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Defending USPRO champ Chann McRae is thinking like a wild card rather than a favorite.

It struck me as I sat on top of the world. Well, at least the top of the world according to San Bernardino, California. You see, I had positioned myself at the top of the cross-country course at Big Bear a few weeks ago on a technological mission. I wanted to take count of exactly how many riders would actually use their fork lock-out. A nit-picky mission at best, but with all the talk of suspension efficiency, I wanted to see which riders cared enough to take the time to "flip the switch." My very informal results were very surprising, to say the least. As the lead breakaway pack crested

There won’t be any surgery and the long-term prognosis is good, butafter breaking his left ankle last weekend at the World Cup in Fort William,Scotland, it will be at least 8 weeks before American Brian Lopes is backracing his bike. That means the reigning world, World Cup and NORBA champion will missthe next three World Cups and the next three NORBA stops, and it takeshim out of the running for the big prize money on offer at the Jeep Kingof the Mountain series set to commence later this month. Despite all this, though, Lopes says the worst part is all the downtime he’s going to have to

Former mountain-bike world champion Michael Rasmussen is now firmly entrenched on the road. Last season, he rode in support of Tyler Hamilton’s second-place finish at the Giro d’Italia and won a difficult mountain stage at the Tour of Burgos in August. The Dane penned a two-year deal to join Rabobank and has eyes of making the 2003 Tour de France team and lending help to another American – this time Levi Leipheimer. Unfortunately for Rasmussen, he crashed during a team training camp in May and broke his hand, throwing in doubt his start for July’s Tour de France. VeloNews European

For the second week running, Australian Andy Graham absolutely owned theWednesday Worlds circuit race in downtown Denver, Colorado. Over 100 riderslined up on a drizzly, cold evening to decide who would be the championfor this, the second edition of the 2003 Wednesday Worlds.The women’s turnout was dismal, but a few brave souls jumped in themen’s races, getting some valuable mid-week training around the enormousInvesco Field at Mile High. T-Mobile’s Lara Kroepsch stayed in the men’smasters race, then lasted a few laps in the pro-I-II race.“It’s gonna be a hard,” she said just before the start

While most of America’s top mountain-biking pros will head off to NORBA No. 2 in Snowshoe, West Virginia a week from now, there will be a four-rider U.S. contingent making a slightly longer trip to the start line. On Thursday, USA Cycling released the roster for its team that will travel to Medellin, Colombia next week to contest the Pan American Championships cross-country race on June 15. Members include Frank Mapel (Specialized), Carl Decker (Giant-Pearl Izumi), Kim Anderson (T-Mobile) and Heather Irmiger (Ritchey-K2). They’ll be joined by USAC’s Eric Moore, who will serve as the team’s

Dear Editors;On the heels of the revelation that the Bell-sponsored Health Net cyclingteam and its leader Gord Fraser are being barred from marquee nationalevents over an unrelated two-year-old legal dispute, Bell Sports has launcheda "Free Gord Fraser" campaign, complete with protest t-shirts and a grassrootspost card mailer, to try and get Fraser and the team reinstated. "We really think the parties involved need to look at what's good forthe health of the sport and not let a lingering dispute get in the wayof competition," said Bell Sports Marketing Manager Toshi Corbet. "We'reselling

Dear Bob;Has the United States Supreme Court ever heard a case concerning bicycles? -- T.M. Dear T.M.;Yes. In fact, over the years, it has heard several cases involving bicycles and/or cyclists. Probably the two most famous cases were Pope Manufacturing Company v. Gormully(1896) and United States v. Arnold, Schwinn & Company (1967). In the early years of cycling, Colonel Albert A. Pope was the dominant force in the industry—the Bill Gates of his era. He secretly bought most the early patents on which the technology of the bicycle was based. In 1884, Pope licensed a competitor, the

In a last-minute compromise in the ongoing legal battle between the promoters of Sunday’s Wachovia USPRO Championship and Health Net’s Canadian sprint ace, Gord Fraser, Threshold Sports has extended an invitation to the team’s American riders. The Health Net squad had been formally uninvited to the Philadelphia race, as well as to other races promoted by Threshold Sport, six weeks ago when team officials objected to a request that they not bring Fraser to any of the Threshold races. Fraser is currently embroiled in a breach-of-contract lawsuit against Threshold resulting from a canceled

The CSC squad made it two-for-two at the Wachovia Cycling Series on Thursday, setting up the race for Julian Dean to take a sprint finish ahead of Navigators’ Oleg Grichkine and Saturn’s Viktor Rapinski, and now the Danish squad will have its sights set on Philadelphia’s USPRO Championship and a Wachovia sweep on Sunday. CSC had set the tone for the week with a strong performance in the opener in Lancaster, and the tune kept playing on the fast streets of Trenton. After Jakob Piil’s win at Lancaster, other teams were tipping their hats to CSC, which had both the strength and the numbers in

Even our old friend Ryder couldn't muster the energy to lock-out his fork, but he did end-up winning in the end...

RockShox's Blackbox remote lockout works wonders..in my opinion

You can't get away from suspension these days–the Selle Italia Nixe

Even our old friend Ryder couldn't muster the energy to lock-out his fork, but he did end-up winning in the end...

RockShox's Blackbox remote lockout works wonders..in my opinion

You can't get away from suspension these days–the Selle Italia Nixe

Even our old friend Ryder couldn't muster the energy to lock-out his fork, but he did end-up winning...

RockShox's Blackbox remote lockout works wonders..in my opinion

You can't get away from suspension these days–the Selle Italia Nixe

He'll be back

A busy man

Rasmussen, last year at the Tour of Burgos

The Mail bag: First the lawsuit, now the t-shirt

The Mail bag: First the lawsuit, now the t-shirt

Madsen and Tafi are key part of the CSC contingent

Grrrrrrrrrr

A two-man breakaway slipped away from the grip of the peloton in the Tour of Germany and ended up with the stage-win and the race leader’s jersey in the 183km second stage. Gerben Löwik (Bankgiroloterij) won the stage, finishing just one second ahead of Gregory Rast (Phonak). Rast jumped into the overall lead, moving more than two minutes ahead of Erik Zabel (Telekom), the winner of Tuesday’s first stage. The German tour continues Thursday with the 188km third stage from Coburg to Ansbach. Tour of Germany (UCI 2.2)Stage 2, Altenburg to Kronach, 183km1. Gerben Löwik (Ned), Bankgiroloterij,

Got beat by a girl today, thank you very much. Not just beat, actually, but crushed. So were a handful of my colleagues,many of whom are stronger riders than me. What makes the story compelling is that it wasn’t one of the local Boulder-areapros like Kimberly Bruckner or Dede Demet Barry handing our asses to usup the local Flagstaff climb, but Allison Lusby, an unsponsored part-timeworker in our very own www.velogear.com warehouse, riding on a borrowed Serotta. In just her second year of cycling, Lusby, 28, is a climbing phenomenon — although she’d never tell you. Interminably shy, Lusby’s

It’s been a good week so far for Threshold Sports and the Pro Cycling Tour, with the renamed Wachovia Cycling Series kicking into high gear and the announcement of a million-dollar triple crown prize linking together the PCT events in Philadelphia, New York and San Francisco. At the same time, however, Threshold and CEO Dave Chauner have had to deal with details of Gord Fraser’s lawsuit against Threshold, BMC Software and USA Cycling, and the subsequent disinvitation of Fraser’s Health Net team from the Wachovia Series, all going public as the week kicked off. On Wednesday, Chauner spoke

World Cup leader Nicole Cooke was knocked out of the Tour de Grande Montreal on Tuesday after colliding with a motorcycle. The 20-year-old Welsh cyclist suffered a seven-stitch gash on her knee and a bruised shoulder after slamming into a parked motorbike during the third stage of the Tour de Grande Montreal. She is expected to be out for 10 days. "My arm was hurting so much, I thought it was broken," said Cooke. Cooke was taken to hospital but X-rays showed no broken bones. The motorcycle belonged to a race official who was monitoring the progress of the riders, said race spokesperson

Telekom's Erik Zabel won the opening stage of the Tour of Germany on a day overshadowed by the death of 23-year-old French rider Fabrice Salanson, who was found dead in his hotel room before the start (see story below). Salanson's Brioches la Boulangere team opted not to start Tuesday's 184km stage, but the race continued as planned. Zabel won ahead of Stuart O'Grady (Credit Agricole) and Gerrit Glomser (Saeco) to grab the bunch sprint and take the overall lead. Jan Ullrich finished 23rd safely in the main bunch. The German tour continues Wednesday with the 183km second stage from Altenburg

Dear Lennard Zinn;I am looking for a recommendation for a good chain to use with a '95 Campy Chorus 8-speed EXA-Drive system. The cassette and chainrings are previously unridden, but a new SRAM PC-58, which I believe is intended to be an 8-speed chain, runs a little rough. Any better suggestion? --Bill Veihmeyer Dear Bill;I have found that 8-speed Shimano chains always worked great on that system. --Lennard A mystery skipDear Lennard;I have Campy record 10-speed on two of my bikes, the chain started skipping on one of them, so I figured it was the cog set, I put that same wheel on the

Dear VeloNews;Wasn't Nicole's death enough? Now Threshold Sports has to ruin Gord's career!(see “Why Gord Fraser and Health Net won't be in Philly" by Charles Pelkey -June 2, 2003)Gord Fraser had every right to go for the $250,000 bonus. Not only did he have to experience Nicole's death, but he also had his chance for thebonus taken away.Having known what tremendous pressure and hard work it required to get to get a team and a rider to that point and all the emotions that we all went through on September 17, 2000, I can only express support for Gord’s position. It is sad that this is what has

The U.S. Pro Cycling Tour is offering a one million dollar prize to the athlete able to win American cycling's version of horse racing's Triple Crown, USA Today reported on Tuesday.To win the bonus, a rider must win Sunday’s USPRO championship in Philadelphia, the New York City Cycling Championship on August 3 and the San Francisco Grand Prix on September 14."We know the one million will guarantee some excitement," said PCT chairman Dave Chauner. "This will help define the sport in the U.S."This is not the first time a million dollar bonus was offered. In 1993, the Thrift Drug series went to

The 2003 Wachovia Cycling Series kicked off Tuesday on a rainy evening in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and the Danish CSC squad quickly served notice that it would be a force to be reckoned with at the three-race East Coast series. After dominating the numbers game in the main breakaway of the day, CSC sprung team leader Jakob Piil to a solo victory in downtown Lancaster. Piil, the winner of both Lancaster and the Philadelphia USPRO Championship in 1999, was just part of an all-out assault by the CSC squad, which squashed the hopes of the major American teams in Lancaster. One American teams

Salanson on his way to winning the second stage of the 2002 Midi Libre

Zabel is in familiar form

Piil goes for it on his own

O’Neill

UnZipped: Dean had to finish on this.

Tyler Hamilton had just finished riding to the top of grueling climb of Luz Ardiden, the summit finish for what will be Stage 15 in the Tour de France still nearly six weeks away, but he wasn’t done yet. Hamilton had already climbed the Col d’Aspin, a snowy and muddy Col du Tourmalet and then motor-paced up Luz Ardiden. But he wanted one more look at the final climb in what’s sure to be a decisive stage in the 2003 Tour. “I’ll race you down,” Hamilton says half-joking to Team CSC sports director Johnny Weltz. It was no contest. By the time Weltz and soigneur Josep Salgueda reached the

World champion Mario Cipollini will not ride in the Tour de France after race director Jean-Marie Leblanc on Monday upheld his decision not to accept the Domina Vacanze team. "To accept a 23rd team in the Tour de France would go against the rule book of professional cycling," Tour organizers said in a statement. "After a deep examination of the situation, it appears it would hamper the security of the race and the quality of the organization to allow another team in." Cipollini's Domina Vacanze team declined to comment. Tour organizers last month handed their last four wild cards to three

The 2003 Wachovia Cycling Series kicks off on Tuesday in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And while there are few certainties in bike racing, one thing you can be pretty sure of is that no matter how the race develops, Gord Fraser will not be winning it in a sprint - or in any other fashion, for that matter. Fraser also won't repeat his win from last year at the Wachovia event in Trenton, New Jersey, two days later. Nor will he - or any other member of the Health Net squad - be contesting the finish in Sunday's USPRO Championship in Philadelphia. No, Gord Fraser hasn't lost his finishing kick, and

The name may have changed but the Wachovia Cycling Series remains the sameas it ever was: the highest-profile week of racing on the U.S. domesticcalendar. Over the years, through two bank mergers, the title sponsor haschanged from CoreStates to First Union to Wachovia, but the three-raceseries has consistently been the biggest target of the season for the topU.S. pro teams. The series begins Tuesday evening in Lancaster, Pennsylvania,continues on Thursday in Trenton, New Jersey, and culminates Sunday inPhiladelphia with the USPRO Championships and the Liberty Classic women’srace. On Tuesday,

The snow may be gone in July, but the ride will be just as steep.

Motor-pacing up Luz Ardiden

At the top of the Tourmalet, a group of cycle tourists is surprised by the celebrity in their midst

Working the kinks out between climbs

Fraser: Can't ride without an invitation

For nearly two weeks now, there has been little doubt who has been in charge of this Giro d’Italia. On Sunday, the man poised to ride into Milan to claim the final maglia rosa of this race would leave no one on the side of the road wondering just who the race leader might be. Wearing his pink jersey, astride a pink Cannondale, with pink Mavic wheels, Gilberto Simoni had plenty of room to spare as he left the starting gate of Sunday’s 33km time trial through the streets of Milan. By the time he arrived at the finish, the Saeco man had lost a bit of his eight-minute buffer, but easily took the

Telekom’s Cadel Evans has been forced to withdraw from the Tour de France after breaking his collarbone in a fall during a race in Germany, his team announced on its website on Sunday. The 26-year-old rider took a heavy fall in a race in Erfurt on Saturday and fractured his collarbone for the second time in six weeks. Evans, who was tipped as a contender for the leading places in July's Tour, had said earlier on Sunday that his chances of recovering from his latest fall in time for the big race in France were not good. "The chances of riding the Tour now are pretty slim because it took me

Before traveling on Friday, I looked up the forecast for Montreal on weather.com. It said rain for the next seven days. I was pleasantly surprised by the sunshine that greeted me as I stepped off the plane and even more excited to wake up to sunshine for the race on Saturday. Each time I have competed in the MontrealWorld Cup, the crowd has grown. The Canadian fans are passionate and were lining the course today, cheering everyone – first to last- and yelling out the names of the home favorites – Genevieve Jeanson, Lyne Bessette and Manon Jutras. The energy on the course was

Team Bianchi said Marco Pantani won't be racing with them during July's Tour de France. The Pirate had hoped to join Bianchi to get into the Tour, but team officials shot down the notion this weekend. "There was never a meeting between the directors of Bianchi and the directors of Mercatone Uno to plan for the next Tour," Bianchi associate Felice Gimondi told Reuters. "There was only a meeting in view of a reunification in 2004-2005." The words come as a blow to Pantani, who desperately wants to get back to the Tour de France. Pantani's Mercatone Uno team is buried deep in the Division II

France still rules supreme when it comes to the downhill, although the names on the top step of the podium in Fort William were different from the usual ones. Anne-Caroline Chausson did not race, and Nicolas Vouilloz retired at the end of last year, but Cedric Gracia (Siemens Mobile Cannondale) and Celine Gros (Morzine Avoriaz) made sure that the French national anthem was playing after the first downhill World Cup. French riders went 1-2-3 in the women's race and 1-2 in the men's. Americans David Klaassenvanoorschot, Eric Carter, Todd Bosch and Todd Leduc finished 13th, 17th, 49th and

On a sunny, but windy, day, Prime Alliance’s Jonas Carney and Saturn’s Laura Van Gilder overcame 30-mile-per-hour gusts and formidable competition to claim the Clarendon Cup, the latest round of the National Racing Calendar. Van Gilder, known for her speed in bunch sprints, drew on some lesser known time trialing skills to solo away from the field early in the women’s race, despite strong and constantly shifting winds on the .6 mile course. Though Van Gilder is no breakaway artist, she could be comfortable knowing that if she faltered, Saturn had its bases covered with 2001 and 2002

Despite the bravery Pantani showed at the Giro, there's no space for him at the Tour

Simoni's first major attack came on Stage 10 and from then on, he was in rosa

Gonchar pushed it to the limit on Sunday

Gonzalez

Gracia

Simoni can finally relax

Carney and Van Gilder tops at Clarendon Cup

Carney and Van Gilder tops at Clarendon Cup

Simoni

Simoni and trophy

With the 86th Giro d’Italia essentially a foregone conclusion, and most of the sprinters having been eliminated in Thursday’s giant mountain stage, stage 20 was a chance for the domestiques to shine. And at the finish, it was Giovanni Lombardi who outkicked three breakaway companions to seize another victory of opportunity, further distinguishing himself as one of the world’s shrewdest, fastest, and consequently most dangerous riders to have in a breakaway. The Italian with the broad, smiling face is normally the final leadout man in the Domina Vacanze train, charged with delivering Mario

Saturn’s Charles Dionne and Velo Bella’s Lynn Gaggioli were victorious in the inaugural CapTech Classic Friday in Richmond, Virginia. The NRC event's four-corner, 0.9-mile downtown circuit was challenging, with nearly 100 feet of climbing per lap. The 22.5-mile women’s race boiled down to a two-woman battle between Saturn's Ina Teutenberg and Gaggioli, and with the German sprinter still weary from the 10-day Tour de L'Aude Feminin, which concluded last Sunday in France, it was Gaggioli - riding as a one-woman team, as usual - taking the win at the line The 45-mile men’s race was controlled

Telekom’s Santiago Botero won’t be defending his title at the Alps Classic or go up against Lance Armstrong in next week’s Dauphine Libere. Instead, the Colombian will be racing at the Tour of Germany and then the Tour of Catalunya as he prepares for the Tour de France. “It’s a shame because I would have preferred to have raced the Dauphine, but the team isn’t planning on going,” Botero told VeloNews. “The Cataluyna race is a good one, but the climbs aren’t quite as long as the Dauphine, which is better preparation for the Tour.” Botero won last year’s Alps Classic, beat Armstrong in the

Gunn-Rita Dahle (Merida) solidified her lead and Filip Meirhaeghe (Specialized) put himself back into contention at the Fort William UCI World Cup race Saturday in Scotland. Both riders took extremely hard-fought victories in front of nearly 6,000 spectators, under the most perfect conditions imaginable. Fort William, in the Scottish Highlands, held its first World Cup – a downhill/four cross – just last year. This year, the organizers added a cross country in the shadow of Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the United Kingdom. The 8.5km course, built by the Scottish Forestry Service at a

Geneviève Jeanson (Rona-Esker) showed once again why she is considered to be one of the best women cyclists in the world by decisively beating a world-class field at the Montréal World Cup on Saturday. British strongwoman Nicole Cooke (Ausra Gruodis-Safi) finished second to Jeanson and extended her overall lead in the World Cup. The 8.2km circuit around and up Mont Royal has been used repeatedly for some of the most celebrated races in cycling-the world championships (1974), the Olympics (1976) and multiple World Cups. This year, the women had to ride the 1.2km climb 12 times, with the

Giovanni Lombardi outkicks the break to win stage 20.

Riders cycle along lake Maggiore

Lombardi (R) celebrates followed by Vini Caldirola Edy Mazzoleni

Lombardi celebrates as he crosses the finish line

Simoni again wears the pink jersey

Champagne again