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Rabobank's Levi Leipheimer is racing in this week's Tour du Poitou Charentes(UCI 2.3), a five-day stage-race that starts Tuesday in France inwhat will be his final dress rehearsal for the 2003 Vuelta a España.The 29-year-old from Santa Rosa, Calif. crashed out of the first stageof the Tour de France after fracturing a bone in his hip and damaged musclesin his abductors and was forced off the bicycle for two weeks to recover."I had to do 12 days of doing nothing on the couch so the bone couldheal," Leipheimer told VeloNews. "I was starting from zero at theend of July. When you sit around that

1996 USPRO road champion Eddy Gragus (Trek-VW All Stars) won the general classification at the Estes Cycling Challenge, held August21-24 in and around Estes Park, Colorado. In the 3-mile prologue time trial, Gragus beat Ofoto’s Andy Bajadali by a scant eight-tenths of a second, setting up a two-man contest that would carry into the race’s final stage. Gragus took sixth the following day in the hot 84-mile Masonville road race, but was penalized 30-seconds for a centerline violation, putting Bajadali — second at Estes last year to Mercury’s Tom Danielson — in the lead by 19 seconds after

Andy Flickinger (AG2R) celebrated "the most beautiful day" of his cycling career, after sprinting to victory at the Grand Prix Plouay on Sunday. The 24-year-old Grenoble resident took a hard-fought win against Anthony Geslin (Brioches) and Nicolas Jalabert (CSC) at the end of the 198-kilometer race around Plouay. The day started out fast, with the field covering the first lap on a difficult14.4km circuit at nearly 45kph. Early on, a group of 40 riders managed to build a nearly two-minute lead on the field before being reeled in. Flickinger, however, timed his move correctly when he

Britain’s Nicole Cooke sprinted to victory Saturday in the Grand Prix de Plouay, the seventh round of the women’s World Cup. The high pace, nearly 40 km/h, saw to it that there were few attacks until just before midrace, when Jeannie Longo attacked and exploded the group. She was retrieved, however, and 2002 French champion Magali Floc’h took a shot, building a gap of four minutes with four laps to go. She, too, was eventually brought back, and Longo attacked once more, again without success. Then Juliette Vandekerckhove jumped away, and with two laps remaining she held a lead of 20 seconds

Brad McGee (Fdjeux.com) edged two-time world champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank) to claim the sixth and final stage of the 43rd Tour of Holland while U.S. Postal's Viatcheslav Ekimov secured overall victory. McGee, who won the prologue in the 2003 Tour de France and held the yellow jersey for three days, was part of a six-man break that peeled away late in the hilly, difficult conclusion to the five-day, six-stage Dutch tour. Ekimov didn't miss the move in the Limburg region of southern Holland and finished sixth in the sprint to secure the overall title, his first stage-race victory since

Despite crashing in the final corner of the final lap, Team USA's Larssyn Staley captured the gold medal in the women’s 20km points race Wednesday at the 2003 UCI Junior World Track Championships in Moscow. The Beaverton, Oregon, resident, who races for Hot Tubes back home, had lapped the field and accumulated 35 points before the crash – enough to win the rainbow jersey over Lithuanian Agne Bagdonaviciute, who finished with 33 points to claim the silver medal. Laura Telle of Latvia was third with 27 points. Staley was transported to the hospital for X-rays of her back, but was expected to

Second-guessing strategy is half the fun of any spectator sport, and there were a couple of good examples to come out of this past weekend’s USPRO Criterium Championship in Downers Grove, Illinois. Just minutes after the race, in which Kevin Monahan (7UP-Maxxis) beat Saturn’s Chris Horner and Mark McCormack for the race win and the stars-and-stripes jersey, McCormack readily admitted that he might have done things differently if he were presented with the same scenario again. Here’s how it played out. Heading toward the final turn, Horner and McCormack are one-two. McCormack decides to open

Single-day tickets to the 2003 world road cycling championships in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, will go on sale Wednesday, August 27. Tickets will be sold for each day of the October 7-12 event. Upwards of 250,000 spectators are expected to watch 800 athletes from more than 50 different countries competing in 10 different races, according to the Hamilton 2003 World's Organizing Committee. Weekly passes have been on sale since April. Tickets are on sale through Ticketmaster. Spectators can order by phone, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by calling 905-527-7666 (Hamilton); 416-870-8000

Dutch rider Rik Reinerink (BankGiroLoterij) disrupted the sprinters’ party in the 191km fifth stage of the Tour of Holland while wily Russian Viatcheslav Ekimov (USPS) retained the overall lead Friday. Reinerink held out in a long solo breakaway and came through to claim the stage victory some 11 seconds ahead of the main bunch led by sprinter Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo), a winner of the Dutch tour’s opening two stages. American Fred Rodriguez (Caldirola) came through 10th. Saturday’s final stage is 213.9km from Sittard-Geleen to Landgraaf in Holland’s hilly Limburg region. U.S.

 “There are no bad dogs, only bad owners” -Barbara WoodhouseDear Bob;I was riding past my neighbor’s home and their dog ran out and knockedme over. My neighbors have made complaints about this dog in the past,but the family sometimes isn’t careful and the dog gets out.Is there any way to recover?Not a chew toyNew YorkDear Not;In the State of New York, the licensing, identification and controlof dogs is contained in Article 7 of the “Agriculture and Markets Law”section of New York Statute. (Please note that these laws were revisedin 2002, so if you look them up, be sure you are using the

Tis’ the season for 2004 product intro's. Our own Lennard Zinn just got back from Specialized’s introduction in Morgan Hill, California, while I caught an early flight Wednesday morning to sunny So. Cal. Wednesday to catch a glimpse of Giant’s 2004 offerings. Located one hour north of Los Angeles, the Newbury Park based Giant USA headquarters is the main base of operations for the second most popular brand sold in the United States (behind Trek). Interesting to note is that Giant not only produces its own bikes and components, but also produces many of its direct competitor’s frames. Only

Russian warrior Viatcheslav Ekimov (U.S. Postal Service) surged to victory and into the overall lead after winning Thursday's 23km time trial in the fourth stage of the 43rd Tour of Holland. Ekimov, the reigning Olympic time trial champion, nipped Postal Service teammate Victor Hugo Peña by eight seconds in the race against the clock. Peña and Ekimov were both part of Postal's victorious team time trial victory in last month's Tour de France. The stage victory is Ekimov's first win since the 2001 season. The 37-year-old Russian walked away from cycling at the end of that season, but quickly

Mountain-bike racing lost two of its greats last weekend in Durango when Mary Grigson and Missy Giove announced their retirements from full-time racing. Giove had already taken a big step back this year, skipping all but one of the World Cups and contesting just three of five NORBA stops. She’ll also be a no show come September’s world championships. Next season the legendary downhiller says she may “show up unannounced at a race or two,” but for the most part she’ll be focusing her energy elsewhere. “I want to promote the sport in some different ways,” Giove told VeloNews. “I’ll still be

Saturn star Nathan O’Neill was set to undergo surgery Thursday afternoon to repair a vertebra cracked after a high-speed, face-first crash suffered at The International on July 31. During a pre-surgery phone call to VeloNews Thursday, the 28-year-old Aussie explained the circumstances that led to the operation, which will involve a titanium screw inserted into his C-2 vertebra, and the removal of the “halo” neck brace he has worn for the past three weeks. “I had an appointment with a surgeon yesterday,” O’Neill explained, “to have another look with an X-ray and CAT scan. As it turns out,

NRS Air

XTC1

Missy

Grigson

MTB News and Notes: Moving on and breaking out

MTB News and Notes: Moving on and breaking out

MTB News and Notes: Moving on and breaking out

O’Neill in front of the Natural History Museum in Manhattan, his last day in the “halo” neck brace.

Dear MoniqueI have several triathlons still ahead of me this season and was wonderinghow I should eat for my taper. My upcoming races include one Olympic distanceand half-Ironman distance. How do my energy needs change during a taper?I believe they must be lower. I still need to consume plenty of carbs toglycogen load, don’t I?Thanks,CGWisconsinDear CG;When preparing for any type of race- whether a triathlon, mountainbike race, road race, or adventure race, a taper or 24 hours of rest givesyour muscles a break, keeps you from burning more fuel stores, and allowsyou to replenish your muscle

Team CSC’s Tyler Hamilton received 15 stitches in his left hand after crashing hard in Wednesday’s second stage of the Tour of Holland, but didn’t seriously injure his hip as initially feared. “No broken bones but the cut was bad enough to receive 15 stitches, so it was pretty bad,” said Team CSC’s sport director Sean Yates. “He didn’t break his hip, but it’s very sore and he can hardly walk.” Hamilton went down less than 10km to go and crossed the finish line in a gruesome image with blood splattered on his bicycle and team jersey. He was transported to a local hospital for treatment and

Just back from the final round of the NORBA NCS Series, held in Durango, Colorado, and I think I can speak for my fellow VeloNews associates Miguel Santana and Jason Sumner that the weekend was a complete jam. The three of us managed to sandwich the race coverage with a few fun mountain-bike rides and the occasional visit to a few of the local taverns. The racing was exciting, particularly in the spectator-friendly men’s short track and mountain cross. RLX Ralph Lauren rider Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski’s suicidal move between Geoff Kabush (Kona-Clark’s) and the barriers in the final 10 meters

Horgan-Kobelski left it all on the STXC course

A bike is born: Brown's funky ride

Sydor gives Haywood the thumbs-up

The Durango fans were really into the racing

Lusby atop Mount Evans

Magen Long, at the Cascade Classic

Alessandro Petacchi picked up where he left off in the Tour de France, sprinting to victory in the opening stage of the 43rd Tour of Holland. Petacchi won four stages before packing it in at the Tour and returned to racing Tuesday against an elite group of sprinters with the same result. A breakaway was reeled in just 15km from the finish to set up the mass gallop and Petacchi showed he's a man for all seasons. Petacchi edged Erik Zabel (Telekom) and Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Domo) to score his 18th win of the season and grab the race leader's jersey as well. In addition to his four wins at the

Dear Lennard,Do I have to buy Campy's new tool to properly install the new PermaLinkin a Campy 10-speed chain? I do have a Shimano 9-speed and Park 9-speedchain tools on hand.MortDear Mort,You can do it with a standard chain tool, but you have to be extremelycareful with alignment of the two chain ends with each other, somethingwhich Campy’s new tool ensures. I have done it many times with a Shimanochain tool without problems. By the way, it is just a pin, albeit it avery precisely shaped one, not a PermaLink anymore.LennardThere's gotta be an easier way to do thisDear Lennard,After a bad

Petacchi picks up right where he left off.

Just moments after finishing second in Sunday’s Championship of Zürich, Bianchi’s Jan Ullrich said he won’t be starting next month’s Vuelta a España. The 29-year-old German was expected to start the Vuelta, but will instead prepare for the world championships. Vuelta officials announced earlier that Ullrich was likely to start the season’s last grand tour (Sept. 6-28), but Ullrich said Sunday he will train at home as well as race the Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt (Sept. 17-21) in Germany to prepare for the worlds in Hamilton, Canada. “The Spanish tour would make excessive demands of me after

Athens Olympic organizers have started to fight their way back to the good graces of the international sporting community after a long weekend of successful test events that has partly made up for the earlier disastrous start to the Games trials. While criticism and post-mortems on setbacks earlier this month in the test program still went on, hard-pressed organizers of next year's Games won a little bit of breathing room on Sunday. "We know we made mistakes at the start but we think we have started to come back," an Athens Games official said. In the first week of the test events,

Daniele Nardello (Telekom) held off a late charge by Jan Ullrich (Bianchi) with just 2km to go in Sunday's eighth round of the World Cup series to win the 236.6km Championship of Zurich. Nardello jumped away from a lead group of 18 riders with 9km to go in the closing flat along Lake Zurich while the lead group sent off dozens of unsuccessful counterattacks in a cat-and-mouse game that favored the Italian. Ullrich punched the accelerator with just under 2km to go, but it was too late. Nardello won in five hours, 55 minutes and 30 seconds with an average speed of 39.932 kph to deliver his

A dramatic day of short track racing at the NORBA series finals in Durango, Colorado, saw two Americans enter the day leading the overall series, with one just managing to keep the title and the other watching it slip away in the final seconds. Canadian Seamus McGrath (Haro-Lee Dungarees) took a runaway victory in the men’s NORBA short track final Sunday, and with American series leader Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (RLX Ralph Lauren) unable to stay in the top-three after a gripping finish line crash, McGrath climbed high enough to take the series title as well. Coming into the final lap of a

You’ve got to feel for Chris Kovarik. Three times now the Australian has entered the final day of the NORBA NCS series with the overall lead and three times he has finished the day without the overall crown. Instead it was South African Greg Minnaar grabbing the series prize, after the Haro-Lee Dungarees rider finished second to Kovarik’s third at Durango Mountain Resort in southwest Colorado. That meant the pair finished deadlocked atop the final overall standings, but with Minnaar owning the advantage Sunday, the tiebreaker fell his way. “I had a mistake free run, but it was on a wet

A year ago, when Kevin Monahan crossed the line at the USPRO Criterium Championship in Downers Grove, everything was up in the air. After a late-race crash took out half the field, Henk Vogels took the race win, with Monahan and Robbie Ventura (U.S. Postal Service) in a photo finish for second place. What a difference a year makes. After winning the race outright, Monahan began the celebration almost immediately, riding up and down Main St. Downers Grove and high fiving the crowd. It capped a day that saw another repeat victory – Tina Mayolo Pic (Diet Rite) taking the women’s crown – and

Nardello outlasts a late charge from Ullrich

Bettini was content to let others make the race

Hincapie made two bids for freedom

Nardello burns his matches

Ullrich was a marked man

McGrath leads Horgan-Kobelski on the first lap

Horgan-Kobelski running his bike across the finish line

Men's 2003 short track overall champs, from left: Chris Sheppard, Paul Rowney, Seamus McGrath, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Geoff Kabush

Sydor makes it two in a row

Women's 2003 short track overall champs, from left: Dara Marks, Chrissy Redden, Sue Haywood, Katerina Hanusova, Mary McConneloug

Minnaar toasts teammate Seamus McGrath, who won the short track overall.

Kovarik nearly caught the rider in front of him.

Carter and Streb are the national champs.

Griffiths soaks in the glory.

Looks can be deceiving, especially when it comes to one of the most volatile weather locations in the U.S. With 70-degree temperatures and light winds at the bottom of the Mount Washington Auto Road, it looked like the 600-plus racers would have a relatively pleasant trip up the 7.6-mile ascent. But the final 2.5 miles found riders battered by 50-mph winds and blinded by near-whiteout fog. The weather took the steam out of Tom Danielson’s assault on his year-old course record, though the Saturn rider did win the race for the second year in a row. Danielson dropped the field in the first 500

Two dominating rides — one by Canadian Ryder Hesjedal (Subaru-Gary Fisher) and the other by Luna rider Shonny Vanlandingham — capped off the NORBA cross-country series final in Durango, Colorado on Saturday. Hesjedal’s win, by a 1:07 margin, secured the overall NORBA series title, while RLX-Ralph Lauren rider Jimena Florit, eighth on the day, took the women’s overall honors for the second consecutive year. In the national title chase, Florit’s teammate Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski clinched a second consecutive title of his own, finishing third on the day, while Seven Cycles’ Mary McConneloug was

Angel Edo of Spain won the penultimate stage of the Tour of Portugal on Saturday. He covered the 130km ride from Mondim de Basto to Favaios in a provisional time of 3:19:13. Danail Petrov of Bulgaria was second. Portuguese Nuno Ribeiro, who finished third in the stage, retained the yellow jersey as overall leader. Sunday’s final stage will be a 36.7km time trial in Viseu. Results1. Angel Edo (Sp), Milaneza-MSS, 130km in 3:19:13. (average speed: 39.153 km/h)2. Daniel Petrov (Bul), at 0:013. Nuno Ribeiro (Por) s.t.4. Claus Moller (Den), at 0:045. Pedro Arreitunandia (Sp), at

Judith Arndt (Nürnberger) easily won Saturday’s penultimate stage of the Grande Boucle Féminin, a 36.2km individual time trial in Flers. The German finished nearly a minute faster than Russian Olga Zabelinskaïa and 1:43 ahead of Swiss Susanne Ljungskog. Overall leader Joane Somarriba of Spain, who finished fourth on the day, consolidated her position on GC; she seems unlikely to lose her lead in Sunday’s final stage, which concludes in Paris. Meanwhile, Arndt’s stage-winning performance on Saturday elevated her to third overall. Results>1. Judith Arndt (G), 36.2km in 51:30 (average speed:

Whether you believe the pro-am event on the eve of the USPRO Criterium Championship in Downers Grove, Illinois, is a preview to the main event or simply just a tune-up, the Navigators put on a show, delivering Vassili Davidenko and Marty Nothstein to the line one-two in the men’s race, while in the women’s event, former national champion Nicole Freedman (Team Basis) showed she’s ready to take on the big teams in Sunday’s national title race. Freedman struggled with the hot, humid conditions in the suburbs of Chicago, but when the race boiled down to a field sprint after 45 minutes, the

Day one of the NORBA National Championship Series finals closed with an action-packed mountain cross that saw Eric Carter and Sabrina Jonnier walk away with the overall series titles. Carter and fellow American Jill Kintner took the U.S. national titles, with Jonnier and Frenchman Cédric Gracia earning the race wins at Durango Mountain Resort in Colorado on Sunday. Carter’s titles sweep came after he faced off with fellow American Mike King in the men’s final. The pair came into the day first and second in the overall standings, and if King had won the final, Carter needed to finish no worse

Danielson powers his featherweight bike up Mount Washington

Jeanson tried to stick with Danielson, but couldn't match his speed

The weather kept Danielson from breaking his record and blew Jeanson off her bike

Hesjedal rolls through the DMR village.

Your 2003 national cross country champions.

Vanlandingham won in her hometown.

With a base elevation of 8793, the Durango cross country was a lung buster.

Florit was gassed from the altitude, but still won the overall.

Carter on his way to the overall title.

King settled for second overall.

The 2003 national mountain cross champ.