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Racers woke up in Leon to find snow falling before Saturday's two-climb fourth stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon. A little snow isn't the sort of thing to stop Europe's tough pros, even though a few were half-wishing that the stage would be canceled. Alejandro Valverde (CV-Kelme) was probably not among them, however – he won the 133.4km stage ahead of Koldo Gil (Liberty Seguros).VeloNews European correspondent Andrew Hood made the rounds before the start to snap a few pictures.

Tyler Hamilton (Phonak) withstood a double-barreled attack in Saturday’s short but challenging three-climb 127km fourth stage to ease into the overall lead of the 58th Tour de Romandie with Sunday’s decisive time trial on tap. Saunier Duval sent Fabian Jeker and Leonardo Piepoli on the march on the day’s third Category 1 climb at Crans Montana high in the Swiss Alps. Hamilton found a new faithful ally in Slovenian national champion Tadej Valjavec, who helped his captain mark the pair’s every move. Former mountain biker Dario Cioni (Fassa Bortolo) bridged out from a chase group in the 27km

Al Stiller, a leader in U.S. road and track racing from the late 1940s to the early 1960s and who had witnessed one of the Tour de France’s epic finishes, died April 20 in Boulder, Colorado. He was 80 and suffered from heart problems. Chicago born and bred, Stiller recalled in a 1991 interview that he became intrigued with cycling as a youngster in the late 1920s after watching six-day racers whirling around a steeply banked wooden velodrome in Chicago Stadium. “I joined a local club in 1939, and won my first race—a 400-yard event on the grass in a park. I was 16. There was no holding

Moninger patrolling in pink

Health Net masses at the front

Neben keeps a grip on the lead

Who says pros are spoiled? Joseba Beloki (La Boulangere) adjusts his seat before the start.

The big Pole -- aka Darius Baranowski (Liberty Seguros) -- is ready to help new team captain Roberto Heras take on Lance Armstrong in July's Tour de France.

Tim Johnson (Saunier Duval) rolls out. The team's half-joking wish that the cold, snowy stage would be canceled went unfulfilled in Saturday's fourth stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon.

Tim Johnson (Saunier Duval) strikes the perfect pose fully kitted out in his team colors for a cold day in the saddle.

The next Ekimov? Vladimir Karpets (Illes Balears) - fresh off his victory at the Tour of the Rioja last weekend - looks not-too-pleased to talk to the Russian media before the start of Saturday's stage.

How cold will Koldo Gil (Liberty Seguros) get? The rising Spanish star hopes not very much.

Spain's Alejandro Valverde (CV-Kelme) is content after winning Friday's third stage. Castilla y Leon is his last major race before taking a break to build up for the Olympics and the Vuelta.

Jeker takes the win; Hamilton takes the overall lead

Jeker sets the pace

The Col Ovronnez

Hamilton's in charge with the final time trial on deck

Comunidad Valenciana-Kelme has been through the wringer the past few weeks. First, the team has endured the indignity of fired racer Jesus Manzano's charges of organized doping practices within the team, in a paid interview in one of Spain’s largest sports dailies. Then the team was banned from the Tour de France, followed by the Giro d’Italia, which delivered the same bad news just yesterday. On the heels of all this, new title sponsor Comunidad Valenciana announced it is having second thoughts about spending 1.8 million euros to underwrite a team that only races in Spain. But Alejandro

Tom Danielson is racing in this week’s Tour de Romandie in Switzerland, his third major stage race in Europe since penning a two-year deal with the Italian team Fassa Bortolo. The 26-year-old Coloradan is quickly learning the ropes of European-style racing. His first race with Fassa Bortolo was GP Costa delgi Etruschi, an early season jaunt along the Italian coast. Hassles with his working papers prompted a quick trip back to Colorado in March before his first ‘real’ race at Setmana Catalana, a tough UCI-rated 2.1 race in northern Spain. Illness promoted Danielson to pull out of the even

Scott Moninger (Health Net-Maxxis) won the 92-mile Silver City to Mogollon stage of the Tour of the Gila Thursday, leading a strung-out peloton up the final 5.5-mile Category 1 finshing climb and finishing 20 seconds ahead defending winner Drew Miller (Landis-Trek-VW). With his effort, Moninger overtook time-trial winner Ryan Blickem (Aida's Bail Bonds) for the lead on the general classification. And although Blickem’s full-minute advantage after yesterday’s time trial was enough to keep him in the GC hunt after finishing 2:24 down on Thursday, it looks like the Tour of the Gila will live

The French Cofidis team on Friday announced an end to its self-imposed three-week exile from competition, saying its riders would return to racing in Wednesday's start of the Four Days of Dunkirk.. Cofidis' decision to suspend racing, prompted in part by a sacked rider's stinging doping revelations, cost world champion David Millar the chance to make his international track debut at the World Cup in Manchester. It also kept the team from taking part in the recent series of World Cup classics. "This exceptional break allowed the sponsor time to reflect on the team's future and its investment

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. What’s up with Sevilla?Editor:I just saw the overall standings for Romandie, and I noticed Oscar Sevilla was present, but well down in the ranks. Is he being prepped as a "super-domestique" for Tyler's Tour bid, like Roberto Heras was for

With two full months of the USCF's National Racing Calendar in the books, it's a good time to look at how the numbers stack up on the NRC circuit. The most recent NRC standings up on the USA Cycling Web site are from April 18, before the start of the Tour de Georgia, so they really only tell part of the story of the 2004 season. Those standings, taking Sea Otter into account, show Chris Horner with a commanding lead over Cesar Grajales in the individual standings, and Horner's Webcor team with a big cushion over Health Net-Maxxis in the team standings. The women's standings show Lyne Bessette

Tyler Hamilton’s Phonak team led the way in Friday’s “queen stage” of the 58th Tour de Romandie, delivering Alexandre Moos to the stage victory and the race leader’s jersey while positioning Hamilton perfectly for overall victory. It might have looked easy, but Team CSC and Saunier Duval made the home team sweat in the decisive two-climb 145km stage from Romont to Morgins high in the Swiss Alps along the Swiss-French border. Team CSC put four riders into the final group of about 20 riders hitting the final Category 1 summit finish to Morgins while Saunier Duval’s Leonardo Piepoli was doing

Look on the bright side. Someday, we'll all be dead.Anonymous Even considering that this is an election year, the national discourse seems to have sunk to a new low – to somewhere around my level, actually – and it pains me to see all these teensy little feet mincing about on my muddy turf. If I enjoyed company, frankly, I’d try being a nicer person. Nevertheless, here you all are, shoving and elbowing and trying to drown each other out, each of you telling me and all the other readers of VeloNews.com just what, in your feeble opinion, sucks. Missy Giove sucks. People who think Missy

Ever wonder just what’s under the boards under your tires when you race on a wooden track? Thanks to the folks at the Home Depot Center and photographer Greg Page, we can give you a sneak peek at a work in progress – the ADT Event Center on the campus of California State University-Dominguez Hills in Carson. The ADT Event Center, billed as the first and only permanent indoor track of international standard in North America, is scheduled to host USA Cycling’s Junior National Championships June 28–July 3. The actual grand opening will come during the UCI Junior Track World Championships,

Danielson hopes to make a good impression riding at Romandie this week

Breakthrough performance: Winning Langkawi in 2003 got Danielson noticed

Moos is ecstatic at his stage win

Defending champ Hamilton shows his strength

Poetry in motion

Moos owns the podium today, but says the overall is for Hamilton

The underpinnings of the new track

It's a hard-hat area ...

... especially if you try riding this section

But things will be smooth as silk, eventually

Check out the corner

Hey, dude, when can we ride?

Race officials revealed the 2005 Tour de France will start with a 19kmindividual time trial with the Vendée region of western France hostingthe “grand depart.”The time trial and two road stages will be featured for the openingof the 92nd edition July 2-4, 2005, which will then push east toward Choletinto central France, Societe du Tour de France officials revealed Thursday.Challans will be the site of the “Grand depart,” but the first stagewill be a 19km ITT from nearby Fromentine to Noirmoutier en l’Ile. Becauseof its length, it will be called stage one rather than a prologue, raceofficials

The knives were out in what was expected to be an innocuous second stage of the 58th Tour de Romandie in Switzerland on Thursday With some serious mountain stages on the menu Friday and Saturday, Thursday’s 156km circuit stage into Romont served up a nice appetizer for what awaits this weekend. Stefano Garzelli (Vini Caldirola) confirmed he’s on rising form just in time for the Giro d’Italia with an impressive stage-win on the rising finish near the historic chateau at Romont. A winner two weeks ago at the Tour of Aragon in Spain, Garzelli led home a group of 27 riders fractured by Phonak’s

We’re still settling down from the madness that was this year’s Sea Otter. While you can read the blow-by-blow race coverage in VeloNews No. 8, I thought I’d follow up on one of the more interesting tech stories fluttering about the Laguna Seca raceway: The return of Scott U.S.A to the United States market. You may or may not remember when Scott – which began life as a ski pole manufacturer – became involved in cycling. The company started producing aero' handlebars based on Boone Lennon's design way back in 1986. Of course, the brand really hit the big time when Greg LeMond used a Scott

It’s fair to say that there has been more than a little animosity between some of America’s top cross-country pros and the organization that governs them. From the medical monitoring mess at last year’s world championships, to the single women’s Olympic start spot, to the way the U.S. berths in Athens are being chosen, riders have had plenty of reasons to point an angry finger at USA Cycling. But there comes a time when it’s best for all parties concerned to move on, and it sounds like that is just what happened during an impromptu meeting at the Pan American Championships last weekend in

Manzano's recent testimony has closed the door to the Giro for Kelme

It was supposed to be a quiet day in the idyllic Swiss countryside

Hamilton on the offensive

McGee defends his jersey

A quiet day in the idyllic Swiss countryside

Hamilton on the offensive

McGee defends his jersey

Scott's vice president of U.S. bicycle sales Scott Montgomery shows off the hyper-light (895 gram) Team Issue CR1 carbon road frame

The complete Dura-Ace 10-speed equipped Team Issue CR1 will be available later this year

Thomas Frischknecht piloted this RC-10 at Sea Otter. Notice the funky Scott pull shock.

The peloton ripped apart over a Category 2 climb midway through the opening stage of the five-day Vuelta a Castilla y León in northern Spain. Strong winds finished off the job as José Ivan Gutierrez (Illes Balears) drove home a seven-man group. Pre-race favorites Comunidad Valenciana-Kelme missed the move, which Liberty Seguros had leader Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano safely tucked into the seven-rider group that came through 29 seconds ahead of the chasing Alejandro Valverde (Comunidad Valenciana-Kelme). Joining Gutierrez in the lead break were Galdeano, teammate David Navas, Gorka Beloki (La

Dear Monique,I have heard a lot about the glycemic index. There seems to be no low glycemic index sports drink on the market. I know that Gatorade is high glycemic, and that fructose is low glycemic. Wouldn’t a fructose only sports drink be better (provided it had the right balance of electrolytes)? It would be low glycemic and work for diabetics, and not raise insulin or blood sugar levels like sucrose. Wouldn’t this be a better alternative than a high glycemic product? I have heard some negatives things about fructose in relation to tolerance. Also, how important is the 4- to 8-percent

Vicenza, April 28, 2004 - Campagnolo has decided to go a stepfurther than the simple compact crankset, and develop a fully integrated10-speed drivetrain so that there are no half measures where safety, performance and longevity are concerned. This project has resulted in the new CT crankset and CT derailleur, which is why we can now introduce the first compact drive train. Campagnolo CT CranksetThe cranks are born of a project that skilfully unites Multidirectionaland Unidirectional Carbon Fiber technology. The Campagnolo CT crankset will be available in the Record, Chorusand Centaur

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. This reader doesn't miss MissyHey Velo,What's the deal with keeping your readers informed on Missy Giove? (see "MTBNews and Notes: Missy on being Missy") Nobody wants to hear abouther spats with Anne-Caroline Chausson, or her marital

Veteran sprinter Jan Svorada (Lampre) proved he still has it in the sprint, taking victory Wednesday in the opening road stage of the 58th Tour de Romandie against a field of young guns nipping at his heels. The 35-year-old Czech sprinter has racked up 70 wins since turning pro in 1991, including stage victories in all three grand tours. He won his second race as a pro at Romandie in 1992, but seemed happier in 2004. “I’ve arrived here in good condition and I really wanted to win a stage,” said Svorada, who barely held off a late-charge by Marco Zanotti (Vini Caldirola). “The team worked

The 18th annual 2004 National Geographic Adventure Tour of the Gila got underway Wednesday in Silver City, New Mexico, opening with the Tyrone Time Trial, a hilly 16-mile out-and-back course. Ryan Blickem (Aida’s Bail Bonds) of Albuquerque, New Mexico took the men’s event in 36:01, a full minute ahead of second place and former Gila winner Scott Moninger (Healthnet/Maxxis). In the women’s time trial, Amber Neben (T-Mobile), posted a time 18 seconds faster than her teammate Mari Holden, a former world champion time trialist and fresh of a three-day, four-stage training stint in the pro men’s

See ya! Astarloa's stint in his Cofidis kit was short-lived

Spring time in Switzerland

Hamilton and teammate Oscar Sevilla

Danielson is holding his own

Brad McGee – winner of the 2003 Tour de France opening prologue – sliced his way through a short, technical course in Geneva to win Tuesday’s opening prologue of the 58th Tour of Romandie. Fueled by his recent success on the track, McGee put his excellent time trial skills to good use on the narrow 3.4km course to claim the victory three seconds faster than Olaf Pollack (Gerolsteiner). Defending champion Tyler Hamilton (Phonak) didn’t take any unnecessary risks and finished fifth at eight seconds back. Hamilton’s Phonak team, motivated to win the race on home soil, put three riders into

Over the last week I have been in Belgium, at a hotel just outside of Liège. This was our base for the Ardennes classics of the spring: Amstel, Fleche and Liège. The hotel here is a bit of a bike zoo at the moment with several teams of riders cooped up in rooms, bikes and trucks filling the parking lot and fans flowing in and out of the lobby looking for a photo with their hero or a free hat or water-bottle. This week marks the transition in the season from the flatter cobbled races to the hillier races. Some of the riders from Roubaix will push through until Amstel but few will go all the

The courses are set, the athletes are ready, and the 2004 TREK Bikes Collegiate National Cycling Championships Presented by TIAA-Cref are only four weeks away. The Nation's top collegiate cyclists will converge in Madison, Wisconsin on the weekend of May 21, 2004 for three days of intense racing to crown this year's Collegiate National Champions. Racing begins on Friday, May 21 with the TIAA-Cref Criterium (Lapped Race) held on historic State St. in downtown Madison (Racing begins at 1, Men's D-I race at 5:30). Saturday sees action in the 86 mile road race that passes through Black Earth,

Coming to the CLIF BAR Headquarters Thursday evening, May 13th! CLIF BAR & VeloNews are excited to present: First we'll tap a few kegs and fire up the pizza oven, then we'll sit back for an evening all about the Luna Chix Mt. Bike Program, highlighting the '04 Luna Chix Women’s Mountain Bike Team . Alison Dunlap, Marla Streb, Shonny Vanlandingham, Katerina Hanusova, and Kathy Pruitt will all be joining Gary Erickson on stage in the CLIF BAR Performing Arts Theater for an evening of fun and chat. Please join us! Hang out with fellow cycling fans, chat it up with the folks from CLIF BAR, and

For immediate release (Boulder, CO) -- America's most grueling bike race -- the 2,959-mile Insight Race Across America (RAAM) -- has chosen VeloNews to produce its 2004 event program. The program will be featured in a special RAAM cover-edition of VeloNews and as a special tabloid-sized section inside the magazine, plus have over-prints that will be distributed full run-of-book in Tailwinds and UltraCycling magazines. Total distribution is 100,000 copies. Now in its 23th year, RAAM starts on June 20th in San Diego and finishes in Atlantic City on approximately July 1. The event was

Dear Lennard,Aargh -- so much about getting UST tires on the rim (seelastweek's Technical Q&A), now what about some help with getting themoff!?!? I mounted my tires pretty easily, but I just bought some Stan's andneed to yank them off again to install the Stan's. And I can't for thelife of me get them off. Any help?Philip Dear Philip,The first thing you need to do is to deflate it completely. Starting opposite the valve, push one bead inward with your thumb sothat it drops into the rim valley all of the way around. That reduces thecircumference it encompasses when you push it over the

Mayo wants to arrive fresh for the Tour

Technical Q&A with Lennard Zinn - More tire talk

McGee put his pursuit talents to use

Hamilton

Danielson

Dario Frigo, plagued by a viral infection since Paris-Nice, won’t start next month’s Giro d’Italia. Instead, Fassa Bortolo has tapped the in-form Frank Vandenbroucke to take his place as team captain. Frigo became sick during Paris-Nice and has been unable to effectively train since then. Frigo -- kicked out of the 2001 Giro by his team after being found with banned substances during the San Remo raids -- scored victories last year at Paris-Nice and won a Giro stage, but has yet to win this year. Vandenbroucke, meanwhile, has been riding strong throughout the spring despite not scoring a

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.All that and SNOOKER, too!Dear Editors:With OLNTV cycling coverage on the classics deteriorated to the point that it is just not even worth the wear-and-tear on my TiVo's hard-drive letalone for me to watch, I have half-started looking into

Norristown, PA – The first five juniors qualified for the JuniorPro Cycling Tour to be held Sunday, June 6, as part of the Wachovia USPROChampionship, now celebrating its 20th year in Philadelphia.  MichaelChauner, 17, West Chester, PA high school senior and a member of the Colorado-based,Team Rio Grande, blistered to a solo finish, followed by Chad Young, 18,from Lancaster, PA, Main Line Cycling, both over a minute ahead of thefield of 24.Colton Valentine, 16, Philadelphia, Quaker City Wheelmen, Elliot Gaunt,17, Williamsport, Main Line Cycling and Chris Ruhl, 17, Quakertown andalso on