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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. Dane Kuta’s letter regarding Lance Armstrong’s entry in the New York City Marathon (see Wednesday’s Mailbag: "Did Lance get a golden ticket?") drew quite a response — our virtual mailman has a digital hernia from lugging all that venom-soaked e-mail around. Your decision was virtually

Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, will host the 2006 USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships July 13-16 as part of the Infineon Technologies Cougar Mountain Classic. Originally planned for the following weekend, the 2006 USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships have been moved up one week after a record amount of snowfall forced the event's relocation from Mammoth Mountain last month.

Commerce Bank, "America’s Most Convenient Bank," has announced that it is stepping in as the title sponsor to help continue America’s biggest and richest cycling week and a long-standing Philadelphia region tradition held each June. The Commerce Bank Triple Crown of Cycling, Benefiting Fox Chase Cancer Center, will include three international professional cycling races: the Tom Bamford Lancaster Classic, the Reading Classic and the Philadelphia International Championship The 156-mile Philadelphia race, held annually since 1985, is ranked as one of the top ten bicycle races in the world. The

VeloNews correspondent Jason Sumner is in Italy covering the Giro d'Italia for both the web and print versions of VeloNews. Part of his duties include a visit to the start before the stage begins and he invariably sends us photos for our Live Update pages. Just in case you missed them there, here is today's sampling:

The 2006 collegiate national road cycling championships kicked off Friday with the team time trial competition. The course sent riders on a rolling 14-mile out-and-back course along Kansas’ Highway 10, which runs along the western end of Lawrence, home of the University of Kansas. USA Cycling rules required teams to compete with either three or four riders, with the third rider to cross the finish line determining the team’s final time. Stiff winds kicked up before competition began at 8:30 a.m., blowing parallel to the course. Riders began with the winds at their backs, but after two miles

Tina Pic (Colavita) and Health Net’s Gord Fraser won their opening stages at the Joe Martin Stage Race in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Friday, the opener in a growing three-day event with a healthy fan base and an increasing prize list. In a hard fought up-hill sprint to the line, Gord Fraser (Health Net-Maxxis) won the 110-mile men’s road race, beating Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United) and Alex Candelario (Jelly Belly) to the line. Fraser’s win came thanks to the help of his Health Net-Maxxis teammates Scott Moninger and Nathan O’Neill, who worked to chase down a dangerous break of four riders that

The Aussie 'Pocket Rocket' lights it up again

'I wanted to win today, but the pink jersey is also good,' says Pollack

Americans are a common sight at grand tours these days

And so are the Aussies

Quiet and low-key as he is, Basso is rock-star huge in Italy

Paolo Bettini got a special visit from his daughter today

Mario Cipollini, reportedly out recruiting for a new team he'll direct next year.

Today's Gazetta

The medium is the message

Riding into shape: Jan Ullrich works his way to the line.

Robbie at the start

Another celeb' sighting: Francesco Moser is still stylin' after all these years

Honoring Verdi

Despite our first guess, this is not Michael Rasmussen

Giro history is always present

Smile, Mr. Perez!

Perez's ride

Getting the word out

The Whitman women line up for their start

Fort Lewis en route to victory

Fraser charges ahead of Stevic for the win

Toyota DS Frankie Andreu lectures the troops before the start

This stage starts at a company that got its start in the neighborhood

Stevic gives it a go

Watching the men's race finish

Call Thursday statement day at the 2006 Giro d’Italia, with a pair of very loud and clear messages being broadcast to the cycling world. No. 1: Don’t read too much into the lackluster prologue-time-trial effort of Ivan Basso last Saturday, when he surrendered 23 seconds to 2005 Giro champ Paolo Savoldelli. Basso and his Team CSC squad looked just fine during stage 5’s team time trial, scorching the flat, 35km course from Piacenza to Cremona in a day’s-best 36:56. And while everyone is paying attention, it’s probably too early to count out Jan Ullrich and his T-Mobile squad for this summer’s

Italian sprinter Alessandro Petacchi could miss July´s Tour de France after recovering from surgery Wednesday for a cracked knee cap suffered in his fall and subsequent abandon in stage three of the 89th Giro d’Italia. Doctors said the two-hour operation in Pisa's San Rossore clinic went well, but Petacchi will need at least five weeks to recover from the injury, putting a July 1 start in the Tour de France in doubt. “I hope the X-rays I will undergo in three weeks will enable me to shorten my absence. I am eager to start racing and winning again, but I don't want to jeopardize my

After a bouncy ride through the spring classics, there is no hotter team in the ProTour than Davitamon-Lotto. Since the end of April the Belgian squad has grabbed three stage wins, plus the overall at Switzerland’s Tour de Romandie, and taken a pair of stage wins here at the 2006 Giro d’Italia. VeloNews caught up with directeur sportif Allan Peiper during Wednesday’s rest day at the Giro to find out what is driving the team’s turnaround. VeloNews: Fair to say Davitamon-Lotto has it going in the right direction? Allan Peiper: Yeah, we had a rough trot through the classics and couldn’t get

The judging is over and our sponsors have picked the best of the submissions offered by our readers for the First Annual Sea Otter Photo Contest. Take the time to wander through and see if you agree with the choices made and then take the time to take a look at our newest gallery from the First Annual Tour de Georgia Photo Contest . We’ll have those winners named next week, when we resume our regular weekly – non-event-specific - contests. Meanwhile, we’d like to extend our hearty congratulations to Rob Odea for his submission of “Gunn-Rita dominates Sea Otter,” the winner in the

In pink for now, but no thoughts of the overall

Good, but not great: Discovery rode well, but not up to its usual standards...

Not used to this role: Armstrong probably wanted to be up front

CSC shows the rest of the field how it's done

T-Mobile just missed the win in the final meters

Gerolsteiner could manage only sixth

Liquigas achieved its goals

Allan Peiper, pro turned director, says the team is back on track

Best of Show: Mud Pack Facial

Best MTB: -Rita dominates Sea Otter

Best Road: Sea Otter Pro NRC Circuit Men

With many of the top favorites for the Tour de France racing this month in the Giro d’Italia, one name absent is that of the tenacious attacker Alexandre Vinokourov. After last racing in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Vinokourov is continuing with his patient and quiet preparation for the Tour. The demands of the 21-stage Giro don’t figure part of that plan. “We never thought of racing the Giro. In fact, our thinking is the opposite,” Vinokourov told VeloNews. “We want to stay away from the stresses of racing and prepare specifically for the Tour.” Vinokourov, 33, is putting everything this year on

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.Don't overlook PaoloDear VeloNews,I thoroughly enjoy John Wilcockson's articles on the history of cycling,and look forward to his periodic features. However, I must say thatI believe Mr. Wilcockson erred inhis May 6th Giro d'Italia preview. His strategy for the variousstages

After a transfer by charter plane from Liège, Belgium to Parma, Italy, on Tuesday night and a rest day in Cremona — the city of the 17th-century violinmaker Antonio Stradivari— the 89th Giro d’Italia continues Thursday with a crucial team time trial. The opening four stages resulted in a series of surprises — Paolo Savoldelli’s stage 1 time trial win; Robbie McEwen easily defeating Alessandro Petacchi at Charleroi; Stefan Schumacher’s brilliant stage win at Namur; and Petacchi’s crash that fractured his left kneecap and put him out of the sport for a likely couple of months. So can we expect

Don't forget this guy in July

Can Savoldelli and his mates top last year's record-setting Tour TTT?

Following his second stage win at the 2006 Giro d'Italia, Robbie McEwenbrushed off the idea that he had ascended the crown of world's fastestbike racer. But there was no denying that the Australian Davitamon-Lotto man hasalready made an indelible mark on this year's tour of Italy. In the waning moments of the hilly 193km run from Wanzee to Hotton,McEwen calmly bided his time, then launched across the line to take secondstage win in three days, and his 10th career victory at the Giro. "I've won two sprints here this year, sure, but there are still a lotof tough rivals," said

CSC team captain Ivan Basso appears to be the favorite for this year's tour de France, seven time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong said Tuesday. The 34-year-old Texan was present in Belgium attending the last of four Giro d’Italia stages in that country. Armstrong was there to support his former teammate and defending Giro champion Paolo Savoldelli, who won the first stage. But Armstrong said he had few doubts that Basso, twice a podium finisher behind him in the two most recent Tours de France, was the likely winner of both this year’s and the Tour de France (July 1-23). "At

A lawsuit alleging a former coach of the U.S. junior national cycling team injected steroids into two cyclists without their knowledge will move forward in federal court, a judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge John Kane rejected a motion by the coach, Rene Wenzel, and USA Cycling to dismiss lawsuits filed by Gregory Strock and Erich Kaiter, who allege they were given steroid injections while on the team in 1990 but were told they were receiving vitamins and cortisone. The ruling, issued late Monday, said a jury should decide whether Strock and Kaiter waited too long to file their lawsuits,

McEwen wins No.2

Forza Schumi! Hitting the F1 circuit at Spa

Hitting the F1 circuit at Spa

Davitamon chases

McEwen wins, Vogels celebrates

Van de Walle leads the break

Armstrong visits with the Discovery squad Tuesday morning.

Metaphorically, the 2km, 400-foot cobblestone ascent up Namur’s Citadelle hill represented the end of a very long climb for Stefan Schumacher. In a literal sense, it marked the passage from up-and-coming rider to the new holder of the 2006 Giro d’Italia’s maglia rosa. Indeed, the 24-year-old Gerolsteiner’s win of the rain soaked, stage 3 slog from Perwez to Namur was as big and bold as they come. Following a day marred by crashes — including one that left Italian sprint star Alessandro Petacchi nearly 15 minutes off the back and eventually out of the race — Schumacher jumped away from

Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United) knew what he had to do and did it — he stayed glued to the wheel of Scott Moninger (Health Net-Maxxis) during the final stage of the Teleperformance Tour of the Gila — the fabled Gila Monster Road Race — and came away with the overall victory. Meanwhile, overall leader Kristin Armstrong (Team Lipton) extended her margin during the women’s finale, winning the stage and securing her title. The Gila Monster sent pro men off on a 100-mile loop from Silver City to Pinos Altos with 9360 feet of climbing. Women raced an abbreviated loop, covering 66 miles with 5420

Sprint ace Alessandro Petacchi is out of the Giro d’Italia after fracturing his left kneecap during a fall in Monday’s stage to Namur in Belgium. The Milram speedsters, who has 19 career stage wins in the Giro, may be out of the Tour de France as well, a team spokesman said. "The doctors did not say how long he would be out for," said the spokesperson. "We will have to wait for the next examination in Italy. However, it looks almost certain he will not be fit for the Tour de France." Earlier, the 32-year-old sprinter had tried to sound optimistic about his chances of making it through

Our friends over at the Urban Dictionary (www.urbandictionary.com) have come up with a few definitions for two-time NORBA champion Geoff Kabush’s last name: 1. Kabush(1) The sound of an explosion(2) What you say when something explodes(3) When you are about to f.s.o. up. You show him the fingerA: Kabush!B: You are about to get kabushedC: This building exploded and I was like 'Kabuuuuush' After watching Kabush’s performance at Sunday’s short-track cross-country during the NORBA National Mountain Bike Series opener in Fontana, California, I think they hit the nail on the head. While

Schumacher takes the stage and the overall lead

Petacchi finshed nearly 15 minutes down

Chechu gives it a go.

Schumacher readies his attack and Bettini misses the bus

Spring and a young man's thoughts turn to .... raingear

Quick Step gives chase

Remember this guy? He's here training for the Tour.

The men hit it

And Kabush wins it

The women dig into the dust