All Content

For González, Murcia was sweet revenge.

González at the 2004 Tour

Boonen doubles up at Paris-Nice

Crosbie works his break

Celestino grimaces after his race-ending crash

A grim day in the saddle

Leblacher and Franzoi

Osa, Van Summeren and Marichal

Vasseur and Quick Step to the front ... with predictable results

Boonen takes his ninth win of the season

Bobby Julich is one-for-one in Europe so far in the 2006 season, ripping to a narrow victory in Sunday’s opening prologue of the 64th Paris-Nice. “I simply had killer legs,” he recounted on the team’s web page. “The route suited me perfectly and I really had the feeling that I was fast. It was a special feeling to start as the last one and be able to keep everyone behind me. It's always a great feeling to win and it's quite a good statistic to kick off my European season: one start – one win!” Julich expressed surprise at his condition in a race where he didn’t expect to challenge

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. We especially liked Phil Marques’s “Another Dam Race stage 1 1999.” Nice composition and a great shot from a superb perspective. Congratulations Phil! Once you thaw out, drop us a note at Rosters@InsideInc.com to work out the details and we’ll send you a copy of Graham Watson's "Landscapes of Cycling."Go ahead and

The rainbow jersey curse has yet to strike Tom Boonen so far this year. The reigning world champion put down a textbook-perfect sprint to win Monday’s first stage of Paris-Nice and snatch the yellow jersey away from Bobby Julich (CSC) thanks to time bonuses. It was Boonen’s eighth win in the young 2006 season, and the Belgian was already looking ahead to the spring classics moments after slamming the door shut on Allan Davis (Liberty Seguros). "It’s good to have won the stage because now I can take it easy until the end of Paris-Nice," Boonen told reporters. "For me, this race is ideal

USA Cycling has earmarked more than $50,000 for the 2006 Elite Mountain Bike Performance Stipend program. The initiative is aimed at rewarding off-road athletes with incentives and support to compete at the highest level of international mountain bike competition. The 2006 mountain bike season marks the beginning of the two-year Olympic qualification period during which countries accumulate points towards its nation’s overall ranking – the deciding factor in how many start spots a country receives at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. USA Cycling created the stipend program as one of

I just returned to a very snow-covered Zürich after spending the last week at training camp in Italy. Luckily we rode loads of kilometers while in Italy, otherwise I think I’d be freaking out with this weather. It’s currently minus-4 Celsius with a 16kph wind and snowing. We were really lucky with the weather in Italy. It wasn’t exactly California, but for Europe in the end of February, it wasn’t bad at all. We only rode in the rain on the first day. Luckily, the only objective during that ride was to flush our legs from the long drive. The next day was when the kilometers started stacking

Julich's European season so far: One start, one win

Another Dam Race stage 1 1999

Boonen sprints into the overall lead

Auge and Laurent working their break

Julich in yellow

A gray, damp day

The peloton slows for a nature break

Boonen dons the leader's jersey

Zabriskie had an early go

Olympic pursuit champion Sarah Ulmer produced a stunning solo ride to demolish a class international field in the second round of the women's World Cup road cycling series Sunday. Ulmer, who switched to road racing less than a year ago, proved peerless against a field containing riders with numerous Olympic and world titles. Among those left in her wake were the world's top three road riders in 2005 - Australia's Oenone Wood, Sweden's Susanne Ljungskog and Germany's Judith Arndt. Ulmer clocked three hours 16 minutes 45 seconds for the 124-kilometer race on an inner-city

Mike Jones (Health Net-Maxxis) and Laura Charameda (McGuire Cycling) won the McLane Pacific Cycling Classic Downtown Grand Prix on Saturday. The race was run on a flat, fast, 0.8-mile loop in downtown Merced, California. In the men’s race, Jones soloed to victory ahead of Jackson Stewart (Kodakgallery.com-Sierra Nevada) and Mark McCormack (Colavita Olive Oil-Sutter Home). It was a good day for Health Net, which put four riders into the top 10, including last year’s winner, Gord Fraser. The new Toyota-United Pro squad was right behind them, with three of the top 10, including Juan Jose

Defending champion Bobby Julich (Team CSC) roared to victory Sunday in the 4.8km opening prologue of the 64th Paris-Nice on a day he didn’t expect to win. Julich – who enjoyed his best season last year with wins at Paris-Nice, Criterium International and the Tour of Benelux – said earlier this year he wouldn’t be chasing the smaller races, but that could change very quickly. “This is a surprise win for me today because this was not among my main goals this season,” Julich told reporters. “I only came here to gear up for other objectives later in the year.” Emboldened by the sensations of

Santos González (3 Molinas) sewed up his first career stage-racevictory Sunday after finishing safely in the bunch in the final stage ofthe five-day Vuelta a Murcia.German wunderkind Heinrich Haussler (Gerolsteiner) out-kicked ArielRicheze (Panaria) to claim his second stage of the Spanish race in a masssprint despite heavy winds that forced race organizers to neutralize partof the course.New Discovery Channel rider Egoi Martínez featured in a five-manescape that pulled away at 22km to build up a 2:30 lead at 80km. The movewas neutralized at 112km, just before heavy winds

Runner-up Kashechkin

Third-placed McGee

Fourth-placed Contador

Boonen finished fifth

Vaugenerard took eighth

Steegmans crossed ninth

Landis just missed the top 10, finishing 11th

Julich dons the leader's jersey

Tom Boonen has been enjoying some quality training sessions around his new home in Monaco and hopes to roll into Sunday’s start of Paris-Nice ready to pop for a win or two during the eight-day “Race to the Sun.” “The weather is great and the area in and around Monaco is perfect for this important training as there are some good up hill sections,” Boonen said in a Quick Step-Innergetic release. “My teammates Kevin Hulsmans, Kevin Van Impe and Steven De Jongh have also joined me here in Monaco. It’s certainly more fun and stimulating training together.” The reigning world champion will head

Carlos Garcia Quesada (Unibet.com) won the fourth stage of the Vuelta a Murcia on Saturday as Santos González (3 Molinos Resort) seized the overall lead from Jose Iván Gutiérrez (Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears) with just one stage remaining. Garcia Quesada edged Italian Damiano Cunego (Lampre) in the final meters of the 146.6km stage from Caravaca to Collado Bermejo, which featured a trio of Category 1 climbs. Gutiérrez, who assumed the leader’s yellow jersey after winning the Stage 3 individual time trial, could not counter the attacks from the climbers despite the help of teammates

Boonen is everywhere.

Garcia Quesada takes the victory

Gutierrez hits the finish too late to keep his yellow jersey

Caisse d'Epargne working it

Cunego and Gonzales

Martinez on the front

Lampre chasing

VDB and Vino'

Valverde, Hruska and Gutierrez

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Especially if you're Garcia Quesada and winning a stage

Or Gonzales, seizing the lead

Gonzales on the podium

In what’s sure to be one of the most-watched comebacks in recent racing history, David Millar is expected to roll down the start ramp for the opening prologue of the 2006 Tour de France on July 1, just days after his two-year racing ban ends. Some think the former world time trial champion - who admitted to French police in June, 2004, he took the banned blood booster EPO en route to some of his biggest victories – should never race again. Others, however, believe Millar can return to the elite of the sport as a clean rider. Millar has promised as much in a pair of emotional testaments at

Cross-country pros rejoice, your prayers have been answered. USA Cycling is putting up more than $33,000 this year so that the NORBA National Mountain Bike Series can actually award prize money in the pro men’s and women’s cross-country races for 2006. And with the prize money also comes the awarding of UCI points. The NORBA series has awarded neither since 2002. Here’s the skinny:Prize money and points will be available at six of the seven NORBA National races in 2006. Because the NORBA No. 5 in Sonoma, CA (July 14-16) conflicts with the Canadian national championships, it will not offer

José Iván Gutiérrez (Illes Balears) surged into the overall lead at the Vuelta a Murcia on Friday after ripping through an impressive early season win in the 21.3km individual time trial. Gutiérrez – a four-time Spanish national time trial champion and world championship silver medalist last year in Madrid – showed off the best time-trial position of any Spanish rider going, taking more than 1 minute out of teammate Alejandro Valverde during Stage 3. Also showing good early season form was Alexandre Vinokourov, making his presence felt for the first time this season with a strong

Aussie Anna Meares outfought American Jennie Reed to take the gold medal in the sprint on Friday at the fourth and final round of the UCI World Cup Series, being staged at Sydney's Dunc Gray Velodrome through Sunday. The Athens Olympic time trial champion, who qualified fourth fastest, claimed the victory without conceding a single race, winning every match along the way. In the semi-finals Meares defeated Tamilla Abassova of Russia, the 2005 world championship silver medalist, to set up her gold-medal showdown with Reed. In their first match, Meares attacked from the front and Reed was

Millar joined teammate Gilberto Simoni at the Saunier-Duval presentation.

José Iván Gutiérrez now has the overall lead

Runner-up Vino'

Third-placed Rich

Valverde slipped to sixth overall, more than a minute back

Santos Gonzales moves into second on GC

Bernabeu slots into third overall

Gomis

Hruska

Markus Fothen

Van den Broeck

Vicioso . . .

. . . and the victor

Alejandro Valverde, the Spanish sensation who’s getting cartloads of hype back home, admits he’s starting to feel the pressure still four months away from the start of the Tour de France. Valverde, who nipped Lance Armstrong in a climbing stage up Courchevel before abandoning his Tour debut last year, said he hopes he can live up to expectations among Spanish fans and media. “I am starting to note the pressure, and to tell the truth, I am a little scared, but I am working so that everything turns out okay.” Valverde told the Spanish sports daily Marca. Valverde has been unofficially

Dear Bob,Riding by that corner in Los Altos Hills where Dan Plummer was killed (CyclistKilled In Storm ID’d) caused me to wonder who, if anybody, was responsible for that Eucalyptus tree on the corner of Natoma and Black Mountain roads. Would a falling branch be considered an “Act of God,” or is the landowner responsible for any and all wayward branches. Often times the cities restrict cutting down “Heritage” trees with diameters over 12 inches. How might that factor into the equation?Sincerely,S. R. California Dear S.R.;You know, we all try to be conscious of riding safely, but what happens

It was early March and the questions were already beginning: When was Alejandro Valverde going to win his first race of the season? The Spanish sensation usually roars out of the gate, as he did two years ago when he won a stage just hours after getting off a plane at the Mallorca Challenge in February. This year, Valverde is taking aim at bigger fish, but the 25-year-old couldn’t help himself when he smelled the finish line in the bumpy 172.4km second stage of the Vuelta a Murcia. Following the wheel of compatriot Santos González (3 Molinas) over the Cat. 1 climb some 16km from the finish

Lance Armstrong will not face any penalty stemming from allegations that he used EPO in the 1999 Tour de France, according to the UCI. The UCI has told The Daily Telegraph that it did not dispute the test results published last year in the French newspaper L'Equipe "The UCI does not deny the validity of the six forms printed in L'Equipe," said UCI president Pat McQuaid. "The six tests which were printed in L'Equipe were among the 15 given out by (Dr. Mario) Zorzoli." Zorzoli, the UCI’s chief medical officer, stepped down this week after admitting to giving the L'Equipe

After Ben Jacques-Mayne’s weeklong real-world test during last week’s Amgen Tour of California, SRAM’s new professional 10-speed road group comes one step closer to going public. While the group has been making waves since last fall’s EuroBike trade show in Friedrichshafen, Germany, SRAM did a good job of keeping its name — Force — under wraps. Now, with the name out there, the group once again steals the spotlight on its way to the retail market. The svelte shifters, newly designed carbon cranks and carbon-infused rear derailleur are the pro group’s highlights. The intentions to produce

Valverde is a big draw in Spain this year

Valverde at this year's team presentation

No. 1 for Valverde

The lead goes to Vicioso

A short stint in the yellow jersey for Haussler

Sorry, no sunflowers today