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N.H.L. Cancels the Rest of Its SeasonAs Labor Talks Fall ApartArmstrong Sends a Message,Seeking 7th Straight Tour Title– headlines on The New York Times website, February 17, 2005 You have to feel the pain of America’s professional hockey fans, if any remain. On the same day that pro cycling’s Wayne Gretzky finally confirms that he’s going for a seventh consecutive Tour de France victory, the National Hockey League announces that it’s going away. No wonder there were so few hockey stars acting as presenters at the Grammys. They were all at home, updating their résumés. “Yo, babe? How do you

Earlier this week, on this site, Peter Nye told the fascinating story of Joseph Magnani, an American pioneer whose European racing career was virtually unknown back home. That’s because Magnani moved to Europe in his mid-teens and learned how to race in France, where he lived from 1928 until the end of his cycling career 20 years later. Magnani’s impoverished Illinois family sent him to live with friends in the south of France, where he took up bike racing at age 16. He turned pro seven years later because he could make more money racing bikes than he could in his job of delivering coal and

Riders from the T-Mobile women’s team, TIAA-CREF and Health Net-Maxxis are among those stretching their legs in Arizona this weekend during the 13th annual Valley of the Sun-John Earley Memorial Stage Race. The race, hosted by the White Mountain Road Club, begins today with the Trek Individual Time Trial, held on a 12-mile course at Sun Valley Parkway west of Phoenix. Racing continues Saturday with the Landis Cyclery Road Race in Casa Grande and concludes Sunday with the Orpheum Lots Downtown Capital Criterium at Wesley Bolen Plaza in Phoenix. More than $15,000 in cash and prizes is up for

I can’t believe the first race of the year is already here. I guess that there have been a couple of smaller races in California and Arizona, but for those of us from states where there is winter, this is a complete shock to the system. It’s still snowing in Colorado Springs! I was just out shoveling my driveway a couple days ago. The T-Mobile Professional Cycling Team is kicking off its season at the Valley of the Sun stage race in Phoenix, Arizona. This race has a great reputation for tough early season racing in the warm sunshine. I always look forward to any early season racing in

Ocaña took big risks when challenging Merckx

A child donates his lunch money to the NHL's No Millionaire Left Behind drive

Eighteen-year-old Michael Hiltner in 1959 at Canada’s Tour du St. Laurent, which a newspaper said he won with sensational brillance

Markov brings it home

Steels lost that pretty jersey by just two seconds

Mari was nervous at the start - but not for the usual reasons

Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) used his stalwart train to catapult him to his second straight stage win in the Ruta del Sol while Francesco Cabello (Comunidad Valenciana) realized a career-long dream of winning on home roads after securing the overall title. The rolling course from Sevilla to Chiclana de la Frontera in Spain’s Andalucía region looked to favor the sprinters, but two riders slipped away early and nearly stole the spotlight. José Antonio López (Kaiku) and Carlos Castaño (Paul Versan) attacked early and built up a 3-minute advantage halfway through the stage, but the pair

Dear Readers,In our lastcolumn, Attorney Bruce Epperson described how Colonel Albert Pope,the “Rockefeller of Bicycles” manuvered in 1878 to acquire all the significantpatents covering the basic features of the bicycle, including Pierre Lallement’s1866 “Improvement in Velocipedes,” the first bicycle patent in the UnitedStates. This Week, in Part 2 of “The Monopoly Machine” we look at how theColonel tried to use those patents to create a monopoly over the entirebicycle industry.-BobThe Monopoly Machine, Part 2Once he held the patents, Pope moved quickly. In June, Charles Pratt,Pope’s patent

British cyclist David Millar's two-year doping ban was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Thursday, but the starting date was changed to make the suspension end six weeks earlier. Millar was banned by the British Cycling Federation last summer after telling a French judge he had used the endurance-boosting drug EPO. “The CAS panel considered that the two-year suspension imposed by the BCF was proportionate to the circumstances of the case,'' the Lausanne-based court said in a statement. The ban went into effect August 6, but Millar argued it should have started

Well, it's finally over!The 2005 VeloNews Buyer's Guide has been printed and will be hittingmailboxes and newsstands next week. The late nights, frantic flipping throughtattered productcatalogs, desperate searches through image CDs and annoying late-nightcell phone calls to product managers are over...for the time being. The end result? The largest Buyer's Guide that VeloNewshas ever published (at 156 pages). With a feature section on14 of the coolest ProTour bikes available in 2005, a report on custom buildersand five detailed race scenarios features, I'm certain you'll

Canadian Lyne Bessette says she wants to relax and experiment a little as she tries her hand at mountain-bike racing and cyclo-cross as a supplement to a “scaled back” road schedule this season. The first sign of Bessette’s new approach is the way she plans to kick off her racing schedule this year. “My first race of the year will be the NORBA national in (Comfort) Texas on March 5,” the 29-year-old Bessette told VeloNews. “Starting my year off like that is something I’ve never done before.” Bessette said she'll also take a stab at racing the cross-country events at this year's Sea

No one seems too surprised at Armstrong's plan to be back in '05

Tech Report: Post-Buyer's Guide reflections

Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) blazed to victory in Wednesday’sfourth stage of the Ruta del Sol. It’s the second win of the year for theItalian sprinter, who kept Max Van Heeswjk (Discovery Channel) from snaggingthe win. Tom Boonen (Quick Step) came through third while Oscar Freire(Rabobank) and Erik Zabel (T-Mobile) rounded out the top 5. The pace was furious in the 161km stage from La Guardia de Jaénto Córdoba, with the peloton finishing some 30 minutes faster thanexpected. Petacchi’s winning time came with an average time of 44.3 kphthanks to a gusting

Many cyclists are currently building their aerobic endurance, muscularstrength, and flexibility in anticipation of more specific training inthe coming weeks and months. Just as this training cycle requires you followa specific mix of volume and intensity, your nutritional intake must matchup so that you have the required energy and fluids at the most optimaltimes for your training and recovery.As you continue to build your volume, your energy and carbohydrate requirementsincrease. During this base cycle, you may also be interested in losingweight. This is a good time of year to adopt

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.Roots!Dear VeloNews,A great article about Joseph Magnani (see "Pioneersin the Peloton: The unknown American"). If I have the opportunityto return to Southern France and ride I will certainly think of the firstAmerican to race those roads through towns and villages where not a lothas

Armstrong finds room in his closet for a few more

Petacchi barely edges out Van Heeswijk

Despite teasingly suggesting the contrary, logic says Lance Armstrong will be only in one place come July. Everyone expects him to line up July 2 for the 19km time trial from Fromentine to Noirmoutier-en-l'Ile in France’s Vendee region for the start of the 92nd Tour de France. After a history-making six consecutive victories, a run at the seventh seems a no-brainer, but Armstrong’s “will he or won’t he” has become cycling’s equivalent to “who shot JR?” Everyone seems to have a theory, but no one really knows. Those close to the Texan, however, insist he’s truly undecided about whether

From the era of snub-nosed cars and dirt roads, of cyclists wearing goggles over their eyes to keep out the ubiquitous dust from the roads and racers wrapping spare tires over their shoulders and across their backs in a figure-eight, a lone U.S. rider enjoyed success as a professional on the roads of Europe. Joseph Magnani of Illinois raced professionally from 1935 to 1948 on French and Italian teams. He was so ahead of his time that few in his homeland knew of him. In the 1947 world championship professional road race in Reims, northeast of Paris and famed for its champagne vineyards,

It's lemmony fresh, too!Dear Lennard,Could you recommend a good method and/or product to clean and maintaina titanium frame (unpainted finish)? Also, do you have any suggestionsto keep aluminum parts (i.e. Campy hubs, etc.) clean and shiny?E.J.Dear E.J.,You can clean the titanium frame first with soap and water and thenwith a solvent on the greasy patches that did not come clean. Be carefulyou don’t remove decals, if you use a really strong solvent like acetone(and make sure you wear gloves and a respirator). Usually, a biodegradabledegreaser is sufficient to clean it up. After cleaning,

Serge Baguet (Davitamon-Lotto) used his wile to win his second stagein a row in a wind-blasted Ruta del Sol while perennial runner-up FranciscoCabello (Comunidad Valenciana) slipped into the overall lead.Russian workhorse Viatcheslav Ekimov put Discovery Channel into thewinning break in Tuesday’s blustery third stage that saw overnight leaderCarlos García Quesada lose grip of the leader’s jersey.Strong crosswinds blasted the bunch right from the start in the 164kmmarch from just outside Granada to Jaen across the heart of Spain’s spectacularAndalucia region. García Quesada and Johan

Born in Illinois, Joseph Magnani made his mark in the European peloton of the 1930s and '40s

Magnani's win at Marseille-Nice sparked interest in the American

Magnani posing with friends, teammates and his future wife, Mimi

Paris-Nice 1938

The Olmo team primed and ready to take on the Giro d'Italia

Andalucia in the spring.

It’s been a year since Marco Pantani was found dead in room 5-D of the Hotel Le Rose in Rimini, Italy. The autopsy later confirmed the iconic Italian cycling hero had died of a cocaine overdose. A year later, Italy continues to mourn his tragic death and is still trying to come to grips with the loss of Italy's most successful grand tour racer of his generation. Pantani’s life slowly unraveled after being kicked out of the 1999 Giro d’Italia just a few days short of winning a second consecutive title. The UCI’s “vampires” discovered his red blood cell count too high and Pantani left the

Before I launch into my special Valentine’s Day column, I’ve got to ask – did anyone else watch The Grammy Awards last night? Obviously I did, which is why I’m typing away after midnight on a Monday morning instead of sleeping. But since I once fancied myself a music journalist in a past life, I have to point out a few of the highlights from a not-bad broadcast — even if it did dish up an agonizing live performance of “Free Bird” by the remaining members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Sorry, but what year is this? Best acceptance speech: Kanye West, winner of best rap album for “The College Dropout.”

Nationwide Alert: Senate Bill Threatens California TrailsA U.S. Senate committee will vote this Wednesday, Feb. 16, on a reintroducedWilderness bill that would ban mountain biking from 170 miles of singletracktrails in Northern California. Mountain bikers nationwide are urged toask their senators to delay action on the bill until suitable compromisesare reached and bicycling is accommodated. Your call is especially importantif your senator is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committeelisted below.Senate Bill 128 (S. 128), the Northern California Coastal Wild

Belgian rider Serge Baguet (Davitamon-Lotto) held off climbing specialistLeonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) to win Monday’s second stage of the Rutadel Sol in southern Spain. Carlos García Quesada (Comunidad Valenciana) held onto the overalllead after crossing the line fourth just nine seconds slower than Baguet.Piepoli and Belgian John Vansummeren (Davitamon-Lotto) attacked early onthe climbing finish to La Zubia while Quesada and Baguet followed the aggression. A six-man break went away early, carving out a three-minute lead onthe bunch, but Comunidad Valenciana did the work to close down

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.Thompson, Twain, Mencken and . . . O’Grady?Editor:I thoroughly enjoy O'Grady's foaming rants. One of the reasons I subscribe to VeloNews is that he's in it. A touch of Hunter S. and a hint of Twain, shades of Mencken, riding a 1970 Raleigh Pro. Dave EvansMadison,

A club of young riders visits the grave of the Italian cycling star on Monday

Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood: My Funny Valentine

Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood: My Funny Valentine

Baguet takes the win

Carlos García Quesada still has the jersey

The appeal of the Ruta del Sol

García Quesada kept a close eye on the other favorites

García Quesada is in a solid position after Monday's stage

The six-man break looked promising, but was caught in the closing kilometers

Hincapie tries his hand in the escape

The World According to Wells……Some of you may be familiar with my stories from my columns in the VeloNews magazine. These online journal entries will follow the same pattern trying to give you a racer’s perspective on the mountain bike and cyclo-cross circuit through out the year. As you may or may not know, the mountain bike season officially kicks off the first weekend of March with the Texas NORBA National. Since I do a full domestic schedule of cyclo-cross through the fall and winter that leaves only a few months to recover from a season of traveling the world and gear up for the next

Carlos García Quesada and his Comunidad Valenciana team delivered what might be the knock out punch in the opening stage Sunday in the Ruta del Sol in southern Spain. Quesada won the hilly 150.5km route from Benalmádena and Comares thanks to heavy pressure that split the peloton early, leaving only a group of 19 riders to contest for the spoils. With a start list heavy with sprinters, many of the big teams had riders present in the break and no one seemed interested in putting up a chase. Quesada, a runner-up last year to Juan Carlos Domínguez, attacked hard on the final climb coming into

Quesada

Still no phone at our house in good old Girona. I think that sums up a modern-day house. Okay, maybe you have high-speed cable and then a cell phone; that is more than intelligent. But here in Spain you can't have one without the other. So I'm sitting here choking down second-hand smoke. Tyler used to always comment on how he would "smoke a pack of cigarettes" while he checked his e-mail. Being from Chicago I thought he was being a bit extreme, until I found myself in the same situation. I feel like I have to throw my clothes in the incinerator after going down there. Okay,

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) performed a total of 8,051 doping control tests in 2004 in 69 Olympic, Paralympic and Pan American sports, including 7,630 domestic tests, USADA Chief Executive Officer Terry Madden announced today. Out-of-Competition (OOC) testing comprised approximately 58 percent (4,447) of the domestic tests USADA conducted in 2004. USADA conducted 526 tests in cycling during 2004. “We reached our goal of increasing the number of out-of-competition tests in 2004,” said Madden. “More than 90 percent of U.S. athletes consistently provide their whereabouts

Jens Voigt consolidated his lead in the Tour Méditerranéen on Saturday as Team CSC won the stage-4 team time trial, a 36km run between Bouc-Bel-Air and Berre l'Etang (Bouches-du-Rhône). Liquigas-Bianchi, whose leader, Italian Franco Pellizotti, was second overall going into Saturday’s stage, had a 17-second lead over CSC and 20 seconds on Rabobank at 16km. But CSC turned on the power in the final kilometers, and Liquigas – despite the best efforts of Pellizotti, Mario Cipollini and Swede Magnus Backstedt – saw its lead evaporate. At the end, CSC crossed 16 seconds up on Liquigas and

CSC helps Voigt add to his lead in the Tour Med

And he causeth all . . . to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads; And that no man might buy or sell, save that he had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

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.Rights versus responsibilitiesEditor:Neal Rogers did a really great job of pointing out the crap that some employers want versus the rights of citizens (see “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood: Who draws the line between rights and responsibilities?”). For one job I had to sign an agreement that I

Voigt scores again in Tour MedJens Voigt (CSC) padded his lead in the Tour Méditerranéen on Friday, soloing to victory in stage 3 from La Garde to the summit of Mont Faron in Toulon. The 137km stage was animated at the foot of the day’s first climb, Fourches, at 32km. Five riders – Frenchmen Mickael Delage (Francaise des Jeux) and Lénaïc Olivier (Agritubel), Italian Alessandro Donati (Acqua & Sapone), Estonian Janek Tombak (Cofidis) and the Belgian Kristof Trouvé (MrBookmaker.com)– broke away and built a four-minute lead by 80km. Behind, Voigt’s team began a chase, assisted by the

While British and Irish cyclists were making breakthroughs in Europe’s top road races during the 1950s and early 1960s, North Americans were still very much in the twilight zone of world cycling. There were many reasons why road racing remained undeveloped on this side of the Atlantic; but one big reason was apparent in the very name of the body that controlled the sport in the United States, the Amateur Bicycle League of America (my italics). Professional cycling was anathema to the ABL, which was founded by a group of New York cycling clubs in 1920 to counteract alleged corruption in the

Number, please

Voigt wins again

Art Longsjo at Somerville

Bobby Julich and the CSC gang on the march

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.Say 'cheese'Editor:Here's the man, David Clinger, riding on a sunny day in the Santa Monica Mountains. Shane V. Luncinski(pictured next to Clinger in photo No. 2)Canoga Park, California That’s it? Big dealEditor:Boy, am I ever disappointed. Judging from the deafening geshrei

Armstrong to tell all in chat with OprahSix-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong reportedly will announce whether he’ll try for No. 7 on Friday’s “Oprah Winfrey Show.” Armstrong and rocker Sheryl Crow will join Oprah for their first interview together, according to a press release. Also on the agenda: The superstar couple shares how they first started flirting and why Crow is now writing love songs. Armstrong opens up about being a single father and Oprah asks, "Do you want to have more children?" Oprah challenges Lance to a bike race (with a few conditions). Crow debuts her new

Over the past few weeks I’ve had the opportunity to write about two American riders who have found themselves at odds with their domestic road teams over matters that aren’t strictly related to their jobs. In Matt DeCanio’s case, Ofoto-Sierra Nevada released him for expressing an admittedly controversial view of drug use in cycling. As for David Clinger, Webcor told him that his new full-face Maori-style tattoo was not an image the team cared to be associated with. I’m not going to weigh in with my opinion on either case - at least, not in this week’s column - primarily because I wrote the

Gilbert wins in Tour MedBelgian Philippe Gilbert (FDJeux.com) hung on to win the second stage of the 32nd Tour Méditerranéen. Gilbert’s victory in the 131km stage from Villeneuve-Loubet to Bormes-Les-Mimosas makes up for an error in the final stretches of the GP d’Ouverture La Marseillaise, when he steered off course. Team CSC’s Jens Voigt finished fifth to retain the overall lead. Tour MéditerranéenStage 2 results1. Philippe Gilbert (B), Française des Jeux, 131km in 3:10:45 (41,206 km/h)2. Franck Schleck (Lux), CSC, s.t.3. Kim Kirchen (Lux), Fassa Bortolo, s.t.4. Bram De Groot (Ned),

Dear Readers,Today’s column is the first of a three-part series written by attorney Bruce Epperson. Whether you are a triathlete, bike racer or just interested in bikes, the business/legal history of the bicycle is a rich one.– Bob MionskeThe Monopoly Machine, Part 1 "For a decade afterward came the wonderful battles of bicycle patents. All along Pope extended this department, and practically was in the position of a Czar of the business. . . Pope was largely hated and the Columbia was called the monopoly machine." - Bicycling World, 1902 Starting in 1879, the infant bicycle industry was

The athlete . . .

. . . and the artwork

Health Net-Maxxiss Mike SoPro Jones jumps on the anti-doping/body-art bandwagon: He advises that his self-decoration cost three bucks for the markers, took three minutes to apply and less than one to remove

Gilbert outkicks the bunch

Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood: Who draws the line between rights and responsibilities?

Voigt hangs onto the lead

Jens Voigt (Team CSC) used his strong early season form to hold off the hard-chasing peloton and win Wednesday’s opening stage of the Tour Méditerranéen that hit the Poggio en route from San Remo to Menton. Voigt was part of a four-man break that pulled clear over the Poggio, forcing such sprinter teams as Gerolsteiner and Liquigas to chase hard to set up their men Danilo Hondo and Mario Cipollini. With the lead down to 20 seconds, the others lost their verve and were ready to give in to the inevitable, but not the irrepressible German. He shot away with 6km to go and held the peloton at

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.Clinger’s phiz sparks a quizEditor:Let's break the David Clinger situation down to a level that all can grasp with a quick quiz: 1. Professional cycling is mostly:A. A sportB. A businessC: A fun way to get a tan2. To pay bills a pro cycling team depends on:A. Donations from other

Ford-Basis Women's Cycling Team is officially announcing its roster for the 2006 season today. "I realized how late I was in posting our 2005 Ford-Basis team announcement, so I decided to be the first to post a 2006 announcement," says team director Nicole Freedman. "This legally binds our sponsors to another season, correct?" Five riders return to the Ford-Basis cycling team. Freedman (Boston, MA), the 2000 US Olympian and two-time U.S. national champion, continues to mentor the developing squad. "And this is how to wear a training bra," she has been heard to encourage after a race.