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Stage 1 from Mons to Charleroi

Tour of California route unveiled

Can Simple Green cause chains to crack?

Do you recommend compact cranks for climbing?

I'm a tall rider and my foot hits my rear derailleur, what can I do?

Do cranks flex, or is it the bottom bracket and frame?

Team CSC signed up two more experienced hands in Volodymir Gustov and Iñigo Cuesta to round out its 2006 roster with 30 riders. The top ProTour team penned deals with Gustov, 28, and Cuesta, 36, on the recommendations of current team members. Team captain Ivan Basso had good memories of Gustov during their stint together at Fassa Bortolo while Carlos Sastre put in the good word for compatriot Cuesta. “Obviously, I'll listen when our top guys make suggestions for new riders and that’s been the case with these two final additions to the team,” said Team CSC boss Bjarne Riis in a statement.

Technical Q&A with Lennard Zinn - Crank issues galore

Iñigo Cuesta comes from Saunier Duval

Gustov (L) chats with future teammate Ivan Basso during this year's Tour

Add Thor Hushovd to the name of stars making an early season trip to Australia for the 2006 Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under. The winner of the green points jersey at this year’s Tour de France will join Crédit Agricole teammates Laszlo Bodrogi, Estonian Jaan Kirsipuu and Frenchman Patrice Halgand for the season opener. It is the first time the Norwegian sprinter has raced in Australia's premier road event and ensures the sprints will be hotly contested in 2006. Hushovd, who pipped Australians Stuart O'Grady and Robbie McEwen, for the prestigious green jersey in July, also claimed

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. This last contest was among the best collection of submissions we’ve seen this year. As a result, we had a tougher time choosing and never could get it down to fewer than two. So for only the second time in our contest history, we’re giving two awards: Craig Forester’s shot of crowds waiting for the peloton on the Col du Galibier underscores the size and grandeur of the Tour de France. On a more personal level, Rosie Ray’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.Where the real problem isHey VeloFolk,To be as brief as I can… I love our sport and the pure athleticismit requires. Obviously, there is a doping problem at hand. However, itseems to me that ASO and WADA and their "War on Doping" is only perpetuatinga greater problem.With

The U.S. National Mountain Bike Team collected seven medals over the weekend - two of them gold - at the Pan American Mountain Bike Championships outside Mexico City. Mary McConneloug (Chilmark, Massachusetts) rode to a Pan American Championship in the elite women's race to lead an all-American podium that included a silver medal performance from Kelli Emmett (Colorado Springs, Colorado) and a bronze medal effort from Willow Koerber (Ashville, North Carolina). McConneloug clocked a time of one hour, 55 minutes over the 30km course to finish with a 51-second advantage over Emmett and a

Last week, I left you with a thought from Greg LeMond after Frenchman Laurent Fignon won the 1983 Tour de France: “We all thought it was kind of a fluke.” Had LeMond, then 22, started that Tour, he might well have won it. He was two months older than Fignon, who was his teammate, and LeMond would have gone into the race with much better results, including victories at the 1982 Tour de l’Avenir and 1983 Dauphiné Libéré. Backing up that theory was the manner in which LeMond continued the 1983 season, winning the world championship and then the Super Prestige Pernod title (see “Inside Cycling,”

Hushovd took a stage at the Vuelta this year, too.

Heras will be at the Giro next year

He may try again

Konecny

Luis León Sánchez

VeloNews Photo Contest: New winners and a new gallery

VeloNews Photo Contest: New winners and a new gallery

Somehow, we suspect the French won't be missing every one of those new American fans

Fignon wins the '83 Tour

George Hincapie, the only rider to be part of Lance Armstrong’s seven consecutive Tour de France victories, could be a dark horse candidate for the 2006 Tour podium if he steps into the team leadership role for Discovery Channel. While the details on who will lead Discovery in the post-Armstrong era are still to be decided, Hincapie said the 2006 Tour route will be like all the others. “The Tour is always hard,” Hincapie told team spokesman Dan Osipow on paceline.com. “We always expect the Tour to be hard wherever they take you. Even if it was up in Holland on dead flat roads, it would

New York (AFP) - Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong poked fun at French critics and their accusations of doping here Saturday, playing the controversy for laughs while hosting "Saturday Night Live." The 34-year-old American cyclist retired after capturing his seventh title in July but considered a comeback after the French newspaper L'Equipe reported 1999 urine samples from Armstrong tested positive for the banned substance EPO. Armstrong, who has steadfastly denied taking any performance-enhancing drugs, said during the opening monologue that he was worried about doing

[nid:33141]With remnants of Saturday’s unexpected blizzard melting away under a balmy afternoon sun, Lyne Bessette (Cyclocrossworld.com-Louis Garneau) ran her season win streak to eight and Ryan Trebon rode a daring and impressive solo to win Sunday’s fourth stop of the 2005 Crank Brothers U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross, the Michelob ULTRA Grand Prix of Gloucester.

Recovered: Trebon was back in action on Sunday

8 for 8: Bessette has been unbeatable

Knapp and Simms could only race for second

Craig and Co. were nearly a minute down

The UCI - stung by the strong anti-doping message from ASO president Patrice Clerc during Thursday’s 2006 Tour de France presentation – has cut off ProTour talks with cycling’s most important race. UCI president Pat McQuaid, who sat uncomfortably through Thursday’s presentation in Paris, notified Tour de France officials Friday that ProTour talks are now tabled. “You decided to remove the conditions of serenity and without pressure for the ProTour negotiations,” McQuaid wrote in a letter, adding cycling’s governing body was “surprised” and “indignant” about the anti-doping discourse offered

World champion Sven Nijs of Belgium won round two of the UCI cyclo-cross World Cup on Saturday at Tabor, Czech Republic, and photographer Graham Watson was on hand to capture the action. Nijs, who took the series opener last weekend in Kalmthout, Belgium, narrowly beat Czech Petr Dlask, who finished three seconds behind. Dlask’s countryman Kamil Ausbuher was third at 14 seconds back. Dlask, Ausbuher and Netherlander Gerben de Knegt lit the race up early on, seizing a lead of 20 seconds and forcing the Belgian team to chase. Nijs and Bart Wellens eventually retrieved the leaders, and the

Every stereotype is grounded in at least a little bit of reality. And the tired old stereotype about the variable nature of New England weather proved all too true in Saturday’s Michelob ULTRA Gran Prix in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the third stop of the Crank Brothers US Gran Prix of Cyclocross.

McQuaid

Up we go

Dlask was one of the early animators . . .

. . . as was Ausbuher

But the Belgians went to work, and Nijs was soon up front . . .

. . . which is where he stayed

The podium

If you look at his record, you can tell that Johnson loves these conditions

Bessette is unstoppable this year

At the start

Johnson never looked back

American Floyd Landis announced Friday that he will prepare for next year's Tour de France by competing in the Giro d’Italia in May for the first time. "I hope that it will be a perfect warm-up for the Tour", said Landis, a leader on the Swiss-based Phonak team. "I'll begin my training in the United States and continue it in Europe from January. I'll check out the Tour (de France) route in June." Landis’s announcement comes a day after the route of the 2006 Tour de France was announced in Paris and two weeks prior to the announcement of the Giro route. The American finished in

Gone but not forgotten. I guess that’s as good a way as any to describe seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong, who, three months after he walked away from his racing career, is still the most-talked-about cyclist in the world. At Thursday’s 2006 Tour de France route unveiling, Armstrong went nearly unmentioned in a 10-minute highlight video recap of the '05 Tour — an omission Tour officials admitted was not accidental, given investigations into Armstrong’s alleged EPO use at the 1999 Tour. Even in his physical absence, Armstrong’s presence was felt throughout the Palais de Congres in

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.Radios for the fans, tooEditor:Radios must stay, and of course helmets. The sport of cycling must evolve with the rest of the modern world if it expects to maintain any kind of media presence and network coverage. Technology is a fact of life now and you can either lead or get run over by

The Michelob ULTRA Grand Prix of Cyclocross races this weekend at Stage Fort Park in Gloucester, Massachusetts, marks the East Coast debut of the 2005 Crank Brothers U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross. The traditional seaside venue, long one of the highlights of the New England circuit, attracts riders from throughout North America with its guarantee of big crowds, fast racing, and a grab bag of autumnal weather conditions. Whether soaked in late-October sun or blasted by ocean-driven rain, Gloucester’s sweeping, sandy course never fails to foster back-and-forth racing with thrilling sprint

Zero Gravity is stepping up both its component development and its support for the sport in 2006, signing a three-year deal to co-sponsor the Jittery Joe’s road team and bringing a new crank project to market. Regarding last week’s sponsorship deal, Jeff Stewart, Zero G’s director of sales and marketing, said the boutique brake manufacturer has been "super happy with Jittery Joe’s." "We really have a great relationship with them. We put products on their bikes and get real world feedback," Stewart continued. As for the new Zero G cranks, which debuted at Interbike, Zero Gravity hopes to

Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong made a stinging reply to the latest put-down by Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc over doping accusations against the American star. Leblanc said Thursday that he felt "disappointed and let down by Armstrong", who retired last July after his seventh consecutive victory in the gruelling stage race across France. Allegations by the French newspaper L'Equipe claimed Armstrong used the banned hormone EPO (erythropoietin) in 1999 during his first Tour triumph, claims Armstrong has denied while the International Cycling Union

Whenever a dominant Tour de France champion like Lance Armstrong retires or is absent because of injury, the vacuum is nearly always filled by at least one, probably two, very open, exciting editions of the race. That should be the case in 2006, which might recall the dramatic Tours of 1987 and 1989 (post Bernard Hinault), or 1997 and 1998 (post Miguel Induráin). Perhaps that’s why the Tour organizers, ASO, have chosen for the emblem of their 2006 edition a yellow jersey pulled into the hexagonal shape of France by six gloved hands. Figuring out whose grip is the strongest on that yellow

NORBA stars Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) and Shonny Vanlandingham scored impressive finishes at the Xterra off-road triathlon World Championships October 22 on Maui, Hawaii. Kabush, the reigning NORBA cross-country and short-track champion finished 16th in the men’s pro category with a time of 2:51:29. Vanlandingham, who won the women’s cross-country overall and finished second in the short-track finished seventh in the professional women’s field in 3:20:01. Not surprisingly, both Kabush and Vanlandingham struggled a bit in the swim. Kabush’s 26:18 for the 1-mile swim placed him in 195th place

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. — Ecclesiastes 3:1 For the first time since 2000, Lance Armstrong wasn’t the star of the show as Tour de France organizers unveiled the 2006 route on Thursday in Paris. The seven-time Tour champ, who was stateside preparing to host this weekend’s edition of NBC’s "Saturday Night Live," played only a bit part in a short highlight video prepared for the annual ceremony in Paris — and Tour organizers said that was not a simple oversight. "Of course, I cannot pretend this is just accidental," Patrice Clerc,

Landis knows what challenges he'll be facing in next year's Tour

Is Armstrong ready for prime time?

Armstrong and Crow on 20-20

Radio Armstrong

The Zero G crank

Watson displays the Touareg's tail section . . .

. . . and the sound gear hidden within

Vestal and his goods

Campy gets BIG

Kabush's Turner prototype

The speculation is over. Some of it was right, much of it was wrong. Either way, the organizers of the Tour de France on Thursday unveiled the route of the 2006 race, officially kicking off the post-Armstrong era at France's national tour. It will be the first Tour since 1999 not to feature seven-time winner Lance Armstrong, who is now retired, but the American was nonetheless a hot topic despite the presence of several of his potential successors. Ivan Basso, of the CSC team, was present and was largely favorable to a race route which will feature the two traditional individual time

Paris (AP) - Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc has predicted an exciting 2006 race in the absence of Lance Armstrong and taken another shot at the seven-time champion. Leblanc announced the 2006 Tour route Thursday, with the notable points being the absence of a team time trial, the return of L'Alpe d'Huez, and the matter of which rider takes the start line in the No. 1 jersey now that Armstrong has retired. “It is a classical, well-balanced course. There are five wonderful mountain stages,” Leblanc said. “It is a change of era. A period of long domination is over. There

The expansive Palais des Congrès came to life just as soon as the dimmed lights were turned back up following a slick, highly produced introduction to the 20-stage, three-week route of the 93rd Tour de France. No team time trial, longer-than-usual individual time trials and a wide-open race without the presence of dominator Lance Armstrong were among the many topics on the tongues of cycling’s elite that gathered for the annual autumn rite. VeloNews reporters Ben Delaney and Andrew Hood culled these reactions from the main protagonists. Here’s a sampling of what was said: Floyd Landis

A crowd of 2000 poured into the cavernous Palais des Congrés in Paris Thursday for details on the 2006 Tour de France route, but the race’s directors first gave them a lecture on doping. In fact the majority of the early presentation focused on combating the problem in order to preserve the sport’s integrity. “We hope and pray that we can solve not only the problem of doping, but also the suspicion, which severely damages the sport,” said Patrick Clerc, president of Tour organizer ASO. “Doping remains the number one enemy.” After showing a 2005 Tour highlights video, Clerc and Tour

Lance Armstrong wasn’t at Thursday’s 2006 Tour de France presentation, but the recently retired seven-time champion was still on everyone’s mind. Riders talked of a wide-open race without Armstrong’s dominating presence while race organizers tried not to talk about him at all. Armstrong, who is in New York preparing to host this week’s edition of "Saturday Night Live," chose not to attend the annual ceremony in Paris. If he wanted to relive moments of past glory, he didn’t miss much. The American was largely ignored in a slickly produced 10-minute highlight film to introduce the 93rd

The 2006 Tour de France could well be called a tour of western Europe,with stages venturing into Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland and Spain.Long heralded as an international event, the Tour begins this year in thetown of Strasbourg, arguably a symbol of European reunification.Home of the European Parliament, Strasbourg first hosted a Tour stagein 1919 following the Treaty of Versailles, which returned Strasburg andthe surrounding Alsace region to France from German control.This isn’t Strasbourg’s first time hosting the Tour’s start, either.In 1953, the year the green jersey competition

Lausanne, Switzerland (AP) - Former UCI president Hein Verbruggen was among five candidates nominated Thursday for IOC membership. Also put forward by the IOC executive board were: International Tennis Federation chief Francesco Ricci Bitti; Beatrice Allen, vice president of Gambia's national Olympic committee; Nicole Hoevertsz, secretary general of Aruba's Olympic committee; and Prince Tunku Imran, president of the Olympic Council of Malaysia. The five will be up for election to eight-year terms at the International Olympic Committee assembly in Turin on the eve of the Winter

Just in time for the announcement of the route for the 2006 Tour de France, VeloPress's annual wrap up of the Tour is now ready for delivery. "The2005 Tour de France: Armstrong's Farewell," by John Wilcocksonand Andrew Hood, tells the fascinating story of Lance Armstrong and hisride to his history-making seventh-straight victory. But this plot encompasses21 teams and 188 other riders battling for stage victories and hoping tounseat the American champion. VeloNews reporters Wilcockson and Hood provide a detailed accountof the action in each stage, capturing the color and character of

Bruyneel Reaction to 2006 Tour De France Route Announcement While Lance Armstrong may be retired from professional cycling and focusing on his future away from the sport, his apparent influence on Johan Bruyneel remains as relevant now as it did when he was winning seven Tours de France. Following today's grand unveiling of the 2006 Tour de France route in Paris, the Discovery Channel team's sports manager left the Palais de Congres still smarting from what was widely perceived as a slap to Armstrong's legacy by Tour organizers during its route presentation. However, Bruyneel

2006 Tour route unveiled

Leblanc and heir-apparent Christian Prudhomme outline the 2006 Tour route

Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich - Who will this Tour favor?

Bruyneel: Felt targeted

The Tour will hit the Galibier next year

Some remember Armstrong this way...

... and others remember this.