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In a few weeks I will be back with the team, training in California. The off-season is nearly over, although it seems that it was only yesterday that I was pinning my numbers on at the Championships of Zurich in early October. My training has transitioned from hikes, runs and mountain-bike rides to strength work in the gym, endurance rides in the mountains, and now, to daily road rides, during which I work on my lactate threshold and test myself in anticipation for the new season. I return home from training feeling tired, my legs sore, and a good meal and an afternoon nap are a necessity.

A fund-raising dinner to help send Bjorn Selander to the UCI cyclo-cross world championships will be held Saturday, January 7, in Hudson, Wisconsin. The fund-raiser will be 5-9 p.m. at Alwins Northside Service, 413 6th Street North. It will include a 2005-season recap by Selander; dinner catered by Mama Maria’s; and a silent auction for items donated by sponsors and the local community. Tickets are $12. All proceeds will go to pay Selander’s expenses — estimated at more than $4000 — for the trip to world’s January 28 in Zeddam, Netherlands. For more information, call

Will '06 be Ullrich's last good shot at the Tour?

Sven and his son doing a little pre race warm up.

These are just a few of Belgian fans that called in sick to work today.

One member of the Sven Nys Supporters Club.

All the members of the Erik Tonkin Supporters Club.

Belgain fans are never far from the beer tent.

Elisabeth, cooking up another fabulous meal.

Stella, the Belgain version of Budweiser.

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. It was a tough choice for us last week, be we settled upon Eric Clemensen’s “Afghan Peloton,” a photo that just had us looking through and appreciating an interesting set of details. Congratulations Eric! Drop us a note at Rosters@InsideInc.com to work out the details and we’ll send you a copy of Graham Watson's

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.Dwight’s column is a present you can unwrap again and againEditor:The best Christmas present has been Brandon Dwight's columns. I really enjoy reading them. Thanks. Jim KirsteinFolsom, California But he may have gotten his beers mixed upEditor:Add me to the list of those enjoying

Cannondale is joining forces with the Barloworld squad for 2006 — not as a mere bicycle supplier, but as part owner of the team. "We have no intention of just supplying product," said Cannondale CEO Matt Mannelly. "With Barloworld we’ll be rewriting the rules on traditional sponsorships. Our goal is to create a full-blown ‘experience’ that will touch consumers on many levels." Cannondale will provide Six13 and Slice Aero TT bikes as well as team kit for the squad, which will be managed by Claudio Corti, who was instrumental in bringing Cannondale into the pro peloton with Saeco in

On the first of day of 2006 we entered the tiny nation of Luxembourg for the second-to-last ’cross race of my Belgian lactic-acid donor program. The much larger and men’s only GP Sven Nys took place today in Belgium. We opted for the race in the neighboring country so Lyne could compete in the women’s event. She got second, so it was well worth the trip — although she didn’t win any beer this time! The days seem to go by so quickly here. The sun rises around 8 a.m. and sets around 4:30 p.m., but when it’s raining and the skies are gray, it seems like morning and evening just blend together.

Francisco Mancebo is packing his bags and heading to Switzerland, all part of a larger strategy to make a move for the Tour de France podium. The hard-working Mancebo will rent an apartment in Geneva to be closer to the headquarters of his new Ag2r team. Mancebo – who left Illes Balears to join the French team after finishing fourth in last year’s Tour -- hopes the move will accelerate his push toward the Tour podium. "It’s going to be a year of changes," Mancebo told the Spanish daily Marca. "I feel good with the change. After so many years I needed a motivation to continue training and do

The Afghan Peloton

Belgium: gray and beautiful

Watch out for that tree!

A tribute to Bim

Where's the fire?

Another day, another load of laundry

Mancebo

Right now I’m in the car on my way back from the Hooglede World Cup and I still have mud caked to my legs and butt. Today was one of those days when you would give someone a hundred bucks for a long, hot shower just after finishing. Yes, it was another epic race in Belgium. It snowed last night, but today it warmed to a few degrees above freezing so the Belgian mud was very, very ripe. While loading up the car this morning I asked Michel, “How’s the weather out there?” He replied in a thick Belgian accent, “ It eez rain. It eez snow. It eez wind. It eez shit!” How’s that for a pep

Aside from the streamers, the midnight revelry and the inevitable morning-after hangover, New Year’s does serve a few other purposes. For one thing it lets us stop and look back at all that’s happened since the planet passed through the same spot 12 months ago. In the world of cycling, few others have been to as many places and seen as much as our own Casey Gibson did in 2005. Whether it was sweating his way through the jungles of Malaysia, cruising through the back roads of Georgia or waiting for the peloton in rural France, Gibson was there (racking up more frequent flyer miles than anyone

Completing what must be the strangest week of his cycling life, Jonathan Page (Cervélo-Mavic-adidas) became the first ever American to win an Elite UCI cyclo-cross race in Europe with a victory in Sunday’s event in Pétange, Luxembourg. Page’s win comes on the heels of solid third-place result in Thursday’s Nordzeecross in Middelkerke, Belgium, but as has been the case all during the month of December for Page, bad luck always seems to accompany any stretch of good fortune for the former three-time U.S. champ. Page’s week started off on a low note, with his return to the European

US Junior champ Danny Summerhill had a top ten finish.

Start 'em young.

Lyne Bessette cleans up before her podium appearance.

With mud like this...

...power washers are a necessity.

This blonde definitely has more fun.

Discovery Channel rolls through the green hills of California, with their best season ever ahead of them.

A young Malay girl entertains the crowd with music at the start of a stage of the Tour of Langkawi.

Michael Barry toils in the fog on the climb to Genting Highlands.

The San Dimas Stage race provided a great opportunity for crit photos, and Gord Fraser the perfect subject.

The peloton rolls past a reservoir during the classic stage of the Redlands Classic, the climb to Oak Glen.

Mike Sayers leads the Health Net team to a dominating performance, one of many, in the Sunset Stage of the Redlands Classic.

Don't try this at home, campers. Crystal Yap gets seriously aero on the very smooth track at Laguna Seca during the Sea Otter Classic.

Andrea Tafi rode his last race at the Tour of Georgia, and made it classic Tafi. Attacking at every opportunity and giving it his all.

The peloton rolls through a pecan grove in central Georgia, one of the many beautiful panoramas in the spring time race.

With teammate Tom Danielson tucked under his arm, Lance Armstrong sets the pace up the mountains in Tour de Georgia's Stage 5.

A month later, and its spring in Connecticut. Very green and rainy for the Tour of Connecticut's climbs.

Bobby Julich joins Mark McCormack on one of his patented late attacks during the Wachovia Invitational in Trenton, NJ

Thousands of fans and flags welcome the peloton to Ben Franklin Parkway in the last USPRO Championship in Philadelphia.

Chris Wherry puts the hammer down and takes the last corner on his way to winning the USPRO National Championship.

With the grasses of the Great Salt Lakes' Antelope Island providing a background, Chris Baldwin wins the time trial national championship.

Stage three of the Tour de France takes the peloton through some beautiful rural scenes.

George Hincapie stalks Oscar Pereiro up the final climb of Stage 15 for the biggest win of his career.

While Johann Bruyneel takes a question during the final press conference of the 2005 Tour de France, Lance Armstrong lets his guard down for one brief second as he contemplates the end of his career.

Riders take a corner at twilight during the Charlotte Criterium.

Tina Pic and Laura Van Gilder take a corner together and go on to dominate and win the Women's criterium championship.

In one of his final races, John Lieswyn shows the determination that defined his career during the USPRO criterium championship.

One view that never gets old, but might be gone in 2006: The peloton climbing towards the summit of Taylor street and the biggest, loudest crowds in US cycling.

Saul Raisin leads the break that stayed away for more than 100 miles at the World Championships in Madrid.

Page at last month's national championship race

By now you’ve probably seen the VeloNews 2005 awards issue. If you are a subscriber, you received an issue with Tom Boonen on the cover; newsstand copies featured Lance Armstrong.If you have seen the issue, regardless of which cover it wore, then you know who and what the VN editorial staff has deemed best and worst from the past year in cycling. If you haven’t seen it yet, well, shame on you. Get on out there and pick up a copy — or better yet, do yourself a favor and start up a subscription for 2006. For everyone else, the proverbial cats are long since out of the bag: Boonen was voted our

Today was my last rest day and to be honest it was a little boring. I woke up, checked some e-mail, ate breakfast, went on a ride, showered, ate lunch, wrote my diary for VeloNews.com, got a massage, ate dinner and soon I will be off to bed. Even if only for one day, it was the life of a professional cyclist. I did help Michel clean our bikes this afternoon and it was interesting to note that he brushed diesel fuel on all the bikes as a degreaser before scrubbing them down with soap and water. Although it’s probably not the best thing for the environment or safe to use while roasting

Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood: The best, worst and weirdest of 2005

A must-see for cycling fans

Frazz, decked out in 2006 Health Net-Maxxis team gear before the team's riders even have it

Doctor, is there anything we can to do save this crappy episode?

So, uh, what'd you do with your winter break?

Liam Barry to the world: Yeah, I'm cuter than you.

The time-trial gods must be crazy

Two, two, two gloves in one

How much is that German in the window?

The next Paris-Roubaix winner? Naaaah ... but he did enjoy his ride

She's a fine cyclist ... a fine cyclist

Friends in Morbegno: Giuseppe and Norma Morelli

Step 1: Breakfast and coffee.

Step 2: Write my diary for VeloNews.com.

Step 3: Go for a ride.

Step 4: Clean the bikes.

Step 5: Rehydrate!

Every year about this time, we discover a curious e-mail buried deep within the quarantine folder here at VeloNews.com. Crawling with viruses, worms and other virtual cooties known to infest the less than fastidious in our dreadful digital age, it invariably is a communication from beyond the pale — to wit, a note from foaming rantist Patrick O’Grady, announcing his season-ending salute to the sport. Though relief should be but a stroke of the delete key away, O’Grady has squirreled away in various safe-deposit boxes some grainy yet regrettably saleable photographic portraits of senior Inside

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.Keep Brandon's stories comingDear VeloNews,Hey I'm really enjoying Brandon Dwight's diary entries. Keep ‘em coming.As far as the Lion of Flanders flags; it was explained to me by a Belgianfriend of mine that the flag with the red claws and tongue is the provincialflag of

It’s getting cold and white here! We woke up this morning to gray skies, a light dusting of snow and very chilly temperatures. Not to worry though because we planned to take the next couple days off in an effort to recover for the World Cup in Hooglede on New Year’s Eve. These rest days are a welcomed treat because I am definitely feeling some aches and pains as I try to keep pace with the Euro-crossers. After another lovely breakfast of muesli, yogurt, fresh fruit and hearty bread, Michel, Lyne and I got suited up in our cold weather gear for a little recovery ride through a local park.

A new stage race, La Tropicale Amissa Bongo Ondimba, will make its debut next month in Gabon, organizers announced Friday in the African nation’s capital of Libreville. The race, scheduled January 12-15, will include 15 teams comprising some 90 cyclists, according to technical director Philippe Crepel. Among those set to take the start include Française des Jeux, Jartazi, Luxembourg, Capec Kazakhstan, VC Roubaix and VC La Pomme Marseille. Eight African teams also will participate, representing Angola, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Bénin, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Sénégal and the host nation,

How come you never call me any more?