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Discovery Channel doesn’t have the Lance Armstrong guarantee anymore, so the squad has to find satisfaction in more modest goals. The team no longer rules the Tour de France like it did seven Julys in a row, but a gutsy solo victory by Egoi Martinez in Wednesday’s 11th stage of the Vuelta a España delivered the team a unique accomplishment in the first year of the post-Armstrong era - stage victories and stints in leader’s jerseys in all three grand tours. “This victory was important for the team,” said Martinez, who shot away from a pair of riders with 12km to go. “Even without Armstrong,

Frayed nerves and frustration poured out of Carlos Sastre at the finish line of Tuesday’s hilly 10th stage, opening up raw wounds between Team CSC and Caisse d’Epargne dating back to the 2006 Tour de France. An exasperated Sastre – third overall at 44 seconds back – couldn’t believe that it was left up to his Team CSC troops to lead the chase to trim the nine-minute difference a 15-man breakaway held midway through Tuesday’s stage. "Caisse d’Epargne wants to win the Vuelta without working," Sastre told reporters. "We were the ones who had to prevent Karpets and Paulinho from getting back

Italian Fabrizio Guidi handed Phonak what could be one of its final victories after winning the third stage of the Tour of Poland and seizing the overall lead on Wednesday. After 225.5 km of racing from Gdansk to Torun in the north of the country the Italian took possession of the leader's jersey after holding off compatriot Daniele Bennati and Spaniard Koldo Fernandez. Swiss outfit Phonak announced it would pull out of the sport shortly after American Floyd Landis tested positive for a skewed testosterone-epitestosterone ratio after winning the Tour de France in July. Meanwhile, New

Transitional stages are ideal for the opportunist as there is a good chance a breakaway will get away and make it to the line as the sprinters’ teams are not interested in chasing as the course is too hard for their sprinter, and it is interest of the overall leader’s team to let the break go as it makes it easier on them to control the race. Today, we had another transitional day, like yesterday’s stage, and we all knew the break would succeed and make it to Burgos ahead of the peloton. Egoi Martinez, our fervent Basque teammate, was the opportunist today, and took advantage of his

Attack, attack and attack again. Martinez just kept trying.

After a lengthy sorting out, the break was composed of 13 acceptable escapees...

A win and a jersey in each of the grand tours... and Disco' leads the team standings, too.

and then it was whittled down to three...

... and then there was one.

And it stayed that way to the finish.

Heading into Burgos - The peloton made an easy day of it as the escapees fought it out for the stage win.

Michael Barry

Astana – kept out of the 2006 Tour de France for alleged links to Operación Puerto - is making up for lost time with a vengeance in the 2006 Vuelta a España. Sergio Paulinho, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist, attacked a 15-man group with just under 1km to go in Tuesday’s 199.3km 10th stage, leaping away over a small finishing climb to give the troubled Astana team its third consecutive stage victory of this year's Vuelta. "Things are going well for the team," said Paulinho, hailed as Portugal’s best prospect since José Azevedo. "We’ve won two stages with Alexandre (Vinokourov) and now

Germany's publicly funded television network ARD will terminate its contract with 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich at year's end. Ullrich had been paid up to $152,000 for exclusive interviews, diaries and appearances in ARD entertainment shows. ARD gave no reason for ending the contract, which had run since 1999 -- except for a one-year break in 2002, when Ullrich was banned for testing positive for amphetamines. Meanwhile, Germany's top sports official asked Ullrich to come clean about doping allegations. "Get things sorted out, take a DNA test, come out clean," urged

Reversing his fortunes of 2005, Jittery Joe’s sprinter Jeff Hopkins took his first NRC win in the US 10K Classic on Labor Day in Marietta, Georgia. Edging out last year’s winner Emile Abraham (AEG-Toshiba-JetNetwork) and 26 other riders who got away from the remaining 140 finishers, Hopkins began his sprint not completely aware what was at stake. "I thought that there were still two dudes away from the (previous) break, so I thought we were sprinting for third. I didn’t get a chance to do a victory salute or anything." Hopkins said minutes after he came across the line. With three other

A rest day is the calm before the storm. As always in a grand tour, today’s stage after yesterday’s rest day was fast as it seems every rider had found renewed motivation and ‘fresh’ legs. In our team meeting Johan reminded us of what we already were envisioning: that the start would be fast. He also told us that we had to be in the breakaway as we are leading the team classification and also, having a rider in the breakaway would also give us a shot at a stage victory. We knew the stage was going to be up and down on sinuous roads along the coast but the race profile in the “Libro

A weary Paulinho enjoys his first grant-tour win

Golden boy Valverde

It’s just 10 short months until the 2007 Tour de France kicks off in London, but if this year's Tour of Britain is anything to go by, there is much to be worried about. Professional cycling is not big business in Britain and the Tour of Britain barely registers a blip on the scale next to the earth-shuddering event that is the Tour de France. In fact, it is such a small event, that roads used for the tour are only closed progressively by a largely ineffective rolling roadblock. This season's event, which finished on Sunday, was wrought with troubles, not least a protest by the

The real battle for the Vuelta a España unfolded seven kilometers from the summit of La Cobertoria in Sunday’s ninth stage when the Kazakh tandem of Alexandre Vinokourov and Andrey Kashechkin darted out of the main bunch in a daring heist. Only an explosive counter-attack by Alejandro Valverde with two kilometers saved the day for the Spanish armada. Valverde grabbed the race leader’s gold jersey and Vinokourov hung on to win the stage, setting up what’s likely going to be the dominant battle for the remainder of the Vuelta. “The Kazakhs are going to be the most dangerous rivals,” Valverde

Sunday’s stage offered up a mix of emotions for the team as we had several guys in the front, or near the front, on the last ascent to the finish, yet Janez was unable to hold on to the jersey as Valverde, and Vinokourov rode away. The stage was likely the hardest day of the Vuelta with over 5,000 meters of climbing, stifling temperatures, and little recovery between the long ascents. Today, we are fortunate to have a rest day and can have an easy day on the bike, keep our legs up and spend some time with our families. In some ways it seems the race just started as the last week has

The peloton passes by Buckingham Palace in this year's Tour of Britain.

Valverde has the jersey. Vino and Kashechkin want to see him back in the white jersey fo the ProTour leader

Day three of the Eurobike Exhibition in Friedrichschafen, Germany, marks final day that the show is closed to the public, it also marks our final day of web coverage for the 2006 edition. When the doors open on Sunday morning and the hordes pay their 19 euros each to bump elbows among the exhibitors things get crazy. Most product managers duck out to avoid the chaos, something that can be described as a shark-like feeding frenzy. At least here, the chum is merely comprised of stickers and catalogs. The Eurobike Exhibition had over 820 registered exhibitors from 69 countries, spread out over

A pair of Alexanders conquered Sunday’s epic, six-climb “queen stage” across the abrupt mountains of northern Spain to seize control of the 61st Vuelta a España. Alexandre Vinokourov – the attacking Kazakh from Astana – jumped with teammate Andrey Kashechkin with 7km to go on the final 8km La Cobertoria climb to win for the second day in a row and confirm his candidacy for overall victory despite a slow start. Alejandro Valverde – the dashing Spanish star hunting the first grand-tour victory of his career – counter-attacked with 2km to go to drop archrivals Carlos Sastre (CSC), Danilo Di

Martin Pedersen (CSC) won the Tour of Britain on Sunday, while Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic) won an 82km finale marred by a collision involving two motorcycles accompanying the riders. Boonen won the final stage in 2 hours, 41 seconds. Pedersen finished in the main pack with the same time to claim the overall victory ahead of Luis Pasamontes (Unibet.com) and Filippo Pozzato (Quick Step-Innergetic). Authorities said five people -- including the motorcyclists -- were hurt in the crash on The Mall in central London. Injuries included head wounds and fractured ankles. No further details

To the delight of a partisan hometown crowd, Discovery Channel’s George Hincapie won the first-ever all-American national road championship in Greenville, South Carolina, Sunday, crossing the finish line alone in front of a decimated field that produced only 31 finishers. Fellow ProTour rider Levi Leipheimer of Gerolsteiner finished second, 16 seconds behind Hincapie, with TIAA-CREF’s Danny Pate rounding out the podium, 1:20 off the winning pace. It was Hincapie’s second national road championship, following a win in Philadelphia in 1998.

It was a good week for mountain-bike racers Jill Kintner and Michal Prokop. Last weekend the red-hot gravity racers were crowned four-cross world champions in New Zealand, and on Sunday each walked away from the Jeep King of the Mountain series finals at Beaver Creek, Colorado, as a happy new owner of a 2007 Jeep Compass. The Jeep King of the Mountain series differs from NORBA and World Cup competition in a number of ways. It’s an elite, invitation-only race that features 16 of the top athletes from the gravity-racing world at each event. Each of the three races in the 2006 series is

Miriam Bengoetxea and her new baby.

Orbea’s badge/cable stop combo

EuroBike: That's a wrap

Time’s new frames, the Pro Team in front and the UL in the rear

The Ti sprung RXS UL Team Carbon Ti pedal...

...and matching UL Team shoes

Fi’zi:k Arione k:1

Fi’zi:k Free:k clothing

Bling Bling: Selle Italia’s $64,000 saddle

All three styles of Prologo’s top-end Choice Pro Ti, winter, gel and regular, keep in mind colors are abound

Castelli’s Superleggera jersey only weighs 74 grams

Christian Spolik and his latest project bike

There are brakes tucked in behind the crankset

They are slightly easier to see on the fork

One fast Felt

The brake is tucked behind the bottom bracket

Vinokourov does it again

Vinokourov triggered the attack and Kashechkin followed suit

You will be seeing a lot from this guy in the future

Valverde takes the helm

The big break that made it... for a while

The beauty of Asturias

The Cricket never sleeps

Cuesta takes up the chase

George in the red, white and blue

Soloing across the line

Kintner v. Miller

Prokop v. Lopes

Buy you a drink?

Leipheimer leads

Hincapie climbs

Hincapie corners

Winning in front of the home crowd can't be beat

Alexandre Vinokourov has been waiting a long time for a win like this one. It almost came Friday on the barren slopes of El Morredero, but the attacking Kazakh was reeled in with just 200 meters from the line by a surging Alejandro Valverde. Vinorokourov returned the favor in Saturday’s hilly 181.6km eighth stage across Spain’s Galicia region, shooting past a hapless Luca Paolini (Liquigas) late on a rising finish straight into Lugo to win for the first time in an Astana jersey. "After the disappointment of yesterday, I really wanted to win today," Vinokourov said after holding off the

QuickStep's Francesco Chicchi won a farcical fifth stage of the Tour of Britain from Rochester to Canterbury on Saturday. Italian rider Chicchi edged T-Mobile's Mark Cavendish into second place, while Aart Vierhouten of Skil-Shimano finished third. But it was the chaotic start to the Kent stage that dominated the day as the entire peloton was accidentally sent in the wrong direction during the neutral zone. It is thought the police escort leading the riders had taken the wrong route and the stage was halted for 20 minutes while riders and race officials tried to determine the

In the first week of racing there were few attacks, controlled racing and many field sprints, but today the tide changed and we became the lucky ones responsible for controlling the peloton on its most energetic and aggressive day. After more than 70km of relentless attacks and an average speed of more than 50kph, the field finally lost some steam and relented. It was as much a relief to us as almost everybody else as virtually the whole peloton stopped for a pee once there was one rider clear and off the front, the race was in control and we had slowed down. Our goal going into the stage

Vino' steals a march on the bunch

And where did you ride today?

Brajkovic will need to keep that tank topped off going into Sunday's queen stage

Jufre crashed and abandoned with a slashed arm

Discovery Channel put a rider atop the overall Vuelta a España standings in Friday’s 154.2km seventh stage up the grinding Alto de el Morredero climb, but it wasn’t the rider they expected to see in the gold jersey. Tom Danielson’s bid to become the first American to win the Vuelta took a serious blow after struggling halfway up the 18km climb to lose more than three minutes while teammate Janez Brajkovic continued to show savvy beyond his 22 years and calmly rode his way into the overall lead. “This is my first grand tour and I came here to help Tom and to gain experience,” said Brajkovic,

Team CSC’s Bjarne Riis said all he can do is wait concerning the fate of star rider Ivan Basso, who went before members of the Italian Olympic disciplinary commission earlier this week to face down allegations that he works with Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. Riis reiterated statements he made last week to a Danish newspaper, reaffirming that Basso must prove his innocence to the team before he is allowed to return to racing. Basso was among nine riders from four teams kicked out of the 2006 Tour de France for alleged links to Fuentes, who is at the center of a wide-ranging investigation

When 2005 national time-trial champion Chris Baldwin thinks back on his attempt to defend his title Friday in Greenville, South Carolina, he’s going to have to either laugh or cry.

After a week of racing things are starting to sort themselves out and, thankfully, our team is looking very good for the moment. Janez the Wonder Boy has continued where he left off two days ago, when we were in the mountains, and has come away from today's mountaintop finish with the leader's gold jersey. Triki, Stijn and Tom also did a great climb and were there right there leading into the final kilometers. Three of them crossed the line among the first 10 riders. Janez is leading every jersey competition other than the points for the moment, and we are also leading the team

The droning thud of an incessant techno beat, bounced throughout the halls of the Eurobike exhibition in Friedrichschafen, Germany, on Friday, the second full day of the show. The electronic sounds so loved by many Germans, added a challenge to the task of gathering manufacturer information. It would be the anthem of the day, one that turned out to be filled with German engineering. German culture is known for its advanced design and precise production. German bicycle manufacturers are no exception, many of them compete directly with manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz and BMW for national

It's good to be the king

The Vuelta has a new leader... and it looks like Discovery does, too.

Vino' on the attack

Brajkovic is having an impressive grand tour debut

Bodrogi leads a doomed effort

The peloton let the break get nearly 12 minutes before picking up the chase.

Liquigas drove the peloton toward the catch... and the big climb.