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Rihs celebrates in Paris with Floyd Landis in what turned out to be the calm before a fatal storm.

In Floyd we trust

Landis lost time on Stage 16, but he didn't lose hope.

Landis rode one of the most remarkable stages in Tour history. Was it too remarkable?

Phonak was flying high three weeks ago with the dramatic comeback Tour de France victory of Floyd Landis, but now the team is facing an uncertain future in the wake of Landis’ disastrous failed doping control. Phonak team owner Andy Rihs and team manager John Lelangue have scheduled a Tuesday morning press conference at a Zurich hotel to discuss the team’s future, but many insiders believe the Landis scandal could spell the end of the beleaguered Swiss squad. Unconfirmed reports were flying at last weekend’s Clásica San Sebastián that iShares – the San Francisco-based online investment

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.One reader’s over itEditor:Okay, I’m over it. I’ve written my letters to the editor. Explained to friends the reasons that I doubt he did it. Felt anger toward the sensationalist media; frustration and confusion, at his own defensive statements, annoyance at Oscar Pereiro’s newfound

Lelangue (left), Rihs and Landis in happier days

The Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team gained a new member on Saturday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when Andrew "A.J." Smith, a brawny 24-year-old former national junior track champion, won the opportunity to ride as an honorary member of the team at next month’s USPRO time-trial championship in Greenville, South Carolina. Smith was a promising track rider in the late 1990s who grew disillusioned with the sport while training for the 2000 Olympic sprint trials. After missing out on the Olympic team selection, the Florida native gave up cycling and became a personal trainer with a focus

George Hincapie, who roared to a best-ever ninth place in the Clásica San Sebastián race in northern Spain on Saturday, confirmed he’ll start the U.S. national championships next month. The Discovery Channel captain told VeloNews he will race in next week’s ENECO Tour in Holland (Aug. 16-23) and end his season with the U.S. national championships September 3 in his adopted hometown of Greenville, South Carolina. Hincapie won the U.S. title in 1999, but hasn’t raced in the event since. USA Cycling has switched the race from its traditional June date to later in the season, in part to attract

Rich Houseman has stood atop podiums at bike races for more than 20 years — the 1985 world BMX champion, now 28, started competing when he was only 5 years old. But after a decade as a professional mountain-bike racer, "Big House" hadn’t stood atop a NORBA National Mountain Bike Series podium — that is, until he won the 2006 mountain-cross title on Sunday at Snowmass, Colorado. "I grew up basically with Eric Carter as my older brother, and watched him bring home a lot of No. 1 plates," said Houseman (Yeti Cycles). "Now I’ve got mine. It makes for a good career." Houseman came into the NMBS

Big Shark Racing’s Jeff Hartman survived triple-digit temperatures to win the Overland Park Grand Prix Sunday at the Tour of Kansas City, while Brian Jensen (Jelly Belly) became the race’s first repeat overall champion since Scott Moninger in the late 1990s. Hartman and Jensen were among a group of nine riders that broke from the pack halfway through the 75-minutes-plus-five-laps criterium. The two eventually escaped from their breakaway companions, though somewhat reluctantly, on a day when the mercury soared to 103 degrees on a shadeless course featuring newly paved blacktop roads. "I had

The boss and his newest employee

Bikes on the Brickyard

The Disco boys sign autographs

Crowds were sparse at the Brickyard

The winning bike

Hincapie will race the U.S. national championships

Houseman celebrates

Nash takes the series

Schnell styles through the finale

JHK scores a win

Former VeloNews European correspondent Rupert Guinness is now editor and publisher of PelotonPress.net but rejoins our crew each year at the Tour de France. Unlike past years, however, the story of the 2006 Tour is far from over and Guinness will continue to contribute to VeloNews.com over the coming months. Recently, Guinness spoke with fellow Australian, Union Cycliste Internationale vice-president Ray Godkin, who is still sorting through the fall-out from the doping scandals that book-ended this year’s Tour. In this conversation, which took place in Belgium just days before Landis’s B

Jan Ullrich may be forced to pay money back to his former team Coast, who he rode with in the 2003 season, with former team sponsor Gunther Dahms accusing him of a breach of contract. The 32-year-old former Olympic champion was barred from competing in this year's Tour de France after being implicated in a doping scandal when he was accused of collaborating with a doctor organizing a blood-doping network. Dahms is now keen to discover whether Ullrich breached his contract when he rode for the Coast team and could seek financial compensation if evidence is forthcoming. "In the Coast

There were a lot of smashing fists on handlebars Saturday as the relatively unheralded Xavier Florencio (Bouygues Telecom) surprised a host of favorites with an early sprint to win the Clásica San Sebastián. The 26-year-old held off Stefano Garzelli (Liquigas) and Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) to score just his second victory of his professional career, leaving the frustrated runner’s up to bash their handlebars in an opportunity missed. “I wouldn’t have bet on it,” Florencio said with a smile when asked if he thought he was going to win the 225km, five-climb classic around the hills of

There’s growing uncertainty about the future of the Phonak team following the Floyd Landis doping scandal and rumors are flying that the team’s new title sponsor – iShares – has pulled the plug on its commitment to take over the squad in 2007. Andy Rihs, the Swiss magnate who owns the beleaguered team, has scheduled a press conference this week as Landis faces the real possibility of having his Tour de France victory stripped away. Rihs and team manager John Lelangue are scheduled to outline the team's future at an 11 a.m. press conference in Zurich, but until then most riders and staff

The names of the Luna Chix women’s mountain-bike team are displayed on the side of the blue team trailer. Beneath each name are stickers to record the victories each rider has scored at an NMBS event. Before Saturday’s cross-country race at the finals in Snowmass, Colorado, Argentina’s Jimena Florit was the only Luna pro without a win sticker below her name. “It’s inside motivation that we get from [team manager] Waldek [Stepniowski], and it’s been working,” said Florit. The Argentine wanted her victory sticker bad enough to stretch her first-lap solo attack into a solid win. The Luna

The 2006 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah concluded Saturday with the much-anticipated Stage Six Snowbird Road Race, won by TIAA CREF rider Blake Caldwell. The 91-mile stage included three very difficult climbs and more than 12,000 feet of climbing as it traversed the Wasatch Mountains from Deer Valley Resort to Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort. The decisive third climb of the day, in Little Cottonwood Canyon affected the final General Classification as Scott Moninger took the yellow jersey from teammate and hometown favorite Jeff Louder. Team TIAA CREF forced an early break with four riders in

A year ago, Jelly Belly’s Brian Jensen gutted it out through a torrential downpour to win the lightning-shortened Cliff Drive Classic at the Tour of Kansas City. On Saturday, the conditions were considerably different, but the result was the same. Jensen, who calls Lawrence, Kansas, his home, soloed to victory in the 50-mile Pro-I-II race in two hours and 40 seconds, beating Team Mack’s Clark Priebe of Eagle Grove, Iowa, by more than a minute. In addition to earning his sixth victory of the season, Jensen also pocketed an additional $225 cash for winning the "King of the Mountain"

Aussie Hilton Clarke (Navigators Insurance) edged Christian Vande Velde (CSC) on Saturday to win the Alexian Brothers International Cycling Classic, the first of two days of racing in the Tour of Elk Grove. Canada’s Gord Fraser (Health Net-Maxxis) took third in the 100km, 27-lap circuit race, run on a 3.7km course through the Illinois town. Rachel Heal (Victory Brewing) of Great Britain won the 60km women’s event ahead of Mackenzie Dickey (Aaron’s) and Christina Dekraay (Team Fuji). Racing continues on Sunday with the American Airlines International for women and the Gullo International

UCI vice-president Ray Godkin

Florencio becomes the third Spanish winner here in as many years

A surprise winner.

Garzelli, Florencio and Kashechkin

A quiet moment before today's start

Garzelli showed good form on Saturday

Bettini has had a long season

Mayo - recovered from a poor Tour - is back

Jimena had time to show of some handling skills as she crossed the line.

Bishop made his mark on the descents.

Spain’s top stars are converging on the posh resort town for Saturday's big one-day race to kick-start San Sebastián’s summer festival, but it’s no guarantee fans will have the chance to cheer on a hometown winner. While Spanish riders have won the past two editions, the 225km race around the hills of Spain’s Basque Country has long been dominated by foreign riders. Take away the 2004-05 wins by Martín Perdiguero and Constantino Zaballa, respectively, and you have to go all the way back to Miguel Indurain’s win in 1990 to find another Spaniard who won this race. One of those foreigners

Stage Five of the 2006 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah entertained an estimated crowd of 30,000 fans in downtown Salt Lake City, Friday night, as the Twinlab Circuit Race tested riders with six laps of a 6.3 mile course that included a very steep climb to the Utah State Capitol before plunging and twisting back to the wide avenues of downtown. A wide and slightly downhill finishing straight encouraged sprints and attacks, making for a very fast race, won by Toyota-United rider Chris Baldwin. The stage was slotted between two of the toughest climbing stages in American cycling, but was not the

It’s been three months since the 2006 NORBA National Mountain Bike Series debuted in California’s dusty, industrial town of Fontana. This weekend the NMBS comes to a close at a contrasting setting — on the scenic, aspen-covered slopes of Snowmass, Colorado. The sixth event of the series, the NMBS finals run August 11-13, and feature cross-country and short track racing, as well as Super D, downhill, mountain cross and dual slalom. Organizers expect between 1000-1200 riders to fill the trails at Snowmass this weekend, making it the second-largest national race of the year behind the event

Zaballa scored in 2005.

The XC course is a toughy

More celbrations for the happy couple?

Oscar Pereiro – the man poised to be named Tour de France victor in the wake of the Floyd Landis doping scandal – hasn’t had much time to train lately. After giving an endless stream of interviews (more than 200, by his count) and a half-dozen press conferences not to mention a string of public celebrations, Pereiro has hardly had any time to think about what’s in store for the rest of the season. While he waits word from cycling authorities on the Landis case, Pereiro is committed to race the Vuelta a España, set to start on Saturday, August 26 in Málaga. “I am going to race it with a lot

It seems either Oscar Freire is winning races or facing some career-threatening health problem. There’s no in between for the three-time world champion who seems snake-bit when it comes to debilitating pain. The Rabobank sprinter – fresh off winning two stages at the Tour de France and the Vattenfall Cyclassics race in Hamburg – will miss Saturday’s Clásica San Sebastián due to strange headaches and dizzy spells that have been dogging him since the Tour. For a rider who’s suffered through back problems and infected saddle sore that kept him out of last year’s world championships, it’s just

The 2006 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah earned its reputation as one of the country’s toughest Thursday as the race entered the mountains of the Wasatch Front with the 67.5-mile 101.9 The End Road Race, which began in Provo and finished at Nebo Loop, pitted some of the best climbers in U.S. against each other as the stage culminated with a 20-mile ascent through Payson Canyon to the 9000-foot Nebo Loop summit. HealthNet-Maxxis rider Scott Moninger won the stage with a time of two minutes thirty-eight seconds at an average speed of 22.48 miles per hour. Moninger's teammate and Salt Lake

Pereiro may end up with a new jersey, too.

T-Mobile will introduce a new, groundbreaking blood test that officials say will allow the team determine if its riders have been blood doping. The German ProTour team will conduct the test internally on its own riders within the coming weeks. T-Mobile is thought to be the first major cycling team to use the new detection method developed by Walter Schmidt, a professor at the University of Bayreuth. “All riders will be required to undergo a newly developed test which will be able to determine whether the individual has transfused his own blood,” T-Mobile doctor Lothar Heinrich said on the

Burbank, California - Jay Leno didn't let Floyd Landis off easy, and the embattled Tour de France champion responded with yet another theory as to why he flunked a drug test. Questioned by the "Tonight Show" host Tuesday, Landis said he may have unknowingly ingested something that made him test positive for a high testosterone ratio. "I see you on these shows and I do want to believe you and evidence seems - I don't know if it's overwhelming - but it seems pretty conclusive, right?" Leno said. Landis said yes, if one goes by the tests, and Leno shot back, “Why should we not go

Veteran German rider Jens Voigt said winning the Tour of Germany for the first time was the finest achievement in his long cycling career, surpassing even his three stage victories at the Tour de France. The 34-year-old Voigt, riding for the Danish CSC team, cruised through the eighth and final stage of the Tour on Wednesday to maintain his 98 second lead over American Levi Leipheimer and collect the title. Australia's Graeme Brown of the Rabobank team won the final stage - a 172.1km ride from Bad Krozingen to Karlsruhe - but it was Voigt's day and he was overcome with emotion

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.Floyd’s neither stupid nor immoralEditor:After reading about the leak, the tests, the excuses, etc., etc., it all boils down to one thing. Whom do you believe? I choose to believe in Floyd Landis. Someone could have made an error marking the samples or someone could have slipped him

Melissa Buhl absolutely owned the women’s gravity races at the August 4-6 National Mountain Bike Series event at Brian Head, Utah. The 24-year-old won the dual slalom, then picked up a victory in the downhill, beating World Cup talents Sabrina Jonnier (Monster-Ironhorse) and Tracey Hannah (Orange). The wins came during a crucial point in the season for the 2005 national downhill champion. Buhl set out on an ambitious schedule for ‘06, hitting full the World Cup, NMBS and Jeep King of the Mountains series. The going was rough, to say the least. After the World Cup opener, the airlines lost

Jan Ullrich's blood samples won't be turned over to Spanish police investigating a doping scandal, the president of the world cycling body said Wednesday. Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France winner, was among the top riders implicated in May when police arrested five people at a Madrid clinic after seizing drugs and frozen blood. The UCI samples could be used for a DNA comparison with the frozen blood found in the raid. Police suspect the samples were to be prepared for performance-enhancing transfusions to still-unidentified riders. "The blood of the riders in our possession from

Dear ReadersThis week, because of all the legal questions raised by the racing news, we’ll be taking a look at a legal issue I haven’t covered before—the anti-doping code in professional cycling. The Anti-Doping Code has its origins in the Olympic movement; as a result of the International Olympic Committee’s concern about doping in sports, the World Anti-Doping Agency (“WADA”) was created, followed by the World Anti-Doping Code. The International Cycling Union (“UCI”) adopted the World Anti-Doping Code in July of 2004. Let’s take a look at how the system works. The UCI Anti-Doping Ruleshe

After two years spent with Davitamon-Lotto as Robbie McEwen’s lead-out man at the Giro d’Italia, Australian veteran Henk Vogels will return to the North American peloton as a member of the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team. Vogels is the first new addition to the Toyota-United roster for the 2007 season. “The Toyota team looks as though they’ve done a great job this year,” Vogels said. “I was impressed with them at the Tour of Georgia. They’ve done well by themselves. I think the team wanted me for a few reasons. My physical ability is still very good, but I think what I bring in terms of

U.S. National Road Champion Chris Wherry won his second consecutive stage in the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, the KJZZ Individual Time Trial, finishing ahead of Toyota-United teammate and U.S. National Time Trial Champion Chris Baldwin. Wherry finished the stage in 15 minutes 50.67 seconds, blistering the mostly flat course with an average speed of 31.9 miles per hour - eight hundredths of a second faster than Baldwin. The race leader entering the day's stage, Sergey Lagutin of Team Navigators Insurance stopped the clock with the third fastest time of the day, 18 seconds behind Wherry.

Team manager Olaf Ludwig was fired after sponsors demanded a major shake-up on the T-Mobile team.

T-Mobile seems prepared to stay in cycling... if major changes occur on the team.

A conversation with Melissa Buhl: A matter of balance

Vogels signs with Toyota-United

Alexandre Vinokourov and his cadre of Astana riders will race this weekend’s Clásica San Sebastián as the team picks up the pieces in the wake of the “Operación Puerto” investigation left the squad at the edge of implosion. Vinokourov wraps up the Tour of Germany on Wednesday – his first stage race since the Dauphiné Libéré in early June – and will race in Spain’s one-day classic as final preparation for the Vuelta a España. “I can feel a lack of rhythm of competition,” Vinokourov told El Diario Vasco. “The Tour of Germany has been perfect to return to racing, because I haven’t race since

German Jens Voigt of the CSC team is on the brink of winning the Tour of Germany for the first time after winning the seventh stage - a 38.2 kilometer time-trial - of the Tour in Bad Sackingen on Tuesday. It was a third stage win for Voigt, 34, and he is now one minute and 38 seconds ahead of nearest rival Gerolsteiner's Levi Leipheimer of the United States, heading into Wednesday's final stage. "I am delighted because this could be my last chance to win this Tour," Voigt said. "The conditions were ideal - not too warm and not too cold. I started really quickly to motivate myself

World cycling chief Pat McQuaid has vowed to conduct a sweeping review of the drug-tainted sport after a series of high-profile doping scandals that have left it in crisis. In an interview to be published Wednesday, McQuaid admitted that doping had been an "an integral part" of professional cycling for decades and that it was time for the sport to confront the scourge. The UCI president said the planned review could produce a major upheaval in professional cycling within two years. McQuaid told the Swiss weekly L'Illustre that the length of races, the number of rest days, the

Stage Two of the 2006 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, the Steve Williams Memorial Road Race, was a hot and dry 97-mile stage from Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, to the newly constructed Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele. Riders battled shifting winds and temperatures topping 100 degrees as they raced along a portion of the historic Pony Express Trail through Utah's West Desert. The race began with a series of gradual climbs out of Lehi, then onto rolling terrain as it moved toward the finish at the motorsports park. Attacks were launched almost immediately as the race climbed out of Lehi,

Vinokourov will take on this weekend's Clásica San Sebastián

Voigt is on a roll

Floyd Landis, whose Tour de France triumph was followed by a positive doping test, ripped UCI and WADA officials over the public release of his "B" sample in an interview with USA Today. The newspaper posted comments Sunday on its website from the embattled U.S. cyclist after Saturday's release of his test results, Landis saying he has been treated unfairly and cannot properly defend himself against doping accusations. Landis tested positive, reportedly for synthetic testosterone, and showed a testosterone/epitestosterone ratio well above the level that triggers suspicion in a test

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.The man is innocent!Dear VeloNews,Floyd Landis will be exonerated of all doping charges! I can only wonderwhy all the information that was "leaked" before any formal announcementswere made about this debacle was all negative.I still haven't heard anything about the results of the six

Our latest reader-submitted Photo Gallery is now up for your viewing pleasure. Of course, a new gallery also means the naming of the winner of ourmost recent contest. Take the time to wander through that gallery and see if you agree or disagree with our choice of winner. Maybe it’s just the timing, but for some reason, we were drawn to Anthony Kahn’s photo of his seven-year-old son Ellis riding an old road bike on La Toussiure. (For one thing, it’s good that Anthony is teaching the boy to shift like a real man before he graduates to integrated levers.) The shot just seemed to remind us

The road to the Vuelta a España goes through the Tour de l’Ain for Discovery Channel’s Tom Danielson. The 28-year-old is racing in the French event this week in his final competition ahead of the August 26 start of the Vuelta, where he will line up as a grand-tour team captain for the first time. "This is the best race I could do before the Vuelta," Danielson told VeloNews. "The race has shorter stages and it’s always up and down, so it’s good to get some good racing in the legs without being too taxing." Danielson won the Tour of Austria in July for his first European victory since

German Jens Voigt (CSC) consolidated his lead in the Tour of Germany by winning Monday's sixth stage by just two seconds over defending champion Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner). Kazakh Andrej Kashechkin (Astana) crossed third after the 196.6km run from Seefeld to St Christoph in the Austrian Alps. Voigt, winner of the third stage and the overall leader since Sunday, holds a 24-second advantage on Leipheimer ahead of Tuesday's penultimate stage, a time trial in Bad Sackingen. Evgeni Petrov (Lampre) sits third at 56 seconds back. The 34-year-old Voigt, who has worn the leader's

Chilean downhiller Bernadita Pizarro lies in a coma in Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital after suffering complications during surgery to repair a broken leg. Pizarro, 20, was competing in last month’s Crankworkx Freeride Festival in Whistler, British Columbia, when she lost control during a warm-up on the mountain’s A-Line trail. Pizarro flew over her handlebars and landed on a large pile of rocks, breaking her right femur. According to Michelle Leroux, a spokesman for Whistler-Blackcomb quoted in the Vancouver Sun, safety patrollers set Pizarro’s leg in a splint and took her by ambulance to

A thing worth having is a thing worth cheating for.— W.C. Fields I have an announcement to make. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a Foaming Rant lauding Floyd Landis for beer-drinking his way to a Tour de France-winning comeback. I have subsequently tested positive for wine. White wine. French white wine. No doubt you feel shocked, astonished, perhaps even betrayed. But imagine my dismay when the Ancient and Honorable Brotherhood of Rounders, Roisterers and Rumormongers informed me that both my "A" and "B" samples — taken immediately after my having finished the column and traded it to

Ellis Kahn (7) downtube shifting on La Toussiure

Voigt makes a successful late charge

This beer tastes ... French