All Content

Road Racing

Ullrich shows his form; Basso solidifies grip on jersey

It’s hard to believe that on a day when Ivan Basso nearly doubled his hold on the overall standings at the 2006 Giro d’Italia, the big story was another rider. But that’s just what happened when German Jan Ullrich stole the show — and the stage 11 win — in the 50km time trial from Pontedera to Pisa and back. Starting long before the Giro’s top GC hopefuls on a sunny, warm Thursday afternoon near Italy’s Ligurian Sea, Ullrich blistered the flat, oval shaped course that passed by Pisa’s famed leaning tower, posting a day’s best 58:48. From there, the waiting game began. It was more than three

Published
Road

Castaño jumps into lead at Catalunya

Spanish rider Carlos Castaño gave his Kaiku team sweet revenge for being left out of this year’s Vuelta a España with an impressive win in Thursday’s 225km “queen stage” in the Volta a Catalunya. Kaiku was overlooked for a wild-card spot to join this year’s Vuelta and the team’s been simmering ever since. Castaño poured that frustration into his pedals to reel in the attacking Christophe Moreau (Ag2r) on the final climb to Arcalis to win and snatch the overall lead. “I was just thinking about winning the stage, so to take the leader’s jersey is a double bonus for the team,” Castaño said.

Published
News

Legally Speaking – with Bob Mionske: When is a bicycle more than a bicycle

Dear Bob;I have a question that has been a long standing debate over many beers at the pub, and every one seems to agree I am wrong except me. If you could set me straight I would be grateful. This is a true story. Like most cyclists I have my regular routes, designed for hills, speed, one hour, three hours etc. Part of my ride consists of a road with two lanes in each direction (four lanes total) with a posted speed limit of twenty-five (25) miles per hour. Both sides of the road are filled with small shops with parking lots. The surface is new and smooth and slopes gently down at about a

Published
Road Training

The Feed Zone with Monique Ryan: Real food and recovery

You may have heard about a study recently published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolsim that brought that old childhood favorite drink of chocolate milk into the headlines. This attention getting study did bring up a lot of practical questions regarding your best food and fluid recovery nutrition choices, and a good opportunity to clarify the proper use of various sports nutrition supplements. Let’s take a quick look at the study. Researchers provided subjects with either chocolate milk, a sports drink, or a commercially available recovery drink (there

Published
Road

Hushovd shows Tour form with Catalunya win

Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) sat in the shade of some palm trees Wednesday morning saying he’d like to win a stage at the week-long Volta a Catalunya as "a test" before tackling more important goals later this summer. Well, if his sprint victory in Wednesday’s third stage ahead of riders he’s due to square off against in a few weeks is any indication, the big Norwegian seems to be on the right path for the Tour. "It was a tough sprint because of strong headwinds in the finale," Hushovd told reporters. "I’m particularly delighted to win, because today is Norway’s national holiday. I’m on

Published
Road

Meet the Press: Basso talks about the road ahead

On the second and final rest day of the 2006 Giro d’Italia, current race leader Ivan Basso spent most of Wednesday afternoon relaxing at his team’s seaside hotel in the beach town of Lido Di Camaiore. Basso did sneak in a two-hour training ride to reconnoiter Thursday’s 50km time trial course that does an oval loop from Pontedera to Pisa and back. The 2005 Tour de France runner-up also held a short press conference at the team hotel. Here are some of the highlights along with comments from Team CSC director Bjarne Riis. Basso on his expectations for the time trial:“I expect to have a good

Published
Giro d'Italia

Coming up at the Giro: Alps on the horizon

After the Giro d’Italia’s second long transfer, this one taking therace from Pescara on Italy’s east coast to Pisa on the west, riders wereusing the rest day in Tuscany to scout out Thursday’s time trial courseand take stock of the race before heading into the upcoming week of climbsand more climbs. Stage 11 is a Tour de France-style time trial on a completelyflat 50km circuit around the Arno Valley between Pontedera and Pisa. JanUllrich scouted the course during an April training camp and likes it alot: “Flat and straight — perfect!” Race leader Ivan Basso predicts thatUllrich will ride a

Published
News

Tour de Georgia Photo Contest Winner Announced

The judging is over and we’ve picked our favorite from among the 100+ submissions offered by our readers for the First Annual Tour de Georgia Photo Contest. Take the time to wander through and see if you agree with the choice we made from among the entries you, our readers, sent in from Georgia. Meanwhile, we’d like to extend our hearty congratulations to Greg Mitts for his candid portrait of this year’s Tour de Georgia winner, Floyd Landis. Greg’s shot captures the personality, character and sense of humor of one this country’s great riders. For your efforts, Greg, you win a pair of

Published
Road Racing

Pellizotti takes big win at Giro

It wasn’t quite as painful as the Nordic ski jumper that went spiraling down the hill all those years during the intro to ABC’s Wide World of Sports, but watching poor Axel Merckx throw several backward glances as a fast-moving chase group caught the Phonak rider just 150 meters from the line clearly rated as one of cycling’s agony-of-defeat moments. Instead of a heroic solo stage 10 win for the Belgian with the famous name, it was Liquigas lieutenant Franco Pellizotti who got to pop the champagne at the end of the 190km run south from Termoli to Peschici on Tuesday at the Giro

Published
Road Gear

Technical Q&A with Lennard Zinn: Gearing for the dreaded climb

Steep, steep, steepDear Lennard,I recently read that Discovery director Johann Bruyneel is planningon putting a 34X29 on some of his riders' bikes for Stage 17 of the Giro.I don’t think Shimano makes either a compact Dura-Ace crank or a 29 cog.Any idea what they plan on using?James Dear James,I am in Italy now putting on a bikecamp with Connie Carpenter and Davis Phinney. We will be hookingup with the Giro starting at the Pontedera time trial on Thursday. I ameager to see the Stage 17 finish climb and the gearing teams use for it,too. According to Shimano USA and confirmed by Shimano

Published
Road

Perez scores 1st pro win at Cataluyna

For many of the 20 ProTour teams lining up for the 86th Volta a Catalunya, the week-long race is an obligation to fulfill their end of the ProTour bargain to get assured starts in important races like the Tour de France. For small teams like Andalucía-Paul Versan, which got snubbed in its bid to earn a start in the Vuelta a España later this summer, races like these become their Tour. Luis Perez, a 25-year-old Spanish rider who had never won a race before as a professional, earned his modest Andalucía-Paul Versan squad some bragging points after soloing to victory in the 156.8km second

Published
Road

The tough (unpaved) road ahead – A reader’s look at Stage 17

While the Giro d’Italia enters its second rest day on Wednesday, noteveryone in Italy is resting.We received an e-mail from reader Igor Tavella, who was on the upper reaches of the Plan de Corones this past Sunday and saw that road crews are still working to pave the final 5km of what will be the steepest section of road in this Giro d'Italia. "Maybe it is of interest to you to know that I took some pictures aboutthe works on the new road to the Plan de Corones," Igor writes. "Now theyare working day and night to be able to finish the road. Due to the last snowfalls they had to stop

Published
Road Racing

Vaitkus grabs stage at Giro

Tomas Vaitkus pulled off two great feats at the close of Monday's 132km run from Francavilla al Mare to Termoli. In winning the bunch sprint down the main drag of this sleepy beach town on the Adriatic, Vaitkus became the first Lithuanian to win a Giro d'Italia stage. But maybe more impressive was the fact that Vaitkus did so ahead of Robbie McEwen, heretofore unbeatable in mass gallops at this year's Giro. McEwen actually finished fourth on stage 9, with Vaitkus (Ag2r), Paolo Bettini (Quick Step-Innergetic) and Olaf Pollack (T-Mobile) all besting the Davitamon-Lotto rider.

Published
Road

Cancellara takes his best shot and wins Cataluyna kickoff

Team CSC’s Fabian Cancellara hadn’t raced since winning Paris-Roubaix more than a month ago, but nothing could stop the adrenalin and killer instincts from kicking in when the big Swiss rider clipped into the pedals ahead of Monday’s opening 12.5km time trial to open the 86th Volta a Cataluyna. Once he got his big motor warmed up, the 6-foot-3, 180-pounder just let it rip. "I never dreamed of winning today until I rode the course this morning and I thought to myself, ‘Why not risk it and try to win?’" Cancellara said. "My next big goal isn’t until the Tour, but this was an opportunity I

Published
Road Racing

Advantage Basso

If there is such a thing as a psychological advantage in bike racing, Ivan Basso now has it. The Team CSC leader also now owns the maglia rosa of race leader and no less than a 1:34 edge on his chief rivals in the 2006 Giro d’Italia. All this came courtesy of a stunning display of climbing force at the close of the 171km stage 8 run from Civitanova Marche to the 1289-meter summit finish at Maielletta-Passo Lanciano. Following a sharp attack from fellow Giro favorite Damiano Cunego 4km from the finish, Basso latched onto the Lampre-Fondital rider’s wheel, and then mercilessly dropped the 2004

Published
Back Next