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Italian newspapers devoted their entire front pages Sunday to the sudden death of Marco Pantani and fans walked the streets of the cyclist's hometown in a day of mourning for one of Italy's biggest and most troubled sports stars, the Associated Press reported. The Italian Cycling Federation instituted a moment of silence in every cycling event in Italy on Sunday as athletes and fans alike awoke to the news that one of the sport's greatest climbers had died. "This is terrible and shocking news," said five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. "My thoughts and condolences go out to his

Racing at altitudeDear Dirk;I've got a few questions about altitude training and just general living.First, if I'm planning on racing at about 6000 feet above sea level,how long do I have to live at a similar altitude to become acclimated? Second, should I were to be required to take a blood test, is it advisableto get a blood test before living at altitude, and some midpoint to showan increase in hematocrit level?  Do you have any general suggestionsfor adjusting to altitude?  Any information would be appreciated,DevinDear Devin,It can take about two weeks to get fully acclimated to an

Just as in 2003, the Navigators professional cycling team has again traveled to Tuscany for its pre-season training camp in Castagneto Carducci, a spot favored by many European teams. In this part of Tuscany the roads offer interesting, challenging routes in a beautiful rural setting. And just like last year, the Nav’s were guests at Carlo and Isa Guarguaglini’s Hotel Zi Martino. Carlo is an ex-pro who raced during the ‘60s as a gregario for Charly Gaul and with his wife Isa, and son Fausto, the family runs a hotel historically popular with teams like Motorola, Mapei, Rabobank and Lampre.

Put yourself in his shoesVeloNews,I'm in shock. I'm sad and depressed, but I am not surprised.In the span of a few short years, we have witnessed the triumphant arrival,the awesome creation and the tragic destruction of one of our sport's greatones. He was an historical figure, to be sure. A man so powerful,so outspoken, so passionate, so dedicated, is a rare thing to see.With all his faults (and who is perfect?) he was still larger than life.Marco Pantani infused the sport with incredible passion. He was asensitive man, giving to others - including his competitors - and dedicatedto the

U.S. Postal Service wasted no time to score its first victory of the 2004 season as Max Van Heeswijk edged Oscar Freire (Rabobank) to win Monday’s second stage of the Ruta del Sol. Erik Zabel (T-Mobile) came through third in the 184km stage from Arcos de la Frontera to Benalmádena to grab the overall lead in the five-day race in southern Spain. U.S. Postal’s George Hincapie didn’t take his planned departure in Sunday’s opening stage after suffering stomach problems and might race later this week alongside Lance Armstrong at the Tour of Algarve in Portugal. Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) also

Pantani said he felt persecuted

Time for Tuscany: The Nav's know where to train

Time for Tuscany: The Nav's know where to train

Time for Tuscany: The Nav's know where to train

Van Heeswijk edged Freire

Pantani relatives arrive at the mortuary of Rimini's hospital on Monday

[nid:26885]For the second consecutive year, Panaria’s Ruben Bongiorno took the field sprint at the Tour de Langkawi’s closing stage, a steamy hot, 60km criterium through Malaysia’s capital city of Kuala Lumpur. With no major changes to the overall classification, Colombia Selle Italia’s Freddy Gonzalez — King of the Mountains at the Giro d’Italia in 2001 and 2003 — took top honors, his biggest win to date.

The cycling world is spending much of Sunday struggling to come to grips with Italian champion Marco Pantani's sudden death in a hotel room late Saturday. Jan Ullrich, who finished second to Pantani in the 1998 Tour de France, heard the news at a training camp in Toscana. "You are always shocked when you hear about the death of a fellow sportsman," Germany's Olympic road race champion said. "Personally I can not say anything about it because I only know what I have heard in the media. For the past three years I was not in contact with Pantani." While a post-mortem will be held to determine

Investigators on Sunday ordered an autopsy to determine the cause of death of former Tour de France champion Marco Pantani who was found in a hotel room in central Italy with sedatives near his bed. The cause of death of the 34-year-old rider was not immediately known but investigators ruled out violence. Magistrate Paolo Gengarelli told reporters on Sunday that there were no illegal drugs in the room but tranquillizers were found near the body and in the kitchen section. Pantani, who had been suffering from depression, was found dead in a hotel in the Adriatic coastal resort city of

Italian cycling fans are mourning the death of the man whom many will consider the greatest Italian bike rider since the legendary Fausto Coppi, who alongside rival Gino Bartali ruled the peloton in the 1950s. However while Coppi died in mitigating circumstances after contracting a mystery illness in Africa, Marco Pantani's untimely death on Saturday, at the age of 34, may come as little surprise to many who followed the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia winner closely. Pantani began his professional career in 1995 after showing his climbing prowess by winning the 1992 “baby Giro,” a

Jorg Jaksche and his CSC teammates barnstormed to victory in Sunday’s26km team time trial up the steep roads to Mont Faron high above the FrenchRiviera. While a team time trial by name, riders were awarded individual timesas eight-man teams rode the twisting course. It wouldn’t have matteredas CSC dominated the proceedings, sweeping the top three positions in thestage as well as the overall. “We rode this stage to perfection,” said CSC team manager Bjarne Riis.“The riders followed the tactics down to the last detail and on the climbthey were simply outstanding. All the riders deserve praise

No cause has yet been established for the cardiac arrest that ended Marco Pantani’s life on Saturday afternoon. A dozen jars, some part empty, of three types of anti-depressants were found in the small apartment where he died at a residential hotel in Rimini on Italy’s Adriatic coast. The time of death was put at 4 p.m., several hours before the hotel porter discovered the body, dressed only in jeans. Pantani’s death is a tragedy, made more poignant by the fact that it came on St. Valentine’s Day, just a month after his 34th birthday, in a hotel called the Rose. Pantani was alone. He split

In a sport long dominated by a Belgian juggernaut, Richard Groendendaal scored an upset World Cup cyclo-cross victory in front of hometown crowd on Sunday and grabbed the season’s overall title in the process. By winning the double-point final in the six-race World Cup series in Pijnacker in the Netherlands, Groenendaal unseated former World Cup leader Sven Nijs - his Rabobank teammate - and denied world champion Bart Wellens a shot at scoring cyclo-cross’s “grand slam” (the World Cup title along with the Belgian and world championships). While he rode a strong solo race at the front of the

Heading into the final stage of the Valley of the Sun stage race, Mariano Friedick (Jelly Belly-Aramark) and Lynn Gaggioli (T-Mobile) were just seconds out of the overall leads in the men’s and women’s races, respectively. And by the end of the day, both pulled out the overall victory to get their 2004 season off to a good start in Arizona. Friedick entered the criterium just two seconds behind Colavita Olive Oil’s Nathan O’Neill, on the strength of his second-place finish in the time trial – just 22 seconds behind O’Neill – and his victory in the road race, where he picked up a 20-second

12 laps through downtown Kuala Lumpur

Pantani joins a riders' strike in the '98 Tour de France, whch he eventually won

Police crowd the lobby of 'Le Rose' hotel in Rimini

Before the fall: Pantani leads the '99 Giro

Pantani, after winning the 15th stage of the 87th Tour de France in Courchevel

A moment to remember Pantani

Health Net's Scott Moninger is back

A moment to remember Pantani

Health Net's Fraser takes the points jersey

Fans gather at Le Rose Hotel to pay tribute

Pantani's career had incredible highs...

...and devastating lows (the 1999 Giro).

Groenendaal showed that some days you're just better off on your own

The first break is the one that ultimately counted

Despite the Belgian colors, Nijs's had few allies in the chase group

Wellens missed his chance at a grand slam

[nid:26873]Colombia-Selle Italia’s svelte climbers Ruber Marin and Freddy Gonzalez conquered the steep 25km ascent to Malaysia’s Genting Highlands during stage 9 of the Tour de Langkawi, taking 1-2 on the day and keeping the leader’s jersey within the team after fellow countryman and first-year teammate Marlon Perez was dropped in the final 6km.

Walter Perez of Argentina won the 15km men’s scratch race as the UCI Track World Cup season kicked off on Friday in Moscow, Russia. Perez won in 17:41:321, ahead of Volodymyr Rybin (Ukraine) and Christopher Newton (Great Britain). American Colby Pearce was fifth, the strongest American showing on the day. In the women's 20km points race, it was Olga Slyusareva (Russia) taking the win with 25 points. Belem Guerrero (Mexico) was second with 17, while Yoanka Gonzalez Perez (Cuba) took third with 11. Americans Erin Mirabella and Sarah Hammer finished 16th and 25th, respectively.

American Kirk O’Bee (Navigators Insurance) finished second to Bo Hamburger (Acqua e Sapone) in a 100km kermesse that replaced stage two of the Giro della Liguria on Saturday. After traffic problems forced race organizers to cancel the Friday and Saturday stages of the three-day race, they decided to call off the entire event. But late Friday evening, they got the green light to hold Sunday’s road race and quickly put together today’s criterium, a 40-lap race on a 2.5km, four-corner circuit. Within two laps, a group of nine separated from the rest of the field. It contained O'Bee, Hamburger,

Mario Cipollini (Domina Vacanze) quickly erased the bad taste in his mouth following Friday’s loss with an emphatic victory in Saturday’s 147km fourth stage of the Tour Mediterranean in France. The 2002 world champion left no doubt that he’s back in top form, easily blowing down the finishing straight to score his first win of the 2004 season. Cipollini finished ahead of Domina Vacanze teammate Andrus Aug while Marco Zanotti (Vini Caldirola) came through to take third. The win counts as Super Mario’s 14th career stage victory at the Tour Med and the186th of his career, coming some 270 days

Former Tour de France winner Marco Pantani was found dead Saturday in the Italian seaside resort of Rimini, according to reports from the Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport and the ANSA news agency. Pantani's body was found on the floor near to his bed in "The Roses" hotel on the Adriatic coast, ANSA reported. The news agency reported it was not a violent death; medication was found in the fifth-floor room, but it was not immediately known if it had played any role in Pantani's death. An investigating magistrate and a doctor were in attendance at the hotel just after midnight local time

Mariano Friedick (Jelly Belly) stepped it up a notch on Saturday, winning the second-stage road race at the Valley of the Sun stage race in Phoenix. Friedick, who finished second in the opening time trial behind Nathan O’Neill (Colavita-Bolla), outkicked Derek Wilkerson and Cuban speedster Ivan Dominguez (Colavita-Bolla), to win the 89-mile road race in 3:27:35. O’Neill held onto the overall lead, but Friedick moved into second, just two seconds back, with Gordon McCauley (Team Monex) at third in 0:27. In the 57-mile women’s race, it was Nicole Freedman (Team Basis) soloing to victory in

Stage 9 map

Yellow jersey Perez was having a bad day, but teammate Gonzales stepped up

Gonzales found seizing the overall was hot, sweaty work

Fraser collected some road rash during the neutralized start

SuperMario wins his first of 2004

Cofidis commands the front

Astarloa takes a slim lead into tomorrow's TTT

Pantani in 1998, when he won both the Tour and Giro

Authorities remove Pantani's body from the Le Rose hotel late Saturday

[nid:26864]Brazilian sprinter Luciano Pagliarini (Lampre) took a chaotic mass sprint at the end of the Tour de Langkawi’s eighth stage Friday, edging out Enrico Degano of Barloworldin a photo finish. Graeme Brown (Panaria) finished third, while Gord Fraserof Health Net-Maxxis took fourth. It was Pagliarini's second field sprint victory in as many days, bothexecuted to perfection without the use of a teammate’s lead-out. When askedabout the aggressive sprint, which saw Panaria’s Ruben Bongiorno and Wismilack’sMatnur Matnur crash in the final 500m, Pagliarini laughed.

First, officials canceled Friday’s opening stage of the fourth Giro della Liguria due to traffic problems. Then they canceled Saturday’s stage for the same reason and finally pulled the plug on the entire race, the Italian ANSA wire service reported. Local officials weren’t happy that key roads along Italy’s Italian Riviera would be closed for the opening stages and said race organizers hadn’t received official approval for the event. Unable to find a compromise, the race has been canceled and teams will reconvene for Tuesday’s Trofeo Laigueglia (UCI 1.2). Armstrong to test-drive new TT

The three-day Valley of the Sun John Earley Memorial Stage Race kicks off today with an individual time trial in the western Phoenix-metropolitan area. The 12th annual race continues Saturday with a road race south of Phoenix and concludes Sunday with a criterium downtown, near the State Capitol. Among the elite men’s teams slated to compete are Colavita-Bolla, featuring U.S. national champion Mark McCormack, Australian national champion Nathan O’Neill and Cuban sprinter Ivan Dominguez; the local Landis-Trek-VW squad, which won the 2003 Tour of the Gila and Vuelta de Bisbee; and Team Monex,

Baden Cooke (FDJeux.com) nipped Mario Cipollini (Domina Vacanze) in an exciting photo-finish sprint to take his second stage in three days Friday at the Tour Mediterranean. The 25-year-old Australian picked up his fourth win of the season (Tour Down Under stage, GP d‘Ouverture and Med Tour stage 1) at the expense of 37-year-old Cipollini, racing for just his fourth day of the season. Cooke was beaming after beating Cipollini head-to-head for the first time. “It was a difficult sprint. Cipollini tried to block me but couldn’t,” Cooke told Reuters. “To finally beat Cipollini, that’s

While some may consider Redlands to be the unofficial “season opener” to the U.S. road-racing calendar, it’s not like there’s really an Opening Day when everybody gets under way. Health Net-Maxxis has been racing for a week now in Malaysia, Navigators has the Tour Down Under and an Italian one-day race under its belt, and a number of pros have probably tested the waters in some warm-weather locales across the southern part of the U.S. But there’s no “pre-season” races in cycling, no exhibition games – once you start racing, everything counts. With that in mind, this weekend’s Valley of the

Nathan O’Neill (Colavita-Bolla) gave his new sponsor something to celebrate with a victory in the opening stage of the Valley of the Sun stage race on Friday. The former Saturn racer covered the 13.6-mile individual time trial in 24:05:06, 22 seconds faster than Mariano Friedick (Jelly Belly) and an additional two seconds ahead of Joey Dantoni (Cycles de Oro). Defending champ Aaron Olsen (Colavita-Bolla) was 14th, 1:12 off the pace. In the women’s race, T-Mobile put two racers in the top three. Mari Holden took the win in 27:15:17, with teammate Lynn Gaggioli third at 0:15 and Rona’s

Stage 8 map

Pagliarini (l) takes it with a well-timed throw

The madness begins.

Perez (r) with teammate Gonzalez

Fraser's got the points jersey, but Pagliarini has two stage wins

Health Net's Danny Pate

Health Net's Sayers and Lieswyn head to the hills tomorrow

Cooke nips SuperMario at the line

Astarloa holds onto his leader's jersey

The race winds past the Roguefavour Aqueduct

[nid:26855]On a hot, flat stage 7 designed for the peloton’s musclemen, Brazilian hotshot Luciano Pagliarini (Lampre) took a mass sprint Thursday, narrowly edging out points leader Gord Fraser (Health Net). It was Pagliarini’s first win this year, to add to the three consecutive wins he took in Malaysia in 2003. “I want to thank my team,” a grinning Pagliarini said, clearly happy to have the first win of the year under his belt. “They had a lot of confidence in me, and brought me to the finish.”

An Australian cyclist is facing doping charges, an Australian Sports Commission (ASC) spokesman said Thursday. Reuters reported that the ASC released a short statement but declined to name the cyclist, although his identity has been widely published in local media. “The ASC and Cycling Australia have both written to the athlete outlining the nature and basic details of the alleged doping offences and are awaiting a response from the athlete,” the ASC said. “The ASC continues to work with Cycling Australia in relation to this matter. ASC rules state an athlete on doping charges has 14

After four days of training together, and with just two days until their first race of the season, the new-look Colavita Pro Cycling Team is beginning to take shape. Significantly upgraded in the personnel and organizational departments, the 2004 iteration of Colavita bears only a passing resemblance to the ’03 version of the squad. Just four riders remain from the Colavita-Bolla squad that passed last year in relative anonymity, and the 11-rider roaster boasts a host of “name” riders. Chief among the changes in the ’04 was the late-fall signing of USPRO road champion Mark McCormack. After

A lot more will be known next week, but it is looking more and more like downhiller Chris Kovarik will miss a significant chunk of the 2004 race season after shattering his ankle in a motocross accident last fall. According to an e-mail from Scott Sharples, Australia national team downhill coach, “Chris is still wearing his ‘roll cage’, or steel support frame. His next check up is on February 16, and he hopes to get [the leg halo] off then.” Next up, Kovarik will be outfitted with a normal cast. The length of time he has to wear that will depend on what his doctors find when they take the

Two big names moved to the front of the pack in Thursday’s climb-riddled 130km second stage of the Tour Mediterranean. World Cup champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) and world champion Igor Astarloa (Cofidis) finished 1-2 ahead of about 30 lead riders, with Bettini taking the stage and Astarloa grabbing the race leader’s yellow jersey. The pair made headlines last fall when Astarloa suggested Bettini offered a pay-off to throw the road world championships in Hamilton. Astarloa quickly retracted the statement and the two have since made up. There was no sign of any hangover of bad feeling

In the beginning there was RockShox. When first raced in 1990, Paul Turner’sRS-1 fork jump-started the suspension revolution. As you’re most likelyaware, Manitou followed suit and produced its own elastomer-sprung forkjust a year later. Within two short years the two suspension companieshad locked horns over market share (albeit small dollars way back then). Fast forward to 2004 and the two are back at it again-this time vyingover potentially millions of dollars in original equipment spec' and aftermarket sales. Stroll on down to your local bike shop and take an informal poll and I’ll bet

A federal grand jury charged four people on Thursday linked to the top names in international sport with 42 counts of distributing illegal steroids and human growth hormones. Following a six-month probe behind closed doors of the global sport doping scandal, U.S. officials charged Victor Conte, owner of Burlingame, California-based BALCO Laboratories, his vice-president Jim Valente, famous track coach Remi Korchemny and Greg Anderson, a personal trainer to U.S. baseball legend Barry Bonds. The four men are expected to appear in court on Friday. "While operating BALCO, Conte and others

Stage 7 map

Captain America: USPRO National Champion Mark McCormack

Australian National Time Trial champion Nathan O\'Neill