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America’s top cycling talent competes this week for a chance to representthe United States at the Olympic Games. Three athletes will earn that privilege in Redlands, Calif. at the PoolGel USCF Elite National Championships and Team USA Selection Race.This year the U.S. will be sending five men and three women to Athens to compete in road cycling. To earn a spot on that squad, it’s quite simple: Win in Redlands and a trip to Athens will follow in August. One of those five spots for the men’s team, and two for the women, will result from this week’s competition in Southern California.The winner

It’s always an interesting mix at the startline of the elite men’s road race held annually at the U.S. national road championships. For every aspiring, young Cat. 1 who’s hoping to parlay a podium performance into a pro contract, you’ll find a guy like Chris Walker. The 42-year-old was a pro with Nutra-Fig back in the mid 1990s, but today he’s sporting the kit of California-based amateur team Labor Power. The squad’s name is a reference to the law practice of primary sponsor Roger Worthington, whose client base is people who’ve been injured in the workplace. But Walker stamped his own

Tomasz Brozyna (Action ATI) took the yellow leader's jersey from Ivan Dominguez (Colavita Olive Oil) on day two of the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce, after an early race split in the field reduced the number of contenders dramatically. Brozyna won the 180-kilometer stage in front of Viktor Rapinski (Navigators) and Radoslaw Romanik (Hoop CCC Polsat), while Dominguez finished a whopping 17:36 back with the decimated main peloton. Stage two was packed with the kind of terrain Beauce is infamous for a seemingly unending series of two- and three-kilometer climbs of seven and eight percent. Eric

Vermaut moved to Lotto after his Postal stint

Walker eventually rid himself of the two young guys

Tilford does his best to drive the chase

Elken and Walker

Taylor was getting dropped on the climbs

The hills did their part to sort out the race

The Olive Oilers did their part to close the gap

Lotto’s Robbie McEwen won a sprint finish to take his second stage victory at the Tour of Switzerland on Tuesday. McEwen finished the fourth stage of the Swiss tour, a 211.6km race from Le Sentier to Batterkinden, ahead of Fassa Bortolo’s Francesco Chicchi and Olaf Pollack of Gerolsteiner. Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) continues to hold the overall race lead. Ullrich, a main threat to Lance Armstrong in next month's Tour de France, is two seconds ahead of Switzerland's Oscar Camenzind. Chicchi thought he had won the stage and lifted his arms in a victory salute but McEwen came through on the

Lance Armstrong was on hand at the Discovery Channel world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Tuesday to announce Discovery Communications' deal to take over title sponsorship of his U.S. Postal squad in 2005. But it wasn’t questions of a multimillion-dollar sponsorship deal that generated the most heated questioning at the ensuing press conference. At the post-announcement media event, questions inevitably surfaced about “L.A. Confidential,” a new book by award-winning London Sunday Times sportswriter David Walsh and former L’Equipe cycling writer Pierre Ballester. The book,

Ivan Dominguez (Colavita-Bolla Wines) outsprinted Canadian Olympic hopefuls Charles Dionne (Canadian National) and Mark Walters (Navigators) to take the first stage and the leader's jersey at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Beauce Tuesday in Quebec City. Dominguez also donned the Points jersey, while Adam Wadecki (Action ATI) took the Climber's jersey after a race-long breakaway that was only caught in the final lap. Stage 1 threw riders into hard terrain right away, with 10 laps of a 12-kilometer circuit that featured a sharp kilometer-long 11-percent climb and an upward sloping finish into

Lance Armstrong was confident he had found a sponsor his son Luke could endorse when he took the stage to announce that Discovery Communications would assume the title sponsorship of his U.S. Postal team in 2004. “My son would be very proud of me for standing up here with a T-Rex,giving a press conference,” Armstrong said, gazing at the skeletal tailof the life-size Tyrannosaurus Rex reproduction that dominates the lobbyof Discovery’s world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. Perhaps more important to cycling fans than Luke’s approval, Armstrongconfirmed that, unlike the T-Rex and the

Dominguez takes GP Beauce opener

O’Reilly in 2000

The Mail Bag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com, appearing each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 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.Kids these days! Hello VeloNews, I just thought that I should tell you about something that happened today that normally would not happen to a cyclist. I live and train in Colorado Springs and I was coming back from a long four-hour Sunday

T-Mobile's Alexandre Vinokourov has pulled out of next month's Tour de France after a fall during the Tour of Switzerland over the weekend, spokesmen for his team confirmed Monday. "Vinokourov won't be on the Tour," team spokesman Matthias Schumann told AFP. Vinokourov, 30, suffered several torn ligaments to his right shoulder after the fall during the second stage of the Tour of Switzerland on Sunday and will remain hospitalized for a further two days. He was also forced out of the Tour de France two years ago with injury. "It's a very difficult period for him because he was getting

Snowshoe, WV - Team Yeti showed incredible strength and depththis weekend as it won the men's and women's pro 4x, took 3rd and 5th inthe STXC, and 5th place in the downhill.Perhaps the biggest surprise of the weekend was Ross Milan, a Coloradonative who has been a dominant force on the Colorado race scene for thelast few years, had a breakthrough race winning the men's 4x over someof the biggest names in the sport. "I've have always known I had the potentialto get on the podium at a national event, but I am stoked that it was afirst place finish," said an elated Milan after the race.Milan

Lance Armstrong, seeking a record sixth consecutive Tour de France in July, has vowed to take legal action over a new book about him which alleges he used banned drugs. Tailwind Sports, owner and operator of Armstrong's US Postal Service Cycling team, said Armstrong, 33, will begin libel proceedings against the authors and publishers of "L.A. Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong." "Lance Armstrong utterly denies ever having taken any performance-enhancing drugs," a statement said. "Accordingly, Lance Armstrong has instructed his lawyers to immediately institute libel

The United States Anti-Doping Agency announced Monday that a three-member panel of the American Arbitration Association /North American Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) arbitrators has found that Rona’s Geneviève Jeanson committed a doping violation when she failed to appear for a drug test at this year’s Flèche Wallonne World Cup in Belgium. A member of the 2000 Canadian Olympic team, Jeanson received a public warning and was fined 500 Swiss Francs. Jeanson, 22, failed to appear for a doping control test at the request of the Union Cycliste International (UCI) following the race in

BERKELEY, Calif., June 14, 2004 — Sheryl O’Loughlin, 37, has beennamed CEO of Clif Bar Inc., the first time the privately-held energy andnutrition foods company has had a CEO outside of the original founder.Founder Gary Erickson, who had held variously the co-CEO and CEO post since1992, will continue his involvement in the company, becoming more activein new product development, package design and disseminating the company’sunique story.As owners, Erickson and his wife Kathleen (“Kit”) Crawford will continueshaping the long term vision of Clif Bar Inc. as well as direct involvementin

Monday's EuroFile: Vino' out of Tour; Hunter scores win in Switzerland

Alison Dunlap (Luna) exorcised some demons today by taking a dominating win in the Snowshoe round of the NORBA cross country series. Dunlap finished 15 seconds clear of teammate Shonny Vanlandingham, who was followed a minute and a half later by a third teammate, Katerina Hanusova, completing a Luna sweep of the top three steps of the podium. Last year, Dunlap was leading on the second and last lap of the Snowshoe cross country when she went down hard, a crash that resulted in a fourth-degree separation of her shoulder and the end of her mountain-bike season. This year, under nearly

A soon-to-be-published book entitled “L.A. Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong” alleges that the five-time Tour de France winner has been involved in doping since recovering from cancer in 1998. Charges made in the book, co-written by award-winning Sunday Times sports reporter David Walsh and Pierre Ballester, a cycling specialist formerly with L'Equipe, appear in this week's L'Express, a weekly magazine. The book itself is slated for release on Tuesday. Their book recounts the allegations of a former U.S. Postal physiotherapist that Armstrong used the banned blood booster EPO

In the end, the 56th Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré came down to a 21km time trial. Not just any time trial, but last Thursday’s uphill test from the Vaucluse vineyards to the mile-high tip of Mont Ventoux, the “windy mountain.” Spanish Tour de France hope Iban Mayo of Euskaltel-Euskadi won the time trial, and so won the race: the most important victory so far of his young career. The three stages before the Ventoux were neutralized by the top three teams — Euskaltel, Phonak and U.S. Postal — wanting to keep their respective leaders in good shape for the time trial. And once Mayo broke the

Photographer Graham Watson had another busy day at the Dauphiné Libéré on Sunday. With Stuart O'Grady off the front and the big stars keeping tabs on the gap, our man Graham had a full day charging around on the back of his driver's motorcycle. Now that things have settled down, here's a small sample of what came off of the digital chip in one of his many Nikons.

Goeff Kabush (Maxxis) and Allison Dunlap (Luna) completed their domination of the cross-country events at the Snowshoe Mountain round of the NORBA national series by taking hard-fought victories in the short track competition on Sunday. Kabush emerged at the front of the short track after just three laps, but the field was not willing to give Saturday’s cross-country winner a long leash. Australian Trent Lowe (Yeti) was the first to latch on, followed by Chris Sheppard (Haro-Adidas) and Carl Swenson (RLX-Ralph Lauren). Just behind, Travis Brown (Trek-VW), using a ‘cross bike setup, led a

Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Domo) outsprinted a large group of finishers to win the second stage of the Tour of Switzerland on Sunday. Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) retained the overall lead after finishing in the main pack in the flat, 170 kilometer ride from Dürrenroth to Rheinfelden. Featuring flat, mainly wide roads the stage two of the Tour of Switzerland was destined to finish in a field sprint. Still, a seven-man group, including former Giro d'Italia champion Stefano Garzelli, managed to breakaway, but the group was eventually reeled in as McEwen’s Lotto team joined up with Olaf Pollack’s

Given that McGuire Pro Cycling’s Dave McCook had won three sprint finishes in three days at the Nature Valley Grand Prix, it would have been a safe bet he’d be a favorite for a race titled the “Stillwater Criterium.” But the notorious 1.3-mile Stillwater Criterium is not your ordinary criterium; with its steep and narrow Chilkoot Hill climb through Stillwater’s upscale neighborhoods, dishing up an average grade of 18 percent and over 3000 feet of total climbing, Stillwater is one of the most feared crits on the North American circuit. Like the Fillmore Street climb in San Francisco, 39x25

Armstrong at the Dauphiné Libéré

Mayo stays in yellow

Armstrong has always denied doping

O'Grady had another fine day at the Dauphiné Libéré

O'Grady with Casar

O'Grady is king for the day

Mayo is tops for the week

Euskaltel kept the gap down to managable levels

A ride in the woods

Armstrong

Horillo leads

Levi takes a gamble

Moncoutié joins up

Phonak emerged as the top squad

Michael Rasmussen, the willowy Dane who came late to road racing after winning the 1999 world mountain-bike championship, was all smiles Saturday evening after taking a brilliant solo stage win at the Dauphiné Libéré. Tyler Hamilton, despite maintaining his second place on GC, 36 seconds down on Ivan Mayo, was just relieved to have finished the four-hour mountain stage in one piece. Phonak team leader Hamilton crashed halfway down the long, dangerous descent of the Col de la Morte (“Pass of the Dead”) along with two others, his Spanish teammate Santos Gonzales and Frenchman Walter Beneteau.

Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) won the first stage of the Tour of Switzerland in Beromuenster Saturday, outsprinting Swiss duo Oskar Camenzind (Phonak) and Fabian Jeker (Saunier Duval) after a relatively flat 176km ride between Sursee and here. American Bobby Julich (CSC) finished 13th in the same time. The Tour of Switzerland has begun with a time-trial prologue since 1993, but this year the organizers decided against including it. The race, which runs till June 20 and is one of the big pre-Tour de France preparation races, has also be reduced in stages from 10 to nine. Results1. Jan Ullrich (G)

The image of McGuire Pro Cycling’s Dave McCook surging across the finish line, arms raised triumphantly in the air, was repeated — again — at the Nature Valley Grand Prix as the 34-year-old sprint veteran made it three-for-three Saturday, piloting his red Jamis Comet across the finish line in Red Wing, Minnesota, ahead of Emile Abraham (Monex) and Erik Saunders (Ofoto-Lombardi Sports.) From a spectator’s standpoint, Saturday’s sprint finish was as exciting a finish as one could ask for, as the field closed in on a three-man breakaway of Eric Wohlberg (Sierra Nevada), Erik Saunders

Rasmussen grabs a win for Rabobank

Hamilton's crash required two bike changes and a hard chase

The imposing countryside

Basso and Rasmussen work together

Basso's dropped chain cost him

Three sprints, three wins for McCook

The one that almost got away: Wohlberg, Saunders and Eiken

The stage podium: Abraham, McCook and Saunders

Hannos takes the day's fourth intermediate sprint over Grain and Jennifer Eyerman (Red 5 Racing)

Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) will use the nine-day Tour of Switzerland starting on Saturday as the main stepping stone to peaking for cycling's premier contest, the Tour de France next month. The 1997 Tour de France winner has long been seen as the most realistic challenger to American Lance Armstrong's grip on cycling's top prize. Seventh in last week's Tour of Germany, Ullrich does not expect to beat teammate Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan, the defending champion, who is favored to retain his title, but the mountainous stages will provide ideal training for France. "This is my last big

The Mail Bag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com, appearing each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 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.Here’s to more miles for DavisEditor:My respect to the fine tribute written by Lennard Zinn in his article “Riding with Davis.” I traveled to Tuscany to ride with Andy Hampsten and Mark Mahan, who also guides for the Carpenter-Phinney group,

When they came into pro cycling a decade ago, American George Hincapie and Aussie Stuart O’Grady were hot-shot sprinters. They loved mixing it up with the true field sprinters. Over the years, as Hincapie transformed himself into a one-day classics rider and a devoted Tour de France lieutenant for Lance Armstrong, Hincapie sacrificed his finishing speed. As for O’Grady, he still goes for the bunch finishes, but rarely wins one. On Friday, though, there were no other racers around when O’Grady of Cofidis and Hincapie of U.S. Postal sprinted out the stage 5 finish of the Dauphiné in Sisteron.

Photographer Graham Watson was a busy man at the Dauphiné Libéré on Friday, what with breaks, chases, weigh-ins and podium ceremonies. Here's a small sample of what he saw.

A cyclist was killed Friday when he crashed during the fifth stage of the Tour of Colombia. Juan Barrero, a 31-year-old Colombian, suffered serious head injuries after he got tangled up with other cyclists and fell while negotiating a fast downhill curve. He had a cardiac arrest and died while being transported from a small hospital to a larger one, said Orlando Cardona, director of the San Vicente de Paul Hospital, located about 100 miles west of Bogota. Two other cyclists were also injured in the crash, Cardona said. "The fall was massive and Juan took the brunt of it," said his

One year after a dramatic crash nearly ended his cycling career, Aussie hardman Henk Vogels (Navigators Insurance) returned to the top step of a race podium, assuming the overall race lead at the Nature Valley Grand Prix following Friday's wet downtown criterium . Vogels didn’t take the criterium win — that honor went to McGuire Pro Cycling’s Dave McCook, who went two-for-two in sprint finishes following Thursday’s stage win in Virginia, Minnesota. Still, returning to the spotlight was a poignant moment for the man from Perth, given an ankle-shattering crash at the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic

O'Grady outkicks Hincapie in stage 5

Erstwhile teammates Armstrong and Hamilton, safely back in the bunch

Hincapie and O'Grady set off on their own

And why shouldn't they be smiling? Sevilla and Hamilton are second and third overall

Definitely not smiling is Peña, who is pulling the group along

In the bunch, meanwhile, Mayo is unconcerned

Sorry, Cooke old man, we're not sticking around for the sprint

Smile for the folks back home ...

Snack time for the lads

And then it's straight back to business

While Cooke leads the chase