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Summer in Adelaide

Paolini and Bodrigi try to escape.

Sarah Hammer and Becky Quinn at the start of the Scratch race.

Sarah Hammer leads Becky Quinn with one to go in the women's Scratch race.

Hammer wins it...

...and makes the top spot on the podium again.

TIAA-CREF Madison team of Chad Hartley and Michael Friedman go down during an exchange.

But Friedman still uses the damaged bike to finish up the event.

Colby Pearce keeps an eye on events in the Madison.

Jenny Reed leads out the women's kierin.

Barczewski leads out the Spike team sprint for fourth place.

Adelaide, Australia — Australian Simon Gerrans (AG2R) endured his toughest test yet as a cycling professional on Saturday but emerged smiling after the fourth and penultimate stage of the Tour Down Under, won by Russel Van Hout (UniSA-Australia). Gerrans had to dig deep to defend his seven-second lead in the general classification over last year's winner, Luis Leon Sanchez (Liberty Seguros-Wurth), in the race's hardest stage — featuring the feared Willunga climb, 20km from the finish of the 147km stage. Sanchez attacked on the 3km climb, whose gradient is 7 percent, but Gerrans was

In the second night of Track World Cup competition in Los Angeles, riders in five events laid it on the line for victory — and qualifying positions for the April 13-16 world championships in Bordeaux, France. American Sarah Hammer took gold in the women’s pursuit, following a morning qualifying ride of 3:37.799 — a track record. More than 200 athletes from 36 countries are racing in Los Angeles over the three-day weekend. A standing-room-only crowd of 3000 people filled the ADT Event Center Saturday evening at The Home Depot Center, banging on the upper boards and ringing bells throughout

Van Hout and Crake cross hand in hand

Sanchez takes a dig

Arrieta found it sweaty going

The beach only looked cool - the day's temps topped 104

Crake and Van Hout working it

AG2R played it cool despite the heat

Done to a turn: Gerrans at the finish

A fine day for the Aussies

Sarah Hammer wins the women's pursuit

The Russians handled the team pursuit with ease

Blatchford had a good day.

Blatchford wins a medal, while Britain's Staff apparently tried to award him a helmet

Hammer lives up to her name.

Russia takes the gold.

Yankalilla, Australia - The Liberty Seguros team scored its second Tour Down Under stage win in as many days as Spaniard Carlos Barredo gambled and attacked in the final kilometers of Friday’s 154km third stage from Strathalbyn to Yankalilla on South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula. Barredo’s win comes a day after teammate Allan Davis claimed a stage victory in Hahndorf. AG2R’s Simon Gerrans retains the overall lead, but admitted his bid for victory will hinge on how he handles the tough climb in the Tour’s fourth and penultimate stage on Saturday. Barredo took a gutsy stage win after

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.NASCAR-style racing? Try cyclo-crossEditor:In Wednesday's Mailbag (see "NASCAR-style cycling might just work"), Doug Barnes suggested that cycling take place on short, highly visible courses in a tour of major cities, with "each a separate race with its own podium but with a points

Cross-country skiing's not a sport, it's how a f---ing Swede goes to the 7–Eleven. — Dan Jenkins, "You Gotta Play Hurt" The old mailbag these days is chock-full of proposed models for U.S. cycling to follow if it is to achieve success: NASCAR, Formula 1, World Rally Championship; cyclo-cross, track, criterium. But nobody is defining exactly what "success" means. Does it mean that cycling becomes a spectator sport, like the various ball games? Stadiums packed with hammered fatties painting themselves in Health Net-Maxxis colors; nattily attired retired pros bellowing jovially over

Call it a hunch, but I have a feeling that I’m not the only person ticking down the hours until the start of the Amgen Tour of California. Set your watches, ladies and gentlemen, we only have 620 left to wait — at 11 a.m. on February 19, you all better have your attention turned to the streets of San Francisco. Now, starting the race with a prologue up to the base of Coit Tower on the tippy-top of Telegraph Hill sounds pretty epic. The route starts at Pier 1, skirts the Embarcadero just south of Fisherman’s Wharf, and takes riders up to, quite possibly, the best view in town. Sure, the route

The United States’ first-ever UCI pro track team made a powerful debut on the first evening of the Los Angeles World Cup, with Spike rider Becky Quinn claiming silver in the women’s points race. With two U.S. national team women also in the mix, Quinn secured the silver medal behind gold medalist Italian Giorgia Bronzini after taking the final sprint. See the Casey Gibson photo gallery below Quinn scored two second-place sprints to get into contention. Then, with two laps remaining, U.S. national rider Lauren Franges got to the front with Quinn on her wheel. With one lap to go, Canadian

Barredo's gamble paid off.

The day's break formed early again.

Evans (right) was the biggest GC threat at 12 minutes back.

Botcharov bridges

AG2R monitored the gap

Barredo tries his luck

Another hot day in the saddle

Gerrans, still seven seconds up

Better than Damon to play Armstrong?

Why, yes, I'm a Health Net fan ... how'd you guess? Go Gord, eh!

Now Steve McQueen knew a little something about racing around San Francisco

Ben Jacques-Maynes is looking forward to representin' on his backyard course

Quinn smiles stop the podium . . .

. . . after winning the final double-points sprint

Thr trade-team rider held her own with national-teamers like Pic

Colby Pearce adds his two cents' worth

Kelly leads the keirin out of the final corner

Huff rides to sixth in the pursuit for TIAA-CREF

The ADT Center: Sure beats riding in the snow

Hahndorf, Australia - Simon Gerrans enjoyed the protection of his French AG2R team to retain control of the Tour Down Under on Thursday as fellow Aussie professional Allan Davis finally bagged a stage. Davis, who along with Stuart O'Grady was one of two Australians to come close to winning the world championships road title in 2004, is one of two riders, the other being Estonian veteran Jaan Kirsipuu, to have competed in all eight editions here. It was something of an albatross. An established sprinter in the European peloton, the diminutive Liberty Seguros sprinter had never managed

Dear Bob, I am an attorney and have been practicing as an Assistant DA for the past 15 years. A few weeks ago I forgot about "toys on top" and drove into the garage with my beautiful Wilier on top. My home owner's policy covers damage caused by a vehicle. They have denied coverage because they are saying the garage caused the damage. I think it is a strained interpretation of the policy as they would cover the bike if I had backed over it. I looked at an old policy with another company and they had the same language. I know of other cyclists who have been covered. Have you dealt

Jeanson calls it quits while still proclaiming innocence.

Jan Ullrich will easily win the 2006 Tour de France, says seven-time champion Lance Armstrong. "I predict that he'll win it by four to five minutes," Armstrong was quoted as saying in Thursday'sBild newspaper. The American, who retired after winning last year's Tour, always considered the 32-year-old German his key challenger. Ullrich won the Tour in 1997, but never found a way to defeat Armstrong. "All our team planning and strategy in the past years concentrated entirely on how to neutralize Ullrich," Armstrong toldBild. "Fortunately, it always worked." Armstrong was in

Ryan Trebon (Kona) has resigned his position on the U.S. team bound for the UCI cyclo-cross world championships January 28-29 in Zeddam, the Netherlands, according to USA Cycling. "He informed us yesterday that his grandfather (Paul S. Trebon) passed away, and that he decided to resign his spot on the team," said USA Cycling’s Andy Lee on Thursday. Contacted via e-mail, Trebon said: "I wasn't going to be able to make it back to Belgium until Wednesday or Thursday next week. My head wasn't gonna be right to race anyway. So I thought it was best if I stayed home and let someone else

Davis grabs his first pro win in Oz.

With no major GC threats present, the group was allowed to stay away.

The AG2R boys just had to keep an eye on the time gap.

Crake takes a dig and Davis joins him

It proved to be the winning move.

Gerrans still has the lead...

...but Sanches is but seven seconds back

Angaston, Australia - Up-and-coming Australian Simon Gerrans took a big step toward winning the five-stage Tour Down Under on Wednesday with a gutsy victory that saw the list of overall contenders slashed by a decisive break. Gerrans, in his second season with the French AG2R team, made the race-winning move move with less than 5km to race in the 148km stage between Adelaide and Angaston in the hilly Barossa wine valley. The 25-year-old played his cards perfectly, first by joining an early break and then by linking up with defending TDU champion Luis Leon Sanchez (Liberty Seguros),

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.OBRA and Oregon do plenty for world’s-bound ’crossersEditor:As a member of the Cross Crusade's board of directors, I can explain what Oregon's largest cyclo-cross series has done to support racers going to the world championships this year and in previous years (See Monday’s

Landbouwkrediet presented its 2006 team in Brussels this week, with its general manager vowing to make it "the best Belgian team on the Continental circuit" with an eye toward racing the Giro d’Italia. Gerard Bulens’ team has proved to be a successful launching pad to ProTour teams for more than one racer, including Yaroslav Popovych, the best young rider of the 2005 Tour de France, Lorenzo Bernucci, Tomas Vaitkus and Maxime Monfort. "Their successes are the most beautiful recognition of our work," Bulens said. This year’s leaders include Nico Sijmens, Jurgen Van Loocke and Bert De Waele.

Gerrans takes the stage, but Sanchez may still be the favorite to defend his title.

Higgerson and McLachlan started the action

The Liberty boys made sure their guy got up there, too.

McEwen and Sanchez attack with 45km to go...

...and were soon joined by Walker and Gerrans.

With a sprinter of McEwen's caliber in the mix, Gerrans decides to try his luck with an attack at 5km to go.

Save it or dump it?Dear Lennard,I have a 2004 model Trek 5200 , carbon frame road bike. The issue isthat rain water from Hurricane Rita affected lots of things in the garage,including the bike, since the roof was opened up by a falling tree. Thebike was really messed up, with its front wheel broken and the whole thingsitting in a foot of water.All of the components are ruined and when I removed the seatpost, waterpoured out of the frame, along with some small bits of white colored flakes.Is the frame salvageable with some type of treatment or is it, too, a lostcause?HalDear Hal,It may have

Adelaide, Australia - Australian sprint ace Robbie McEwen began his season in his usual style by snagging a win at the Tour Down Under Classic Criterium here on Tuesday. McEwen, a two-time winner of the Tour de France green points jersey, comfortably held off Italian Daniele Colli (Liquigas-Bianchi)in a bunch sprint at the end of the 25-lap, 50 kilometer inner-city course. The criterium is considered a “prelude” to the Tour Down Under and has no bearing on the race standings. The Tour Down Under, a five-stage event, is held around Adelaide and the surrounding area and begins with a 148

Sixteen international and domestic teams, including No. 1-ranked Team CSC, will tackle the inaugural Amgen Tour of California next month, organizers announced Tuesday. The 600-mile UCI 2.1 race starts February 19 with a prologue in San Francisco and concludes seven days later in Redondo Beach after passing through eight other "host cities" — Sausalito, Santa Rosa, Martinez, San Jose, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Thousand Oaks. "We designed the inaugural course with both racers and spectators in mind," said Bob Colarossi, managing director of AEG Cycling, LLC. "It offers the

McEwen strikes his usual pose

Summertime and the livin' is easy