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The French love their bike racing.

Horakova introduces herself.

Llanes made the podium once again.

For years it’s was the one thing that definitively separated mountain biking from its road-racing cousin. If you get a flat, you fix it. Bust your chain, get out the chain tool. But that will all change starting next year when the UCI introduces a rule that will allow outside technical assistance in cross-country races at World Cup and world championship events. The details of exactly how it’s all going to work are still a little murky, but Regis Alexandre, the president of the UCI mountain bike commission, says he envisions two or three pit zones where riders can swap out everything but the

If he’s there, he wins. Alessandro Petacchi may have missed the cut on a relatively tough day of climbing Wednesday, but he sure made up for it Thursday, scoring his third victory of this edition of the Vuelta a España. “I know this finish, it seemed almost perfect for me,” the Fassa Bortolo sprinter said. “I asked my team to do what they could for me and they came through and they did so on what has to be the best run to the finish at this Vuelta . . . at least as far as the sprinters are concerned.” It was one surely designed with riders like Petacchi in mind: a wide, nearly

Olympic champion Paolo Bettini of Italy and Belgian sprinter Tom Boonen, who ride for Quick Step, are among the favorites for the 225km Paris-Brussels classic cycling race on Saturday. Boonen showed his form in Wednesday's Rik Van Steenbergen Memorial race in northern Belgium where he had his 22nd victory of the season. Boonen and Bettini, despite their superb record this year, might not have it all their own way with Luxembourg's Kim Kirschen, led by an impressive Fassa Bortolo team, also a possible winner. Other challengers include Italy's Michele Bartoli, Germany's Danilo Hondo,

With its rich tradition of great road racers, you’d think the Germans would have had a few breakthroughs in cross-country racing, too. But the fact is no German man has won so much as a World Cup during the last decade, and their record in world championships is even worse: 0-for-all time. The same goes for Great Britain. The last time a U.K. rider won a cross-country World Cup (Gary Foord in 1994), Ned Overend was still a mainstay on the circuit. Outside of the junior ranks, "God Save the Queen" has never been sung at the world championships. But all that began to change on Friday in Les

It was almost like a home crowd for Nino Schurter after rowdy Swiss fans poured over the border into Les Gets to cheer the brawny 18-year-old to an impressive victory in the junior men’s cross-country race. Schurter trounced a 96-rider field under sunny skies Friday, leaving the hard-chasing French duo of Stéphane Tempier and Maxime Marotte fighting for leftovers after powering away in the first of five laps and never letting go of the lead. “I was worried before coming to the race because I was taking antibiotics for a sore throat and ears, but after Wednesday’s team relay I knew I was at

Yes, “Notes” is back, after a long inexplicable absence. But before diving back in, there’s a little catching up to do, just to remind everyone why they probably didn’t even notice the column was gone in the first place. Is “Big” the next “Monster Garage”? I don’t know, haven’t seen it yet, but if the 15-minute preview they show on United is any indication, I’m saying it is. Krispy Kreme’s taken a dive. The stock, that is. Maybe, though, the whole low-carb fad has just about run its course. Have people figured out yet that it will kill you in the long run? I sure hope so. Some of the most

A week has of racing has almost passed, we are now in Valencia on the Mediterranean, and the team has held on to the gold leader’s jersey for the entire week. Triki has now held it for a couple of days, and with each passing moment in gold he becomes more of a Spanish hero. He has been grinning like a kid that has just found a jar full of cookies. The countryside has become a little more interesting in the last two days. We have gone from Alberta-like prairie to Southern California-style hills and orange groves, from straight roads in the open wind to sinuous and undulating roads along the

Becky Conzelman continued her winning ways during the USCF Elite Track Nationals on Thursday, adding a victory in the 500 meter time trial to her gold medal in the previous day's sprint finals. The Pennsylvania native turned a 36.272 at the Superdrome in Frisco, Texas, to best silver medalist Annette Hanson (Kirkland, Washington) and bronze medalist Miranda Moon (Beaverton, Oregon). In the 200 meter time trial, 18-year-old Michael Blatchford, a resident at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, turned a 10.719 to win gold over 2004 Olympians Giddeon Massie (Lansdale,

Six-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong has pulled out of Sunday’s 108-mile T-Mobile International in San Francisco, citing tendinitis in his right knee. Armstrong, who has finished the San Francisco race just once in four attempts, in 2002, thought it best to give his injury a rest and sit out this year’s race in hopes of coming back strong in 2005. The U.S. Postal Service-Berry Floor captain said his injury “started acting up toward the end of the Tour, and I didn’t talk about it – obviously not the wisest thing to do when your rivals are still looking at you – but it never got

Fassa's train puts Petacchi into the station first

The seven-man break nearly made it . . .

. . . but Rabobank and Fassa Bortolo finally shut it down

Members of the American junior men's cross-country team are all smiles after a difficult race in Les Gets

Crowded on those roads . . .

Killeen made it a race to the end...

...but Fumic was the last to lead.

Celebration time.

Schurter heads to the win.

Beltran and Landis remain tied going into Saturday's time trial

Another day in gold for Beltran ... but a shakeup's coming on Saturday

Jame Carney leads the points heat in the morning

Carney alone with his shadow in the morning session

Mark Garrett muscles up in the 200m sprint qualifier

Becky Conzelman wins the 500m TT

Gideon Massie in the men's sprint

Brent Stein wins his 1/8 men's sprint, seconds before crashing hard and ending up in the hospital with minor injuries

Colby Pearce and Jme Carney, the two best points riders in the US, go 1-2 in the nationals

Nick Chenowith, at age 51, racing for Doing Hard Time cycling

For the bulk of Thursday morning Nathalie Schneitter was just trying to salvage something out of nothing. The Swiss rider crashed hard during the start lap of the junior women’s cross-country race in Les Gets, France, leaving her 30th in the 36-rider field. But give Schneitter credit for not mailing it in. Backed by some serious descending skills, and bolstered by an untimely mechanical for Czech rider Tereza Hurikova, the 17-year-old Schneitter clawed her way back to the front, winning the first individual title at the 2004 world mountain bike championships. “When I crash I thought my race

Another day, another jersey. Ever since Saturday's opening team time trial the U.S. Postal team has been in what team director Johan Bruyneel describes as "a very comfortable position." "The time trial gave us the lead and we really don't feel like we need to protect it," Bruyneel told VeloNews before the start of Thursday's 157km stage from Benicarló to Castellón de la Plana. "We're here to see what happens, but there really is no pressure on any of us." Pressure or not, the Posties again succeeded in keeping one of their own in the leader's jersey when a group of nearly 80 riders charged

The sporting director of the Spanish team Comunidad Valenciana-Kelme has reacted angrily to their omission from next year's Pro Tour. Kelme, relegated from cycling's elite division by the UCI this year, was not included on the list of four squads named by the UCI on Wednesday to join the Pro Tour. Spanish team Euskaltel-Euskadi, Belgium's Davitamon-Lotto, and Italian teams Liquigas and Fassa Bortolo were granted provisional licenses. They joined 13 other teams named to form the Tour, a new grand-prix-style cycling calendar comprising 28 races, including the three big Tours and former

It’s definitely not the most technical test, but the cross-country course at the world mountain bike championships in Les Gets, France, isn’t a sleeper either. During the 6.3km trip up and around the Chavennes side of this quaint ski town, riders face three sustained climbs (660 feet per lap), lots of tight twists through the pine forests, and several steep drop ins that will be become treacherous with just the slightest bit of precipitation. Right now the forecast is for morning showers on race day. The women are slated to start on 11 a.m. Sunday, while the men will head out at 2:30

Three national champions were crowned Wednesday during the USCF Elite Track National Championships at the Superdrome in Frisco, Texas. Nerac.com – Colby Pearce of Boulder, Colorado, Jame Carney of Durango, Colorado, Robert Lea of Taneytown, Maryland, and Guillaume Nelessen of Bellemead, New Jersey – turned a 4:31.9 to win the team pursuit. Team Veloworx – Douglas Beck of Maynard, Ohio, Curtis Gunn of Tucson, Arizona, Julian Cushing of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Kenneth Williams of Kirkland, Washington – raced to the silver in 4:36.4. The bronze went to Cody Racing – Marcus Black,

Today was both a good and a bad day - good because Triki and Floyd were in the front group and Triki is now in the leader’s jersey, and bad because we had to battle an incredibly strong headwind for 190km and then our bus broke down as we drove down the mountain toward our next hotel. The race started out slowly again due to the wind and we pedaled along at 25 km/h for quite a while when a few attacks were launched. There were two potentially threatening breakaways today, and thankfully both times we had riders up front in the groups, which means we didn’t have to chase in the wind. It

Schneitter made time on the downhills.

Freire took advantage of the hard work his Rabobank team did in the wind

Heart break for Hurikova.

Schneitter celebrates.

Forsman made her world's debut.

The start runs along the grassy base of the ski area.

The opening climb is gradual, with plenty of passing lanes.

The first drop is the only real rocky section, but it's short and the line is clean.

After the main climb riders head back across the hill through the trees.

The second drop is rideable...for now.

Next comes more twists through the trees.

Most of the junior girls were running the next drop...

...some more graceful than others.

That leads to one of several creek crossings.

Almost everyone will run this section. High left is the line.

Then it's back into the sun.

At 1.5km to go, the course heads down the old 4X track.

Get off the brakes and pretend you're Brian Lopes.

The final climb isn't long, but it's the steepest.

Chicken wire has been laid down to ensure at least some traction.

The course closes with a run down this gully, before heading back to the start/finish line.

Quinziato and Hulsmans work a two-man break

Rabobank led the chase into the wind

Freire kept his sights on Zabel ... and it paid off

Beltran is golden for another day

Freire enjoyed his win, but is focused on world's

The peloton motors along

The chase split the bunch into echelons

Here comes Nerac.com . . .

. . . and there they go

Jame Carney rides for and coaches Nerac.com

He must be doing something right . . . that's his team in the pretty jerseys

Quist flew around the track in the kilo . . .

. . . and then he flew around the infield in celebration

And Conzelman gets the stars and stripes in the sprint

It was all a matter of timing, and Denis Menchov knew he had timed it right when he looked over his shoulder near the finish line of the fifth stage of the Vuelta a España on Wednesday and saw that Alejandro Valverde wasn't with him. Menchov (Illes Balears-Banesto), was not in the minority at the start in Zaragoza when he pegged the Kelme rider as the day's favorite. "This course suits a rider like Valverde," Menchov said of the 186km haul to Morella. It wasn't the wind-blown flats that opened up the stage, or the seemingly endless run of tough, but un-rated, climbs that peaked out with

Olympic bronze medalist Bobby Julich could be joining compatriot Fred Rodriguez at the new Belgian super-team Davitamon-Lotto in 2005. The Belgian newspaper Het Niewsblad reported that Julich is close to inking a deal with the team and the 32-year-old Coloradan’s name was linked to the team in a press release by new bike sponsor Ridley Damocles. Julich did not reply to an e-mail query Tuesday from VeloNews but his current team, Team CSC, said there was no contract yet for Julich to stay with the Danish team. In 2004, Julich enjoyed his finest season since finishing third in the 1998 Tour de

Pix

If depth is the true measure of a country’s cycling strength, then Canada certainly deserves the nod as one of the world’s best. Despite fielding a team that included just one world’s team relay veteran, the Canadians powered to a 24-second win over Switzerland in the opening event of the 2004 world mountain bike championships at Les Gets, France on Wednesday. It was the third relay victory in four years for Canada, which also took the world’s title at Vail in 2001 and Kaprun in 2002. “We know we have good depth,” said Geoff Kabush, who rode the opening leg of the four-lap race, giving

Dear Lennard,I just installed a new Wippermann 10-spd chain on an otherwise Campy Record group. All the components are one year old. I'm trying to eliminate an annoying "tinging" that I'm getting when climbing hard out of the saddle or sprinting. No success with the "tinging" but I introduced a new problem ... the new chain jumps and skips and won't stay engaged in the larger cogs. Have I worn out the rear cogs? I'm now thinking that the "tinging" noise may be coming from the engagement of the chain with the chainrings (30-42-52 ); the old Campy chain engages the rear cogset okay, but perhaps

Menchov countered a late-race move by Gonzales and Joaquin Rodriguez (Saunier Duval) to win the stage

Stage 5

The Canadians celebrate.