am motivated for the coming season,” Petacchi said. “I haven’t been able to raise my arms in victory since last

Hi Monique,
In your column about weight loss and body composition monitoring, you mentioned that scales that compute body fat should use a formula appropriate to athletes. Can you comment further about that means? What errors can be induced? I have an electronic scale that I know shows variability with hydration levels,but I was wondering what other errors could be involved.
Thanks,
DHDear DH,

World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound said Wednesday that he has asked the French anti-doping agency (AFLD) to postpone its investigation into Floyd Landis until the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency ends its inquiry. Landis tested positive for a skewed testosterone-epitestosterone ratio following Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour de France and has been fighting to clear his name ever since. "In December we asked the French agency to suspend its inquiry into Floyd Landis until the end of the American anti-doping procedure," said WADA’s Pound. "They seem ready to do that, although without renouncing their

Petacchi hopes the flat roads of Qatar will offer a good start to a string of wins in '07.

The Feedzone with Monique Ryan: Smart scales and oatmeal

Two-time Giro d’Italia winner Gilberto Simoni is hoping to earn a berth on the Italian Olympic team to compete for a gold medal in mountain biking in 2008. The veteran Italian has enjoyed recent success on fat tires, including the Italian national marathon championship last year. “We are hoping to make a special program for Gilberto next year and give him some time to race more mountain bikes to gain selection to the national team for Beijing,” Saunier Duval-Prodir general manager Mauro Gianetti told VeloNews. “We believe he can win another Giro and we hope he will race next year through

Tuesdays at VeloNews.com usually feature Lennard Zinn's "Technical Q&A"column, in which VeloNews' senior technical writer fields questionsfrom you, our readers. But this week, Boulder, Colorado, is playing hostto the first (and hopefully annual) CyclingScience Symposium and Expo, organized by the Serotta InternationalCycling Institute. Yup, it's a sort of bike geek Woodstock (albeit on a much smaller scale) and we knewexactly where we'd find our friend Lennard. For the next few daysZinn will be attending the seminar and, when he gets some time, even sendingus a few reports

Just when the competition thought it could relax, the once-retired Anne-Caroline Chausson says her sights are now set on the first-ever Olympic BMX competition at the 2008 Games in Beijing. Chausson, the most-decorated female mountain-biker of all time, announced her plan last week on her web site. Chausson took BMX world titles in 1992 and 1993 before switching over to downhill mountain-bike racing. For more than a decade the Frenchwoman virtually owned gravity racing, taking 12 world titles in downhill, two in dual slalom and two in four-cross. Her final appearance on the mountain-bike

It’s less than a week until the 2007 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in nearby Hooglede-Gits and Belgian Bart Wellens (Fidea) is bubbling over with nervous energy. Just back from a Tuesday-morning training ride with the rest of the Fidea squad, the 28-year-old from Vorselaar is more than happy to talk about the upcoming championship. While he admits he’s a long shot to win world’s he likely has a better chance than anyone else to upset his countryman Sven Nys (Rabobank). But that does not seem to weigh on Wellens’s mind one iota. For Wellens, a two-time elite and two-time espoir world

A Belgian newspaper Tuesday leveled dramatic allegations of illicit doping practices dating back 30 years against Quick Step-Innergetic manager Patrick Lefevere, one of cycling’s most powerful team managers. Lefevere vehemently denied the allegations, calling the front-page report in Het Laatste Nieuws “complete rubbish” and quickly promised legal action against the Belgian national daily. The paper alleges Lefevere, current president of the international professional team’s group, of taking drugs during his own racing career (he admitted to taking amphetamines) in the 1970s as well as

Facing trial on doping charges, former world champion Johan Museeuw on Tuesday admitted to taking drugs in the final months of his career. "In my last year of racing, I made an error, I didn't race faithfully," Museeuw said in a press conference, the first time the 1996 world road race champion has admitted taking drugs. "I wanted to finish my career in style, which pushed me to not play the game honestly." Museeuw’s remarks come after hearing last week that he and others cyclists implicated in a doping scandal will face trial in Kortrijk, Belgium. The Belgian star stands accused of

Two race promoters are planning separate events in Las Vegas as part of the late-September Interbike trade show. Denver-Boulder Couriers promoter Chris Grealish is planning a September 26 UCI cyclo-cross race called Cross Vegas, while USA Crits series promoter Gene Dixon hopes to host the series finale, titled the World Criterium Championships, the following evening. Neither twilight event is directly affiliated with the Interbike trade show, but both hope to draw the thousands of industry folk that flock to Vegas every year. Racing categories will be open to elite men and women. Grealish,

Simoni, at this year's Saunier Duval training camp, may look for off-road gold in Beijing.

Ray Browning, emcee and organizer.

Jeff Broker

Max Testa: Power is the key

Katrina Vogel: Focusing on the interface.

Wellens says his season has already been a success

The stick-thin Belgian suffered at Hoogerheide

The former champ' meets with reporters

Museeuw reads from a prepared statement with his lawyer at his side.

Last season was perhaps the worst year professional cycling has ever experienced. Victories achieved with panache were overshadowed by media headlines relating to positive drug tests, doping investigations and political strife between the sport’s governing body and the race organizers. It was a tough year to be a professional cyclist and with each news story my pedal stroke seemed to get heavier from the negativity. The sport I had gone to bed dreaming about as a kid was, very sadly, in the public’s perception, a sport full of cheaters and hoaxes. And, it now needs to change. T-Mobile, is a

David Millar lost two weeks of his pre-season prep’ time to a training crash earlier this month in Spain, but he’s hoping that will be little more than a speed bump in what will be his first full season of racing since 2003. Millar -- the 29-year-old Scot who served a two-year racing ban after admitting to French authorities that EPO fueled some of his biggest professional exploits – took a forced rest after high-siding onto his left leg in a spill in a round-about earlier this month. The mishap postponed training, but Millar said he’s motivated more than ever as he hopes to put his

Our latest reader-submitted PhotoGallery has been posted, along with a special year-endgallery, featuring contest winners from throughout 2006. Of course,a new gallery also means the naming of the winner of ourmostrecent contest. Take the time to wander through that gallery and seeif you agree or disagree with our choice of winners this week. This timearound, we found that Carl Viars’ “Harmony With Nature,” served as a beautiful reminder that, aside from walking, bikes are the most elegant, efficient and environmentally friendly form of transportation on the planet. This is not a scene

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you havea comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen incycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write toWebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name andhome town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writersare encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month.The letters published here contain the opinions of the submittingauthors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, policies or positionsof VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company, InsideCommunications,

The UCI heavily criticized the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) on Monday for alleging that runner-up Oscar Pereiro failed anti-doping controls en route to finishing second overall in the 2006 Tour de France. The French authorities are in an uproar after Pereiro showed traces of salbutamol on two occasions in the 2006 Tour and insinuated that the Spanish rider wasn’t in compliance with anti-doping rules. On Friday, Pereiro produced the required documentation to demonstrate he’s had UCI-sanctioned approval since 2005 to use an asthma medicine that contains traces of the banned substance. In

A team with big men's and women's programs riding under the same banner.

Meet the new boss, not the same as the old boss.

The Team

After a bit of a tumble, Millar is back on the road.

Harmony With Nature

The best of '06: Bixby Bridge - Tour of California (BIG FILE)

VeloNews Photo Contest: A new winner, a new gallery and the best of '06

Former Swiss cycling champion Martin Elmiger relaunched his professional career by winning the Tour Down Under after some thrilling final-day drama on Sunday. Australian sprint king Robbie McEwen meanwhile claimed victory in the 81km, 18-lap final stage, extending his record victory tally in the race to 12. McEwen, a three-time winner of the Tour de France green jersey, held off fellow Australian Mark Renshaw, who gestured prior to the finish line about being squeezed into the barriers by the Predictor-Lotto sprinter. McEwen was unapologetic.

American Sarah Hammer’s trophy case could soon need structural reinforcing. The world individual pursuit champion added another gold medal to her stack with a win in her signature event during day two of the track World Cup in Los Angeles. Earlier in the day, Hammer set a new U.S. record of 3:32.058. After the effort Hammer said she would just "put it on cruise" in the evening’s gold-medal match against Germany’s Verena Joos. Sure enough, Hammer quickly made up time against her rival, gaining time with every lap to build such a comfortable lead she sat up well before the line and waved to

The weather in The Netherlands may have been foul, but Belgian Sven Nys (Rabobank) was in a sunny mood following his win at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup on Sunday in Hoogerheide. With only a week until the world championships in his home country, Nys scored a decisive win under appalling conditions, a steady cold, driving rain that relented only when it turned into hail. The rain and dropping temperatures created a dynamic race with riders suffering and thriving in turn throughout the entire 60 minutes. While Nys went on to win comfortably, his early race left many in the partisan crowd

Another day, another gold for Sarah Hammer — our man Casey Gibson was on hand and snapping away. Here's what he saw.

Sarah Hammer put to rest any ideas that she’s not a top mass-start racer with a gold medal in the Los Angeles World Cup scratch race, her third win of the three-day event. Hammer won the opening-night points race and followed it up with gold in the individual pursuit. Hammer and American Becky Quinn repeated the tactic that put them one-two at last year’s World Cup scratch race in Los Angeles. Hammer hit the front with a few to go, Quinn battled to get on her wheel, then Hammer dialed up the pace so high no one could come around her. There was no need for the UCI officials to check the photo

That's a wrap — three days of racing, three golds for Sarah Hammer and three cheers for our man Casey Gibson, whose shutter kept clicking from lights on to lights out.

Robbie the Rocket wins ahead of an angry Renshaw.

Elmiger celebrates a solidly tactical victory.

Elmiger stayed close...

and overcame some serious opposition to win the sprint, locking up the overall title in the process.

Menzies' teammates fought to control the pace as they day's first bonus sprint approached.

Elmiger gets a boost going into the European road season.

Hammer likes racing before a hometown crowd

Ukraine comes from behind to take the men's team pursuit

The aggressive Meyer was scoring his first points as a senior