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Dear Velo,I can't believe I read at the beginning of the Tour that Tom Boonen was given an antibiotic for the "minor infection" that had caused a major toothache. In the dawn of time, when I was racing, an antibiotic would wipe me out for about two weeks, simply due to the fact that, as a broad-spectrum bug killer, it will kill intestinal flora, too. This means that I would get diarrhea and have poorer nutritional uptake from food. The same will be true for Tom. The other point to wonder about here (and I realize the difficulty of diagnosing from an article) is what caused the toothache?

Bobby Julich, fresh off his dramatic victory in the Tour of Benelux, will ride for two more seasons with Team CSC. Julich, 33, will ride through the 2006-07 seasons under the watchful eye of 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis, the team announced Monday. “Bobby has turned out to be a real catch for us. Since he joined us his career has blossomed like I've never seen it before,” Riis said on the team’s web page. “He’s an all-round rider, who can achieve results throughout the entire season, and at the same time has the ability to inspire and help develop the other riders.” Julich’s

Carson, Calif. (August 13, 2005)-Jennie Reed rode to her third individual national championship of the week with a victory in the women's keirin, adding another stars and stripes jersey to her earlier wins in the 500 meter time trial and the sprint as the 2005 USA Cycling Elite Track National Championships concluded in Los Angeles on Saturday. Reed's sweep of the three sprint-oriented events clearly distinguished her as the strongest sprinter in the field and earned her the title of most decorated rider of the week - man or woman - in terms in individual elite performances. In

Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong on Sunday dismissed reports that might enter politics by running for governor of Texas. Shortly after winning his record seventh Tour last month, the cyclist told Outside magazine that he might consider a run for governor of his home state after 2006. But he downplayed the statement as "more or less a joke" in an interview with ABC television. "The biggest problem with politics or running for the governor ... here in Austin or in Texas is that it would mimic exactly what I've done: a ton of stress and a ton of time away from my kids. "Why would I

Blakeslee, Pennsylvania – August 14, 2005 – Mountain bike racing’snew guard, Michael Prokop of the Czech Republic and Jill Kintner of Seattle,Wash., placed an exclamation point on their amazing racing seasons by earningthe title of World Professional Champion at today’s grand finale of theJeep King of the Mountain 2005 Professional Mountain Biking World Championshipsin the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. The pair, who have sat at or near the top of the world rankings allyear, maintained top form throughout the entire series, each winning twoof the three competitions and never finishing

Now that his cycling career is over, Armstrong just wants to relax

Prokop leads Bootes on his way to victory

Kintner and Katrina Miller in an early round

The drivable trophy

American rider Chris Horner, who lit up the 2005 Tour de France with an impressive string of attacks, will leave Saunier Duval at the end of this season, VeloNews has learned. Sources told VeloNews that Horner, 33, is expected to ride with Davitamon-Lotto next season, but officials from the Belgian team could not be reached before the start of Saturday´s Clásica San Sebastian. "I have a contract and it might be announced even today," Horner said as he signed in for the 227km one-day classic in northern Spain. Saunier Duval officials confirmed Horner won´t be riding with the Spanish team next

All three individual event winners on Friday captured their second elite national championships of the week as Jennie Reed (Kirkland, Washington) took a win in the women’s 500 meter time trial to go with her sprint title; Sarah Hammer (Temecula, California) won the women’s 20km points race to match her individual-pursuit victory; and Stephen Alfred (Capitola, California) took the men’s sprint crown in an encore performance to his keirin win as the USA Cycling Elite Track National Championships continued in Carson, California. After riding to the national title in the sprint on Thursday, Reed

The only question coming into the final 20km of the 25th Clásica San Sebastián on Saturday wasn’t whether a Saunier Duval rider was going to win, but rather which one. At least that’s how Chris Horner read the finale of the hilly 227km race in Spain’s Basque Country on a beautiful summer afternoon. “We just triple-teamed everyone,” Horner said after celebratory hugs at the finish line along San Sebastián’s posh Boulevard. “I hit first, then they hit after that, we started hitting and we got two in the group. I sat on everything in the back and just shut it down. It was

Belgian Nico Sijmens (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) on Saturday consolidated his lead in the Regio-Tour by finishing fourth in the penultimate stage, a 12.3km individual time trial won by German Tony Martin (Gerolsteiner). Sijmens, 27, winner of the second stage between Wehr and Müllheim, has an overall lead of 1:45 over German Torsten Hiekmann (T-Mobile) and a further seven seconds over Belgian Maxime Monfort (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago) Monfort finished second in the hilly time trial in Waldkirch, Germany, which began at 250 meters and climbed through the Black Forest to nearly 1200

Horner, who spent much of his debut Tour on the attack, may shift to Davitamon

Zaballa takes the Clásica

Alfred goes for the gold

The winning team

DiLuca had a crook stomach and scored no ProTour points

The Barry break

Moreau on the front

Menchov on the march

Leipheimer and Horner at work

Rodriguez made it 1-2 for Saunier Duval

Zaballa gets the big bottle - and the even bigger Basque beret

Another ghastly locale for a bike race - yeah, right

Moncouti in the escape

For the second year running, former junior downhill world champ Kathy Pruitt (Luna) is on a tear through the NORBA downhill circuit. During NORBA No. 6 at Brian Head Resort in Utah, Pruitt destroyed the competition, finishing more than six seconds ahead of the next rider, Chilean Bernadita Pizarro (Cannondale). At the Snowmass, Colorado, NORBA, Pruitt handily gapped the rest of the women’s field by more than 11 seconds. The two wins vaulted Pruitt atop the NORBA series standings, which she leads by 14 points. Credit an injury-plagued June for Pruitt’s slimmer-than-usual margin in the

A star-studded line-up is expected for Saturday's Clásica San Sebastián, where the likes of Alexandre Vinokourov (T-Mobile) and Ivan Basso (Team CSC) will saddle up for the one-day classic, once part of the 10-race World Cup. Now part of the UCI ProTour series, the Clásica has lost none of its allure for the big names of the sport - and with good reason. Some of cycling's biggest champions, from Laurent Jalabert to Lance Armstrong, have won the hilly race and then donned the Basque beret traditionally given to the winner. Italy’s Basso won the Tour of Denmark barely two weeks ago,

An all-star cast will line up Saturday for the Clásica San Sebastian, the 227km ProTour race in the heart of Spain’s cycling hotbed of Basque Country. Olympic gold medalist Paolo Bettini (Quick Step), Iban Mayo (Euskaltel), Francisco Mancebo (Illes Balears), Allan Davis (Liberty Seguros), Juan Antonio Flecha (Fassa Bortolo, Oscar Sevilla (T-Mobile), defending champion Miguel Angel Perdiguero (Phonak), Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel), ProTour leader Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas-Bianchi) and Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) are among the top names starting Saturday. The 227km race starts and

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.There are good reasons for field limitsEditor:I read Krystian Pac’s letter on field limits with interest (see Wednesday’s Mailbag: Inappropriate field limits?) and thought it might be worthwhile to help clarify and explain some of the points he took issue with on inappropriate field

Well, I just finished sending out an email to my crew of friends from college, to let them know I won’t be joining them at the Burning Man Festival, August 29 through September 6. It was a tough email to write, as I've had some of the best nights of my life out in Black Rock City in the Nevada desert and that I was heavily rallying the rest of the gang to go this year. If you don’t know anything about Burning Man, you can learn a bit about it here. If you think you know something about Burning Man but have never been, take my word for it: You don’t know as much as you think you do. It’s

With virtually no event-specific training over the course of the last year, Christian Stahl (Bethany, Connecticut) clocked a personal best time of 1 minute, 4.242 seconds in the men’s kilometer time trial on Thursday to take both the elite and U23 national titles at day two of the USA Cycling Elite Track National Championships at Carson, California. The 22-year-old Athens Olympic Team member beat second-place finisher Aaron Kacala (Racine, Wisconsin) in the day’s penultimate heat by nearly two seconds as Kacala posted a 1:06.180. “I haven’t trained specifically for the kilo since before

In the hot seat

Perdiguero, riding for Saunier Duval, won last year's Clásica

Perdiguero, riding for Saunier Duval, won last year's Clásica

Burn, baby, burn

The sorriest fight ever?

The smiling couple

Stahl clocks a personal best to win the kilo'

Lea doubles up in the points race

Quinn claims the women's scratch race in the final sprint

After taking a year off from competitive cycling, Sarah Hammer made a triumphant return to the sport with an impressive victory in the women's 3km individual pursuit as the USA Cycling Elite National Track Championships got underway in suburban Los Angeles. Hammer clocked the second-fastest time ever recorded at the ADT Event Center velodrome, a remarkable feat considering the venue was the site of both the elite world championships and a world cup event since opening its doors a year ago. The 21-year-old Hammer clocked a time of 3 minutes, 41.177 seconds to sweep both the elite and U23

Former world number one Damiano Cunego will take part in Saturday's Clasica San Sebastian, this season's 20th ProTour race, his Lampre team confirmed Thursday. The 23-year-old Italian was forced to miss several weeks of the season after being diagnosed with the debilitating Epstein-Barr (EBV) virus. But he returned to action in July and performed well in this week's Fred Mengoni trophy and the Castelfidardo Grand Prix. Lampre coach Giuseppe Martinelli predicted Cunego would perform well in Spain. "Damiano has moved very well in the last two races where he was always near the

Hammer's year off did her good

Armsstrong's focus is still on the road

Alfred shows the youngsters how it's done

Thorburn, Mirabella, Hammer and Armstrong

Before his diagnosis, Cunego struggled through the Giro.

American Bobby Julich grabbed his CSC team's second stage race victory inside a week after winning the inaugural Tour of Benelux asit finished in Holland on Wednesday. Julich stormed to victory in the final stage time trial, held over 26.2km, to leave Dutch favorite Erik Dekker, down in second place in the general classification. The 33-year-old Julich started the time trial with a 37-second deficit on overnight leader Rik Verbrugghe of QuickStep. However Julich has become something of a specialist in the race against the clock over the past two years - and by the halfway mark he had

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.Put your money where your hearts areEditor,Well there it is, the VeloNews poll asking readers how much they'dbe willing to pay for Vuelta coverage.As of Tuesday at 5 p.m. there are only 31 percent willing to pay $25for three weeks of Vuelta coverage. Another 30 percent state

With cyclists well into their race season, you likely have your favorite pre-race foods and fluids menu planned out, and are refining your on-bike drinking skills to maximize your race performance. But have you thought about your race recovery nutrition? At this time in the season your nutritional focus should be on nutritional strategies to improve race performance, and proper recovery so that you are prepared for your next race. Your training is likely focused on intensity, with a reduced training volume as you prepare for an upcoming race. Proper recovery is especially important if you

With cyclists well into their race season, you likely have your favorite pre-race foods and fluids menu planned out, and are refining your on-bike drinking skills to maximize your race performance. But have you thought about your race recovery nutrition? At this time in the season your nutritional focus should be on nutritional strategies to improve race performance, and proper recovery so that you are prepared for your next race. Your training is likely focused on intensity, with a reduced training volume as you prepare for an upcoming race. Proper recovery is especially important if you

Julich powers into the overall title.

The latest Photo Gallery in our continuing photo contest has now been posted for your viewing pleasure. After a long struggle, we declared John Groton’s Misty Morning as the winner of our most recent contest. Congratulations, John! You win a copy of Graham Watson's "Landscapes of Cycling." We already have a pile of photos in our latest round and will be posting at least one more gallery this week. So take a quick look at our latest gallery, decide what you like and let us know what you think by dropping a note to Rosters@InsideInc.com. Just remember we’ll be posting more later on in

Dutchman Stefan Van Dijk (Mr. Bookmaker) dominated the sprint finish of a 196-kilometer race from St. Truiden to win the sixth and penultimate stage of the Tour of Benelux in Hoogstraten near Brussels on Tuesday. Belgian Rik Verbrugghe, (QuickStep), retained the race lead going into Wednesday's final stage - a 26.3km individual time trial in Etten-Leur in the Netherlands. Van Dijk sprinted to victory ahead of Discovery Channel's Max Van Heeswijk - who has already won two stages in the event.-Agence France Presse Results in the 195.9km sixth stage of the Tour of Benelux between

Not this time: Freire probably won't be defending his world title on home turf

Van Dijk takes the sprint

Dutchman Max Van Heeswijk (Discovery Channel) dominated a bunch sprint to win the fifth stage of the Benelux Tour held over 194km between Verviers and Hasselt in Belgium on Monday. Belgium's Rik Verbrugghe (Quick Step) retained the lead in the general classification ahead of Tuesday's penultimate stage held over 196km from St Truiden to Hoogstraten. Van Heeswijk thus claims his second stage of the race following his victory in the first stage last Thursday. The Dutch rider finished ahead of Italian Alberto Ongarato (Fassa Bortolo), fellow Dutchman Stefan Van Dijck (MrBookmaker) and

Alejandro Valverde is still recovering from knee problems that knocked him out of the Tour de France last month and the Spanish sensation might not be able to start the Vuelta a España (Aug. 27-Sept. 18). Valverde was forced to pull out of the Tour just days after his dramatic stage victory atop Courchevel. He smacked his left knee on his handlebars in the team time trial in stage four that exacerbated an existing knee injury, causing intense swelling and pain. Team doctors were hopeful a two-week rest period would allow Valverde to recover in time for the Vuelta, but now team officials are

Dear Doctor Richardson,I am a 50-year-old former racer who has been riding for more than 20 years. I still ride between 8 and 10 hours a week. I had even planned to race this year but due to work conflicts I didn’t manage to pull it off. Nonetheless, I had been training and in hopes of competing later this year… that is until last week. My wife and I were on vacation and on the last day of our trip, I went for a 2.5-hour ride. I went early in the morning to beat the heat of the day. It was extremely humid, but the temperature was in the upper 60's when I left and may have been in the

ROLF PRIMA ROLLS OUT ITS FIRST CARBON WHEEL SYSTEM Eugene, OR – After a rigorous cycle of design, development and testing, Rolf Prima enters the carbon realm with a new carbon tubular wheel system that’s light, fast and offers unparalleled ride performance. The Carbon TdF38 wheel system uses an exclusive, custom rim design with a Nodal Reinforcement ™ process that allows the use of higher spoke tensions to maintain wheel stiffness. A 38mm deep-section carbon rim and 14 front / 16 rear bladed stainless steel spokes combine to make these feathery light wheels the ultimate choice in

Merlin Metalworks has announced an entirely new line of titanium and carbon bikes, dubbed “Works,” for 2006. The Merlin TiWorks series will join the existing Merlin models, which continue as Merlin Classics. Merlin also has a new CarbonWorks bike, the C110, which is essentially a Merlin Proteus carbon frame stripped of its titanium embellishments. The TiWorks bikes are divided into three categories:Compact Racing - CRTraditional Racing - TRMountain Racing- MR. Many of Merlin’s traditional touches are present in the TiWorks line, including 6Al/4V titanium alloy dropouts, size-specific tubing

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.Gentleman GeorgeEditor:This weekend I had the privilege of riding in the Oregon MS150. This year’s honorary chairman was George Hincapie, who took the time out of his busy schedule to fly Friday night from Europe, across the pond and the U.S. to Oregon, ride the two-day tour, then hop

Valverde won the 10th stage at the Tour before his knee troubles flared up.

PRESS RELEASE - Rolf Prima introduces carbon wheel system

The MerlinTiWorks CR 3/2.5 adds a whole new light to the term entry-level

The TiWorks CR 6/4 represents Merlin's first foray into 6/4 ti.

No ti here: TheC110 carbon road features the geometry of the Proteus, but made entirely of carbon

With one lap to go in the $125,000 Bank of America Invitational in Charlotte, North Carolina, Health Net-Maxxis looked well in control of the race. The crowd, packed six deep along the course, roared with enthusiasm as the green train barreled down the back straight. But lurking behind them, the Colavita-Sutter Home sprinters waited to pounce.

At the fourth NORBA National Mountain Bike Series stop in Sandpoint, Idaho, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski predicted that he and fiancée Heather Irmiger would eventually stand atop a NORBA podium together. Both had scored podium finishes this season, and simultaneous wins didn’t seem out of the realm of possibility. But The Subaru-Gary Fisher rider didn’t know that he’d only have to wait three weeks for his forecast to become reality. Horgan-Kobelski and Irmiger both held onto early leads over the 26-mile cross-country course to win their respective cross-country races on Saturday as the NORBA

Confusion in Sunday’s fourth stage of the Tour of Benelux cost Christian Vande Velde (CSC) and Jason McCartney (Discovery Channel) a possible shot at victory. The two Americans, along with Belgian Bart Dockx (Davitamon-Lotto), were on the attack in Sunday’s hilly, seven-climb 232km march across Belgium’s Ardennes, nursing a comfortable six-minute lead, when the main bunch accidentally went the wrong way. Vande Velde and Co. were already over the day’s fourth climb at the Côte de la Haute Levée with about 60km to go when the peloton accidentally went off course coming down the descent on

Baggy shorts, mountain-cross helmets and downhill goggles were the garb of choice for some at the pro men’s short track on Sunday at the NORBA National Mountain Bike Series. Following the lead of downhill winner Jared Graves (Yeti), a score of the NORBA circuit’s most talented gravity racers entered the pro men’s short track at Brian Head Resort, Utah, racing for little more than first-lap bragging rights. And the fastest man – for one lap, anyway - was South African downhiller Andrew Neethling (Honda-Turner), who blew by everyone to “win” the first lap with flat pedals and sneakers. “I

Tearin' it up at twilight

McCormack led it out . . .

. . . and Haedo finished it off

A crash neutralized the women's crit early on